by Sue Brown
“I think I’ll walk down,” Gideon said as they looked for apartment 702.
“Me too,” Cris said fervently.
Gideon fumbled with the keys until he found the right one. Then he opened the door and looked at Cris. “Are you sure you don’t want me to wait?”
“I’m sure. I’ll be five minutes behind you. I’ll find his bed and a trash can, and after that he’s on his own.”
“Okay then.”
Gideon headed back the way they’d come, and Cris took a firmer grip on Mikey.
“Okay, Mikey. Bed for you.”
Mikey’s head lolled, but Cris heard his “I ain’t easy.”
Cris snorted. “Neither am I, dude.”
He got him inside, retrieved the keys, and closed the front door.
“Mikey, where the hell have you been? And who the hell are you?”
Cris peered around Mikey’s head to find the older version of Mikey glaring at him. Bennett was not quite as tall as Mikey but broader across the shoulders, and his thick dark-brown hair was shot with the occasional gray strand.
There’s mileage under his hood. The guy was everything Mikey wasn’t—mature and sexy, even with the frown.
Mikey raised his head. “Hey, Benny. Wha’ you doin’ here?”
Bennett stepped closer and wrinkled his nose. “Are you drunk? I told you to come home.”
A woman suddenly appeared. She was very young, with long dark-blonde hair tumbling about her face. “We’ve been so worried, Mikey.”
Cris couldn’t help noticing the tension that flooded through Mikey, so he turned Mikey away from them. “Who are these people?”
Mikey refused to look at him. “Benny’s my brother. And Julianne is….”
Julianne joined them by the door. “I’m Mikey’s girlfriend. Pleased to meet you.”
She held out her hand. Not convinced Mikey’s legs would hold him, Cris changed his grip on Mikey to the other hand and shook hers. “Cris Peters.”
Benny didn’t offer his hand, and as the silence grew awkward, Cris decided he’d played Good Samaritan long enough. “I’ve gotta be going. You’re in good hands, Mikey.” He let go, and Mikey swayed. Benny grabbed him with a disgusted grunt, which Cris ignored, along with a whimpering plea from Mikey. “G’nite.”
Cris held out the keys to Julianne and left Mikey to his fate. Then he closed the front door behind him with a sigh of relief and strode away as fast as he could.
“Wait! Peters!” Bennett’s booming voice echoed around the hallway.
Cris closed his eyes. He’d been so close. As Bennett jogged to him, he stopped and turned. “Yes, Benny?”
“It’s Bennett. Only my family call me Benny. I don’t know you. Why did you come home with my brother?” He loomed in Cris’s space, but Cris refused to take a step backward.
“He was drunk and sick. I live near here, so I brought him home.”
“Is that all?” Bennett demanded.
Cris raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” He knew damn well what Benny was asking, but he was damned if he was going to answer.
Bennett crossed his arms and scowled at Cris. He’d be a good-looking man without the frown. Cris wondered how old he was. “Where was he?”
“Cowboys and Angels. You know he was there. I saw you earlier.”
“He stayed there?”
“Yeah,” Cris said shortly. He couldn’t mistake the look of relief in Bennett’s expression. No wonder Mikey was so mixed up. He had a girlfriend, and his brother was a homophobe. “I’ve got to go.”
“Well, thanks for taking care of him.” From his sour tone, Bennett obviously needed to work on his people skills.
“No problem,” Cris said shortly. He left Bennett where he was, feeling like the man was boring two holes in the back of his head.
He wasn’t surprised to find Gideon’s car still outside the apartment. He opened the door and looked in. “Taxi?”
Gideon nodded. “I had a feeling… I thought you might be glad for a ride.”
Cris got into the passenger seat and sighed with relief. “Appreciate it.”
“Mikey can be a handful when he’s liquored up.”
From the drama Cris had just left behind, handful was an understatement. “Did you know he has a girlfriend?”
There was a long pause, and then Gideon answered. “Yeah, I know.”
“Do you know his brother?” Cris asked curiously.
“Bennett? I know him. He doesn’t come in Cowboys and Angels much. Mikey’s one of the guys. Bennett’s management, if you get my meaning.”
“He wasn’t happy to see me with his brother.”
Gideon snorted. “I’ll bet. He’s got a stick up his ass.”
“Between him and the girlfriend, no wonder Mikey’s confused.”
“Maybe.”
Cris turned to look at Gideon, his curiosity piqued by the cryptic answer. “Maybe?”
“I’ve known the Petrovskis a long time. Bennett’s an asshole, but he adores his little brother. He’s always there for him, and he’s the one I usually call if Mikey needs a ride home.”
“Do you think he knows Mikey is gay?”
“I’m almost sure he does. Mikey’s not doing a good job of hiding it.”
It was Cris’s turn to snort. “That’s an understatement, especially if he throws himself at the nearest guy every time he’s drunk.”
“But he didn’t, did he?”
“Didn’t what?”
“Throw himself at the nearest guy. He threw himself at a gay guy.”
“You mean I’m safe?”
“He trusts you.”
“He doesn’t know me, Gideon. We’ve spoken half a dozen times, if that. I can’t be responsible for his safety.”
Gideon sighed as they pulled up outside Cris’s apartment. “I know, Lionman. I’ll talk to him next time he’s in. Thanks for taking care of him this evening.”
“No problem. Thanks for the ride.” Cris opened the door, but before he got out, he turned to Gideon. “Mikey’s a good guy, but he’s not my type.”
“I know. Dan’s more your kind of guy.”
There was no point avoiding the issue. If Gideon hadn’t been on the scene, he would have made a play for Dan. “Yeah, but he’s stupid in love with you.”
Gideon didn’t even try to hide his smug expression. “Yeah, he’s all mine.”
Cris shook his head. “I don’t know what he sees in you.”
He shut the car door on Gideon’s outraged snort. Gideon was tall, handsome, wealthy, and had a heart of gold—pick of the damn litter. He wasn’t Cris’s type either.
As Cris jogged across the sidewalk toward the door, another face popped into his head—someone angry, brooding and sexy as hell. He would have licked Bennett Petrovski all over. Well done, Cris. You’ve fallen for the homophobe.
Chapter 3
“THEY’RE LIVELY tonight,” Raymond warned.
He’d just finished his set and was naked apart from his jockstrap and a healthy number of bills tucked into the screaming pink satin. Raymond grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from his face and the back of his neck.
Cris flipped his feet into his boots. For his next set he was pretending to be an explorer. He wore the hat, jacket, and pants, all of them easy to rip off. “Anyone I should watch out for?”
“All of them. They’re good with the tips, but handsy too.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
Cris rolled his shoulders, stretched his hamstrings, and prepared to give another group of women the performance of a lifetime. He left the dressing room and waited by the stage for his cue. After three years of stripping several times a week, Cris had long since lost his self-consciousness about being naked in front of other people. He still felt the excitement, the anticipation of a new performance, but he had no illusions about what he was. Yes, he danced in his performance, but he wasn’t a dancer or an actor. He was a stripper, and a damn good one, and he was honest about what he did
for a living. He made good money, and he had fun. When it stopped being fun, he would stop stripping.
There was his cue. As much as he hated “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” it was the perfect opening music for him, and the women roared their approval as he slunk onto the stage. He knew a lot of them by name. Some were there for bachelorette parties, some were there with friends, but all of them loved seeing guys strip down to nothing but their jockstrap. When his friends asked him why he didn’t work at gay clubs, Cris told them he went to gay clubs for pleasure, not for work. But the truth was that he could earn more money working here. And he liked that he could work at night and have the rest of the week off to indulge in his painting.
But now the women were cheering their approval, and Cris had to focus his attention on the job at hand. He stalked to the front of the stage, grabbed his hat, and thrust his hands in the air. The cheers were deafening, and Cris smiled broadly. It was going to be a good evening.
By the end of the night, Cris felt he’d been in the ring with a heavyweight boxer. The women were more than handsy, they were full-on mauling, and his body bore the marks to prove it. There was more than one set of scratches down his thighs.
“It’s a good thing you don’t have a jealous woman at home,” Raymond said as Cris dabbed at the scratches with antiseptic. “I have to explain these to Maria every time.”
Cris laughed. “It would be harder to explain them to a jealous boyfriend.”
“That’s true. But it’s about time you found yourself another man. How long has it been now?”
Cris winced at a particularly deep scratch. “Too long. What can I do, Raymond? Every time I book a date, Marlon changes my shift. I was supposed to go out tonight, but this is the second time I’ve canceled on him, and the guy bailed.”
Raymond nodded. “He did the same to me. At least my Maria is understanding. It never used to be like this. Andy was a good manager.”
Cris pulled on his jeans and sucked in a breath as the denim rubbed his scratches. He should have brought sweats instead. “Dan from Cowboys and Angels wants me to go and work there.”
Raymond’s eyes opened wide. “The bar near Prospect Park?”
“That’s the one. I went there for the speed-dating evening. I’ve become friends with Dan and his husband.” Cris paused as he sucked in another breath to button up his jeans. “It would be regular work, and I know they need the staff, but….”
“The money isn’t as good, and you won’t have time for your painting?”
“Yeah, although they don’t know about the art. This place gives me what I need at the moment… if they could just get their act together and sort out the schedule.”
Raymond laughed. “I heard Gideon is rolling in money. You should get him to buy the place and get that pretty girl of his to manage it. She’d keep this place in check.”
Cris looked at him curiously. “Have you met Gideon and Ariel?”
“She was at school with my little sister. I met her a couple of times. She’s a….”
Cris grinned as Raymond trailed off. “Yes, she is a brat. But now that Dan is the manager, she’s working behind the bar. I don’t think she gets much time to cause trouble.”
“It was about time they took her in hand. She wasn’t really friends with my sister. I got the impression she was pretty but spoiled. Larger than life, you know?” Raymond seemed to be choosing his words carefully.
“Just like her father,” Cris muttered.
“I never met him.”
“He’s an older version of his daughter—larger than life and needed Dan to take him in hand. Just like Maria’s done with you.”
Raymond balled up a sheet of paper and threw it. When it landed squarely in the middle of Cris’s chest, Raymond punched his fist into the air. “Score!”
Cris shook his head and pulled on his long-sleeve T-shirt. “You’re in the wrong job, my friend. With an aim like that, you should be playing baseball instead of stripping for a living.”
Raymond looked a little wistful. “It would have been a dream of mine, but I busted my knee playing football senior year.” He pointed to the long scar down his left knee—a white line against his tanned skin.
“Sorry to hear that, man. It must have been hard.”
“We all have our dreams.” Raymond shrugged eloquently, picked up his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder. “See you next Friday.”
“See you then, if the schedule doesn’t get changed again.”
Raymond saluted and left Cris in the small changing room to pull on his boots. As he finished lacing them, there was a knock at the door, and he called, “Come in.” He wasn’t used to anyone bothering to knock. Most people just walked in, ignoring the state of undress of the performers. The last person he expected to see was Mikey’s brother, Bennett.
“Oh, hi. What can I do for you?” Cris asked a little awkwardly as he got to his feet.
Bennett gave him a curt nod. “Hi. I’m sorry to bother you here, but Mikey didn’t know your address and Julianne said you worked here. She’s been here before.”
Cris nodded and waited for Bennett to carry on. When nothing was forthcoming, he asked, “You wanted to talk to me?”
“I want to talk to you about Mikey.”
“I don’t really know Mikey,” Cris began cautiously. He had the feeling he was about to navigate a minefield without a map. “I only brought him home because he was sick.”
“So you haven’t spoken to him today?”
Cris shook his head. “I haven’t spoken to anyone today. Why?”
Bennett huffed and rubbed his eyes. “He’s almost married to Julianne. We’re just waiting for them to set a date.”
It was on the tip of Cris’s tongue to ask if Mikey knew that, but he bit back the words. “That’s very nice, but what’s it got to do with me?”
“He said something last night that made me think he’s been doing things he shouldn’t.”
Cris ran out of patience. “Why don’t you say what you really mean, rather than skirting around the issue? It’s been a long day, and I just want to go home and go to sleep.”
“Alone?” Bennett snapped.
“Yes, alone, although I don’t know what my bed status has to do with you.”
“You’re not going to be calling my brother to ask if he wants to come over?”
Who the hell had stuck a bug up Bennett’s ass? “Let’s get something straight before I ram your teeth down your throat. I am not involved with your brother. I’ve never been involved with Mikey, and I don’t intend to start now. I just did him a favor last night bringing him home. Second, if you know your brother is gay, why the hell are you forcing him into an engagement he obviously doesn’t want?”
“He’s not gay.”
“He certainly felt gay when he had his tongue down my throat.”
Bennett narrowed his eyes. “I thought you said you weren’t involved.”
“We’re not,” Cris pointed out, holding on to his patience by a thin thread. “He was drunk and thought he’d kiss me. I pushed him off and gave him a lecture about consent. Then he threw up. I could hardly leave him there by himself. He was trashed.”
“He’s drinking too much.”
“If he’s confused and getting a hard time from home, I’m not surprised he’s drinking.”
Bennett glowered at him. “He’s not getting a hard time. He’s been in a relationship with Julianne for five years. They’re high school sweethearts, and they’re going to get married.”
“Does Mikey know that?” Cris gave up trying to be polite.
“He’s not gay.”
“Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?” Cris held up his hand against another angry outburst by Bennett. “Look, it’s nothing to do with me. If Mikey wants to go through with an engagement to a woman, that’s up to him.”
“He was fine before you got him all confused.”
Cris shook his head. “Do you hear yourself? Is this 2018 or 1957? Have you
finished, because I’m done now. I’m tired and want to go home.”
“Stay away from Mikey,” Bennett snapped.
“Or what?”
Bennett clenched his fist, and Cris held his breath, expecting to get punched. “Or you’ll regret it.”
“Is that a threat?” Cris mocked.
“It’s a promise.”
Bennett stalked out of the dressing room, and Cris sat down, more shaken by the encounter than he liked. He hated confrontation, and he wasn’t sure whether he believed Bennett would follow through with his threat, but he was obviously angry enough to make the trip to the club. Cris needed to talk to someone, and it obviously wasn’t going to be Mikey.
THE NEXT day Cris found himself with an enraptured audience as he told Dan and Ariel about the previous two nights. Gideon had already heard part of the story, but even his eyes widened as Cris relayed Bennett’s angry outburst.
Dan whistled. “This explains a lot.”
“Hell yes,” Ariel agreed. “I thought that boy had the closet door padlocked shut, and now we know why.”
“I thought it was his work and the boys here,” Dan said.
“It’s probably that too. The poor boy’s got nowhere he can turn.”
“Sticking his tongue down my throat isn’t gonna help the situation,” Cris said.
Dan nodded. “I’ll have a word with him about that. He can’t get drunk and approach just any dude. He was lucky it was you.”
“That’s exactly why he did approach Cris,” Ariel said. “He knew Cris wouldn’t hurt him, and he might get lucky.”
Cris snorted. “I like my face as it is. I have no desire to see it rearranged in Cowboys and Angels.” There was an odd silence he didn’t understand. Dan and Ariel seemed to be doing their best not to look at each other, and Gideon was suddenly intently interested in his coffee. “What did I just say?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Dan said hastily.
Ariel sighed. “I guess it’s all right if you know. I spoke out of turn to a couple of guys here, and they did decide to rearrange Dan’s face because he was gay. I’ll never forgive myself for Dan getting hurt.”