by A R Steele
“Me and Jesse used to hook up with some of the girls,” Ace put in.
“It’s been a while since that happened, and business is only improving,” Trenton told him.
“Says something for how much those girls liked you,” Gabriel said to his boyfriend. “No one ever got all excited and texted all their friends to come because of you.”
“As long as I have you, I don’t need any of that,” Ace said, wrapping both arms around him.
“So what, we’re supposed to make out onstage?” Lev asked, standing next to Lucas.
Austin was definitely not a fan of that idea. “That’s not going to happen,” he said, crossing the group in two steps and throwing Lev over his shoulder. He finally had him in his arms, caveman-style. He had half a mind to take him out the door and bring him home right now. But his brother was laughing at him, and the rest of the room was just staring at him in shock.
“Put me down!” Lev said, kicking at him impotently.
“Fine, brat,” Austin said, setting him down.
Everyone in the room was staring at them, but they collected themselves soon enough. “After all the surprises in this place, I can see how you two would work out together,” Cooper said.
“You guys just did this to get an invite to our next couples-only dinner, didn’t you?” Owen said. “Well, you have it.”
Austin had to smile as Lev’s arms slipped around his waist. “We would be happy to come,” he said.
Trenton cleared his throat, and when Austin looked over, he saw his brother holding hands with Brentley. The two of them had uncharacteristic shy smiles on their faces. Brentley’s clipboard dangled from one hand, and Trenton looked at him with adoring eyes as he spoke.
“We have an invitation we want to extend to all of you, as well,” Brentley said. “You’re all such an important part of our lives. We would be honored if you would all be guests at our wedding.”
“Say what?”
The guys shouted all sorts of questions as Trenton and Brentley blushed. They were always so above it all, and the strippers normally treated them with more respect. Right now, they were unleashing their full force of questioning on them.
“Who knew about this? Did you know about this?” Jesse asked, looking at Shade.
“I had no idea. Sometimes even I miss things, you know.”
“We knew they were together, but we just found out,” Austin said. “We had no idea it got to the point of marriage already.”
Cooper shook his head. “So, Brenton is a thing.”
The others picked up on it, clapping and cheering. “Brenton! Brenton! Brenton!”
“Why not Trentley?” Trenton grumbled.
“But seriously,” Lev said, his hands on his hips, “how is it that the last couple to get together is the first couple to get married?”
“Well, for one thing, we’ve been together longer than half of you,” Brentley said with a grin. “We were already together by the time you two hooked up, if I remember right.” He gestured to Jesse and Shade. “We just keep things under wraps better than other people. Certain things are private, you know.”
Now the guys looked at each other, and Austin for one was wondering how much exactly he’d missed.
“And second of all?” Lev demanded.
“Second of all, at our age, you just know when you’ve found something real,” Trenton said.
Austin had never seen him look like that – soft, happy. He glanced at Lev. He had no doubt this would be his date to his brother’s wedding. More than that, he knew they would be together for a long time. They may have been younger, but he had a feeling he’d also found something real.
Some of the guys wanted to go to Ace and Gabriel’s place to celebrate, but Austin and Lev wanted to be alone. “That was some craziness,” Austin said as they got in his car.
“A lot of craziness,” Lev agreed. “Your brother’s pretty good at keeping secrets.”
“Don’t ask me how that man’s mind works. He’s had some crazy ideas over the past few months, but Brentley has him on the right track now. I think they’re going to be good together.”
“I think you and me are going to be good together,” Lev said.
Austin reached over and stroked his hair before putting both hands on the wheel. “I have a feeling that you’re right.” As he drove, he pinched his lips together. There was only one thing keeping him from being completely happy. “I just wish I could meet that ex of yours. I would tear him into pieces. Seriously, Lev, limb by limb. I’d pull out his fucking intestines and…”
“It’s okay.”
Austin slammed on the brakes, late noticing the light up ahead had turned to yellow. “What?”
“I said it’s okay.” Lev looked grim, yet certain. “I don’t want to give him any more power than I already have. He’s the one trying to cheat on his wife. He’ll wreck his life on his own. I have you, and I’m happy. In the end, I’m the one who won here. And I just want to move past what happened.”
Lev’s words made Austin’s heart hurt. “I want to make things better, though.”
“Sometimes you can’t,” Lev said softly. “Peyton has to live with himself, and that’s the best revenge I could ask for.”
They got to Austin’s place a few minutes later and got ready for bed. Lev had a toothbrush over here now, and Austin stripped down to his underwear while he waited for Lev to brush his teeth. Lev took off his shirt as he came out of the bathroom.
Austin looked up and down Lev’s body. Seeing Lev without clothes always got him hard, but he wasn’t going to push Lev. This was about more than sex between them. It would happen when it happened, and despite how much he wanted it, he had no issue at all with waiting.
They got into bed together and Lev lay at his side. Austin pulled him in close. This felt better than anything else they had done together. Austin got to hold him and protect him, and he could be sure that Lev was safe in his arms.
Lev wriggled against him, making his arousal more than evident. Austin closed his eyes, suppressing the growl that wanted to come out of his throat. He was just going to hold Lev for tonight.
“Want to fuck me?” Lev whispered.
If he was offering, Austin might change his mind. “Maybe.”
“There’s no maybe,” Lev said, his voice slightly louder. “Either you want to, or you don’t.”
Austin rose onto his knees, pulling the covers off Lev. In the darkness of the room, he could only see the silhouette of Lev’s body against the mattress. He knew from Lev’s perspective, he would be a silhouette hulking against the window.
“I’ll fuck you if and when I feel like fucking you, brat. You still need to learn not to be such a little pain in the ass.”
He ran his fingers down Lev’s chest, expecting the movement to make him shiver. It did, but Lev sat up too. Even though he didn’t approach Austin’s height, he stared right into Austin’s eyes. Despite the darkness, Austin could see they were glowing and serious.
“I am a brat,” Lev said, sounding suddenly defiant. “And a pain in the ass, and whatever else you can call me.”
Austin rushed to apologize. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just teasing you. I don’t want you to think I’m actually calling you names.”
“No,” Lev said, shaking his head. “I know you’re serious, and I know you’re right. But if we’re going to be together, then you need to accept that I’m going to be a brat from time to time.”
He placed a kiss on Austin’s neck, reaching out to cup his ass. “And you need to know that you can’t protect me all the time, either. You’re not in charge of everything. You can’t be, and you shouldn’t be. Sometimes you have to give up that control.”
Austin licked his lips, suddenly nervous. “Give up control?”
“Stop protecting,” Lev said, reaching down Austin’s boxers. “And just give in.”
Austin let out a groan as Lev’s hand wrapped around his hardness. He shifted his weight, settling himse
lf on his knees. Lev gave him long, slow strokes, rubbing him from base to tip.
“What are you doing?” Austin asked, his voice husky.
Lev stood up on the bed, holding onto Austin’s shoulder so that he could whisper in his ear. “I want to top you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” Lev gave him a gentle shove. It wasn’t nearly enough to have an actual impact, but Austin followed where he pushed him. “Want to take your ass. Is that okay with you?”
Lev wasn’t being bratty right now. There was no bluster in his voice, just sincerity. This was what he wanted. And as Austin swallowed his nervousness, he realized he wanted this, too.
“You told me you were versatile,” Lev said, a questioning note in his voice as he guided Austin onto his knees and ran his fingertips along his thigh.
“On the app? I guess I was trying to sound open-minded. I top ninety percent of the time.” Austin couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d bottomed. Being in doggy style position felt completely foreign to him.
“It takes a certain vulnerability to be on the receiving end,” Lev said, grabbing his waistband and pushing down his boxers. Austin lifted his knees to let him slide them off. He couldn’t have said why, but it felt good to go along with this. Lev was in command now, and Austin knew he wasn’t being a brat about it.
Kneeling behind him, Lev took his cock in his hand again. He leaned over his back and kissed his neck from behind. The soft kisses made Austin wriggle in pleasure. Austin’s body rippled, his back jumping at each press of Lev’s soft lips. An unexpected sensation tickled him, warm with a strange hardness – Lev’s tongue piercing trailing over his skin.
“It feels good to be on the bottom, doesn’t it?” Lev said.
“Yes,” Austin groaned.
Lev shuffled around for a second, and Austin lowered his head between his forearms. He could hardly believe he was about to let Lev do this. It definitely wasn’t his usual practice. Then again, nothing about Lev was usual.
“Are you okay?” Lev asked, his tip pressing against Austin’s entrance.
Having someone ask if he was okay felt strange. Normally he was always the one worrying about others. He took a moment to ask himself the question, scanning his body and making sure he was in fact okay. Looking back at last, he nodded.
“I know doing this can be scary,” Lev said, running his fingers over Austin’s back. “Just stay with me. Tell me the second you don’t feel okay.”
Something caught in Austin’s throat, and he nodded wordlessly. Lev was being so caring right now. How did this man know exactly what he needed when he hadn’t even known himself?
Foil crackled, and Austin assumed Lev was lubing up during the ensuing pause. Lev took hold of Austin’s cock again as he began to press inside.
Waves of pleasure rushed through Austin’s body. “Fuck.” Austin let out a soft whisper that could do nothing to express how he felt right now. Only an inch of Lev was inside him, but it was more than he’d taken in a very long time.
Lev paused there, stroking Austin’s cock with one hand, leaning in to reach around his waist and fondle his balls with the other. After a moment like that, Austin exhaled and relaxed. Another inch of Lev sank into him, and he panted.
“You’re trembling. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Austin realized Lev was right. “I’m amazing,” he said, turning back to look at the face of the man behind him. In the darkness, Lev looked older and more imposing than he’d ever seen him before. Or maybe it was because Austin was looking at him from below this time.
Another inch. “Just like that,” Lev said softly, his hands still working on Austin, giving him the greatest pleasure he’d ever known.
Lev was stretching him, and with each breath that he took, his body relaxed and expanded so that a little more of him could enter. They were working together in perfect harmony, as if Lev knew instinctively what to do.
“This has never felt so good before,” Austin whispered, his head down between his hands. The trembling was increasing, and Lev still wasn’t all the way in.
His massive body was powerful. That was why he spent so much time at the gym, lifting weights and learning to beat people’s asses. Right now, he was a slave to whatever Lev wanted from him. He could only react to what Lev chose to give him, and even there, his body’s reactions were out of his control.
Lev was so much smaller than him. Austin would have even said he was tiny. But right now, Austin had chosen to give up his power to the lean, diminutive younger man. Austin gripped the bed sheets, his body squeezing Lev as a contraction went through him.
At last Lev was seated within him. Austin could feel his balls resting against his skin. He took in ragged breaths as Lev made slow movements in and out of him, tiny thrusts that must have only been fractions of an inch long, but that sent sparks shooting all through Austin’s body.
Lev moved his hands in rhythm with his hips, which only drove Austin crazier. “I can’t take this anymore,” he said.
His legs were weak under him. Him, weak! He would have expected to hate the unfamiliar feeling, yet at the moment he just wanted to give in to it. He dropped to the mattress and lay on his stomach, not even caring that Lev would have to take his hands away.
Right now, the mattress would provide more than enough friction. If Lev did continue, Austin would probably come in the next minute. After all the time they’d spent building up to this, that would be way too fast.
So Austin lay there and Lev dropped lower to stay deep within him. Lev’s thighs pressed lightly on either side of Austin’s waist as Lev continued his rhythm. Austin groaned loud and long, his fingers knotting through the bed sheets, his head digging into the pillow.
“Good?” Lev asked.
Austin shoved his hips into the mattress, grinding against it. “Fucking amazing,” he choked out.
Lev’s thrusts grew longer, although he kept them slow. The gentle, rhythmic pounding was enough to make Austin scream. He was usually rougher than this when he topped, but this wasn’t his show to run. Lev was making the decisions this time, and Austin was more than all right with that.
“You’re fucking incredible,” he breathed.
Lev’s hands rested on his waist. “Still a brat?”
“Oof…” Austin considered lying, but in his frenzied state, he could only speak the truth. “Always.”
“Damn right.” Apparently that was the right answer, because Lev’s fingers dug into Austin’s flesh and he gave Austin a few harder thrusts. “Would a brat fuck you like that?”
“Yes,” Austin breathed. He didn’t know if he was responding to the question or simply begging for more. “Yes… yes!”
Lev squeezed his waist until it hurt, driving into him in earnest now. Each thrust felt like Lev was pulling out to the tip and then slamming his entire cock into Austin. If Lev was technically smaller than Austin, it didn’t matter anymore. Austin couldn’t have imagined being stretched out and filled up any better than what Lev was doing right now.
“You turn me on so fucking much,” Austin groaned.
Lev slammed into him again, tip to root. Austin clutched the sheets beneath him, still grinding against the mattress. I love fucking you. I love your fucking body. “I fucking love you,” he burst out.
Suddenly Lev stopped short. His voice was soft and shy. “You do?”
Austin twisted around to see Lev’s face. He hadn’t meant to let it out like that, but the feeling had been building in him for some time now. There was no way Lev would reciprocate so fast, especially when he was so vulnerable and fragile, but Austin wasn’t going to lie to him. “I do.”
A change came over Lev’s face, softening the creases and making his eyes glow. He grabbed Austin’s chin and brought his head up, kissing Austin with even more passion than he’d shown before.
“I love you, too.”
Thirty
Lev’s shoelace caught under his foot as he rearranged himself on the car sea
t. He took his hand off Austin’s leg to retie it. His head was still down as the Mustang pulled into the Tool Shed parking lot.
It seemed a bit rude for Austin to get out without saying anything. Lev frowned at the offense. A second later, he looked up as his door opened. “After you,” Austin said, holding out his hand.
Immediately softening, Lev took it. The now-familiar spark went through him. “Why, thank you,” he said as he climbed out.
The other couples were getting out of their cars and Lev waved to them, warming inside as Austin slung his arm around him. He was part of one of those couples now, exactly how he’d always said he didn’t want to be. He’d never been so wrong.
They parted ways at the door. When Lev got inside, Trenton and Brentley were in the main room. Brentley looked nervous with a pile of cards in his hands. “Our official wedding invitations,” he murmured, passing one to each stripper.
The invitations were on white card stock embossed with calligraphy. Apparently the wedding would be next summer. This was a good excuse to get another kiss. Lev took two and went back out to Austin. He rose onto his tiptoes to press his lips to Austin’s. They held the embrace for a long moment, and Lev pulled away reluctantly.
“See you later,” he said, looking longingly into Austin’s eyes.
“Later, kid,” Austin said. He folded his arms over his chest as if he didn’t care Lev was leaving, but Lev saw the way he glanced after him.
Despite the extra moment with his boyfriend, Lev felt strangely sad as he headed back inside. Most of the couples got to spend the entire night together. He went into the change room and nodded to Lucas. At least his boyfriend was around – Lucas’s didn’t even work at the club anymore.
As soon as the club doors opened, women began to flood in. This was nothing like before. The tables were full before the first couple even took the stage. Lev raised an eyebrow as he walked around the room. It was going to be standing room only soon. They had all been so eager to hide who they were, and for nothing.
A few acts passed as Lev drifted around the room, chatting customers up and doing the odd lap dance. The vibe here was different tonight. The guys were all happy and excited, and the customers were even more eager than usual.