Locker Room Talk

"So you're the kind of guy who gets turned on by water, huh? Or by doing it in places where people could find out."

Rod had never thought about it before. "Yeah. I guess I am."

Von laughed again, and reached out and touched Rod's elbow. Rod didn't jerk away, did not fully recoil, but reflexively moved just enough that Von ended up touching the soft part of his upper arm.

Rod immediately felt ashamed at his own rudeness. If Von was offended, he said nothing, and didn't take his hand away until it felt natural. Rod's wet skin was alive where Von had touched him.

"You should talk more," Von said. "The guys would love you."

Rod said, "I'm not very interesting."

"You're interesting," Von insisted.

Rod felt like telling Von that both stories were the same girl, and that girl was his wife, that none of the other women he'd been with had had her sense of adventure, and now even she wouldn't fuck him.

He also didn't tell Von that she had worn full shirt and shorts into the pool, that she had been mortified when the hotel man had come to the door, that the car had been too cramped for her to enjoy herself.

He felt guilty for describing his stories in a way that made his wife out to be some kind of uninhibited slut. Or a series of uninhibited sluts. He had done it to keep up with the other men, to impress Von.

Then it was Von's turn.

"You might like this one," Von said. "One time, this girl I was dating brought me to visit her mom. Beautiful house. The girl and I were sunbathing on the front lawn. She was in a bikini, I was in trunks."

Rod listened with cool civility. He couldn't quite will himself to share Von's interest in the sex lives of other men.

Nevertheless, he found himself picturing the scenario in his head. He filled the role of the girl with one of his own ex-girlfriends, and he could easily picture Von in a bathing suit lying out with her.

"Her mom told her she was going to cause a car accident," Von chuckled. Rod found himself chuckling again as well.

"Anyway," Von said, "she was always horny. So we're making out. Then she puts my hand down the front of her suit, and she reaches into my trunks and gets my cock out. Right there in front of her mom's house!"

"Were there cars going by?" Rod asked politely.

"Yeah, cars going by and everything."

"What happened next?"

"Well, I'm fingering her and she's giving me a handjob, so we figured at that point we should probably take it inside. Her mom was taking a nap upstairs, so we went to the spare room in the basement."

"Did you fuck her?"

Von leaned in conspiratorially. He reached out and touched Rod's thigh, the same way he'd touched his arm. This time, Rod didn't pull away. Von tapped his fingers on Rod's leg to punctuate each sentence.

"We're in the basement. It's not dirty, but there's junk and stuff. We're stripping off as we're headed for the bed in the corner, and we're totally naked, and bam. I step on a tiny piece of broken glass."

Rod hissed inward through his teeth. "Ouch."

"I know, right?" Von excitedly tapped on Rod's leg. His touch, though light and fleeting, sent a jolt through him every time.

Despite himself, Rod realized that he was invested in Von's story. The seductiveness of the storytelling was no doubt how Von and his younger, slimmer friends had congregated here in the first place.

Rod was also turned on. For once in his life, he was grateful that his thick thighs and big belly could hide his penis when he hunched in his seat. Feigning attentiveness, he leaned forward, just to be sure.

It was the girl, he supposed. He had made a mistake in picturing his ex-girlfriend. As Von's girl got naked in the story, he was picturing a naked person he himself had known and remembered fondly.

"I'm lying on the bed," Von continued, "she's kneeling in front of me like she's the one about to fuck me. But now she's got my foot up in front of her face, digging around while I whine about it like a baby."

In Rod's imagination, his ex--a short, slim girl with piercings, tattoos and a buzz cut--was examining Rod's foot, tweezers in hand. It wasn't a sexy scenario. But she was there, and that was sexy enough.

"Did you fuck her?" Rod asked. This time, his curiosity was sincere.

Von laughed. "She cleaned me up, bandaged me, and we ended up having a nice cuddly time in the standup shower in the basement. But no, we did not fuck that day. Let's say the wind had been driven from my sails."

Rod felt bold. "You couldn't get hard again after the piece of glass."

Von laughed even harder, and his whole body was shaking, and his legs drifted apart just enough for his knee to touch Rod's, that electrical feeling again, and Rod was stern enough with himself not to pull away.

They sat there for a moment, sweating in the sauna, the shared thought of abandoned foreplay lingering in the heat between them. By his own profuse sweat, Rod was certain they both needed to shower again.

He wouldn't get up. Not until Von was gone. He felt he had successfully hidden his erection from him, and he was intent on keeping it that away.

Eventually, Von did get up. He stepped towards the door, took his towel from the wall, but didn't put it on. He turned towards Rod, unshy about giving him the full and unobscured naked turnaround.

Von said, "Since we're friends now, why don't you come by tonight after closing? I can give you the nickel tour. Show you all the stuff the regular people don't get to see."

"Sure," Rod said. He spoke without thinking, and immediately regretted it.

"We close at 8. Come at 9. I'll let you in the front door."

Then he was gone.

Rod felt he had been coy about glimpsing Von's body, but the moment stretched out in his memory. Von's wide ass, his love handles, then his hairy belly, very round, above a thick pad of pubic fat.

And his cock and balls, peering out from dense, tightly curled pubic hair that crept out around inner thighs pressed closely together.

Von wasn't well-hung. Decidedly average, in fact, like Rod himself. But his cock had looked full and heavy, jutting out and drooping down. Brought to partial life, Rod assumed, by their erotic reminiscing.

Rod was annoyed with himself. In part, for accepting Von's invitation. What would he tell his wife? And to spend time with someone he barely knew, to whom he'd already confessed too much. And in part...

His erection was harder than before, was throbbing more. It nagged him. He badly needed to masturbate.

He leaned back, spread his legs, used one hand to pull up on his belly and the other to grasp his pulsating cock. And that's how far he got when he remembered himself, felt disgusted, and lost the erection.

He got up, put his towel on, and loitered near the showers until he could go in there and rinse off alone. Then he got dressed and went home.

*

The sun had almost set by the time he pulled into the empty patron lot at the gym. The sky was completely covered in dark, heavy clouds. It made the building look dreary and gray as he trudged towards it.

He made it through the employee parking, where a small station wagon--Von's, presumably--was the only car parked. Then up the steps, then up to the glass door. He willed himself not to huff and puff.

He knocked at the glass. Nothing happened. He started to turn back. He had already lied to his wife once about why he was leaving. He would have to lie again about why he had come back so soon. He felt awful.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, in the distant reaches of the lobby fogged by the reflectiveness of the glass, Von appeared. He noticed Rod standing outside and walked briskly towards him.

Von was wearing well-fitted gym shorts and a colorful striped tank top. Rod felt foolish in his flannel shirt and slacks, which were his customary uniform when he went out of the house in the evening.

Von opened the door, smiled, and gave him a quick one-armed hug, which felt awkward. Rod wasn't a hugger. He did his best not to recoil. Then Von led him inside.

As Von promised, Rod got the nickel tour. It was mostly offices and the employee lounge. The rooms were all darkened. It felt intimate in a way Rod wasn't sure he liked, but he didn't want to say anything.

Then Von showed him all the hidden back ways into the gym areas. When they passed the corridor to the pool, Von said, "Hey, if you want, we could have a quick swim. A whole pool all to ourselves. Cool, huh?"

Rod nodded without enthusiasm.

"I guess you don't have a suit," Von said. "You could take a loner."

Then he paused, as if in thought, then said, with a mischievous smile, "Or, we could skinny dip! That's the ultimate luxury. A naked dip in an olympic sized pool."

Again, Rod nodded, answering Von's joke with a gracious smile. He felt if he just said nothing that Von would drop it.

Instead, Von took his hand and led him through the back area, past doors and storage areas, towards the distinct chlorine smell.

Then a phone rang somewhere in the offices behind them. Von let go, turning his head in the direction of the sound. Rod tried not to sigh with relief.

His heart sank once again when Von told him to go on ahead and get in the pool, promising to join him shortly.

Von disappeared back into the depths of the employee area. Rod gingerly turned the handle to the door that opened out into the pool area. The overhead lights were off, but the pool was lit from within.

Rod rummaged in the storage area, looking for--what had Von said?--the loners, or a lost and found, anything with a swim suit.

He found one in an unlocked locker that he was pretty sure belonged to an employee. He felt strange about taking it, but he was otherwise out of luck. There was a pair of goggles, and he took those as well.

There was a vestibule off the pool area with an employee shower and washroom. Rod nervously got naked, rinsed himself in the shower, and pulled the suit on, grateful to find that he could fit into it.

He returned to the pool area. The pool was oriented with the deep end towards him. He walked the long walk around to the shallow end of the pool. He had never been a strong swimmer. He dipped his toes in.

After waiting a few minutes with no Von, he muttered, "Fuck it," and slid into the water. With his feet on the bottom, the water went up past his cock and balls, just cold enough to cause them discomfort.

He shivered, trying to get acclimated. It was not as enjoyable as it must have seemed in Von's imagination.

Still, as he looked across the surface of the water, lit in vivid blue-green from underneath, it was pretty. The dark ceiling caught rippling highlights from the gentle waves he'd caused with his entry.

When he screwed up enough courage, he put the goggles on over his eyes and dipped completely under the water. He saw across the bottom of the pool with total clarity. When he resurfaced, he wasn't cold.

That's when he saw Von standing there, at the threshold of the employee entrance, looking small in the distance across the pool. Shining green highlights rippled upon Von's completely naked body.

Rod could do nothing and say nothing as Von approached the edge of the other end of the pool and slipped into the water. His entry was neat, nimble, feet first, causing less of a wake than Rod himself had.

Von swam in graceful curves and arcs around the deep end, evidently in no hurry to meet up with Rod at the other side. Rod occupied himself by dog paddling and the occasional soothing dip under the water.

Then, under the water, Rod saw Von come towards him, moving through the water as naturally as if he'd been born for it. Von did not have goggles and did not seem to need them. He moved with gentle strength.

He moved towards Rod, first beckoning with his hands. when Rod made no move to come to him, he came and swept Rod up, gathering him to his chest. Rod was helpless as Von bore him efortlessly through the water.

Rod was unprepared for such intimate contact, the unguarded touch of someone else's body. It raised feelings deep within the core of him that he hadn't felt since those early exciting years with his wife.

Von held him with one arm and propelled them with the other, his body sidelong in the water. In this pose, Von's groin incidentally nestled itself against Rod's leg, and Rod could feel Von's hard, hot erection.

It couldn't be helped, Rod told himself. The pool water felt wonderful once he'd acclimated to it. If his own cock had been out and moving freely, the water would have felt... stimulating. That's all it was.

Von brought him to the deep end and back again, and had the courtesy not to release him until the pool was shallow enough for their feet to touch. Rod started to say something, but then Von was away again.

Rod looked down at the trunks he wore. Elastic, but a little too small, indenting him in an unflattering way. He took them off. He felt foolish for having put them on in the first place.

He struck out, dog paddling, not venturing too far from the shallows, doing his best to ignore the pulsing of his own hard-on.

This is how to do it from now on, he thought, watching from afar as the round figure of Von cut through the water with the grace of a dolphin. Just be bold. Refuse to be ashamed. Be like him.

Their little moment in the pool wound down without further incident. Von hauled himself up the ladder at the side of the pool and Rod followed suit. They showered together, but separately.

"Sauna's off, unfortunately," Von said as they toweled off in the shower room.

"That's too bad," Rod joked. "I've had so much sex I need to tell you about."

Von laughed, that fat-shaking laugh.

Rod couldn't resist the perfect sense memory of the way those round, soft parts felt, or the one part that had been hard and unyielding. It quieted whatever objections he'd had about laughing while fat.

Then they got dressed. It was over. Von led him out to the lobby, and that was when they heard the crack of thunder, followed by the rumble of heavy rain on the building's flat, expansive rooftop.

As they approached the front doors, the parking lot was a landscape of foaming rain that bounced off the asphalt and dispersed into the air. Rod could barely see his van way off in the patron lot.

"Shit," Rod said.

Von said, "If we make a run for it, we can get to my car without getting soaked. Then I'll drive you right up to your car."

Rod nodded.

Von flung the door open, locked it quickly behind them, and they ran as fast as they could, their feet sloshing and splashing as they went. They tumbled breathlessly into Von's car and slammed the doors.

For a minute, all they could do was sit, breathing heavily from the long sprint. Each of them was far more soaked than they had hoped. The still air in the small space quickly filled with sweat and chlorine.

Rod looked at Von, and Von looked back at him. In a group, or in his gym, Von held court. He was in control. Now, he was just a wet man, smelling of pool water, more vulnerable than Rod had ever seen him.

Rod was also having a hard time not picturing Von naked. He had seen him out of clothes too many times. He wondered if it was the same for Von. He felt that affinity for him again, more intense than ever.

There was an impulse, like possession, that Rod did not understand and did not care to, but he decided he had liked being touched by this man. Liked the proximity of their nakedness together. Liked him.

If Von had chosen any other moment to speak, Rod might have wordlessly gotten out, trudged away in the rain, away from the station wagon, away from the gym, away from him. Any other moment, if only.

Von said, "I'd like to kiss you."

Without a word, Rod turned in his seat, leaned over, threw his far arm around Von's shoulders as Von leaned in as well, his hand sliding around Rod's thick waist, and their faces came together.

Rod had expected a chaste kiss, mouths closed, lips pursed. But Von's lips were searching for a way in, and then their tongues were touching one another. Von kissed like he swam, powerful, but gentle.

A part of Rod was still disgusted by Von. The thought kept intruding. He touched the fat of Von's arm, felt the hair on Von's face against his own, smelled the sweat and spit of a man who was far too close.

But Von's hand was on his chest, then his belly. He could feel the caress, the coiled strength of the large palm, even through wet flannel. As Von's hand went lower, Rod's knees parted automatically.

Rod was hard. Harder than he'd been in years.

Harder than the half-hearted middle-aged romantic interludes with his wife would have gotten him, harder than any perfunctory bathroom porn could have gotten him. He throbbed in his slacks under Von's hand.

Then Von broke the kiss.

Rod's lip was waterlogged. There was saliva on his tongue that was not his own. he swallowed, and found that the spit of two men slithering down his throat and into his belly did not disgust him.

"Take down your pants," Von breathed. "Lean back in your seat."

The station wagon was the only car in the employee parking lot. The nearest other car was his, half a football field away. They were surrounded on all sides by opaque curtains of loud, heavy rainfall.

Rod did as he was told. He undid his belt and zipper, lifted up from the seat, and awkwardly shimmied the wet, clinging pants and underwear down to his calves. He could only get the seat to lean back a little.

His loose flannel shirt hung down over his belly, covering his cock. Before Rod could stop him, Von grabbed the hem and pulled it up to his chest. He bared not just Rod's privates, but his entire middle.

Rod felt a jolt, and an impulse to push Von's hand away and yank the shirt back down. His stomach, his hips, his thighs, his pubic fat, every one of the most unsightly things about his body were displayed.

Then Von kissed him again, first a peck, then another wet, probing kiss, and Von's hand was cupping his cock again, and it was becoming difficult for Rod to hold his obsessions about his body in his head.

Von toyed with Rod's balls with the tips of two fingers, then lightly stroked the underside of his cock up and down before circling him entirely in a loose grip near his hooded glans.

Von broke the kiss again. Just an inch from Rod's wet, open mouth, Von said, "Lift yourself, sweetie."

Rod knew what he meant and did not want to. But, again, he did as he was told. One arm was pinned against the seats by Von's body. With his free hand, Rod clutched the underside of his belly and lifted it.

Von did not kiss him, but kept his face close, occasionally locking eyes with Rod, but mostly watching his body, both of them breathing heavily, sweet air in each other's faces, fogging the windows.

Rod hadn't had a handjob since the early days of his marriage. One of those things that had once seemed so special, so laden with newness and excitement, that had passed with slow permanence out of his life.

The way Von was treating his cock, playing with him, testing him, zeroing in on just the right place, just the right tightness, it seemed that this was something he'd had practice doing for other men.

Then Rod blurted with alarm, almost without thinking about it, that he was about to come. It came on so fast, with such intensity, a tightness going from the tips of his ears to the arches of his feet.

Von only nodded and maintained his attentions, and the last coherent thought in Rod's head was to wonder about the real nature of Von's friendship with all those young, slim, naked men from the sauna.

Von took his free hand and cupped it over Rod's pulsing cock, jerked him faster and harder than before, and for the first time in years Sherrod William Robinson was given an orgasm by another person.

The heat, the pleasure, exploded in him. His hips lurched. What felt like gallons of cum were lurching in powerful discharges that wrenched themselves from his balls through his modest cock and into Von's hand.