Chapter 1

About Rafe JadisonPROLOGUE

I had never done anything gay before. Well, at least

not any more than any other guy growing up had. I mean everyone had

that weird moment in the locker room when the guy across from you

looked amazing, or that time you popped a boner when wrestling with

your best friend, or even that time when a guy who you had never

thought about that way looked at you and something about his face

just made you want to…you know. But those things had never really

gone very far. This though…now, this was different. I was

twenty-five, and in law school. I was an adult who knew what he

wanted out of life. Right? And these were two very adult men

sitting next to me. We were friends—three friends sitting in a

bar.

And that’s where it started. Or maybe it

started a lot earlier, like the day I met them. I don’t know. I

just know that some things, no matter how hard you try to get away

from them, come at you full force, like a beautiful summer storm

that appears out of nowhere over the ocean, the kind where no

matter how much you tell yourself you should get out of the water,

you just can’t bring yourself to do it. Or a whale bursting up from

the great depths and sending ripples so strong and so fierce that

everything for miles moves with those ripples. Or a school of

porpoises swimming in procession against the sunset, and drawing a

gasp of breath from everyone on the beach.

It was like that. Magical. Beautiful.

Frightening. Fast. Fierce. It was the sort of thing that those of

us who live near the water learn to expect.

And whatever happened, happened. This is our

story.

ONE

I couldn’t believe we were done. We had actually made

it through our first year of law school, and I think we felt good

about our exams this week, even the one we took today, which we had

all been sure was going to kill us.

I looked at Derek and Wyn. Derek’s dark hair

fell a little as he tilted his head back to take a big chug on his

beer. His hair was thick and dark brown. It was long enough to be

sexy, but just one centimeter away from going too far. It was the

kind of hair that maybe after a few drinks, you thought about

running your hands through, but it was still just short enough to

look good in a suit, and to allow him to walk nonchalantly into any

country club or upscale office in the world, and fit right in.

Derek reeked of old money, and the devilish glint that you

frequently saw in his eye told you that he didn’t always spend it

appropriately.

As Derek put down his empty glass, our usual

waitress, Sheila, approached. She was a red-head who looked about

thirty. She had big boobs that were just about bursting out of her

tight green Cove T-shirt, but none of us seemed to notice.

“Hey, we’re going to need three more,” Wyn

said. “And… I think we need some Kamikazi shots. We just passed a

killer final.”

“Coming up, babe,” Sheila said, walking away

from our table.

While Derek’s hair was thick and longer,

Wyn’s was short and textured, something a soldier would wear.

Although his hair was really dark brown like his brother’s, Wyn’s

hair appeared almost jet black, and always looked wet, just like

the tiny goatee that dotted his chin. If Derek reeked of old money,

Wyn reeked of new, even though these two guys were twins. Wyn,

despite the fact that his name was actually the last name of some

old relative named Wynthrop, was innovation and modern ideas. He

always had a new way of looking at the world that was just outside

the norm.

“You got us through this,” Wyn said, raising

his hand up and putting it on my right shoulder.

People love my shoulders. My shoulders are

thick, and broad, and wide, and I find that when people don’t know

where to touch me, or maybe when they want to cop a feel, they go

straight, or sometimes a little gay you might say, for my

shoulders. Either way, I usually kind of like it.

“You sure did get us through this,” Derek

said, touching my other shoulder.

We were in our favorite booth, an old

leather circular one that let us sit near each other in the darkest

corner of our favorite bar, The Cove. I always seemed to end up in

the middle, and today was no exception. Derek and Wyn both leaned

in so close that it felt like we were snuggling. I didn’t really

mind the intimacy; after all, we were great friends, but it had

been a long time since anyone had paid any attention to little Sam,

and with a few drinks in my system, I was starting to get a little

turned on. I could feel a stretch in my pants, and I knew from how

hard he was that little Sam really liked the fact that two warm

bodies were pressed up against me. I wanted to remind him that we

were all friends, straight friends, and that it was the wrong time

for me to get an erection of steel. After all, these guys were my

study group, and my hall mates. No matter how much they feel I

helped them, they helped me too. I wouldn’t have made it this year,

well at least not as easily, without them. We had gotten each other

through the first year of law school, and I wanted to make sure we

did the same for the next two years. I didn’t want anything to mess

that up, and I would be embarrassed as hell if they saw that I had

a hard-on.