Spark & Blaze (A Guns & Hoses Novel) (12 page)

“Maybe a few drinks will loosen him up.” Simon shot a wink at Brett.

Brett choked on a sip of his Jack and Coke. The coughing fit almost doubled him over and both Austin and Simon pounded his back as if that would actually help. It didn’t. Brett had no sooner straightened up when Austin spoke again.

“A little loosening up is always a good thing.”

“Jesus.” Brett shot Austin a look and was glad the lighting was dim because he could feel his cheeks heating.

“C’mon.” Simon grabbed Brett’s muscular bicep. “I know just the shot.”

Brett allowed himself to be led to the bar. The crowd in this part of Bradley’s wasn’t as thick, but Brett didn’t know if this was normal for this part of the bar. He never ventured back here because he did his cruising by the pool table. Still, the guys didn’t give him a chance to really look around before they stepped up to the bar.

“Three leg spreaders,” Simon ordered when the scantily clad bartender stopped in front of them.

Brett choked on his drink and started coughing again. They didn’t beat on his back this time. However, they were still chuckling when Brett was finally under control. Brett wasn’t a prude by any means. Hell, when he was here on his own cruising, he had no problems throwing around the sexual innuendos. But, he wasn’t here alone and neither Austin nor Simon knew he was gay. Still, their playful behavior was what he was used to from other guys when he came here and it strangely relaxed him.

“What the hell is a leg spreader?” Brett asked just as the bartender sat down three plastic cups with about two inches of burgundy liquid in them.

“Well, Brett,” Austin began and Brett had the feeling that if Austin were taller, the man would have thrown an arm around his shoulders. “In the kink lifestyle, it’s a bar...”

“Oh God,” Brett groaned and really didn’t want to know how Flame’s cousin knew anything about kink.

“Or, it’s just a Top,” Simon added with a mischievous grin.

Once again, Brett was grateful for the low lighting, but that still didn’t stop him from lowering his eyes to look at the shots on the bar when he felt his cheeks heat again. If Austin and Simon weren’t the boyfriends of his co-workers, Brett would have flirted right back with them instead of blushing like a damn virgin.

“It’s amaretto, vodka, razzmatazz, and cranberry,” Simon replied finally as if to take pity on Brett when he handed out the shots.

Brett was relieved at the reprieve, but he should have known it really wasn’t a reprieve from the innuendos.

“Bottoms up,” Simon lifted his plastic cup.

“They usually are,” Austin smirked.

Brett knew if he had been in the midst of doing the shot, he would’ve spat it all over the bar. He wasn’t so, instead he rolled his eyes and slammed the liquor down his throat. The shot wasn’t bad. Brett thought it would be sweeter with the razzmatazz, but it was actually pretty good. Simon ordered them another round and after they finished doing the shots, Austin spoke.

“Damn, I think leg spreaders are my new best friend.” Austin licked his lips almost seductively.

“Thought you already had one of those,” Brett replied without thought and seamlessly fell back into the banter he usually enjoyed when he came to Bradley’s on his own. The look of shock on Austin’s face before he broke into a wide grin was priceless.

“Oh, I do.” Austin leaned in closer to Brett. So close they were almost touching. “I totally do.” Austin winked and Simon laughed at his friend’s antics. “Looks like you’re loosened up, Brett.” Austin batted his eyes.

“Not nearly enough,” Brett countered and knew it was the alcohol that helped him flirt back so freely.

Austin blinked up at him a few times before he burst out laughing. He stepped back out of Brett’s personal space and grinned at Simon.

“We’ll get him trained yet.”

Brett was tempted to say something about pushy bottoms because being one himself, he had no doubt Austin was a kindred soul. Instead, he bit his bottom lip.

“Ah, look what you did,” Simon mock scolded Austin. “He’s all tight again.”

Brett couldn’t help laughing at both men who were now frowning at him.

“I guess I just need another leg spreader to loosen me up again,” Brett teased them both Austin and Simon cackled.

“Fuck yeah!” Austin exclaimed excitedly. “We all need leg spreaders to make us feel good!”

Simon ordered them another round while Brett ignored the heads that turned their way in response to Austin’s claim.

Chapter Ten

Bret
t
lost count of how many leg spreaders they had, but couldn’t argue that they made him want to spread his legs. Spread them wide. Brett felt his cock start to harden before he cut off the thought.

“Let’s dance!” Austin started pulling on Brett’s arm. “C’mon stripper pole.”

“I don’t really think...” Brett began, but Simon cut him off.

“Then don’t think!” Simon was pushing against his back while Austin was tugging him toward the dance floor. “That’s probably why you can’t dance. You’re thinking too much. All dancing is, is vertical fucking,” Simon declared and all Brett could do was laugh and allow himself to be led onto the semi-crowded dance floor.

When they stopped, Austin released Brett’s arm and started gyrating to the beat. Brett didn’t move, but could imagine he could feel Simon moving behind him. Brett felt like he was the meat in a bottom sandwich. After the multiple shots he had done with the two guys, he had no doubt they were bottoms or at least bottoms most of the time.

Not that their position preference really mattered to Brett other than he was a tad bit relieved that he didn’t have to worry about his co-workers’ boyfriends trying to fuck him. The thought of being persuaded into a three-some, or hell, a four-some, never crossed Brett’s mind.

“You really do dance like a stripper pole!” Austin laughed a little drunkenly. “Guess I’ll just have to treat you like one until you
actually
try to dance.”

Brett didn’t get a chance to reply before Austin closed the minimal distance between them and started touching Brett. Austin’s hands roamed, staying thankfully above his waist, and his hips continue to gyrate and thrust to the techno beat. Brett was staring intentionally down at Austin when he closed his eyes and tried to lose himself to the music.

“Like this.”

Brett barely heard Brostowski’s boyfriend before he felt the man’s hands on his hips. Simon pushed and pulled on Brett’s hips until Brett was rocking to the rhythm of the beat. He didn’t fight Simon when the man turned him. Simon’s hands left his hips and Brett allowed him Simon to lift his hands up to Simon shoulders. After his arms rested comfortably on Simon, the man’s hands moved back to Brett’s hips and he was pulled closer until their groins met.

Simon forced Brett to move with him. When Simon’s swiveled his hips or rocked to simulate thrusting, he forced Brett to do the same by pushing or pulling on Brett’s hips. Brett was finally becoming lost in the music and the movement.

Simon was right. Dancing was like fucking vertically. Brett’s cock was semi hard from the rubbing and grinding against Simon, but arousal was absent. Even when he felt Austin moving against his back and ass. Brett didn’t get aroused. Instead, he just enjoyed the sensation of being between the two men.

Maybe it was because of the leg spreaders, or maybe it was because Brett knew that as much as this dancing simulated sex, it wasn’t sexual with these two men. Simon leaned closer and looked like he was about to say something so Brett leaned down and turned his head to hear the man over the blasting bass.

“You dance just fine,” Simon said and Brett could hear the smile in his tone. “You should have danced the other times you were here instead of spending all your time on the pool table.”

It took a moment for Simon’s words to register and for Brett’s mind to remind him that the man shouldn’t have known he was gay. Brett tensed and jerked back away from Simon so fast that Austin who was still dancing behind him stumbled.

“What?” Simon smile faltered and his expression immediately became concerned. They both heard Austin laugh behind Brett, but neither man looked away to check on him.

Brett’s mind swirled. His knee-jerk reaction was to get pissed at Brostowski for saying something to his boyfriend and go find the man so he could punch him in the face. However, somehow through his alcohol muddled mine, Brett realized what Simon had
actually
said. Brostowski didn’t know Brett cruised Bradley’s and played pool here to pick up his tricks and that could only mean one thing.

Simon had seen him here before. He wanted to panic because Simon was friends with Austin and his co-workers and one wrong word from the man could shatter his closet door as if it were glass that was overheated by a blaze.

However, the normal panic he usually felt never made an appearance. Still, panic or not, he had to say something to Simon who was still looking at him with concern filled eyes even if they did start swaying to the music again.

“I’m not out at work,” Brett confessed after he leaned down to speak closer to Simon’s ear.

“You’re kidding me?”

Brett felt Simon’s warm breath against the shell of his ear when the man replied. He didn’t stop Simon when the man pulled back. He met Simon’s gaze and shook his head. A pained expression crossed Simon’s features before he pulled Brett back down to speak into his ear.

“If they don’t know, I won’t tell them.”

Simon was the third person in the past week to promise not to out him. First, Tig, then Brostowski, and now Simon. They made him feel grateful and almost embarrassed that they were now burdened with his secret. But there was no reason for any of them to deal with the burden of keeping his secret alone.

“Brostowski knows,” Brett confessed and felt Simon nod. “So, I guess Flame does too and if he does, so does Austin.”

The feeling in Brett’s chest that was the precursor to a panic attack only made his chest ache instead of feeling like a Mack truck was using his sternum as a fucking parking space.

“Not necessarily,” Simon tried to reassure. “But even if they all know, would having their support be such a bad thing?”

Brett pulled back to look Simon dead in the eyes, but his stare barely locked onto Simon’s gaze before the crowd over Simon shoulder parted like a weird Red Sea.

His eyes landed on Carmichael. Not just on Carmichael, but on Carmichael’s body as the rookie danced. His hands were in the air and if there was a video dictionary somewhere where Brett could look up Simon’s definition of dancing being nothing more than vertically fucking, Brett was sure it would be a video of Carmichael dancing. Because the rookie
did
look like he was vertically fucking. Not only vertically fucking, but fucking like a pro Top.

Brett had no control over the gasp that escaped his lips or the instantaneous hard-on that not only pushed painfully against the zipper of his jeans, but that he was sure there was no way Simon couldn’t feel. He felt, more than saw, Simon look over his shoulder. Brett knew the moment Simon spotted his interest because Simon stepped back to give him more room.

“Go dance with him,” Simon suggested and lowered Brett’s arms off his shoulders.

“What?” Brett’s head whipped around so fast to look at Simon it was a miracle he didn’t get whiplash.

“I’ll dance with Austin,” Simon totally disengaged from Brett. “Go on.”

“I can’t,” Brett confessed and never realized he now stood stone still between Simon and Austin.

Austin seemed oblivious at the sudden change in Brett’s body language because he kept touching Brett’s back while occasionally bumping and grinding against Brett’s ass. Simon, on the other hand, displayed the same concerned look he had previously given Brett.

“They won’t care, Brett.”

Brett knew Simon was trying to reassure him about his co-workers. He also knew Simon might not remeber who Carmichael was in relation to him, Flame, and Brostowski.

“He’s our rookie; our straight rookie.”

“Can’t be too straight if he’s dancing here,” Simon pointed out and Brett forced the memory from his mind of how sweet Carmichael tasted.

“I need a drink,” Brett huffed and moved out from between Simon and Austin.

He didn’t look back at either man because he was too busy skirting the dance floor to avoid Carmichael to worry about how the slices of their bottom sandwich were faring without him. Brett saw Flame and Tig dancing as he moved his way around the outskirts of the dance floor. He tried to ignore the hunger, the intimacy, and love, that was blatantly evident in how they looked at one another.

“Another leg spreader?” The cute bartender asked when Brett managed to squeeze his way through the crowd that leaned against the bar.

Brett only gave his drink order a brief thought before he replied, “yeah. Bring me two and a bottle of water.”

“Sure thing.”

The bartender moved away and filled his order. Once the drinks were on the bar in front of Brett, he slammed the first shot before he turned and looked out over the crowd on the dance floor again. He didn’t even try to lie to himself about seeking out Carmichael.

Brett’s eyes ghosted over Tig and Flame and he caught a glimpse of Austin dancing with Simon. However, the dance floor was too crowded to see Carmichael, now that he wasn’t in the middle of it. Before Brett realized what he was doing, he had his second shot in one hand and his bottle of water in the other and was moving around the outside of the dance floor again.

Evan had taken several breaks to hydrate. He needed to because he sweat like the dance floor was a rainforest and he was some sort of Amazon Explorer searching for the last treasure. The gray wife beater tank top he wore was soaked through enough that he could probably wring it out and get enough sweat to fill several shot glasses. He could feel the sweat dampening his jeans around his waist and creeping several inches lower.

Of course, Evan didn’t care how soaked his clothes were because they weren’t the reason he forced himself to step off the dance floor. No, he made himself stop dancing so he could hydrate. If he wanted to ride his high, extend his euphoria, for as long as possible then Evan knew from experience that he needed to take breaks to drink water.

He currently had an unopened bottle of water sitting in front of him on the bar and was forcing himself not to guzzle the one he currently had tipped to his lips when a body bumped into him. Evan was used to being jostled when he chose to stand at the bar so he ignored the guy in favor of swallowing another gulp of cool water.

“So sorry.”

Evan lowered the bottle from his lips long enough to speak without looking at the guy. “No problem.”

Evan lifted his water back to his lips and swallowed, effectively ignoring the guy. He finished his first bottle and fended off four different guys who tried to pick him up while he killed his second.

It wasn’t until he was back on the dance floor and moving his body to the second song that he happened to look toward the bar again. The crowd on the floor had parted just enough that he thought he recognized the 6’ plus dark-haired man who walked around the outskirts of the dance floor. Evan had no time to decide if his mind was playing tricks on him or not before the crowd on the dance floor obscured his view again.

Still, even as Evan tried to lose himself in the music again the image of the person he
thought
he saw muted the buzz that was starting to build once more while he moved to the music. Just when Evan convinced himself he was imagining things, the crowd on the dance floor parted again and proved he wasn’t imagining shit.

Malone
.

Evan faltered when his eyes locked onto Malone. He had no idea what the man was doing here.
Malone was straight, so why would he be in a gay bar?
The irony of asking himself that was not lost on Evan even as Flame’s words echoed in his mind.

Are you sure it was assault?

Seeing Malone in a known gay bar made Evan even less sure and more confused than he was that morning at the station. He didn’t have a chance to process any more before the crowd filled the brief gap that had allowed him to meet Malone’s steady gaze.