by Sean Michael
Table of Contents
Blurb
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Exclusive Excerpt
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Copyright
The Eager Boy
By Sean Michael
An Iron Eagle Gym Novel
Eight months ago Robin Secoya left his lover and master, Stack Lobond, because he didn’t believe Stack really cared about him. He was sure that for Stack, any warm body would do, and Robin wasn’t willing to be just a warm body anymore.
A chance meeting at the Iron Eagle Gym brings them back together, and old feelings aren’t far from the surface. They decide they can’t pass up a second chance at romance. But this time, it isn’t just Stack’s demanding career as a big-cat vet putting strain on their relationship. Robin also has a new job that takes up a lot of his time.
Will their kinky love affair crash and burn a second time, or can they find the balance that will allow the passion between them to flourish?
Chapter One
“IS HE here, Jim?” Robin didn’t want trouble. He didn’t want confrontation. He just wanted to run where it was dry.
Jim shook his head. “He left about an hour ago.”
“Cool. Thanks. I’m in and out. I hate this weather.” It made his joints ache, made him nervous.
“Yeah, it sucks. This should be a safe place for you, though. You shouldn’t have to worry about who you’re going to bump into.” Jim passed him a towel.
“Shh. Don’t get into trouble on my account, okay?” It was stupid to keep showing up here, but he loved it, loved that it was gay and BDSM-oriented and a great fucking gym. He had found a tiny little studio two blocks away, furnished and everything. “I found a job, did I tell you? I’m working at the Himes Gallery.”
“Yeah? That’s so great. We should go out and celebrate when you’re done with your run.”
“Sure. I’m ready for something stronger than coffee.” His mas—Stack hadn’t approved of alcohol, but that wasn’t an issue anymore. The simple fact was, Stack hadn’t approved of him, full stop.
“All right, it’s a date.” Jim grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
“You’re off in, what? An hour?”
“Forty-five minutes. Then I have to change. So yeah, an hour.” Jim laughed.
“I’ll see you in an hour, honey. We’ll get our martini on.”
Jim kissed his cheek, and it was nice having a little human contact. “It’s a date.” Jim gave him a last smile, then turned to a man who’d just come in. “Good evening, Master Davis, how may I help you?”
Robin headed to the back of the gym, searching for the treadmills on the first floor. He wasn’t allowed upstairs anymore. Those floors were for the Dominants and their subs, and he was neither of those. And it was all his idea.
“I need more, Stack. I need your attention. I need you to listen to me.”
Stack had stood there, silent and stern, while he ranted and raved and begged. Then his master had said, “I’m not into that romantic bullshit, boy.”
So he’d left. He’d stayed with Saw for a few weeks, assuming that Stack would come for him, call him, something. But no. Nothing had happened, and the money he had in his little account had run out and he’d relearned living on his own.
Robin thought he was doing pretty well. He had a furnished apartment and a job. Saw had thrown him a little housewarming party, and now he had towels and sheets and a pair of small blue dishes.
He tried not to think about how sad that was. Instead he focused on his great new job, where he got to meet people, see beautiful things.
Bryan was the only other person in the gym. He was at the treadmills, running like there was something chasing him, sweating bullets like the overachiever he was.
Robin slipped onto one two machines away, put his earphones in, and started off. The music was loud and happy. No sad songs for him. None.
It was amazing how quickly forty-five minutes could pass when he was running and listening to music, one song flowing into the next. By the time he got done, he was soaked with sweat, and he wiped down the treadmill, then headed to the locker room without a word. He needed a shower. He stank.
As he stepped into the showers, he had to admit that the ones here at the Eagle were far superior to the one in his little apartment. The pressure was amazing, and it seemed like the hot water never ran out. Not ever.
He leaned forward, his hair heavy in his face, and let himself cry. In here, no one would know.
“Robin?” Jim’s voice came to him through the water. “Are you back here, honey? Are you okay?”
“Just getting clean. I got gross. Give me five.”
“Okay. No problem. I was just worried because it’s been a half hour more than the hour you said you needed. But if you’re okay, that’s good. I’ll be waiting downstairs.”
“Five minutes. I swear.” Robin turned off the water and dried his body, then pulled his jeans on with one hand while he rubbed the towel through his hair with the other. He hadn’t realized he’d been in the shower for so long.
He’d been zoning.
In a heartbeat he was downstairs, ready for Jim, ready to party. “Sorry, honey. You know how it is.”
Jim knocked their shoulders together, eyes twinkling. “I know what it means when I’m in the shower for a while.”
“Ha! Not yet. Soon, I bet, but I’m still in the crying-when-I-get-it-up stage of the breakup.”
“We need to find you a man,” Jim informed him as they went out.
“Not yet. One day.” In, like, twenty years.
“Okay, then we need to get you laid.” The street wasn’t crowded, but there were people around, coming out of restaurants and heading to clubs.
“Right now I need a few drinks and a friend, huh?”
“I can totally do that. I got paid today, so drinks are on me. The Blue Bird has half-price tequila shots for another forty minutes.”
“Rock on. Let’s go get into trouble.”
Jim laughed and hooked their arms together, skipping along like a loon and dragging Robin with him. “I’m great at trouble.”
Chapter Two
STACK SPENT hours at the gym, working out, concentrating on his muscles. He’d get up early, jog there and work out, then go straight back to it after work. He was living on power bars and protein shakes. And not thinking. He was very good at not thinking.
“You’re sure ripped, man.” Tide spotted for him, the big man watching him for muscle failure.
“Gotta be stacked if I’m going to live up to my name, eh?” He winked at Tide, but if he was honest, he didn’t feel like winking, like joking around. His heart wasn’t in it.
“Yeah. You… you want to go upstairs to the third floor after? Have a beer?”
Stack closed his mouth on his immediate “No.” It would probably do him good to spend an hour or two in the company of someone not himself and not an animal. “Sure. I’ve got another half hour to go, though.” He could have quit anytime, but he didn’t want to look too eag
er.
“I’ll wait.” Tide looked like he intended to hang out with Stack no matter what.
“Excellent. You gonna spot me through my bench presses?” At Tide’s nod, he focused back in on his workout.
By the time he did his cooldown stretches, he was good and sweaty. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye—long, sinuous limbs rippling—and he shot his gaze around. But it wasn’t Robin. It was Sawyer. He shook his head at himself. He wasn’t looking for Robin.
Robin had walked out on him, on their life. He’d taken a single suitcase and disappeared, like all their time together was nothing.
He pursed his lips and turned back to Tide. “Let’s go upstairs. We can shower later.”
“We can.”
They wiped down the weights and headed to the third floor—the cushy quiet there for Doms only. Stack searched the fridge, found a power drink. He took one for himself and offered Tide a second.
“Thank you, man. Lord, I think it’s going to rain.”
“I know it is. The cats always know.” Stack looked after the big cats at the zoo. He loved being a vet.
“No shit? That’s fucking cool. How’s work going?”
“Work is going great.” It was about the only thing that was, right now, so he didn’t mind focusing on it, talking about it, spending extra time at the zoo. “One of my snow leopards is pregnant. It’s kind of a big deal.”
“That’s cool. Do they have one at a time or…?”
They chatted for nearly an hour, just bullshitting, and once Stack actually laughed. It was good to have friends. And a nice quiet place with no expectations, no pressure, to hang out.
Tide didn’t ask about Robin, and Stack couldn’t decide if that was irritating or a relief. He decided to go with relief.
“I suppose I should head home.” He couldn’t hang out here all night.
“I guess. I’m thinking about going out, getting a drink. Maybe a steak.”
His stomach growled at the word steak, and Tide chuckled.
“You could come with me, man.”
“I suppose I could.”
“Come on. What do you have to lose? Seriously.”
“With steak on the table, not a whole lot.” He grinned. “I need to shower here if I’m not going straight home, man.”
“That’s why we have those great showers up here.”
“Uh-huh.” Stack got up and headed for said showers, dropping his protein drink in the garbage on the way. He told himself this was a good idea—he needed to get out, to have some company not his own.
“Excellent. I need company.”
“Yeah? You do?” Had he been so blind with his own stuff that he hadn’t realized Tide wasn’t just being nice to him but was seeking companionship of his own?
“Yeah, man. I mean, we’re friends, right?”
“Yes, we are indeed.” He gave Tide a quick hug. “Thanks, man.”
“Go shower, stinky man.”
Stack chuckled and headed toward the showers. The evening was definitely looking up.
Chapter Three
IT WAS weird how you didn’t know something was over until it was.
Robin stopped walking and looked through the window of the Eagle. He hadn’t been in since March, and now it was October. It was getting too cold to run outside again, and he had a decision to make.
It was a sad decision, but it wasn’t a hard one. He couldn’t afford the membership fees anymore, not when all he needed was a treadmill out of the cold.
Still. Sad.
Someone came around the corner, all but barreling into him. Two big hands came up and caught his shoulders, steadying him. “Dammit. Sorry.”
“No. I was in the way. Pardon me.” He looked up into beautiful gray eyes he loved more than anything. Stack. Master. Love. Fuck. “Oh. I—I’m sorry.”
A flash of pain shot through those eyes, quick, gone immediately, but it had been there. Surprising as that was. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”
“I was standing on the sidewalk like an idiot.” Robin couldn’t quite breathe. “I…. You look good.”
Stack looked whipcord lean, tanned and solid and perfect. “Thank you. I’ve been working out a lot. You look like you’ve gotten a lot of sun.”
He couldn’t tell if that was supposed to be a compliment or not. “Yes.” He spent a lot of time outside. His tiny apartment was, well, tiny. He walked around the park, headed up to the roof. Anything to give him room to breathe. He pushed his hair behind his ear.
Stack stared at him, the look almost… hungry. People walked around them, the evening foot traffic picking up, the area getting busy, but still Stack held his gaze.
He wanted a hug. He wanted to run. He wanted to throw himself into Stack’s arms. He wanted….
One tear escaped him, slid down his cheek.
Stack rubbed the tear away with his thumb, the touch leaving tingles all along Robin’s skin. Stack took in a deep breath.
“Have you had supper yet?”
“No, sir. Have you?”
“No. They’ve still got Monday Madness over at the York Steakhouse. Would you like to join me?”
He shouldn’t, but he wanted to, so much. “I’d like that very much.”
“Okay. Good. Let’s go.” Stack turned and waited for him to step up before he started walking.
They didn’t say a single word to each other on the way—didn’t touch or anything—and by the time they got to the restaurant, Robin was doubting his decision. What if he was asking for heartbreak again? What if Stack told him all about how happy he was now, with a new sub, a new life?
Stack held the door to the restaurant for him and told the hostess they wanted a booth. When she showed them to their table, Stack walked behind him, and he could feel the strong, warm body at his back.
He wasn’t going to get hard. He wasn’t. This wasn’t his—not anymore.
As Stack settled in the seat across from him, Robin was struck again by how handsome Stack was. He hoped he looked as good. He knew his hair was longer and he had a little goatee now, and he wore way more jewelry—earrings and a necklace, a heavy bracelet, a couple of rings.
Stack rested one foot against Robin’s, the touch achingly familiar, even if it had been a long time since he’d felt it.
“So… you look like you’re doing well,” Stack commented.
“Do I? That’s cool.”
Stack nodded. “Tanned, healthy, good-looking.”
“Thank you. I’ve been running a lot.”
Stack seemed a little surprised at that. “I haven’t seen you at the gym at all.”
“I’ve been pounding the pavement. The gym is expensive and… I wanted to give you your space. I don’t really belong there anymore.”
“Have you left the lifestyle?” Stack even sounded surprised this time.
“I—I guess I sort of have. I’m not…. I haven’t been looking.” He wasn’t ready. “I’ve been working a lot of hours.”
Stack nodded. “I’ve been moving between home, work, and the gym. It’s been good for my abs.” He looked away, then looked back. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” He wouldn’t lie. It didn’t matter because Stack was who he was, and Robin wanted someone who loved him, who wanted to talk to him, be with him. But it was still true.
Stack touched his hand, then sat back as their waiter arrived.
Stack ordered for them both without even looking at the menu. “We’ll start with the tempura vegetables. Then we’ll have the Monday Madness steaks—rare—please. Fries and salads on the side. And water to drink.”
“Of course, sir.” The little waiter simpered and smiled, and Robin wanted to trip him.
Stack turned his attention back to Robin, though, like he hadn’t even noticed the waiter’s flirtations. “This is nice. Spending time with you.”
“Is it?” He wasn’t fluttering. He wasn’t. Because that was ridiculous, but he was pleased.
“It
is. It’s the first time I’ve been out with anyone other than a couple other Doms.”
“I meet some of the guys for drinks every Saturday.” He was so bored, so lonely.
“I miss you,” Stack said again, taking his hand and holding it, thumb rubbing over his palm.
“Me too.” He didn’t have any breath left. All he could do was watch Stack touch him.
“I hate the idea of you leaving the lifestyle. You need it.”
No. He needed Stack. “Do I?”
“Yes. Of course, so do I. I imagine you haven’t done a scene for as long as I haven’t.”
“No. You were there, the last time.”
“Would you like to do a scene tomorrow? We both need it. We know we’re compatible.”
Oh, he didn’t know. That might break him right down the middle, and he had no idea whether he could submit while worrying about whether Stack wanted him. But what if this was the end and he missed the chance to….
He’d opened his mouth to answer when Stack’s phone rang, the sound of a lion’s roar as familiar as his own heartbeat.
“I’m on call. I have to take this.”
“Of course.”
“Dr. Lobond here. … Shit. Yeah, yeah. … No, of course, I’ll be there in a half hour tops.” Stack closed the call. “I’m sorry. One of my cats is sick, I have to go. Can I have a rain check for dinner?” Stack waved down their waiter.
“Go on. I’ll cancel everything. I’m sure it’s not too late.” Not for supper, at any rate. “It was good to see you again.”
Stack opened his mouth, and Robin winked. “Go on. They need you at the office.”
“I want to see you again.”
“I know.” He wanted to see Stack again too, but Stack was married to his career first and foremost, and right now at least, it was what Stack was in love with. Robin wasn’t sure he could blame Stack. He kissed Stack on the cheek. “Go on, now. They need you.”
And Robin needed to go home, have a good hard cry and a nap. After he turned his card in at the gym.
He needed a fresh start.
Chapter Four