15
Orion
Sable looked uncomfortable as Victor ushered him behind the bar.
Every protective instinct I had flared to life when that jerk touched him.
It wasn’t my place, but he’d been talking to me, and while I wasn’t sure I would take him up on his flirtatious offer, it was fun to be on the receiving end of it.
No, I shouldn’t have been there. Not after the day before with Whitney. There was that uncontrollable urge to see Sable since he’d intruded into my fantasies. I was once again on that damn bar stool like I couldn’t control myself.
Another dancer took the stage, not that I’d been paying much attention to the last one. Once Sable was in the room, I had tunnel vision. I couldn’t focus on this one either, other than to identify that it was another one of the very few male dancers that the club had.
I didn’t get a lot of time to think about it before someone was tapping on my shoulder. When I turned, Victor was standing there. I immediately looked to see if Sable was still with him, which was really fucking stupid because he’d been trying to get him away from prying eyes.
“Can you come with me?”
I couldn’t really comprehend what was being said.
“What do you mean?”
Victor sighed, rubbing his temples. “Just come with me, man. Please. I don’t normally do shit like this, but I think you can help right now.”
I was off the stool, following him behind the bar. There was at least one other person working that night, but they looked frazzled compared to how calm and put-together Victor normally was.
Victor led me through a door that opened to what I suspected was the storage room for the bar.
There were all sorts of extra bottles of liquor lining the shelves, boxes of beer scattered about, but I didn’t have time to focus on any of it.
He led me deeper into the room to a door at the back that opened into a long hall.
Places like this probably had all sorts of ways for their employees to escape without patrons noticing.
The lights were way too bright in the hall. I had to squint as Victor kept leading me down the passageway. It felt like we were walking forever when he’d only been gone with Sable for a few moments. He suddenly stopped at a door, turning to face me.
“I’m letting you into a place that people don’t normally get to see. I could lose my job if Henry finds out I brought you back here, so whatever you do, don’t be a dumbass,” he explained before opening the door.
The room beyond was filled with racks of barely-there clothing and rows of vanities where dancers sat in various states of dress.
It suddenly made sense why Victor told me not to be a dumbass.
This was the backstage area. That meant this was the dancer’s safe space.
They didn’t need to worry about customers coming back there creeping on them.
The other dancers didn’t need to worry about me looking at them, however, because my eyes were drawn to the man standing in a pair of ripped jeans and a loose hoodie to the side of the room.
“Victor? What the hell did you do?” He put his hands on his hips as he glared at his friend.
Victor raised his hands as he turned to look at me. “I’m volunteering you. I hope you don’t mind.”
Now he had my attention because Sable was obviously upset about something. Whatever that something was, it probably had to do with whatever Victor was volunteering me for.
“Cancel that rideshare. I got someone to take you home,” Victor said, making me stumble as I walked across the room toward Sable.
I was doing what now? Normally something like that wouldn’t bother me, but this was a man I was lusting after.
Was it a good idea to put me in a confined space with him?
Also, Victor really should have asked because I normally walked to the club.
It would be tricky getting Sable to the house, then explaining to Whitney why I’d needed to grab the car.
Thankfully, I knew that there were a few grocery items we needed, so maybe I could swing by to get them after dropping the guy off.
“You didn’t need to do that. I told you I was fine. Jesus fucking, christ. Sorry, Orion. How did he rope you into this?” Sable grumbled as I made it to his side.
I chewed on my bottom lip because how the hell did I tell him I was just as surprised as he was.
It would be easy to turn around and refuse, but after that smelly guy had tried to hang all over Sable acting like he owned him just because he’d paid him?
Yeah, I wasn’t about to come across like a complete jackass by saying that I hadn’t offered.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said while shrugging and looking down at him. He was so much fucking shorter than me. I didn’t know why I liked that so much. Cute and compact. Almost travel size. Full of so much moxy.
Sable huffed, pulling his phone from his pocket, unlocking the screen. He opened an app, hitting a few different buttons before he looked at Victor again. If looks could kill, I’d bet money that Victor would already be six feet under.
“I swear to God, Victor. You better be thankful that you have a nice dick or I’d be done with your ass. You meddling piece of shit.”
Victor laughed, “I really can’t tell if that’s a compliment about my dick or a request to try out my ass, but you’re welcome all the same.”
He left me standing there, feeling awkward between the two friends.
Of course I knew that they’d slept with each other.
Victor had told me as much, but it was so strange to see people be so casual about it.
Maybe it was because Whitney was my high school sweetheart, making me unaware of what casual sex was like.
I’d never really felt like I was missing out on anything other than Jayden constantly harassing me about it.
He didn’t get how I could settle for one person.
Now I was sitting in a position where I sort of understood where he was coming from.
Though it wasn’t like I wanted to sleep with everyone under the sun.
Only the tiny little dancer that had crash-landed his way into my life.
We all stood there for a few moments because I didn’t know what to say.
I’d never been in a situation like that before, but I understood where Victor was coming from.
The last time Sable had someone come on to him like they owned him, he’d had a panic attack.
It wasn’t a big deal for his friend to be worried and not want him standing outside alone awaiting a rideshare, though he could have gone about it in a much better way.
I cleared my throat—Sable addressed me with a welcoming smile. The look warmed my insides. Taking him home was such a bad idea. I needed to go back to my own place, stop coming to the club every night to catch another glimpse of him, and move on with my life - with my wife.
“The exit is this way,” he finally said as he led me toward a back door that I hadn’t previously seen.
We made our way into an alley that smelled absolutely terrible, probably thanks to the large dumpsters that lined the wall.
Sable seemed unfazed by the odor as he stuffed his hands into his pockets walking toward the road.
I had to run to keep up with him. For someone who was so much smaller than me, he appeared to glide instead of walk. His movements were fluid and fast.
Sable waited for me on the sidewalk, nerves prickled at my skin as I figured out how to explain to him that my car was parked at my house. Maybe if I just started walking, he’d figure it out. That, or he’d think I was just another creep trying to get him alone.
“Uh, this way.” Was all I said as I led him down the sidewalk toward the house. It was fucked up to not explain things to him, but I wasn’t great at any of this.
“Where the hell are we going? The parking lot is the other way.”
I sighed because at least he called me on my shit sooner rather than later. “This might come as a surprise to you, but not everyone drives to this place. Something Victor should have asked about before volunteering me for this.” I started to walk again, but stopped when Sable didn’t follow.
“So what was the plan then?”
I looked up at the sky. Clouds spotted the starry night, but not enough to make me worry that it was going to rain. But looking anywhere but at the gorgeous little creature that was following me gave me time to think.
“I don’t live far from here. Normally, I walk. Figured I’d take you with me to get my car, then I’d take you home.”
That seemed to be a good enough answer for him. His eyebrows still pinched with suspicion as he started walking again.
We continued on in silence, which was fine, especially when we entered the more residential area a few blocks down the road.
The last thing I needed was to wake up my neighbors and have them ask me questions about my new friend.
Maybe I should be a little less worried since Sable was male.
It wasn’t like I was dragging a woman around the neighborhood, but it was my own internal guilt, knowing that I’d had such impure thoughts about the guy that had me so paranoid.
He looked so normal in his street clothes.
It took us twenty minutes to walk to the house.
I still felt funny making Sable stand outside while I ducked inside the house to grab my car keys.
It was suspicious as hell because I knew how it all looked.
The house was nice. It was a two story split level that Whitney’s parents had helped us put a down payment on when we first got married.
The house was perfect for starting the family Whitney had always wanted.
It was only a reminder to me that I was still failing her.
I unlocked the doors of my pickup truck. Another non-family friendly vehicle. It was as if I didn’t know how else to tell Whitney that I was content to let things be as they were. Being a dad wasn’t in the cards. I never wanted to break her heart, but what I was doing was so much fucking worse.
Sable climbed into the passenger side—much like my wife, he had to use the handles to lift himself into the cabin.
It was so foreign seeing him sitting there in my truck that all I could do was sit there staring at him for a minute.
It wasn’t until he looked at me, raising his eyebrows, that I finally snapped out of it and started the engine.
The damn thing was fucking loud. I cursed under my breath, praying that I didn’t wake Whitney because she would ask questions about why I picked up the truck.
I tried not to let the anxiety of it all get to me. The goal was to get Sable home in one piece.
“Where to?” I asked.
Sable’s hands fidgeted in his lap as he looked out the front windshield. “You’ll have to forgive me a little on this, but I just moved into a new place today. I’m not one hundred percent sure of the address yet, but I do know that it’s off of Needham and there’s a park about a half a block away.”
I nodded because I had an idea of what area the place was in. It wasn’t the nicest area, but that wasn’t my place to judge.
Sable leaned over the console, fiddling with the buttons.
I didn’t even let Whitney touch my radio, so it was something that him fussing with it didn’t bother me.
He scrolled through stations until he landed on a classic rock station, leaving the volume on low, sitting back in his seat while I started down the road.
“Just moved?” I was making small talk, needing to fill the silence, or I would lose my cool and do something stupid like pull over, try to kiss him, or something even more lascivious. That was the last thing either of us needed.
Sable looked over at me, his eyes wide like he were surprised that I had paid attention to something he said.
“Uh, yeah. I...” He trailed off before chewing on his bottom lip, looking out the window as if he had decided against telling me whatever it was he was about to say. But now I was interested. I wanted to hear what he had to tell me.
“Don’t do that. I get that we don’t really know each other, but maybe we can change that. I’d like to get to know you.”
That had Sable turning to face me.
His eyebrows touched his hairline like he couldn’t believe what I was saying.
Was he not used to people taking a genuine interest in him?
Then again, this had all started off with me meeting him in that damn club.
There had to be some weird disconnect between friend and client.
I’d already inserted myself on the sexual client side, but maybe that had been a huge mistake if I wanted to be something more.
Sable stared at me while wringing his hands in his lap. He finally spoke—it was like a rush of oxygen filling the cabin of the truck for the first time since he had initially shut down. “I lived with an ex. A prostitute who dates. Funny, right?”
I shook my head. “You do what you need to in order to survive. It’s your body and if it’s what makes you happy, then I don’t see why so many people have a problem with it.”
He sighed loudly, resting the back of his head against the passenger window.
“Well, the issue is that when you sell your body and try to have a serious relationship at the same time, sometimes the other person still thinks they have sole ownership of you. Last I checked, no one owns my body but me.”
I understood his frustration. If someone had made him feel that way, it was wrong.
While Whitney expected monogamy in our relationship, that was something we had agreed upon in the beginning.
If someone started a relationship with Sable knowing what his job was, did they have room to complain about the actual activity of his work?
Sable stuffed his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie, clearly agitated by the conversation. “Anyway, while it worked for a while, it was getting to be too toxic. There were too many rules about how I was and wasn’t allowed to dress in my own home. So... I found something different.”
I nodded. “That’s admirable, I think. If you aren’t comfortable in your environment, you should change that.”
Sable laughed. “Listen to you. Talking like you know shit.” It wasn’t malicious, but I could see where his skepticism was coming from.
We really didn’t know each other at all.
There I was, trying to impart words of wisdom as if we’d been talking for ages.
As if I had the ability to take my own advice.
The truck's interior fell quiet after that, the music playing in the background, Dream On by Aerosmith playing low, creating a simple reminder of what exactly I should be doing right now. I should dream on, maybe even move on.