Exposure (5 page)

I cleared my throat. "Do you have any sisters, Jeremy?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm the only one."

"You are so lucky." I glared at Frankie.

"I don't know," Jeremy said quietly. "I'm sure I would've enjoyed playing princess."

"You would have been a beautiful princess, Jeremy."

"Thank you, Frankie."

"Oh, dear Lord." I moaned. "I thought you were leaving, Frankie."

"All right, all right." She threw up her hands in surrender. "You boys have a wonderful evening." She put forty dollars on the table. "Jeremy, it was lovely to meet you." She leaned over, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and whispered something in his ear. I was astonished to see his face redden slightly and his lips quirk up. She grabbed her bags and kissed me goodbye. "Call me tomorrow, okay?"

I nodded. "Bye Frankie. Say hi to Simon."

She waved and left. I stared at Jeremy, waiting for him to tell me what she'd said. "You'll have to torture it out of me," he said, leaning back in his seat and winking.

And there it was. The erection that my sister had quenched with her presence and inquiries was back with a vengeance. I needed to get him home.

The waitress arrived then and asked if we wanted to order some entrees. I raised an eyebrow at Jeremy. "The butterfish is excellent."

He leaned forward and I could feel the heat in his gaze. "I'm kind of in the mood for dessert."

The waitress started listing the desserts. Jeremy interrupted her. "Actually, we have something tasty waiting at home. But thank you. The Maki was delicious."

I smiled at the waitress as she cleared the plates and went to get the bill. When she'd gone, I looked right at Jeremy. "What have you got in mind?" I whispered, my cock hard as a rock.

"Well, it rhymes with red. And it involves my tongue."

Fuck.

The waitress brought the check and we left it and the forty dollars on the table and put on our jackets. As soon as we got down the front steps he grabbed me and kissed me hard in the darkness. Then he pulled away and looked at me carefully. "Is it okay if I come home with you?"

"Jeremy, it's wonderful. You can stay over if you want. I mean I'd like you to stay over."

"You sure?"

"Fuck, Jeremy. Just shut up and kiss me, will you?"

We made out in the darkness of Lisgar Street for several minutes until we got worried someone might see us. Then we walked back to my place along Elgin, only stopping to pick up "supplies," as Jeremy called them, at Sugar Mountain. He bought pop rocks, caramel corn, and licorice.

"Geez, for someone who raves about their healthy lifestyle, you sure seem to need a lot of candy," I teased as we resumed our journey.

"Some of it's for you." He grinned.

"What? But I don't like--"

"You're not going to eat it, Martin."

I stopped. "Huh?"

He kept walking but turned to grin at me. "Geez, for someone who's so creative you don't have much of an imagination."

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Chapter Five

Candid

The next couple of weeks were a whirlwind of work commitments and dates with Jeremy. We'd exchanged phone numbers and email addresses after our first overnighter and seen each other a number of times over the past few weeks. Each time we were together seemed better than the last. We were becoming more familiar with each other, learning each others' habits and preferences in terms of food and pastimes, and sex of course.

Jeremy's body was becoming very well known to me. I still marveled at his beauty and couldn't believe that he wanted me. But he certainly seemed to. And I'd never known anyone so comfortable with their own body and so appreciative of mine. I soon realized that he did not consider any part of me off limits to his expert ministrations.

Of course, we spent time together out of bed too. He was so much fun, always joking and teasing and making me laugh.

He kept bugging me about the cigarettes until I finally threw them away and vowed to quit. Then he bugged me about coming to the gym with him until I finally acquiesced. I mean, the idea of watching him work out was very motivating, but I was self-conscious of my own performance. I hadn't been to a gym in years.

I finally agreed to meet him at the gym after his shift one evening. I got there a bit early so I hung around the front doors, waiting for him, my newly purchased gym bag on my shoulder and my stomach in knots. It seemed like everyone who walked past me into the club was as fit and attractive as Jeremy. I hoped for just one or two fat older men or women so I wouldn't stand out as the least fit person in the gym today. It wasn't looking good.

By the time Jeremy showed up I was trying to come up with an excuse to back out. But then that fucking smile lit up his face and I couldn't disappoint him.

"Hey," he said, squeezing my arm affectionately and opening the door for me. "Are you ready?"

I rolled my eyes. "To be completely humiliated? Sure."

He laughed. "Drama queen."

We changed quickly, Jeremy into shorts and a t-shirt that showed off way too much of his fine physique than I was happy with, and me into track pants and a loose t-shirt. Jeremy eyed me critically and said, "Jesus, if you do decide to sign up, we'll need to go shopping."

"Nice. That makes me feel so much better."

He led me over to the treadmills. I noticed several attractive young (and some not so young) women and a couple of hot guys, checking him out, and it made my blood boil. My reaction surprised me a bit--I'd never felt anything so proprietary before. I'd been jealous, yes, but not with this primal gut-wrenching urge to just grab his arm and pull him out of there. God, what would I do if someone actually touched him?

"Martin?"

"Yeah?" I focused back in on him.

"Have you ever used a treadmill before?"

I stared at him. Of all the... "Yes, Jeremy, I've used a treadmill before. I'm not a total neophyte."

His eyes widened. "Wow, you get bitchy when you're out of your comfort zone."

I resisted the urge to stick out my tongue at him and got onto the treadmill. Jeremy stepped onto the one beside me and started punching things into the control panel. Soon he was jogging steadily and I was still staring at the buttons in front of me.

"Press start," he said with a smirk.

I glared at him. "I'm just trying to decide what I want to do."

I pressed start and used the arrow buttons to speed it up until I was walking at a brisk pace. I tried not to be intimidated by the pace Jeremy set and continued my warm-up for ten minutes. Only at that point did I move up to a slow jog. I wasn't going to hurt myself trying to keep up when I hadn't really worked out in ages. Besides, I couldn't exactly push my limits and still concentrate on stealing delicious glimpses of the perfection in motion beside me. As it was, I stumbled a couple of times and was lucky not to fall and embarrass the hell out of myself. But he looked fucking amazing, jogging in place, watching the TV screen before him, wiping the occasional drip of sweat from his brow with the towel he held in his right hand. He was in the zone and barely registered my presence, so I could observe him occasionally without notice. I filed it away with all the other images I had of him in my depraved brain. He was sex on a stick and he was mine, at least for now. I hoped he'd be mine for a long, long time.

Jeremy was still jogging steadily when I shut my treadmill down and stepped off. "I'm gonna do some machines, okay?"

He nodded and gave me a smile before turning back to the TV. He was in shape, that's for sure. My legs ached and my lungs burned from the effort I'd expended and I hadn't even kept up with him.

Oh well. My age was a factor and I smoked. Well, up until a few days ago anyway. I spent the next twenty minutes doing the rounds of resistance machines, working my legs, arms, and abs and trying not to look at Jeremy's perfect ass in his little gym shorts. And trying not to glare at anyone else I saw ogling that perfect ass. I mean, could I really blame them? As far as I knew he was coming home with me, so I tried to relax.

Jeremy finally stopped running after a good sixty minutes of fast jogging, during which he only slowed down a couple of times. I had finished with the machines and was heading for the rower when he came over to me.

"Having fun?" he asked breathlessly. His brown eyes flashed with excitement and pride, his face flushed with the effort of his workout.

I nodded. "Show off."

He laughed. "Maybe. I'm gonna do some machines."

"Okay."

I spent thirty minutes on the rowing machine and really started to feel good. The endorphins coursed through my body and the blood pounded in my ears.
Wait, that's good, isn't it? Hopefully. Otherwise I'm having a heart attack or a stroke.

I decided to be safe and call it a day. Now that I had fulfilled Jeremy's desire of sharing a workout session, there were some needs of my own I wanted to address with him.

After I wiped down the rowing machine I looked around for him. It didn't take me long to locate him. When I saw him he was standing beside the leg press talking to a gorgeous blond man with facial piercings and a tribal tattoo on his bicep. I got that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach again, only this time even stronger. By the time I closed the distance between us I could tell that Blondy was flirting with my boyfriend. We'd never actually discussed the status of our relationship, but I considered Jeremy my boyfriend and I'm pretty sure he felt similarly. Still, the sight of him talking with a younger, hipper, and possibly more attractive man was unsettling. I didn't like it. At all.

I couldn't put my arm around him and declare our relationship in the middle of the gym, so I did what I could. I gave Blondy an icy look and said to Jeremy, "Hey. Are you nearly done?"

Jeremy turned. He surprised me by placing a hand casually on the back of my shoulder and introducing me to the young blond man. "Martin, this is a friend of mine from work. Jean Pierre, this is my boyfriend, Martin."

I think the look on my face mirrored the look of surprise on Jean Pierre's. In an instant, any animosity I'd felt toward Jean Pierre melted away and I nodded and smiled at him. I thought better of offering him my sweaty hand to shake, but I said, "Pleased to meet you," and I meant it. In my head I danced around chanting "Na na na boo boo, he's mine, baby, he's all mine."

Jean Pierre collected himself and smiled back at me. "Hi Martin. I haven't seen you here before."

"Yeah, I'm not a member. I'm just trying it out today."

"Martin's a professional photographer," Jeremy said. I detected a hint of pride in his voice.

"Oh, yeah?" Jean Pierre said. "What kind of photography?" His eyebrows waggled suggestively.

Jeremy laughed. "Knock it off, you pervert."

"Portrait mostly. I do some nature photography on the side, for fun."

Jean Pierre nodded. His eyes returned to Jeremy. "So...you coming on Thursday?"

"What's Thursday?" I asked quickly.

"Jean Pierre's band is playing at Irene's. Do you want to go? I'll probably go anyway but it would be great if you--"

"Sure, yeah. I'd love to." Fuck, didn't he realize by now? I'd go to the fucking moon with him if he asked me.

He smiled that big, happy smile again and said, "We'll see you then, Jean Pierre. Well, I'm gonna go get a shower. Are you done, Martin?"

We showered quickly and changed back into our street clothes. As we left the club I asked Jeremy if he wanted to grab something to eat and come back to my place. He said sure. Fifteen minutes later we had a table at Johnny Farina's and were deciding what to order.

"I'm kind of in the mood for pizza," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Among other things."

My cock hardened at the open invitation in his eyes. "Should we get a bottle of wine?" I asked.

He nodded. "Absolutely."

We placed our order with the server and settled in to wait for our food. We were in a quiet corner, one of the few cozy spots in this elegant converted warehouse.

I looked at him and said, "I liked that you called me your boyfriend."

He grinned. "Good. That's what you are, isn't it?"

"Well, we never really talked about it and I didn't want to assume..."

"Well, we're not chicks, right? We don't have to talk about our 'relationship' do we? Let's just be in it and enjoy it." He sipped his wine. "It just felt right, so I said it."

I lifted my glass, grinning widely. "Cheers."

"Cheers."

We clinked glasses and I sipped the cold white wine, a warm feeling spreading outward from my center.

"So, what did you think of my gym?"

"It's nice." I admitted. "A few too many hard bodies for my taste, but..."

"What, you'd rather look at old people with pot bellies?" He laughed.

"Well, at least I'd look good next to them..."

"Fuck, Martin, why are you so insecure about your looks?"

I shrugged. "I think it comes with the territory when you hit thirty."

He leaned closer to me and met my gaze with a smoldering stare. "Are you even aware how horny you make me?"

I stared back at him, my body responding of its own volition.

He continued, "My cock is fucking hard as fuck for you right now, Martin. I don't know if I can even make it through supper."

"Jesus, Jeremy," I murmured, gulping more wine and trying to ignore the impulse to grab him and pull him across the table.

He leaned back slowly. "Can I ask you something?"

I cleared my throat as my erection throbbed. "Of course."

He looked down at the table. When he looked back up at me his cheeks had reddened slightly.
What the...?

"Would you be open to, um...maybe getting into some kinky shit...in the bedroom?" He regarded me with the most innocent and curious expression. I didn't know what to say.

My cock reacted before I could get any words out. It twitched and throbbed and I had to shift position for some relief.

"I mean, nothing really hardcore or anything..."

"Like what?" I asked, curious as all hell at this point.

"Um, like..." He looked at his hands again, then up at me with a bashful smirk. "...well, like, some light bondage maybe or...spanking..."

My cock pulsed again and I think I let out a quiet moan. "Um, which one of us--"

He laughed quietly. "Well, um, I kinda like being handcuffed..." he grinned at me. My breathing quickened. "...and spanked." He shook his head as if he couldn't believe he'd just said it out loud. "Fuck, do you think that's weird?"

I could only shake my head slowly and wonder what the fuck I'd ever done in life to deserve this. Here was this hot as fuck younger man, who'd just called me his boyfriend, telling me he kinda wanted me to tie him up and spank him.
What the fuck?

"I think that's the hottest thing I've ever heard."

He smiled and then looked up as the waitress approached with our food. I would hazard a guess that no meal at this restaurant was ever consumed as quickly as this one. The food was delicious, but only sustenance at this point. The real meal would be enjoyed at leisure once we got to my home. I couldn't fucking wait.

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