Chapter 7
SEVEN
Blake
“I swear, Blake, I’ve never seen that much cum before.
The first spurt hit the wall over my head and the rest hit my face and chest. He just kept bouncing on my dick and shooting cum everywhere like a Super Soaker.
Afterwards I felt like an iced cinnamon roll.
” Xander sighed and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “It was awesome.”
Blake chuckled. His morning run with Xander was never boring. The man knew how to paint a mental picture. From the very graphic recounting of his hookup, it sounded like Xander’s first time at the speed dating event had been a rousing success.
“I’m glad you had fun,” Blake said. “Sorry again for canceling our plans at the last minute.”
“No prob. I dragged Spence along with me.”
“Did Spence get lucky?”
Xander snorted. “Nah, he signed up for the event and abandoned me for a couple hours. He met a guy there… actually, it’s that guy we ran into before brunch. Did you see him?”
Blake thought back to the commotion outside Heyday on Sunday morning. “The one with the kids?”
“Mmhmm. His name’s Mickey. He’ll be coming to brunch on Sunday to meet everyone. We invited him to join the group.”
After one night? Blake had been training with Xander for months before he’d been asked to join the group. If he weren’t still riding high after his date with Ethan, he might have been offended.
Xander wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “How was the hot date with server guy?”
“His name’s Ethan.” A fond smile flickered over Blake’s lips. “It was great.”
“Ooh, tell me everything. Is he wild in bed? Was I right? Does he have a huge dick?”
“Dude, chill. We didn’t have sex.”
Xander stopped abruptly and grabbed Blake’s shoulder, bringing him to a halt as well. “No sex? What did you do?”
Blake shook off Xander’s hand. “We went to this place with carnival games. We ate some cotton candy and I drove him home.”
“Hmmm.” Xander dipped into a lunge, stretching his hamstring. “You played a few games and said good night?”
“Yes.” Blake put his hands on his hips and glared at his friend. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
Xander shrugged. He switched legs and dropped into another lunge. “Stretch while your muscles are warm.”
“Don’t change the subject.” Blake bent his knee and held his ankle behind him, stretching until he felt a burn in his quads.
“I don’t know, man. I guess I’m just surprised Ethan hasn’t figured out who you are yet.”
With an aggravated huff, Blake said, “Well, not everyone watches porn every day.”
Xander waved off his comment, then glanced to the side. His mouth hooked into a sly smile. “Hottie at ten o’clock. My ten o’clock, your four o’clock.”
Blake scowled. “You know that doesn’t make any sense to me. Just point him out.”
Xander pointed over Blake’s right shoulder. A shirtless young man wearing ball-hugging bike shorts was watching them, stretching his arms behind his back to draw attention to his chest.
“The gay mating dance begins,” Xander said. A subtle lift of his chin was all the invitation the guy needed.
He jogged toward them, and although Xander had called him over, the guy was looking at Blake. And smiling.
Not again.
“Excuse me,” the young man said. “Are you Dirk Slocum?”
Blake let out an aggravated sigh. “Yeah.” On mornings when he hadn’t showered and was dripping with sweat, the last thing he wanted to do was entertain a fan.
“Hi, I’m Josh. I’m a big fan.”
Slowly and seductively, Xander slipped off his T-shirt and tucked it into his waistband.
Josh’s gaze drifted to Xander’s six-pack abs. “Oh, hi. Are you a porn star, too?”
“You bet your sweet ass, I am.” Xander extended his hand. “Buck Wilde.”
Josh studied Xander through narrowed eyes while they shook hands. “I don’t think I’ve watched any of your scenes. I’ll have to Google you.”
“No need. If you don’t mind that I’m sweaty, I can take you behind the scenes. Give you… full access.” Xander cupped his bulge.
Josh looked around, as if to double-check Xander was talking to him, then smiled. “Yeah?”
“I live nearby. We’d have a bed, and you can shower afterward.”
“Let me tell my co-worker I’m going to be late.” Josh typed out a text, his thumbs flying over his screen. “I can’t believe this,” he mumbled to himself. When he was finished, he tucked his phone back into his waistband.
Xander nodded in the direction of his apartment. “Shall we?”
“Yeah.” Josh turned to Blake. “Are you joining us?”
“No, I’m going to finish my run. You two have fun, though.”
Disappointment flashed through Josh’s eyes, but was quickly replaced with a look of mischief when Xander tugged on Josh’s waistband and peeked into his bicycle shorts.
“Nice meeting you, Dirk.” Josh’s breath hitched when Xander let his waistband snap back against his skin.
“See ya, Dirk.” Xander said, trailing his fingers along the outline of Josh’s dick.
Blake rolled his eyes. His friend was utterly shameless. “Catch you later, Xan… I mean, um…”
“Buck,” Xander reminded him. To Josh, he said, “It’s a stage name.”
“I don’t care what your name is,” Josh said, his eyes glued to the tent forming in Xander’s shorts. “As long as you make me forget mine.”
“Consider it forgotten.”
Xander and Josh took off, breaking into a light jog as they left the trail and cut across the park.
Chuckling, Blake shook his head. Later that afternoon, once the excitement over his hookup had passed, Xander would text him to apologize for ditching him.
But honestly, Blake didn’t mind. As much as he enjoyed Xander’s company, he liked running alone sometimes as well.
It was a good way to clear his mind and work out some new dance routines.
Or daydream about the cute boy he liked.
He’d run less than a quarter mile when his smartwatch vibrated with a text notification.
HOLLIS
We need to talk. ASAP.
Fuck. He sounded angry. Hollis was Blake’s personal assistant, in charge of his schedule, email, and social media accounts.
Blake’s video about putting his channel on hold must have been the first thing Hollis saw when he woke up.
He’d want to know why he wasn’t involved in the decision, which was fair – it was an impulsive move.
Even though Blake was sure it was the right decision for him, Hollis would be the one cleaning up the mess it caused.
Blake texted that he was on his way home, then jogged back to where he’d parked his car.
When Blake arrived home, Dustin was curled up on the couch in his bathrobe and plaid pajama bottoms, eating a bowl of cornflakes. His short brown hair was tousled and damp from the shower.
The two of them had lived together for three years, and although they kept the postage-stamp-sized apartment clean, the place was packed with Dustin’s collection of stage magic paraphernalia.
Ropes, metal rings, and decks of cards cluttered every horizontal surface.
On the walls, vintage magic posters were hung so close together, they’d basically become wallpaper.
When Blake closed the door, he found a new poster taped to its surface – a massive picture of a man levitating a woman, magic lightning shooting from his fingertips, and the name KELLAR spelled out in dramatic block letters.
Dustin was a bit eccentric, but Blake was lucky to have him as a roommate. He never judged Blake for how he made a living. In fact, he often seemed amused to be living with a porn star.
“How was the run?” Dustin asked.
“Good.” As Blake toed off his sneakers, he noticed the milk in Dustin’s cereal bowl was dark brown. “Why is your milk so dark?”
“It’s a mixture of coffee and milk.”
“What?”
“Check it out. I put milk in my coffee. I put milk on my cereal. Voila! Two birds, one stone.”
“But you don’t put coffee in your cereal.”
Dustin spooned more of his cereal concoction into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully, staring off into space. Suddenly, his eyebrows shot up. “But I drink coffee while cereal is in my mouth,” he said, with the confidence of someone solving one of the long-standing mysteries of the universe.
Maybe it was because he’d lived with Dustin for three years, but there was a certain logic to that.
Dustin pointed his spoon at the TV. “Want to watch a how-to video about card tricks with me?”
“Maybe another time. I’ve got to call Hollis. I might be in trouble.” Blake rocked back on his heels. “I kinda put my SeeMen channel on hold last night without telling him.”
“Oof.” Dustin grimaced. “Want me to make him disappear?”
“Nah.” Blake paused, considering Dustin’s offer. “You can do that?”
Dustin laughed, spraying milk and bits of cereal into his bowl. “Only if I have a cabinet with a false back. Go take your lumps, stud.”
Blake trudged to his room, stopping briefly in the bathroom for a towel to dry his face. After switching on his ring light, he sunk into his desk chair and fired up a video call.
Moments later, Hollis appeared on the screen, dressed in a crisp lavender dress shirt and yellow floral tie, his hair immaculately parted to the left. He was already scowling.
From looking at him, no one would ever guess that this clean-cut guy with black horn-rimmed glasses spent his days engaging in dirty talk with a porn star’s fans. He was like Clark Kent – except his superpower was writing smut.
Blake offered a hesitant wave. “Hi Hollis.”
“Good morning, Blake.” Hollis folded his hands and placed them on his desk. “Anything you’d like to share with the class today?”
“Is this about the announcement?”
Hollis’s mouth pulled into a tight smile. “The announcement,” he repeated, his tone cold and measured. Then the storm broke. “Jesus Christ, Blake! You have to warn me when you’re going to pull shit like this! I had over three hundred emails this morning, asking if you were okay.”
“Sorry, Hollis. I just need a break.”
“Getting booted from Private Dick isn’t giving you enough time off?”
Blake recoiled, stinging from Hollis’s barb. The man could be salty, but this was the first time he’d been outright mean.
Hollis held up his hands. “Sorry. That was out of line.”
“No, it’s fair. I probably won’t get studio work again after this.”
Hollis’s expression softened. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “The situation’s not that dire. The director is blowing everything out of proportion, so we may need to wait for the dust to settle. But you’re Dirk Slocum. The studios will come back around.
“In the meantime, though, you can’t afford to lose momentum. You’ve onboarded some new subscribers because of the discount, but you still need to engage with your longtime fans.”
“I don’t know…” Blake looked down and fidgeted with his hands.
“What’s going on, my friend?”
“I kinda met someone.”
“That’s sweet,” Hollis said, flashing Blake a genuine smile. “I’m happy for you. But until he puts a ring on it, this is your career.”
“I can survive a while on bartending and tips from dancing. And I have the money from subscriptions.”
“Which will dry up if you stop cam work.” Hollis rubbed his chin. “Have you given any thought to solo work?”
“Like J/O vids?” Jerking off on camera wasn’t sex with a partner, so it wouldn’t be cheating, even if he and Ethan dated long-term. “Sure, I could make those.”
“You’re a porn icon, so your subscribers will expect some production value. Don’t just spank it in front of your webcam. Give your subscribers something they haven’t seen before.”
“Like what?” There wasn’t much Blake hadn’t done on camera.
“Dildos, Fleshlights, fetish work, wet and messy play––”
“Okay, okay, got it. I have some prostate toys.”
“Great. People haven’t seen you put things in your butt yet. Subscribers will eat that up. Keep mixing it up, though. If you buy any new toys, send me the receipts so we can write them off.”
Blake nodded.
“Glad that’s settled. Ugh, back to my inbox. It’s going to take me all day to get through these emails. They just keep coming.”
Blake slid his phone toward himself, opened his Venmo app, and sent Hollis five hundred dollars. The guy deserved a bonus for dealing with the fallout from Blake’s abrupt decision to put his channel on hold.
The notification must have come through on Hollis’s screen, because his eyes darted to the right before focusing on Blake again. “Thank you. I’ll fix this. But take my advice, my friend. Don’t stay away too long. Film me a solo!”
Hollis ended the call, leaving Blake in silence.
Blake scrubbed his face with his hands. With the recent drama at Private Dick, and the possibility of dating Ethan, Blake was ready to take a break from porn.
But it was his main source of income. How long could he realistically stay away from it?
Hollis was right – his subscribers needed something.
He opened his nightstand drawer and sorted through his prostate toys. Although he was always a top on screen, he wasn’t opposed to some butt play every now and then. While he was deciding between a plug-type toy and a vibrating one, his phone chimed with a text notification.
ETHAN
Dustin?
Another message came through with a link, which Blake clicked. It was a video of a man attempting to yank a tablecloth out from under a fully set table – and failing miserably. Glasses toppled, plates crashed to the floor, and silverware scattered everywhere.
Blake snorted, then laughed out loud. It was exactly the type of stunt Dustin might try after a couple beers. Knowing Ethan had thought of him when he saw the video warmed Blake’s heart.
Then, a realization hit him like a glass of ice water thrown in his face. While Ethan was sending a silly video to make him laugh, Blake had been selecting the toy he’d shove up his ass on camera.
How had playing with himself to entertain strangers become such a casual part of his life?
Xander’s words from his morning jog replayed in his mind: I’m surprised Ethan hasn’t figured out who you are yet.
With the number of scenes Blake had filmed – and how often they showed up on the front pages of tube sites – being found out was a real possibility. Maybe even inevitable.
Blake flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.
He could come clean. Tell Ethan everything about his life as a porn star.
Lay it all out, one lurid detail at a time.
But that was risky. They’d only been on one date.
They hadn’t even slept together yet. What if sharing this part of himself scared Ethan off and ruined what was growing between them?
Gay guys give themselves away so easily.
He couldn’t keep his past secret forever, but for now he wanted to linger in this moment where he could be Blake, rather than Dirk Slocum – a brief moment where Ethan would see him as a regular guy.