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ME: GM cutie :) I have been pulled away from extinguisher duty today, and they are sending Frank down to install the last two units. But I was thinking I could grab a pizza and come by later if you aren’t busy?

Love of my life ??: Pizza sounds great! See you tonight. :)

ME: Any special requests?

Love of my life ??: You asking me about pizza toppings or do you want me to talk dirty to you?

“You naughty boy!”

I had been devastated when I’d gotten confirmation that the actual fire prevention and safety department was coming by to install the extinguishers today. But Alex flirting with me over text could make the worst day into heaven.

He’s horny and wants you badly. He’s champing at the bit!

ME: HA! Both!

Love of my life ??: Well, I guess we can start with the basics:

I’m a bottom. I mean I’ve never actually topped before, but I’ve never really had any desire to. I haven't really tried a ton of things in the bedroom besides the basics but I am open to trying new things as long as there’s no blood involved.

And I guess since we are on the subject I might as well just come out and tell you something about myself that a lot of guys find very controversial…

I raised an eyebrow, speed-reading through the text again.

“Controversial? I’ve seen you watch a few clips here and there of one guy pissing on another, but I’d hardly call that controversial…”

ME: ??? You can tell me anything.

I had forgotten about that. It wasn’t very often, and he wouldn’t seek them out, but if he came across a clip with watersports, he’d watch.

Of course I would let Alex piss on me, if that’s what he wanted. I’d drink from his cock like a garden hose if it would make him happy. I’d take anything Alex was ever willing to give me… full stop.

Is that what he was about to tell me? He wanted to drown me in his piss?

Love of my life ??: I like pineapple on my pizza.

I barked out a laugh, completely thrown off by his misdirection. “You are something else, baby. So fucking funny!”

Me: LMFAO. You are something else, Alex. I’ll see you tonight.

I was glad Alex had agreed to meet me. I couldn’t help but wonder when he was going to tell me about Tom and the stalking. I pretty much expected the shit to hit the fan here any second, and I wanted to be the one to comfort Alex. I wanted him to be comfortable enough with me to tell me about these kinds of things. We had only had our first date, but I was really curious to see if he was going to cancel after he went downstairs and found the note. I was going to come by and check on him, even if he did.

It was time to start showing Alex that I was strong, loving, and more than capable of taking care of him and keeping him safe. That starts tonight. I closed my phone, turned over onto my side, and ran my hand down the towel I had spread out to take up the space that Alex should have filled. It was all dry now, but it still smelled like him. It had his essence and DNA all over it.

It should be displayed in a museum of fine art.

I got up and walked around to the other side of the bed. I carefully picked up the towel and folded it into a small cube, leaving the section with Alex all over it on the top. I brought it to my face and inhaled, long and deep, breathing him in.

I adjusted myself in my briefs, went into the second room, and crawled through to my man cave, careful to keep the towel from dragging across the ground as I moved through the wall.

Once inside, I hit the light and stepped over towards the back shelf. I held the folded towel up on one hand, like a waiter would carry a tray, while I used the other to clear some space on the shelf. I grabbed Alex’s gym shorts from his senior year PE class and the sock (the one with the hole at the toe, not the black ankle sock he’d left in the dryer at the laundromat last month—I keep that one under my pillow) and pulled them down. I set them carefully on the desk before sliding his name tag from McDonald's over towards the edge of the shelf, making enough room for the towel.

Once the towel was perfectly centered, I carefully re-folded the shorts and laid them gently atop the towel. I folded the sock in half and set it on the shelf behind the name tag to help prop it up, so his name could easily be seen.

Perfect.

***

As I pulled into Westing House, I saw Mike disappearing around the side of the house. “What the fuck are you doing here, lover boy?”

I rolled my eyes and huffed. “I am so going to enjoy killing you one day.”

I took a deep breath, willing my pulse rate to remain at a normal level as I grabbed the pineapple pizza off the passenger’s seat and hurried up to the front of the house to be there in time for him to come around the corner again. As I head his footsteps approach, I turned.

“Who are you? What are you doing sneaking around the house at night?”

Mike startled, his eyes going wide as he laid eyes on me.

“I’m checking on Alex. I work here.”

I could smell the beer on his breath as he spoke. “What are you doing here?”

I steeled my expression and took a step closer to him. I was a good four inches taller, and in way better shape. “I think that you should learn how to mind your own business and take a hint as to when you are not wanted,”

I hissed through gritted teeth.

Mike puffed his chest up and opened his mouth to respond when the door flung open and Alex came rushing out onto the porch.

“G-gabe?”

I looked over at Alex. He looked confused until Mike finally took a few steps forward and into the glow of the front porch light.

“Mike?”

“I found this guy skulking around the bushes when I pulled up,”

I said, keeping my eyes fixed on Mike. “Says he knows you. He works here?”

“W-what are you doing h-here?”

He must have been talking to Mike, as he’d been expecting me.

“I could ask you the same thing, Alex. You are supposed to be lying low for a couple of days…away from the house,”

Mike spat.

“Why are you sneaking around the house after dark?”

I asked Mike, before turning back to Alex with a frown. “What is he talking about, Alex?”

“I wasn’t sneaking,”

Mike burst, his blood alcohol level bubbling with his temper. “I was making sure Alex was safe, and then I was going to demand to take him to a hotel.”

He walked right into it!

“Why would this guy be taking you to a hotel? Is there something going on between you two?”

I allowed my face to fall, and looked away momentarily in dramatic disappointment. “I’m not into games, Alex…”

I began somberly, “...you told me you were single.”

My tone wasn't accusatory or rough, but more forlorn.

“N-no! I am single. I c-can explain.”

“Ahh, so this is why you fought leaving the house so hard when Melissa was insisting. You had a date with your little fireman,”

Mike sneered.

I turned around, walked up the porch to Alex, and handed him the pizza box. “I think I’m just going to go home, Alex. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s shady. I don’t do shady.”

I turned around and started to head down the steps when Alex begged, “No! P-please, l-let me explain!”

He turned to Mike, “M-mike, thanks for ch-checking on me. You can go home now!”

Mike grunted and swore under his breath before stomping off towards the road.

“Please come inside, Gabe, and I’ll explain,”

he pleaded.

After some feigned hesitation that was fully at odds with the giddiness in my heart, I turned around and nodded, allowing Alex to lead me inside. Once the door was closed, Alex explained—stammering and nervous—how he was having problems with a stalker that had been leaving him notes and breaking into the house.

He told me he had gone to the police about it, and that Mike had been there helping when the police had initially come to take the report of the break-in.

“Not to stir trouble, but I’m just going to throw this out there,”

I said. “You are having a stalker problem, and I caught that man creeping around your bushes after dark without you having any knowledge of him being here…”

Alex mulled my words over with a slight raise in his eyebrow.

“So what do we do now?”

I asked him after he didn’t speak for a minute.

“I have t-t-to check into a hotel ‘t-til they install a s-security s-system.”

“How long will that be?”

“Three days.”

I had not anticipated spending the next few days in a hotel with Alex. I had actually thought maybe he would be scared and want to stay at my place. A hotel was better. It could be like a mini-vacation, just the two of us. Secluded. Romantic.

“Did you already book a hotel?”

Alex shook his head.

“Well, I’m off till Sunday. Maybe…”

You’re being too forward.

“...maybe we could get a hotel together. Play tourist for a couple days?”

Stupid, he’s already freaked out. He doesn’t want to go away with you!

“That s-sounds kind of awesome.”

“Really?”

I felt like I had just found the cure for cancer or something. Alex said yes!

“I’ll need to stop by my place and pack a bag, but that’s easy,”

I told him, grinning from ear-to- ear. If I listened closely, I swore I could hear something. Wedding bells. Angels singing.

***

Having Alex inside my space was intoxicating, and it took me longer than it should have to throw a few changes of clothes and my toothbrush into a duffel bag. Hell, being in Alex’s presence anywhere was intoxicating. I couldn’t believe I was going to get to spend the next three days with him in a little hotel paradise.

The Hazelwood Hotel was exquisite. Charming and quaint—I couldn’t have picked a better place myself. I carried Alex’s bag along with my own as we made our way through the lobby to check in.

“Good evening, gentleman. Checking in?”

A pretty young woman in a blue suit was waiting at the immense mahogany desk when we entered the lobby.

I looked over at Alex. “Did you book the rooms in your name?”

“Winters,”

Alex told the woman with a smile. “Alex Winters.”

She nodded and typed his name into the computer. “Two rooms for a three-night stay. Checking out on Thursday?”

Alex nodded.

“Great. I’ll just need a credit card on file for incidentals.”

I pulled my Visa card out of my wallet to hand to the receptionist. “Wait, you already paid for the room?”

I looked over at Alex, my brain finally catching up to what the woman had said.

Alex gave me a thumbs up and a small smile.

Fucking adorable.

“I was going to pay for them, Alex,”

I told him reproachfully. “It was my idea.”

Something about Alex paying for our stay discomfited me tremendously. His means were so poor, and I could comfortably handle the bill. His generosity stung me. I would have to watch for it in the future. Be quicker on the draw.

He shrugged, and I shook my head as I handed the woman my card. “You are not allowed to pay for anything else while we are here, okay?”

“If y-you insist.”

“I have you in adjoining rooms, non-smoking,”

she said. “Is that all right?”

Adjoining rooms… with Alex. Yeah, lady. That sounds just fucking perfect!

Once we were in the elevator, I looked over and met Alex’s eye. “C’mere.”

I leaned down and brushed my lips against his, and his eyes fluttered closed. “I wanted to kiss you in the elevator,”

I told him as the doors opened again to let us out on the fifth floor.

Alex stopped in front of room 505 and scanned his key. I walked to the next door and scanned mine. With my arms full, I used my elbow to turn the handle and my shoulder to push the door open. The room was nice. It had a large bed in the center of the room with silky-looking sheets. God, Alex would look amazing lying across it. Nothing but that fabric against his velvet skin. I wanted to memorialize the image of him like that, in this room. I wonder if I could hire a portrait painter to come here and do it.

I set the bags down on the bed and stepped into the bathroom to take a piss. It was massive! A nice walk-in shower and a separate claw foot bathtub.

Plenty of room for two…

Once I was finished, I headed towards the adjoining door separating mine and Alex’s rooms and knocked softly.

Alex opened the door and gave me a small smile. I brought my hand up to my mouth and cleared my throat in an exaggerated gesture before speaking like an old stuffy British butler. “Sir, I just wanted to make sure everything was up to your liking this evening.”

I straightened out and craned my neck up, and held my arm folded in front of me as if there were a hand towel draped across it.

Alex giggled, and we bantered back and forth for a minute before he stepped aside and allowed me entry.

“Oh, I almost forgot…”

I turned around and walked back into my room to grab Alex’s bag and handed it to him.

“Thanks.”

I nodded. “Have you seen the bathroom yet?”

“Not yet.”

“It’s incredible! This isn’t something that I normally admit, because it goes against my tough-guy aesthetic, but I do love to take a bath now and then. And this bathroom looks like a fucking spa.”

Alex smiled and walked into the bathroom to check it out. “Wow.”

Alex stood next to me gazing at the tub, lost in thought.

Was he thinking about what I was thinking about?

After what felt like too long, I spoke. “There is a little café that’s open late just around the corner. The reviews say they have the best hot chocolate in the city. Care to join me?”

I wasn’t ready to go to sleep, and I was far too nervous about staying cooped up in this room with him at the moment.

“That sounds r-really nice.”

“Awesome.”