Bullheaded

men he played with went away happy and satisfied, but that was about pride. Performance.
    And it was all he’d ever had, mounted on a man or a bull. His performance.
    The rush of orgasm took him by surprise, and he drove forward hard enough to bang his hapless sucker’s head into the wall, but the man didn’t seem to mind. He grunted appreciatively around Cody’s cock before he spat into a tissue and wiped his lips.
    When he was wrung dry, Cody opened his eyes. “My turn,” he said. He needed to fill his mouth with a hard cock.

Chapter 12:
Sister Christian

    W ITH each bar he gained a little more confidence. Like Zane, Johnny tried to look less like a cowboy at night in hopes of preventing an outing, even though the hat, jeans, and boots would have made getting laid a sure thing in almost any gay bar. Since finding out who the Village People were, he also could have opted to dress like a cop or a construction worker. If he had any facial hair, he could have grown a porn ’stache to really look the part, although he would have been laughed out of bullfighting if he showed up with a furry upper lip.
    Instead he bought a plain black tank top and wore it with jeans and sneakers. He left his hat at the motel, but with his hair pulled back in a long braid, he still looked and walked like a cowboy. There was no disguising the rolling gait, but it seemed to attract enough attention that he could pick and choose from the men who showed their interest. In fact, he almost wished Cody was around so he could witness his success. Johnny’s inner twelve-year-old wanted to stick out his tongue and say, “So there! I am too hot!”
    The main point was, he looked different than in the ring. So far he’d had only one close call when he recognized a rider skulking in the shadows hitting on a pretty blond. It shocked him enough to see a guy he knew in a gay bar; he was someone Johnny never would have suspected had any impulse to reach for cock, and it was also a wake-up call to be a bit more careful himself. That night he’d left in a hurry without hooking up, simply to get out of there before the guy surfaced and saw him.
    After that, he kind of watched that rider when their paths crossed on the summer circuit. He played straight really well and probably was more into girls than boys. It was interesting to know something that private about the man, not that he would ever have blabbed about it. It was a bummer anyone even cared about stuff like that.
    He hadn’t been planning to go out tonight, but Zane claimed he needed a wingman. Zane had topped his bull for eight seconds and came away with a good score and a nice check for placing in the top ten, so he was up for celebrating.
    “I always score better when you’re there, just like in the ring. You’re my lucky charm,” Zane had said, and Johnny let himself be persuaded, even though something felt different the night Bobby Blue needed his help, as if someone was watching him in the ring.
    Maybe it was seeing Bobby Blue and the others again. Or covering him with his body. It was odd being that close to someone who knew him in only one way and contrasting it with how well he now knew Zane. In the ring, he and Zane ignored the thing they had in common and simply said hello.
    Johnny was observing from a corner as usual, but now he was attuned enough to recognize The Gaze. He even knew how to handle his own gaze to signify interest or say, “Sorry, not interested,” without words from across a room. There were a few steamy guys giving him the eye, as well as an obvious young blond who wore makeup and a sequined tank top, surrounded by other similarly dressed boys. “Limp-wristed” didn’t even begin to describe him. Johnny crossed him off the list immediately as “too gay.”
    An arm sliding over his shoulders made him jump, and he accidentally turned his head right into the kiss Zane laid on his mouth. It was just a friendly kiss, and Johnny had seen a lot more kissing between men since he’d been on the road, but he kept his lips closed so as not to send Zane the wrong message.
    “Did you see my score today? Highest I ever earned!” Zane was too excited to keep his voice down.
    Purposely, Johnny pitched his voice low, forcing Zane to lean in closer to hear him. “I did, Z-man, and you had a great ride! Congratulations. The judges robbed you, you should have won.”
    “I’ll say,” Zane agreed. “Damn that Bobby Blue for being such a showy rider. But still,