Newton peered into the pan of chemicals and watched as one of the pictures he’d taken earlier in the day began to emerge.

He smiled. It was a picture of the lake, the sunlight shimmering and reflecting on the surface and creating an effect that looked like the whole body of water was glowing.

It was right after he’d snapped that shot that he had heard his name.

He still remembered the way his heart had leapt up into his throat when he saw who had been calling him.

Gage.

And there was no doubt about it this time—Gage had been flirting. Newton lifted his hand and rubbed it across his bicep, right where Gage’s hand had been.

The moment had started out as completely mortifying, as Newton lost his balance and could feel himself start to topple over.

Luckily, he had somehow managed to stay on his feet, but there was no way Gage had missed the embarrassing display. Instead of laughing, though, Gage was right there to hold him steady. And that was what he did.

It had been more than that, though. Gage had kept his hand right there—his grip surprisingly gentle but reassuring at the same time—for much, much longer than had been absolutely necessary.

Newton hadn’t minded it, though. With anyone else, he probably would have flinched away, or at least felt even more uncomfortable by the sudden and prolonged contact.

But with Gage?

It had felt good.

Normal.

Right.

In fact, Newton had shocked himself by actually missing that touch when Gage finally did take his hand away.

Even now, his entire body sort of felt light and tingly at the memory.

“Oh, damn,” he muttered, looking down to see the fully-developed picture still floating in the shallow pan. “Damn, damn, damn.”

He’d hurriedly grabbed the tongs and pulled it from the solution, but it had already been in for far too long. It was definitely over-developed.

Newton shook his head and sighed. That was a rookie mistake he hadn’t made in a long time.

He always held his time in the darkroom to be precious, almost to the point of reverence. Alone under the red light with his work, he didn’t let other people or other thoughts intrude. He knew the process and the timing by heart. He could feel when it was time to move a print from the developing solution to the stop bath, and finally to the fixer. He didn’t need his eyes to remind him of what had become a natural rhythm.

Or so he thought.

Clearly, his natural rhythm had failed him this time. His brain—and his body—had been too distracted, too preoccupied with reliving that moment with Gage.

He looked at the photo as he still held it in the tongs. Normally, he’d discard an imperfect print without another thought, chide himself for shoddy work and move on.

But maybe he’d keep this picture after all. It seemed kind of fitting that it was over-developed, over-exposed, too intense.

It mirrored how he had felt at the time—how he still felt whenever he thought about Gage—pretty perfectly, now that he was thinking about it.

Even the irritation he felt about nearly ruining a good photo couldn’t completely erase that light, floaty, fluttery feeling inside. It couldn’t even fully erase the smile from his face.

Of course, none of it really meant anything. Gage was probably just one of those guys who happened to be flirty by nature. It wouldn’t surprise Newton at all to see Gage smile just as wide and say nice things to a little old lady on the street. He was just a good guy, no doubt about that.

That touch, though.

It was a little difficult to imagine Gage letting his hand linger on some old lady’s arm like that. Then again, maybe not? Maybe Newton was reading far too much into it.

The handful of relationships Newton had experienced in the past—both with men and women—had taught him that he saw things differently to most people, experienced things differently. Or maybe he was just bad at communicating those differences.

Whatever the case, none of those relationships had lasted. Sure, he was still on good terms with nearly all of his exes, but they were still exes at the end of the day.

Not that any of that really mattered. Gage wasn’t going to be an ex because he wasn’t going to be anything else. He was a client. A new client, at that.

Flirty or not, Newton had a job to do.

With a sigh, he hung the over-developed photo and left the darkroom, squinting against the glare of the evening sun as his eyes tried to adjust.

He’d done enough work for one day. Enough work and enough thinking. Enough fantasizing about things that were not going to happen.

Walking across the room, he shut off overhead lights along the way, until all that was left to do was to flip the sign on the door from Open to Closed.

He only paused for a moment to peer out the big front windows that looked out onto Main Street. A couple of blocks away, he wondered if Gage might be looking out the window, too. Or if he might be remembering their conversation in the park the same way Newton had.

Turning away and walking back through the darkened studio toward the back door, he wondered if Gage even thought about him at all.

He had to, though, right?

That look he’d given Newton earlier. That excitement in his eyes. That touch.

Gage couldn’t have been faking those things… right? Polite and flirty or not, those things had seemed genuine.

Newton shook his head to clear his thoughts and stepped out the back door before locking it behind him and slowly climbing the metal stairs that led up to his apartment.

He had to stop thinking about Gage all the time. He had to at least stop thinking about Gage like that.

It was unprofessional.

More importantly, at least as far as Newton was concerned, it was unrealistic.

Gage wasn’t going to go for him. It just wasn’t going to happen.

Newton turned on the hot water and stepped back to strip out of his clothes. It had been a long day, and a relaxing shower before bed was exactly what he needed in order to clear his mind so he’d be able to sleep.

He hoped that was exactly what he needed, anyway.

God knows nothing else had worked so far. It seemed as though no matter where he was or what he was doing, his thoughts inevitably wandered back to Gage.

Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course. Gage genuinely seemed like a nice guy—a great guy, in fact. He was the first person Newton had met in Silver Lake who he could see himself becoming good friends with, if not something more.

And okay. He was objectively hot, too. Like, really, really hot.

His cock twitched at the thought as he stripped out of his pants and underwear. With Gage in the front of his mind, Newton’s dick had been on a hair-trigger all day, annoyingly hard and distracting even through the most boring tasks.

Now that it was finally free, it only took a couple of seconds before it was bobbing out in front of him as he stepped into the shower, hard as ever and begging for relief.

He closed his eyes and let the water wash over him for a moment, sighing contentedly as some of the tension from the day that had built up in his neck and shoulders melted away.

Taking a step back, he wiped the water away from his face with both hands before letting them skim down his face and over his chest, down his stomach, lower and lower until one hand wrapped around his still-rock-hard cock and the other moved to his balls, giving them a gentle tug as he began to stroke.

Newton gasped as the sensation sent a wave of heat rolling through his body, only matched by the rising steam from the hot water that was running in rivulets down his chest.

His eyes still closed, it was easy to bring an image of Gage to the front of his mind—and since Newton was mid-stroke and horny as hell, it was even easier to imagine him shirtless, ripped muscles flexing as he looked Newton up and down with those big, brown eyes.

Oh, God, it was hot. Gage was hot.

Newton’s hips thrust forward, his hand flying over his cock as a low moan escaped his lips. This was exactly what he’d been needing to do all day, exactly the thing he’d been trying to avoid.

Gage turned him on, and there was no sense in denying it here in the privacy of his own thoughts, his own fantasies.

He moved his free hand, releasing his balls and reaching behind him, past his hip and over the curve of his ass, kneading it as he imagined it was Gage’s big hand and strong grip.

“Yes, Gage,” he panted, knowing he wasn’t going to last long with this sexy fantasy running through his head. “Just like that…”

Newton stroked himself faster, harder, his hips pressing forward to meet his hand as it moved up and down his shaft.

He was nearly there. Just a little longer.

Reaching back further with his other hand, his fingers played along his crack, teasing his most sensitive spot as he edged closer and closer to release. Pressing against his tight hole while he imagined Gage’s sexy, smiling face and hot-as-hell body in front of him was all he needed to finally let go.

His orgasm surged through his body, taking his breath away as those first hot jets spilled out over his fist, only to be washed away by the rushing water.

Leaning against the cool tiles to steady himself, he let out a ragged breath. God, that had been intense. And hot. And really, really good.

Just the way he felt whenever Gage was around.

Unfortunately, this moment was probably as close as Newton was ever going to get to this particular fantasy coming true.