by Riley Rivers
“Yeah.”
“How’re you liking it?”
Simon wrinkled his nose. “It’s very wet.”
Josh laughed. “Yeah, that’ll happen half the year. I tend to walk and use the bus a lot instead of driving, and I swear, I get drenched like twice a week. The worst thing is if you get soaked and then have to get on a bus or something. People blast the AC like crazy, which means it’ll be ninety degrees outside and you’re freezing to death.”
“It’s the same in California,” Simon said, looking a little more at ease. Go Josh, Raymond thought. “Stores like being frigid. Half the time I leave the house, I have to take a sweatshirt with me.”
“I feel that,” Josh said. He held up his fist. “Solidarity.”
Simon chuckled and bumped.
“I have to say,” Curtis said, turning to Raymond, “I’m glad to see that you still have a fanbase.”
“Fanbase?” Raymond asked.
Curtis grinned and nodded at Josh. Raymond’s ears went red. Of course Curtis was already at it.
Josh just laughed. “I won’t deny that. Raymond’s great. Best trainer I’ve ever had. And, you know, a good friend too, I guess.”
Raymond slanted a smile his way, trying to tamp down how good he felt whenever Josh complimented him. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
Curtis looked from one to the other of them, and then, still grinning, turned back to Josh. “Okay, so I feel it is my solemn duty to share some choice Raymond stories, now that I have an audience.”
Raymond groaned. “You have to start with the embarrassing stories? Really?”
“As I said, solemn duty.”
“Uh-huh. In that case, I have a few stories of myself to share, about you.”
Simon lit up. “Yeah? Any of them about him not being so perfect all the time?”
“Oh, rest assured,” Raymond said, pleased at Simon’s interest. “I have plenty about him being very less than perfect.”
“No fair,” Curtis said. “You can’t just steal my thunder. It was Raymond storytime hours first.”
“Awesome,” Josh said with fervor. He leaned forward. “Please go on.”
Curtis grinned triumphantly as Raymond groaned, sinking back into his seat.
***
Josh was having a stupidly good time. Curtis was a funny guy, and he and Raymond bounced off each other really well. It was obvious they were close—the two of them practically finished each others’ sentences. They also seemed to have a relationship built on roasting each other, which was a hilarious way to learn more about Raymond.
And it was interesting getting to see Simon slowly become more comfortable and relaxed as the dinner progressed. Curtis kind of seemed to be gently nudging him into conversation, and Josh figured it helped that neither he nor Raymond were acting like crazed fans.
Josh was all for helping Simon feel as relaxed as possible. It wasn’t exactly difficult to pick up on the fact that Simon was wearing a heavy-duty scent blocker; and it was one Josh recognized as basically the strongest that could legally be prescribed. It was something that Josh was only able to notice because he was a unicorn himself and recognized the scent, but… Simon was probably in the middle of his virile period, just like Josh was. And considering how miserable and uncomfortable he seemed at the start of the meal before he warmed up some, Josh was guessing that Simon’s virile period wasn’t as easily weathered as Josh’s own.
So yeah, he was all for keeping things light and easy and the spotlight thoroughly away from a guy who already had to deal with so much of it. It wasn’t like it was a hardship to encourage Raymond and Curtis to keep talking.
Curtis was currently in the middle of a story about a time that he and Raymond went grocery shopping together. A story about grocery shopping.
And it was still a good time!
“—we literally say goodbye to the lady, walk maybe six feet, and then some guy comes up to us to ask us, or shall I say Raymond, a question.” Curtis snickered. “And that was random stranger number three trying to flirt with him.”
“According to you,” Raymond grumbled. “It didn’t seem like they were flirting.”
“You never think someone’s flirting with you,” Curtis said rolling his eyes.
Josh hurriedly took another bite of his pasta to occupy his mouth so that he didn’t let out anything embarrassing or incriminating. Because Josh could definitely attest to the fact that flirting thoroughly flew over Raymond’s head. He didn’t flirt with Raymond a lot—or he tried not to, at least. Josh was firm in his thoughts that Raymond was a good friend and a professional, and Josh didn’t want to ruin the relationship they had. But he was so into Raymond that sometimes he couldn’t help it, and things slipped a little into flirty banter on Josh’s end. The only saving grace was the fact that Raymond never noticed.
Then again, if you weren’t interested in someone…
Which hurt more than Josh liked to admit, if he was being honest. He had to reach for his water, swallowing around a sudden lump in his throat.
He was being stupid. Raymond didn’t like him and that was just how things were. The only reason why it currently made him kind of want to cry was because his hormones were completely out of whack.
Best to just sit back and enjoy the night and the company.
Chapter Four
After they’d all paid and Josh had said his goodbyes in the parking lot, Curtis dropped a hand on Raymond’s shoulder. “Hey, you want to come back to the hotel and hang out a little more? Have a few drinks, maybe?”
Raymond hesitated. “I would, but I’ve got an early morning.”
“I promise to have you in bed at a reasonable hour,” Curtis said, hand on his chest. “Besides, I know for a fact that you nap in between clients.”
“Be that as it may, it’s still not fun waking up at five in the morning if you get home after ten.”
Curtis huffed, looking put out. Simon patted him on the back.
“You have fun trying to convince him. I’m being eaten alive by mosquitoes, so I’m going to wait in the car.”
“Yeah, of course,” Curtis said, eyes going soft. “I’ll be there in a sec.”
Simon nodded and held out a hand to Raymond. “It was really nice to meet you.”
“Same,” Raymond said, shaking. “It was a fun time. Glad you came.”
“Yeah.” Simon gave him a tired smile. “Me too.”
Raymond threw Curtis a knowing look once Simon was in the car and out of earshot. “So, Simon Daniels, huh?”
Unfortunately, Curtis gave him the look right back. “Yeah? And you and Josh?”
“Okay, no, that’s not something we need to talk about.”
“Are you sure?” Curtis said teasingly. “Because I think we all had a good time partaking in lively conversation.”
“Curtis—”
“Like I couldn’t tell from a mile away that this is the client you have a crush on. You were making eyes at him all through dinner. Not to mention how your scent changed like every time he smiled at you” Curtis grinned. “You’re totally into him.”
Raymond was a shit liar, and usually chose to lie by omission. In this case, though, the silence was what gave him away.
Curtis laughed. “That into him, huh? That’s awesome. It’s been forever since you’ve had a crush. You should totally go for it.”
Raymond sighed, going with his go-to. “He’s a client. It’d be unethical.”
Curtis rolled his eyes. “That is the dumbest excuse. You’re not his doctor, you’re a personal trainer. And a damn good one, but that’s beside the point. You’re into him. Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Look, he’s… he’s not interested, okay?” Raymond scuffed at the ground with his shoe. It was surprisingly difficult to admit it out loud. Probably because he liked Josh so damn much. “It’s pretty obvious.”
Curtis frowned. “Obvious how? Like, obvious as in he’s already taken, or obvious you’re making up another excuse?
Because it looked to me like he was giving back as good as he got.”
Raymond sighed again. “Look, he’s… he’s really smart.”
“Okay? I mean cool. You’re perfect for each other.”
Raymond looked away.
“Whoa,” Curtis said, crossing his arms. “Whoa, okay, hold up and fuck no. You’re fucking brilliant and you know it,” A pause, then Curtis was glaring. “Wait, has he said something? Because yeah, if he doesn’t realize how smart you are, he certainly doesn’t fucking deserve you.”
No, he deserves much better than me. But Raymond wanted to defend Curtis’s opinion of Josh. “He’s great, actually. He’s just as interested in random facts and stuff, and we have some really good conversations.”
“That’s what I thought! Okay, cool. So why haven’t you asked him out yet?”
“Can we not talk about this? Let’s just go with ‘he’s not interested’ and leave it at that.”
Curtis made a face. “I’m just saying. You should go for it. It’s been your dream to find someone you could really talk to along with kiss—”
“Curtis, come on.”
“Fine,” Curtis grumbled. “But let the record show that I’m not fucking happy about it. You deserve someone in your life. And he seemed like a good guy. Did I mention he was totally into you—”
“That is literally the opposite of laying off.”
Curtis blew out a breath. “Okay, okay, fine. I mean it this time. I’m done.”
“Thank you.”
“Now are you coming over or not?”
Raymond rolled his eyes. “You’re in town for a couple days, right? We can do something tomorrow too. I should go home and try to get some sleep. Besides, you probably don’t want to keep Simon waiting any longer.”
“We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you.”
“We’re not doing either,” Raymond snorted, “Because I’m going home and going to bed.”
Curtis chuckled. “It was good to see you in person, man.”
“Same to you,” Raymond said, pulling him in for a hug before turning to his car.
The drive home didn’t take very long, but in Raymond’s opinion, it was still too much time alone in his car with his thoughts. He kept circling back to the dinner, and Josh, and Curtis’s nudging and Josh’s laughter and the easy conversation and Josh—
He got home just as the sky opened up, fumbling with his key in his hurry to get inside without getting soaked.
He made it inside damp but not drenched, so he headed straight to his bedroom to shed his clothes, pull on some shorts, and go to brush his teeth.
Raymond was sliding into bed a few minutes later, but his body—usually well trained and able to fall asleep quickly—still thrummed with nervous energy. He tossed and turned in bed, unable to get Josh out of his head, and as the minutes ticked by and he was still unable to fall asleep, he started getting worried. The longer it took him to pass out, the harder it would be to start his day tomorrow.
Raymond bit his lip. Sometimes the only way to get his body to stop thrumming and calm down for the night was to jerk off, but as his hand crept underneath his waistband, only one person was on his mind.
It was harder to dismiss your wants late at night and all alone.
Once the image of Josh was behind his eyelids, Raymond couldn’t unsee it. He palmed himself to the thought of Josh’s long fingers and his perfect red mouth. And Raymond had the privilege of regularly seeing Josh out of breath and sheened with sweat… it wasn’t hard to imagine him affected like that for another reason—spread out and looking gorgeous, writhing against Raymond as they kissed, as Raymond roamed his hands over Josh’s body, as Josh touched him in turn—
He was hard and aching fast, stroking himself as he pictured Josh’s eyes, hazy with arousal, lips swollen from kisses, begging Raymond to touch him. And how could Raymond do anything but oblige, track his fingers down between Josh’s legs, stretch him open while Josh fell apart. Sinking into him, going slowly to savor it, or maybe Josh liked it a little rougher, telling Raymond to take him hard and fast, whatever Josh wanted—whatever gave him the most pleasure—
Raymond came hard, shuddering through the aftershocks, unable to help but fantasize what Josh might look like, what he might sound like—
The fantasy broke when Raymond tried to end it, tried to stop from thinking about what he wanted to happen after. Cleaning Josh up, curling around him to sleep. Making him food in the morning. Having him—having him. And then it lasting.
“Fuck,” he whispered in the quiet of his room, clean hand coming up to rub at his face.
Normalcy. He’d see Josh in a couple of days and everything would be fine, and Raymond would act normal, and nothing would change.
***
Even though Josh had had a great time Monday night, he woke up Tuesday feeling all out of sorts. Kind of sore and achy, with an unpleasant pounding behind his eyelids. It felt almost like being hungover, but that made no sense. He hadn’t had anything to drink last night at all. What the hell?
It clicked once he connected the simmering underneath his skin and the restless that made him want to pace his apartment. Virile period. Duh. He must just be feeling things a little harder than usual.
Knowing why he wasn’t feeling great actually helped a little bit. Made him remember to take all his meds, anyway, and to make sure to keep hydrated.
It was bad enough by late afternoon, though, that he put some serious consideration into going out and trying to find someone for the night. He wasn’t a stranger to one-night stands, after all. It wasn’t like there was any harm in it.
But he also didn’t exactly want to. Which was weird. Josh was cool with casual. He really was. He kind of had to be, what with his circumstances.
Except today the thought of trying to go out and find someone to fuck just made him feel tired.
He absentmindedly doodled on his tablet as his mind wandered, having already given up on trying to be productive for the day. What he really needed to do was have a session with Raymond. Burn off his excess energy. Exercising while he was in the middle of his virile period wasn’t the most fun thing, but sometimes moving around with purpose was what he needed, even if it wasn’t sexual.
Of course, having Raymond there, a warm, comforting presence, giving him direction and smelling good and…
Josh blew out a breath. He needed to get it together. He’d dealt with his virile period since puberty, and for almost a year of knowing Raymond and working with him. Okay, yeah, it was true that as his feelings for Raymond had grown, his virile period had gotten somehow even more annoying, but that didn’t mean anything. He wouldn’t let it.
Still, by the time his Wednesday session rolled, Josh was about crawling out of his skin and very ready to see Raymond again. He wasn’t going to do anything. He knew he wouldn’t. He had finely-honed self-control. He would have cancelled the session with Raymond had he really been worried. Besides, he had made sure to put off taking his afternoon dose of libido inhibitor until just before it was time to leave. Having the medicine fresh in his system would help a lot.
That’s what he told himself, as he hastily threw his stuff together in his duffel, pulled on his shoes, and headed out the door.
And stepped right into the rain. Damn it.
He hurried back in, grabbed an umbrella, and headed out again, but he didn’t have high hopes for staying very dry, not with how heavily it was coming down. He sighed and started out. Nothing for it now. His duffel was waterproof and had his shoes and a change of clothes just as an in-case, so really, the best thing he could do was hurry over to Raymond’s studio so that he could change into his dry stuff.
Plan.
He was thoroughly drenched by the time he was running up to the studio door. Part of him cursed himself for not sucking it up and driving, but Raymond’s studio was literally three blocks from Josh’s apartment. He couldn’t justify taking his car out for that.
Still, i
t was with intense relief that he flung himself inside. Dry. Nice and dry, though fuck, the sudden blast of AC had him shivering.
“Josh!” Raymond rushed forward from where he was moving equipment around. “You walked today? It’s pouring out!”
“Yeah,” Josh said as he fumbled off his shoes. “Fuck it’s cold.”
“Yeah, because you’re soaked! Hang on, I’ll turn on the heat.”
Josh shook his head, even though he was shivering. “It’s okay. I’ll change into my dry stuff and be fine.”
Raymond gave him a thoroughly unimpressed look over his shoulder as he fiddled with the thermostat. “Let me grab you a towel,” he said as the heater kicked on.
Josh accepted it gratefully, taking it and his duffel into the bathroom to change. Just stripping down and toweling off was a relief, getting the dampness off his skin, and he felt much less frigid by the time he was walking out of the bathroom, clothes dry and toweling off his hair.
Raymond smiled at him when he approached. “Feeling better?”
“Much,” Josh said. “Totally ready to work up a sweat now.”
Raymond flicked him a grin, but it slowly fell away as his gaze tracked up and down Josh’s body.
“What?” Josh asked, towel around his shoulders. “Something on my face?”
Raymond’s expression went from confused to concerned to something Josh didn’t entirely recognize. “Um.”
“What?” Josh asked again. Raymond wasn’t the type of guy to get tongue-tied. “What’s wrong?”
Raymond tilted his head, looking uncharacteristically serious. “Are you… are you in your virile period right now?”
“What?” Josh squeaked out a third time, taken aback. “Why?” How did Raymond know? Did Josh do something to broadcast it? Fuck, had Raymond noticed how even-more-extra Josh was on him right now?
Raymond cleared his throat, eyes averting. “Your uh… your scent, it’s…”
“Fuck,” Josh muttered. His stupid scent blocker must have gotten washed off. Raymond probably thought his scent was revolting. “I’m really sorry. Hang on, I can fix it.”
