The Bouncer

By A.J. Llewellyn

Kevin Branigan thought he was moving to Austin, Texas, for a job. Instead, he got a life.

Kevin Branigan begins a new life in Austin, Texas, working as a bouncer at his brother's bar. A teacher by trade, he's had a hard time getting work and is still hurt over a catastrophic break-up. Doing something completely different seems like a great idea, and being close to his brother, Jack, and Jack's husband, Tito, is another benefit to his changed circumstances.

Things are looking up until Tito intervenes in a drunken fight at the bar one night. Tito stops a patron from beating up his girlfriend, but it could be very bad if news gets out that Tito, a retired boxer, slugged the guy. Kevin takes the fall, and winds up being arrested.

Sentenced to community service in a gay church, Kevin begins to think that the signs are all bad. However, late one night at the bar, he's seduced into a hot threesome with two of his co-workers. He finds himself drawn into this dangerous mix, as well as to a hunky undercover cop, Cruz Dixon. Unfortunately Cruz appears to have a boyfriend. Or does he? Can Kevin win over Cruz, who's captured his heart and his mind? Can he really make a life for himself in the World Capital of Music? Or are his days as Austin's newest bouncer numbered?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pride Publishing
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781784307080

A.J. Llewellyn

A.J. Llewellyn lives in California, but dreams of living in Hawaii. Frequent trips to all the islands, bags of Kona coffee in the fridge and a healthy collection of Hawaiian records keep this writer refueled. A.J. never lacks inspiration for male/male erotic romances and on the rare occasions this happens, pursues other passions such as collecting books on Hawaiiana, surfing and spending time with friends and animal companions. A.J. Llewellyn believes that love is a song best sung out loud.

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The Bouncer

ISBN # 978-1-78430-708-0

©Copyright A.J. Llewellyn 2015

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright August 2015

Edited by Sarah Smeaton

Pride Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Pride Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Pride Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2015 by Pride Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

Pride Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

THE BOUNCER

A.J. Llewellyn

Kevin Branigan thought he was moving to Austin, Texas, for a job. Instead, he got a life.

Kevin Branigan begins a new life in Austin, Texas, working as a bouncer at his brother’s bar. A teacher by trade, he’s had a hard time getting work and is still hurt over a catastrophic break-up. Doing something completely different seems like a great idea, and being close to his brother, Jack, and Jack’s husband, Tito, is another benefit to his changed circumstances.

Things are looking up until Tito intervenes in a drunken fight at the bar one night. Tito stops a patron from beating up his girlfriend, but it could be very bad if news gets out that Tito, a retired boxer, slugged the guy. Kevin takes the fall, and winds up being arrested.

Sentenced to community service in a gay church, Kevin begins to think that the signs are all bad. However, late one night at the bar, he’s seduced into a hot threesome with two of his co-workers. He finds himself drawn into this dangerous mix, as well as to a hunky undercover cop, Cruz Dixon. Unfortunately Cruz appears to have a boyfriend. Or does he? Can Kevin win over Cruz, who’s captured his heart and his mind? Can he really make a life for himself in the World Capital of Music? Or are his days as Austin’s newest bouncer numbered?

Dedication

To the memory of my gorgeous gone girl,

Gretchen Lohr Corrales, whose life was stolen too soon.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

JetBlue: JetBlue Airways Corporation

Kindle: Amazon Technologies, Inc.

The First 48:A&E Television Networks, LLC

Leave it to Beaver: Gomalco Productions

Honda: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Co. Ltd.)

Facebook: Facebook, Inc.

County Line on the Lake: The County Line, Inc.

Oil Can Harry’s: Hubert A Charrot

Uzi: Israel Weapon Industries Ltd.

AK-47:Cold Steel, Inc.

Austin Pale Ale: Bitter End Bistro & Brewing

Hammerhead: McMenamins, Inc.

Fat Tire: New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc.

Wheaties: General Mills IP. Holdings II, LLC

Alcoholics Anonymous: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving: Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Shady Grove: MY/ZP IP Group, Ltd.

Home Slice: Home Slice, Inc.

Hey Cupcake!: Hey Cupcake!

American Idol: FremantleMedia North America, Inc.

TiVo: TiVo Brands LLC

Lego: Lego Juris A/S

Breakaway Records: Hillary Lancaster

Kindergarten Cop: Imagine Entertainment

Dodge: Chrysler LLC

Heaven to Hell: Falcon Studios

Dexter: Showtime Networks, Inc.

Shelter: GP Pictures

iTunes: Apple, Inc.

Transformers: DreamWorks SKG

Butterfinger: Planters Lifesavers Company

Spongebob Squarepants Dinner Dash: Play First

Twitter: Twitter, Inc.

Harvard: Harvard University

Instagram: Facebook, Inc.

Skype: Microsoft Corporation

Yelp: Yelp, Inc.

Amazon: Amazon.com, Inc.

Coke: The Coca-Cola Company

Dark Side of the Moon: Pink Floyd.

PlayStation: Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.

Airplane!: Paramount Pictures Corporation

Dodge Dart: FCA US LLC

Dragon Seed: Pearl S. Buck

That Was Then, This Is Now: S.E. Hinton

Bad Romance (Lady Gaga): Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta and Nadir Khayat

Gossip Girl: Warner Bros. Television

Pillow Talk: Universal Studios Inc.

Amy’s Ice Cream: Amy Simmons

Cancioncitas de Amor: Romeo Santos

La llave de mi corazón: Juan Luis Guerra Seijas

Hammerhead Porter: Bitter End Bistro & Brewery

Color Me Mine: Color Me Mine Enterprises, Inc.

Chapter One

The sign on the portable corridor coming off the JetBlue flight read, Welcome to Austin, Live Music Capital of the World.

It cheered me up after the long, long wait in airports stretching from New York to Long Beach in California, not to mention the turbulent three-hour flight here. I took it as a good sign. I believed in signs. I’ve always looked for them and found them, good or bad. This was good. I loved music, live music in particular, and I was about to throw myself right into the music scene working for my brother.

To me, it was like a personalized welcome mat after being shuttled around the country due to inclement weather. I felt lucky that I’d made it. Seventy-two passengers had agreed to fly all over the country and even to Mexico to finally land in Austin and we’d decided we knew each other well enough to exchange numbers and promises of cocktails.

For several horrible hours, we’d circled first one New York airport, then another, and after a detour to New Jersey, had been left on the tarmac in Newark. Waiting. We hadn’t been able to get to an arrival gate due to overcrowding. In an incident that made all the TV headlines, the flight attendants had run out of food and had rationed us to two peanuts per person and half a cup of water each.

JetBlue had rallied, saving the day. One of their planes heading to Florida had turned around and rescued us. A group of seasoned flight attendants had boarded our craft like the sexiest cavalry you ever saw, stampeding down the aisle carrying food, drink and bringing abundant good cheer. Among them had been my brother’s husband, former boxer and now-flight attendant, Tito Calderon.

He’d picked me out right away and came straight over to me.

This is a funny old way to meet, he’d said. You doing okay, Kevin?

To tell you the truth, like everybody else, I’d started to panic quite a long time ago. Especially when I’d seen the news of our unfolding melodrama on the screen in front of me, which of course magnified our predicament.

I’m fine, Tito. I’d tried to act macho. Tito was hot. Hotter than hot. He radiated the kind of sexual chemistry that ought to be forbidden in real life. It should be left on the screen for guys whose names end in Clooney or Damon. I wondered how my brother coped with the attention magnetism like Tito’s must bring.

Satisfied I was okay, Tito had given me a couple of bottles of iced water, several snack bags and moved on to help a breast-feeding mother handle her squalling baby.

I’d glimpsed his wedding ring. It made me feel good, for my brother’s sake that he wasn’t the kind of guy who took off his ring when he was a traveling man. I’d caught Tito’s gaze and we’d smiled at each other. He’d taken charge of the screaming baby, handing a bottle to one of our frazzled, original flight attendants.

Can you warm this for me, please? Thirty seconds ought to do it.

She’d looked as if she wanted to squeeze the contents all over his face. Instead, she snatched it and thundered her way back to the galley.

I had been able to hear her surly words. Excuse me. Excuse me, please.

The new JetBlue crew had made instant TV headlines as they’d escorted us from the plane to one of their waiting buses across the snow-dusted tarmac. Tito had acted like he was used to having cameras on him and I’d wondered just how bad I looked.

Once he’d been sure I was safely on the bus headed back to New York, he’d given me a quick hug. I’d detected very faint aftershave. Holy frickin’ heck. My dick had got hard. Was that bad when it was your brother’s husband?

See you back in Austin, he’d said. I’ll be home tonight.

I didn’t think there was a happy person on that bus once we’d survived the bumpy two-hour bus ride—the driver had got lost—and arrived at La Guardia, just as our original plane was landing.

Another long wait. I wondered if I’d grown chest hair in the interim. The constant flight changes had even worn out the flight attendants who’d left a basket of cookies and snacks up front saying we should help ourselves. I’d tried to focus on reading something on my new Kindle, a gift from my mom. Instead, I’d become obsessed with the choppy digital TV service on my personal screen on the back of the seat in front of me. I’d watched an alarming array of reality programming. Some loopy, scary-looking plastic surgery nightmare of a housewife in Orange County, wherever the hell that was, went off on her husband because they couldn’t afford their mortgage.

A guy in Atlanta had single-handedly killed his entire family on The First 48 and couldn’t explain why, beyond, My brother looked at me funny.

It bugged me that we’d landed right in the middle of an episode of Leave it to Beaver. It had been a good one, too.

Kevin! Kevin Branigan! My eyes adjusted to the bright lights and I spotted my brother, Jack, waving to me as I stumbled past half-empty seats at the gate.

How’d you get in here? I asked, giving him a hearty hug. I was a big guy, around six feet, four inches and I was, well, solid. A big, muscular piece of meat. I forgot my own strength sometimes, and my brother squeaked in protest.

Then I saw his staff ID dangling from his neck. You work for the airline now?

He nodded, looking excited. Jack, a good-looking guy by anybody’s standards, was thirty-five, two years older than me. He looked amazing. Love had done nothing to dent his Black Irish looks. He still had the same blue-eyed crinkly smile, the ready laugh, and I noticed his gold wedding band. He’d up and married Tito in Connecticut after a short, blistering romance, hurting everyone in our family by telling us after the fact. He realized I was staring at it.

You’ll love him, Jack said. How are you doing, Kev?

I’m fine. Didn’t he tell you?

Did who tell me?

Tito. I met him in New York.

The smile spread slowly across Jack’s face. You did?

I told him about the New Jersey fiasco.

Oh, hon. My baby rescued you! What’d you think? Is he hot or what?

Very hot. Don’t you ever get jealous?

My brother threw back his head and laughed. I’m married to a Latin man. He’s much more jealous than I am.

I nodded. I could believe that.

He touched my arm. You had a tough flight. I’m so sorry.

I nodded.

He grinned. I was tracking your progress online until I had to get on a plane myself. I couldn’t believe you even flew to Cancún to get here.

Yeah, I cracked. My one chance for an exotic holiday and all I saw was the airport.

We walked toward the baggage claim and he threw an arm around me.

Oh, Kev, I’m so glad you’re here. Life just isn’t the same without you.

I smiled at him. I’d missed him, too. I’d been living in Boston until a bad break-up with my ex lost me the only life I’d known for the last six years. I thought I would die when my lover, Larry, left me. At first it seemed as though I’d even lost my best friend when Jack had met Tito on a plane. His calls and texts had become rare. I’d pined for communication as I’d walked Boston’s Freedom Trail pondering a death plunge into the frigid waters near the SS Constitution.

Somehow, Kevin’s excitement caught up with me and his newly found love gave me hope. You never know when you’re going to meet someone, I kept telling myself. I encouraged him to visit Tito in Austin at least a few of times and bam! They were in love and living together. They’d bought a bar, fallen in love with Austin and had convinced me to come