Zak (Boys & Toys Season 2 Book 4) - Daryl Banner

1

‘I had hoped I didn’t go too far,’ the message reads.

I stare at the screen. I can’t show surprise. Any reaction on my face is broadcasted to the 72 online users currently logged into my chat room from all over the world, watching me as I sit on my bed in a fitted gray hoodie, half unzipped, black cap, and tight dark-gray jeans with holes torn at the knees.

Now it’s 87 users. I’m popular tonight.

An inconvenient time to be popular, when I’m staring like a blinded deer at the screen.

‘Please tell me you’ve considered it,’ the private message goes on, which I’m fairly thankful no one else can see, as we’re breaking so many rules here.

Rules like: don’t tell anyone where you live.

And: don’t give any customer personal contact info, including email or phone, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Skype—especially Skype.

96 users.

Breaking any of these rules can result in my permanent ban from the site—and the loss of a huge revenue stream for myself, which I depend on.

And so here I am, playing with fire again.

It shouldn’t be a new feeling. I’ve been flirting with danger my whole life, daring to get burned.

The message is from Captain, a regular of mine I’ve known for years—and my top customer. He must have given me well over twenty grand in online tips over the years, and even that may be a gross underestimation. We have shared so many little personal details we’re not supposed to with each other, one of which being the cities we live in.

Now he’s here in my city, a direct consequence of my rule-breaking. Captain is waiting for me in a hotel lobby. He wants to meet me at last, face-to-face, after all these years.

112 users.

Captain … whose real name is very obviously not Captain. But what is it?

Do I really know anything about him at all?

‘Have you made up your mind, Zak?’ he asks.

Good question.

116 … 117 …

The first time I did a striptease, I was sixteen. It was for a game of Truth or Dare. It was to a guy.

I remember the giggling girls and the guffawing guys at that high school party. It was Tommy’s big house, his parents were out of town, and he broke into his mom’s liquor cabinet. I only had a sip of something orange and sour, but it did the trick, and I was a chortling idiot with the rest of them.

Until that dare—when I was boldly asked to do a striptease for another guy, who also happened to be the one openly gay dude in our class. The girl who gave me the dare thought it would be the funniest thing, to watch a punk, skateboard-riding bad boy like me give a lap dance to “the gay guy”.

Everyone knew about him.

No one knew about me.

And when I, perhaps emboldened by the drop of whatever-the-fuck I imbibed, turned my black cap backwards and started slowly and sensuously peeling away my shirt and dancing on that gay dude’s lap, the silly laughing and squealing of our so-called friends seemed to fade away, background noise, forgotten—and in that special moment, it was just me and the wide-eyed, heart-racing gay dude.

His eyes were ablaze with a mix of terror and disbelieving thrill.

And during that dance, I felt such power. I felt enormous responsibility to make this guy very, very happy. His fantasy was being fulfilled. And I was given a chance to be myself for the first time (and in full view of many of my peers) and make two lonesome guys—us—feel good for once.

I wonder if that’s why dancing onstage at Aubergines nightclub as well as performing on cam for my customers on VirtualTease holds a special meaning to me—a nobler one compared to most of my peers, who bare it all solely for the cash.

For me, I hold lonely souls in my hands.

I supply these men a moment’s reprieve from a crushing loneliness they can’t escape.

I give them a peek through my window.

And I’ve given Captain more than just a peek; I’ve given the man directions straight to my door, and now here he is.

Knocking.

What did I expect, really? I’ve basically been a cock-tease my whole life. It was only a matter of time before my endless games of hard-to-get caught up to me and taunted someone one step too far.

I guess I thought the game would never end.

But there is something different about Captain. I know it. I’ve known it for a while. When I speak to him, unlike speaking to any