Okay. That was weird.

It was only a few degrees below freezing in Knoxville. That was pretty damn good for January. The downside? The chill wasn’t enough to sweep the hot flush from Leo’s cheeks.

Leo leaned against the wall and looked around casually, as if waiting for someone. His heart was still thudding, and his skin itched like someone had suddenly connected bundles of nerves that he hadn’t been aware of before now.

Was that chemistry? Okay, it was. Obviously. There was no denying it—just like everyone said they knew it when they felt it. But for a guy?

It kind of made sense, when he thought about it. While his peers had been chasing girls and getting their hearts broken, he’d been able to ignore that scene and pour his energy into school, then his career.

Leo had gone on dates with women. He’d tried the whole dating scene more than once, but things had always fizzled out before getting to bed. He’d always figured it was his own fault, that he didn’t know what he was doing or wasn’t trying hard enough.

And it wasn’t that he wasn’t attracted to them. He was still convinced he hadn’t been wrong in his assessment at the time. He’d decided he’d been talking to the wrong women. It had never been the fact that they were women that had killed the spark.

He’d never really considered looking at guys that way, too. Now everything was starting to make sense, though. He’d had sparks with men before—but he’d thought he just idolized them, or thought they were great buddies.

Goddamn. This was a hell of a lot of self-realization for a Knoxville sidewalk.

Leo tried to convince himself he was going home, or at least to another bar nearby to have a drink and steady his nerves.

But his gut instinct was telling him to do neither, and his body was humming with nervous energy.

Go after him. Find out what this is.

It wasn’t even the usual exasperation and frustration with being a virgin after all these years—how many other guys his age were? None, he was pretty sure.

This time, it wasn’t ego telling him to just try it. Maybe that was why he finally listened to that voice and turned around to shoulder his way through the bar door again.

His heart raced. It felt like a mission—like he was walking into another combat zone, armed with only his camera against God only knew what. He was underprepared and overconfident all over again, following gut instinct as much as his training to keep him safe.

If photography had taught him one thing, it was to grab the moment while it was there. So many shots he regretted not taking—far more than the few he regretted taking.

Dustin wasn’t going to be one of those shots.

“Hey.” He approached Dustin from behind and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, hoping his nervousness didn’t show on his face. He was already wearing his jacket—had he met another guy? Already?

Dustin whirled to face him. “Whoa. That was quick.” There was a bright hope shining in his eyes. Gorgeous, even when he wasn’t giving Leo this perfect smile. They were a warm, light brown, and strangely enchanting. He had his hair spiked up with light highlights sprinkled throughout that brought out the warmth of his eyes. And his smile—shy at first, but showing unrestrained joy when he was amused. Dimples? Those sealed the deal.

Leo tried for a coy smile in return. “Yeah. Well, I didn’t wanna risk not getting through on the phone.”

“Yeah?” Dustin already leaned against the bar, looking like he was ready to go home already. “Have you changed your mind on the fees for your services?”

Leo swallowed hard, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, if you want. Were you about to go?”

“Well, you just made my night all over again. I’ll see what I can do in return.” Dustin winked. “I was about to leave. On my own. I’d rather not.”

“Leave? Or… on your own?”

“I’d rather take you home,” Dustin told him, and then Dustin’s hand was on Leo’s waist. “In my experience, labels don’t have to matter.”

Leo nodded slowly, jerkily. No way of explaining the thought process that had just been running through his head. Besides, Dustin had a good way of putting it. “Yeah. Exactly. I care more about… the experience.”

Dustin gave him a bright smile. “Yeah. Me, too. And you can’t be worse than my Grindr date.”

“You’ll have to tell me about that on the way to your place,” Leo told him, raising a brow.

Dustin grinned and dug out his phone, opening an app to call them a car. “Yeah. It’s not much of a story, but… it’s a weird one.”

Okay. Success, step one. Leo straightened up and leaned casually on the counter, his cheeks flushed. He could do this. Now he had to get Dustin home, and get his clothes off, and… figure out the rest from there.

“It was nothing exciting,” Dustin told him as they waited outside. He leaned into Leo slightly, wrapping his arm around Leo’s waist tentatively.

Leo let him lean there and put his hand on Dustin’s back. It felt a bit weird, but just unfamiliar. “Yeah? I was under the impression Grindr dates were supposed to be exciting.”

“Supposed to be,” Dustin told him with a laugh. “It’s a mixed bag. This guy turned out to last about five minutes, including the time it took to get his clothes off. I sucked him off, and he was gonna fuck me, but he just came on me instead.”

“Didn’t even get the tip in?” Leo laughed, his arm tightening around Dustin’s waist. If that was the bar, he was confident he could step over it.

Dustin groaned. “Nope. If he’d told me, I wouldn’t have sucked him off quite so well.” He cast Leo an unmissable sideways glance. “But I’m too good for my own good, apparently.”

“I bet you are,” Leo murmured. The car pulled up and interrupted them, which was just as well, because Leo was trying to figure out how dirty they should talk in public. “After you.” He opened the car door for Dustin.

The car ride was mercifully quick, because Leo found his tongue tied the whole time. Like a goddamn teenager, but an adult who was supposed to know how all of this worked by now. Instinct could take over in the bedroom. It was everything around it that he didn’t know yet.

But Dustin didn’t seem to notice if he was awkward. He talked about the development of Knoxville over the last few years until they got to his house, and then led Leo toward the door.

This is it. The car was gone, and Leo was really fucking in over his head now. He followed Dustin into the place.

His first impression was that it was cute. Very homey, down to the little table by the door for keys and change. The walls were painted light, airy colors, and there were a few pieces of art in the hallway. It all fit his impression of Dustin so far.

Dustin was turning to him now, kicking his shoes off.

Shit. Right. Hooking up. Leo wanted to touch Dustin again, wrap his arms around him and feel the way he fit perfectly against his chest. So he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it aside, toed off his shoes, and did just that.

Dustin leaned into him, his hands running slowly up Leo’s back to cup the back of his head.

It happened so naturally: Leo pulled Dustin firmly against him, their bodies hot and hard together, and their lips met.

It was a warm, sensual, slow kiss that promised so much more. Dustin’s lips were soft and delicious. He tilted his head slightly, his tongue lapping gently at Leo’s lips until Leo gasped for breath.

Dustin’s hands squeezed Leo’s ass, making him almost jump with surprise, and then Dustin laughed. “You have a great ass. I’ve been waiting to do that,” he murmured against Leo’s lips.

Leo grinned. “Naughty,” he murmured. “Yet you look so sweet.”

“Oh, I am. And I bet your cock will be in my mouth, too.”

Leo ground against Dustin’s thigh, his hands sliding down to the curve of Dustin’s ass. “Got a bedroom around here anywhere?”

“I sure do.” Dustin hooked a finger into Leo’s belt near the buckle, maddeningly close to the bulge in Leo’s jeans.

Leo followed as he was led to a room off the hallway—again, it was small, airy, and cozy. “Nice place.”

“Thanks.” Dustin kicked the door shut and pressed Leo up against the door. Those sweet brown eyes were hungry. He looked like he’d been waiting all night for this. To be fair, the poor guy had.

Leo wanted to make it good for him. “What do you want? Other than me in your sweet little ass? Where do you wanna start?” God, let me not sound like a newbie now.

But Dustin’s lips parted for a moment, his mouth hanging open. He wasn’t laughing. In fact, he looked turned on. He gulped, and then his lips tugged up into a smile. “Oh. I don’t usually get asked that.”

“Is there a format for a standard Grindr date?”

“Pretty much,” Dustin grinned.

Leo was overcome by curiosity. It was more than a scientific interest now, he had to admit. With a man’s body against his, he found himself suddenly hungry for any bit of information he could get. “Do you ever just wanna skip straight to the sex? Or do they always do that, and you want foreplay?”

“I’ve been waiting for a good fuck all evening.” Dustin moaned and leaned in for another kiss.

Leo kissed Dustin thoroughly, sucking gently on his lower lip until his knees went weak, then grabbing him to steady him as he kissed him a little more. Finally, he pushed Dustin’s chest to steer him over to the bed.

His cock was painfully hard in his jeans. This was nothing like porn. Fuck, this was a hundred times better. His brain was spinning with ideas, and he hardly knew where he wanted to start.

I’m probably bad at giving oral, Leo reasoned. But he said he was good. “I want to see more of you.”

Dustin sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his shirt off in one fluid movement. “Like that?”

Leo gulped, still standing by the edge of the bed as he stared down at the gorgeous, lithe man who was sitting at crotch-level. “Yeah. Yeah, like that,” he murmured.

Dustin wriggled closer to him, grabbing his hips and pulling him in until he buried his face in Leo’s crotch, kissing the bulge. “Your shirt now.”

Leo fought the fabric of his sweater and shirt off over his head at once, dumping the clothes on the floor. Dustin’s eyes widened and scanned his torso, then slowly raked up to his face. “You like it?”

“You’re fucking ripped. Of course I like it,” Dustin grinned, his hands running up Leo’s stomach and chest.

Holy fuck, that felt good! Leo’s hips jolted as Dustin’s lips provided light pressure to his shaft through his jeans. Sparks were flying now, his breath coming in short and quick gasps as Dustin’s hands explored his body.

“You’re gorgeous,” Leo breathed out. Watching Dustin kiss him with the promise of something to come was incredible. He wanted to memorize the sight. It was so hard not to express every ounce of his awed appreciation.

How the fuck had he lived without this?

Dustin grinned, popping Leo’s belt buckle open with an expert hand and pulling his jeans off. He had Leo’s hard cock in his hand within moments, gently teasing the underside with his palm.

Oh, fuck. He’s good.

Leo’s cheeks flushed as he tried not to compare his inexperience against Dustin’s clear knowledge of what he was doing. He moaned loudly as Dustin’s hand stroked down his shaft, rolling a condom down it, followed immediately by the wet heat of his mouth.

“Oh, fuck,” Leo whispered. “I see why the other guy… had the problems he did.” Dustin’s mouth provided the perfect suction around him, his hand tight around the base of his shaft while his tongue played with the head of his cock.

Dustin moaned around his cock, and the vibrations sent an extra chill of pleasure through him.

“God, that’s good.” The pretty pink lips stretched around his cock, his eyes flickering up his body to meet his gaze…

Just relaxing and letting the other man make him feel good was heavenly. Leo was going to need to feel this again.

If this is his idea of friendship, I could do that.

Was Leo the kind of guy to have a friend with benefits? Hell, yeah. He was now. He’d clearly had his head stuck in the sand all this time.

“You’re beautiful,” Leo whispered, running his hand across Dustin’s hair and ruffling it gently.

He had never really stopped to think about why he found some men gorgeous. He’d assumed it was a jealous admiration from afar. But maybe he’d wanted to admire them from a lot closer.

Fuck. It was like discovering a puzzle piece he’d never known had been missing.

Dustin slowly pulled his head up the shaft, lapping under the head a few more times as he fumbled with his own pants.

Leo shook his head and gripped Dustin by the elbows to raise him to his feet, then changed his mind. He wanted Dustin on his back. “Lie down.”

“Oooh. Yes, sir,” Dustin teased, scooting backward on the bed as Leo chased on hands and knees. They were both laughing by the time Dustin reached the pillow and Leo pinned him down, straddling him.

“I want you. You got lube?” Leo asked.

Fuck. He hadn’t thought this part out, either. In theory, he knew how to finger someone else. And who hadn’t tried it on themselves sooner or later? His own attempts had been pleasurable but clumsy.

Dustin grinned and jerked his head toward the bedside table. A bottle of lube already sat there.

“Oh. Prepared. Well done,” Leo praised with a grin.

“Thanks.” Dustin winked. “I didn’t want to wait a second longer than I had to wait to feel your cock deep in me.”

Leo’s whole body shuddered with arousal, his cock stiff and aching for stimulation again. He ground against Dustin’s hip a few times as he leaned over to grab the lube.

“Let me,” Dustin murmured, plucking the tube from him and slicking his fingers. Before Leo could even protest, Dustin slid his fingers into himself, his head rolling back against the pillow.

Leo closed a hand around his cock, willing himself not to come on the spot. Dustin’s face was taut with pleasure, his body rippling and back arching off the bed as his fingers slid into his tight hole. The moaning sound he made was obscene.

“I could watch that all day,” Leo growled, his voice rough with need.

Dustin smiled for a second but shook his head. “Not tonight. Tonight, you fuck me.”

“Yes,” Leo whispered, waiting for Dustin to give the word. He’d never wanted anything so badly in his life. It took every ounce of self-control not to pounce on the man and press kisses all over his body, drink in the taste and smell of him…

A minute later, Dustin spread his legs and cocked his head, gazing at Leo again, his expression pleading.

That was a need Leo could fill. He crouched over Dustin and braced himself on one forearm, cupping Dustin’s cheek with his other hand. He took a moment to kiss him slowly and deeply.

Dustin moaned against his lips, his hands wrapping around the back of Leo’s head. His kiss was hard, his teeth grazing against sensitive skin.

Already hot with desire, the burn under Leo’s skin intensified to a roaring fire of need. He growled quietly, his hand sliding to his cock to guide himself inside.

Instinct took him a long way, and common sense did the rest. He took it slowly as he pushed into the almost unbearably hot, tight hole. He fit perfectly, rings of muscle closing around his shaft and swallowing him deep as he pushed in.

“Fuck! Yes,” Leo panted, and Dustin pressed little kisses along his mouth. He was sweating already, his breathing fast. “Oh, that’s good. Tell me if it’s too much.” Leo’s shaft slid all the way inside, and he pulled his hips back slowly, testing the waters.

“You feel good,” Dustin reassured him, his quick breaths evening out again. “Oh, yes. That’s what I was waiting for.”

Leo couldn’t explain the feelings surging through him: he was possessive, protective, and aroused to the very bone. Mine, was the only thing he could think. Mine, and I’m going to make him feel so good.

He tried to keep his movements slow, angling his hips to keep his shaft lined up right. “You’re fucking sexy. I’m glad that other asshole didn’t keep you at home tonight.”

“Me, too.” Dustin was breathtakingly beautiful right now, and everything just… felt right. A light switch had been flipped on in his brain. There was no going back now.

As Dustin tugged on his hips and panted, “More,” Leo was more than happy to fulfill that desire.

“Fuck me. Hard, baby.”

The pet name made Leo’s cheeks burn. He pushed the feeling aside to figure out later and kissed Dustin hard, letting his steady rhythm speed up. Once he had the hang of it, it was easy and all too fucking good.

Leo was pounding Dustin into the mattress within minutes, his hands rising to grab Dustin’s and lace their fingers together above Dustin’s head.

“Yes!” Dustin panted, rolling his head back.

Leo ducked his head to lick and kiss at Dustin’s exposed throat and jaw. He found a spot near Dustin’s ear that made him squirm adorably—and in a way that ground their bodies together wonderfully.

Oh, right. He’s gonna want to come, too. Leo let go of one of Dustin’s hands and braced himself on his elbow to slip a hand between them. The moment he caressed that aroused cock with a tight fist, Dustin bucked against him.

“Fuck!”

“Sorry,” Leo gasped, loosening the grip.

“N-No, do it again. I’m ready now,” Dustin moaned. “Please.”

Leo gradually squeezed tighter while he stroked hard and fast. He tried to match the pace of his hips. He could feel Dustin quivering and clenching around him as he did so, growing closer to the edge.

Just as well, because his own balls were drawing tight, his shaft swelling. If Dustin didn’t hurry…

“Yes!” Dustin bucked under him, grabbing Leo hard as his nails dug into Leo’s back. They were both going to be sticky now, but Leo loved that, too.

Dustin squeezed tight around Leo’s sensitive shaft, and that was enough. Leo came hard, gasping Dustin’s name as his thrusts became quick and erratic. “Yes! Oh my… fuck… Dustin…”

“Gorgeous,” Dustin whispered, his touch gentler now as he smoothed his hands up and down Leo’s back. “I think I scratched you. Hope that’s okay.”

Leo started laughing as he slid out, awareness of the rest of the world slowly returning to him. “That’s… yeah, that’s fine. Fine. A hundred percent.”

Dustin grinned. “Side effect of being well-fucked.”

I did a good job. Leo’s ego responded to that and his chest swelled, making Dustin laugh. He rolled onto his side slowly as it all started to sink in. He’d just had sex with a man and it had been fucking wonderful.

“I’m… wow.” Leo slowly pulled the condom off and looked around for a trash can, then found tissues to give him something to do while it sank in.

When he looked back at Dustin, the slender, gorgeous young man was sprawled across the bed in a way that made Leo want to touch him. Just caress those ribs, run a thumb along the small nipples, cup his hip, pull him in for a kiss…

Shit. I think I’m hooked. “So, I can keep your number?” Leo asked. He grinned ruefully. “Not to sound, uh, too eager.”

“No such thing as too eager,” Dustin murmured, his hand closing around Leo’s wrist. He pulled his hand toward him and kissed the palm in a gesture that made Leo’s heart melt. “Please do.”

Okay. He could do this.

“Or you could stick around for round two.” Dustin smirked and waggled his eyebrows.

“I really do have work,” Leo murmured, reluctantly pulling back from Dustin. It was true, he did—and a little thinking to do, besides.

He’d managed to impress and satisfy Dustin once. Could he do it again? How the hell was he going to learn to suck cock? What if Dustin wanted, like, a label? Was he opposed to that? He didn’t think so. Why not?

Dustin’s gaze flickered over his face. Instead of asking, though, Dustin just nodded. “Fair enough. Keep my number, though.”

“Oh, I will.” Leo slowly searched for his clothes and pulled them back on, one piece at a time. His body was sluggish and lazy and deeply satisfied.

Dustin hummed under his breath and pushed himself to sit up against the headboard. Then he followed Leo to the door, still casually naked. “Thanks for that. That was a million times better than earlier.”

“Glad to help. You weren’t bad yourself,” Leo grinned, shrugging on his jacket and awkwardly pulling his shoes on.

He straightened up. This was the awkward moment. Did they kiss goodbye?

Leo hesitated on the doorstep, the door half-open as Dustin ducked behind it and out of view of the street. If in doubt, probably better not. “Good night,” he settled on and raised his hand in a quick wave.

“Night,” Dustin wished him, and the door clicked shut.

Then he was striding down the street through the cold. It was a long walk, but he knew his way back from here. He could really use the fresh air to cool off and try to get his thoughts straight. If not straight.

Leo’s lips stretched in a smile—small at first, then bigger.

He’d just had sex, and it was awesome.

If only he had someone to brag to without sounding like a total loser.

Hey, guys. Sex is awesome. By the way, I’m not straight. Who knew?

Leo burst out laughing and broke into a lighthearted jog, skipping over the curbs. He didn’t care how weird he looked. For now, he didn’t even care what was going to happen. His heart had led him the right way, and listening to it had paid off.

What the hell? Might as well make sure Dustin had his number, too. Leo pulled out his phone and sent a quick text. It felt like the courteous thing to do.

That was great. Thanks. Good night :)

As he pocketed his phone, Leo started humming a nonsense tune. For the first time in a long time, he felt good through and through.