by Tara Lain
Tom looked around the beautiful entry with wide eyes.
Ru came bounding in dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt. Of course, the T-shirt was hand-painted. “Hi, Tom. Welcome! We’re so glad you could come.”
Funny, he hadn’t seen Ru long enough in the last day to know what he thought about Merle hanging out with Tom, but he sure was welcoming.
Ru said, “Come on in and get comfortable. We’ve got pizza, beer, soda, and popcorn galore after you finish the food.”
Merle wiped a hand over his neck. “Dumb me. I didn’t even think about food. Have you eaten, Tom?”
“I had some soup with Mrs. A.” He grinned. “But I love pizza.”
Ru waved a hand toward the great room. “Come on. We’ll let Merle go get more comfortable.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be right back.” As he walked down the hall, he unbuttoned his long-sleeved shirt. He’d worn it with some nice jeans to pick up Tom. Weirdly, he’d wanted Mrs. Allison to think well of him. But T-shirt and sweatpants sounded damned good. Of course, Tom had on a pair of jeans that hugged his butt like a baby’s fist and a long-sleeved T-shirt that did more revealing than concealing of his washboard abs and bulging pecs.
In his room, Merle tossed the shirt over the chair arm, a bad habit of his, and opened a drawer for his sweats. As he pulled off the jeans, he looked down at his half-hard cock. He’d like to tell himself it was a result of residual anger he felt at some unknown assholes taking advantage of Tom. He sighed. Come on, man, be honest. He wrapped a hand around his thickening dick—a total response to finding out Tom Henry was gay.
How the fuck do I feel about that?
It was one thing to admire the guy’s gorgeous body and angel face, but finding out Tom had done something in the garage with a boy only produced a virtual porn film of prurient images in his brain. Tom said he liked being gay. He didn’t want to change. What does that mean exactly?
All his assumptions about Tom’s innocence crumbled to the ground like a broken stained-glass window.
Chapter Eight
“MERLE, COME on.” Ru’s voice sounded from the front room.
Merle pulled up the sweats over Mr. Bouncy, grabbed a T-shirt, and ran down the hall.
In the great room, Tom was installed in one of the cushy easy chairs with a plate of pizza on his lap and a beer beside him on an end table. Ru and Gray, both super casual, sat on the sectional, shoving popcorn into their mouths, their pizza plates filled only with crumbs. Ru laughed. “We didn’t wait for you. Sit.” He waved toward the other easy chair, where another frosty beer glass stood on a side table.
A commercial for a drug to produce erections lasting six hours played on the huge-screen TV on the wall. That seemed oddly appropriate. Merle pulled down his T-shirt and sat, grabbing his beer.
Tom’s blue eyes glowed. “This pizza’s really good. You’re gonna love it.”
Ru said, “Have some more, Tom.” He pushed one big box toward Tom while he filled another plate from the second box. He leaned over the coffee table and handed it to Merle.
Tom took two more slices onto his plate. Clearly, Mrs. Allison’s soup wasn’t cutting it with Tom’s appetite.
A car commercial ended and boom, just like that, the first scene of Blood on the Boyfriend Jeans started to play. Nichelle Holder, his costar who played the teenage ingénue, was arguing with a boy who had taken her to a dance and was now trying to get to at least first base. She was fending him off and saying no pretty clearly, but the guy wasn’t having any of it.
Tom frowned. “He’s pushy.”
“Yep.” Merle grinned. “But watch.”
Nichelle ripped her arm from the guy’s grasp and turned to run. Just that fast, an arm reached from the shadows and grabbed the asshole date by the throat. The date flailed backward and, as the camera looked from Nichelle’s point of view, the dude was gone.
Tom chuckled and took a big bite of pizza as Nichelle’s eyes widened in amazement.
Cut to the credits.
“Was that you, Merle?” he asked with eyes as big as Nichelle’s.
“Let’s say that’s Luca Melance, the vampire.” He flashed his teeth, and Tom giggled.
“I can’t wait to see him. I mean you.”
Merle’s turn to laugh. He looked up and found Ru studying him.
Merle cleared his throat. “So, Gray, what are you working on?” Ru raised an eyebrow that said Right, change the subject.
“I finished all the publicity stills for the new release. I don’t start shooting for a week on the next film, so I might get a little beach time.”
Tom said, “Maybe you can help move Merle into his new house, since he has to go make a movie.”
Merle caught his snort just in time. The world’s greatest action star carrying in Merle’s chest of drawers made a pretty funny image. “That’s okay, Tom. When I’m ready, I’ll get movers to bring my stuff.”
“Oh, okay. But I want to help too.”
“That would be great.” His eyes flicked to Ru; then he looked at the screen. “We’re back.” He pointed at the TV as Nichelle walked into her bedroom and got ready for bed—while a pair of eyes watched her. When she finally crawled between the covers and fell asleep, a figure slipped out of the shadows behind the drapes and walked to the side of the bed. The light from the window shone off his cheekbones, his gleaming blond hair, and—his fangs.
Tom drew in his breath audibly.
Suddenly Nichelle opened her eyes, leaped up, and threw her arms around the vampire’s neck. “I thought you’d never get here.”
Tom gasped, then laughed. “She knew you were there all along.”
The vampire Luca laughed. “If I wasn’t so busy beating up your wannabe boyfriends, I’d have time to get here earlier.”
She pouted prettily. “Well, you wouldn’t take me to the dance.”
He held her out at arm’s length. “Why is it I can’t see a vampire doing the Funky Chicken?”
“Probably because the Funky Chicken is almost as old as you are.”
“Five hundred years?”
“You get what I mean.”
“That I’m hopelessly old-fashioned, and you’d rather be with Mr. Hands All Over You back at the dance?” He raised a brow.
“No, of course not.” She stared at the floor. “I really am grateful. That animal wasn’t taking no for an answer.”
“Trust me, he will in the future.”
She wrapped her arms around him again and fluttered her lashes. “Maybe you’d say yes if I show you a little gratitude.”
He laughed, low and sexy. “Let me show you how very compliant I can be.” His mouth closed over hers, all fangs and tongue. She moaned, and the scene faded to black.
A commercial flashed on, and Gray muted it.
Tom sat there still staring at the screen with two bright strips of color glowing from his cheekbones. “Wow. For a gay guy, you sure do know how to kiss a girl.”
Ru burst out laughing, and Tom smiled at him.
Gray said, “That’s why they nominated him for an Emmy.”
Tom glanced at Merle. “So what’s it like?”
“Kissing a girl? Didn’t you ever kiss one?”
Tom shook his head. “No. I always only liked boys.”
Ru’s head snapped up, and Gray’s eyes widened.
Merle gave them a small frown and said, “With me it’s mostly acting. I kissed a couple of girls when I was trying to figure out what all the other guys liked about it so much, but it didn’t take. I realized I was gay pretty early.”
Tom looked at Gray and Ru. “What about you?”
Ru shrugged. “I kissed a few, since in my neighborhood gay was synonymous with dead.” He looked at Gray.
“Oh yeah, I’ve kissed a lot of women and even had sex with some. See, I was too chicken to come out of the closet until I met Ru.”
“Wow. Did you like it, or was it hard?”
Gray smirked. “The problem was more like not hard e
nough.”
Tom cocked his head—then started to laugh. “I get it.”
“No, seriously, I knew I was gay, and I wasn’t being fair to those women. I liked them a lot and really enjoyed being friends with some of them. I just wasn’t very attracted to them physically because, well, because I liked guys.”
Tom nodded. “Me too.”
Gray had paused the show, and Merle didn’t interrupt in case Tom wanted to talk more.
Ru said, “I never realized you were gay, Tom.”
“Oh yes.” He glanced at the last piece of pizza in the one box, and Ru waved him toward it. “I knew when I was thirteen, but I saw that not everybody seemed to like that idea, so I didn’t tell anyone for a while.”
Merle looked up at Ru. “Tom’s family threw him out because he’s gay.” He felt the muscle in his jaw twitch.
Tom raised his massive shoulders. “My dad knew that it’d be hard in our town and church for somebody gay, so he said I should leave. It was good. I finally found Laguna Beach. I sure do like it here.”
“How old were you when you, uh, left, Tom?” Ru’s scowl was pretty intense.
“Fifteen.”
Merle said, “Did you go live with relatives for a while?”
“No. But I was big, so I could do work real easy. I started doing construction and got really good. I had to lie about my age. The first man I worked for told me to do that.”
Merle raised his eyes to Ru and Gray. “And Tom sends money home every month to help his parents, right, Tom?”
Tom wiped his greasy fingers on his paper napkin. “Every week, actually. So let’s see what happens next.” He focused back on the TV.
Gray looked open-mouthed but pushed Play and the show started again, showing the vampire and the girl locked in a sexy embrace—not cable-worthy since this was network, but still pretty racy. The vampire rose from the bed, and the camera caressed his bare chest, his back, and all the way to the naked swell of his buttocks before cutting away.
Tom said, “You look really good, Merle. No wonder all those girls like you so much.”
Ru chuckled, but Tom didn’t seem to notice, he was so enrapt with the TV.
Merle shifted a little uneasily. The episode they were watching was one of the sexier shows. Should have checked, but too late now. Still, every time Tom’s eyes got wider, Merle’s face felt warmer. Hell, he knew what was coming.
After a few action scenes and some biting, the closing scene arrived. This was a full-on sex scene, with no T&A but lots of heavy breathing and simulated action. The bedsheet that covered him had been very carefully arranged to show his bare back, the curve down to his ass, and the muscles working in his arms as he humped her.
Merle glanced again at Tom. His breath came so hard Merle could hear it from the chair beside him. Tom shifted in his seat, but his eyes never left the screen until the scene was over. As the credits started to run, Tom said, “Excuse me. May I use your bathroom?”
“Right down the hall.” Ru pointed.
Tom angled his body away from Merle, then stood and crossed rapidly around the chairs toward the hall. Though he kept his hands in front of his crotch, he couldn’t cover his massive boner.
When Tom disappeared, Ru leaned forward and spoke quietly. “Did you know he was gay?”
“I found out just before we came in tonight. I was stunned.”
“Me too.”
“I think it’s because I don’t associate sexual things with Tom. He just seems so—not sexual, I guess.” Of course, that didn’t mean he didn’t horn dog after Tom; he just didn’t think about Tom reciprocating.
Gray chuckled. “Yep, that looked like a good nine inches of innocence.”
Ru snorted. “Of course, that scene would have given a eunuch a boner. Hell, man, you be sexy.”
“Thanks.” He glanced down the hall. “Think I should go check on him?”
“Sure. Tell him you want to take him on a house tour.” Ru glanced down the hall again and lowered his voice even more. “Then see if you can find the best place to fit that woody.”
Merle stood. His own erection had gone down enough for him to pass without getting hysterical laughter from Ru and Gray. “Shame on you.” He walked casually toward the guest bathroom. Beyond it, looking out the hall window toward the front of the house, he found Tom. “Hey, big guy. You okay?”
Tom nodded and stared at the floor. Funny, Merle also didn’t associate shame much with Tom. Tom said, “I’m sorry. Your show gave me a hard-on.”
Merle chuckled. “That’s okay. Heck, they create scenes like that to get people all hot and bothered.”
“Did you get, uh, hot and bothered when you did that?”
“Nah, not even a little. Come sit in my room and I’ll tell you about it.” Tom followed him into the bedroom, and Merle pointed to the two guest chairs by the big french doors that led outside.
“This is a really nice room.”
“Yes. When I come here, I hardly want to leave.”
Tom peered out the window toward the ocean. There was just enough moonlight to see the waves. “I’d never want to go.” He sat in the chair.
“So when I was shooting that scene, there were, like, twenty people standing around watching with cameras and all kinds of equipment.”
“Wow. That must feel really strange.”
“It does, except you get used to it. It looks like we’re naked in the scene, right.”
“Yeah.” Tom smiled. “You look good.”
“Thank you. But actually, I had on little bikini pants and so did she, plus some padding to kind of keep us apart. It was freezing on the set, and we were both getting goose bumps, but they didn’t want those to show in the scene. Her teeth kept chattering. It was sure not sexy.”
“Boy, I didn’t know any of that.” Tom leaned on his fist and gazed at Merle.
“Yep, it looks glamorous but it’s not.”
“I really liked the show. I promise to watch it all the time whenever I can, okay?”
“That would be great.”
They went back to the living room, chatted a few more minutes, and then left so Merle could drive Tom home. Outside Mrs. Allison’s house, Tom said, “I really liked you as a vampire, and I loved hearing about how you make TV shows.”
Merle smiled. “Maybe you can come with me sometime and watch us shoot.”
Tom’s whole face glowed with awe. “Really? I’d love that.”
Oh crap, what kind of promise have I made now? But the idea of having Tom there watching him sounded kind of nice.
Chapter Nine
MERLE STROKED the paintbrush against the wall and stepped back to view the color. Who knew there could be so many shades of white?
“I like that one, Merle.”
He looked into the open kitchen where Tom stood on the top of a ladder installing yet another light fixture. Merle pointed at the paint. “How’s this one different from the five that came before it?” He shook his head.
“It has more sunshine.”
Merle cocked his head at the stripe on the wall. Damned if Tom wasn’t right. This white had that little touch of warmth the others lacked. “Okay, I’m convinced. I’ll get this one.” He smiled over at Tom, who grinned big, his muscles straining the fabric of the short-sleeved T-shirt.
A voice came from the bottom of the staircase. “Merle, are you up there?”
“Here.” Who’s that? He crossed to the top of the stairs and looked down to meet René walking up. “Hey, what a surprise. How did you get here?”
“I stopped by Ru’s office, and he gave me the address. This is your new home?”
“Yes. Or it will be as soon as the remodel’s finished.”
René stepped into the living space, looking fresh and handsome. Interesting that the morning light actually complemented him, showing off his dark eyes and chiseled features. He glanced around. “This will be quite a commute to the studio.”
“I plan to keep my apartment in the hills, but
I’ll live here whenever I can.”
“So give me a tour.”
“Okay.” Merle stepped back and spread his arms. “Obviously, this will be the main living space.”
“Quite grand.” René looked up at the high ceilings. His gaze covered the huge windows, ventured toward the kitchen, and his eyes widened. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—” His lips pursed and then fell open, a little like he was needing some extra air.
Merle followed his gaze. Well, shit. Of course. It flashed in his mind that he wished he’d taken René into another room right away. “Uh, René, that’s Tom who works for Billy.”
Rather than waving and otherwise ignoring him as Merle might have expected René to do in the presence of a workman, René crossed the whole living room and rounded the island into the kitchen. He looked up. “Hello, Tom. I’m pleased to meet you.”
Tom shared that sweet smile. “Hello. Don’t you love Merle’s new house?”
“Well, yes, I do. It seems quite lovely.” René hadn’t stopped staring yet. Maybe I should offer him a napkin to wipe his drool? “Those are nice lights you’re installing, Tom.”
Merle wanted to scream “Oh come on!” but he bit his tongue.
Tom nodded. “Yes, these are low voltage so they give good light and save energy at the same time.”
As if René gave a fuck. Merle tried to sound casual. “René, let me show you the other rooms.”
“What? Oh, of course. I’d love to see them. Good to meet you, Tom.”
“Good to meet you too, René.” Tom went right back to screwing in the fixture, and René literally backed away, as if he didn’t want to take his eyes from Tom for a minute.
Merle gritted his teeth. Hell, he shouldn’t begrudge René his admiration. Merle was just as bad.
When René finally got back beside him, Merle led him into the master suite.
René faced the large windows that showed water on two sides. “What a lovely view.”
“You mean the ocean?” Okay, so maybe his tone was a little ironic.
René chuckled. “I certainly understand why renovations on your home command such attention.” He looked up. “What a beautiful boy. What’s his story?”
