by HaydenWest
“Fine.” After tonight, it would be over.
“I can’t believe you were snooping in my house.”
“You hired me to protect him. I figured you would want me to follow any and all leads. Regardless of where it led me.” He crossed his arms. “It doesn’t matter. I have it figured out, and it will be over tonight. I know who the stalker is.” He stared at the man. “And so do you.”
Chapter Five
Mason stared out over the packed stadium he had finished playing for. The crowd chanted, “Rock. Rock. Rock!”
He took one final bow, gestured to his band and walked off to the thunderous applause. Backstage, he instantly glanced to where Donavan always stood. The man was there. Eyes sharp and focused on him.
What shocked him was Jordan wasn’t anywhere around. The man was usually there, telling him things he didn’t particularly want to hear at the time. But not having him there was off-putting.
More screaming fans waited for him there, those who had the backstage passes. He wasn’t quite done with his role playing. He went to his room and shut the door. Silence descended and he knew he was going to be allowed about five to ten minutes before they expected him to go smile and mingle with those who’d paid an obscene amount of money to hang with him and the band.
He went to the small fridge and pulled out an ice cold water. Cracking the lid, he drank as he went to relieve himself. By the time he finished the water was also gone. Putting himself away, he washed up and grabbed a new, clean black leather shirt to wear. He wasn’t about to spend a few more hours in a soaked shirt.
Dry shirt, another bottle of water and an energy bar followed by an orange and he was ready. Or as ready as he could be. Stepping out, he spied Donavan across the room, not looking at him, but he swore he felt the man’s attention was on him. Still no Jordan.
Donavan trailed him as he headed for the room where they were gathered. The rest of the band had already gathered and when he walked in, he was swarmed.
The women sat on his lap and had their pictures taken with him. Some kissed him, all which he accepted while cutting his gaze toward the man who’d been his lover for the past few months. As before, there was nothing there. No indication that he was uncomfortable or even jealous by what was going on.
And that irritated him further. It didn’t matter that he had told him he was fired after today. God damnit, he wanted some sort of indication the man had some feelings toward him. Finally it was over and those back there began to leave.
After it was just him and his band the water was changed to beer and they all settled in for their after-show drink. It never lasted long, as most wanted to go to the after party. Not him, he wanted his bed and about a bottle of aspirin.
Farewells made, he climbed into the limo with a silent Donavan and headed to the hotel. There wasn’t even any attempt at conversation from him. Shutting the door in his face after he’d checked the room, Mason took a long, hot shower.
Naked, he stumbled to his bed and fell in it. His throat hurt and his entire body ached.
God I want to go home.
He fell into an uneasy sleep and woke when his door opened, sending in a shaft of light piercing through the darkness. All of Donavan’s warnings hit him at once, and he didn’t feel safe at all.
Where are you, Donavan? He glanced to the clock on the table and knew it was a new day, which meant that Donavan no longer worked for him.
Am I supposed to pretend I’m asleep and hope this person is truly Donavan who wants me and that’s why he is sneaking in my room? Or should I call his name to find out if it was him or not?
“Donavan?”
No answer.
“Donavan? Is that you? Jordan?”
“Should have known you would have gone for that fucking big bodyguard.”
He jackknifed up in bed at the sound of his drummer’s voice.
“Luke?”
The lamp was turned on, and Mason found Luke glowering at him, dressed in his typical gray shirt and dark blue jeans. The man’s eyes were red rimmed, and he figured he’d been drinking quite a bit.
“All these years we’ve known each other yet you never see me. Always anyone else but me.”
“What are you going on about?”
“You don’t know who I am, do you?”
“Luke Gerald. My drummer.”
“Nothing before that?”
He sat and tucked the blanket around his waist, well aware he was without any clothing. The entire situation bothered him.
“No. Should there be?”
“I can’t believe you don’t know who I am.” He shook his head, his shaggy blond hair falling forward over his dark blue eyes.
“Why don’t you let me in on the secret so we both know.”
“I loved you from the moment you walked into my home.”
That unease tripled and moved up and down his spine like a pair of ice skaters preforming some sort of program. He swallowed. “Walked into your home?”
“I was different then, you know. Awkward, nervous, and I’ll admit, not the most handsome.” A sharp smile. “You came in, a few years younger than me, eyes full of anger and distrust.”
None of it still registered to him for that’s how he’d been at any and all of the homes he’d gone to after the state finally decided to take him from his own. He racked his brain, desperate to figure this out.
“I didn’t want you there. I didn’t want any of those boys there my parents took in. Oh sure, eventually I got over it and learned there were good things to having the boys there. And for me, it was you, that first night. I watched you in the shower.”
Now he knew. He couldn’t recall exactly which of the homes it had been but the boy he remembered. Always gave him the creeps with the way he stared, and he swore someone watched him, all the time.
“Your name was Larry.”
“You do remember.”
Oh yeah, he did.
“Larry isn’t as sexy a name as Luke, so I changed it. When you left I tracked you down, followed you as you started your career and went to every single concert. For a while it wasn’t easy, but then it changed and I found I had a cousin who worked in your life. Was close. And I exploited that. Jordan didn’t want his family to find out about his need for crazy sexual desires, so he got me to concerts, purchased the tickets for me and even got me in the band.”
“So he knew, Jordan knew you were the stalker?”
Smugness turned up the corners of his lips. “Yes. He even helped me plant some of the letters. He really didn’t want his family to know. Me, I don’t care who knows.”
“What was your end game?”
Larry-Luke looked at him and cocked his head to the side.
“Now that you’re here, with me, in my room. I’m guessing this was your plan, so what now? What did you expect to happen after you let me know all of this?”
Confusion raged for a moment before it vanished. Luke drew a gun from the back of his pants, and he tapped it along his upper thigh.
“We will be a couple, you will announce it, and we will live happily ever after, continuing with the tours and everything. It will just be better because we will be together.”
“You can’t just threaten someone to be with you.”
He lifted the gun and pointed it at him. “You took your bodyguard. You will learn I’m the one for you. How can you not see it? He wasn’t right for you. I am. I always have been the one who was supposed to be at your side.” He grimaced and lowered the gun, only to repeat the action. Up then down. “I saw you one night with him. That bodyguard.”
“You’ve known for so long that I preferred men to women?” If he could keep him talking, maybe Donavan would save him.
“I knew you were the one for me. I had dreams about us, how it would look when we made love. It should have been my cock inside you making you scream with pleasure. Not his.”
“Why now? Why now would you come tell me this?”
“Because Jordan told me
you’d fired your bodyguard and I knew you would be more willing to listen.” Up went the gun once more. “And accept that we’re to be together.”
“I’m not going to be with you, Luke. I have no desire to be with you. Never have. Never will.”
Mottled rage filled his features. Luke hadn’t ever been what one would call classically handsome but until now, he’d not been ugly. It was all wiped away aside from the evil and conniving within him.
“You will or I will make good on my promise.”
“You keep pointing that gun at me, but I don’t think you have the balls to use it. I’m not scared of you, Larry.”
The weapon wobbled. “My name is Luke.”
“No, your name is Larry and you’re a pathetic excuse for a man needing to resort to this in order to try and get what you want. It’s not going to work. I’m not scared of you. I’ve faced far worse. And in my experience, you’re brave when you’ve got your papers and computer screens to hide behind.” He got up from the bed and kept the sheet gathered around his waist. “It’s all different when you’re face to face with the one you’re trying to bully. You have the balls to stand there, look me in the eye and pull that trigger? Because I don’t think you do.”
Mason tried to calm the anger surging through him. He’d had plenty of experience doing that, but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been. He was tired of being bullied and having his own life messed with. What was it about him that the stars didn’t think he would be worthy of having a calm life?
“I will.”
Spit had dried in the corners of his mouth, making Luke look even more disturbed. Mason held his gaze and shrugged, stepping up until the barrel of the pistol brushed his chest.
“Then do it and get it over with. I will never be with you so you may as well shoot me now.”
“You will love me.”
“Never.” He stepped closer still, noticing how Luke drew back. “You can’t do it, can you?”
“I can,” he spat. “I don’t want to kill you. All you have to do is tell me how much you love me.”
“I never will, not in the way you’re looking for. I loved you as a friend and a bandmate but nothing more than that.”
“You said loved,” he screeched.
A calmness and eerie acceptance filled his gaze as he lifted the gun once more. Didn’t think he would have what it takes to do this.
He wasn’t going to cower or run. It wasn’t who he was. So he lifted his chin and waited.
The gunshot wasn’t as loud as he expected it to be. Mason didn’t know what was going on when it was Luke who sank to the floor and behind him strode Donavan, Glock drawn and ready to fire once more.
The man’s expression could have given Antarctica a chill as he cleared the room. His glances were all completely impersonal as he flicked them over Mason. Two other men came in after and hustled Mason out the door before he could say anything to Donavan.
He came back. He saved my life.
Jordan was downstairs when he got there, dressed in a pair of pants and sweatshirt one of the men had grabbed for him.
“I’m so sorry, Mason. I never—”
“Save it, Jordan. I can’t deal with this right now. You and I will talk, but I want to see Donavan.” He focused on the door, waiting for the big man to stride through. It didn’t happen.
“He’s not coming. He’s already left.”
His heart slammed to the floor.
* * * *
Donavan shifted his weight as he stood in the shadows as the woman swam topless in the large pool, surrounded by other women dressed the same and men in tiny speedos. He was assigned to a young woman whose idea of a quiet day was this huge party.
Everyone here had been triple checked, but he wasn’t letting down his guard. His charge looked in his direction and waved, her boobs bouncing before she laughed with a friend and jumped back into the clear water.
“Doesn’t strike me as your type.”
His knees wobbled slightly at that raspy singer’s voice. Locking them, he didn’t even turn even though he craved to do just that and look at the man who’d stolen his heart. The last time he saw him, he’d been standing in the middle of a partially lit room, a gun to his chest and a sheet around his waist.
“Guess you don’t know me as well as you thought.”
Mason moved into his periphery, and Donavan hoped he could do this.
“I think I’m finally knowing the real you, Donavan. Why did you leave?”
“I’d been fired.” He rolled his shoulders and tried not to think about the man beside him back in his arms. “No point in hanging around.”
“But you came back?”
“I finished a job. Then I left. How did you get in here? You’re not on the list for today’s party.”
“I know Kiki. She told me you were here.”
“Why would she tell you that?”
“Because she called to ask me if you ever smiled. Or if you were always a stick in the mud.”
He angled his head toward Mason ever so briefly. “And you said?”
“Definitely a stick in the mud, but you were damn good at your job.”
He breathed deep. “So what are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you.”
Four words spoken with brutal honesty.
“I have a job and am not interested in working for you again.”
“I’m not here for a bodyguard position to be filled. I came here for you.” Mason maneuvered so he stood before Donavan. “Do you want me to get on my knees and apologize? I will, but I think that would kind of defeat the purpose of you not letting people know you’re gay.”
“I can’t change who I am, Mason. You should go back to your life and forget about me.”
“I can’t.” He cleared his throat and repositioned himself by his side. “Let me rephrase that. I won’t.”
Hope cracked open the shell around his heart.
“Like I said, I’m fine doing it here but that’s up to you.”
Donavan glanced over to where Kiki continued to swim with her friends. There were other guards around, so he could afford to step away for a moment.
“Let’s go.” He turned and led the way to the small security office. The second the door closed behind him, Mason was on him, lip to lip, groin to groin.
A rumble of need raced up and out of him, as he captured him around the back and held him tight. “No,” he muttered.
“I love you, Donavan Culpitt. I want a life with you.”
He drew back and stared at Mason, a fucking rock star, and shook his head.
“What?” Mason smoothed his hands over his chest, not allowing the distance between them.
“You’re fucking insane.”
“You weren’t coming to me. I had to come to you.”
“What are we doing?”
He undid his pants. “Right now, fucking. Then who knows so long as we’re together. I’m taking a hiatus from touring, going to focus on my songwriting, and I want you with me.” He closed his hand around Donavan’s cock. “Everything you are willing to give.”
Claiming Mason’s mouth, he realized he was willing to give anything and everything for this man.
ALSO BY HAYDEN WEST
With the Professor
Undercover Blue
The Prince’s Mate Series
The Prince’s Mate
His Mate’s Conversion
Guarding Mason
Coming Soon
Reconciliation
Claiming the Throne
Stay Up to Date with Hayden
’s Releases at TEP
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hayden West lives in the Pacific Northwest, enjoys being outdoors, and hanging out with friends when not working on the next novella to be released.
https://www.facebook.com/HaydenWestAuthor/
Twisted E-Publishing, LLC
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aydenWest, GuardingMason
