Page 16 of Big Britches

It wasn’t like he’d been completely isolated from civilization. Other service people had come to the house, older men like Carlos. There was the pest control guy, Luke, and he was on Norman Kicklighter’s UPS route. Clark Huckabee was his mailman. But they had been coming to his house since he was little, and his parents had lived there. They weren’t as old as his mom and dad, but they were somewhere in that stretch between. To Titus, those men were more like family, distant uncles he’d always known and would never consider–

You need to calm down.

Pedro was different, though, fresh and exciting. It was a connection beyond their being the same age, something fundamental that Titus couldn’t quite put his finger on. He’d been physically attracted to men since his early teens, but choices he’d made bypassed the opportunity for exploration. He’d chalked it up to fate. Being a loyal husband and a devoted father was his destiny. Any libidinous thoughts he’d kept confined, limited to pictures in a magazine or catalog.

But what he’d just felt with Pedro surpassed the physical. That urge was there, too, no doubt. But there was something else. It felt inherent, profound even, and downright exhilarating. Most exciting of all, it felt–

Reciprocated.

Surely he was projecting, just imagining deeper meaning in common courtesy. Isolation sometimes plays tricks on the mind. He could hear Roz now–That’s what insane hermit men do, you know? They imagine things… like pizza delivery with special add-ons.

But Titus hadn’t imagined those blushes, the awkward hesitation, the averted glances.

He was looking down, hoss. Checking. You. Out.

Maybe he was just shy, meeting someone for the first time—his employer.

An employer wearing next to nothing.

Normally, Titus wouldn’t have thought twice about what he had on. He swam laps every morning, alone. Sports were in his DNA, locker room etiquette instinctual. Besides, it wasn’t as if he were naked.

He removed his towel. The swimsuit, still wet, was nearly transparent.

Oh, shit.

Isolation had forced him to shop via mail-order catalogs. He had assumed the swimwear he’d chosen was fashionable, as the catalog he’d ordered it from was current. It was one of those stretchy ones, but not itsy-bitsy, like those worn by competing swimmers in the Olympics. It was a box cut, white with navy trim, and had little slits on the outer thighs. Stylish, he’d thought. So much so that he’d purchased three in different colors, all of which had looked quite enticing on the handsome men modeling them.

His thoughts returned to Pedro—his sweet smile, demure and magnetic.

Titus felt himself stir. He looked down again and saw his cock shift, serpentine, gliding ever so slightly beneath the silken spandex.

“Oh, no.”

Had something similar happened during their brief encounter? Was that why Pedro’s eyes were drawn there? Movement? Surely, he would have known. But at this moment, tossed between waves of euphoria and shame, he wasn’t certain. Now, it was his own face that flushed scarlet.

Violet was the only person on earth he’d ever been intimate with. Sex between them had been regular until a tumor was discovered during an ultrasound. Once that tumor was biopsied and found malignant, lovemaking had evaporated quickly. After Tucker's birth and Violet's treatment and death, Titus had continued to isolate himself. Aside from masturbation, he had not had sex in over four years.

He used his hands and the towel to fan himself, hoping the frigid air on his damp swimsuit would help cool him off down there.

It didn’t.

He now had a full-blown hard-on, testing the resilience of the suit’s pliant fabric, pressing against it like a miniature tent pole. In fact, he was so hard it hurt a little.

No wonder Pedro had noticed. I have a little circus going on down there.

Roz entered the room. “—I don’t know, Tucker, We’ll have to ask your father. Oh, here he is.”

Titus fisted the towel to his crotch. “Mph.”

“Well, well,” Roz said, crossing her arms. “Modesty? That’s a color I’m not used to seeing you wear.”

“You can see right through this dang swimsuit. I didn’t notice until it was wet.”

“It’s white. That happens sometimes.”

“Well, there should have been a warning on the label.”

“Some people buy them for that reason, T. You bought it from one of those catalogs, didn’t you?”