Wayward Son (10 page)

“I think it’s exactly enough.” Mikey rose to his feet and took a step closer. “You look amazing.”

Cory’s blush made him that much more sexy. “Thanks, honey.” Mikey held out a hand, and Cory took it, allowing himself to be pulled into an embrace.

“You always look amazing,” Mikey admitted in a low voice.

“Don’t you say the nicest things,” Cory replied in the second before their lips met.

Mikey’s body buzzed as they kissed. He’d dated a few women before he came out, so Coco’s fake breasts felt strange but not unfamiliar. He preferred Cory’s broad, strong chest—or Jimmy’s smaller but more muscular one—but the softness wasn’t off-putting. He still knew whose tongue was exploring his mouth.

“Ungh.” Cory let out a strange sound and pulled out of the kiss. “Dammit. I need to shimmy out of the Spanx if we’re gonna make out. This stuff is the evil love child of a chastity belt and a cock cage.”

Mikey laughed and moved away, though his own body protested. “It’s all right. I want to get this drawing finished up so I don’t have to worry about it this weekend.” He gave Cory’s outfit one last appreciative look. “But after your show, maybe I’ll help you get out of all that.”

“Shit.” Cory gave his hips a mighty wiggle and then turned to head back toward his bedroom. “Hold that thought,” he threw back over his shoulder. “I gotta get out of ’em now before I cause permanent damage.”

Still grinning, Mikey slid back into his seat at the dining room table. His smile slipped as he looked over his drawing. Something still wasn’t quite right about it, but he couldn’t figure out the problem. The perspective was good, the lines were strong and clear, and the shadowing added depth.

But the whole thing just looked flat. Lifeless. Two-dimensional.

Mikey sighed and picked up a shading pencil to get back to work.

“O
KAY
. D
RESS
,
boots, evil, evil Spanx, wig, coat, makeup bag…. Fuck! Earrings!”

Cory disappeared into his bedroom for the third time, and Mikey shook his head, smiling. Cory had asked Mikey to come over and help him get his stuff to Bernhardt’s for the show, and from the moment Mikey arrived, Cory’s nervous excitement had been rolling off him in waves. Mikey couldn’t help absorbing some of it. He just hoped the excitement won out in the end. With everything else going on, they definitely needed a break, no one more so than Mikey. The show would give him a chance to just sit back and enjoy watching Cory play.

And since Jimmy would be with them afterward, they could help Cory peel out of Coco and give him another reason to remember the night.

“Jesus.” Cory hustled back into the living room and slipped the earrings into his bag. “At the rate I’m going, I’m gonna be too tired to go by the time I’m ready to leave. I’m just glad they got us a dressing room space set up. If I’d had to put all this shit on here, I’d be a complete mess by the time I got over there.”

On impulse Mikey stood and caught Cory by the arm, bringing his frenetic movements to a halt. “Relax,” he murmured, running his free hand up Cory’s side. “It’ll be great. You’ll be great.”

Cory drifted toward him as if he couldn’t help himself, and Mikey drew him in for a soft kiss. Mikey couldn’t figure out for a moment why this felt different from the others they’d shared, but then he realized Cory was letting him take the lead. Something sweet twisted in his chest, and he deepened the kiss, sliding his hands up Cory’s arms to cup his face.

When he finally drew away, Cory smiled. “Thanks, babe,” he said. “I needed that.”

Warmth filled Mikey’s chest. “You’re welcome.” He let his arms drop back to his sides. “Now tell me which bags to grab, and let’s get you to the show.”

Cory grinned and started pointing, and Mikey followed his lead, grabbing up the dress bag and the separate oversized drawstring bag that held Cory’s—Coco’s—boots. Cory gathered up the rest and followed Mikey outside, seemingly much calmer, until he rechecked the door lock for the third time, and Mikey had to pull him away by the hand.

“It’s fine,” he soothed as he led Cory to his car. “You’re gonna be just fine.”
But I’m driving
, he decided. Because hell if he was going to die in an accident because Cory was too hyped up to pay attention to the road.

M
IKEY
SAT
alone at the end of the bar, careful to keep a little open space next to him for Jimmy. Cory had bustled off backstage as soon as they arrived, leaving a dusting of glitter in his wake, and remembering the way the room was set up the first time he came to a show, Mikey grabbed the best available spot. He wanted to have a good view, sure, but he also wanted to be sure Cory could see him and Jimmy when he came out to perform.

Okay, so
Coco
could see them when
she
came out to perform. Mikey smiled at himself and sipped at the vodka cranberry he’d ordered. Cory didn’t care much about the pronouns, but he was protective of his drag persona’s name. “I created her myself,” he’d told Mikey. “And I’m a little picky about the things that I create.”

Mikey’s gaze roamed the room, checking out the gathering crowd. Mostly gay men, of course, but with some women mixed in. Some were probably lesbian, though another bar across town was more popular with them, but some were probably straight friends of gay men. Mikey refused to think of them as “fag hags,” not since someone called Kitty that the first time she persuaded him to visit a gay bar.

The front door opened and Jimmy walked in, gaze zeroing in on Mikey within seconds. A smile lit his face, and in moments he was standing next to Mikey’s barstool.

“Hey, honey!” Jimmy wrapped an arm around Mikey’s shoulders and gave him a lingering kiss. “I started to think I never would get here. Some big rig jackknifed off the side of the highway out near Braselton. Didn’t look like anyone got hurt, but they had about three tow trucks out there tryin’ to get him back up on the road. Backed up for miles gettin’ around it.”

Mikey had to smile. Every time Jimmy came back into the city after working at the resort for a while, he’d fallen back into the country-boy accent, dropping his
G
s and drawling things out. After a day or two, he’d be back to the more clipped, precise speech patterns of his city friends, but Mikey kind of liked the softer sounds. It made him wonder what Jimmy had sounded like as a little boy growing up in a small Southern town.

“I’m glad you made it,” he told Jimmy. He patted the seat of the barstool next to him. “I saved you a seat. I just wish you’d been able to get away earlier to help me keep Cory calm. Oh my God, he was about to drive me crazy.”

Jimmy laughed and slid onto the stool. “He can be a little high-strung about this stuff,” he admitted. “Last time was the other way around. I helped him get his shit together, but right after we got here, I had to run back to the resort and fix a big computer snafu. I haven’t even gotten to see him perform yet. How fucked up is that?”

Mikey laughed. “He’s pretty amazing. The first time I saw him, I couldn’t look away.” He blushed. “Kind of confusing, actually. I mean, I knew he was a guy, but….”

“He makes a hot woman, doesn’t he?” Jimmy leaned in close. “Women are pretty,” he said in a low voice, as if sharing a secret. “They’re soft and curvy, and before I figured out guys were the real deal for me, I had a lot of fun with them. So when you look at a drag queen and you know under all that sparkle and shimmer is a hard body and a hard prick? Well. It’s kind of the best of both worlds, isn’t it?”

That was it in a nutshell. Mikey nodded. He’d dated women some too, and he didn’t hate it. They just never did much for him beyond aesthetic appreciation, like with a lot of the classic art he’d studied. The first time he’d seen Coco perform, he’d been thrown by how attracted he was, considering the vision in front of him was decidedly female. But a part of him knew the woman was only a façade. What he was drawn to wasn’t Coco the character, but Cory, the man who brought her to life.

“I am parched,” Jimmy said, drawing Mikey from his thoughts. He swiveled his stool around and caught the eye of the bartender. “You want a drink?”

“Um, sure. Vodka cranberry?” Mikey liked fruity frozen drinks, mostly, but when he wasn’t eating, drinking anything very sweet had a tendency to end in him drinking way too much and tossing his cookies, waking up with a killer hangover, or both. His go-to in a bar like this was the vodka-and-cranberry-juice classic, which would be just bitter enough for him to sip it, not chug.

Jimmy ordered Mikey’s drink and something for himself, and a minute later the bartender slid over a plastic cup filled with burgundy liquid and topped with a slice of lime alongside a matching cup that held a darker liquid. Jimmy picked up Mikey’s drink and handed it over, and when Mikey took it, he lifted his own cup.

“To a successful show,” he said, a teasing note in his voice as he lifted an eyebrow, “followed by an even more enticing after-party.”

Mikey swallowed as they tipped their drinks together, and he took a larger first sip than he usually would, needing the liquid to soothe his suddenly dry throat. Jimmy and Cory both had made a few comments about what the three of them would be doing together after Coco’s show, and while Mikey had no objections at all, he did have a few worries. For starters, should he tell them he was technically still a virgin? Well, he didn’t know if “virgin” was the right word for it, considering he’d gotten off with guys and had a small stash of toys that had gotten quite a bit of use. It wasn’t like he’d never done anything.

But he hadn’t been fucked. And he knew he really should tell them before he let either of them be the first.

How the hell do I bring that up?
he thought, taking another sip of his drink. Did he tell Jimmy now? Wait until later, when they were all together but might already be hot and bothered? He didn’t want to turn them off the whole idea, but….

“I’m a virgin,” he blurted. His whole face burned, and he glanced around to be sure no one had heard him. No one but Jimmy, of course, who looked at him over the rim of his cup, eyes flashing dark.

“Okay, then.” Jimmy set down his drink and slid forward in his seat. He took Mikey’s hand. “I think maybe you should give me a little more detail on that. I’m not saying it’s gonna make a big difference. But it might change how we handle things a little. The very last thing in the world any of us wants is for you to get hurt. And I don’t just mean that figuratively.”

Mikey laughed nervously. “Yeah, I’d prefer to avoid the whole pain thing.” His face still burned like he’d been roasted, but he pushed forward. “I don’t want it to sound like I’ve done nothing. I’ve got… um, well….”

He trailed off, but thankfully Jimmy filled in the gaps. He leaned in closer. “You have some toys hidden away?” He breathed the question into Mikey’s ear, sending shockwaves of arousal through Mikey’s body. “Or have you been gettin’ into the produce section?”

That made Mikey laugh, which he’d bet was Jimmy’s intention, and he relaxed a little. He was still turned on, but after the way he’d reacted to Coco’s first show and then to Cory showing off his dress a couple of days earlier, he’d expected to spend most of tonight in some state of arousal. He hadn’t expected it to start quite this soon, though.

Jimmy shifted back in his seat and picked up his drink. “Now,” he said as he raised it toward his mouth. “Let’s skip over the later-tonight stuff and talk about tomorrow. We like to do brunch on Sundays when I’m in town. Piedmont Diner, usually. Have you been there?”

He took a sip of his drink, and Mikey watched him swallow. “Um, no,” he finally answered. “I know where it is, though. It’s just a couple of blocks from Riley’s. But we haven’t gone out to eat all that much, since he likes to cook a lot, and I don’t have that much money.”

Mikey almost clapped his hand over his mouth when that came out. The very last thing he wanted to talk about was his money situation. School was fine, of course, since Riley was paying for that, and he had a place to live, a car, and even some savings. But his job at the park was supposed to give him spending money and cover all those little expenses no one ever thought about until they actually had to pay for them. And he didn’t want to talk about his job and the lawsuit and all that other crap. Not tonight. Tonight was about Cory, not Mikey, and he wasn’t going to let his screwed-up life interfere.

Thankfully Jimmy read his mind, or maybe he just felt the same way. “Well, maybe we’ll go in the morning,” he said. “My treat, since I’m hopin’ you’ll give me a nice treat later tonight.” He leaned in close again. “I’m lookin’ forward to a real good taste of you.”

Mikey didn’t know if the suddenly stronger accent was deliberate or a result of arousal, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was rock hard in his jeans by the time Jimmy finished talking, and it was all he could do not to grab his drink and pour what was left of it over his head to cool himself down. He tipped it back into his mouth instead, relishing the flavor of the tart juice as he drained the cup. He set the cup back on the bar and shivered as the afterburn of the alcohol ran through him.