by A R Steele
He left the Mustang just outside the park and walked in, glancing around for the guy. Too bad he wouldn’t have his cock out… that would make it easier to recognize him. Every second man around was in a blue T-shirt and sunglasses these days.
There was a slight breeze in the air as Austin walked forward. Even though it was a quarter to nine in the evening, the sun was still low in the sky. Austin walked forward on the gravel path. This park was known as a hook-up spot in the gay community, but Austin had never anticipated coming here for that purpose. This was so unlike him.
His eyes lit on the back of a blue T-shirt, and his heart skipped a beat. Dark hair obscured the back of the man’s ears, so he couldn’t tell if he was wearing sunglasses. There was something familiar about that shaggy cut, though. Austin frowned as he continued to move forward. He knew that hair.
As he moved in front of the guy, his eyes widened. Lev.
Thoughts whirled through Austin’s mind. Was this a coincidence? Sky-blue T-shirt, aviator sunglasses, olive skin, lean muscled body, obsession with Broadway musicals – and Lev was one of the sluttiest gay guys he knew. Of course he was Drama Twink. Why hadn’t Austin seen this coming?
The same realization seemed to be dawning on Lev. His jaw dropped slightly open, and he pushed his sunglasses onto the top of his head.
As Austin looked at him, he couldn’t help but imagine what it would feel like to brush those brown strands back from Lev’s face… to crush his mouth down on Lev’s pouty lips… to take his lean body in his arms and throw him to the ground. He forced the thoughts from his mind.
“Hey,” Austin said, wiping his palms on his jeans. “This is…”
Lev cut him off before he could finish saying “awkward.” Jumping off the bench, he put both hands in the air as if warding Austin off. “No, no, no. Hell no!”
“Chill, Lev, I’m not going to try to fuck you. I didn’t know who I was talking to on that app.”
Although Lev looked somewhat mollified, he continued to glare at him. “Just letting you know in case you had any ideas. It’s not going to happen. I never hook up with the same guy twice.”
Austin cocked his head and stared at him, drinking in his expressive face.
“What are you talking about, kid? We never hooked up.”
Four
Son of a bitch. Lev should’ve known this was too good to be true. Of course Tattooed Muscle God could only be one person. Lev’s eyes swept up and down Austin’s body. Yeah, his username was an accurate description. So what?
That motherfucking bouncer, with his sexy smirk and his smug attitude. Avoiding Lev ever since they hooked up as if he thought Lev was going to make something out of what happened. He couldn’t just conveniently disappear out of Lev’s life like every other guy he fucked. No, he had to stick around and drive Lev crazy with that pierced face and that insane body.
And now Austin was standing here, lying to his face about what they’d done. “Of course we hooked up,” Lev spat.
Austin took a step back. “I think I would remember if we had.”
“You can’t tell me you forgot.” Lev came forward, pointing to his junk. “This dick is legendary.”
Austin raised an eyebrow.
Austin’s height and muscle mass meant he hulked over most people, including Lev. His sheer size made him intimidating, and Lev always felt like he was on the defensive around him. So now that Lev was forced to talk to him, he found himself getting extra-loud and brazen.
“It was a couple months ago,” he said, “after we all went to Man Planet.”
He closed his eyes for a second, remembering the events of the night. The strip club was closed for Easter. Since the guys never had a Saturday night off, they all decided to go to the local gay club.
Lev had danced with his friends, taking shot after shot. They were all so cute in their little couples, and Lev was the only one on his own. He saw one Grindr guy on the dance floor with another dude, and then another two guys from his past were in line at the bar. Everywhere he looked, there was someone else he’d fooled around with.
Things got a little blurry at some point in the night. The whole vibe was suffocating him, and he just kept drinking. He definitely remembered Austin’s presence, though. The last thing he remembered clearly was leaving the club with Austin.
After that, there were only a few brief flashes. Him leaning on Austin as he got into Austin’s car. Draping himself over Austin as they walked up the driveway to his aunt’s house. Giving Austin the key. The two of them going inside…
After that, it was a complete blank.
“You think we hooked up that night?” Austin asked, his lips curling upward. He stood on the gravel path, one hand rising to rest on his hip, the other stroking the back of his neck.
Lev stood in place, feet firmly planted on the ground as if he was about to leap away from Austin. “Are you really trying to tell me we didn’t? I know we were making out on the way to my place.”
He swallowed, wishing he had more than brief fragments of memory left. It was definitely a shame he didn’t remember their one and only hook up. He’d practically screamed when he realized he’d blacked out an encounter with a guy so godlike. But these things happened from time to time. He had a few black-outs every year, less now that he was working every weekend.
When he was in high school, he’d hit up Man Planet with his buddy’s brother’s ID. He quickly became a regular and ran his way through every guy in the place, starting with the most attractive and working his way down. He had a few friends with benefits in those days. Nothing too emotional or too complicated – unless threeways and group stuff could be considered “complicated.”
After he graduated, he got a retail job at the most sophisticated menswear store in the mall. The hours were sporadic, but he spruced up his wardrobe and still had enough left over from each paycheck to party all he wanted. Sometime in that era, a friend introduced him to hook-up apps. He figured it was too good to be true, but found out it was everything it was cracked up to be.
He’d been living the dream for a while, getting laid when and how he wanted. That dream turned into a nightmare the day he got a message from Peyton.
Lev shivered, forcing himself to halt the trip down memory lane. What happened with Peyton wasn’t fun, but he was fine now. Perfectly fine. In fact, Peyton helped him by showing him the policy he needed to use in the future.
The fact that he didn’t remember his hookup with Austin meant nothing. It still counted for his purposes. Wham, bam, thank you Sam – that was the rule.
He wasn’t the best at keeping things casual after hooking up. That was another reason he never went back for more. When he kept seeing the same person over and over, feelings could start to develop. That was what happened with Peyton.
And that was why he’d been careful not to fuck anyone from his workplace. Some of the best-looking men in town were his coworkers, but for the sake of keeping his life simple, he held himself in check.
Except that one night.
“There’s no way we stopped at making out,” he told Austin. He knew himself, and he knew his tendencies. Once he was interested in someone, he didn’t hesitate to make his move. Getting turned down was rare. In short, he was sure he’d had some fun with Austin’s brawny body… even if he couldn’t actually remember any of it.
Austin’s eyebrows rose, and his lips quirked up. “You might have been making out with me. I was only trying to get you home safely. I took you into your house, put you in bed, and left. That was all.”
Lev’s curiosity was piqued, even if he still refused to believe what Austin was saying. “You’re telling me that we didn’t do anything?”
“Not unless you count you trying to put your tongue down my throat. And seeing as you had already puked, I wasn’t about to let you do that.”
Ugh. Mentally running through the events again, he considered whether Austin’s version of the story could make sense. As much as he hated to think about
it, Austin’s story did have a slight ring of truth to it. There was a good chance that he would’ve done what Austin said. He’d definitely been drunk enough to black out. But being taken home and put to bed was even more embarrassing than the alternative.
“I still don’t believe you,” he said. “No one could resist this.” He gestured at himself – his face, his body. He never had a problem getting what he wanted.
“Believe it or not, I was immune to your charms,” Austin told him.
Lev sank down on the bench, shaking his head. “That’s a first.”
After a moment, Austin sat down next to him. Lev kept his gaze on the ground, wondering why the cocky “muscle god” didn’t just leave. If Austin was so unaffected by him, why would he bother to stay?
“So you’ve been acting awkward toward me because you saw me get smashed?” Lev asked.
“That and the way you were pawing at me,” Austin said. “And you? You’ve been acting awkward toward me because you couldn’t remember what happened between us?”
Lev nodded, looking at the ground. Black-outs always made him feel funny. Anything could have happened during those lapses in his memory. This time he’d thought it was easy enough to fill in the blank, but clearly he was wrong.
This feeling of shame was definitely foreign to him. He didn’t usually linger on his own misdeeds, as numerous as they were. But he never stayed down for long.
Being this close to Austin, Lev’s imagination began to run wild. He let himself think about the things that could have happened. Austin’s lips on his, his hands roaming over Lev’s body. Lev wondered what it would be like to touch the expanses of Austin’s tattooed skin. His mouth watered, and a tingling sensation began in his groin.
For the past couple of months, he’d been trying not to think about Austin like that. Since he was under the impression that they couldn’t hook up again, he figured it would be more frustrating than pleasant to fantasize about what happened. Now, the opportunity to have it in real life was back on the table.
His head popped up, and he looked Austin in the eye. “You know, we can totally do it now.”
“We… ?”
“We can fuck,” Lev said, his voice an excited whisper. “All the things we talked about earlier. We haven’t hooked up before, so we might as well. We’re both horny… and I haven’t been puking tonight.”
Someone else might have felt ashamed by that qualification, but Lev was well beyond shame.
He waited for Austin’s response. Instead of saying anything, Austin just sat there with his eyebrow raised. The two piercings in it glittered in the fading sunlight. Lev’s eyes raked down his body, taking in the ink that decorated every inch of his skin.
“Come on,” Lev said, grasping Austin’s hand. “Let’s do this.”
He tugged at Austin, trying to pull him over to the treed area where men usually went to be alone. He could already feel Austin’s hands undoing his jeans, taking him out from his boxers, Austin’s mouth engulfing his cock…
But Austin sat there like a mountain, unmovable. He didn’t budge an inch as Lev pulled at him. “What, you don’t want to?” Lev asked.
Austin gave him a dark chuckle. “We need to leave for the club in ten minutes.”
Fuck. Lev cursed at himself as he looked at his watch. He’d been completely unaware of how much time had passed. They would’ve only had half an hour here to begin with, and they’d wasted their hook-up time talking.
“I guess you’re right,” Lev said. “Rain check, Mr. Tattooed Muscle God?”
Austin stood up, extending his arm to Lev. “All right, Mr. Drama Twink. I’ll give you a ride.”
Five
Austin stood a healthy distance away from Lev as they walked back to the parking lot. The heat that had rushed through him when Lev took his arm was a little too much for him. Regardless, Austin stifled a laugh as he opened the back seat and Lev stuffed the skateboard inside. People seriously used that as a form of transportation?
“Nice wheels,” he said as Lev climbed into the front seat next to him. He put the Mustang in gear and pulled onto the street.
Tonight had definitely been interesting. Austin had no idea who he was going to find when he got here, although he had to admit that Lev was better-looking than whatever twink he’d imagined.
The kid may have been more cute than hot, but he was damned attractive. Austin had always thought he was younger than twenty-two, actually… or maybe he just felt older than his own age. The five years that separated them felt like more, but when Austin looked at Lev’s sparkling eyes and tongue ring, he didn’t really care.
Lev was somewhat quiet now, at least quieter than usual. Normally he never shut up… at least until their night of non-passion. Now that Austin saw why Lev had been acting so weird toward him.
They’d never been best buddies, but they were always friendly toward each other. That’s how it was between Austin and most of the strippers. He’d only started hanging out with them after the time they’d run into each other at Man Planet.
That night, Austin had seen how many drinks Lev was imbibing. He always kept watch over everyone – it was in his nature. Seeing that Lev was nearing his limits, he kept an even closer eye on him. Not hard to do when Lev was that easy on the eyes.
When Lev began to fall over his own feet, Austin decided it was time for him to go. He remembered putting his arm around him and pulling him into the street. He didn’t even stop to let the other guys know they were going. Lev just came along with him, his hands all over Austin’s body.
Lev was talking the whole time, but with the way he was slurring his words, Austin could only understand half of what he was saying. There was something about Lev seeing guys he’d fucked. Sounded like there were quite a few of them in there. And Austin managed to catch that he only saw each of them once.
Despite how good Lev looked, Austin found his rambling less than appealing. He had no intention of being another line on someone’s list of conquests. There was only one Austin. He wasn’t disposable or forgettable. When he had sex, it was an event for the other guy to remember forever.
As soon as Lev stopped, swayed, and puked in a gutter, any lingering trace of arousal on Austin’s part disappeared. Austin could hold his liquor – learned how before he was even legal to drink – and he made his living kicking intoxicated women out of a strip club. Lev’s sloppy drunkenness was a pretty big turn-off.
“So, Drama Twink, huh?” Austin said now. “You act, or you just like to watch?”
He needed to make some sort of conversation during this drive. Lev was sober tonight, and the offer he’d extended had Austin’s blood pumping. Since there was no time for what they both wanted, Austin decided to stick to more neutral topics.
“Of course, darling!” Lev’s eyes lit up, and he gave Austin the impression that he would have done a twirl if he wasn’t securely buckled into his seat. “I love everything about Broadway. I sing, dance, act… I’m a triple threat.”
Threat to an ant, maybe. “Sounds pretty threatening.”
Lev shot him a glare. “I threaten who I want. I’ll threaten you if I feel like it.”
“Oh, yeah? Try me, kid.”
Lev huffed. “You’ll be eating your words when my name’s in neon lights on Broadway.”
This guy was so ridiculous. Austin wondered how much of it was an act and how much was really him. No one could be that full of themselves, could they? Granted with Lev’s looks, he had some reason to be conceited.
“To answer your other question, though, I do like to watch.” Lev gave him a wink that set Austin’s heart pounding. “I’m into anything and everything, like I told you.”
When they got to the strip club, Austin was the first out of the car. He took a few steps toward the door. He normally went straight to his post outside, but the other guys were all arriving in one big group, and they grouped around him before going inside.
“You missed a great dinner party, A,” Jesse said.
>
“Is that so?”
Gabriel nodded. “Owen is such a great cook.”
“And Ace brought the fanciest bottle of wine,” Shade put in.
Lev caught up with the group, and he and Austin exchanged a disgusted glance. It was as if the other strippers forgot the two of them weren’t invited in the first place.
The group went into the club, still chatting excitedly. Austin glanced after them, wanting to catch one more glimpse of Lev’s shaggy head and gap-toothed smile. His heart sank a little when the door closed behind him.
The night passed uneventfully. When three-thirty came, Austin walked toward his car. His feet hurt after standing for eight hours straight, and his arms were tired from constantly flexing his muscles. Yet the corners of his lips turned upward as Lev ran up to him.
“Hey,” Lev said. “Do you mind if I get my skateboard?”
Oh… that was all he wanted. Smile disappearing, Austin shrugged and pointed to his car.
“Thanks.”
Austin opened the back door of the car, pointing to his skateboard. “I could give you a ride if you want.”
“I wouldn’t say no to that.”
Austin’s nerves jangled as they got inside. It looked like he might get his chance with Lev tonight, after all… Maybe they would pick up where they left off before. Austin’s body craved the encounter, even if his mind hadn’t quite decided if he was willing to be one more entry on Lev’s list. Despite Lev’s attractiveness, his attitude rubbed Austin the wrong way.
“How was your night?” he asked, allowing his gaze to drift along Lev’s profile before he started the car.
“Fabulous, of course.” Lev pulled out a flask out of his pocket. It was about eight ounces, a shiny silver container bedazzled with pink jewels. Whatever was inside it reeked of pure alcohol, no mixer.
As he tipped it back, Austin rolled his eyes. “You’re a little drinker, aren’t you?”
“Always.”
“What’s that you have in there, anyway?”