Page 37 of Poolside

Maybe he needed to be more specific.

With every new search query, his body reacted more to what he was seeing.Who knew he had a thing for white jock straps?His dick was already half hard as he scrolled through locker room scenes, his breathing getting quicker as his imagination started to run with the clips looping on the screen.

And then he saw a freckled face and red curls, and he was scrambling to click on the video. As it queued up, Tommy shoved his underwear down and pumped a generous pile of lotion into his palm.

The man was too short and his curls weren’t the right shade of red, butholy fuckwas it close enough that, if he blurred his eyes, he could picture another redhead standing there in nothing but a white jock.

He started to stroke his cock as the scene unfolded. He barely noticed the other man in the scene, his focus intent on the way the redhead dropped to his knees and swallowed down the thick cock that was offered to him.

Fuck, it was hot. It was hot in a way he hadn’t been expecting, and his breath quickened and heat tightened and twisted in his abdomen as the camera angle switched. The view changed to look down at the redhead sucking dick like a pro, his cheeks hollowed and his eyes wide and glossy with tears.

It was happening too fast, his hand working frantically on his dick as he imagined it washim, that he was the one looking down at a beautiful man in a white jock on his knees. Maybe he would get the chance to return the favor when he finished, because Tommy needed to see how this man’s features contorted when he came.

Tommy came hard,so fucking hardthe release left him trembling, the image of red curls and wide blue eyes and freckles the color of cinnamon still hovering in his mind. Pulse after pulse of cum shot onto his stomach, and Tommy closed his eyes, reluctant to let go of the moment until his dick was sensitive to the touch.

He forced himself to breathe as he grabbed a handful of tissues to mop up the mess on his abdomen.A mess that should have been swallowed down someone’s throat,he mused.

Tommy felt an unexpected sense of relief as he threw away the tissues and stashed the lotion and laptop on his empty night stand. Some part of him knew he should probably be asking more questions, that moments like the one he’d just experienced were supposed to be life-changing.

But the way Tommy saw it, the answer was simple. His body had decided it wanted freckles and a particular shade of red hair, firm muscles and a hard jaw, and Tommy was consumed by a ravenous curiosity about how it would feel to have a dick in his mouth. His body yearned for Chuck McCormac, his best friend and, arguably, his favorite person in the world.

CHAPTER10

DON’T FALL FOR IT

CHUCK

“No fucking way.”

Chuck laughed, shaking his head as Darius continued to regale them with the saga of one of his high school students who kept trying to plagiarize an assignment.

“This kid didn’t realize that when you print out the webpage,” Darius went on, emphasizing his words by slapping a hand down on the picnic table. “The url is right there on the top of the page. And the ads were even there too!” He shook his head, rubbing a hand over his dark, smoothly shaved head. “I don’t want to fail the kid, but it’s the second time this semester he’s pulled this shit.”

David, who looked perfectly content with a Corona in one hand and Sage tucked close against his body, shrugged. “Sometimes they’ve got to learn the hard way, and, as painful as it is, all you can do is sit by and be ready to support them on the other side.”

The crew was all there to celebrate David’s birthday. Thirty-five.Shit, they were all getting old.

Chuck looked around the table, at Rebecca picking a piece of lint from Darius’ shirt, at Sage melted into David’s body even as she and Maggie laughed about something, at Keaton, still in his crisp white dress shirt from the office, who was deep in conversation with Tommy.

Tommy had gotten his hair cut. Chuck’s eyes trailed over the artful flop where it was still longer on the top. Tommy’s hair had that perfect weight to it Chuck had always envied, sitting against his head when it got long enough, whereas Chuck’s sort of poofed out. Over the years, he’d learned to work with it.

His eyes dropped down to Tommy’s mouth just as it spread into a wide smile.

Shit. It was a good smile.

It had always been easy to shove aside the way his heart rate sped up when Tommy smiled. There had been a million degrees of separation between himself—a man in the closet—and his friend, who’d been happily married to a woman. But now Tommy wasn’t married, and Chuck wasn’t in the closet anymore. It was too easy to imagine that the way Tommy sometimes looked at him with fondness could mean something it didn’t.

Tommy was straight. Straight and single, and even though Chuck knew Tommy shared his desire to find someone real, to settle into a committed relationship where the physical built on an emotional foundation, Chuck was going to have to accept the fact that someday soon he’d have to watch Tommy fall in love from the sidelines.Again.

They shared nachos, a tray of loaded tots, a couple of baskets of wings, a big order of hummus and veggies with triangles of pita bread, and a few orders of sliders. It was classic bar food—the perfect way to celebrate David.

Because it was a Saturday, everyone was letting loose a little bit more than they normally would during the work week. Drinks were flowing, and even though there wasn’t a band that night, as the bar grew more crowded, the music got louder, and Sage and Maggie led the charge to the dance floor.

Chuck was in the mood to dance.

It was the typical mixture of classic rock, eighties pop anthems, and a few newer songs that he recognized. He gripped a beer in one hand and waved his free hand around above him, standing in a loose circle with Sage and Maggie as they all sang along withSweet Child O’ Mine. With his face turned up toward the warm night sky and the bobbing glow of the string lights above him, Chuck felt okay. He was doing okay.

He was moving through life, showing up to his office for meetings, getting on the occasional airplane to go to meets to scout athletes, eating, and sleeping. He’d woken up rock hard a few times, and still wasn’t used to his orgasms being so easy to reach. There was still a lingering fear as he changed his medication, because regardless of what he hoped lay on the other side, walking away from the thing that had kept him stable for years was terrifying.

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