Men were talking and laughing. He could hear water running from behind him in the shower room, but that wasn’t the only water sound. It also sounded like… He glanced up and around. To his right was the entrance, more lockers and more men. One man popped another’s arse with his towel and laughter ensued followed by playful threats. There was no one Payton recognized. Where was that sound coming from?
Payton pulled his shoes and gym shorts out of his bag. It sounded like someone—
He turned his head to the left and froze. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened.
Oh galaxy, no.
It was someone relieving himself. To his right was an open doorway and along the wall a mirror. From his viewpoint he could tell exactly where the open doorway led.
In the mirror a man stood displaying his back and a wall of urinals in front of him.
Payton gulped down air, his gaze shooting to his bag. He was having a hard time getting oxygen into his lungs.
Don’t panic, Pay.
No way could he use the water closet in front of everyone.
In a daze, he blinked and dropped the bag back to the floor. Reaching for his shoes, he pulled one off, then the other. The butterflies in his stomach had turned into vicious snarling, biting bats.
“Lieutenant Jeffers?”
Payton stuffed his shoes into his bag and tried to ignore the water sounds. The shower just made him think of all the wet, dripping, hard bodies, the other… He 44
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swallowed. He was going to have to hold it until he got back to his room. Any water he consumed was going to have to leave by way of sweat.
“Lieutenant Jeffers?”
Someone sat on the bench next to him. A black duffle landed next to his green one.
Oh.
Payton felt like someone slapped him upside the head.
He
was Jeffers. Stardust and imploding planets. He looked up and to his right.
Lieutenant Edward Tavis sat next to him. He smiled and began unbuttoning his shirt.
“I thought that was you. How was your first day?” Tavis shrugged his shirt off and stuffed it into his bag before taking out another one.
For a second, Payton sat there stunned. The man was undressing so casually.
Which
you should be doing, you ninny.
Payton began unbuttoning his own shirt, then remembered his taped-on dog tag. He paused. Oh well, it would look like a bandage, no one would realize what it really was. Working on his buttons again, he glanced over at Tavis. “It went well. This is a nice base. I’m anxious to see more of Englor.”
Tavis nodded and stood. “Let me know when you have some free time and I’ll take you on a tour.” He unfastened his trousers, dropped them and sat on the bench to tug them off his feet.
Payton hurried and removed his shirt, quickly folding and stuffing it in his bag before retrieving his athletic shirt. Galaxy, these workout clothes looked like underclothes. The shirt was thin and loose with short sleeves, almost sloppy, but it was better than the ones with the sleeves cut out of them. It wasn’t fit for polite company, but it would have to do. He pulled it over his head as the lieutenant fussed with his shoes. “I will. I—” His mind went totally blank.
The most gorgeous man in the entire universe walked up to the lockers just to the right of them, three lockers down. Payton would have sworn that everything in the room stopped. The fluorescent lights gleamed off the man’s copper-colored hair. His angular jaw was shadowy like he needed a shave, but somehow it looked…dashing. His eyes were light, but from this distance Payton couldn’t tell their exact color. The redhead was huge, six foot four at least, but it wasn’t entirely his size that made him stand out. His www.samhainpublishing.com 45
J.L. Langley
shoulders were wide and his hips slim. Under his dark blue uniform trousers, the muscles of his thighs were evident. He had a beauty and grace about him one usually didn’t associate with such a large man.
Payton stared, transfixed. His cock hardened, pushing against his pants. His fingers clenched into his palms, wanting to touch.
Dropping his bag, the man turned to his right, talking and laughing with the dark-headed man next to him. The pale blue shirt pulled tight across his back as he reached forward with both hands and began unbuttoning his shirt. His muscled arse flexed as he shifted his weight and a deep sexy rumble erupted from him as he laughed at something his companion said. It made Payton’s cock jerk and his stomach clench. Bloody hell, those pants couldn’t possibly be regulation, could they? They sure looked like Englor Marine uniform pants.
Payton’s breath caught. The man was incredible. The trousers
were
regulation, the man was not.
Someone walked into Payton’s line of sight, snapping him out of his daze.
Dust.
He was staring. Not only that, he had an erection and was practically drooling. He darted a quick gaze around him, realizing that the entire room had
not
stopped, and hoped no one had noticed his infatuation. Fortunately, Tavis was tying his shoes. No one else seemed to witness his sudden lack of brain activity either.
“Where are you headed first?” Tavis asked, turning his head toward Payton.
“Huh?” Payton swallowed and a drop of sweat slid down his temple. “Oh, the treadmills, I think.”
“Me too. Let me go take a piss and we’ll go.” Tavis picked up his bag and stuck it into an empty locker before heading toward the water closet.
Payton gave him a jerky nod, not even flinching at the coarse language. “Okay.” His heart was pounding so hard he could feel its pulse everywhere, his throat, his ears, his cock.
Okay, breathe and don’t look back at the man. Just concentrate and the boner will
go away.
Payton glanced back at the redhead.
Pay! You weren’t supposed to look.
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The Adonis was now sans shirt. His back was wide and well-defined, mouth-watering really. His muscles were so nicely rounded and his skin so smooth—even if it was pale—that he looked fake. No, not fake, like a marble masterpiece, a flawless statue.
Payton snapped his mouth shut before the drool dripped out, willed himself not to look at the human masterpiece, and bent over like he was getting something out of his bag. Oh, that was awkward. The seam of his pants bit into his erection. He gritted his teeth and shifted on the bench, trying to appear as though he wasn’t relieving the pressure off his prick. He probably looked like his arse itched.
Argh.
Payton stopped. Someone was going to notice if he didn’t. He sat back up, pulling the bag into his lap.
Oh, better,
sort of…
“You’re not ready.”
“Huh?” Payton turned to find Tavis standing over him.
Think, think, think.
“I have a cramp.” Payton stretched his leg out, being careful to keep the bag over his erection, and pounded on his thigh with his fist. “Why don’t you go ahead and I’ll meet you there.
Where are they?”
Frowning, the lieutenant glanced at Payton’s leg. “Are you okay? You look a little flushed.”
Only a little?
He felt a whole lot flushed…and flustered. “Sure, just an old injury, not used to this weather, I guess. Go on without me.”
Pleeease, go on without me.
“Okay. When you leave the locker room turn left and just keep going. The treadmills are all the way to the back left corner.”
“Great, I’ll see you there.”
Tavis walked off and Payton’s attention went right back to the redhead.
Guh.
What was wrong with him? The man was like a magnet, and Payton a helpless piece of steel.
The man was bent over pulling his trousers off his feet. Payton shook himself mentally. He had to snap out of it and get his own pants off. Which was going to be difficult with the hard-on he was now sporting.
Making sure to grab his large shirt and maneuver it over his lap, Payton put his bag back on the floor. He got his shorts out and laid them across his bag. Without standing www.samhainpublishing.com 47
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up, Payton unbuttoned his trousers and shimmied them off with his arse only lifting from the bench for a second. He pulled them over his feet and replaced them with his shorts.
After getting his shorts on his legs, he tugged them up as far as he could without standing. Once his shirt covered his problem, he stood quickly and yanked them over his hips. He impressed even himself sometimes. No way had anyone seen anything.
Grinning, he reached for his shoes and lifted his head.
One crystal blue eye stared at him, the other covered by a red hank of hair before it was brushed back by a big hand. A set of full lips curved into a smile.
Dust.
Payton jerked his head down, studying his feet. He fumbled with his shoes and swallowed. How much had the Adonis seen? What if he saw Payton’s little, er, big problem? Sadly, the thought of being seen did nothing to alleviate
that
condition.
His hands were sweating, but he finally managed to get one shoe tied and his other on his foot. He fancied he could feel the man’s gaze boring into him.
Please, let that be
my overactive imagination.
Glancing up again, he caught the same clear blue gaze.
The man was bent over tying his own shoe. The lock of red hair fell back over his pale forehead. The dark-headed man who came in with him touched his shoulder and said something. The redhead grinned again and winked at Payton before looking back over his shoulder at his friend.
Payton did the only thing he could think of.
He ran…right out of the locker room, with his shoe untied and his bag still on the floor.
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The locker room was as deserted as the gym, except for the sound of running water coming from the shower room. Grinning, Simon ran the towel over his forehead before hanging it on his shoulder and taking a swig of his water. Glancing down to where the pretty little blushing soldier had left his bag two hours ago confirmed his suspicions about who was showering, and his prick hardened right up.
The bag sat on the bench where Simon had set it and zipped it up after the man had fled, but now it was unzipped with shoes and clothes lying next it. Oh, this had the potential to be a great evening.
Simon had spotted the kid as soon as he and Wycliffe walked in. He had to be a new transfer, because if he’d been anywhere on this base Simon was sure he’d have seen him before, and he bloody well wouldn’t have forgotten that angelic face. The kid had to be around nineteen or twenty, barely out of basic. Even with a nice strong masculine jaw and bit of beard shadow, the raven-haired man was stunning…a real beauty. Funny, Simon had never thought of other men as beauties, but that’s what the man was. He was slim and small, almost delicate looking. And that wide-eyed innocent stare? Simon chuckled. It brought to mind a kid seeing the inside of a candy store for the first time.
The blush had made him even more appealing. It was usually Roc who went for the pretty boys, but Simon had taken one look and decided against giving Roc, or Wycliffe for that matter, the chance.
Using his thumb, Simon opened his locker. He set his water bottle inside and tugged the towel off his shoulder. He’d had his eye on the beauty the whole time he’d worked out tonight, noticing how the kid lingered behind, not hitting the weights until the place was almost deserted. He was also fairly certain the man hadn’t seen him watching. Simon had wanted to go over and talk to him so badly it had nearly killed him, but he’d www.samhainpublishing.com 49
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restrained himself. He’d seen the kid first and he wasn’t going to draw Wycliffe’s attention to him. Wycliffe was a competitive bastard, but if Simon said he’d met him first, Wycliffe would respect that. Even so, he’d sent Wycliffe ahead of him to go meet Roc at White’s.
The dark-headed soldier had tried like hell to hide his interest, but Simon had seen right through it. The way those yellow eyes had followed him… Simon shivered and pressed the heel of his hand against his throbbing cock. Those amber eyes were amazing.
They were practically a feline yellow.
Damn and bloody hell
, his prick jerked against his hand. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so hot for a man without even speaking to him first. Not since he was a starry-eyed teen.
After giving his erection one last rub through his shorts, he pulled his sweaty shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. This was going to be fun. As far as he could tell he and the little beauty were the only ones in the whole place.
Simon toed off his shoes and brought his foot up to tug off his sock. His cock hardened even more, wanting to go see if that body was as stunning as the face. Simon glanced toward the shower room again and groaned. Hurrying, he took off his other sock, removed his shorts and jockstrap, then grabbed the soap and shampoo out of his locker.
He made himself walk instead of run to the shower room door. He already looked like an idiot smiling and walking around with a stiffy. Speaking of…
He got a towel off the laundry cart beside the shower room. Setting the shampoo and shower gel down, he wrapped the towel tight around his hips. It didn’t do a whole hell of a lot to disguise his erection, but at least it didn’t look like he was flaunting it. Picking up the two bottles and a washcloth, he headed in to find the object of his interest.
Simon’s quarry stood at the very back of the shower room, in the right-hand corner.
Steam billowed around him and water ran in rivulets down his slender body. He looked ethereal. Unfortunately, a low pale blue tile wall with two bottles and a towel on top covered his lower half, but what Simon could see of the upper half lived up to his imagination. There was barely any muscle tone in those small shoulders and arms, even 50
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flexed to wash his neck like they were, but he was all man. The washcloth was held in his left hand as he scrubbed his neck and other arm. Was he left handed?