Naked Truth (gay romance)

Chapter 1

Lights pulsed in time to the pounding music and Liam swung his hips to the beat. It was a typical Friday night at Spark. Bodies packed the building. One of them was a girl not much older than he was who sat at his feet, patting the catwalk to the rhythm. She was all in black, from the hair gathered in ponytails to her leather top, ebony nails, and dark lips. Thick smudges of eyeliner completed the look he assumed continued down to her shoes in a motif designed to be either sexy or dangerous.

If she was there with someone, he couldn't tell. She'd been alone at the catwalk through the last three songs sipping something bright red from a tall glass. She glided the straw along her lips with a slow, seductive motion while she watched him from under her lashes, the pink tip of her tongue stark against the black lipstick. Every time she did, he smiled and she smiled back, though he was sure it wasn't for the same reason. They were flirting with each other and she was destined to be disappointed. His interest was in a tip or a private dance. He knew hers and she was wasting her energy.

He tried not to devote his attention to her because there was a room full of other women but his eyes kept drifting back. He didn't want to give her a reason to reach out and grab him to get his attention. She had to keep her hands to herself while he was dancing or security would smother the flirt they had going. Those were the rules, and the club's muscled hulks in black t-shirts didn't believe in second chances. He'd rather have her stick around to pay him than be hustled out the door in lieu of a second warning. She'd already had her first.

He laced his fingers behind his head and turned his back to the crowd, twerking to the music. He smiled at the expected round of hoots and whistles as he showed the room full of women how little his thong covered. It usually had that effect. After more than six months on stage, he knew what worked and what didn't. The crowd loved that move even if it looked more ridiculous than sexy.

The music drifted down a few decibels and the DJ called for a round of applause for the stripper performing at the other end of the stage. His set was over. He waved to the women and headed off the catwalk joining the procession of sweaty bodies. Two other go-go boys and a stripper named Rico stepped through the arch at the back of the stage and down a short hall before walking up the stairs to the employee lounge.

"Did you see the one with the tits?" Rico asked as they filed into the space, which doubled as a locker room. "I'm going to get lucky tonight, I can feel it."

Liam shook his head and tugged open his locker. Most of the strippers at the club were straight and obsessed with tits. He didn't understand it, but they wouldn't understand his obsession with tight abs either, one set in particular.

Random guys with hot bodies did nothing for him and hadn't for a long time. The one body that turned him on was across town on the couch playing video games in nothing but a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. Unfortunately, he had four more hours of dancing before he could get home and Justin would tuck himself in bed long before then. He shook the thought loose and sighed out the burst of desire.

"Gonna have me some of that." Rico pretended to thrust into an imaginary body and Liam rolled his eyes and toed off his shoes.

Their locker room was no different from any other. It was full of bragging, bravado, and dirty socks. They compared dance moves, seductive tricks, and stories of conquest, half of which he assumed were fantasy. Any story that started with 'I had this girl once...' was suspect. Either that or Vancouver was full of horny gymnasts who had studied the Kama Sutra in college.

Liam dried the latest accumulation of sweat with a towel before he tugged jeans over the black thong riding low on his hips. The law said he couldn't walk through the club wearing the same outfit he used on stage. It didn't say anything about not covering it with a snug layer of denim. He stepped back into shoes he spent half the night taking off and sprayed himself with a burst of body spray.