The heroes: Ed is an semi-pro football player, forced to end his career when he suffered a debilitating neck injury. Laurie is a disgraced dancer, after trying to compete in a ballroom dance competition with another male dancer.

They meet at the local rec center where they both teach classes.

Naughtiness ensues in Laurie’s dressing room after his ballet show one night.

When the kiss began, Laurie’s eyes were still open.

If he’d seen it coming or had even half expected it, he might have closed his eyes and sank into it right away. But it was the last thing he’d figured Ed would do, so he just stood there for a few heavy seconds, stunned. He stared into Ed’s face, so close to his own it was out of focus. He stared at Ed’s eyes, at thick, dark lashes gently closed. He felt the movement of his mouth, his tongue stealing inside. But he saw Ed’s face, soft, tender, lost inside the kiss, and it undid him.

Shutting his eyes at last, Laurie slid his hand to the back of Ed’s neck, mirroring the grasp against his own, and then he tilted his head slightly to the side and deepened the kiss. He dove deep into that spice, into the wet softness of him, taking in deep draughts of Ed, woodsy and sharp, and he sucked in air through his nose as he came up for air before sliding in again. The terror and then the thrill and the ultimate shame of the performance warred with the yearning he’d had for so long for Ed. Now it was real, now it was here in his mouth, here in Ed.

When Ed pushed Laurie up against the door, pinning him there with his body, Laurie went pliant, letting his body bend to Ed’s will. When Ed drew Laurie’s bottom lip into his mouth and suckled on it, Laurie gasped and dug his fingers into Ed’s shoulders, then offered him his tongue as well. His erection strained against the Lycra of his tights as Ed rubbed his own against it, the buckle of his belt catching the tip in a friction that edged toward but did not cross over into discomfort. The kiss had begun tenderly, but now it was raw.

And now Ed’s mouth was sliding down Laurie’s throat, down his chest, all the way over his stomach to the hem of his tights, which Ed was gripping and tugging insistently down as he went to his knees on the floor.

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