by Rainey Daye
Maybe if he took Jess into his confidence Jess could provide another pair of eyes to disprove that Troy had followed Maggie home. He looked up to see Jess watching him suspiciously with narrowed eyes. “Get in here and close the door.” Alex finally decided.
Seemingly surprised that Alex was capitulating so easily, Jess did as he was bid.
“You remember last week when you and Mags spent the night in her room?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Well, when I woke up and realized I was alone in bed, I couldn’t get back to sleep. So I went downstairs to start the coffee and then went outside to get the paper.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, you’re going to think this is crazy, but when I was picking the newspaper up off the driveway I saw a man kind of lurking across the street.”
“Oh, man! Some type of burglar or car thief, do you think? Did you call the cops?”
“No,” Alex said with an exaggerated grimace.
“No? Why the fuck not?” Jess demanded to know.
“Cause for the life of me, I think it was Troy I saw that morning,” Alex admitted.
“Troy? Troy who? Oh, no. Don’t tell me you think it was Maggie’s Troy,” Jess pleaded.
Alex continued to grimace as he nodded his head.
“Alex, are you nuts? How could it be Troy? He’s attending classes on the other side of the country. What do you think he’s doing? Flying out here and stalking Maggie on the weekends? Do you think he brings his textbooks with him and studies as he hides behind a bush while waiting for her to leave the house so he can trail her?”
“I know it sounds insane. That’s why I didn’t say anything to either of you. I wanted to have proof before I said anything,” Alex pointed out as he held up the camera. “Even if it proves me wrong, I want to know what I saw, ’cause I definitely saw someone that morning. For all I know it was one of the neighbors who had also gotten up early.”
“Yeah, that’s probably what it was,” Jess agreed.
“But none of the neighbors resemble Troy. Why would I imagine I saw Troy?”
“You could always ask Maggie to analyze why your subconscious would conjure up Troy,” Jess replied with a grin. “Maybe you were attracted to him when you met and this is your mind’s way of cluing you in.”
“You’re the only man I want to be attracted to,” Alex grumbled.
“My ego thanks you,” Jess replied with a smile as he leaned over and gave Alex a quick kiss. “So why the stakeout?” he continued.
“Because I want to know who I saw. If it is some type of lowlife staking out the neighborhood, then I want to catch the bastard on film.”
“Don’t you think it would be wiser to just notify the cops that you saw a suspicious person lurking around outside?”
“I haven’t seen him since,” Alex admitted.
“And you are positive that you didn’t imagine it? That it wasn’t just a shadow or something?”
“I got a glimpse of his face, his hair. It sure as hell looked like Troy to me.”
“And you didn’t call out to him?” Jess asked. “I would think that it would be a kind of automatic reflex to call out to someone you think you recognized,” he mused.
“Well, I guess my reflexes aren’t up to par then, ’cause I didn’t even indicate that I had noticed him,” Alex snapped.
“What did you do, instead?”
“Well, I felt sort of panicked since no one knows that we are Maggie’s lovers. So I nonchalantly picked up the newspaper as if I hadn’t seen a thing, went back inside, then let myself into Maggie’s room while you two were still sleeping and swiped her camera off her desk so I could come in here and use the zoom on the lens to try to see who it was and get a picture of him,” Alex admitted.
“You broke our closed-door rule?” Jess said, sounding vaguely outraged.
Alex had no answer, so he just stared at Jess mutely.
“No harm, no foul,” Jess finally conceded. “So how long have you been coming in here to identify shadow man?”
“Only a couple of times,” Alex had to admit. “I wish I could be watching for him regularly, but I didn’t want to alert either of you as to my half-assed suspicions. And since I haven’t gone to bed alone since the night I saw ‘Troy,’” he said, using air quotes, “I haven’t had a chance to do any night investigations.”
“But you’ve been coming in here in the mornings?”
“Like I said, only a couple of times. Only when I’ve woken up on my own in the middle of the night since I usually wake up to one of you two arousing me,” Alex couldn’t resist adding for some reason.
“Oh, that’s rich.” Jess snorted. “How many times have I woken up to find you sucking on my cock?”
“And you’re complaining?” Alex asked with a raised brow.
“Of course I’m not!” Jess snapped. “I like waking up that way. Puts a smile on my face for the rest of the day. After all, the best way to wake you up is by sucking on your cock!” he said in a singsong voice to the Folgers jingle and broke into a huge grin.
Alex found himself laughing as he added, “Followed by fucking one of you,” to which Jess emphatically agreed.
“Yeah, a blow job by either you or Maggie, followed by a morning swiving makes me a very happy man for the rest of the day.” Jess grinned.
“Swiving, huh? So where’d you learn that word?” Alex queried with a raised brow.
“Well”—Jess looked embarrassed as he made his confession and refused to make eye contact—“I thought it would be helpful to have a woman’s point of view about some things if our relationship with Maggie was going to work, so I’ve read a couple of romance novels.”
“Okay,” Alex said slowly, drawing the word out. “That actually wasn’t a bad idea at all. But do they really use the word ‘swiving’ in romance books?”
“They do in the historical romances,” Jess told him.
“Why are you reading historicals? What would they have to do with our relationship? Or were there bisexual men shacked up with heterosexual women back in the day?”
“No, of course not.” Jess snorted. “But I saw a couple historical romances in Maggie’s room so thought I would read some of them to maybe have a better understanding of her.”
“And did it work?” Alex wanted to know, determined to read a couple of romances if it would improve even more upon their relationship with Maggie.
Jess shrugged. “All I can say is that in all the historicals, the women were virginal and they were seduced by the hero.”
“Well, Maggie wasn’t a virgin when we seduced her, but we did seduce her, so…What? What does that tell us?”
“That Maggie was ripe for seduction? That she wanted to be seduced? That she wanted the decision to be taken out of her hands? Hell, how should I know what it means?” Jess asked irritably.
“But you read the books,” Alex pointed out.
“Yeah, but I haven’t taken any more psych classes than you have. So if you want to know what it means, then I suggest you either read some of her romances or take a couple psych courses next term, ’cause I really don’t have a fucking clue. All I know is that the heroes don’t seem to be wishy-washy when it comes to seducing the woman they want. They decide what they want, they take control, and they sweep her away on a tide of sexual desire and excess. By the time she comes to her senses, he’s gotten what he’s wanted and has either walked away, cold and indifferent, or he’s demanding that they marry right away.”
Alex just stared at him, his mouth slowly falling open as Jess spoke. Finally, he queried, “A tide of sexual desire?”
Jess’s face flushed as he realized what he had said. “Blame the books,” he muttered. “That’s how the author describes the experience.”
“Yes, well, maybe you should stick with modern-day romances,” Alex suggested.
“The modern-day romances I found in Maggie’s room seem to be more along the lines of paranormal. And since neither of us is a vampire
or werewolf nor have magical powers, I think the historical romances better suit my needs.”
“Humph.” Alex snorted, unwilling to continue this discussion right now. Instead, he turned back toward the window, vaguely uneasy but unsure what to do.
Jess for once seemed to pick up on the seriousness of Alex’s mood and stepped to his side. “So how do you want to play this?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked in surprise.
“Well, obviously you don’t want Maggie to know that you think her ex is stalking her, right?”
“Well, yeah. She’d refuse to even consider it. And then she’d just accuse me of being insecure. And then she’d try to convince me that there’s no reason to feel insecure, probably by having mind-blowing sex with me. Uh, wait. Tell me again why I don’t want to share my suspicions with Maggie?”
Jess only grinned at him briefly before he began to ponder the problem at hand. “So basically there are two goals to your clandestine spying out the window. One, is there or is there not someone scoping out the neighborhood or this house. And two, is it Troy. Correct?”
“Yeah, that’s about what it boils down to.”
“And you can’t watch twenty-four-seven. Or every night or morning, for that matter.”
“Yeah, it’s almost impossible to keep up surveillance around the clock.”
“What if I help you?”
“How?”
“Simple. We take turns watching. Why did you choose this room to watch from, anyway?”
Alex gave him a duh look. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said sarcastically, “maybe because it looks out over the street and is the only one other than Maggie’s that gives such a view.”
“Hey, buddy!” Jess said sharply, reacting to Alex’s tone, “I’m trying to help here. I was wondering why not watch from downstairs? And since we don’t have a wall around the property, why not another window. Why would a burglar limit himself to the front of the house? Don’t you think he would scope out all entrances?”
“If it is a burglar, then yeah, he would. And not just the entrances but also the windows.”
“And?”
“And, I reprogrammed the sprinklers to run at different times in different areas during the night,” Alex reported, watching Jess carefully to see if he caught the implications.
Jess, no idiot, immediately caught on. “And you haven’t seen any footprints or signs of an intruder in the wet grass when you’ve checked in the morning, have you?” he asked with a grin.
“None,” Alex admitted.
“So no cat burglar scoping out our happy home, huh?”
“Probably not,” Alex conceded. “But it doesn’t rule out Troy,” he added.
“True, but don’t you think that Troy would also scope out other areas of the house if he’s watching Maggie? If he is a stalker, why haven’t we caught a glimpse of him peeking in the downstairs windows or lurking about in the yard?”
“I don’t know!” Alex exploded. “None of this makes any sense. Troy didn’t strike me as stupid, even if he got into college on an athletic scholarship. Maggie told me when I asked about him that he was also in the top ten percent of their class and had a couple of academic scholarships offered to him, just like her.”
“And he chose the athletic one, even though it took him away from her?” Jess asked, incredulous.
Alex nodded, agreeing with Jess’s unspoken thought that that was just plain stupid! Who in their right mind would willingly be parted from Maggie? She was everything both he and Jess wanted in a girlfriend, and considering the fact that their taste in women never matched, that was saying quite a bit!
“Maybe he thought they could make it? That he’d be picked up by the majors and he and Maggie would have a storybook ending?”
“Yeah, well, those type of happy ever afters only happen in fairy tales,” Jess grumbled. “Man, Troy was a moron! I thought he took the only scholarship offered to him. Do you know if he was offered one by our college?”
“I didn’t want to dwell on that or put that thought out there in case karma was listening and decided that our happiness needed shaking up,” Alex admitted.
“Do you think that’s why you think you saw Troy?” Jess asked carefully. “You had the thought even though you didn’t voice it? It’s only been about two and a half months since you last saw Troy when you were visiting Maggie’s hometown. Do you think this could all be your subconscious playing tricks on you?”
“I have considered that. And yeah, I did feel threatened by him, just like you were when you met him on your visit. Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Alex hastily continued when it looked like Jess had something to say to that. “I know Maggie is ours, but she dated this guy for three years, and they have a history together. We’ve only been her lovers since June. So far we’ve got her cross-eyed with constant sex, but we haven’t cemented a relationship with her. We’ve both fallen head over heels for her, but can you seriously say she feels the same way about us?”
“She’s said she loves us,” Jess protested.
“Loves us, not in love with us, there’s a big fucking difference there,” Alex pointed out.
“We were friends with her before we became her lovers,” Jess argued.
“I’m not arguing that the friendship aspect of our relationship isn’t there,” Alex said. “Or that our seduction of her didn’t work. She sleeps with both of us, both individually and as a ménage a trois. But until she falls in love with us and can’t picture herself living without us, then we haven’t fully succeeded in winning her.”
“So how are we supposed to do that? You can’t rush love and all that bullshit.”
“I know, but I also know that I personally won’t feel safe in saying that she belongs to us until we possess her heart. And currently all we possess is her body whenever we want it.”
“Most guys would be happy with that,” Jess pointed out.
“Are you most guys?” Alex asked him with an arch look. At Jess’s gesture of negation, Alex said, “Me neither. I want it all with her. Society might frown on what we have together, but hell, it would frown on the two of us being lovers if we let anyone know. So in for a penny, in for a pound. I want it all!”
“Me, too,” Jess sighed. “So what do we do?”
“Hell if I know. But I’d feel a lot better if I knew for certain that Troy wasn’t hanging around waiting to gum things up. Or if he is stalking her, then I want to catch the bastard red-handed so that we can expose him to Maggie. You know damn well that she would never want to have anything to do with an ex who stalked her.”
“So,” Jess said carefully after pondering Alex’s words for a moment, “are you sure that you aren’t imagining Troy in the hopes of turning him into a stalker to make sure Maggie never welcomes him back into her life?”
“No!” Alex stormed, beginning to pace the room agitatedly. “I did not have these thoughts or begin to imagine Troy in the role of a stalker until I actually saw someone in the shadows outside last week who looked a hell of a lot like Troy!”
“Okay, okay, calm down,” Jess cautioned him, shooting a look at the closed door, thankful that the master bedroom was in the back of the house and that he had closed the door behind him when he had gone looking for Alex. “I’m just playing devil’s advocate ’cause if I don’t, Maggie surely will if we ever tell her your suspicions.”
“Hence my need for photographic evidence,” Alex pointed out.
“You know, there is an easier way to rule out Troy as your shadow figure,” Jess pointed out.
“And what’s that?” Alex asked sourly.
“We contact him at his college to make sure he’s there.”
“Uh, huh. And how do we do that?”
“E-mail him?” Jess asked uncertainly.
“E-mail can be accessed from anywhere. Won’t give us his location. And by the way, how do you propose we get his e-mail address? Should we just ask Maggie? What reason do we give her?”
“Okay, I
get it. E-mail is a stupid idea. So I guess calling him would be stupid, too,” Jess said, looking at Alex expectantly.
“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s your idea to either prove or disprove that he’s currently on his own campus. You figure out how to go about it.”
“Well, since you’re the one who needs convincing, I figured you could at least help me come up with some ideas.”
“You already know that my idea is to snap a picture of whomever the bastard is that’s scoping out our house.”
“And you yourself admitted that you haven’t seen a shadowy figure since that first sighting. So I think my idea of verifying Troy’s whereabouts is better.”
“If you can come up with a plan for doing it, then I’ll go along with it. But until then, I’m going to keep my eye out for him whenever I can.”
“Fine, you go back to looking out the window at a dark street, and I’ll go back to my original plan of climbing back into bed with Maggie and making love to her again.”
“She’s bound to notice that I’m not in bed with you two,” Alex pointed out.
“Well, that’s your problem, isn’t it? Hope you have a good excuse when she asks you where you were in the morning,” Jess said as he opened up the door.
“Jess! Shit. Wait up,” Alex called as he hastily set down the camera and followed Jess out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Jess grinned over his shoulder as he said, “I knew you’d eventually listen to reason.”
“Shut up!” Alex growled as he shouldered his way past Jess and entered the master bedroom where their beautiful girlfriend was sleeping soundly after her energetic play as a slutty nurse. Stripping off his clothes, Alex decided that, as the doctor, he needed to give her another examination, stat!
Chapter 5
Troy was getting desperate. His clandestine observations weren’t helping him locate the photographer. Maggie had a pretty set pattern. She carpooled to campus with one or both of her roommates depending on what day of the week it was. He tried to follow her at a discreet distance on campus, but it was so large that he had to content himself on discovering where her classrooms were on which day and then hanging around the entrance without being seen before and after class. And, yeah, Jess seemed to share a lot of the same classes. And surprisingly, Alex also had one or two with her. Troy even went so far as to sneak in and sit at the back of those classes that took place in auditorium-sized rooms and pretend to be auditing the class. But if her lover-slash-photographer was on campus, he didn’t appear to be in any of her classes, nor did he seem to make a point of approaching her as she walked around campus.
