pull his thumb away from his mouth when he started biting the corner of his nail and massage his
shoulders, which were still far too tense.
I needed to get a fucking grip. I’d have thought it was time to head across town and find some
sweet, vanilla guy to fuck, but I’d spent the past six months doing that. What I needed went deeper
than sex.
No one noticed me sneaking out of the playroom. There was only so much self-flagellation I could
handle for one night. I had a minor what-the-fuck moment when I made my way to the bar and saw
Doug busy slinging drinks.
“You lost?” I asked the next time he passed. I was used to seeing him at Club 83, the bar run by
one of his partners. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him behind the bar, though.
“Just helping for the night,” he told me as he poured two pints. “Give me a minute to deliver
these.” When he returned, he pulled a towel out of his back pocket and wiped the sweat from his
brow. “What’ll you have tonight?”
If I was seriously considering trying to find a boy—even if only for the night—I couldn’t drink. It
wasn’t strictly forbidden in this part of the bar, but I didn’t mix alcohol with kink. Ever. I’d seen
enough situations go south when one or more parties were just tipsy enough to misunderstand what
they thought others were saying.
Who was I kidding? A night like tonight wasn’t going to get me what I wanted. There was only
one boy in that playroom who caught my eye, and he was either oblivious or my flirting skills were
rusty as hell. Besides, he struck me as the type who’d be reluctant to do anything with someone he met
at work.
That was fine. I could be a patient man when the reward was worth the effort. And he would be.
Sam might not have recognized me, but I sure as hell knew him. The first time I’d noticed him, he’d
been toe-to-toe with a drunk who wanted to get into the back room. He’d been scared, but did a good
job masking his fear. That was probably a skill he’d had to hone through his teenage years. He was
smaller than average and looked like the type who’d be easy to pick on.
You had to look closely to see his strength. It showed in his steely gaze when he was pissed off
and the carefully chosen words when he spoke.
“Hey, you want something or not?” Doug reached over the bar and gave my shoulder a playful
shove.
