Jet stepped close, and it was like the busy street disappeared around us. “I’ll pick out something sexy for you to wear. You pick out something for me to wear,” he said, his voice dropping close to a growl.
“Oh.” I looked at the store and the two twinks hurrying around inside, then back to Jet. “I don’t think I’m the sexy underwear type.”
Jet took my hand. “You’re lucky you didn’t meet me ten years ago. I’d try to get you to sneak into a concert with me, or run away to a forty-eight-hour disco in Iceland for the weekend.” He squeezed my hand and pulled me into the shop. “Slutty underwear is getting off easy.”
Instead of trying to fight it, I gave in to Jet’s whim, and my anxiety was replaced by a surge of pure excitement. Everyone inside the place was there for the same reasons we were, slutty underwear, and the twinks didn’t seem the least bit judgmental about a guy like me perusing their wares.
“How about this?” Jet asked. He held up a comically short pair of boxer briefs, bright blue in color and with a substantial pouch up front and a wide-open rear.
“I didn’t even know they made underwear like that.” I adjusted my glasses. “What’s the damn point, if there’s no ass to it?”
Jet laughed as he held up to my waist section. “That is the point, duh. You’re not supposed to wear it to the office.”
“Fair,” I laughed, and pulled it from his hand. “Is this seriously the one you want me to get?”
“Hell yeah. Did you pick out something for me?”
I nodded up front. “Black jockstrap on the mannequin, no question.”
Jet grinned. “Love it. My treat. Meet me by the dressing rooms?”
I furrowed my brow. “Why?”
“Because we’re going to wear these while we go shopping today, and then when we’re all done, we’re going to strip each other back at the apartment and have some fun.”
I stared at Jet, an annoying pop song blaring on the store stereo, then shoved the underwear back in his hands. “Deal.”
Jet chuckled to himself as he headed to the counter, leaving me alone in the middle of the store with a growing erection to hide. It was actually kind of hot, having everyone know that we were together. But the tingle across my skin reminded me, too, of the impasse we were at.
I couldn’t deny my feelings much longer. Jet and I could insist all day that this was about sex, but even stuff like this, shopping for ridiculous underwear, it felt meaningful to me.
Who the hell would have thought buying a jockstrap could be sentimental?
With Jet, this stuff did matter because all of it mattered. He was the last person on Earth I would have expected to fall for, but he’d brought light into my life that I didn’t know was missing. He made me feel alive.
I shook my head. I couldn’t see a way to solve any of the problems in my way. Wanting more and being able to have it were two different things.
Instead, I made myself a promise. Jet had been doing so much to make me happy. I intended to do something special to return the favor. It was still hard for me to accept that I could be his fantasy in the first place, but that shouldn’t stop me.
He wanted a hot bear—I’d make damn sure he got one. After all, I’d been learning from one of the best.
