Gay male erotica story "Sexathon" out now in Afternoon Pleasures anthology

My short story "Sexathon" is in the new anthology Afternoon Pleasures: Gay Erotica for Couples edited by Shane Allison. I don't have my copies yet, but I can share a little snippet of my story. Here's the first three paragraphs - if you like it, do check out the book!

I used to work the door at a lesbian sex party that was held in what was usually a gay male sex club, and that setting inspired this story, which is admittedly among my wackier ones, but I also think I was trying to get at the way a couple could feel kinship by fucking other people, by opening their relationship but sharing it. That’s also a theme I’m pursuing in another gay male erotica story I’m working on.

I was working on it right after I got dumped last May, right when I was going to visit my mom's house for the first time. Basically, a stressful time, but I was trying to capture something with the story. No clue if I succeeded, you can be the judge of that, but I'm always proud to have a new story published, all the more so when it's a gay male story. Now I have to get some of that writing mojo I've lost back and I'll be myself again.



Sexathon
by Rachel Kramer Bussel

When Doug told me he wanted to enter the sexathon at our local sex club, at first, I looked at him like he was crazy. We’ve been together for ten years, and in many ways it seems like a lifetime. I’m thirty-five and he’s twenty-nine and most of our friends look to us as a model couple, and maybe we are. I often joke that we’re like any old married couple--we tied the knot four years ago, finally--with each of us having our own spot on the couch, our pillow, our mug; in short, our places within our home. Yet we both welcome those niceties, those symbols that go far beyond the solid gold wedding rings we exchanged during the ceremony. And we’d been monogamous, save for a few random threesomes we’d taken part in, which had been hot--don’t get me wrong--but in general we were one-man men, focused on building our lives together, eager to share everything from sex to breakfast to road trips. The adventures we’d shared up until then, including traveling everywhere from Belize to Alaska, as well as being godparents to our friends’ son Peter, had only brought us closer together. We had our spats, sure, but I was certain that without Doug my life would be far worse off than the one we shared.

Doug explained that the club was having a fundraiser, but instead of a marathon or walkathon, it was a sexathon. You got points for everything from deep-throating a dildo to how far your ejaculation landed when you jerked off to how many partners you hooked up with, and people were suppoed to pledge a dollar or more for every point you earned. Condoms would be mandatory. When he told me about the points and prizes—a trip to Paris, a big-screen plasma TV—I knew there was no talking him out of it. The thing about my man, though you’d never know it unless you were in a specifically sporting situation with him, is that he’s incredibly competitive. Whether it’s doing crossword puzzles, guessing the answers on Jeopardy, playing bingo at our gay community center or even taking part in pickup softball, he plays to win.

“What about me?” I asked. I’m not insecure, but even the most solid long-term relationship can hit its rough spots. Was he having a midlife crisis? Did he regret not having more partners in his younger years? We’d discussed this, and not just when we first got together. Back then, we’d been youthful and idealistic, and while we were definitely falling in love with each other in those days, we were also in love with the idea of love. I thought the men who picked up a different trick every night were fools. Who’d want a new cock when you could have a man like Doug: tall, strapping, husky, hairy; who could be by turns savage (teeth and nails clawing at me), and tender (taking care of me in countless ways)? Not me. And those kisses! The kind that went on forever, that left me breathless, that seemed to come out of nowhere and for no reason--he’d stop me in the middle of a sentence just for the pleasure of sticking his tongue down my throat.

Publisher description:

Shane Allison presents bedtime reading for gay couples. Filled with romance, passion and lust, Afternoon Pleasures offers irresistible erotic fun while celebrating the coming together of souls as well as bodies. Two traveling husbears meet a willing twink in Jeff Mann's "One Afternoon in the Bible Belt." A sneaky environmentalist gets sandwiched between hedonistic mountain men in Bob Vickery's "Loggers." Two partners share a leisurely Sunday morning with scintillating surprises in Hank Edwards's "Breakfast in Bed." Rob Rosen's "Skyrockets in Flight" is particularly delicious with naughty bits in every line.

With contributed stories by Bob Vickery, Jonathan Asche, Pepper Espinoza, Jeff Mann, Gregory L. Norris, Jay Rogers, R.J. Bradshaw, Rob Rosen, Hank Edwards, Kyle Lukoff, Heidi Champa, Logan Zachary, D. Fostalove, Stephen Osborne, Nathan Burgoine, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Shane Allison.