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  Fen texted June as soon as he knew for certain he’d be able to leave work early. He also texted Joel he was heading to her studio.

  Part of him hoped Joel would be able to make it to the studio to watch, and part of him felt a little terrified over that prospect.

  He didn’t want to disappoint him and not be as good as Joel thought he was.

  He’d been afraid to open FetLife again and look at the latest stats and comments on June’s post there. He didn’t want to see how badly some might have criticized him—and it was only a matter of time before criticism rolled in. He was no noob to how social media worked. Trolls loved to take a crap on someone having fun, just because.

  It wasn’t like he planned on stripping for a living, or being a competitive pole dancer. It was something new, something fun to do.

  Something his hubby had very favorably endorsed him doing, and his hubby was the one who mattered most to Fen.

  Anyone leaving comments shitting on his performance would definitely fuck with his head, and he didn’t even want to go there.

  When he arrived, they had the pole studio to themselves. Fortunately, the door between it and the rest of the facility actually closed, and they’d put up folding screens along the front windows, which still let in light but kept people from standing and gawking.

  That meant Fen didn’t feel self-conscious after changing into the dance belt and blue and green bathing suit. It wasn’t exactly the skimpiest suit out there, somewhere between Brazil and booty-shorts territory. Still, for some reason, he felt more exposed than he did when Joel stripped him naked at Venture or one of the private parties.

  June joined him in the studio and whipped off her shirt, revealing a sports bra underneath. She also removed her yoga pants, and her low-slung Brazil bottoms covered about as much real estate as his did.

  Then again, he’d seen her naked, too, at Venture and private parties.

  “Remind me to give you some links for websites where they sell pole workout and performance clothes.” She giggled. “I mean of the non-stripper variety.”

  “Thanks. I’ll probably need that.”

  “I had that song on my iPod,” she said, walking over to a small table in the back where a speaker sat. She cued up the song and it started playing as she walked over to one of the poles. “We’ll add in some floorwork for the beginning of it,” she said, dropping to the ground to do a rounded push-up. “Remember when you’re doing floorwork, you want to think smooth, fluid, keeping it in motion. Pretend you’re a snake.”

  She smoothly rolled over, scissoring her legs and then rolling back onto her belly, from there moving into a sexy squat. He didn’t know the names of any of these moves, he just watched as she used the music and her body to make something that was too sinfully delicious to simply be called “dancing.”

  The first part of the routine she did on one pole, then transitioned with more floorwork to a second pole to finish the song.

  “Holy cow,” he muttered. “You consider that entry-level? You think I’m going to be able to do all that?”

  “Yeah.” The song, apparently set on repeat loop, started again. “Start with the floorwork. Don’t focus on fancy yet. We’ll get you there. Focus on memorizing the basic moves and positions to start with.”

  He started following along with her. By the fifth time through the song, he was really starting to feel the strain in his muscles, although he didn’t have the hang of a fraction of the pole tricks yet, and definitely didn’t feel like he was moving through the floorwork as smoothly as June.

  By the end of the tenth repetition, she got up and shut off the music, and he sprawled across the floor.

  “Okay,” he gasped. “I don’t think I’m going to need a workout for a month.”

  She giggled, standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. “This is just the warm-up, you big baby.”

  “You gotta be shitting me!”

  “Hey, you said you wanted to learn this for your Sir, right?”

  He gulped. “Yeah.” He sat up. “I hope I look a lot more graceful than I feel. Because I feel like a wounded wildebeest.”

  “Oh, please, don’t even. Your Sir is going to love it. Scrye messaged him the info for the pole earlier.” She smiled. “I’d be willing to bet he’s probably already ordered it.”

  “Oh, boy,” he muttered.

  “Hey, I’ve seen you fucking kick ass in yoga. You need to bring that same self-confidence to this. I know you can do it.”

  “I just don’t want to look stupid.”

  “The first step to not looking stupid is to own what you’re doing. That’s why I wanted to teach you alone at first. I didn’t want you in a class full of giggling women, with you standing there wondering if they’re giggling at you or at themselves, or just because sometimes groups of women doing something together that makes them nervous makes them giggle.”

  He stared at her. “Wow. How do you read my mind like that?”

  “Honey, I’m a mom. You’re close to my girls’ ages. I’ve been teaching even longer, been participating in gymnastics since I was a freaking kid. This stuff’s not easy. But no one will be laughing at you, trust me. Just like in yoga, you’re going to have people watching you and feeling envious or wanting to jump your bones, but they’re not going to be laughing at you. Rock the sexy and sensual. Be you. A lot of straight guys who do pole apparently approach it from aaaaah, warrior Tarzan headspaces. Own the sexy. You’re doing this for fun.”

  She grabbed the pole and spun around it, climbing, wrapping her legs around it, and then inverting with a hands-free move he wasn’t even sure what it was called. “If anything, they’re going to want to try to imitate you and how good you look doing this.”

  She curled up, grabbed the pole, and spun around it, making it look deceptively easy as she braced her lower arm and extended her legs ninety degrees from the pole.

  Then she brought her legs in and climbed the pole, basically walking up it in another deceptively easy-looking move he knew was damned hard. Even he didn’t have the core strength to attempt any of that, and June had classified him as fairly advanced in yoga.

  She slid down the pole in a silky, lazy spin, ending up on the floor. “The only reason I can do that is I’m a gymnast. May couldn’t even do that one, and she’s been in gymnastics all her life, but she didn’t compete the way I did. I thought the instructor was going to choke when I did that in our first class.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “Just like I don’t expect you to be able to do a kip-up. But if I was competing in pole, I’d definitely include at least one or two of them in the floor part of my routine, because not everyone can do them. So I don’t expect you to be able to do them.”

  “A what?”

  She demonstrated. Lying on the floor on her back, she rolled her legs up and back over her head, weight on her shoulders, like she was going to flow into a yoga position, then sprang up to her feet. It looked like something out of a ninja movie.

  “That shit looks easy because I’ve been doing them for years,” she said. “You try to do one without training, you can hurt yourself.”

  “You make it look easy.”

  “Of course I do. That’s the point. Who’s your main audience?”

  He shrugged. “Joel.”

  “Okay then. Has he ever laughed at you in a mean way?”

  “No, never.”

  “And how’d he react last night?” She knowingly smiled.

  He rolled his eyes. “Point taken.”

  “Good. I’d hope so. He loves you, and he’s not going to laugh at you. Focus more on the fun part of this and not freaking out about whether or not you can do it as well as I can.”

  They took a break. Fen pulled on a long T-shirt, one of Joel’s, which fell below his ass, to make the trip to the bathroom, and to refill his water bottle. When he returned to the studio, he put on his glasses and checked his phone to find a text from Joel, sent twenty minutes earlier.

&nb
sp; On my way there. Can’t wait to watch. ;)

  Heat filled Fen’s face…and other places.

  He gave thanks for the dance belt holding everything in position.

  That’s when Scrye and June walked in, and Fen fought the urge to hide his phone.

  Nothing escaped Scrye’s keen observation. “I take it your Sir’s en route?”

  “Yeah.” He sent Joel a quick reply and tucked his phone and glasses back into his bag.

  Scrye turned to June, a playful smile on his face. “Now aren’t you glad I talked you into letting me put a lock on the door?” He pulled her into his arms for a kiss that nearly had Fen’s blood heating by the time Scrye released her.

  “Yes, Daddy,” she said, her voice dropping into a soft range he knew meant she was pretty damn close to subspace.

  He smacked her ass. “Daddy’s gonna need another private demo tonight, baby.”

  “Yes, Sir.” She finally seemed to remember they weren’t alone and sent Fen a bashful smile. “Unless that’d bother you.”

  “Not if it doesn’t bother you guys. I suspect Sir will want to do that, too.”

  Scrye laughed. “I already told him he was welcomed to.”

  Oh, boy.

  * * * *

  Joel didn’t need any better reason to say fuck it to everything late that Friday afternoon and cut out early than the thought of getting a nearly private pole dance performance from his boy. He helped Barney finish the last job of the day first, and it gave him enough time to run by home on his way to the studio so he could grab a quick shower.

  Normally, he and Scrye wouldn’t be able to have fun like this at the studio. But since the other yoga class scheduled that evening would be over before June was ready to call an end to her private lesson with Fen, they’d basically have the place to themselves.

  Despite the way his morning had started, Joel had spent the better part of the day fighting against the semi-chub wanting to form every time he thought about watching Fen’s video last night.

  Sexy.

  Damned sexy.

  He loved watching Fen anyway—his boy had a naturally fluid way about him. Joel could sit there at home and watch him going about his day, fascinated by him.

  Fascinated by every damn thing about the man.

  Frickin’ adorable.

  The first time he’d laid eyes on Fen he’d wondered how the hell he’d even be able to hug him, much less play with him, without harming him. He’d had no idea then how tough Fen really was.

  He’d quickly learned.

  His phone buzzed, but he waited until he hit a red light to check it and found a message from Maddison.

  I haz idea for next weekend, big guy. :)

  He texted her back.

  ??

  He couldn’t check his phone again until after he’d pulled into their driveway. When he read it, he started chuckling, which turned into full-on belly laughs.

  Damn, the girl’s tricky.

  After texting her back that he was totally in favor of her slightly evil plan, he headed inside.

  Next Saturday night, his boy would definitely be swearing at him and Maddison both. Unless Fen safeworded, Joel knew he and Maddison would definitely be having fun. Although her fun would be more of the vicarious evil bestie flavor.

  After his shower, Joel headed for the studio. There were only six cars parked outside, including Fen’s car and Scrye’s truck. There was no one in the lobby, and he stopped outside the doorway of a small studio where there were three students and an instructor he assumed was May.

  “Are you Fen’s husband?” the instructor asked.

  “Yes.”

  She smiled and pointed. “Second door down on the right, go down that hallway to the last studio and then through the door in there.”

  “Thanks.”

  He made his way through the maze and finally opened the door to the tail end of seeing Fen gracefully spinning around a pole under June’s supervision, settling on the floor as the music ended.

  Scrye turned. “Oh, hey. Look who’s here.”

  Joel’s throat had dried up, and it was a good thing it was only the three of them in there because his sudden, throbbing erection had shoved the front of his shorts out.

  June walked over to shut the music off. “Come on in.”

  Scrye chuckled. “Heh. He’s speechless.”

  Fen smiled and pulled himself to his feet by using the pole. “Hey, you made it.” He walked over to kiss him hello.

  Joel closed the door behind him and kept his voice down as he pulled Fen’s hand onto the front of his shorts. “You might not make it as far as the car before I’m nailing you, baby.”

  June giggled. “We got you a chair so you and Daddy can sit and watch. May and her students will be out of here in about fifteen minutes. Then we can lock the front door and lock ourselves in here for the fun.” She turned to Fen. “One more time? Or you want a few minutes to rest?”

  “To rest, and hit the bathroom.” He pecked Joel on the lips again and, with a playful smile, slipped out through the studio door.

  Joel turned to Scrye. “Okay, I’m going to need help putting that pole in as soon as it arrives next week.”

  Another deep laugh from the bear of a man. “Buddy, I’ll help you put in your pole, and you help me put in mine.” Scrye pulled June to him for a kiss, landing a hard smack on her ass that made her softly moan. “Because I know ours is going to get a lot of use.”

  “You ain’t the only one,” Joel said.

  Chapter Seven

  Fen nervously splashed water on his face after using the bathroom and washing his hands.

  This was…real.

  He knew, logically, that Joel would not make fun of him or laugh at him in a mean way. Except he didn’t want to disappoint his man.

  Really didn’t want to disappoint him.

  Of course he understood this was pressure he was placing on himself and not anything that was Joel’s doing, but it didn’t change how he felt in that particular moment.

  And this was…big. For him, anyway.

  If they were just at home screwing around, it wouldn’t be the same level of pressure. Obviously Scrye wouldn’t make fun of him, either.

  He wanted to make Joel proud of him in front of an audience. Didn’t matter it was only Scrye and June and they were both friends of theirs.

  Still mattered, to Fen.

  After refilling his water bottle, he returned to the studio to find Scrye and Joel sitting in chairs in the back of the room.

  June smiled. “Ready for more practice?”

  He nervously nodded.

  She scowled. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

  “Nothing. I’m good.”

  “You sure? Is Scrye being here making you nervous?”

  “No.”

  “Baby.” Fen looked up at Joel’s tone and found his husband crooking a finger at him.

  Fen walked over and Joel took his hands. “What’s wrong?” Joel softly asked.

  He stared into Joel’s blue eyes and knew he couldn’t fib and say nothing was wrong. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

  Joel squeezed his hands. “You can never disappoint me. This is supposed to be fun. I want you to have fun. I want to see the sexy guy I watched on video last night enjoying himself. This isn’t about life and death—it’s dancing. Just have fun.” He tugged Fen’s hands to get him to lean in for a kiss. “Okay?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good. And even if you were blindfolded and half drunk and trying to do this, I’d still enjoy watching you.” He grinned. “That outfit is hot.” He gave Fen one last kiss. “Go have fun. Understand?”

  “Yes, Sir.” Fen returned to the pole he’d been using and stretched.

  June headed over to restart the music. “Ready?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I guess so.” He focused on the pole in front of him and tried not to stare at Joel in the mirrors despite feeling his husband’s heated gaze squarely on him.

&nb
sp; * * * *

  “Let’s focus on floorwork for a couple of repetitions,” June said.

  Joel didn’t know what that meant, but as she and Fen got down on the floor and Fen started following along with her, Joel’s cock finished inflating and pressed against his zipper in an uncomfortable way, making him shift in his chair.

  Watching Fen do yoga at home had been one of his favorite things to do.

  He’d just found his new favorite thing.

  Because sitting there and watching the way his boy’s muscles bunched and flexed under his skin, the movements he was making, was sexy beyond anything he could have imagined.

  Now I get why straight guys love strip clubs.

  Scrye was watching June every bit as intently as Joel knew he was watching Fen. At this rate, Joel knew it wouldn’t take much for him to explode. They spent several song repetitions doing nothing but working on the floor moves. When June’s older sister stopped by a little while later to bid everyone goodnight, June locked the studio door behind her.

  Scrye stood, picked up his chair, and moved it closer to the two poles June had been using.

  Joel did likewise with Fen’s poles, the sadist in him enjoying the nervous way Fen’s lower lip caught under his teeth as he watched him move closer.

  June walked over to the little table holding the iPod and speaker and stopped the music. “Longer playlist,” she said. “And we won’t mind you boys, if you don’t mind us.”

  Joel didn’t care. His whole focus lay on Fen.

  June hit the light switches and the main overhead fluorescents went out, leaving only several recessed lights to evoke a more intimate mood. “You ready?” she asked Fen.

  He nodded, his gaze never leaving Joel.

  “Don’t worry about what I’m doing,” she told Fen. “And if you forget a step, just improvise. Your audience is your husband, no one else. And ignore what I’m doing, because I’m focusing on Scrye. Got it?”

  Another nod.

  “Here we go.” She grabbed a pair of heels from under the table, slipped them on, and started the music. Then she strutted over to stand in front of Scrye.