Justin stood on the platform and tried hard to get a grip on his nerves. He was a lot better at flying in the air than he had been months ago, but it still didn't come naturally to him. The only time he felt really comfortable was the second that Brian's strong hands grasped his in mid-air and held on tight. Somehow he knew that Brian would never let him go, not even with the safety rope keeping him from plunging downward unexpectedly. The two had made a deal some time ago that Brian would co-operate by modelling for Justin and in exchange Justin would let Brian teach him how to fly. Justin had actually gotten fairly good at it despite his nerves, but they had never practiced anything too complicated. 

The troupe was about to hit the road again. Their short vacation hiatus from travelling was rapidly coming to a close. A part of Justin was excited. He would go anywhere with Brian. He also enjoyed the adventure of seeing new places and new faces every week. He loved selling the drawings at his little booth on the Midway. He did have dreams of being a recognized artist someday, but he was not in that big of a hurry. He was barely into his twenties and felt he had plenty of time to be a big shot in the Art World later on. Being Brian's partner and spending time with his Circus family was more than enough for the time being. Justin had ambitions, but he had never cared that much about money or status. 

Brian's crew only had a couple of weeks left to fine tune their new routines and hone their old ones to perfection before the Circus was scheduled for their first gig of the new Season. They had spent the entire day working hard when Brian had finally declared that he was satisfied and let them head home. That was when Justin arrived to pick Brian up. Brian had left him his car in the morning so the young man could keep a couple of appointments he had made with clients who had loved his work at the art exhibit weeks earlier. As soon as he waved good-bye to the last of Brian's fellow performers who were passing him as they left the huge gym that housed the training equipment, he was swept up into Brian's arms and warmly welcomed.

Justin excitedly told Brian about the two new commissions he had received from clients. One was from an elderly couple who had their first date at the circus when they were still in their teens. They had a nostalgic feel for the circus and asked Justin to incorporate it into the theme of their painting, leaving it up to him to decide how he would go about it. The other was a rather tense-looking older man who simply claimed he liked the way Justin captured animals. He asked for a jungle-like painting using lions, tigers, and elephants. He flashed a lot of money, just as the older couple had, so Justin agreed to get it done. Neither of the patrons was in a hurry, so it seemed a sweet deal. Brian felt that familiar surge of pride that Justin often brought out in him. 

It didn't take much persuasion outside of a few hot kisses for Brian to talk Justin into a few more practice moves on the trapeze. Now he found himself looking out across the distance at Brian masterfully swinging upside down from his perch and waiting for Justin to launch himself into thin air. Justin took a deep gulp of air and grabbed the bar with his free hand. As he looked out towards his target, he sent up a quick prayer that he would not miss letting go at the right moment this time and waited for the swing to finish its forward move before moving backwards again. His body flew forward and then back. He then arched his body in order to provide the momentum needed to fling himself forward again with more force. He repeated the motion a second time and on the third forward swing he launched himself into the air after releasing the bar. He did a single flip and then stretched his hands out in front of him. 

He felt, more than saw, the impact as Brian's strong hands grasped a firm hold of his wrists and hands and held tight. They both continued swinging backwards and then began to move forward together. Brian pulled Justin upwards, the well-developed muscles in his arms straining. He brought Justin's face up to meet his and surprised Justin by placing a fast, hard kiss on Justin's mouth. Their swinging motion became shorter and shorter as Brian repeated the kiss several times. Once the swinging had slowed considerably, Brian instructed Justin to let go, telling him he would meet him on the net. Justin gave Brian a bewitching smile and did as he was told. He fell to the netting, his safety harness making it a smooth descent. 

Once Justin reached the netting, he unbuckled the harness and moved from the center of the netting so that Brian could make his drop safely. Brian couldn't resist showing off for his young lover. He performed several flips over his bar before releasing and dropping to earth. He wasn't wearing the same harness as Justin so he fell much quicker and bounced twice before coming to a full stop on his feet. He ran across the netting to the edge where Justin waited with eyes wide. Even though he had watched Brian countless times before, he was still in awe of the man's physical prowess and skills. Sometimes he still couldn't believe that this magnificent creature was his to love and admire. 

Once Brian reached Justin, he lowered himself to the netting beside his lover. Normally the two of them would have grabbed the edge of the netting and flipped over it to reach the ground but Brian had other ideas. The entire gym seemed to be totally deserted now. There was not a soul in sight. Brian couldn't let the opportunity pass. He had never even considered making love to someone on the net. But here he was, all alone with the one man who made his heart race just with his smiles. He would be a fool to pass up the opportunity. The cleaning crew wasn't expected for hours and no one else had permission to use the gym while Debbie's circus performers were in town. 

Without saying a word, Brian pulled Justin away from the edge of the net and down into his arms. He began kissing Justin with far more passion than he had risked using while in the air. He forced Justin's lips to part with his persuasive tongue. In no time at all Justin was gasping for air and feeling his heart beating wildly inside his chest. The blood was pumping, racing to every extremity, causing tingles all over. Brian continued his assault on Justin's mouth until his lips began moving all over the young man's face and neck. His lips and tongue tasted the sweet flesh of Justin's upper torso while his hand traveled down to the burgeoning bulge in the middle of the tights Justin had changed into before climbing the ladder to the platform above. 

Brian played with the bulge, feeling it growing against his palm. Justin couldn't control the soft moans that began to escape from him as he felt the exquisite torture of Brian touching him in his most sensitive spots. Suddenly Brian sat up on his knees, the thick netting barely moving with him. He crouched above Justin and then grabbed the young man's tights at the waist-band. He pulled the tights down just enough to expose the beautiful package that was begging for release. Brian bent down again and clamped his mouth over the weeping cock that was now standing at full attention. 

It didn't take Brian long to bring Justin to full climax. The blond let out a deep moan of pure pleasure as Brian worked his skillful magic on his young lover. Brian gulped down his reward and then gave Justin a Cheshire grin of pride. He knew he had more than satisfied Justin. He fell over onto his side.

"My turn," he announced.

Justin didn't need to hear it repeated. It would be his pleasure to return the favor. He yanked his tights back up and watched as Brian lowered his just enough. Time passed as Justin proved that he was just as skilled in this arena as Brian was. He would never be the aerialist that Brian was, any more than Brian would ever be the painter that he was, but this was one thing they were equals in. They both were expert at pleasing their man, especially when it was accompanied by so much love. Once Brian reached his climax, the two lay side by side for a while and basked in the afterglow of satisfaction. Life couldn't be better. They expected it to be this good for a very long time. As they lay there, gathering the energy to get down and go home, they wondered what kind of adventures awaited them on the road this coming Season. There would be quite a few, but only time would tell how they would feel about them.

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Kip checked out the ad in the paper for the first engagement scheduled for the Novotny Family Circus. It wasn't far from their home base and would give Kip the chance to leave Marta for a short time without her getting too nosy about where he was going. He had finally decided what he would do to pay Kinney back for messing up his life. The bastard had robbed him of his future career and it was time to take something important away from Kinney. His original thought was to hurt the man personally...to fix it so that Kinney could never fly again just as the man had done to him by having him blacklisted within the circus community. Now he had a better plan. 

Kip had been surprised to see how much Kinney had changed since he had left the company. The old Brian had no vulnerable weak spot where another human being was concerned. He got along really well with everyone, but no one was that special to him. It left no one for Kip to strike out at in order to hurt Kinney. Apparently all that changed when the blond kid entered the picture. It was very clear to Kip that Brian Kinney had fallen in love with someone at last. Too bad for this Justin Taylor kid...he had picked the wrong man to fall for. Kip now knew that there was someone who mattered to Kinney and it would devastate him if he was hurt, especially by something he had done. 

Kip had been spying on Brian ever since the troupe had arrived in town. Once he learned about Taylor, he had kept a watchful eye on him too whenever possible. Luckily for him, Kip had all the time he needed to do his undercover work thanks to Marta's generous support. The one thing that he learned which was most valuable to him was that Kinney loved showing off his talent by including the Taylor kid in high-flying lessons. 

That very training was the key to paying the man back. If he could manage it, Kip had every intention of creating a little accident for Taylor that would be blamed on Kinney. He had started hiding in the gym used for practice sessions in order to scope things out, including the evening that he spied Kinney and Taylor going at it right out in the open while still nestled inside the trapeze netting. It was more proof that the blond was the way to strike at Kinney. Now that he knew what he was going to do, all he needed was the perfect opportunity to do it. That was why he was following the circus when they left town. If he was lucky, he would get the job done at the first stop and be back with Marta within days. Soon he would have enough funds to dump the old girl and really start a new life. He could hardly wait to put his plan into motion.

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The old detective handed over the copious notes he had taken of his time in Florida. He could see the change in demeanor that washed over his client as he perused the information he was reading. The experienced detective knew enough about human nature to recognize when his client got to the part of the notes that detailed one event in the relationship between Justin Taylor, his client's target, and the older man he was living with. A bright-red stain appeared on both cheeks of his client as he read the words that confirmed the close bond between Taylor and Brian Kinney, the trapeze artist. 

A choking sound escaped Ethan's throat. This was even worse than he had anticipated. Once he had received the photo of Justin from his detective's pal in Florida, he knew he needed to find out more about what Justin had been up to since leaving Pittsburgh. He sent his man to Florida to scout out the situation. The news had not been good from the very beginning. The reports he got back, especially after Justin's art showing at the gallery which his detective had attended, were full of crazy talk about Justin and some guy whom he was obviously involved with. Ethan had gone into a rage, slamming the phone down after that conversation with the detective. The image of some older man hanging all over his Justin was almost too much to bear.

Ethan had forced himself to remain in control until he could get a more in-depth report on this new man in Justin's life. Apparently the guy was some kind of star of a travelling circus and Justin worked for the same circus as an artist in the Midway. It was demeaning for his 'boyfriend' to be doing something so trivial when he had all this talent just waiting to be discovered. Ethan was certain that Justin would see the error of his ways once he realized that he could use Ethan's wealth and connections to further his career as a real artist and not some petty sketch artist in a fifth-rate circus. But first he needed to find out just how serious the relationship had become between Justin and this man on the flying trapeze.

Eventually the detective reported back that the circus was about to end their hiatus in Florida and begin to tour again. Ethan ordered the detective back home with a final report. In addition, he had the man commission a painting from Justin as a client so that he would have an excuse to keep in touch with the artist while he was travelling. Ethan gave the detective a sizable chunk of change to pay for the painting, thus ensuring that Justin would take on the commission. Once Ethan saw the final report, he was furious. Not only was Justin playing around with this Brian Kinney character, he was also living with him. Ethan had hoped at first that they were simply good friends, but one report of an observation the detective made of the two of them inside a work-out gym the circus used for practice sessions dispelled that theory instantly. The report was cut and dried without any fancy language, but the image it brought to mind for Ethan was almost more than he could take. There was no longer any way to deny that his Justin and this Brian were lovers.

Well, that would have to change. Ethan Gold wasn't giving up on Justin. The man belonged to him, not some third-rate flyer in sparkly tights with nothing to offer someone who was going places. It looked like Ethan was going to the Circus, but he intended to bring home more than a balloon and souvenir booklet.

To be continued.....................