Page 12 of Muscle Cub

“Not really.” He looked me up and down. “More like a surly professor teddy bear.”

“Are professor teddy bears a thing?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Austin nodded, his tone serious. “They come wearing little vests and bowties. And no pants.”

I blushed. Sweet Jesus.

With a loud ripping sound, Austin tore the horns from his forehead.

I winced. “Shit. Are those made out of duct tape?”

“Yeah, and that hurt like a motherfucker.” He grabbed a paper towel and ran it under cold water before pressing it against the angry skin at his hairline.

I gestured toward the remains of the headdress on the counter next to my crooked little halo. “Pretty ingenious, though.”

“Gunner’s super creative.”

I looked around at the bins of condoms and lube packets on the wall and the sign prohibiting photography and sex in the public areas.

Austin followed my line of sight. “Few people want to be photographed, so that one’s easy enough to follow. The sex in public areas, though… not so much. Virtually ignored. People behave fairly well during the day, especially in the mornings when it’s crowded with hungover guys legitimately looking to shower and shave and make it to the lodge while they’re still serving breakfast. But nighttime in here is a whole different world. A few hours from now… You might not want to be in here. Or maybe you would.” He scrubbed at the eyeshadow on his face.

“I hate that you’re having to take everything off early.”

He arched a brow. “Do you really?”

“Well, it obviously took a lot of time and effort. It was quite a look.”

“Legend has it this is what Gunner was wearing the night he met Hank. They convinced me it’s charmed.”

And now you’re wearing it the night you met me. I blamed his attention for thoughts like that. He pulled them from me with his bold eye contact, his unselfconscious smirks, and his cheeky, eat-me-alive looks. He probably enjoyed making regular guys like me squirm and eat our hearts out.

“You staying through the holiday on Monday?” he asked.

“Um, I was probably gonna head out before then.” Tomorrow.

Austin’s eyes went wide. “You can’t do that!”

I balked at his disappointment. “Maybe Sunday. Depending on how it goes.”

“Prof.” He spread his hands and shook his head like he couldn’t believe the insanity he was hearing. “You’ll miss the fireworks.”

The steam room door slammed open, and two flushed men emerged in a cloud of heat and moisture. I shifted to allow them to pass into the shower area, looking away from their semierect, swinging cocks.

Austin gave them an up-nod in the mirror. “How’s it going?”

One answered with a husky, “Hey,” and the other shyly smiled.

We heard the spray of water start, and I met Austin’s eyes in the mirror. “I feel like we’re interrupting,” I murmured out of the side of my mouth.

“Nah.” He mopped the back of his neck with the wet paper towel. He leaned close, his voice so low it was little more than lip reading. Voices carried in here, bouncing around off all the tiled surfaces. “They’re probably taking a break from the heat. Or they could’ve just finished. Trust me, if they want privacy, they’ll take it back to their cabins. I keep it quick when I’m only in here for official business. I don’t like to send any mixed signals.”

It was hardly a shock that Austin would come to the bathhouse for reasons other than bathing, and I didn’t want him to feel any shame about it, but his confessing it confused me. I could’ve taken it as evidence of how easily he could be had without consequence, or it could’ve been the kind of locker-room banter reserved for the friend zone.

It did cross my mind that if I’d first encountered him here instead of at the bar, I might never have properly met him at all. He could’ve just been a hunk stumbling out of the steam room while I was brushing my teeth before bed. I might have only gotten an eyeful and a “Sup, bro.”

Austin picked up the boots and flopped them over his shoulder like a towel. “I keep a locker down here. Let’s see if I can get these bitches in there.”

I grabbed our beers, hesitating for a second before choosing to abandon my halo, and followed him out the side entrance to a covered walkway that led to the pool. The underwater lights threw shimmering waves on the dark cabana and the undersides of the trees. The industrial-sized dryers in the adjacent laundry facility blew a steady hum that almost drowned out the screaming of the cicadas, and the chilly night was kept at bay by the oasis of warmth and light.