Page 4 of The Panther’s Edge

This was it. The moment where I could still turn around, go home, convince myself I’d tried and it wasn’t meant to be.

I got out of the truck before I could think too hard about it.

The door was heavier than I expected, and it closed behind me with a soft pneumatic hiss. I found myself in a small waiting room with fluorescent lighting and clean floors. There was a desk at the far side with a man behind it. He was older than me, maybe mid-fifties, with gray hair and eyes that were fixed on the book in front of him.

“Membership card,” he said without looking up.

“I uh…” I paused. “I’ve never been here before.”

He looked up then, his eyes raking over me. “I’m going to need to see some ID then and I’ll need you to fill out this membership application.”

He slid a form across the desk and a pen. I picked them up with hands that felt oddly clumsy, like I was operating them remotely. The application was straightforward enough. Name, age, emergency contact, and sexual health status. I hesitated on that last one for a long moment before writing down negative across the board. It was a bathhouse for gay men. People fucked. I knew that from the start.

I filled it out and handed it back. The man scanned my ID, typed something into his computer, and then looked at me again with an expression that said he wanted to get back to his book as soon as possible.

“First time?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“You look exhausted, so this might be just what you need.” He wasn’t being unkind about it, just factual. And he was right. “The basics are simple. Leave everything you own in your locker. The only thing allowed past that point is a towel, your key, and glasses if you need them. Absolutely no electronic devices inside of any kind. We’re big on consent here, so if someone says no, that’s their answer. You don’t ask twice. Play nice with everyone, be respectful, and just try to relax and have some fun while you’re here.”

I nodded, suddenly feeling silly for even caring about what clothes I wore to the bathhouse now. I wasn’t going to have them long anyway. “Sounds reasonable.”

“You’ll find a towel in your locker as well.” he said, already reaching behind him toward a wall of keys.

“Okay.”

He handed me a key on a coiled wristband. “Locker twenty-two. Welcome to the bathhouse.”

So the place had no real name. Interesting. I supposed the clientele liked it that way. It sounded more anonymous.

The locker room was cleaner than I expected, and mostly empty. A couple of older men were chatting in the next row over completely nude, paying me no attention whatsoever. I found my locker and undressed slowly, feeling exposed despite the fact there was nobody to watch me. I wrapped the towel around my waist and stood there for a moment, looking at my own body in the mirror on the opposite wall. I was pale from years of sleeping through daylight and muscular from the gym, which was a positive I supposed. But my eyes still had that hollow look to them, like someone who’d given up on living life a long time ago.

I looked away and headed through the lockerroom. As I rounded the corner, I came upon the open plan showers. There were a couple more guys here, one of them human, one a dog-like creature with short black fur and pointy ears, and the other was a hulking werebear. And they, to my surprise, were all helping one another wash up. And by wash up, I do mean they were slowly jerking each other off using the soap from the dispenser on the wall.

Of course I couldn’t help but stand there and watch. It had been weeks since I’d had sex with anyone and my own jerk off sessions were clinical at best. So the moment I saw these men smiling, laughing, and rubbing one another down, I was stopped dead in my tracks. It was playful and fun and really fucking hot.

One of them, the human, blond and maybe a few years younger than me, caught my eye and grinned. He didn’t stop what he was doing. Neither did the others. They just kept moving, easy and comfortable with each other, like this was the most natural thing in the world.

I felt heat flood my face and my dick start to harden under the towel. I should have looked away. Should have kept moving. But I stood there like an idiot, watching three strangers pleasure each other in a shower, and felt something crack open inside my chest that I’d sealed up a long time ago.

“You coming in or just gonna watch?” the blond one asked, his voice warm and teasing.

I opened my mouth and nothing came out. My heart was hammering so hard I thought it might break through my ribs.

“First timer,” the werebear said to the others, not unkindly. He had a deep voice that rumbled like gravel. “Let him get his bearings.”

The dog-creature laughed and got down on his knees, taking the werebear’s cock into his mouth. The blond kept his eyes on me though, curious now instead of just playful.

“I’m just...” I gestured vaguely at the rest of the bathhouse. “Exploring.”

“Well, explore,” he said. “But come back if you want some company. You’re cute.”

I nodded stupidly and forced my feet to move, heading deeper into the building before my body could betray me any further. My towel was doing nothing to hide what was happening underneath it, and I was grateful for the dim lighting and the fact that most people seemed to be minding their own business.

The hallway opened up into a larger space, a massive roman bath with period accurate stonework and an impossibly high ceiling. All around the bath were people sitting on the edge, in the deeper water, or clearly fucking as the water splashed around them. Steam rose up, filling the space with the scent of chlorine and eucalyptus. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before and it did nothing to stop my dick from hardening even further.

I passed a couple making out against one wall, their hands already exploring each other’s wet skin as I searched for a private spot of my own. The deep end looked promising, a section where the water was dark enough that visibility dropped to almost nothing. I waded in slowly, feeling the warm water close around my legs, my waist, my chest. It was heated to body temperature, maybe warmer, and it felt like stepping into another world entirely.