Heartache Spoken Here

  I can finally meet him.

  He desperately hoped Albert didn’t think he was some sort of crazy Internet creeper. Even if all they did was become friends in real life, Stuart was fine with that.

  Friends, he needed. Desperately.

  Most of the friends he’d had in Iowa were also either distant relatives, or friends of relatives, meaning they might report things he said or did back to his family.

  He got it. He was the youngest and tended to catch attention in a bad way. Didn’t help that his family wasn’t exactly progressive in their social or political views. It wasn’t just his sexuality he kept hidden. He was the closet Democrat in the family, and had always felt out of place when the topic came up, learning to keep his mouth shut and nod and smile.

  It preserved the peace and his sanity.

  Especially around his eldest brother, Jake.

  The guys he now worked with all seemed nice, but being kinky wasn’t exactly something he felt comfortable discussing there.

  When he’d first started talking to Albert, he knew intellectually he shouldn’t get hung up on the guy, especially since he really didn’t know much about him.

  But they’d spent hours chatting online sometimes. Stuart wouldn’t have been able to call him anyway, because the walls in his cousin’s old house were paper thin. And disappearing for a few hours to talk on the phone would have looked suspicious.

  As Stuart had made his decision to move to Florida and sought out a job, he’d lived vicariously through Albert’s tales of the private parties, including a celebrity or two who apparently attended some of them, although Albert wouldn’t name names.

  And they’d privately exchanged pictures. The one Albert sent him looked like it’d been taken at a private party. He was talking to a guy Albert identified as Tony, one of the unofficial group leaders and a friend of his.

  Tall, blue eyes and dark brown hair, Albert Durkin was definitely a hunk, in Stuart’s opinion.

  Apparently he wasn’t involved with anyone right now, although he did play with people.

  Maybe I can get him to play with me tonight.

  When he parked outside the commercial warehouse complex where Venture was located, Stuart had to take a deep breath to calm his nerves. There were plenty of vehicles parked outside already, which Albert had warned him about when they’d chatted earlier in the week.

  I love going to Leah’s classes. She always draws a crowd.

  Meanwhile, Stuart hadn’t let on he was going to attend.

  He hoped Albert was as good a guy as he’d come across online. They hadn’t even done any sexting or anything like that, so that was a positive sign, right?

  The woman at the counter in the office seemed nice. And when he told her he was new, she asked for his license and started running through a quick list of things.

  “Oh, Iowa. Just visiting?”

  “No, I live here now. I haven’t changed that yet. I still need to find an apartment. Just got here on Monday.”

  “Nice. Welcome to Florida. What brought you here?”

  “Job. And I wanted to get out of Iowa.” He found himself practically spilling his guts to her. “I couldn’t be out with all my family there. And I couldn’t find any kinky events or communities near me. I’m really new to all of this. And…this is going to sound strange but I swear I’m not a stalker. I’ve been talking to a guy I met on FetLife who’s a member here. He doesn’t know I moved here yet. I wanted to surprise him. He’s supposed to be here today. Albert Durkin?”

  She cocked her head at him. “I’m sorry, I can’t reveal any personal information about members.”

  “I have his picture. Can you tell me if he’s here yet?” He pulled out his phone and showed her the picture.

  That’s when her expression really turned strange. Even her voice changed. “You say this Albert Durkin guy sent you this?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  She returned his phone and tapped something into the computer, a frown replacing her expression. “Wait here for me, okay?”

  She walked over to another door, opened it, and summoned someone.

  A man—Tony from the picture—walked into the office. He wore a volunteer badge. Stuart recognized him immediately from the picture.

  “Tony!”

  The man pulled up short. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

  Stuart immediately felt like an idiot. “Sorry, no. Albert told me all about you.”

  “Albert?”

  Cali pointed at Stuart. “Take a look at this. Show him the picture.”

  Something about her tone of voice unsettled Stuart. He pulled out his phone again and showed Tony the picture.

  “I’ve been talking to Albert online. He sent me that picture of himself talking with you.”

  Tony’s expression went flat with more than a hint of darkness. “He did, did he?”

  “Yeah. He doesn’t know I’m here. What’s wrong?”

  Cali pointed at the phone. “That looks like it was taken the night of the St. Patrick’s Day party at our house.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Did he e-mail this picture to you?”

  “Um, yeah.”

  “Do you still have that e-mail on your phone?”

  “Yeah, it’s in Gmail.” He opened it and showed him.

  “Get Sean, Max, and Ross in here,” Tony told the woman. She headed out to do it.

  “What’s wrong?” Stuart asked.

  “This picture was taken without my consent, and likely without the consent of him, too. You said the guy who sent it to you said it was a picture of him?”

  “Yeah. He said he was talking to you.”

  “Did he mention who took the picture?”

  “No.” Three more men entered the office from the door Tony had come in. “What’s going on?” the first one asked. “What’s wrong?”

  Tony had pulled his own phone out and was looking for something, comparing it to Stuart’s phone. He introduced Stuart to the three men. Ross had been the one to speak, and the other two were Max and Sean, partners of the woman manning the counter, whose name was Cali.

  “We have a serious problem,” Tony said. “Someone took a picture at the St. Patrick’s Day party without permission and sent it to him. The guy who sent it to him claims his name’s Albert…” Tony looked at him.

  “Durkin,” Stuart filled in, now feeling uneasy. “Albert Durkin.”

  “We don’t have any members by that name,” Cali said. “I checked. No Durkins at all.”

  “We’ve been talking online for a couple of months.”

  “On the phone?” Ross asked as he looked over Tony’s shoulder.

  “No. Just online. I didn’t mean to get him in trouble.”

  “You didn’t,” Tony said. “But unless he’s been lying to us, that man’s name is not Albert Durkin, and I think you’ve been catfished. Ah, there’s the folder I want.”

  “Who do you think did it?” Max asked.

  “I can safely rule out over ninety percent of the attendees, because they’ve been long-time invitees.” Tony went quiet as he searched for something. “Gotcha.”

  “Who was it?” Sean asked.

  Tony held his phone up so the three men could see it, but not Stuart.

  Ross glared. “Fuck. He had that new girl with him that night.”

  “Yep. I made her RSVP separately so I could go over stuff with her, like I always do. This picture was sent from the same IP address she e-mailed me from. He might not even know she did it. I don’t want to jump to conclusions and blame him if he didn’t know.”

  Now Stuart was confused. “What?”

  Tony turned to him. “I work in IT. Every time you send an e-mail, the full headers include information about where it came from. Including what’s called an IP address. You haven’t been talking to a guy.” He looked at Cali. “Go ask him to come out here, please. He needs to know about this since it involves him, too.”

  She went to the door and summoned someone else.


  The door opened a moment later and Albert—or whatever his name was—walked out, looking confused.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Stuart’s heart fluttered, but now he didn’t know if it was excitement or fear.

  “We need to talk,” Tony said. He showed him Stuart’s phone and explained what was going on.

  Stuart now wished he could melt into the floor and disappear and have never heard about this place or anyone here.

  As the guy—not-Albert—listened, the expression on his face darkened, grim. “So that woman pretended to be someone and used a picture she took on the sly of me and you to lie to this guy?” His blue gaze finally met Stuart’s. “Sorry, that came out harsher than I meant.”

  Stuart was beyond being able to talk. He sort of held up his hand indicating it was okay.

  Tony apparently forwarded the picture to himself, because he returned Stuart’s phone to him and then did something on his. “Son of a bitch, yep. There’s the picture metadata from her phone. She definitely took it.”

  “I-I’m sorry,” Stuart said, feeling sick and realizing his voice was barely a whisper. “I should leave.”

  Cali patted him on the shoulder. “Please, don’t leave. It’s okay. This isn’t your fault.”

  “I’m so stupid. I thought he was a real person.”

  “I am a real person,” the guy said. He stuck his hand out. “Brandon. Nice to meet you.”

  Stuart couldn’t believe the guy was being so generous. Had his picture been used to trick someone, he wasn’t sure he’d feel the same. He shook with him. “Stuart.”

  The outer office door opened, and a man and woman walked in.

  All the others, except for Brandon, focused on the woman.

  “Cali,” Tony said, “please stand outside and hold anyone else for a minute.”

  “I’ve got the dungeon door,” Sean said, moving to block it.

  “What’s going on?” the guy asked.

  But Stuart instinctively knew.

  This was the woman.

  * * * *

  Brandon was torn between anger that his picture had been taken without his permission at a private party and then used to catfish a guy, and sympathy for the cute new guy who’d been catfished. Especially since he was young and obviously naive.

  “Ken, we need to talk,” Tony said. “I need to see her phone. Right now.”

  “What?”

  “It’s serious. I either see her phone right now, or you’re both permanently banned from the club and the private parties and the munches.”

  She started to protest, but apparently he’d been holding it for her and he silenced her with a dark glare. He immediately pulled the cell phone from his pocket, unlocked it, and handed it over.

  Tony, with Ross and Max looking over his shoulder, scrolled.

  Then they grimly showed it to him.

  Rage filled the guy’s face. “You fucking took pics at a private party?” he roared at her, making Stuart flinch.

  She shrank away from them. “I-I can explain—”

  Tony turned to Stuart, pointing at the woman. “This is Albert Durkin.”

  “Who?” Ken asked.

  She blanched as she obviously recognized Stuart and tried to hide behind Ken while Tony took over explaining.

  Ken angrily deleted all the pictures from her phone. “Man, I’m so sorry about this. I had no idea.” He scrolled to something else. “Son of a bitch!” He turned on her. “How many guys have you been talking to?”

  She started to head for the door, but he grabbed her arm. “Fucking answer me!”

  “I…I was bored. I didn’t mean any harm! I wasn’t even sexting them.”

  Now Stuart really looked like he wanted to melt into the carpet.

  Ken handed Tony the phone. “The code is 8219. Can you please wipe it for me to factory defaults and figure out if she had any cloud storage and wipe that, too? I’ll get it back from you later.”

  “Sure.”

  “Hey, that’s my phone!” the woman protested.

  “No, it’s my phone,” Ken said. “I bought and paid for it, and I pay for the account, which is getting canceled as soon as I can get it done. First thing we’re doing is going home and you’re packing your shit and leaving.”

  “But I don’t have anywhere to go!”

  “You should have thought about that before you pulled this stunt. Guess you’ll be living in your fucking car.” He turned to Stuart and Brandon. “Man, I’m so sorry.”

  “We need to have a long, serious talk about you being on the private party lists now,” Ross said.

  “I get it. I understand. She won’t be coming back with me, that’s for damn sure.”

  “But I was just—”

  “Shut up,” Ken told her. “You have no idea how seriously bad this is. I thought I made it clear to you that going to the private parties was a huge deal, and you fucking breach not just my trust, but all of theirs by disrespecting them like this? Don’t you realize that people can lose their fucking jobs if this shit gets out?”

  “I have a kid,” Brandon angrily said to the woman. “I have a daughter, and I have a job. Did you stop to think that maybe I don’t want my damn picture being sent to random strangers on the Internet? And messing with poor guys like this? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “I was just kidding around!”

  Ken pointed at the door. “Let’s go. Now.”

  “But my phone!”

  “What part of ‘that’s my phone’ did you not understand? You have nothing except the damn clothes on your back and that shitty-ass car of yours. I thought I was being nice by letting you move in with me because I felt sorry for you, but I bet there was more to the story of your roommate ‘suddenly’ throwing you out, wasn’t there? Let’s go.”

  He stormed out, the girl protesting in his wake as she followed.

  Cali returned, staring after them. “Well, that was different.” She smiled at Stuart. “Let’s finish your paperwork.”

  “I…I probably should go. I didn’t know I was going to cause trouble.”

  “You didn’t,” Brandon insisted, feeling sorry for the guy. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “He just moved here from Iowa,” Cali told Brandon. “He’s totally new. And gay. Recently out.”

  Shit.

  Brandon reached for his wallet. “I’ll pay for his membership.”

  When Stuart started to protest, Brandon held a hand up. “Look, I remember how terrified I was when I first met this group of people. Especially how supportive they were to me when I came out and had to divorce my wife. They welcomed me in. This is not your fault. And I want you to understand you are welcomed here.”

  Chapter Seven

  Stuart wasn’t sure he might not start crying right there in the office at how kind everyone was being to him now that they understood he was an innocent victim in this.

  He still felt like a total fucking idiot.

  Tony even reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “He’s right. We have a long tradition of making sure people feel welcomed. You were a victim here. Consider it a lesson learned.”

  “I’m serious,” Brandon said. “I’d appreciate it if you’d come in. A bunch of us are going out to dinner after the workshop. Join us. Please?”

  Everyone seemed to be waiting for him to accept, and now he knew he’d feel worse if he refused. “Okay, thank you. But you don’t have to pay for my membership.”

  “I don’t mind.” He smiled, and he looked just as sexy as Stuart had fantasized about him—well, who he’d thought he was.

  They finished his paperwork and Brandon walked him inside, where he introduced him to another guy.

  Another cute guy.

  Jeff had hazel eyes and blond hair and was nearly as tall as Brandon, both of them taller than his own five nine.

  Jeff looked understandably confused as Brandon had Stuart sit between them. “I’ll explain at the break,” Brandon sa
id. “He’s new, and it’s a sort of crazy story.”

  As the workshop started, Stuart tried to tune out what had happened, his humiliation—his attraction to Brandon.

  He didn’t even know if Brandon was single or not.

  Right now, he wasn’t even sure if he trusted himself to meet anyone for anything other than friendship.

  * * * *

  The cutie Brandon returned with turned Jeff’s crank hard. A subbie, if he had to guess, younger than him. Stuart had the wide-eyed look of a newbie walking into a dungeon for the first time. While slightly annoyed he no longer had Brandon to himself, Jeff didn’t mind at all when Brandon sat the new guy between them.

  At the first break, Brandon explained what had happened, and that flipped Jeff’s switch from annoyance to sympathy. Stuart was twenty-five, twelve years younger than him, and not just new to the lifestyle, but freshly out of his closet.

  Yeah, he understood exactly why Brandon took Stuart under his wing. Had the situation been reversed and it was him who was in Brandon’s shoes, he would have done the same thing.

  “Yeah, come to dinner with us after class,” Jeff said. “And then we’re coming back here after. Seriously.”

  Stuart was a cutie, green eyes and brown hair a lighter shade than Brandon’s, and what looked to be a tight, adorable bubble butt on him.

  Yeah.

  A fantasy floated to the top of Jeff’s brain, but he shoved it away. He just met these two guys tonight. He shouldn’t be having thoughts of trying to figure out how to have a threesome with them when, hell, he didn’t even really know them yet.

  But despite logic, that tenacious little fantasy would not go away.

  * * * *

  Brandon hadn’t had this problem before. Not just one, but two cute subbie guys to talk to and potentially play with. After the workshop ended, they’d all agreed to head to dinner at Sigalo’s with the rest of them.

  He didn’t know if this was rushing anything, but he made the offer. “If you both want to ride with me, I don’t mind driving.”

  Jeff immediately nodded, leaving Stuart.

  While the poor guy had loosened up a little, now with the workshop over, Brandon sensed Stuart’s tension return.