When I awoke that next morning, my head was killing me, the cut from my lip stung with razor-like pain. Rays of light shined between the slits of the drapes. I was incrusted in mud-caked sheets in my luxury suite. Checked myself in the mirror for the damage that had been done. The bite marks, the bruises. Changed out of my clothes and stood under the warm water that showered my torn body, washing away dark, dry blood from the cut on my hand. I nursed his abuse with ointment and gauze and then bagged my muddy, torn clothes and tossed them in the hotel disposal. Was so sore I could barely dress myself. I shielded my eyes with shades before checking out of the hotel. I don’t remember looking at the desk clerk, just hearing him say kindly, Please come back and see us again.
Didn’t realize I slept all the way back to New York until the older woman sitting next to me nudged me awake. Surprised I slept a wink from the stench of her perfume. Lady must have bathed in the stuff.
When I stepped off the plane onto solid ground, I could have kissed that JFK asphalt. I was happy to be home. Kicked two weeks’ worth of bills, junk mail, and menus from Thai restaurants into the apartment and set my suitcases on the floor. As I sifted through the mail, I noticed the blinking red light on my machine and pressed play. Hey, I was wondering if we could talk, maybe have dinner. I’m sorry and I miss you. Call me. It was Shawn. Out of the ten messages, five were from him. Others were from solicitors going on about low interest rate credit cards and carpet shampoo.
Days rolled into weeks and weeks turned into months. Before I knew it, spring was approaching. I never called Deshawn and never mentioned a word of what happened to me in London to anyone. I’m not dating anybody right now. Need some time to regroup and think about where the hell I go from here. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that night in the park, and how because of the incident, I now long for grungy, pierced punksters that have a thing for leather and fucking outdoors.
About the Authors
Brent Archer had his first short story Dear Bryan published in Debra Hyde’s Virgin Ass anthology released in November of 2012. When not writing and traveling the world for steamy story research, Brent is a Financial Controller for a local arts not-for-profit.
Michael Bracken’s short fiction has been published in Best Gay Romance 2010, Beautiful Boys, Biker Boys, Black Fire, Boy Fun, Boys Getting Ahead, Country Boys, Freshmen, The Handsome Prince, Homo Thugs, Hot Blood: Strange Bedfellows, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 4, Men, Muscle Men, Teammates and many other anthologies and periodicals.
R. W. Clinger (rwclinger.com) is the author of Skin Tour, Nebraska Close, The Author's Assistant, The Boyfriend Season and Other Stories, Front Loader, Torso Tackle, Beneath his Stolen Skin, The Pool Boy, Soft on the Eyes and Skin Artist. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Landon Dixon’s stories have appeared in I Like It Like That, Homo Thugs, Black Fire, Boy Fun, Who’s Your Daddy?, Brief Encounters, Hot Daddies, Hot Jocks, Uniforms Unzipped and Best Gay Erotica; as well as in his own Hot Tales of Gay Lust and Hot Tales of Gay Lust 1, 2 and 3.
Living in Portland, Oregon, David Holly (gaywriter.org) is fascinated by the human penchant for odd mythologies, bizarre rituals, diverse religions, forlorn hopes and broken dreams. He is fond of strong coffee, red wine, English bitters, rich stout, nude beaches and hot-looking guys. He wears bright colors, tight slacks, exotic underwear and slinky swim briefs.
Roscoe Hudson is a writer and an academic. His publication credits include Wild Boys, Steambath and Gym Buddies & Buff Boys. He lives in Chicago.
D. K. Jernigan ([email protected]) has been published in Spellbound and Fraternal Devotion, and has other stories forthcoming from Cleis. Under her super-secret alternate identity, Kathleen Tudor, D. K. has dozens of stories with presses including HarperCollins, Cleis, Circlet, Xcite and more.
Thomas Kearnes is a thirty-seven-year-old author living in Houston, Texas. He is the author of the story collections Pretend I’m Not Here and Promiscuous, and his fiction has appeared in PANK, Storyglossia, Spork and LGBT venues including Educe Journal, Diverse Arts Project, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Wilde Magazine and the Best Gay Stories series.
Barry Lowe is the author of Baby, I’m Not a Monster; Bear Skin; A Touch of the Son; Busting Billy’s Butt; The Gravy Train and The Major & The Miners. His stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, as well as eBooks. He lives with his partner in Sydney, Australia.
Shortly after his relocation from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2008, Nick Marenco spearheaded the erotic fiction column for Handbook Magazine. He has been published in such anthologies as Brief Encounters and Straight Guys. Nick studied film at Los Angeles City College and recently finished his first short film, Kayla.
Timothy McGivney (TimothyMcGivney.com) is the author of Zombielicious and its sequel, Vampalicious. He resides in Palm Springs, California, is single and currently dating (his TiVo).
Huck Pilgrim (huckpilgrim.wordpress.com) is the pseudonym of a minor author who craves readers and doesn’t mind working hard on his books. He is a father and a husband, enjoys his family, writing, and watching movies. Self-publishing erotic ebooks is his latest foolish pursuit.
Simon Sheppard (simonsheppard.com) is the Lambda Award–winning author and editor of ten books about queer sex, most recently Jockboys, Sodomy! and Man on Man: The Best of Simon Sheppard. His work has also been published in well over three hundred anthologies. He lives in San Francisco.
Bobby Starr is hard at work on his debut novel. This is his second published story with Cleis Press.
Derrick Summer lives, loves and fucks in Miami, Florida
Bob Vickery is the author of six erotic anthologies, including Cocksure, Play Buddies, Manjack and the recently released audiobook, Hunting For Sailors: The Best of Bob Vickery. Vickery’s stories have appeared over the years in a wide number of magazines, anthologies and webzines. He currently lives in San Francisco.
Logan Zachary ([email protected]) has published over seventy erotica stories, which can be found in Hard Hats, Best Gay Erotica 2009, Surfer Boys, College Boys, Skater Boys, Boys, Brief Encounters, Biker Boys, Sexy Sailors, Beach Bums and others. He is also the author of the collection Calendar Boys and a mystery, Big Bad Wolf.
About the Editor
Shane Allison’s editing career began with the best-selling gay erotic anthology Hot Cops: Gay Erotic Stories, which was one of his proudest moments. Since the birth of his first anthology, he has gone on to publish over a dozen gay erotica anthologies such as Straight Guys: Gay Erotic Fantasies, Cruising: Gay Erotic Stories, Middle Men: Gay Erotic Threesomes, Frat Boys: Gay Erotic Stories, Brief Encounters: 69 Hot Gay Shorts, College Boys: Gay Erotic Stories, Hardworking Men: Gay Erotic Fiction, Hot Cops: Gay Erotic Fiction, Backdraft: Fireman Erotica and Afternoon Pleasures: Erotica for Gay Couples. Shane Allison has appeared in five editions of Best Gay Erotica, as well as in Best Black Gay Erotica and Zane’s Z-Rated: Chocolate Flava 3. His debut poetry collection, Slut Machine, is out from Queer Mojo and his poem/memoir I Remember is out from Future Tense Books. Shane is at work on his second novel and currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida.
Homeboys Page 19