Alluring Passion: A MM Contemporary Bundle

by Peter Styles

  “With me sitting between his legs and his ankles locked behind my back,” I said, seriously. “Honestly, it was one of the most awkward moments of my entire life. I felt like I was about to deflower the guy. And did I mention how hot he is?”

  “Oh no.” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, God, Harris, please tell me you didn’t get a boner.”

  “I could tell you that,” I said, “but that would absolutely be a lie.”

  “Noooo!” Christy buried her face in her hands, overcome with secondhand humiliation. “Oh my God!”

  “I know,” I said, seriously. “I know.”

  “And then what?”

  I cringed. “And then he tossed me across the room.”

  “Seriously?!”

  “Yeah. He said that he overestimated my weight.”

  “Do you think he did it on purpose?”

  “Nah.” I shook my head, but the movement was limited; the fight had put a hell of a crick in my neck. “He apologized over and over. Said the next five classes are free. He said he figured I’d be light, but he wasn’t used to someone so small.” I wrinkled my nose. “He doesn’t seem to be a bad guy, but I wish he would shut up about how short I am. He brought it up over and over again. In my defense, I think he called me short about ten times more than I called him daddy.”

  “I’m not sure it’s fair to compare those two things, Harris.”

  “Yeah, it’s probably not.” I ran a hand through my hair. “But I need to find some way to make myself feel better and, if it’s not going to be denial, I’m not sure how I’ll manage.”

  Christy rolled her eyes, but she was starting to look genuinely sympathetic. “So, other than getting your ass beat, did you enjoy it, at least? Did it seem like something you could get into?”

  “Honestly? Hard to tell,” I admitted. “I want to say yes. I had a pretty decent time, all things considered.”

  “But?”

  “But he’s cute,” I said, simply. “He’s cute and he’s nice.”

  “So?”

  “So I feel weird about taking classes with him.”

  Christy frowned. “Is this because of Gary?” she asked, seriously. “Because I thought you guys were really clear about just being friends with benefits. You always said that neither one of you wanted a relationship.”

  “And we don’t,” I explained.

  “So what’s the problem?”

  I shrugged. “It’s not about Gary,” I said. “It’s about me. I don’t know how to explain it, but it just feels weird for me to go off, gallivanting around with some super-hot guy. It feels wrong. It’s not because I think I owe Gary anything or because I think he’d be upset, because I know he wouldn’t be..”

  “So, I have to ask again,” Christy said, “what’s the problem?”

  I looked down at the tabletop. Little scorch marks from curling irons and scratches from nail files littered the surface. I ran my finger over a hardened dot of dripped nail polish. “The problem is that I don’t know if I can sleep with someone else,” I admitted. “I don’t know if I’ll ever feel safe or comfortable or confident enough. I know it’s stupid, but the idea of being like that with someone I don’t know well is really scary. It hasn’t always gone well in the past, you know? There have been plenty of times where I’m on the verge of hooking up with someone and I just freeze. Or the sex is just a total disaster. Or some guy want to see me again after we sleep together and I’m just too afraid to do it. I’m not good at this relationship shit.”

  “Sounds like something you might want to talk to a therapist about,” she said, pointedly.

  “Would you knock it off with the therapist thing?” I snapped. “I don’t need one.”

  “Tell that to your fear of intimacy.”

  “I don’t have a—” I sighed. “Okay, so I do have a little bit of a fear of intimacy. But that’s really not the biggest issue here. Even if I wasn’t nervous about relationships, there’s no guarantee that he’s gay. Statistically, he’s probably not.”

  “Maybe,” Christy agreed. “But none of the girls I know have ever managed to get a date with him. And you know the kind of girls I know. If he was straight, one of them would have succeeded at some point, I guarantee it.”

  “You’re not wrong.” I rolled my shoulders and winced. I stood and dusted myself off. “Well, we’ll see what happens, I guess. In the meantime, I need to get the cameras fixed and double-check all the security alarms before rush hour hits.”

  Christy frowned. “You sure you don’t want to wait? Maybe take a day and let your shoulder heal up?”

  “Can’t,” I replied.

  “Why not?”

  “Because,” I said, grabbing the toolbox that suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, “I have work tomorrow.”

  Chapter Nine

  Even Leonard was concerned when I showed up at work the next day. “It’s only been three days since the robbery,” he said, watching me boot up the computer and rearrange all the stuff he’d screwed up while I was gone. “Are you sure you should be here? It seems a little soon. It’s only been four days.”

  “I’m fine,” I said.

  “Are you sure? Because if you need any help, you know, I’m always available.”

  “Shocker,” I deadpanned. “The guy with no job and no friends is available to help? I can’t believe I somehow overlooked such a gift.”

  Leonard thrust his chin forward haughtily. “You don’t need to be a dick about it. I’m offering my services to help support you and this store.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure it has nothing to do with the store credit you get for working here.”

  “It doesn’t,” he confirmed. “It’s not like I’ve been getting a ton while you were gone, anyway. Gary has been bogarting all the hours.”

  “I’ve never done anything wrong in my life, thank you very much,” Gary said from his post in the reading corner, where he was flipping through a copy of The Long Halloween.

  “Is that from the shelf?” I asked him.

  “This?” He held up the book. “Nah.”

  “I didn’t think so. I thought it was out of stock. Where’s it from?”

  “It’s mine,” Gary explained. “I brought it with me.”

  “You brought it with you?”

  “Sure.”

  “Sorry, let me just double check here.” I pointed at the cover. “You brought that —a Batman book—with you. To a comic-book store. Where you have store credit and money with which to buy other comics.”

  “Well,” he shut the book and cleared his throat, “when you say it like that, it sounds stupid.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “it sure does.”

  “I hate to say this,” Gary continued, “but I’m wondering if Leonard might be right. Are you sure you’re ready to be back? I mean, you haven’t even replaced all the figures yet.”

  “Half of the ones that got bitched up were KISS figures,” I said, with a shrug. “Unless Gene Simmons himself comes in here, I don’t think we’re in danger of losing revenue on that. Really, it’s not a huge deal. And it’s not like I can hide forever.”

  “Maybe not, but that’s never stopped you before,” Leonard said, then let out a yelp of pain when Gary kicked him in the shin. “Ow! What? It’s true! He spends his entire life in his bedroom or the shop! Is that not hiding?”

  “You’re describing your own life, asshole,” I snapped. “What are you hiding?”

  “Repressed homosexuality, probably,” Gary said, and he shot me a grin at Leonard’s horrified expression.

  “The point is that I’m not just going to sit in my room and pretend that nothing happened. And I’m definitely not going to avoid my responsibilities for the rest of my life just because of one break in.” I gestured across the street. “I mean, the 7-11 across the street has been robbed—what, eight times?”

  “Nine,” Gary said. “There was another one last night.”

  “Wow, this is a bad part of town,” I muttered to myself. �
�How do we do so well?”

  “You feed the most addictive habit of the town’s finest,” Leonard said, with a shrug. “Comics are more addictive than heroin.”

  “I feel like you don’t have the sources to back that up,” I said.

  “Well, at least you don’t need to worry about getting robbed again,” Gary said. He smirked, looking sideways at Leonard, who I could tell apparently hadn’t heard the news. “Especially since you’re under the protection of the Shadow Hunter.”

  Leonard, in a moment of total anticlimax, frowned. “The what?”

  “The Shadow Hunter.” Gary stared at him and, when Leonard shrugged, he snapped, “Jesus, dude, you’re the biggest nerd I’ve ever met and you don’t know who the Shadow Hunter is?”

  “Are you talking about that show based on those young adult books?” Leonard asked, bewildered.

  “No,” I said. “You wouldn’t know about him. He’s an actual, real person. You know, the kind of guy you don’t give a shit about.”

  “That’s not true,” Leonard argued. “I happen to be very passionate about current events. My focus is just more global than local.”

  “Okay, then,” Gary said, “tell me what the conflict between Israel and Pakistan is about.”

  Leonard just scowled at him. “It’s complicated,” he snapped.

  “He got you there, Gary,” I said, with a grin.

  Gary rolled his eyes. “Either way, the Shadow Hunter is the tri-cities’ very own personal Batman. He’s this total badass who dresses in all black and fights crime. He was the one who stopped the robbers.”

  “How do you know he’s a total badass?” I asked, amused.

  “Because he beat the shit out of those two meatheads making fun of Northstar and a third dude. That’s pretty badass, if you ask me.”

  “Wow, seriously?” Leonard turned to me, his eyes alight. “Harris, you know an actual superhero!”

  “He’s not a superhero,” I grumbled, but I was smiling. “He doesn’t have any superpowers or anything. He’s just a guy.”

  “A very badass guy,” Gary corrected.

  “Yes,” I admitted. “He is a very badass guy. And pretty nice, too.”

  “You mean you actually saw him? And talked to him?” Leonard looked like he was about to explode. His doughy face had gone a splotchy red with excitement, and sweat had broken out on his forehead. His chubby hands were curled into fists, shaking from delight.

  “Good lord, now you’ve got him doing it,” I complained to Gary. “I don’t get why you’re so obsessed with him. He’s cool, I’ll grant you that, and he helped me out a lot, but I don’t get why you are the one who’s so interested in him.”

  “I don’t get how you’re not!” Gary cried. “From what you told me, this dude’s costume is, like, if a Talon and Batman decided to go halvsies on a suit of armor. Didn’t you say he got hit in the head with a gun and didn’t even feel it?”

  “Yeah. It’s called a helmet, Gary. We’ve had the technology for years. If that’s what constitutes a superhero, then I must be fucking Spider-Man. I have the suit and everything.” I actually had three distinct Spider-Man suits, but considering I was trying to sound like I was so above the geekery going on in the shop at the moment, I figured that pointing that out would hurt my credibility.

  “Why are you fighting me on this?” Gary said. “You’re the one he saved. And you know more about superheroes than anyone I know, except possibly your dad, and even that’s on the fence.”

  I busied myself checking all of the shelves to make sure everything was filed correctly. Of course, because Leonard had worked, it wasn’t, and poor Gary didn’t know him enough to look for signs of his laziness, like the fact that he’d shoved the Rick and Morty comics in the kids’ section. Finally, I said, “I just don’t want to get my hopes up by hero-worshipping the guy. He’s just a dude who did a really great thing for me. We’ll see what comes of it.”

  Gary frowned for a moment, then raised his eyebrows in a gesture of enlightenment. “Ohhhh,” he said. “I see.”

  “What?” Leonard asked. “What don’t you want to get your hopes up about?”

  “We’ll tell you when you’re older,” Gary told him.

  “Wha—oh, ew!” Leonard snapped. “God, Harris, could you stop ruining people by having sex with them? I can barely deal with the two of you sleeping together, and you’re my best friends!”

  “Wow,” Gary said, “you calling us your best friends is just devastatingly sad.”

  Leonard puffed out his cheeks in annoyance. “Fuck you,” he snapped.

  “Jesus, you two! It’s not automatically a sex thing!” I said. “Believe it or not, there are people in this world who are interested in things that aren’t boning.”

  “So if it’s not a sex thing, what is it?” Leonard asked.

  “Yeah,” Gary chimed in. He shifted in his seat, leaning forward and watching me with a smirk. He knew perfectly well that, if I tried to lie, he would know.

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s less of a sex thing than a hero worship thing,” I explained, which was almost entirely true. “I mean, he’s basically Batman. He’s got a lot to live up to. I have really high expectations for how this is supposed to go. It’s hard for me to gush over him and be all ‘oh, my hero, my knight in shining armor’ when I don’t know if he’ll even show up again.”

  “I think he will,” Gary said.

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “Well…” He ruffled his hair, looking uncomfortable. “I didn’t want to tell you this in case it freaked you out, but I think I’ve actually seen him around here a few times. I think I saw someone, anyway, but whenever I did a double-take, they were gone.”

  “He just melted away,” Leonard said in awe. “He disappeared into the darkness. Just like the Bat.”

  “Relax, Leonard,” I said, annoyed. “You just learned who the dude is and you’re already acting like you want to blow him.”

  “I don’t! I’m just excited to finally have something decent happen in this shitty town,” he sniffed. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t be.”

  I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to let on just how excited I actually was about having the Shadow Hunter around.

  When it came time to close, both of them offered to help me or see me out to my car, but I declined. Not only did I not want the two of them crowding around me in hopes to see our new superhero buddy, but I had an irrational fear that, if I had people with me, the Shadow Hunter wouldn’t come. For some reason, I was worried that he operated on Santa Claus rules: if someone saw him, he would just vanish, and then all of my protection would go with him.

  It wasn’t really just the protection I was worried about, I realized, when I was shutting down the computer for the day. That was definitely a part of it, but there was more to it and, even though I would never tell my friends this, it was a little bit of a sex thing. Once I’d had time to recover from the shock of the encounter, I couldn’t deny that the idea that someone was willing to fight off big baddies for me was pretty exciting. Besides, I’d seen him in action and, even though I hadn’t gotten the full view, I’d seen enough to get a sense of how powerful he was. His costume didn’t exactly give away a whole lot, but he was tall and bulky and he must have been pretty well-muscled to toss such big guys around like he had. I could hardly be judged or blamed for finding that ability sexy.

  I locked the door behind me and, almost like magic, I felt a presence behind me. I turned to see the Shadow Hunter, standing a respectful but protective distance away.

  Even though I’d been hoping he’d show, I was still surprised. “Uh, hey,” I said lamely, my hand still on the doorknob. “You came back.”

  “I said I would look after you and your shop,” he replied. “I always keep my word.”

  Of course you do, I thought. “Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate it. It’s my first day back.”

  “I know,” he said. “There was another man here the pas
t few days. I tried to stay out of his line of sight. I didn’t know if you wanted him to know about me. Or if I could trust him.”

  “Gary?” I laughed. “Don’t worry, you can trust him. He’s pretty much your number one fan right now. Besides, he’d probably be okay with anyone that was taking care of me like this. He—well, we both appreciate it.”

  “Of course. It’s my job,” the Shadow Hunter said, simply.

  “It isn’t,” I said. “Unless you’re getting paid by the city government to help out small business owners, it really isn’t your job to take care of me or anybody else.”

  “Are you saying my help isn’t wanted?” He almost sounded hurt.

  I shook my head. “Not at all. I’m saying you’re an exceptionally good person for doing this for people you don’t even know.” I gave him a once-over, taking in his massive height and bulk. “Or exceptionally good people. For all I know, you’re part of some shadowy organization. Or there’s actually three tiny people sitting on each other’s shoulders in that costume.”

  He made a strange huffing noise. After a second, I realized that he was laughing; it was just being muffled by the mask. I grinned, proud of myself. “I know,” I said, “I’m pretty funny for a total loser.”

  “You don’t seem to be a loser at all.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t know me very well.”

  He walked me to my car, then hovered awkwardly at the passenger door. He peered down at me when I thanked him and got in, and he stayed standing there when I turned the key. He didn’t seem likely to move any time soon.

  I rolled down the window. “What’s up?” I asked.

  “Um.” Even though I couldn’t see any part of his face, and even though his body was completely cloaked in black, he looked embarrassed. “Would you mind giving me a ride?”

  I stifled a smile. “Sure. Where to?”

  “Your place. Where you dropped me off last time. It’s pretty close to my next stop.”

  “No problem.” I opened the door for him and he clambered in, folding himself up in my passenger seat. I took off, trying to keep my eyes on the road instead of watching the truly fascinating man beside me. “So, you have a next stop,” I said. “Do you give personalized services like this to everyone?”