Chapter 3
Chapter three
March
Needing to blow off steam—as usual—I went to Afterglow.
The house music pumped loudly and bodies gyrated wildly on the floor.
I jumped around, getting my groove on, not thinking about anything other than the beat.
My hair fell into my eyes, and I pushed the sweaty, purple locks out of my face.
A few older guys stood around the edges watching.
One of them was Crow. Yummy daddy. I liked him a lot, but he was a bit aloof.
I danced my way over to him and grabbed his arm, using it to balance as I went up on tiptoe. “Wanna get outta here, Daddy?”
Crow gave me a cocky grin and a nod. I didn’t know much about him other than his dark, good looks, and hunky, big shoulders, and oh yeah, he owned and ran the NewYouFit4Life social media site.
I made it a point to learn as much as possible about social media, and his site had been a good one for work.
Even one of my clients, CutBarb, made sports drinks and advertised on his site.
But I also wanted another taste of him. We’d had a quick hook-up once before, and it was beyond time for a repeat.
He led me outside the front door, holding my hand. “How you been, Joey?”
“I’m good, Daddy. Want a blowie? Let’s go somewhere more private.”
“Straight to the main event, huh? Sometimes, you might want to slow down, boy. Give a daddy room to breathe.”
Breathe? What? I rolled my eyes. “What’s to breathe?”
Crow shook his head, looking disappointed in me. I didn’t think he was as into me as I was into him. That happens. Sure. But who the fuck turns down a blow job?
“We could go to the playroom or something?” Was that what he meant by slow down?
He didn’t answer.
Nothing was going to happen. “Whatever. I don’t need you.
” Instead of going back into the club, I walked out to my car and beeped the door lock before I got there.
Fuck him. I slid in and headed home, thinking about Crow’s big cock the entire way.
After all the hot, sweaty bodies pressing against me on the dance floor, I couldn’t help craving sex.
Then Crow cock-blocked me. Was that what he’d just done?
I could have gone with another daddy, but he walked me right out of the club. What the hell did he want from me?
It didn’t matter. I got home and went upstairs, and yes, I was horny as hell. I dropped my clothes and crawled into bed naked. I wasn’t going to get any sleep, so I grabbed the lube from my nightstand and rubbed my cock with my sticky hand.
I needed to get fucked badly. It had been a while…since…I couldn’t even fucking remember. For all the willingness I had, I hardly ever actually played around. Crow had probably been the last. I gave him a blowie, and he gave me a hand job. That had been, what? Last year?
I didn’t want to think about it, except that it would have been nice for him to use those sexy lips on my dick. He could have blown me, too. That would have been nice. Fucking into a willing mouth—hot and wet. I humped up into my fist. I wasn’t going to last long.
I shot off quickly and went into the bathroom to clean up.
Afterward, I grabbed my blankie and my binky out of the closet and crawled into bed.
Life wasn’t going how I wanted it to. I wanted to be in the little lifestyle more.
I wanted to be an influencer. But reality was that my pages weren’t doing well enough.
And no one at the club actually wanted to play with me.
Work was okay but I didn’t care about it. Who the hell wants to promote energy drinks and stupid CutBarb anyway?
And face it. I was fucking bored.
I cuddled into my blanket and closed my eyes, hoping sleep would take me quickly.
The number one selling point for the Davis Island home was that I could easily tweak it into exactly what I wanted.
I bought the house, and as promised, Tyler hooked me up with a decorator.
Sean was a well-put-together man in his early thirties, and from my research, he had a successful business in the Tampa area.
We met at the house to discuss plans. “Let’s start upstairs, that’s where most of the work is.”
“Great. Lead the way.” He gestured for me to precede him, and we went up into the game room.
“The landing is tight, and this is too small. I want to blow out that bedroom and move the laundry there. I’d like that same kind of door into it from my room, though.”
“That should be easy enough.” He tapped on his tablet, taking notes.
“And how about putting a dry bar and drink fridge in the game room?”
He looked around, inside the laundry room and bathrooms, and the extra bedroom I wanted to get rid of. “How about a wet bar? You have the plumbing already. It wouldn’t take much.”
“That would actually be nice.”
“Great.” He tapped again. “What else?”
“It’s kind of dark in here. I’d rather have it bright and airy, more like downstairs.”
“I have ideas for that. Including a bigger window there.” He pointed to the wall between the two windows that overlooked the pool.
“Good idea.”
“Great.”
We went downstairs after that, but there wasn’t much to do on the first floor, aside from shifting some closet space.
The rest would be what I brought in, like weights and a treadmill instead of a dining table.
“Can you help with outside?” I gestured to the sliding glass doors.
They were the kind that opened all the way, making it seem like the wall was completely gone.
“Sure. What’re you thinking?”
“I can’t make it bigger, obviously, but maybe more inviting?”
“We could remove that secondary screen around the pool. That would give you more space. Some deck furniture.” He walked over to the edge of the pool. “This is nice. It’s one of those sun shelves. A couple of loungers go right here.” He pointed to the shallow ledge around the edge of the pool.
“That sounds good. Think we could fit in a fire pit?”
“Not by the pool, but we can do one of those long table ones there.” He pointed back up to the patio. “You don’t have width, but you do have plenty of length. You could put a small outdoor kitchen there. Grill and a cabinet with a bit of counter space.”
“Can we put a drink fridge there, too? That would be better than traipsing in and out of the house for a refill.”
“Yes. This will be nice, Vince. You have a spectacular view. That’s what you paid for here. Might as well show it off.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. From the patio, I could even see the high rises across the water on Bayshore Blvd in the distance. “Everything you’ve said sounds perfect.”
“Great. I’ll get some details and numbers for you, then we’ll meet and go over it.”
“Thank you.” We shook hands, then walked back to the front of the house. Things were moving fast, and I was excited. The new chapter of my life was taking shape.
Now I needed to ensure I could continue living like this. I chuckled at myself since I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to run out of money any time soon. Grant had given me the name of a broker with some great investment opportunities who lived in the area. I was ready to meet with him.
Larry Henderson. But business wasn’t really the purpose of the connection.
Grant had been worried I’d be lonely here without knowing anyone.
And maybe he was right. I didn’t want to go stir crazy.
So, I called him, and he agreed to meet me for lunch with his business associate and friend, Hudson Cooper.
Grant said these were people to get involved with.
There was a new farm-to-table restaurant on the south tip of the mainland just across the channel where we met.
I was most interested in tasting meals made from only local farms in Florida, but some were sourced from Georgia as well.
Inside the restaurant, it was very industrial and bare bones with little seating.
We ordered at the counter and sat at the one empty table.
Larry was taller but he didn’t tower over me.
He had a nice smile and looked professional in a golf shirt and slacks.
We shook hands and sat on opposite sides of the table with Hudson sitting beside him.
He had a real Bradley Cooper vibe going on with piercing blue eyes, messy hair, and at least two days’ growth of beard, all wrapped up in an award-winning smile.
Though he wasn’t dressed much differently from Larry, his clothes dripped with the wealth of designer brands. “Glad to meet you, Vincent.”
“Please, it’s Vince.”
They both nodded, and Larry tapped on the table. “Grant’s a great guy, known him for years. We’ve done some business together. How do you know him? I mean, he said you were friends, but that was about it.”
I snorted. “That’s just like him. I’ve known him for a long time. We used to race together.”
“Race?” Larry’s piercing blue eyes went wide. “I didn’t know he raced. Formula One? For real?”
“Yes, that was a long time ago, and he didn’t really have the talent for it.” I laughed, remembering some of his antics. “Or the temperament. He was much better suited to manage my career and let me do the driving.”
Hudson nodded. “Oh, so he was your manager?”
“Yes. But now I’m retired. Moved here. Pretty much the whole story.”
Before we could get further into the conversation, our orders were up. Since it was lunch, I had a seasonal salad with grilled chicken and fresh strawberries from Plant City, a few towns to the east.
“How do you two know each other?” I asked, diving into my meal.
“College.” Larry bumped shoulders with Hudson. “We were roomies for a bit, but this guy snores like a giant sloth bear.”
Hudson rolled his eyes. “What the hell does a giant sloth bear even sound like? I mean. What the hell is a giant sloth bear?”
Larry swallowed his bite and rolled his fork around in the air over his salad. “You know. Prehistoric giant mammal period. Sloth bear.” He took another bite.
Hudson sipped his sweet tea. “Was it a sloth or a bear?”
“Sloth. No, bear. Fuck I don’t know.”
I laughed at their back-and-forth. They certainly seemed more like brothers than simply friends, and I might have thought they were a couple if I didn’t know better, but I did. Grant mentioned their partners, though I couldn’t recall any names.
“I’ll have to ask Levi about that. He’s always watching the no-shit channels,” Hudson said.
“Levi is your partner?” I asked with a side-squint, hoping I hadn’t got it wrong.
“Yes. He’s good friends with Larry’s partner, Todd. They were actually roommates for a bit. Long story.”
“Oh, gotcha.” I said their names in my head a few times, hoping to remember them. “So, tell me a bit about your business, what do you do? Grant said Larry’s a broker, but…I honestly don’t know what that means.”
“Exactly what it sounds like. I broker business. Advise people on investments. That sort of thing.”
“He’s being modest,” Hudson threw in. “He’s really good and commands top percentage fees for commissions.”
“Plus, I know what’s a good investment and how to avoid risk, so my personal portfolio is not shabby.”
“Not at all.”
“In fact, our latest venture has been incredible. It’s not putting out huge returns right now as far as money, but what it’s doing for the environment is worth every penny.” He shook Hudson’s shoulder. “Thanks to this guy.”
“What? Environment? Is it something like sustainable energy?”
“Sort of. Well, one of the first businesses I invested in was LiDAR Tech. That was cutting-edge at the time and fueled my passion for environmental tech. Pun intended.”
“Har-har,” Larry scoffed.
But then Hudson told me about the new company, which had some solar and wind tech but was more focused on oceanic resources, with a lot of the technology still in development.
It sounded like something I should get involved in for karma if nothing else.
Driving a race car burnt through a lot of fossil fuel.
We chatted more about some of their interesting investments, and I shared some about my racing career. It was nice to get to know new people, and these guys seemed kind and willing to introduce me to others. They were very connected.
“Listen, Vince. It can be difficult moving into a new place like this when you don’t know anyone. You should come to our club sometime and meet some other people.” He pulled a card out of his wallet.
Afterglow.
Hmm… second card passed to me. Maybe I did need to go check it out. But not until after I moved into the new house. Too much going on. But things were looking up.