I’d never been all that great at dancing, but with the alcohol working its way through me, that didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. Rock mixed with punk which bled quickly into pop as the house thumped around me. People laughed and I danced with anyone who wanted to be close to me. Maybe if I’d been sober, or had less outgoing friends, maybe then the idea of getting rid of my virginity before anyone found out that I hadn’t had sex yet wouldn’t have made as much sense. But the guys had told me about how all their college friends only wanted them because they thought they were cute and inexperienced, and how I didn’t want to lose my virginity to someone like that.
As the night wore on it started to make more and more sense to me. I was eighteen, fairly cute according to my friends, and if I wasn’t worried about who to give my virginity to, and making it count as something important, then I could have fun and not be worried about dating, or who I was having sex with now that I wasn’t living at home.
I saw the perfect guy sitting on the kitchen island. His legs dangled over the side and he had a drink in his hand too. My third, maybe, was nearly out and I’d come in to see about getting another. This guy had nice, thick thighs, a bit of hair showing under his shorts, and a Miami COllege tshirt on. It was purple, just like the mask he had on that hid most of his face from me. It did nothing to cover up the bright bleach blond hair sticking up all over his head, or his pretty green eyes.
I danced up to him, thinking I looked cool as hell and he just laughed at me. We were alone in the kitchen, for the moment, when I moved between his legs and leaned up to kiss him. My glass fell over the side of the counter and he had to have put his down somewhere because he put his arms around me and then his tongue went into my mouth. I sucked on his lower lip and rubbed my stomach against the front of his shorts. He never pushed me away, never even seemed like he might not have been interested, and I thought he was practically perfect.
We traded kisses with my hands on the tops of his thighs until people came into the kitchen. We broke apart then, and I was feeling a little dizzy, but when he took my hand and pulled me through the house, past couples making out over every inch of available space, and into a large closet, I didn’t worry about a thing.
We kept kissing and he ran his hands over me as roughly as he could, as if he couldn’t get enough of me. That’s the same way I felt about him in that moment, like I needed everything and then some, like there wasn’t enough air in the closet and I was burning up. He reached for my pants but I had my hands on his first and dropped to my knees in front of him. Without a word I took him into my mouth, sliding my lips over his thick head, as he rested his hands on the back of my head. He didn’t push me down, didn’t try to control me in any way, just rested there as I licked up the underside of his cock and jacked him with one hand while touching myself with the other.
After a few minutes, and getting to taste his salty pre-cum, I got up and he turned me around, pushing me onto something hard, and I realized it wasn’t a closet we were in, but actually the laundry room. Huh. I’d never considered my first time to be while I was bent over a dryer. But it didn’t really bother me either. I was grinning as he pushed down my pants and spread me open for him.
At least one of us was sober enough to remember to use a condom, I thought as I heard him tear one open. A little stretching, not nearly as much as I needed but at least the alcohol dulled the pain, and then I felt him inside of me. I gasped, he groaned, and I leaned forward as he put one hand on my shoulder, right next to my neck, and the other on my hip.
I was lucky to find someone that was gay, bi, or too drunk to care right off the bat. And god he was hot too, all hard muscle and strong fingers that gripped my shoulder.
“Oh fuck,” he groaned, the first words he’d said to me.
I laughed, though it came out as more of a pant, and nodded as he fucked me against the dryer. I’d be sore in the morning, I was sure, but right then, in that moment, I thought everything was wonderful. My friends were right, this was the best way to lose my virginity. And, even with my limited experience in the department, I thought purple mask guy was fucking amazing.
“Right there,” I gasped out when he hit something inside of me that felt pretty perfect.
He hit it again and I shook. He laughed and I leaned all the way onto the dryer and gripped it as tight as I could, my fingers curling around the edges and becoming nearly as white as the metal. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know his name, or what he looked like, or anything else about him. It was almost better, actually. There were no expectations here, no complications either. It was just pleasure and excitement.
The cold metal bled into me, mixing with the heat of my skin, and I instantly loved the mixed feeling it created along my skin. He moved his hand from my shoulder to the back of my hair as he got closer. I was pretty sure, from the times I’d jacked off with my friends, that his jerky, erratic movements probably meant that he was getting close, and I grabbed my cock to keep up with him. I wanted to come too, and with him in me still. I sped up, nearly to the point where I’d be causing myself pain, before I released with a shudder onto the front of the dryer.
I was still a bit limp as I recovered when he pushed himself all the way inside of me and yanked back on my hair. He pumped into me and I could feel his cock pulsing inside of me as he held me there. After a few seconds he let my hair go and I slumped forward.
I thought he’d leave me for sure after that. We were done, but he apparently wasn’t, as he turned me back over and helped me sit up on the dryer. It was cold on my ass, but he warmed me right up again with his rough kisses.
“Thanks,” I said to him, when he let me up to breathe.
“Yeah. You too.”
He gave me another kiss, and licked at my bottom lip, before leaving me in that laundry room. I didn’t go after him, didn’t try to find him again at the party, just cleaned up my mess with a rag I tossed into the washer as soon as I was done, fixed my pants, then walked back to my hotel.
I was moving into the dorms in the morning and felt pretty good about the night I’d had. It was nearly eleven, but in Colorado it was only getting to nine, so once I was back in my hotel room, and showered, I called my mom.
“Hey, sweetie pie. How’s Miami?” she asked me as soon as she picked up.
I tossed the towel I’d been using on my hair to the side and stretched out on the bed. “Pretty decent. Lots of humidity. And a lot of people in this hotel seem to have little dogs. Maybe it’s a Miami thing because I’m pretty sure no one in town has a dog under five pounds back home.”
My mom laughed and it was good to hear her voice. “No. I think we’d call them bear food if someone did. Oh, your cousin Trent says hello.”
He wasn’t really my cousin. My mom just worked at the same diner, and had been working there for the past twenty years, that Trent’s mom had owned. We were cousins because our moms had been best friends before his mom had passed. “Say hi back for me, please.” I liked Trent. He was a cop but he didn’t pull us over unless we were being stupid. I hadn’t had a car when I’d left town for Miami so my record was thankfully clean. But a lot of my friends had had to take summer jobs to pay off their tickets for being reckless.
I hoped that she couldn’t tell I’d been drinking, or that I was probably pretty drunk. I’d only been really drunk a few times before but I was pretty sure this was one of them. I didn’t feel sick, yet, but I knew I needed to take some pain killers tonight to hold off what was certainly coming for me in the morning. Whatever, it would be completely worth it for the night I’d had.
“Are you staying out of trouble?”
I laughed. “Yeah. More or less.”
She laughed with me and I was glad we had the kind of relationship that, if I’d wanted to, I could have told her about my night and she would have only worried about me using protection. She was really cool like that. “Your dad made you a mixed tape, CD, mp3 thing… anyway. It’s all the songs about Miami that he could fin
d. He’s going to send it to you in the mail. Some of them though…. Thomas, honey, there are days I’m glad you are only interested in boys.”
I shook my head as I laughed. “Men mom. I’m eighteen. I like men now. Not boys.” I put my forehead over my eyes and stared up at the ceiling.
“Oh excuse me. Look who’s all grown up now just because they got to move out. Well, I’m glad you like men then, because some of these songs about women and their thongs and booties. I may not be on top of all of what you kids do or know but even I know that when that song said booty it wasn’t talking about those cute little socks I knitted for Elijah.”
“Yeah. Probably not. How’s the baby anyway?” He was almost a year now, my little foster brother. I called him a baby, because he was so tiny, but really he was getting up there and growing a bit more everyday.
I heard the sadness in my mom’s voice and could picture her frown as if I was sitting right there next to her. “Oh, you know. He’s a handful. Those damn drugs….”
I nodded. I’d taken my first sip of alcohol with my friends in one of their dad’s man caves while we were in middle school, but I’d been really careful never to get involved with any kinds of drugs because I saw what they did to the babies my mom fostered. It wasn’t that I planned to ever have kids, biologically anyway, but I just didn’t want to be a part of something that hurt babies so much.
“Yeah. I know. I’m sure it’s tough. Are you still thinking about taking in those brothers too?” I asked her. My mom was always fostering more kids. There were a few that she’d adopted over the years, like me, but most of them were only with her during their court cases or before they got placed with a family member.
“Oh you know, with you out of the house, it seems like someone should be using your room. I can’t very well make Saturday morning pancake shapes for just your dad and I.”
God I missed Saturday morning pancakes already. My mom put cinnamon in the pancakes then dusted them with sugar. She used real butter too, the kind she made from shaking heavy whipping cream in a mason jar until it got all hard. My stomach growled, even though I’d had a cheeseburger, and I rubbed it. I’d only been gone a few days but I was already missing home.
“I can’t wait to come have them again. Missing you and dad already.” I frowned, wondering if I’d really been ready to move across the country. I’d considered any of the colleges in Denver, but I’d wanted to be by the ocean and see something more than the mountains for once.
“Oh honey, we miss you too. Don’t you worry, I’ll still be making pancakes when you come back for fall break. Or winter break, or whenever really. Don’t feel like you need to rush back home. Go, have an adventure. Fall in love, break some hearts, taste the ocean for me.”
I wiped at my eyes, because they were blurry, and realized I was crying without even meaning to or realizing I was doing it. “Love you, Mama.”
“Love you too, Thomas. Now, it’s after eleven there, if this world clock we set to Miami time is correct, so I’m going to let you go get some rest so that you can move in bright and early tomorrow. Take pictures for me and make sure to lift with your legs, not your back. You don’t need to be rushed to the emergency room before school even starts. Blow up something in the chemistry lab first.”
I grinned and sighed. “You’d be so worried.”
“But I would also have the first son in Thornwood to blow up a chemistry lab. Think of that now. All the ladies at the diner asked about you today. They think you’ll come back all tanned and ready for their daughters. Come back with some handsome man instead. That’ll show them.”
“I’ll try,” I promised her. Still smiling, I thought about the guy from the party. Of course I’d never see him again, but it had been fun. If she told her diner friends about what I’d done that would certainly give them something to talk about, or more like gossip about, in the tiny town I’d lived in all my life before coming here. “Talk to you later.” I yawned, really feeling the time now.
“Night, baby. You take care of yourself and remember to send me pictures.”
“I will. I will. Promise.” We blew each other kisses through the phone and I hung up. A couple of pain pills later, and an old movie on the TV to help me go to sleep, and I was out less than an hour later.
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With only three months left on a lease-to-own agreement on a quarter horse Wyatt’s worked hard to own, a thunderstorm spooks General and he throws Wyatt, changing both their lives forever. Luckily, Kellen, a friend of the stable owner, calls for emergency medical attention, and Wyatt comes out of the hospital with a broken wrist and a concussion.
When Wyatt returns to the stable, he finds the owner has sold General to Kellen for retraining. But Wyatt’s woes have just begun, and now he must drive an hour to see his horse. The perks help balance the hardships, however, and Wyatt finds himself falling for Kellen. His fortitude is soon tested again by the ultimate betrayal when he learns Kellen doesn’t intend to return General after he’s trained.
Charlie thinks his Friday will be the same as any other working as an animator, until Quinn Fitzgerald and his rescued Asiatic Lion, Aseem, walk into the studio. While the lion is impressive, his handler is the real reason Charlie’s heart skips a beat.
Quinn has devoted years of his life to rescuing big cats, so he can’t turn down the donation the animation company is offering in exchange for using one of his cats as a model.
Charlie isn’t quite as confident as the handsome, charming man his sister teasingly calls Sex God Quinn Fitzgerald. He’s so nervous he can hardly talk to the other man, so he’s shocked when Quinn not only notices him but invites him to spend the weekend at his big cat sanctuary.
Six months after Kit lost his big brother to a drunk driver, he’s alone and feeling like everyone has left him behind. He struggles to get out of bed, to feed himself, to talk to his parents. Worst of all, the man he loves, his brother’s best friend, hasn’t spoken to him since the funeral.
Tattoo artist Jason always planned to wait until Kit was a bit more experienced and mature before he told Kit how he felt about him. But Bear’s death changes everything, and Jason opts to give Kit space to heal.
However, the next time they meet, Jason is startled at how far Kit has deteriorated, so he takes him home. Simply taking care of Kit isn’t enough. Marking Kit with the tattoo he demands opens a window, but Jason still isn’t getting through, until he begins ordering Kit around and sees how receptive Kit is to his strong hand.
The Intergalactic Star Pilot Academy has accepted Thierry Leroux into the elite class of sky year 2231. But the academy comes with a hefty price tag, and there’s no way he, a poor Sythe orphan, has the credits the academy requires. Thierry’s brother, Corbin, a high-class companion, suggests Thierry sell his virginity for the cost of tuition. It seems like a ridiculous idea, but it may be Thierry’s only shot, so Thierry asks Corbin to arrange a meeting on the pleasure planet of Wish.
On Wish, Thierry meets Corbin’s boss, Monroe, and they agree to auction off Thierry’s virginity. Thierry is grateful to the masked buyer he knows only as “Dragonfly,” and Dragonfly is gentle, making Thierry’s first time a good memory. When Dragonfly requests to see him again, and pay for the pleasure, Thierry returns to Wish. But in this game, falling in love is dangerous for the heart, and Thierry might not like the man behind the mask.
Werewolves are real. Marius enjoys the irony that everyone calls him a dog whisperer, not just because he’s a werewolf, but for his work at the local animal shelter. He has a unique talent for pairing families with their perfect pets upon first meeting them. But he’s still looking for acceptance and a forever family of his own. Then Jack comes into the rescue looking for a big, mean dog. To prevent Jack from making the wrong choice, Marius convinces him to adopt a needy spaniel mix instead. But when Marius learns Jack is tormented by horrible memories while a
t his apartment, he opens his home to the sweet, scared man. As their relationship grows, Jack feels comfortable telling Marius about the horrors he suffered. Marius hopes his steady presence, protection, and love can help Jack reclaim the pieces of himself broken on that terrible night.
A Forever Home: Book Two
Seth’s life looks idyllic on the surface. He has a great job at the pet rescue with a fantastic boss, who happens to be a werewolf. He is getting his degree at the local university and has a best friend who understands that the most intimate thing for Seth is a kiss. But when it comes to relationships, Seth’s perfect life is a jumbled mess. No guy stays around because eventually, they always want more than Seth, who is asexual, is able to give. Seth wants love and a relationship, but not the sex that everyone puts so much value on.
Seth tries for something more with the man he has a crush on, but when that ends Seth feels like he’s back to square one. So when his boss’s brother, Jeremy, pushes his way into Seth’s life, insisting that he won’t press for more than Seth is comfortable sharing, Seth is wary. All of Seth’s experience says it won’t last long. But Jeremy is one werewolf who is used to getting his way, and might just be patient enough to wait for Seth to see he means what he says.
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