...BJ’s Pub was crazy busy—not unusual for a Friday night.

Jesse didn’t mind. He always preferred busy to slow. Especially tonight, when he was about to crawl out of his skin with anticipation.

Robert had texted him several times throughout the day…sometimes only a word or two, or a short but vivid sentence meant to stir his arousal. The man had clearly become an expert at stealthily texting sex talk to Jesse while he was in the middle of meetings. Who knew his pressed and polished lover was such a devious pervert, Jesse thought with a grin.

The slow, teasing build had worked all too well, and had left him with a perpetually half-hard dick all day and an edgy buzz that had made it tough to concentrate. He’d taught his class at the art center on autopilot. Then he’d met his friend Eric at a new coffee house/bookstore that had opened near the art center, and couldn’t even count the times Eric had given him shit for being off in la-la land. And tonight at the bar, though he’d smiled and nodded appropriately, he’d only been half listening as customers talked to him about their days, their woes, their troubled love lives.

When they finally hit a lull in business, Benny, one of BJ’s owners, a bearded, ponytailed gray-haired man in his fifties, dressed in faded blue jeans, a splashy blue and red tropical print shirt, and flip-flops, came around behind the bar with Jesse. He often helped tend bar on busy nights, but at the moment he didn’t look like that’s what he had in mind. He leaned against the back counter, crossed muscular arms over his chest, and eyeballed Jesse with a grin and a humorous glint in his eyes.

“Havin’ a good night?” he asked, the grin growing wider.

Jesse felt a smile twitch at his own lips as he leaned a hip against the bar. He and Benny had quickly become friends when Jesse came to work here at the pub a couple of years ago. He could tell from Benny’s expression the man was about to give him crap over something. “Yeah. What’re you getting at?”

“Just wonderin’.”

“Uh-huh.”

Benny’s gaze dropped briefly to Jesse’s groin, then slid back up. “So, are you…um…happy to see me? Or is that for someone else?”

Jesse let his own grin slip free. “Been practicing that line all evening, haven’t you?”

Benny laughed, a deep, jovial sound that drew the looks of several customers in the bar and brought smiles to their faces even though they had no way of knowing what was so funny. Benny had that effect on people. “Damn, and here I thought I was being so subtle.”

“Subtlety…not so much your strong point, Benny.”

That elicited another laugh, even as his eyes dropped to Jesse’s groin again. “Not so much yours either, apparently. Let me guess…your man’s coming home from one of his trips tonight and you’re jonesing for him real bad.”

Jesse continued to smile, but didn’t shift his position, try to adjust himself, or otherwise fall for Benny’s teasing. He’d been on the hairy edge of turn-on all day, no doubt, but he knew damn good and well that even at half-mast it wasn’t as obvious as Benny was trying to make it sound. It was more likely his boss had noticed Jesse’s distracted conversations with customers, or the way he kept checking the clock above the bar rather than measuring with any true accuracy the size of his package.

“Does John know you’re checking out other men’s equipment when he’s not around? Wonder what he’d say about that?” Jesse arched an eyebrow in humorous challenge. John was the other owner of BJ’s Pub, and Benny’s lover and partner of thirty years.

“Oh, so now you’re going to play dirty, eh? Well, for your information, John and I have been checking out men’s equipment, as you call it, since before you were even a gleam in your mother’s eye, boy-o. I think John would agree that I have particularly good taste and a keen eye for detail.”

“Yes, he does agree,” John said, exiting the office door next to the bar and joining them.

He was Benny’s age, but compared to Benny’s long hair and salt-and-pepper goatee, John had short, neatly trimmed gray hair and was clean-shaven. He wore pressed gray slacks, an immaculate striped dress shirt, and a purple silk tie. He was shorter than Benny, and lean compared to Benny’s muscular bulk. His voice was soft and cultured compared to Benny’s boisterous tone. In a nutshell, Benny was rock ‘n’ roll and John was classical. Yet Jesse had never known a more loving, committed couple in spite of the fact the two men were total opposites.

“You see!” Benny said with a smirk. “I rest my case.”

“Just so I know what the conversation is about, what is it I’m agreeing you have good taste and a discerning eye for?” John asked, glancing at his lover with a fond smile, then winking at Jesse.

“We were discussing Jesse’s current state of distraction.”

“Ah, you mean the hard-on he’s been sporting all night,” John said. “It’s a very fine one, indeed.”

“Oh, come on,” Jesse said, laughing. “It’s not that obvious!”

“Maybe only to a couple of old leches like us who’ve been around a block or two,” Benny said, grinning.

“And to Jesse’s handsome lover, no doubt,” John added. “I’m certain an intelligent, sexy man like Robert Bauer is fully aware of what’s waiting for him at the end of a long business trip and can’t wait to indulge.”

“Mmm. I agree. Come to think of it, I think our Jesse and his man are nicely matched in the attributes department, wouldn’t you say?” Benny asked his lover, as if Jesse weren’t standing right there.

“Oh, undoubtedly. Very well matched. Can you imagine how they must look together, all that hard heat at once? What would you say? Eight inches, both of them?”

“At least.”

“You two are bad. Evil. I can’t believe I work for you.” Jesse was still laughing.

“Should we tell him?”

“I don’t know…I’m sort of enjoying the fact he hasn’t realized it yet.”

“Realized what?” Jesse demanded.

“That the object of your desire just walked in the door, and he’s as hard for you as you are for him,” Benny said.

Jesse, who’d had his back to the door, spun around. Like a homing beacon, his gaze locked with Robert’s deep-blue one, and his heart began to pound. And this time, there was no denying his cock’s instant reaction—it swelled to full, painful stiffness in the tight confines of his jeans.

Everything around him ceased to exist and all he saw, all he felt, was the man he loved striding toward him, looking spectacularly sexy in expensive black dress slacks and a long-sleeved black shirt, his top button undone exposing the lickable column of his neck. His eyes glistened with an intense desire that slammed into Jesse, sapping his ability to think and stealing his breath.

“I’m taking my break now,” he managed to mumble to Benny and John.

“Use the office,” John said with a knowing smile. “We’ll make sure you’re not interrupted.”

Jesse wasn’t sure if he said thanks or not. He was already too busy walking—stumbling—backward toward the office door. Backward because he couldn’t tear his gaze from Robert’s. He felt the wooden door against his back. His hand closed around the doorknob, turned it, and then he was in the room lit only by the green-shaded banker’s light on the broad desk.

Robert was just feet away now. His short, spiky, light brown hair that was just beginning to gray at the temples looked deliciously tousled. His square, chiseled jaw bore a sexy five-o’clock shadow. His full lips begged to be kissed. And those eyes…they had the power to see all the way through to Jesse’s soul, and he found himself a willing and open window for them.

Robert slipped through the door, shut it, and locked it behind him. In a swift move, he grabbed Jesse by the shoulders, pushed him back against the wall, and claimed his mouth in a hungry crush.