by Ally Blue
Keegan knew he probably shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t help it. He had to know. “Why do you stay with him? What could he possibly have to offer that would make you willing to put up with all that shit? You could have anybody, you could—”
The look on Scott’s face stopped him cold. A wild-eyed, hunted look. As if Keegan had hit upon a truth that Scott wished wasn’t there. He stared up at Scott, trying to figure out what he’d said wrong.
“Scott?” he ventured. “I shouldn’t have asked that, it’s none of my business. My mouth just gets ahead of my brain sometimes. Sorry.”
Scott’s eyes wouldn’t quite meet his. “Don’t worry about it. So, um, the credit card slip?”
“Yeah.”
Keegan turned and hurried behind the bar to the cash register. He felt Scott’s gaze on him like a physical weight. His fingers trembled a little as he opened the cash drawer and pulled out the slip he’d saved in the event of Scott’s return.
“Here,” he said, sliding the paper and a pen across the bar.
Scott scribbled what Keegan assumed was his signature on the line and handed the slip back to Keegan. “There you go.”
“Thanks.”
Silence fell. Keegan pushed his lip ring back and forth with his tongue, a nervous habit he thought he’d broken years ago. Something about Scott put him off balance in a way he couldn’t pin down. And damned if he didn’t like it. A lot.
Okay, stop acting like a kid with a crush. Keegan put on his brightest smile. “Hey, how about a drink? On the house.”
Scott chuckled, the sound rich and rolling, setting Keegan’s skin tingling. “What the hell?” Scott said, breaking into a huge grin. “It’s Saturday, I don’t have to work or anything.”
“Gin and tonic again?”
“Sure.”
Keegan reached for the bottles and a glass and started pouring. “You could hang out here this afternoon, if you want,” he suggested, watching Scott’s face. “We’re allowed to bring guests in, you can be mine.”
Scott raised an eyebrow at him. Keegan’s cheeks heated as he realized the implications of what he’d just said. “Oh shit, sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant.” Scott’s dark eyes shone with amusement and something else, something that made Keegan’s cock twitch. “I’d love to stay as your guest.” His face clouded. “Logan probably won’t even notice I’m gone.”
“Asshole,” Keegan growled before he could stop himself. He met Scott’s surprised look with a defiant lift of his chin. “I’m sorry, Scott, but he is. You deserve better.”
Scott simply stood there, staring at him hard enough to drill holes. Keegan was starting to get that hollow, oh-no-I-fucked-up feeling when Scott suddenly reached across the bar and took Keegan’s hand.
“Thank you,” Scott said, very softly.
Keegan swallowed. “What for?”
“For thinking I deserve better, even if I don’t.” Scott pressed Keegan’s fingers, then pulled away, that adorable lopsided smile curving his mouth. “I needed that today.”
Keegan beamed, knowing he looked too eager and not caring. “Stay for my show, yeah?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
Scott’s tone was light, his smile unrevealing, but his eyes burned. Desire curled in Keegan’s belly. He gazed into Scott’s eyes and thought he could happily drown in them. The feeling scared him, on multiple levels. Attraction, sex, he could handle. But his gut told him that if he ever got Scott into his bed, he’d never want to let him go. And that was something he’d never felt before. Something he’d actively avoided, for lots of reasons.
Just stop it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Doesn’t even have to be sex. He’s got a partner, and Scott’s not a cheating jackass even if Logan is. Besides, what makes you think he’s even interested in you like that?
Keegan tried not to notice how obvious the answer to that last question was. The smoldering light in Scott’s eyes couldn’t be mistaken for anything but lust, and Keegan knew it.
He shook off the uneasy knowledge and started pouring drinks for the men who had drifted up to the bar from the corners of the room, talking with Scott in between customers. Eventually the turmoil inside him died down, but it didn’t go away entirely. He had a feeling it wouldn’t as long as the question of what could happen between him and Scott remained unanswered.
The problem was, he wasn’t at all sure that he wanted to know what might happen if he followed his heart all the way to Scott’s bed.
Chapter Three
The Saturday night before Valentine’s Day, Scott walked up to the front door of Ganymede’s Grotto with a brand-new membership card in his hand. “Hi Patrick,” he said, grinning at the tall, gangly young man at the window. “How are you?”
“Gettin’ by,” Patrick drawled in his honey-thick accent. He nodded toward the card in Scott’s hand. “Finally joined up, huh?”
Scott laughed. “I figured I might as well, since I’m here nearly every day anyhow. It wouldn’t be fair for me to keep taking advantage of Keegan like that, coming in as his guest all the time.”
After that first afternoon and evening as Keegan’s guest at Ganymede’s Grotto, Scott had begun to spend more and more time there. Stopping in for a couple of hours after work had become a habit. He knew all the staff now and had been more or less adopted by Earl, who fussed over him more than his own parents ever had.
At first Scott had tried to pretend that he kept going there to get away from Logan’s increasingly erratic behavior. But he couldn’t lie to himself for long. Ganymede’s Grotto was a nice club, clean and friendly with a laid-back, no-pressure atmosphere, but it wasn’t a place where he would have normally spent so much time. He went there to see Keegan, and everyone knew it.
Scott continued to stubbornly insist he felt nothing but friendship for Keegan. Even he was having trouble believing it anymore.
“It made Earl pretty happy that you joined, I bet,” Patrick observed, taking Scott’s card to scan it. “He’s been dying to sign you up ever since day one.”
Scott raised his eyebrows. “Really? Why? Is it my incredible good looks, or my enormous bank account?”
“Smart-ass.” Patrick handed Scott’s card back. “Keegan likes you, and Earl spoils that boy rotten.”
“Keegan’s almost thirty,” Scott said, putting his card back in his wallet. “Hardly a boy, and definitely older than you.”
“Maybe, but he looks way younger.” Patrick grinned at him. “Speaking of Keegan, he says come back to the dressing room, he wants your opinion on what costume to wear for his show tonight.”
Scott’s heart tried to jump right up his throat. He swallowed it back down. “Oh. Okay. So he’s, um, he’s not being Eros tonight?”
“You know he changes his act around now and then, just to keep things interesting. You’ve seen some of his other acts.” Patrick chuckled. “Man, when are you gonna make a move already? You know he’d be putty in your hands, right?”
The blood rose in Scott’s cheeks, because he did know it. “Come on, Patrick, don’t.”
“Yeah, I know. Logan.” Patrick shook his head. “I’m not sayin’ a word, man. Have a nice night.”
“You too. See you.” Scott pushed the door open and escaped into the welcoming dimness of the club.
Making his way through the already crowded bar to the tiny dressing room behind the stage, Scott smiled and spoke to the staff and a few of the members he’d gotten to know. He thought, not for the first time, that he should thank Logan for bringing him here that night. He felt comfortable and accepted here, even though he never did anything but sit at the bar and talk to Keegan. And watch him strip, Scott reminded himself.
The thought was enough to tighten Scott’s balls. He bit his lip and forced his mind away from the memories of Keegan looking like a debauched angel in that obscene G-string and those huge white wings.
When he reached the dressing room, Scott tapped on the door. “Keegan? It’s m
e, Patrick said you wanted to see me.”
“Yeah, c’mon in,” Keegan called, his voice muffled.
Scott eased the door open, slipped through and closed it again before looking at Keegan. When he did, he burst out laughing. “What the hell are you doing?”
Keegan’s blue eye glared at him over a strip of black lace. “Shut up and help me, I’m stuck.”
Still snickering, Scott strolled over and walked in a circle around Keegan, trying to make sense of the tangle he’d made. “What is this, a dress?”
“Yes.” Keegan wriggled in a way that had Scott adjusting his crotch, and managed to get an arm through one sleeve. “It’s not a tear-away, and it’s really fucking tight. Could you just straighten it out in back there? Then maybe I can get it all the way on.”
Scott obediently tugged on the tangle of black fabric wound around Keegan’s back. Heat flared in his belly when his hands brushed Keegan’s skin. He longed to slide his arms around Keegan’s slender waist and pull him close, bend and kiss the curve of his pale shoulder. He satisfied his urge to touch by tracing his fingertips over the naked, pale blue pixie tattooed on Keegan’s back.
Keegan laughed and turned around, slipping his other arm into the sleeve and yanking the dress down. “You feeling up Blue Boy’s cock again?”
“No,” Scott said, truthfully for once. He’d been fascinated with the tattooed pixie’s frighteningly large erection ever since he’d first gotten a good look at it. “I was feeling up his fangs this time.”
“Yeah, well, that’s another erogenous zone for him, I hope you know.” Keegan faced the mirror, eyeing his reflection critically. “So what do you think? Should I put on make-up and be the Goth-Chick-With-A-Dick, or be lazy and drag out the devil costume?”
Scott considered. “I kind of like what you’ve got on. But how do you get it off again if you had this much trouble getting into it?”
Keegan grinned. “Tear it off.”
“Oh.” Scott groped behind him for the chair he knew was there and hung on for dear life. “Yeah, do that.”
“Hot idea, huh?” Keegan rotated his hips in a slow, teasing motion, tongue flicking at his lip ring. “I can only rip the dress in half once, but it was only two bucks at the thrift store, so it’s no big deal.”
The mental image of that tight little black lace mini-dress ripping away to reveal Keegan’s sleekly muscled body did not a damn thing to reduce Scott’s arousal. Before he could think of what he was doing, Scott stroked a hand down Keegan’s lace-clad chest.
Keegan went still, wide eyes locked onto Scott’s face. “Scott? What are you doing?”
Scott blinked, shook himself and pulled his hand back. “I…I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Keegan smiled. “Hey, you know I wouldn’t turn you down. You’re the one with a boyfriend.”
The mention of Logan dragged at Scott’s spirits like an anchor. “Yeah, I know.”
Keegan tilted his head and stared hard at Scott. “Did something happen? With Logan, I mean.”
“It’s nothing.”
Scott heard the stubborn edge in his voice, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to think of how Logan had blatantly propositioned the check-out boy at the grocery store that afternoon. Or how he’d turned nasty when they’d gotten home, calling Scott a spineless eunuch and worse when Scott didn’t react with the anger he’d clearly expected.
Keegan crossed his arms. “You’re not fooling me, Scott. Spill it.”
Scott sighed. Keegan could read him with terrifying accuracy. “We had a fight. Or rather we didn’t, which I think was the problem.”
“I’m not following you,” Keegan said, frowning.
Scott looked at his feet. “He came on to some kid this afternoon while we were out shopping. But he does it so often I just ignore it lately, so that’s what I did. I just pretended it wasn’t happening. And that pissed him off. He jumped all over me when we got home. Basically told me I was a pussy.”
“For not calling him on what he did?”
“Yeah.” Scott raised his head to meet Keegan’s unusually thoughtful gaze, and decided to take the plunge. Lord knew Keegan was the closest friend he had. “He’s doing it on purpose. I don’t know why, or if he even realizes it, but that’s what’s happening. He keeps coming on to other men just to make me mad.”
Oddly enough, Keegan didn’t seem surprised. “That explains something I’ve been wondering about.”
Scott frowned. “What do you mean?”
Keegan pinned Scott with a penetrating stare. “I don’t know if he told you this, but the first night you guys came here? I told him off for how he acted.”
“No, he never mentioned it,” Scott murmured, unsurprised.
“Figures,” Keegan said, rolling his eyes. “Anyhow, I told him that I’d come on to you and you turned me down.”
Scott blinked. “You did?”
“Yeah. Listen.” Keegan leaned forward, red-gold curls cascading over his shoulder. “He told me that I should take a good look at his back in the morning and then see if I still wanted you.”
“Oh shit.” Scott groped for the chair again, swung it around and sat down heavily as the epiphany hit him like a brick. “I only ever did it when I was angry. So that’s why…” He closed his eyes. “Fuck.”
“I figured he must like getting some of the rough stuff, but the whole thing just felt wrong, you know? He talked like someone who was being abused, but I could tell he wanted it. And I knew you weren’t the abusive type anyway.”
Scott opened his eyes and stared up at Keegan, who was tonguing his lip ring like he always did when he was thinking. “How could you have known that, Keegan? Hell, how do you know that now? Maybe I’m exactly the monster he wanted you to think I was.”
I sure as fuck feel like one. It didn’t matter that Logan had some twisted need for pain inflicted in anger. It didn’t even matter that Scott had always known Logan enjoyed it more than he did. The fact remained that Scott had done those things, and he’d gotten off on them. Worse, it had never even occurred to him that Logan might need help. And he clearly did, if he felt the need to hurt and manipulate his lover in order to get what he wanted.
The feel of fingertips on his cheek brought Scott out of his thoughts. Keegan stood between his knees, close enough that a breath could push them together, stroking Scott’s jaw. His eyes brimmed with painful memories, underscored by a longing Scott could feel in his bones. He realized with a shock that it was the first time he’d seen past the lighthearted, teasing wall Keegan kept between himself and the world.
“You’re no monster, Scott,” Keegan said, so softly Scott barely heard him. “Believe me, I’ve known my share and you’re nothing like that. Nothing at all.” Keegan’s callused fingertips traced the outline of Scott’s mouth, making his pulse race. “You’re kind. And compassionate. And gentle. You’d never hurt m…anyone, I mean, you never would’ve gotten rough with Logan if he didn’t want you to, but you knew he liked it, even if you didn’t know he was manipulating you into doing it.”
It was a quick save, and Keegan’s subsequent babbling almost distracted him from the slip. But not quite. He’d heard what Keegan almost said, seen the man’s eyes widen just slightly. He reached up and buried his hands in Keegan’s shining curls like he’d been dying to do since the moment they met.
“You’re right,” Scott heard himself say, as if from a distance. “I’d never hurt you. Keegan…”
He didn’t have to say anything else. Keegan bent down, cradling Scott’s face between his palms, and pressed his mouth to Scott’s.
Everything went still and silent for a heartbeat. Then Keegan’s lips parted, his tongue traced Scott’s lower lip in a feathery touch, and Scott’s world turned inside-out. He tilted his head and opened to Keegan, kissing him with a hunger he hadn’t felt in years.
Keegan let out a sound that was almost a sob. He straddled Scott’s lap, skirt hitching up as his thighs spread. His e
rection dug into Scott’s belly, barely contained by the black satin G-string he wore under the dress. Scott moaned and thrust up, rubbing his own achingly hard cock against Keegan’s ass. The functioning part of his brain wished mightily that his jeans weren’t in the way.
“Oh God,” Keegan breathed against Scott’s mouth. “God, I want you so bad.”
Scott pulled back enough to see Keegan’s face. Those strange, beautiful eyes were heavy-lidded and hot with need. “I’ve wanted you since the second I first saw you,” Scott whispered.
Keegan smiled fiercely and took Scott’s mouth in another deep kiss. His hair fell around them like a golden curtain, tickling Scott’s neck and tangling into their joined mouths. Scott slid his hands down Keegan’s body, caressing the smooth pale skin of his hips and thighs, the firm swell of his buttocks. Whimpering, Keegan pushed his groin against Scott’s belly.
“Oh, ooo, whoopsie!”
They broke apart, Keegan scrambling off Scott’s lap and tugging his dress back down as Scott sat staring at the young man who’d just barged in. It was one of the other strippers. Scott hadn’t even heard the door open.
“Tommy,” Keegan growled, “how many times do I have to tell you to knock?”
Tommy pouted, pale green eyes flashing. “It’s my dressing room too. What do you want me to do, change in the hall? I’m on in twenty minutes.”
Keegan sighed, one hand raking through his hair. “Yeah, okay. We’re clearing out.”
“Don’t hurry on my account.” Tommy grinned. “I don’t mind watching.”
“No way, Tommy.” Keegan took Scott’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “C’mon, we can talk in Earl’s office. He’ll be out mingling by now.”
Scott followed on Keegan’s heels. Keegan dragged him down the hall with long, determined strides, ignoring the stares from the other staff members. Inside Earl’s office, Keegan locked the door and shoved Scott against it. Smiling, he rubbed his crotch against Scott’s thigh.
“Now,” Keegan said, leaning close to nuzzle Scott’s neck. “Where were we?”
Scott’s mind shrieked at him to stop, even as he yanked Keegan to him for a passionate kiss. You’re no better than Logan, doing this. Growling, he grabbed Keegan’s ass in both hands and squeezed, drowning what was left of his good sense in a wash of desire.