Yet that didn’t explain why he’d shunned his club as of late, preferring cute pizza dinners to scotch on the rocks with a blowjob at the end of the night, or why he turned down offers to go home with men he’d previously lusted after, with a laugh and a brush-off. He hadn’t jerked off this much since discovering gay porn on the internet.
Some evenings after he’d come home late from the club, he’d stand at the doorway of his bedroom and watch Tyler sleep, wishing nothing more than to be able to slide under the covers with him and hold him close. He wondered what his skin tasted like, if his body radiated heat or was cool and smooth to the touch. He imagined burying his face in Tyler’s silky hair.
And yet much as he desired Tyler, Marcus waited. He wanted Tyler to make the first move, proving this unintended attraction was mutual. Since he’d caught Tyler jerking off and calling out his name, Marcus had seen Tyler’s side-eyed glances and confused expressions. He’d been around enough men to know Tyler wanted him but fought against the obvious pull between them.
Marcus could wait for Tyler to figure out all the shit floating around in his head. Once Tyler allowed himself the freedom to give in to desire, Marcus intended to welcome him with open arms.
Chapter Fourteen
‡
“You’re all clear,Tyler. It’s healed perfectly.”
Dr. Lerner ran her hands with a clinical touch over his ribs. It had been over five weeks since his attack; Tyler’s ribs no longer hurt, and all the bruising on his face and back had disappeared as well.
“Thanks. I feel great. I can start dancing again, right?” He slipped his sweatshirt on. That was the most important thing. If the doctor said he couldn’t dance again, he didn’t know what he would do.
“Absolutely. You’ll need to take it slow at first and get those muscles back in shape, but you’ve made a full recovery.” Her friendly smile freed all his bottled-up tension about his future. Now that he’d been cleared, he and Lillie would move back home, and he’d begin dancing again.
“Thank you so much. You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“Have you ever danced professionally, Tyler? Not at the club where you work now, but with a company or on stage somewhere? Not that there’s anything wrong with dancing at Sparks,” she added hurriedly with an apologetic smile, so he wouldn’t take offense.
“That was my plan at first, but I had to put that on the back burner. Things came up and…” He shrugged. “Well, you know how it goes. Best-laid plans and all that.”
“Well, if you ever want to make a little money teaching, my seven-year-old has been bugging me for dance lessons.”
“I hadn’t ever thought about it.” Not exactly true. He’d love to have a studio to teach little kids, but he didn’t have the money, so that, like other dreams, got shunted off to the side.
“Well,” she said as she tapped her folder, “from what Marcus told me, you’re the best.”
He thought about that on the subway ride back downtown to Marcus’s apartment. Lucky for him the train wasn’t crowded and he got a seat. He needed to plan how to tell Lillie that their time at Marcus’s apartment was coming to a close and they’d soon have to return to their home in Brooklyn.
Begrudgingly, he had to admit Marcus was correct about the preschool; Lillie loved it and thrived around the other children. And as Marcus had also predicted, she’d become fast friends with Micah and Josh’s kids and she’d had many a weekend sleepover with her new friends. In fact, he remembered, she was spending the weekend with them again. That meant for the first time he and Marcus would be alone when he was healthy. Thrills of both dread and anticipation raced through him.
As far as Tyler knew, Marcus hadn’t sneaked a man into the apartment since they’d moved in, and from the gossip he heard from the other guys working at Sparks, no one had seen him with anyone there either. Plus, Marcus came home every single night and joined Tyler and Lillie at breakfast every morning. Which meant that for months now, Marcus hadn’t had sex.
He reached his stop and got off the train, heading upstairs to the street. Turning up his collar against the chill of the wind, Tyler beat a quick path to Marcus’s apartment. Raymond, the concierge, greeted him.
“Hello, Tyler. How was the doctor’s appointment?”
He stopped to talk to the gregarious man, who, Lillie told him, always gave her a lollipop when she came home from preschool.
“Got the all-clear. I can go back to dancing and move back home.” He leaned against the wide marble desk.
A smile flickered across Raymond’s face, then faded. “Oh. I thought maybe you’d be staying. I know Marcus has enjoyed having you both here, especially little Lillie.”
“I think he did a good job putting up with us, but I’m sure he’ll be glad to get back to his normal routine and get us out of his hair.”
“You’d be surprised,” said Raymond with a shrug. “He looks happier than I’ve ever seen him since he moved in.”
Tyler said goodbye and took the elevator up to the apartment. As always, he marveled at the beautiful view and interior decoration, which he suspected Marcus had left to a professional. Tyler laughed to himself. He’d expected it to be more hedonistic, with mirrors on the ceiling and shit like that.
He stripped and changed into a pair of dance leggings with no shirt and went into the guest room, which now doubled as Lillie’s bedroom.
He pushed the twin bed against the wall and bent to stretch. To his joy there was no lingering pain, only a bit of stiffness. Even lying flat on the floor, elongating his muscles brought him nothing more than the standard inflexibility of unused tendons and joints.
He turned on the music on his new phone that Marcus, who insisted he needed it to keep track of Lillie, had bought him when they first moved in. Strains of classical music filled the air, and Tyler’s heart beat quicker in his chest, his blood surged in his veins, and he began to dance.
