by Vicki Tharp
Alex leaned across the center console and pressed a kiss to Elijah’s lips, but didn’t take it any further. Elijah almost reached for Alex as he settled into his seat, wanting to buzz his seat back and pull Alex across the console. The physical impossibility of it was the only thing stopping him.
Elijah started the engine.
“This is just for right now,” Alex insisted. “A few weeks. A month maybe. At least until we get to know each other a little better. Who knows, after I give you a batting lesson, you may never want to see me again.”
Alex gave Elijah directions to SFSC. When they parked out of view behind the sports complex, they were the only vehicle in the lot.
Elijah kept the engine running. “We’re too late. This place looks closed.”
Alex unbuckled and popped the latch on the door. “Not for us.”
Elijah killed the engine, beeped the truck locked and met him at the tailgate. “Well, aren’t you special?”
A self-deprecating laugh escaped. There had been a time when Alex had thought that he was special, but the game of fate had a way of knocking him down peg by peg by peg without mercy until he’d been left dangling by his fingertips.
He had talent.
He had perseverance.
But that didn’t make him special.
“Hardly. I’ve known the owner since his kid and I played little league together. He’s kind enough to let me have a key.”
Alex unlocked the door and disarmed the alarm, ushering Elijah inside ahead of him so he could lock the door behind them. The sparse security lights provided illumination down the long back hall. They’d both changed out of their spikes at the field, so only the soft squeak and scuff of their athletic shoes echoed off the hard surfaces.
After hours at the complex was one of Alex’s favorite places to go when he wanted to be alone and have time to think. The Grizzlies were a part of the American League, so as a pitcher he didn’t have to hit, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like to pick up a bat from time to time and take some hacks in the cages until his hands stung and his muscles screamed with fatigue.
At the long row of batting cages, Alex dropped his bag and turned on the banks of overhead lights. He took Elijah and their bats into the center cage as the lights slowly warmed up.
“You want to go first?” Alex asked.
“You get it out of your system, then we’ll worry about me.”
Alex hit for several rounds before turning the cage over to Elijah, enjoying the lingering sting in his hands and the burn in his shoulders.
“First thing I noticed,” Alex said, “is that you’re very long to the ball. It makes it harder for you to catch up to the faster pitches and makes it nearly impossible to hit anything up and in. And your swing isn’t level, so you’re getting underneath the ball. That’s why you’re getting the pop-ups.”
“Was I doing anything right?” Elijah crossed his arms, the three-quarter sleeves of his uniform bulging at his biceps.
Alex wanted to drop the bat, strip off Elijah’s shirt and get another feel for those muscles himself. But they had all night for that. He grinned. “You knew where to stand in the batter’s box, so you weren’t a complete embarrassment to the sport.”
“Fucker,” Elijah muttered, but he couldn’t hide his smile.
That’s one of the things he liked about Elijah, he wasn’t an insecure man, even when faced with something he wasn’t particularly skilled at. After being on Black Stallion’s set with the man, Alex knew Elijah to be particularly knowledgeable, confident, and competent in other areas of his life.
Alex took several practice swings. Demonstrating how Elijah had been swinging versus how he should be bringing the bat to the ball. Then it was Elijah’s turn, and Alex stepped back.
“Hands a little higher. Yeah, like that. Now start your swing by bringing the knob toward the ball.”
After a few slo-mo swings, Alex said, “Hang on, I’ll be right back.”
He hustled out of the cage and retrieved Elijah’s batting helmet. After Elijah put it on, Alex said, “Ready?”
“Bring it on.”
Alex flipped the switch, and the pitching machine at the other end of the cage came to life: humming, clacking, and wheezing. Then he turned down the speed, pressed start, and stepped out of the cage. “Let the first couple pitches go by so you can judge how the balls are coming out of the machine.”
Two pitches zinged by Elijah as he stood ready in the batter’s box, the balls hitting the hanging mat at the back of the cage with a loud thud. Elijah touched the far side of the plate with the tip of his bat and got ready for the next pitch, his muscular ass shaking as he dug into position.
By the time Elijah had hit his way through two and a half rounds of balls, he’d started hitting better, but his swing was off, and no matter how much Alex tried to correct him from outside the cage, he couldn’t get his point across.
Some things needed more personal instruction.
Alex entered the cage and hit the pause button. Elijah dropped the end of his bat and turned. “What’s wrong?”
Bumping his chin toward the batter’s box, Alex said, “I’m going to help you with your swing. Stand in the batter’s box, and I’ll show you.”
Elijah got his feet set and brought the bat back. Alex came up behind him and put his hands on Elijah’s hips. Elijah dropped the head of the bat. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not getting fresh.”
“Shame.”
Alex gave Elijah’s hips a little squeeze. “Don’t get me started. We’re hitting. Not... not anything else.”
Yeah, tell that to the woody you’re sporting.
Elijah lifted the bat as Alex said, “Your power is in your hips, you don’t want to open them too soon or else you’ll lose all your power before you can turn on the ball.”
Elijah swung several times in slow motion with Alex turning his hips at the proper time in the swing. Unfortunately, that meant a lot of Alex’s focus was on that firm, round, muscular ass. All Alex wanted to do was rut up against Elijah.
But he was a grown man. He had more control than that.
Ha! Yeah. Nice one.
Confident Elijah had the idea of how to move his hips, Alex said, “Now for your swing.”
Alex let go of Elijah’s hips, stepping closer so that his arms came around Elijah’s shoulders, his hands on the bat on top of Elijah’s hands. Elijah wiggled his ass, and Alex swallowed a groan. Was Elijah settling into his stance or was he trying to press his ass into Alex’s crotch? Elijah did it again. “You’re gonna have to quit that,” Alex said, but didn’t move away.
Elijah chuckled. “I’m standing here minding my own business. You’re the one who put his arms around me.”
Elijah wasn’t wrong, so Alex didn’t argue. They worked through the swing together, their bodies aligned from shoulders to hips to thighs. Since Alex had taken his athletic cup out in the dugout, there were only a few layers of fabric between them, and those layers did a piss poor job of hiding his erection.
Not that Elijah complained.
Then Alex moved to leave the cage and give Elijah room to swing, but instead of getting ready in the batter’s box, Elijah dropped his bat on the ground. It rolled until the side wall of the cage stopped it.
“What’s the matter?”
Elijah pulled his batting gloves off his fingers one by one as he closed the gap between them. He backed Alex up against the gate, the chain link pressing little diamond shapes into the muscles in his back.
“I’ve already taken a lot of cuts. I’m afraid if I keep batting, I’m going to lose my grip strength.”
Linking his fingers in the fencing by Alex’s head, Elijah leaned in, his breath warm on Alex’s skin as he pressed kisses to Alex’s neck and the corner of his jaw. Elijah’s other hand trailed down the length of Alex’s torso and down farther until he cupped Alex’s hard cock in his hand.
“Gnnpff.” Alex pressed into Elijah’s hand, craving the con
tact.
With a hand to the back of Elijah’s neck, Alex brought Elijah’s lips to his. Elijah opened his mouth, and his tongue darted out, tracing Alex’s lower lip. Alex opened for him with a groan as Elijah stroked him through his uniform pants.
Alex broke the kiss. “We gotta stop.”
Elijah’s eyes closed but he lifted his hands and took a step back. “I’m sorry if I misread this. I thought—”
“Shit. No. You didn’t misinterpret anything.” Alex scrubbed a hand down his face. “I didn’t mean ‘stop’ that way. I meant we need to stop so we can go somewhere that isn’t here. Somewhere that doesn’t have security cameras. Somewhere that we can take our time and not have to worry about someone walking in on us and for once not have to hear someone yelling ‘cut.’”
Elijah blinked at him a couple times, then a smile started at the corners of his mouth. “You want to go to your place?”
“Yours is closer if you live near the college campus.”
“I do.”
“I don’t want anyone seeing my car there. You drive. You could take me back to mine...” The next words out of Alex’s mouth would be presumptuous, but he wanted to be direct. “...in the morning.”
Alex held his breath. Did he really invite himself over to spend the night? He did, didn’t he? Was that rude?
“My place it is.”
They gathered the gear, high-tailed it to the parking lot, and headed to Elijah’s apartment. In the tree-lined parking lot near the soccer fields, across the street from the complex, the lights on a parked car turned on. Alex watched in his side mirror as the car pulled out onto the road behind him.
“What is it?” Elijah asked, his wrist dangling over the top of the steering wheel, the hint of a laugh in his voice. “We pick up a tail?”
Trevor always talked about how the closet makes a man paranoid.
Alex turned and watched out the rear window as the car faded back and two other vehicles passed and pulled in between them. He turned back around, shoving the car out of his mind.
Alex wasn’t paranoid.
He also wasn’t in the closet.
Oh yeah? How many straight guys go home with their male porn co-stars to fuck around?
11
That saying ‘giddy as a schoolgirl’ ran through Elijah’s mind. His hand shook, and he fumbled with his keys as he tried to unlock his apartment door. Only Elijah wasn’t a schoolgirl, he was a grown ass man.
A grown ass man taking another man to his apartment for sex.
He wasn’t a virgin by far, but Alex was the only man he’d had any sexual contact with, and well... that made him a little nervous. What if they started having sex and Alex didn’t like it?
What if he didn’t like it?
Kissing and mutual blow jobs were one thing, going beyond was another. But God help him, he was ready to try.
Alex put a hand over Elijah’s and steadied it long enough for him to get the key in the lock and shove the door open. Elijah flipped lights on as he walked down the hall to his kitchen and den.
He went straight for the refrigerator and tugged it open. “You want a beer?”
Alex stood in the den and glanced around. “That would be great. Thanks.”
Elijah grabbed the beers and met Alex at the patio door where Alex stared through the open slats of the vertical blinds. Elijah flipped a switch. The porch lights lit up the patio of his first-floor apartment, the trees in the park behind his unit nearly overhanging his fence.
His apartment wasn’t much to look at, and the maintenance department was run by a man who didn’t know a slotted screwdriver from a Phillips head, but having the trees to look at instead of a parking lot or the bedroom of another apartment made what little extra he paid for the place worth it.
Elijah handed Alex a beer and worked the stubborn mechanism of the blinds as he tried to slide them back. Then something above snapped, and the cord came loose in his hands. “Shit. I wanted to show you the view.” Elijah flipped the lock on the sliding door. “We can—”
Alex put a staying hand on Elijah’s arm, his gaze scorching. “It’s okay. I like the view in here better.”
Elijah took a fortifying sip of his beer. “You hungry?”
Alex backed Elijah into the sliding door and set both of their beers onto a shelf on the nearby entertainment center. The blue around Alex’s irises going thin as his pupils dilated. “Yeah.” Alex nipped at Elijah’s chin. “But not for food.”
Alex stepped a leg between Elijah’s and pressed his erection against Elijah’s hip. With the cold glass at Elijah’s back, déjà vu washed over him, only this time the view out the window was of a six-foot privacy fence and not a fake New York City skyline.
In other ways, this experience was completely different. They didn’t have to worry about camera angles, about people on set, and about Niko calling out directions.
The biggest difference?... They had all night.
Alex untucked Elijah’s uniform shirt and yanked it over his head. Alex’s hand immediately went to Elijah’s thick slab of pectoral muscle, his thumb skimming across Elijah’s flat nipple.
Horny Elijah kicked Nervous Elijah to the curb. Time to get what he wanted.
“Get naked,” Elijah said, part growl and part command as his fingers fumbled with Alex’s belt.
In a flurry of feverish activity, they both toed off their shoes, and shucked their uniforms and sliding shorts. They were both short of breath, more from anticipation than exertion when they stood straight.
“Damn,” Alex said, his voice gruff as he took in Elijah from his toes to his jutting cock and on up to his face.
Alex linked fingers with Elijah, pinning Elijah’s hands against the glass above his head, their bodies aligned, their hard-ons trapped together between their bellies. “You’re so fucking sexy.”
Alex may have had Elijah beat on height, but Elijah had Alex beat on sheer muscle mass, and there was nothing Elijah enjoyed more than control. He turned, reversing their positions, their feet tangling. Alex’s back hit the open blinds and sliding glass door with a thunk, and their combined off-balance weight took them to the ground.
They hit in a pile of legs, arms, torsos, and cocks, Alex laughing as three of the slats from the blinds tumbled down on top of them.
Elijah batted the cheap plastic away. The building’s maintenance guy was going to be pissed, but Elijah couldn’t give two shits right then, not when Alex lay beneath him, their cocks leaking pre-cum on the flat of Alex’s lower abs.
Bracing himself on one arm, Elijah brought his mouth to Alex’s as his other hand wrapped around their erections and he started jacking them both.
Alex grumbled into Elijah’s mouth. Something like, “Oh God.”
His arms slid down Elijah’s back, those long fingers reaching down and squeezing Elijah’s ass. A lone index finger rode along Elijah’s crack as Alex rutted up against him.
Pre-cum slicked Elijah’s hand as he stroked them from tip to base and back again. He buried his face in the crook of Alex’s neck, inhaling the intoxicating smell of musky sweat, aged leather, and diamond dirt, finding it much more arousing than the clean scent of soap.
Alex cupped Elijah’s cheek bringing Elijah’s mouth up to his and taking the kiss deep. Alex’s tongue thrust into Elijah’s mouth, mimicking what Elijah wanted Alex to do to his ass.
Alex’s tongue wasn’t the only thing Elijah wanted in his ass, he wanted Alex’s fingers and that glorious cock.
What if Alex doesn’t want to go there? What if kissing, mutual masturbation, and blow jobs were all that Alex wanted?
Breaking the kiss, Elijah took a couple moments to catch his breath.
“I do something wrong?” Alex’s finger hesitated in the crack of Elijah’s ass.
“No. I wanted to ask what you were into.”
Alex’s brows drew together as if Elijah had asked a confusing question. Elijah rolled onto his back, shifting Alex to his side. Alex drew a hand down the lengt
h of Elijah’s body until he had Elijah’s balls cupped in his hands. Elijah’s eyes tried to cross as goosebumps skittered across his flesh.
“I thought I was making myself clear.” Alex pressed a series of kisses across Elijah’s chest, his tongue flicking across Elijah’s sensitized nipple, sending a zing straight through to Elijah’s dick. “I’m into you.”
It pained Elijah to stop the magic Alex made with his tongue, but things weren’t as cut and dried in gay sex land as it was in hetero sex land. A little more negotiation was involved. Not everyone was into ass or getting fucked.
Elijah put a staying hand on Alex’s chest, and Alex removed his hand from between Elijah’s thighs. “I mean what are you into, as in, what do you like to do or have done to you?”
Alex propped his head on his hand, looking down on Elijah as he ghosted his fingertips through the short, cropped hair around Elijah’s base. He wanted to take Alex’s hand and fist it around his cock and forget all about talking, but this wasn’t a conversation they could put off.
Alex didn’t answer right away, though Elijah could hear the gears in Alex’s head click and churn. Finally, Alex said, “I like head. Receiving and giving. I want your hands on me and mine on you and...”
Elijah could tell Alex had more to say, he just needed the time to figure out the words to say it. Elijah waited him out, not wanting to push or put words in Alex’s mouth.
Alex took a deep breath then blew it out. “I don’t know if I’m ready to be fucked... It’s not that I’m necessarily against it... It’s...”
Alex sort of squirmed, and realization dawned on Elijah. “You’ve never done any ass play.”
“I have. The giving end, not the receiving end.”
Elijah grinned. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Alex chuckled and rolled his eyes. “That’s what Trevor keeps telling me.” Then those eyes narrowed and focused on Elijah. “Wait, you told Niko you’ve never been with a guy before.”
“I haven’t.”
“Then how…?”