Man to Man
GA Hauser
Published by Phaze Books
Also by G.A. Hauser
Miller’s Tale
Teacher’s Pet
Pirates
Vampire Nights
This is an explicit and erotic novel
intended for the enjoyment
of adult readers. Please keep
out of the hands of children.
www.Phaze.com
Man to Man
A novel of homoerotic romance by
G. A. HAUSER
Man to Man copyright 2008-9 G.A. Hauser
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Phaze Production
Phaze Books
6470A Glenway Avenue, #109
Cincinnati, OH 45211-5222
Phaze is an imprint of Mundania Press, LLC.
To order additional copies of this book, contact:
books@phaze.com
www.Phaze.com
Cover art © 2009 Debi Lewis
Edited by Stephanie Balistreri
eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-60659-172-7
First eBook Edition – July, 2009
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Prologue
The water was black from the dark clouds above. Waves slapped the shore like God’s hand punishing the earth. Tanner Cameron’s heart was pumping in his throat. The LA County rescue boat could do nothing to help him as the one-man crew struggled to keep his craft from slamming into the coast.
With the rescue buoy trapped between himself and the victim, Tanner swam for shore. Over the roar of the water, he heard the whelping, high pitch of the medic’s siren in the distance. Finding his feet on the sand, he dragged the unconscious man out of the raging sea to dry land. He dropped to his knees and began CPR. Come on. Come on. Breathe! Puffing air into the young man’s mouth, Tanner’s compressions jarred the man’s chest to force him to come back to life. He returned to the man’s mouth once more, pressing their lips together. He was so young. Twenty? Breathe!
When the fire crew arrived, Tanner was all too glad to give the young man over. He was exhausted. Sitting back on his heels, he watched the medics continue CPR as they loaded the man onto the rescue rig. As the truck barreled over the soft sand, Tanner caught his breath, touching his lips lightly.
The kiss of life.
It always felt personal to him.
Lowering his head, he tried to get his emotions under control. This was his job. Saving people. He only wished he had time to save himself.
Chapter One
His lungs were aching. Josh Elliot leaned over, hands on knees, gasping for air. Salt water ran down his skin and his body felt numb from the exertion.
“Well done.”
Barely acknowledging the pat on the back, Josh forced himself to stand straight and place one foot in front of the other on the wet sand. All that mattered was he’d done it. Finished in the top eighty so he could qualify. No, I finished in the top fucking five! Holy Christ.
“You all right?”
Another hand touched the small of his back. Josh looked up at one of the permanents, the lifeguards who held full-time positions. With his chest still expanding with the compelling need for air, Josh felt his breath catch in his throat.
Sky blue eyes reflecting the sunlight and seawater, over six foot in height with short cropped, dark brown hair, this man was a fucking god.
“Yeah. I’m all right.” Josh licked the salt water off his top lip.
“That was an amazing time. Impressive.”
“Was it?” Josh lit up as the man’s broad smile glowed, set off by his golden skin.
“Yes. You should be proud of yourself. What’s your name?”
“Josh. Josh Elliot.” He held out his hand.
“Nice to meet you, Josh. I’m Tanner Cameron. You’re through the toughest part. The next step is the classroom training. I wouldn’t worry. You’ll do fine.”
“Thanks.” Josh released Tanner’s hand slowly, allowing his gaze to wander down Tanner’s broad chest and six-pack abs. Tanner wore the “medal of honor” as far as Josh was concerned. Red swimming trunks. A genuine lifeguard.
“Are you going to be full time?”
“I want to. I’m taking some time off from my job and I’d like to not have to go back.”
“Your real job?” Tanner smiled knowingly.
“Yes.” Josh had fully recuperated from the thousand meter swim and felt his breathing ease.
Another man caught Tanner’s attention. He nodded in acknowledgment. “I have to go. Great job, Josh. I hope to meet up with you again very soon.”
“Me too.” Josh watched as he walked down the crowded beach, admiring his strut and tight ass. “Holy shit. I wouldn’t mind a piece of that.” Someone shouting, gathering them together for instructions on getting their certificates and beginning the academy shook him out of his dreams.
* * * *
Finally home, Josh dragged himself to the shower as the day’s events caught up to him. Dropping his paperwork on the kitchen table of his four-room apartment, he stripped off his shorts and bathing suit and stood outside the shower door, waiting for the temperature to heat up. Looking back at the mirror, he noticed his shoulders were slightly singed even though he had coated himself with sunscreen. His ass was pure white compared to his darkly tanned back and legs. Stepping into the spray, Josh moaned with relief at washing the saline off his body, and the sand that seemed to get everywhere, including his ass crack and balls. Shampooing his hair, scrubbing his skin with a loofa, Josh floated over the day’s events and the prospect of holding a lifeguard job over the summer. It was hard work. Not only was the physical training demanding but also the first aid American Red Cross certification, CPR, rescue techniques, the works.
He was ready. More than ready. After a four-year degree in business administration, he felt stuck in a lousy desk job.
He needed a change.
Josh shut off the taps, allowing the water to drip off his body, his head drooping with his weariness. He smoothed his hands down his chest and abs to swipe the water away. He brushed over his pubic hair and soft cock, considering jacking off. He couldn’t. He was exhausted.
Wiping his face with a towel, he stepped out and continued to dry off catching his green eyes in the mirror’s reflection.
“I don’t know why you won’t give me another chance.”
“Because you went out on me behind my back, Luis.”
“It didn’t mean anything.”
“It did to me.”
“Josh, don’t do this.”
“Forget it, Luis. Forget it.”
“But where will I find another man with eyes that green?”
Josh threw his towel over the shower door, leaned his palms on the sink, and stared at himself critically. Ending a six-month relationship sucked. No one was in his bed at the moment. Maybe it was another reason he had made the change in careers. He needed to get away from Luis. Seeing the man every day at work was killing him.
Josh heard his phone ringing and opened the bathroom door, hurrying to grab it. Standing naked in his kitchen, glimpsing the window with its partial view of the San Gabriel Mountains beyond the buildings across the street, Josh covered his groin in modesty as if a peeping tom in the apartment house opposite would be using binoculars.
“Hello?”
“Josh.”
“What, Luis?”
“We need to talk.”
“We do not need to talk.” Josh was too tired to argue again.
“It was one time. One.”
“What do you want from me? I just got back from the tryouts and I’m wiped.” Josh scratched his balls gently.
“Oh. How did that go?”
“Fine.” Josh wanted to hang up.
“I miss seeing you in the office.”
“Come on, Luis, why are we going over and over old ground? I just stepped out of the shower and I need to eat something.”
“Are you naked?”
Josh tugged on his soft cock and moved away from the window. “You need to stop calling me.”
“I can’t.”
“You can. Believe me, you can.” Josh opened the refrigerator for something to eat.
“Why won’t you forgive me?”
“It wasn’t working out anyway, Luis.” Josh removed a bottle of water from the shelf and used his teeth to open the top, swigging it down. “Which is probably why you went out on me in the first place.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is true.” Josh wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. “Let me go. I really have to eat and lay down.”
“I know once you become a lifeguard you’ll have so many hard bodies to choose from I’ll never cross your mind.”
“That’s the idea.” Josh pictured Tanner instantly.
“Oh, screw you.”
Smiling, Josh replied, “Now, that’s the Luis I know and used to love. Goodbye, Luis.” Josh disconnected the line, stuck the phone back in its cradle, and sucked down more water. Peering back at the window, he placed the water bottle on the counter and headed to his bedroom to put on a pair of shorts. Once he did, he sat on the bed in exhaustion and rubbed his face. Even though he was hungry, he dropped back on the spread, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Chapter Two
Tanner stood on the lifeguard tower, binoculars to his eyes, his sunglasses propped on top of his head. The manic summer season had arrived with the anticipated flood of nearly sixty million visitors to California’s thirty-one mile stretch of sandy beaches. It always brought him some anxiety. Tourists and regulars alike kept them busy. Too busy. Tanner was very glad the new recruits were being trained. The county needed them.
Tanner scanned the few surfers and bathers present during midweek, lowered the binoculars and dropped his sunglasses down on his nose.
“Hey.”
Tanner waited as Destiny, another permanent, walked up the ramp to the tower in her red one-piece.
“Hi.” Tanner stepped aside as she drew near.
“There’s a cool breeze.” She unfastened her hair from its clip, stuck the barrette between her teeth, twisting the blonde ponytail up in a knot behind her head again.
“Yes, it’s perfect weather. I know it won’t last.”
Once she had fixed her hair, she leaned on the rail near him. “So, uh, Tanner…you feel like going out for a drink tonight?”
Though he knew he should socialize again sooner or later, the divorce had left him slightly lukewarm to the idea. And besides, Destiny was only twenty-two. As far as Tanner was concerned, eight years was more like fifty judging from Destiny’s mental capacity.
“Uh…” He struggled to find a way to make the rejection sound kind and not nasty.
She moved toward him, brushing his arm lightly with hers. “Hm? One drink? After work?”
Tanner decided honesty was the best way to handle it. “Look, Destiny, I’m flattered. Really. But I’m still getting over a rough divorce and I’m not feeling ready for anything at the moment.”
Pausing as if she were assessing the last sentence, she stared up at him and pouted like a child. “Not even for sex?”
Yes, sex would be nice. No kidding. But sex with you would complicate my life, not simplify it. Clearing his throat at the awkwardness, not to mention forwardness of her comment, Tanner muttered as he escaped, “I’m going to do some sprints while it’s relatively quiet.”
Quickly jogging down the ramp from the tower, Tanner fell into a comfortable pace as he ran on the wet sand.
He needed to get laid. No kidding. Months of court battles and bad blood, avoiding dating like the plague to not get trapped in yet another terrible rebound-type relationship, Tanner imagined hiring a hooker just to get his rocks off. He was sick of jacking off.
But Destiny was not his type. Though most of the women he worked with were beautiful, fit, and assertive, Tanner was slightly afraid to date one. He knew the gossip network would soon broadcast the information and he didn’t want any animosity from his peers if the affair turned ugly. Besides, she was too young. A woman like Destiny, or Angelina and Samantha for that matter, were all young and vital. They wanted marriage and babies. Two things that Tanner did not want.
The child matter was what broke up his marriage. He did not want kids. Anna knew that the day she married him. Obviously, persistence held no time limit because five years later she assumed she could change his mind. She couldn’t.
Turning back from where he’d come, Tanner jogged along his own footprints in the wet sand. Though it wasn’t even eighty degrees, he was hot from the exercise and yearned for the breeze to cool him off.
So the battle began at home. Anna kept trying to make love without condoms. Tanner was certain she would cheat and get knocked up just to satisfy her motherhood instinct and he would be saddled with someone else’s offspring. He stopped having sex with her just so he could be sure.
That made one year without.
One long-mother-fucking-year without getting laid. He was going insane.
Halting even with the tower, yet near to the water, Tanner dropped to the ground to start doing pushups. The sweat rolling off his nose and dripping onto the sand below him, he pumped as many as he could before he felt spent.
Sitting back on his heels, brushing the sand off his hands, he took a long look over the occupants of the water and beach, making sure he kept aware of everything around him even while he worked out.
He felt Destiny’s eyes on him and hoped this was the end to her advances. The last thing he needed was to get a reputation as a jerk.