By the time they parked outside of the bowling alley, Tristan couldn’t stand it any longer. He’d been half-hard since the bacon incident, and he fought against images of Gabe following up on the promise of that kiss, because he’d only go full wood. His coat wasn’t long enough to hide a bulge.

At least he wasn’t the only one struggling. Gabe sat with his legs tight together and one hand in his lap.

Fuck this, I am not some virgin wallflower.

The lanes were mostly empty. Not surprising for the middle of a Thursday in November—Tristan stopped walking so suddenly that someone crashed into him from behind.

“What’s wrong?” Gabe asked. The warm body behind him.

“It’s November.”

“Yeah.”

Noel turned, startled. “You recalled that?”

“Yep.” A wiggle of excitement made him laugh. “It popped right into my head.”

“Hearing you say stuff like that is never going to get old.”

“Good, because chances are a lot more shit is going to start popping in there.”

“That’s what we all want,” Gabe said.

No one more than me. Shit.

“Noel, why don’t you and Shane get your shoes and bowl a frame.” Tristan handed Noel his notebook, then turned to Gabe and put every ounce of obvious invitation into his expression that he could. “I need to use the restroom.”

He went off in search of it without waiting for an answer. Six other people were bowling at the moment. Two pairs, and two people alone, and three of them female, so the chances of an interruption were slim. The bathrooms were at the far end of the lanes, and loud music was playing from hidden speakers.

Tristan pushed through the heavy wood door. Three stalls, all empty. He walked into the handicapped stall and waited.

Gabe wasn’t thirty seconds behind him. He strode into the stall, pulled the lock in place, and then had Tristan pressed against the cement block wall with his body. Tristan’s cock hummed with the thrill of it, with the proximity of someone who made his head spin with something as simple as a touch. The spice of Gabe’s cologne filled his nose, and below it, he caught a subtle hint of sweat. Of Gabe.

He tilted his head, inviting Gabe to break that last barrier. To bend his neck and finally fucking kiss him.

Gabe pressed a firm thigh against his groin, and Tristan gasped. He clasped Gabe’s ass through his jeans, inviting more pressure. Gabe slowly rubbed his own erection against Tristan’s hip, and holy crap he was big. The moment seemed to last forever, imprinting itself on Tristan’s heart, and maybe he wouldn’t remember their first kiss tomorrow but holy shit he’d enjoy it today.

As Gabe continued to hesitate, Tristan made the first move. He pulled Gabe’s head down. Closed his eyes and caught his lips in a firm press that gave way instantly. Gabe opened, allowing Tristan to thrust his tongue into his mouth, tasting Gabe for the first time. Something deep inside of Tristan came to life in that moment, awakening a part of himself he’d not known in a long time—genuine, physical connection with someone.

God yes, please.

Gabe’s tongue danced with his, rolling and teasing, and then he forced Tristan’s retreat. He relaxed into the kiss, enjoying the way Gabe licked at his teeth and the roof of his mouth, and it was everything. Nothing existed outside of them. One of Gabe’s hands clenched his hair, while the other groped his ass. Tristan wanted Gabe naked so he could lick every inch of skin, but that couldn’t happen here.

Not here but soon.

Gabe startled him by breaking the kiss. He pressed his forehead against Tristan’s, warmth breath wafting across his cheeks in soft pants.

“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked.

“I don’t want to take advantage.”

“Trust me, you aren’t. I want you so bad, Gabe.”

“I want you too, but I want you to remember the things we do. And to never regret them.”

“I won’t regret anything except stopping. Later you can help me write down every single detail so I can fantasize over my first time getting blown in public when I’m missing you. Please.”

“You make a compelling argument.”

“Did you notice I’m a stubborn person?”

Gabe stared at him for another beat, and then he did the sexiest thing ever by kneeling on the tile in front of Tristan. Memories of the way Gabe’s lips slipped around his fork made Tristan’s blood pulse with need. Gabe made quick work of his fly and pulled both jeans and underwear down just low enough to free his erection. They didn’t have time for slow, and knowing someone could walk in at any second added to the thrill.

Warm lips closed over the head of his cock, and Tristan slapped a hand over his own mouth to cover his gasp. Gabe’s tongue rubbed the underside of the crown, waking up nerves and sending pleasure signals zinging down Tristan’s spine. His balls tingled with awareness, already drawing up, because yeah, this wasn’t going to last. It had been so long and Gabe felt so amazing, sliding down, taking his cock right to the back of his throat.

Holy shit, that’s hot.

He watched Gabe’s lips stretch and his cheeks darken. So gorgeous. Gabe glanced up, meeting his gaze, and goddamn. Those dark eyes blazed with life and with want, and all of it was for Tristan. He threaded his fingers through Gabe’s dark hair and held on while his world exploded on a rolling wave of bliss.

“Close.”

Gabe sped up his efforts. He rolled Tristan’s balls with one hand, and that was it. His orgasm hit hard and fast, and he couldn’t warn Gabe to pull off. Everything went tight and hot and he shook with the force of it. Gabe swallowed his come, sucking him clean until Tristan couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Oh my fucking God,” Tristan gasped. He was hot and chilled all at once, with barely enough energy to tug Gabe to his feet and into his arms. His sensitive cock rubbed against denim and fueled those little sparks into a long, hard kiss.

He thrust into Gabe’s mouth, tasting a bit of himself there and loving it. He reached between them and thumbed open Gabe’s fly. Fished his impressive erection out of his boxers. Good grief, but he was going to love putting that in his mouth. And his ass? He’d probably come from the penetration alone.

Can’t fucking wait.

Tristan slid into a squat, his back still against the wall, and licked a drop of bitter precome off the head of Gabe’s cock. Gabe braced one hand on the wall, while his other slid behind Tristan’s neck. A gentle hold, no demands. Tristan clasped the root of Gabe’s thick cock and took the head into his mouth. The taste of Gabe exploded on his tongue, so perfectly masculine. Silky skin over so much heat. Gabe’s width stretched his lips as Tristan took more in, as much as he could until his mouth met his hand.

Gabe made a strangled noise that made Tristan take just a little bit more, before pulling back on a gasp. He memorized every slide over his tongue and the roof of his mouth, each time the head hit the back of his throat. Every sound from Gabe. The way his hand tightened against Tristan’s neck, like he wanted to hold him still and fuck into his mouth. Maybe one day Tristan would let Gabe, but right now this was what he wanted.

The sight of Tristan on the floor, his mouth wrapped around his cock, was like a scene out of a fantasy, and Gabe still couldn’t believe it was happening. Tristan was sucking him down like a champ, and every pull and slide sent Gabe closer to the edge.

Nothing about this was like the sex he was used to having. Sex he was paid to have with hot guys. This was real in a way that went past the physical. He had actual feelings for Tristan, even though those exact feelings were undefined. This wasn’t just a blowjob for either one of them.

It was only the first one Tristan had given or received in three years, and while Gabe trusted he was clean, Gabe was the one being paid to fuck other guys. He was tested regularly, and he never shot without condoms, but he would not risk Tristan’s health. Not without Tristan being fully informed, and that wasn’t happening with Tristan sucking his cock.

“Close,” Gabe said. He felt it in his balls, and then in his gut as his belly got tight. He thrust once, which made Tristan gag, and then Gabe pulled back. Tristan’s surprise became lust-filled. Gabe turned to stand over the toilet while he jacked himself hard, and then he came, shooting over the porcelain. Fine tremors ran across his shoulders and he gasped hard for air.

“Holy fuck,” he said.

Tristan appeared behind him and rubbed a palm across his stomach. “You are so goddamn sexy.”

“That was unbelievable.” He spun so he could kiss Tristan, putting everything he couldn’t say into the action. Tristan melted against him, arms around his waist, and the moment would have been perfect if the bathroom door hadn’t banged open.

They froze in place. Gabe’s gut rolled. A belt buckle jangled, and then a zipper went down. Someone peeing at the urinal. Zipping up. Whoever it was left without washing, and Gabe let out a deep breath.

“That was close,” Tristan said. “But worth it.”

“Yes, it was.” Gabe tucked himself back into his jeans, then cleaned off the toilet seat. Flushed away the evidence.

Except Tristan was wearing the evidence all over his face in the way his blue eyes shone and his cheeks remained flushed. He looked like a guy who’d gotten lucky, and Gabe imagined he didn’t look any more innocent.

“Your friends are going to take one look and know exactly what we were doing in here,” Gabe said.

“I don’t care.” Tristan pressed a hard kiss to his lips. “Come on. I want to go write down all the details while they’re in my head.”

“Lead the way.”

They washed up before heading back. Shane walked down his lane and executed a perfect throw, leg sweep included. The ball zoomed toward the pins and crashed out an easy strike. As he turned back around, he spotted their return and smirked it up. Noel noticed. His expression was…flat. Not amused and not annoyed, and Gabe didn’t know the guy well enough to guess what was going on his head. Probably some protective instinct kicking in because Tristan was actively seeking something he’d been missing for years—companionship.

Gabe could deal with an overprotective best friend, as long as it didn’t downshift into outright jealousy. Tristan had the right to a life removed from Noel’s.

Instead of joining them, Gabe directed Tristan to one of the booths set one level up from the lanes. Gabe fetched Tristan’s notebook from one of the seats set in a semicircle behind the scoring machine. “Nice strike,” he said to Shane.

Shane beamed. “Thanks. You’re up, Carlson.”

Gabe glanced at the terminal. Noel was losing by quite a lot. Something about that amused Gabe to no end. He returned to Tristan and they spent the next half hour recounting both their adventures at the market and their mutual blowjobs in the bathroom. Recalling every moment in whispered, glorious detail had Gabe fighting another erection.

Tristan had lost the details of lunch, which was okay. It had been roughly an hour and a half to two hours since that happened. The memory improvement made them both giggle like little boys when Gabe told Tristan about it.

“That’s almost long enough to watch a whole movie,” Tristan said.

“Yes it is.”

“Maybe it’s all of the endorphins today. I haven’t felt this good in…I have no idea. Maybe never. Definitely not that I can remember, and I doubt any time that I can’t.”

“You should run that by your doctor. Ask him if regular sex is good for memory retention.”

Tristan laughed again, his cheeks still adorably pink. “What if he says yes?”

Gabe pitched his voice low. “Then call me right away.”

“Don’t offer if you don’t mean it.”

“Oh I mean it. This was not a one-off, Tristan. Not even close.”

Tristan stared at him, his eyes moving, taking something in. “Why do you like me?”

“Why wouldn’t I like you? You’re funny, you’re easy to talk to, you’re sexy as hell, and I’m attracted to you. Your memory impairments don’t scare me. Very few things do.”

“What is something that scares you?”

Coming home one day and finding Debbie dead. Getting a phone call that she did something awful to someone else while hammered. Her wandering out of the house and in front of a car. The bank seizing the house.

“I’m highly allergic to bee and wasp stings,” Gabe said instead. “If one comes near me I scream like a girl.”

“That’s not a real fear, though, that’s being smart and avoiding things that could hurt you.”

“Then I guess that explains why I don’t date.”

“Someone broke your heart?”

“Yeah.” Gabe wasn’t going into the whole story yet, not in a bowling alley, but he could give Tristan a little bit more. “I let him hurt me twice. Kind of put me off of relationships. Until now.”

Tristan’s cheeks got a little pinker. “You aren’t the one-off with a stranger guy, either, though. Long dry spell?”

“Not exactly.” He was so not mentioning Mean Green and the regular sex he was having there. But he could use a version of the truth. “I have some friends in a similar boat. Not a fan of anonymous hookups, but we all have an itch to scratch, right?”

“That makes sense. Noel and I tried dating as freshmen, but it didn’t really work out. We did hook up a few times, though, usually because we were drunk and horny.”

“Those are the times you remember the most? College?”

“Yeah. It’s so weird when the last really strong memories you have happened three years ago and involve guys your own age, and you keep waking up in a nursing home with old people all around.”

“I can’t imagine how frustrating this has been.”

“Noel’s been my touchstone, you know?” Tristan glanced over at the lanes, where Noel took a shot that brought down eight pins. “I’d have probably gone crazy or tried to kill myself before now if he hadn’t stuck by me.”

“Then I’m glad he did.” Gabe couldn’t imagine not knowing Tristan. For such a vibrant young man not to be part of his life. “Sometimes you have to stay close, even when it hurts, in order to see someone get better.”

But unlike Debbie, Tristan wanted to get better.

“Besides, everything happens for a reason, right?” Tristan said. “I mean, if I hadn’t been hurt, we never would have met.”

“That’s true. Of course, if we’d never met, you might have found another great guy a long time ago.”

“I doubt it. Not a guy like you.”

Yeah, I’m a great guy. So great I haven’t told you about my other job.

His work in porn could contribute to the mixed signals he frequently received from Noel, and the outright weirdness he got from Shane. Seeing more of Tristan inevitably meant seeing more of Shane, and despite his once a week shift at Big Dick’s, Gabe and Shane had never really discussed their porn history. Gabe had been doing porn long enough that he could compartmentalize Tony Ryder and the scenes he did. Separate them from his real life. He got the sense Shane was having a harder time with that.

It didn’t explain Noel, though, and it would be pretty hypocritical for Noel to object to Gabe seeing Tristan based on the porn, since Noel had been regularly fucking Shane while Shane was actively filming. Gabe had no idea how the eventual reveal went down, but they were still together. They even bought a house and everything. “So you want to bowl a few frames?” Gabe asked.

Tristan blinked hard, probably thrown by the conversational curveball. “Um, sure.”

“Then let’s get some shoes.”

* * *

Tristan held tight to Gabe’s hand the entire ride back to where Gabe had left his car. He’d been fighting a headache since their last frame, but he didn’t want their time together to end. The first few hours of the day had faded, but the emotions remained. He’d had an amazing time. He’d connected to another human being for the first time in years.

And dear God, Gabe knew how to suck a dick.

He was pretty sure he hadn’t started the day with any sexual expectations, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain. He didn’t have a single thing to complain about, except maybe that he hadn’t seen Gabe naked yet.

I will. I know I will.

Tristan had never figured out what he’d done so wrong in his life that God had seen fit to punish him like this. Whatever it was, he’d more than paid for it. He deserved to be happy. So did Gabe.

Too soon Noel pulled onto a metered side street and double-parked near a beat-up hatchback.

“Thanks for the ride,” Gabe said. “I had a lot of fun today.”

“Thanks for coming out,” Noel said. Shane nodded at him from the front seat, that same awkwardness there.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” Tristan said. Didn’t matter that it was five feet away. He wanted another moment. Standing up caused a flash of pain behind his eyes.

Fucking side effects.

Gabe met him by the bumper of his parked car. Tristan pressed up against him, enjoying the heat of his body, even through his jacket. The simple touch made his head hurt a little less. Gabe glanced around, then pressed his lips to Tristan’s. The kiss was sweet, a gentle sweep of lips whispering a silent promise that this wasn’t over. This beautiful thing they were exploring together had only just begun.

Tristan savored the taste of him, memorized the sensual way he licked along his lips, before pulling slowly back. “Thank you for today.”

“No, thank you for today. It’s the best time I’ve had in a while.”

“Me too.”

“We’ll do it again soon.”

The growled promise hit Tristan right in the balls and woke up his inner flirt. “Go bowling?”

“Among other things.”

“Good.” He leaned in closer to Gabe. “Although you’re going to have to show me your house at some point. The staff at Benfield frowns on patients having sex in our rooms, and my door doesn’t have a lock.” Gabe tried to hide a flinch that made Tristan regret mentioning it. “Listen, I don’t care if you live in a box or a mansion. I won’t judge you. I promise.”

Gabe’s gentle smile settled him. “I know you won’t. I think I judge myself more harshly than others.”

“I’m pretty sure we all do that to ourselves.”

“Probably so.” Gabe kissed him again. “I have to go. Be safe.”

“You too.”

Tristan climbed back into Noel’s car and put his head back, eyes closed to dim some of the headache throbbing behind his eyes. He hated leaving Gabe behind, but he knew in his soul that they’d talk again soon. Gabe was someone very special, and Tristan had somehow lucked into meeting him. He would do everything he could to keep him in his life as long as Gabe wanted him.