ShadesofGay

Summary:

A single weekend can change everything.

Edward Masen gets the chance of a lifetime: an indecent proposal. All his struggles might be over if he takes this chance but if he refuses he might miss out on something extraordinary.

What will he do?

Rating: M, MaleSlash, Pairings: Sometimes canon and sometimes… NOT ;-), AU, AH and lemony goodness!

I've decided to put my big girl panties on and finally post this little story of mine.
It was originally written in German and I'm translating it now.

So if you can read German and want the whole story now, you should look at this: www. fanfiktion. de /s/ 5056b5df0001b6d706705dc0/1/ Shades-of-Gay

I'm hoping for weekly updates.

Ulli

1. What women (and some men) want

I can't believe I'm actually sitting here. A single phone call being the reason for me to come to this bar. A single phone call that might change my life. And for the better, I hope!

I've ordered a cold beer and retreated into a corner of Big Mikes Sportsbar.

A glance at my watch tells me that only three minutes have passed since I looked last time. I'm early but excitement and nervousness made it unbearable for me to sit and wait at home.

My whole future is at stake! If that is no good reason for my nerves to tingle then I don't know what is!

My shaky hand grips the beer glass from the table in front of me and after a nice long swig of the cold beverage has moistened my dry throat, I'm feeling a bit better.
Although the excitement lasts.

If the offer I got only this afternoon is real, then all my worries might just disappear at once and for good. I might quit my fucking job and finally do what I've wanted to for two years now. If this offer is a serious request, I wouldn't have to wait another year to pursue my dream, because the offered money would be more than enough.

But maybe I shouldn't jump for joy too early.

It isn't the first time I got a proposal like that. An indecent one.
In my job it's pretty normal. Only most of the time it's not even half as profitable for me, which is why I usually refuse.

Yet I decide to stay the fuck calm and listen to what this Jasper guy has to say and then I will make up my mind. No need to worry myself into madness over something that seems pretty blurry to me and that might be just one big misunderstanding.

What guys like me have to offer in return is pretty clear to me.

I'm a whore. A male hooker, although my boss Aro doesn't like to hear that. He says we're first-class escort men but at the end of the day, I don't see any difference. I'm selling my body for money.

The official version is somewhat different of course! My job description says that I accompany lonely ladies to events and functions or that I take them out for romantic rendezvous but reality is far from that. For the right amount of money those women can get anything they want from me.

Twenty percent of these earnings go to my bank account; the rest is what Aro stuffs his pockets with.
In return I get to live in one of the companies fancy apartments, I get the finest new designer clothes all the time, I have a membership in the city's best fitness club and spa and I have full medical insurance, including a little health checkup every other week. But of course all of these benefits are for one purpose only: not to shed a bad light on Aros agency.

A personal driver, who is also my bodyguard of sorts, gets me to my appointments on time and makes sure that none of these too-single and too-rich ladies occupies my time and services any longer than they paid for.

On the whole it is a good life, a luxurious life even, but something important is missing.
My freedom. The chance to do what I really want to do. The choices of when and where and with whom I want to spend my time.

Many people think this is a dream job. Getting paid for sex… but this illusion is long gone for me.

I often wondered if there could've been another way, a better one but I come up blank.

This is the only job I can think of that will allow me to go back to college, so I will do whatever I have to do, until I've saved up enough money to continue where I left things behind two years ago. As soon as I have the money to pay for my education and to make ends meet, I will happily quit this fucking job and never look back.

And maybe, just maybe that day will be here sooner than I thought.

Fifteen minutes later the front door opens and a young man walks into the bar. He is tall, well-proportioned and downright handsome with a nice disarray of blond curls on top of his head.

For a few seconds his eyes scan the room until he discovers me in my half-hidden spot and walks over with a huge smile on his face.

"Edward?" he asks and I can't help it but nod and smile back at him.

„I'm Jasper Whitlock." he states and I point towards a chair opposite of mine. In one smooth and swift motion he takes his seat and then looks at me expectantly.

I'm speechless for a moment because he fits right into my predatory pattern. Well… he would, if I actually preyed on my preferences.

The very first time I felt some kind of attraction towards a guy was in high school.
I was sixteen years old and head over heels for my girlfriend at the time. Tanya. She was the one who stole my first kiss and she was also the one I lost my virginity with that summer.

The bewilderment I felt, when I found myself staring at a boy named Mike, is still palpable but I just couldn't help my wondering eyes that searched him out wherever I went.
In the locker room, after football practice and Phys Ed…
During biology where he sat at the lab table in front of mine…
In the cafeteria where he sat at with me and Tanya and our friends…

Mike was a cute guy, with his short blond hair and his baby blue eyes; always hanging with the popular crowd and well-liked by everyone, including me. Only I took the next step at some point, thinking he was also pretty hot, although I never dared to act out on it.

In high school the mere rumor of being gay could break your social neck and besides… I thought it might just be a kind of awkward phase at the time. A momentary lapse of judgment; a disorientation that I would sure grow out of and leave behind.

It took a while for me to realize that I was wrong, that I sure as hell was attracted to both, male AND female features and for quite some time that thought scared the hell out of me.
Flirting with boys or men became impossibility, so I kept admiring from afar, never daring to go any further.

Only in college did I find the courage to at least give it a try. I was single at the time and I wanted to know how it would feel to kiss another man, so I went to check out a gay bar on the other side of the city. It didn't take long until a very handsome guy with short blond curls asked if he could buy me a drink. He seemed only a little older than me and we easily fell into conversation which caused me to relax and just enjoy our time together, sitting close to each other in a small cushioned nook. At some point he had taken my hand and put it on his jean-clad thigh, where my fingers had coyly started to draw little circles, while he put his arm around me and gently massaged my neck.

He seemed to sense that I was new to this and didn't even try to pull me into a darkroom or whatever it is that gay men do in bars like that.

He took things slowly, although his eyes told me that he wanted far more than just holding hands. I sure as hell could've gone much further that night but a kiss was all I longed for at the time.

The feeling of stubble on my skin, of big strong hands on my hips, of a flat, yet muscular chest pressed up against mine, of a lithe, hard body rubbing me so good while we were dancing and of soft wet lips that met mine, was just incredible.

A low but definitely male moan did things to my body that I had only ever experienced with my female partners and for the longest time I just basked in the warmth and feeling of security that this strong, masculine body gave me but I also felt that I wasn't ready for more.

So I went home alone that night and jerked off under the hot spray of the shower, with images of blond curls and strong muscles assaulting my mind.

I'd been back to the bar a couple of times afterwards but my blond dream whose kisses had felt so fucking fantastic had never been there again.

Instead of pining after him, I started to date a girl named Lauren. We had met during one of my classes and at the time she was everything I had looked for. In a girl.
A pretty face, long blond hair and a killer body that kept all its promises. For several months we were dating exclusively and I was pretty happy.

Until the one thing happened, that cost me my future and in the process… my girlfriend.

My parents had never been rich, so I'd always worked to make ends meet while they struggled to pay for my tuitions.

A guy named James was the beginning of the end.

He was my boss in the music store I'd been working at halftime after my classes and fulltime on weekends. Until this day I have no clue who told him about my little secret but one day James Moriarty came onto me after the store closed and he just knew.

He grinned at me and offered me a deal that I immediately turned down, since it was nothing but blackmail. James offered new conditions to my contract with less working hours and better payment for the rest of my college career and wanted sex with me in return.

I told him I was no hooker and to put that new contract where the sun never shines.

„Oh, you'll come groveling at my feet, sweet cheeks! I know that you need this job!" James had claimed with another evil grin on his face.

So I'd just grinned back and told him that maybe he could've gotten into my pants had he just asked me out for dinner or something and that this would never ever happen now, because I chose not to spend any time with blackmailers and other douche bags.

My head held high, I had left the store to never return.

And this is how all the trouble started. Finding a new job with similar wages was next to impossible. The financial crisis had just hit full force and nobody hired a young guy with no working experience for more than a few hours a week. So I took on every job I could get but never made enough to pay all my bills. My meager savings melted away fast enough and when the semester's tuitions were due, my mom called me, crying, telling me that my father had just lost his job and that they were no longer able to support me.

Without the tuitions being paid for, I had to drop out of college and that's how my short career as a promising talent in the music faculty ended abruptly. The loss of my respectable and prestigious university place caused the loss of my – obviously very shallow - girlfriend and that's how I became a single ex-student, living just below the poverty line.

Until one day Aro showed up in the Coffeeshop where I worked a few nights a week. He offered me a job in his escort agency and - being sick and tired of working my ass off for practically nothing – I pretty soon did exactly what James had wanted me to do.

Over time I got the hang of it and soon became a favorite with the ladies. Due to my good looks and my other… qualities, I could never complain about a lack of demand.

Every now and then I would get proposals from men who had seen my profile on the agency's website but I had always I were to give in to a man, it should be special and sure as hell not for money!

At least that's what I'd always thought…

Until Jasper sent me a request, offering me the dazzling amount of 10.000 dollars if I were to accept his proposal.

Unbelievable 10.000 bucks! Cash on delivery so to say, for a single weekend, was a sum nobody had ever offered before and I was quite honestly curious as to what the service in return would be for him to spend so much money.

So I had called the number Jasper had mentioned in his mail and agreed to meet him here on public ground.

He sounded like a nice guy on the phone, and now that I see him for real, with this beautiful, friendly face and his blue eyes that look at me expectantly, I immediately feel like I can trust him.
He is serious about his offer, so I will sit and listen to everything he has to say.