'Cruising' by JP Bowie

I stood dockside in Port Canaveral, Florida, gazing up at the ship I would call home for the next six months or, perhaps, even longer. The smartly painted blue and white hull towered over me, its lower decks dotted with portholes, its upper decks with larger windows. As I craned my neck, I felt a quiet surge of excitement and anticipation course through my body. I could make out the white uniforms of the ship’s officers as they strolled back and forth on the topmost deck. I’d later learn this was called the bridge—but as I’d never been onboard a ship before, all of that jargon was still to be learned, along with the protocol and the expected discipline of life afloat, far from the laws and jurisdiction of mainland America.

“So, what do you think, Adam?”

I turned to look at the guy standing next to me, Tom Hathaway, the man who had hired me to manage the ship’s casino.

“Very impressive,” I said, smiling at Tom. “I think that The Maiden of the Seas and I are going to get along very well. She’s just what I need right now—a lady who’ll help me forget all the shit that’s been going on in the last year or so.”

Tom grinned. “Are you telling me you’re into ladies now?”

“No, you know as well as I do, that’s not going to happen—at least, not in the way you mean. Although, after what Randy put me through, it might not be a bad idea to have a complete change of life, along with a new job, a new home...”

“And pussy instead of cock,” Tom added, chuckling. “Well, if you’re really interested, I can fix you up tonight when we get back to the hotel.”

I laughed, and smacked Tom lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t waste your time. I’m not that depressed.” I took another long look at the cruise ship. “When do we go on board?”

“Tomorrow morning. There’s a crew meeting at nine o’clock, in the theatre.” Tom gave me a serious look. “Just make sure all the dealers are there, and without hangovers if possible. The captain’s a real stickler for the rules and regulations. Howard wants us all to make the right impression from day one.”

Howard Marsden was the casino concession owner, a Miami attorney who I’d gotten on well with on our one and only meeting but was known to have a nasty temper if those he relied on didn’t come through according to his wishes.

I nodded. “Let’s both keep an eye on them tonight. That hotel bar is a well known pickup spot. I don’t want to crimp their style, but you know these guys once they’ve had a few.” I was talking into the wind. After a couple drinks, Tom was just as likely to lead the way to where angels fear to tread—mainly the hotel bar filled with delectable ladies of easy virtue. I only hoped I could keep Tom and the young male casino dealers from getting too drunk and being unable to make the meeting in the morning.

The hotel at Cocoa Beach was a lively place after five o’clock, the bar filling up early for happy hour. I spotted two of the dealers already leaning over the bar talking to the pretty bartender.

Maximum Exposure' by Jenna Byrnes & Jude Mason

Rob Jenkins climbed into the back seat of the yellow cab and took the first deep, calming breath since he’d gotten off the plane in Chicago. Collecting his suitcase had been a nightmare, as the crowd of meandering travellers at Midway Airport seemed determined to get in his way at every turn.

All the time he’d been dodging kids and dazed adults hurrying from one place to the next, he’d had Max on his mind. Their fights, the lack of intimacy plaguing them of late and his own refusal to play naughty with the man he loved. He shifted uncomfortably, remembering the last time Max had tried to get him to ‘show off his goods’. They’d been at one of the local clubs, drinking and partying it up after a long week of work, when Max slid a hand into Rob’s pants, giving his cock a stealthy squeeze. Of course, Rob had gotten an erection. But fear of discovery and ridicule had cooled his ardour almost immediately. Max had been upset, and the evening had ended with them in silent accusatorial anger and frustration.

The cabbie interrupted his thoughts. “Where to?” he asked in a heavily accented voice.

Rob looked up and saw the man’s dark eyes in the rear view mirror. “The Mason Arms on Michigan Avenue.”

He knew the ride would take about twenty minutes in good traffic. He’d thought about the flight from Indiana, the taxi ride and his other plans a million times before finally deciding to join his lover. Being away from him for the whole two weeks of Max’s conference seemed like a bad idea right now.

“You attending that big software convention at the Arms?” The cabbie made small talk as he pulled into traffic, smoothly accelerating.

“Meeting a friend.” Rob wasn’t in a talkative mood and hoped his clipped reply would shut the guy up. It did, and Rob fell back into his thoughts about Max and the argument they’d had before Max had left—another misfired sexual episode, another denial on Rob’s part—a fiasco extraordinaire.

He shuddered. He knew something had to change. Max needed those risqué moments Rob kept denying him.

'Yes!' by Kim Dare

“Are you calling me a slut?”

“I’m merely making an observation,” Kevin’s friend corrected. “You seem to have trouble saying no to men.” He swallowed a mouthful of his coffee and set the mug down on the low table between them.

Andrew Holt raised an eyebrow. He took a sip from his own steaming mug and carefully considered the young man sitting opposite him. He was certainly the type of man Andrew would enjoy saying yes to.

If he hadn’t turned up on Kevin’s arm, Andrew was quite sure he would have said yes, along with far more interesting things, to him weeks ago. However, while Andrew might not be willing to admit to having many morals, he did have standards. Poaching his friend’s lover was beneath them.

A bit of harmless flirtation on a quiet Saturday morning was quite a different thing, he reassured himself. There weren’t any other attractive men in the coffee shop—Kevin would understand how easy it was to get bored in that situation.

“No.” Andrew smiled across the coffee table. “I appear to be quite capable of saying the word to you.”

Kevin’s friend met his eyes and held his gaze for several long seconds. “I’ve never asked you anything that would tempt you to say yes to me.” As serious as he was obviously trying to appear, a hint of a smile continued to play around his lips.

Andrew sighed. For all his faults, knew when the ice was getting thin. It appeared Kevin’s new guy really was Andrew’s favourite type—cheeky, cute and ready to play. If he wasn’t very much mistaken, there was also something about Kevin’s friend that hinted he had the potential to be a very interesting dominant in a few years’ time.

Andrew set his coffee mug and his inclination to give in to temptation aside. “He may be a submissive, but Kevin would still have your balls on a platter if he found out you were screwing around behind his back. Mine too, if I was the one stupid enough to help you cheat on him.”

'Sorry Charlie' by Ashley Ladd

'Search your feelings. You know I’m your father.' The words rang in Charlie Lang’s head. For the past seventeen years, he’d wished anyone but Asa Charles Lang was his dad, even Darth Vader. His father made Vader look like a pussycat. At least, he’d wanted Luke once he’d found out about him.

Asa had been there at the moment of Charlie’s birth. He’d raised him ‘til he was seven when Charlie’s parents split. That’s when Asa had stolen off in the night to escape his debts, and according to Charlie’s mother, Gail, all his responsibilities to them. He’d found a new wife, made new kids, and only saw Charlie every few years for a measly day or two at a time.

Still, it hadn’t been too bad till Charlie had come out of the closet at age twenty-two and announced he was gay. Then Asa, his stepmom, Sharon, and his half-siblings had disowned him. They’d declared him dead to them.

The thought of running into them on the street had his partner, Jonathan, freaking out.

Now Sharon and a half-brother were dead and buried, and his other sibs had moved away, leaving Asa alone. Now, he was ready to forgive Charlie and rebuild their relationship.

Charlie rubbed the half-day’s growth of beard on his chin and shook his head. This was a good thing. Right?

“I can’t do this with you right now,” he told Jonathan. “I have to meet my dad.” Charlie stood tall and didn’t allow himself to flinch—not outwardly anyway. He also didn’t let Jonathan’s pretty-boy looks or his pout sway him from today’s outing.

Jonathan glared and scrunched his nose. He threw down his towel like a gauntlet, leaving him naked. “When will you have time for me? This man abandoned you for seventeen years, trashed you to everyone you knew and made our lives hell. And now, you run every time he calls. I don’t get it. Explain it to me.”

'Heat of the Night' by SL Majors

What the hell was he doing here?

Stephen Powell belonged in London, partying until dawn, hanging out with friends, fucking random girls, and breaking up the monotony with cruises on his cousin’s yacht. Last week he’d been in Monte Carlo, waited on hand and foot, gambling away the nights.

And now, here he was, in god-fucking-forsaken Wyoming.

If it hadn’t been for the GPS in the four-wheel drive vehicle he’d rented at the Denver airport, he’d have never found the city, if it could be called a city. Not that it would have been any loss. Almost the geographical centre of Wyoming, Riverton was a piss hole.

He’d driven around the town twice. It had taken about fifteen minutes with the stop light on Federal. As far as he could tell, there were a couple of restaurants, painfully few places to buy whisky, and a big twenty-four hour superstore that anchored the north end of Federal Boulevard.

There was no place to hang out, no place to buy designer clothes, and hell, not even a place for his weekly haircut and what his last girlfriend called “manscaping” that kept hair from places he didn’t want it.

He couldn’t believe the town actually had a Main Street with an historic downtown that was laughable for its size, lack of architecture, and boarded-up windows. He almost expected Wyatt Freaking Earp to walk down the street, a six-shooter strapped to his thigh. That would have been entertaining, at least.

Town marquees pointed out that the town was gearing up for the Fremont County Fair. He rolled his eyes. The best entertainment in town was a fair?

Stephen parked in front of a liquor store and angled his long, lanky body out of the air- conditioned sanity of the vehicle’s interior.

'One Night Stand' by Cassandra Gold

“There. You look wonderful.”

When Lorenzo stepped back, Thomas Garner peered at his reflection in the mirror. The new striped button-up shirt and khaki slacks he wore looked okay, but he still had his same old boring brown hair and hazel eyes. He also hadn’t lost any weight or gained any new muscles in the past few minutes. ‘Wonderful’ was probably an overstatement.

“Are you sure you’re not saying that because you’re my friend?”

Lorenzo laughed. Denny, Lorenzo’s partner, came up behind them and whistled. “Nice, Tommy.”

Tom grinned to hide his nerves. “Thanks. Now let’s go, before I chicken out.”

A few minutes later, Denny pulled into a parking spot across the street from their destination. Tom got out of the car, taking deep breaths. God, he was nervous. He hadn’t been to a place like this in years, since the early days of his relationship with Michael. He’d never really liked the bar and club scene anyway. The only reason he stood here tonight, about to go into a gay bar, was because Lorenzo had insisted it was past time he started getting out again.

And he was right. Michael had been gone two years now. Tom still loved Michael, probably always would, but he was ready to date again. Who knew, maybe he would meet someone interesting tonight. Even if he didn’t, braving the bar scene would be good experience. He hoped.

“Come on! I’m freezing.” Denny’s voice pulled Tom from his thoughts.

“Sorry.” He trailed behind his two friends, not quite able to match their enthusiasm.