ease with which other males shot off. "It means a lot. I like you, Michael."
Michael's eyes locked with his, light green and acute.
James didn't flinch. "Do you like me?"
"Too much."
"No such thing," James said with a saucy little wiggle. Inside he thought, give it three weeks and he'll never want to see me again.
***
The next week they met at the Nautilus again. Not wanting to scare Michael, James had phoned to outline his plan in advance. As expected, Michael had reacted uncertainly.
"What if I... suppose I... get an erection?"
James fought back a laugh. There was something endearing about the way Michael used the correct terminology for everything. "Deepak is a professional. A licensed masseur. He doesn't pay any attention to male blood flow below the waist," James said, leaving out the fact Deepak earned far more cash as a rent boy than as an itinerant masseur. "He'll bring over his massage table, loosen you up, and then we'll fuck till you collapse."
"Will you have a massage, too?" Michael asked.
James was startled. Twice a week he popped in to see his mum. Once a month he saw his dad. His best friend Marla was busy ever since she'd squeezed out twins, but they met up whenever they could. But out of all the people James supposedly held near and dear, his client Michael was the only one who seemed to truly care if James was properly taken care of.
"Let me get you breakfast," Michael had said the morning after their last meet-up. Considering the fact James hadn't managed to get off and Michael had been forced to service himself, James should have been nursing two black eyes and a bruised ass. Instead he was being invited to breakfast by a man so polite, he wouldn't even use the phrase "let me buy you." And now upon hearing that he, Michael Maguire, the world's tensest human being, was going to receive a professional-quality massage, Michael's first thought was to wonder if James would receive one, too.
"Deepak will massage me if I want," James assured Michael. "But I like watching the action unfold. If he does a good job and you enjoy it, that's enough for me."
Michael paced like a caged lion while Deepak put on his music, lit his aromatherapy candles and set up the massage table. Then Michael undressed with jerky mechanical movements, taking refuge beneath the white sheet and lying on his belly. James found the whole run-up amusing in ways he couldn't explain. Michael shuddered when Deepak's big, strong hands dug into the knotted muscles around his neck and shoulders. But he gradually relaxed, eyes closing, no longer trembling with resistance. Smiling, James began to undress.
He wasn't shy of Deepak. They'd fucked once or twice, enough to know they weren't into each other. James wasn't stripping to entice Deepak, young and handsome though the other man might be. James was stripping because he knew Michael loved to look at him. So he wanted to be bare at the right moment, pale skin, pink nipples, red lips and red cock, to add to Michael's pleasure however he could.
"Why don't you ever moan?" James murmured in Michael's ear as Deepak kneaded his shoulders.
"Kids'll hear," Michael muttered.
"Your kids know what you and wifey are up to. But why don't you moan here? When you're with me?" James persisted.
Michael didn't answer.
"You can moan when you're with me," James whispered, kissing Michael's ear.
"Turn over," Deepak said, lifting the sheet.
Slowly, reluctantly, Michael did. His cock was fully engorged. Deepak dropped the sheet below it and began to stroke Michael's hard belly with both hands. Michael's cock trembled, balls stiffening. Deepak's stroking wasn't quite massage-school technique, James knew. This particular caress came from the rent boy playbook.
"I wish you'd let Deepak get you off," James said, lips brushing Michael's ear.
"I want you. I trust you," Michael gasped, looking at him. It was true. Something in the other man was afraid of being jerked off by a stranger, though James couldn't