Dreamspinner Press Year Eight Greatest Hits

by Brandon Witt

  It wasn’t just the previous six months he’d been stalking—checking out—Alex since he’d been laid. He’d moved from southern California to Slater more than a year prior, having been awarded a full-ride scholarship. Slater was a small town located in the upper peninsula of Michigan and didn’t have a lot to offer outside the tiny university. Much to Ridley’s dismay, he learned soon after arriving in Slater that the town was completely lacking in any kind of nightlife. Ridley had never considered a study group or sporting events a form of satisfying entertainment. The closest dance club was thirty miles away, and during the winter months, it may as well have been three thousand.

  He’d always enjoyed a very… fulfilling sex life before he left home. He’d always been insatiable, and dammit, he wanted a fucking blow job at the very least. Having someone who looked like Alex consuming his thoughts made the unfilled desires all the more intolerable. Somehow he had to not only convince Alex to go out with him, but get that sexy fucker in his bed.

  RIDLEY HAD accepted the fact that he was becoming a wee bit obsessed with Alex, definitely bordering on becoming that creepy stalker dude. He didn’t want to be that guy, so as hard as it was, he stayed away from the library for an entire week after giving Alex his number. Neither the realization of obsession nor his resolve did little to curb his new obsession—checking his phone every five seconds.

  Thinking a full seven days would be a sufficient waiting period, Ridley showed back up at the library. Actually, seven days was all he could stand. He was jonesing to see Alex again, and there was no fucking way he could stay away another day. With a new haircut, shaved close on the sides, the top styled into a fauxhawk, and a ten-spot shelled out to have his beard trimmed nice and close, he pushed through the doors and instantly scanned the area for his lust interest. He’d also sprung for a new silver ring to replace the black bar in his eyebrow as well as matching hoops in both his ears. He was totally styling and looking damn fine, if he said so himself. Ridley just hoped Alex would appreciate the shit he’d gone through, not to mention the money he’d spent to look good for him.

  He spotted Alex leaning against the front counter. Although his back was to Ridley, he’d know that mess of blond curls anywhere. What stopped him dead in his tracks and caused his heart to race like a runaway locomotive was what Alex was wearing. Previously, Ridley had only assumed Alex had a nice, athletic body, but it had been difficult to be one hundred percent certain with how baggy his clothes were. Now he knew exactly how impressive Alex’s lean, muscular body was by the way his skinny jeans clung to his well-developed thighs and pert little butt. His tight blue T-shirt showed off his broad shoulders and was tucked into jeans at his narrow waist. Christ on a stick, the man wasn’t just gorgeous, he was a fucking god! And there Ridley was, popping a boner standing in the entryway and not even caring about the strange looks people were tossing at him or the way they sidestepped him.

  Ridley pulled his shirt out of his suddenly overly tight jeans and stepped up to the counter next to Alex. “Oh, hi,” he greeted in mock surprise.

  “Hi. Ridley, right?” Alex asked.

  He was ridiculously happy that Alex had remembered his name and smiled broadly, all the while trying to act calm and cool, like it was no big thing. But in his head he was screaming, Yes! Yes! Alex Fucking Firestone remembered my name! Damn, he was pathetic.

  “Yeah, that’s right. How have you been?” Ridley responded with as much nonchalance as he could muster. He wasn’t sure how it looked, but at least his voice came out steady and didn’t squeak.

  “Good. I meant to call you, but by the time I got home, your number was smudged. I’ve been watching for you.”

  “Seriously?” he said excitedly and a bit too loudly. He quickly clamped down on his excitement, turned, and went to rest his elbow on the counter and… yeah, missed the whole smooth-operator thing when he practically fell on his ass when his traitorous trembling knees buckled.

  “Whoa there,” Alex said and grabbed onto Ridley’s arm to keep him upright. “You okay?”

  Ridley briefly thought of lying and telling Alex he had low blood sugar and hadn’t eaten, or he had a rare disease that caused him to get excited randomly, but while he was searching through and discarding lies, he found himself saying, “I’m fine. I get a little flustered when I’m around you.” Shit! Where the hell had that come from or rather, why the fuck did I say it? Ridley turned away from Alex, set his elbow on the counter, and rested his forehead against his palm, his embarrassment complete. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” he admitted.

  “I thought it was cute.” Alex grinned.

  Ridley glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “Wow. Way to kick a man when he’s down,” he muttered playfully.

  “What? It was cute.” Alex laughed and Ridley wouldn’t have thought it possible, but damn if it didn’t make Alex all the sexier.

  “Cute, huh?” Ridley arched a brow. “You’re going to have to make that up to me, ya know?”

  “Well, if you were hoping I’d replace your man card with mine, sorry but I lost mine a hundred”—Alex made the universal symbol for quotation marks—“cute remarks ago.”

  “Guess you’ll just have to have dinner with me, then,” Ridley informed him, feeling a little more confident. “You know, for stripping me of my card.”

  “Here you go,” said a little redhead, handing Alex a large manila envelope.

  “Thanks, Amanda,” Alex said with a grin and took the envelope. He tucked it under his arm and then turned to Ridley. “Okay, when?”

  It took him a minute to catch up, or maybe he was in shock that Alex actually said yes, because Ridley stood there with his mouth gaping, staring like a deer caught in headlights. He was batting a thousand for the dork squad. Thankfully, Amanda gave him a helping hand by distracting Alex.

  “Any chance you can cover my shift on Saturday? I have a date,” she asked.

  “Anyone I know?” Alex responded.

  The two of them chatted about schedules and some guy named Kevin that Alex didn’t seem to like too much, but Ridley wasn’t really paying attention. Since he was pretty sure he’d heard Alex say “okay,” Ridley was taking the opportunity to take some deep breaths, slow his racing heart, and doing his fucking damnedest not to break out into some kind of lame happy dance. He’d already embarrassed himself enough, and with his no-rhythm ass jerking and twitching around, Alex would have been screaming and running from the crazy or falling to the floor with laughter.

  “Did you need anything?”

  “Oh… um, no, I’m good,” Ridley told Amanda. It was a bit delayed, but he caught up quickly when she cocked her head and gave him a funny look.

  “Alrighty, then,” she muttered. “See you later, Alex.”

  Alex waved to Amanda and then turned to Ridley. “So, when?”

  “No time like the present,” Ridley said smoothly, having gotten a little control of his giddiness.

  “Dude,” Alex chuckled, checking his watch. “It’s just after nine in the morning.”

  “I’m sure it’s noon somewhere in the world. Besides,” Ridley said with a shrug. “I’ve never been one to follow the rules.”

  “Is that so?” With the glint in his eyes, Alex looked like he was laughing at Ridley, just a little. “I have some things to take care of this morning. How about we meet up at two at the pub on Main?”

  “That works. See you then!”

  Ridley made a beeline for the front door. Seriously, he needed to get the hell out of there because the jerking and twitching dance was getting nearly impossible to contain much longer. He stopped with his hand on the door and looked over his shoulder. Alex was leaning against the counter, his eyes on him. Ridley waved and stepped out of the library, but once again he had the feeling that his lust interest was laughing. Ridley wasn’t sure if that boded well for him or not. Whatever. He had a date and had less than five hours to get his shit together and see if he could fish out his backup man card.

>   IT TOOK every bit of the time he had to primp. He had the craziest fucking hair. It should have been easy to style since the sides were shaved and it had just been cut and styled earlier that day. But after a long, hot shower with extra time for meticulous manscaping, he was left struggling with all the fancy hair products the stylist had given him. No matter how many times he tried to duplicate what the stylist had done, he couldn’t seem to get it right. His fauxhawk kept ending up looking like a limphawk. The third time he washed it, he was starting to worry all the crap he was adding to it, the heat of the blow dryer, straight iron, blah, blah, blah, was going to leave him permanently bald. He ended up calling his best friend Rae.

  “I’m here! What’s wrong,” Rae said by way of greeting when she rushed through the door.

  “Help,” Ridley pleaded while holding up the hair glue and spray.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me, Ridley,” she grumbled and snatched the products away. “You sounded panicked. I thought there was something seriously wrong.”

  “There is. Look at this crap,” he countered and pointed to his hair. “I have a date in less than an hour.”

  “You made me rush over here for your hair?” Rae slapped his arm.

  “Ow, stop beating on me and start helping,” he groaned and plopped down in the chair. “And stop being so damn dramatic. You make it sound like you had to rush across town rather than down the hall.”

  “Yeah, well,” she said and rolled her eyes. “Ever think I might have been doing something important?”

  “No, now start styling.”

  “Tell me again why you’re my best friend?” she quipped as she started putting the sticky stuff in his hair.

  “So you can pass math.”

  “Oh, right,” she chuckled. “So let me guess, you have a date with Mr. Hot and Geeky?”

  “What makes you think that?” he demurred.

  “Because you’ve been talking about him for months and he’s the only person you’d get this freaked over your hair for.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” But he wasn’t fooling Rae. She had had to listen to him go on about Alex once or a thousand times. He felt no guilt or shame. He’d had to listen to her going on and on and on about some guy in her economics class. They were even.

  Rae ran her fingers through his hair for a minute and then exclaimed, “All done.”

  “No way!” He jumped up and ran to the mirror. How in the hell had she done that so quickly? It was perfect.

  “Time to work on your clothes.”

  “My clothes?” Ridley looked down at the black T-shirt and jeans he was wearing and then at Rae with wide eyes. “Oh shit! I don’t look good, do I?” Ridley asked, panic beginning to cause his gut to flutter, and not at all pleasantly.

  “Good thing you have me,” she reminded him and started pulling shit from the closet. “Now about my payment.”

  By the time Ridley slid into the booth at Jake’s Pub twenty minutes before two, he didn’t even care how deeply in debt to Rae he was. Even the nightmare of having to escort her to the ballet version of Romeo and Juliet would be worth it. Confession—he hated the ballet. Although, he’d have endured worse than spending a couple hours watching guys in tights with bulging packages hop around if that was what it took to make her happy. She not only made sure his hair was perfect, she had also helped dress him and prevented more than one freak-the-fuck-out meltdown.

  He was calm, cool, collected, and looking super fine, sipping on a pint of craft brew—and then he spotted Alex walking through the front door. Instantly his heart began to race, and he choked on his mouthful of beer. Damn, if he hadn’t chosen his seat perfectly because by the time Alex spotted him and headed over to the booth, he had stopped coughing and wiped away the beer that had run down his chin. He couldn’t do anything about the speed of his heart or the butterflies going nuts in his gut, but at least his voice was strong and even when he said, “Hi, Alex.”

  “Hi,” Alex replied with a smile as he slid into the booth across from Ridley and waved toward the waiter. “How’ve you been?”

  A complete and utter fucking mess. “I’m good. How was your day?”

  “Productive,” Alex responded and winked. “Can I get a pint of Guinness?” he asked the waiter.

  “Sure. You ready for another?” the server asked Ridley, pointing to his nearly empty mug.

  Ridley downed the rest of his beer and handed him the mug.

  “Thanks for inviting me,” Alex commented, glancing around the room. “I’ve been meaning to check this place out. It’s cool.”

  “You’ve never been here?” Ridley asked with true shock.

  Jake’s Pub was the only place in town to get a beer, play pool, and just hang out. Well, there were the First Presbyterian Church, the post office, and the organic deli to hang out at, but he just couldn’t picture Alex in any of those places. The pub fit him, so it was all the more unbelievable that he had never been there.

  “Nope,” Alex responded after thanking the waiter for the beers. “I don’t really get out much.”

  “Well, then, I feel all the more special for you accepting my invitation.” He lifted his mug and Alex clinked his against it.

  They both took long pulls of their brews. Ridley’s gaze was drawn to Alex’s throat and his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. Ridley couldn’t help it, he imagined Alex swallowing down other things, hard things, intimate things. A tingling sensation ran across his groin, and he knew he needed to keep his naughty thoughts in check or he’d be embarrassing himself once again in the form of a wet spot on the front of his jeans.

  “So what do you do for fun?” Ridley inquired, needing the subject changed. He prayed Alex didn’t say fucking or BAM, soggy jeans.

  “Between my work and school schedule, I don’t really have much time for fun,” Alex admitted.

  “You know that old saying, all work and no play makes Alex a—”

  “I’m far from a dull boy,” Alex interrupted with a smirk. “I simply needed to take a bit of a”—he waved his hand dismissively—“break from all the fun.”

  “The chess club knows how to party, huh?” Ridley teased.

  “You have no idea,” Alex muttered.

  For a split second there was a look of regret in Alex’s eyes that was in sharp contrast to the easy smile on his face. It was gone before Ridley could be sure, but it made him think there was a bit more to Alex than just a cute library assistant and college student. Ridley wasn’t sure why he felt that way from such a fleeting look, it was just a feeling he had. More astonishingly, that one look made him realize he didn’t want to just fuck the guy, he wanted to know everything about him, including what had caused the regret.

  “So what’s your area of study?” Ridley asked as he ran his finger along the condensation on his mug.

  “Accounting and financial management. Shocked?”

  Ridley couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head. “No, not really.”

  Given Alex’s appearance, it didn’t surprise him at all. However, he was quickly learning not to assume anything when it came to Alex.

  “What about you? Wait, let me guess,” Alex amended and tapped his finger against the table as he studied Ridley.

  Ridley did his best not to fidget under the scrutiny, but it was tough. He liked having Alex’s eyes on him, liked the thoughtful expression on his face. Ridley sipped his beer, keeping his gaze locked with Alex’s.

  “I got it! You’re studying to be a rocket scientist.”

  It burned like hell as beer shot out his nose when he choked on a laugh. Ridley set his mug aside and grabbed his napkin. “Fucker,” he grumbled as he wiped the beer and snot from his face.

  “That was entertaining.” Alex chuckled. “I take it I didn’t guess correctly,” he commented smugly.

  “Yeah…. No. Mechanical engineering.” Ridley threw the napkin at Alex, who snatched it out of the air easily. Ridley cocked his head at him. “Impressive reflexes.”

&nbs
p; “What? You’re surprised a geek can be as good with his hands as he is with his brain?” Alex crumpled the napkin and tossed it aside.

  “One can only hope,” Ridley murmured wryly into his beer. He was actually thinking a sexy-ass geek with talented hands would be a dream come true. The only thing that would make it more perfect would be if said sexy-ass geek with talented hands was also a kinky top. Of course he hoped for it all, but as he looked over at Alex, Ridley highly doubted he’d have an issue compromising. With someone who looked like Alex, Ridley figured he might even learn to prefer having Alex beneath him instead of in him.

  “What was that?”

  “Can I get you another beer?” Ridley offered and pointed at his empty mug.

  “Mmmhmm,” Alex hummed and pushed the mug toward Ridley.

  The beers flowed as easily as the laughter over the next couple of hours. Ridley didn’t really learn a lot about Alex other than he was twenty-four and didn’t like to talk about himself, his family, or his past. Ridley was hoping to change that over a game of pool. And hey, if not, Ridley could think of worse ways to spend the evening than watching Alex bend over to take a shot.

  “You want to break?” Ridley offered as he slid the quarters into the table and dropped the balls.

  “Sure. Although I should warn you, I suck at pool when I’m stone-cold sober. But drunk….” Alex shrugged one shoulder.

  “That’s okay. I’ll take it easy on you,” Ridley offered with a wink.

  Ridley racked the balls while Alex chalked up his cue stick. Ridley had been semihard since Alex had walked into the pub, but when he bent over the table to line up his shot, Ridley’s jeans got a whole lot tighter. He’d never been a big fan of the skinny-jean fad, but seeing Alex in them changed his opinion. He fucking loved the crazy fad.