NINE

 

 

It was a wet dream. It had to be. There was no way that he had Ken in his arms, and there was no way that Ken’s strong body was pressing against him, grinding against his cock, trapping Justin against the wall as they made out. That sort of thing just didn’t happen to Justin. Or not for a long time, anyway.

He would wake up when he came, definitely. He would gasp awake, coated in his own helpless fluids, and kick himself for letting himself jerk off thinking about Ken before going to bed.

Only that didn’t happen, none of it happened. Instead, a woman called out Ken’s name, and just like that, Ken was gone. The hot pressure of Ken’s body, the way his leg had pushed between Justin’s and forced such incredible pleasure on him, it was finished, and Ken was desperately fumbling his clothes onto his body.

“I’m in here, Mom!” Ken shot Justin a pleading look, and he didn’t need to say anything. From what Ken had said about his mother, she wouldn’t exactly be thrilled about Ken being in a changing room with another man, and he nodded. He’d be careful. He’d wait until he could sneak out without being noticed.

Ken got himself pulled back together in record time, and then slipped out of the dressing room. Hopefully only Justin would notice that his color was higher than usual. As Justin waited, having already pulled his own clothes back into place, he hung the nice clothes back on their hangers just for something to do. Ken, typically, had left them strewn around all over the place, though to be fair they’d both been a little bit distracted at the time.

Once the clothes were hanging as neatly as Justin could make them, he cautiously opened the door and peered out into the main part of the store. What he saw reminded him sharply of a circus. Three rings, at the very least.

It wasn’t really that big of a store, granted, but it was packed to the gills with movement, frantic, frenzied movement.

Children. The fancy, expensive men’s clothing store was packed full of children, from the age of about five up to fourteen or so, Justin would guess. It was hard to tell exactly how many since they were all moving pretty fast, but it was a lot.

And right in the center of them stood Ken, play fighting with some of them, wrestling, chattering away a mile a minute to others. They whirled and played around him, a frantic spot of energy in the middle of what was usually a calm, quiet store. The poor sales clerk, with his perfectly tailored suit and his expensive haircut, definitely had no idea what he was supposed to do in the middle of such rambunctious activity.

Justin didn’t have any way to predict what it would do to his heart to see Ken piled on, and so cheerfully accepting it, by his siblings. And they must be his siblings, by their coloring as well as by their energy, which seemed to be a family trait. Ken’s brothers and sisters clearly adored him, each clamoring louder than the other for his attention.

Off to the side was a woman with a pinched face, wrinkles etched deeply around her lips and at the corners of her eyes. She watched the proceedings with the air of someone who didn’t quite approve but wasn’t exactly sure what to do about it. Ken was almost ludicrous in his desire to not look at her, and Justin was no detective, but he was pretty sure that he was looking at Ken’s mother in all of her glory.

She didn’t even look that old, not when he looked at her eyes. She was a bit prematurely aged, but if she was fifty yet, he would be surprised. Especially if the youngest one, who seemed to be about five, was hers.

Just off to the side, there stood a young man, still a teenager but he probably wouldn’t be for much longer, with a strong resemblance to Ken. He looked amused by the whole thing, and off to his side, there was a younger teenager, also a boy. This one was trying to resist the grand melee in the center of the room like he was too cool to play fight now, but he was slowly being drawn in.

As Justin watched, he was able to count heads, and he was pretty sure he came up with a staggering number. Including Ken, and Ken’s older sister who was getting married, this woman had had seven children. No wonder she looked exhausted.

Well, slipping away in the midst of all of this chaos shouldn’t be any real problem. Grand Central Station would probably actually be a little bit quieter, and Justin stepped cautiously out of the dressing room, still clutching the suits that he’d rehung neatly.

“Excuse me, where do you think you’re taking those?” Justin was stopped in his tracks by that same strident, shrill voice, the one that had pulled him out of the most intimate moment that he’d had in a long time, and probably the only one he could ever hope to have with Ken.

The whole thing was infuriating, and there was really no chance of recapturing what had happened between himself and the gorgeous young man. He’d had his chance, and it just hadn’t been in the cards for him. This swarm of children was pretty much the most effective chaperone that anyone could hope for, even discounting the woman with the most penetrating turquoise eyes that Justin had ever seen.

Time to cut his losses and get out of there. Besides, from the angle that the sunlight fell outside in golden sheets, it was getting to be time for him to get out of there, to go to Jade’s school and pick her up.

“Oh, uh, I’m just leaving,” Justin told her, and he considered trying out a charming smile, but he knew he wasn’t very good at them. He’d probably end up just looking creepy. He wasn’t the sort of man that could pull of charming insincerity. It had gotten him into trouble.

She looked him over, from head to toe, and Justin was suddenly very glad that he was holding the clothing in front of him. Still, she somehow gave the impression of being able to see right through, some sort of magical X-Ray vision. Was it a mom thing?

“Mom,” Ken spoke up, and Justin could feel the weight of the younger man’s eyes on him. “Leave Justin alone.”

Justin tried his best not to wince, not to show anything on his face at all. She would notice that, and things were going to be awkward enough as they were. If only Ken had kept his mouth shut, his mother never would have known that Justin was with him at all.

Well, that was right out the window, he supposed. Sighing, he hung the suits up on a rack which was just inside the changing room area, straightened his shoulders, and raised his chin.

He had nothing to be ashamed of. He and Ken were both consenting adults, and he hadn’t done anything wrong. From what he knew of this woman, though, she definitely wouldn’t agree with him on that if she knew what they’d been doing.

“Justin?” The woman’s eyebrows would disappear right into her hair if she raised them any further. And Ken, after getting her attention that way, gave Justin an apologetic little shrug, like he’d just realized what he had done. Then he was dragged down to look at a book that one of the little girls clutched in a grubby, tiny, chubby hand.

“Yeah. Hi.” Justin nodded to her, determined to take this as casually as possible. “I work with Ken.”

He glanced over to the younger man, almost begging him with his eyes to come and help him, but Ken wasn’t watching, or apparently paying attention at all. No matter how long Justin stared at him, willing him to look up, he didn’t.

“I’m Maria, Ken’s mother,” she told him, managing to look at him as though she wasn’t sure that he wasn’t some sort of snake, and a dangerous one, at that. “It’s nice to meet you. Since you and Ken are such good friends, maybe you’d like to come to dinner with us tonight?”

Another desperate look over at Ken, who seemed to be completely oblivious, and probably was, actually. Ken was good at oblivious. He might have no idea whatsoever what was even going on. Justin would get no help there.

“I’m sorry, I have plans,” Justin told her, and he probably would have said it regardless. This woman had a dislike of him which was almost palpable, and Justin found himself no longer quite so convinced that Maria didn’t know, or at least could guess, what they had been doing together in the changing room.

“Are you sure?” There was malice in her eyes, and that was odd to see because whatever he could say about Ken he wasn’t malicious. Maria’s eyes were so similar to Ken’s otherwise. “Maybe you could just drop by. We’d all like to get to know someone that Ken is so obviously close to.”

Meaning that she had seen him come out of the changing room. Damn it. Meaning that she intended to grill him, probably to try to scare him off. Even if not for Jade, there was no way in hell that Justin would be excited about going through that.

Unless he and Ken were dating, of course, and Ken was his boyfriend, then he would be all too happy to shove this relationship in her face, and maybe that would be enough that she might actually someday accept it. Of course, he and Ken dating, that was laughable. Right? Ken would never go for it.

Oddly, though, Justin had been so sure that Ken would never kiss him, and his lips still burned and tingled from the kisses that they’d shared. His body still throbbed, threatening to become aroused again, just from the thought of that hot, hard body against his own.

“I really can’t.” Justin looked at her and made a choice. It was a choice made of desperation, maybe, but he still made it, looking her right in the eye and speaking quietly enough that the noise of the children running all over the place would cover it up. He hoped. “I have to go pick my daughter up from school.”

Something about her face relaxed, and the smile seemed a little bit less forced, more sincere. All of a sudden, all of that dislike just fled out of her, and she seemed like a normal person again, not like someone who was considering whether they should order his head chopped off.

“Of course. Well, I hope I see you around, Justin,” Maria informed him, and she almost seemed to be sincere, too. It wasn’t until Justin had left, giving Ken one more look and a tiny wave when he saw that the younger man was finally looking at him, that he realized what had happened there.

Maria had been afraid that he was someone that she needed to worry about, but when he’d mentioned a daughter, she’d made her assumptions. And now that she’d decided that he was straight, well, she didn’t have much reason to worry, now did she?

He could almost laugh. Or maybe cry. He was not straight, not even close, but he doubted that she would even believe that if he told her.

Well, it had gotten him away from her, and it had been the truth, but as he walked out into the sultry heat of the mid-afternoon, he couldn’t help but wish that he could have stayed just a little bit longer with Ken before it had all been taken away, probably forever.

Had Ken heard about his daughter? Justin had tried to keep it quiet, but it was a bit of a surprise for him when he realized that it wouldn’t actually be the end of the world to him if Ken had heard. The guy was damn good with kids, actually downright adorable with them.

No, it wouldn’t be bad at all, and that was the first time that Justin considered just telling Ken about Jade.