“Can you swim?” Joe asked.
Scott nodded.
“Ever been screwed in the deep end?” he asked, more quietly.
Scott shook his head.
“Something for the bucket list,” Joe said.
Scott didn’t have a chance to answer before a whistle cut through the air.
“Hey, new boy.”
Joe looked over his shoulder and traced the call back to one of the men in the Jacuzzi.
“Want to find out what men really come here for?” The guy offered.
Joe met his gaze.
“If you ever decide to screw where you work, you know you’ve got a standing invitation too, Joe! The more the merrier—especially when they’ve got a cock like yours!”
The moment the man turned his attention toward him rather than Scott, Joe was happy to consider him harmless.
“Maybe next time,” Joe said—just like he always did.
“You said that last time,” the other man in the Jacuzzi protested.
“Yeah, but one day, I’ll mean it and it will definitely be worth the wait.” It was easy talking to someone like that. Joe could do that on auto-pilot. It wasn’t like speaking to Scott, where each word was important and Joe had to weigh each syllable.
Leading Scott away from the guys in the Jacuzzi and out into another corridor, Joe didn’t give them time to hit on Scott again.
Glory holes lined one wall of the passageway. Many were surrounded by one-way mirrors—some of them allowed a man to see who would be sucking him, while the others allowed the man getting the blowjob to be seen without knowing who was on the other side.
Joe caught Scott’s eye. “In most areas, this sauna can compete with any place in the city; but there are one or two activities where we lose hands down to other venues.”
Scott was obviously reliving the same memory that filled Joe’s mind. It would be a different experience for Scott to play with a glory hole in a sparkling, modern building.
Joe was tempted to order Scott to wait there while he hurried around to the other side of the wall and got behind one of the glory holes that would allow him to see Scott when he went down on him. No. Tonight wasn’t about showing Scott how muchhewanted him. Being wanted by one man would never get his confidence up high enough.
Joe opened another door and once more stepped back to let Scott go first. “Just follow the corridor. You can’t get lost. Keep going. I’ll be right behind you. You won’t lose me.”
The moment Joe stepped into the part of the sauna affectionately nicknamed the labyrinth and closed the door in their wake, almost all the light disappeared from the world. Heat replaced it. It reminded him of some of the stricter religions’ idea of hell.
Hot, dark, full of steam and, just like those same religions promised, it felt like it was home to every gay man who had ever lived. There was no way Scott could walk through there and leave without knowing just how wrong the first gay men he’d met had been when they told him that no one would ever be interested in screwing him.
Muscular, naked shapes moved around them as they took a few steps forward. Scott came to a complete halt.
Joe stepped up behind Scott. He put one hand on Scott’s shoulder, and the other on his waist. “Do you remember your orders?”
* * * * *
Orders. Yes. Scott had orders to follow. Even if Joe was playing the part of tour guide, every word that left Joe’s lips still represented a command. All Scott had to do was obey. He just had to follow the corridors and trust that Joe would be right behind him.
It wouldn’t be the first time that he’d had to trust that Joe was there and watching over him, even when he couldn’t see Joe for himself.
Scott thought back to the rough, glory hole pub once more. Even naked and horny, the men here weren’t anywhere near as scary as the denim and leather clad guys in that pub had been.
It soon became apparent, however, that the men in the sauna were far more touchy-feely.
