Point of Beginning
The Gentlemen's Club 1
'Sometimes dreams do come true.'
Blurb:
Geeky CAD technician Jack Monroe is
bi-curious, but after he falls head over heels for a certain curly-haired
construction surveyor, he’s ready to admit he’s gay. Too bad Alex James is
straight and has a girlfriend who keeps him on a short leash.
Jack is determined to meet other gay men,
but after a few dates from hell, he's ready to give up. Then he meets Richard
Caldwell, part owner of the exclusive Gentlemen’s Club where wealthy members
can make their dreams come true. Richard takes Jack under his wing and offers
him a chance to act out his fantasy with an Alex lookalike. Nobody can replace Alex,
but knowing the real thing is off-limits, Jack accepts the offer. When the real
deal shows up, Jack is convinced that Alex is only there for the money. But
sometimes dreams do come true.
Excerpt
I hate gyms!
But then, Jack had pretty much hated gym
class all through school. Always the smallest kid in the class, and the last
picked for any game, he’d shied away from any kind of sports. He preferred to
have his nose buried in a book rather than broken on the hockey field, and he
couldn’t hit a baseball to save his life. At least no one ever bullied him, but
no one wanted to be his friend either.
High school was more of the same. While the
other guys tried out for football or screwed as many girls as they could, Jack
spent his time studying or on the computer. What made it even worse was his
sister had been a top-notch gymnast who’d almost made it to the Olympics. Lucy
had gotten the best of the Monroe gene pool. Their parents had avoided
comparing them, but sibling rivalry was inevitable. Jack couldn’t help swinging
back and forth between admiring and detesting Lucy. To this day, they barely
spoke and only saw each other on the holidays. His fault, not hers.
Jack pulled into the parking lot of the
Liberty Gym, but he didn’t turn off the ignition.
I can still change my mind. I don’t have to
go in.
He’d almost turned back twice already on
the seven-mile drive from work to the gym. Still undecided, he sat behind the
wheel, thinking.
What the fuck am I doing here? Maybe
twenty-eight is too damn old to start acting like one of the guys.
On the other hand, Jack was sick of being
some kind of bibliosexual freak. All those years spent reading about other
people’s lives, and he still had no idea who Jack Monroe was.
Will the real me please stand up?
A knock on the car window interrupted his
thoughts, and Jack’s head jerked up.
Alex!
His coworker peered in at him with a
furrowed brow and a questioning look. Too late to change his mind now, the
decision had been made for him. Jack turned the key and opened the door.
“Jack, you okay?” Alex looked a little
worried as Jack got out of the car.
“Course he is. Let’s get a move on, before
all the equipment is taken.” Kyle’s tone grated on Jack’s nerves. What the fuck
was his hurry? The man already looked like a terminator. It gave Jack a bit of
satisfaction that Kyle had to comb his thinning hair over a distractingly shiny
scalp.
Jack ran a hand through his own thick,
sandy mop and smirked. “Oh yeah. Wouldn’t want to miss a minute of this
opportunity.” Bullshit. Kyle, being the only member, acted like they were here
on his dime. In reality, Jack and Alex were using free passes that Kyle had
scarfed up because the gym was doing a big promotion to get new members.
The three coworkers started walking around
to the front entrance, Jack lagging behind. The gym looked like a shiny oasis
in the middle of a very ugly strip mall.
“You coming?” Alex called over his
shoulder.
Jack took a deep breath and picked up his
pace.
Alex turned and grinned at him. “Wouldn’t
want to lose you.”
If only it were true.
The thought came unbidden to Jack’s mind,
and he brushed it aside. He’d been having these urges lately, and they all
revolved around Alexander James. Pretty damn surprising since they hardly knew
each other and even weirder because Jack hadn’t been attracted to anyone in so
long, he’d started to think he was asexual. He’d never been sexually abused,
and he knew he wasn’t impotent because he enjoyed masturbating, but until now,
he’d never known what it meant to have chemistry with someone—man or woman.
This bizarre sexual pull toward Alex must be what people referred to as having
butterflies in their gut.
Too bad it’s one-sided.
Kyle stood in front of the entrance. “Let’s
do it,” he said cheerfully.
The door opened, and they walked into a
trendy temple of fitness where all the muscle guys were gods who looked good
enough to pose alongside Ryan Reynolds in a photo shoot. Suddenly Jack’s throat
felt tight and his pulse raced. He felt like he was back in middle school
again, trying to measure up.
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