by Tinnean
Could he hear my softly spoken words? I could barely hear them.
“Teodore.”
I whipped around, nearly tumbling off the seat. Wills called me “Theo” or “babe.” Only my family… I caught my breath. Idiot! I castigated myself as the light dawned. He is your family!
“Il mio amore più caro.” Where had he learned to speak Italian? And then I remembered—his grandparents. He tipped my face up and caught a tear on his index finger. “My dearest love. I do know. You don’t have to say it. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how much it means to me to hear that. I should have, and I promise, next time, I will.”
“I’m being such a girl about this.”
“Well, yeah. You are…. Hey!” I’d smacked him once more. He laughed and pulled me into his arms. “I love you, babe.” And then he whispered, so low that I nearly didn’t hear him, “I love you enough for the two of us.” He brushed his lips along the side of my neck, then let me go and changed the subject. “I’ve never been in the ballroom of the Madison Arms before. Well, I’ve never been in the Madison Arms before, period.”
“There are three different ballrooms: the Elizabeth Monroe; the Abigail Adams; and the Dolley Madison. Le Roi booked the Dolley Madison Room this year. Very classy. I think you’ll enjoy yourself.” I just hoped he didn’t enjoy himself too much. The boys had been attracted to him like bees to honey when he’d been dressed as the Lone Ranger at Halloween. Now, in this Armani tux, they’d all want to get their hands on him.
“I’ve had my share of girlfriends, babe, but guys were never attracted to me.”
I realized I must have spoken aloud. “But what about Michael?” He’d been the one who’d taught Wills to suck cock. He’d also been the one who’d made Wills self-conscious about being vocal in bed. It was a good thing Michael was already dead. For both those reasons, I would gladly have cut off his dick and shoved it down his throat.
Wills gave me that sweet smile and touched my ear, where the garnet-and-diamond heart he’d given me sparkled. “It always surprised me that you were.”
“What?”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m so… so thankful you made the first move. I’d still be alone if you hadn’t, if I hadn’t met you.”
“Ah, babe. No, you wouldn’t. Some lucky guy would have taken one look at you, realized what was hidden beneath those suits I can’t talk you out of wearing, and swept you off your feet.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“But you don’t.”
“No. Theo, I was twenty-six years old. I hadn’t had a relationship since my junior year in college—”
“Oh, never tell me you hadn’t had sex since then!”
“Well, no, but I said relationship. Even the sex, though—it was just getting my rocks off. It didn’t matter to me if I never saw the woman again.”
“But you made sure she came.”
“Of course. That’s only good manners.” He didn’t seem to realize how considerate and gentlemanly that was. So few… so very few of my johns had worried about whether I’d had a good time. He glanced at me. “And you know I wanted to see you afterward.”
“Yeah.” After spending the night in bed with me, he’d told me he wanted to take me to dinner. And then he’d run six blocks in order to keep our first date.
Well, I wouldn’t make a big deal of it, but I was selfish enough to be glad no other man had gotten his cock into Wills. I liked to think it was I who brought out the animal in my lover, but I was the realist of all the boys, and I wasn’t going to start lying to myself at this point. Any man who knew what he was doing with his cock could have turned Wills on to his inner gay. And now that he knew what a cock up his ass felt like…. What could I give him that another man couldn’t?
“Hey, we’re here.” Wills was completely unaware of where my thoughts had gone.
Why had my thoughts gone in this direction?
And then I realized—tomorrow was my birthday. Yeah, that had to be it. In less than four hours, I would be two years closer to the big three-oh, which was like sounding a death knell for a rent boy.
At least I wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore. I was no longer a rent boy.
Granger was a very competent driver, and in spite of the holiday traffic, she’d gotten us to the hotel in good time.
She opened the passenger door. “I’ll be parked in the underground garage, sir.”
“I’ll send some refreshments to you.”
“Thank you, sir. That’s very kind. However, I’ve brought my own.”
“Sorry.” Wills flushed as if he’d been rebuked.
“Not a problem, sir.” She glanced at me, then leaned forward and whispered something in his ear, and he nodded and relaxed. “Would you care to leave your overcoats here in the car?”
What the fuck was that about? Should I be jealous?
“Theo?”
“Huh? Oh, sure. No one hangs around the coatroom, anyway. We can go right on in.”
“Okay. I’ll call when we’re ready to leave, Granger.”
“Very good, sir. Enjoy yourselves.”
“Thanks.”
The doorman jumped forward and held the door for us. “Good evening, gentlemen. May I be the first at the Madison Arms to wish you a happy New Year?”
“Thank you. Happy New Year to you too.”
We entered the hotel. The air was warm, redolent of holiday scents and men’s aftershave and women’s perfume, and filled with the muted sounds of conversation of the people milling around, waiting for their parties to arrive.
“The Dolley Madison Room is this way.” We strolled through an indoor courtyard, where Christmas trees and poinsettias were scattered around the periphery and a pianist sat at a grand piano and played holiday music, past the atrium with its benches and fountains, and down the corridor that led to the largest of the ballrooms.
Just outside the doorway was a podium, and I handed my invitation to the man who stood there, checking the names against the clipboard he carried.
“Ah. An alumnus.” He made a notation on the page. “Have a very good evening, gentlemen.” He turned his professional smile to the next couple approaching, and Wills and I walked into the ballroom.
For this occasion, the draperies hanging from the windows were silver and blue.
A twink dressed in a pure white loincloth and a blue top hat, his sash saying 2003, represented the New Year, while the man at his side wore a tunic that stopped just above his knees and carried a scythe. He was supposed to represent the old year, but he was probably in his early twenties at most, and the tunic was sheer. Anyone interested would be able to see he was in excellent shape and very well hung.
Wills studied the occupants of the room. “No women?”
“No,” I told him. “This is strictly a rent-boy affair. The ladies have their own.”
A live band was playing, and couples, smooth and elegant, were moving across the dance floor.
Fifty tables, each seating ten, were set with platters of cheese and crackers, Steuben crystal presentoirs filled with caviar, and bowls piled high with fruits that were in and out of season.
“I love pineapple sprinkled with coconut,” Wills murmured. “Too bad I have an allergic reaction to pineapple.”
“Oh?”
“My throat gets all tight.” He saw my expression. “It’s not a big deal, babe.”
“Yes, it is! I want you around for a very long time.” No wonder he’d removed the pineapple from his pizza. I’d make sure I never brought pineapple into the house again.
Waiters wove in and out of the tables, making sure champagne flutes remained filled, as well as the platters and bowls, and whisking away used plates and silverware.
“Let’s say hello to Charlemagne, babe.” Now that I had Wills, I felt I could afford to be gracious to the man I’d had a one-night stand with all those years ago. “Then we can find our table and see who we’ve been put with.”
“And then we can dance
?”
“Sure, babe.”
As we made our way around the perimeter of the dance floor, one of the escorts bumped into us.
“Sorry.” It was Jay. He blinked, then stared at Wills. “You’re new. I don’t remember seeing you at any of the balls.”
“We were at the Halloween party.”
“Damn. I was a little wasted that night.”
“A little?” I snorted.
He ignored me, intent on running his gaze over Wills in a way that stripped off my lover’s clothes. “We can make up for lost time, though, doll baby. Why don’t you ditch the killjoy here and spend the evening with me? I’m very good.” His voice was heavy with innuendo. “I can show you things, teach you things, make you feel things….”
“I’ve had it with you, Jay.” I bunched my hands into fists and took a step toward him. “I’m gonna….”
Wills’s hand on my arm stopped me. “It’s okay, babe.” His gaze, cold and flat, looked Jay over in a way that made it obvious he wasn’t impressed by what he saw. “You’re Jay.”
“My reputation precedes me, I see.” He smirked archly, oblivious to that stare. If Wills ever looked at me the way he was looking at Jay, I’d want to curl up in a corner and die.
“I didn’t recognize you without the werewolf mask on. You were trying to ram your tongue down my lover’s throat.”
“What? Who?”
“Zorro.”
“That was Sweets?” His expression became sour. Well, I hadn’t enjoyed him excavating my tonsils either. “Big fucking whoop. It didn’t mean anything. He’s a whore, just like the rest of us.”
Wills reacted so quickly I didn’t even see him move.
“By dose! By dose!” Jay was sprawled on the floor, gingerly cupping his nose. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was starting to swell.
“Did you hurt your hand, baby?” I took it and stroked his knuckles.
He flexed his fingers. “No, I’m good.”
“I’ll hab you trown out!”
“We don’t think so.” Two security men, a blond and a brunet, appeared out of nowhere. Because of all the important men here tonight, security was supplied not only by the hotel, but by Le Roi and the men themselves. I wondered who these two men worked for. They hoisted Jay back to his feet, one on either side of him, each with a hand on his elbow. “His majesty regrets you have to leave so early, Jay.”
Ah. That answered that question.
“I don’ hab to leab! I don’ wanna leab!” Abruptly Jay gasped and turned pale, and a grimace of pain twisted his features.
“We think you do.” The brunet’s words were gentle. The two men nodded at us and frog-walked Jay out of the ballroom.
Wills stared after the security men. “Smooth move, pinching the nerve at his elbow,” he murmured to himself. “I wish I’d brought some business cards with me. Maybe Granger has some?”
“That reminds me.” I looked around and spotted Le Roi’s table, and we started to walk toward it. “What was up with you and Granger?”
“What?”
“You apologized for telling her you’d send some refreshments.”
“Oh, yeah. Apparently it’s company policy that their drivers only eat what they’ve brought themselves. She could have gotten fired for accepting anything brought to her. Even by another driver working for the same company.”
“That sounds like something one of the more paranoid alphabet agencies in DC would insist on.” Wills stared at me, his eyebrow raised, and I shrugged. “Never mind. We’ll get our obligatory chitchat with Chuckles out of the way, and then we can—”
“Haven’t I asked you to please not call me that?” Charlemagne sounded as if his hernia was acting up. Not that he had a hernia.
I bit back a grin. “Sorry.” It wouldn’t do to show I was pleased that I’d scored points off him.
Even though I was willing to forego hostilities, I’d never claimed to be an angel.
“I would think so. It’s the least you could do after I had Jay thrown out.”
“I don’t know why he’s still allowed to come to these affairs. He should have been banned months ago.”
“Well, he’ll be the next Le Roi’s problem.”
“Just as he was the year before, and the year before that?”
“I notice you didn’t do anything about him.”
I shrugged. “His habit was under control, and he wasn’t that bad back then.”
“Right.” He turned to Wills. “Well, well, well. Who have we here? Someone new? Tsk. I’m surprised at you. You do seem to be going through them rather quickly.” He turned his head, and his gaze bored into mine. He lowered his voice. “But then you had a tendency to do that, didn’t you?”
Wills looked from me to Charlemagne and back, interested.
“Surely he’s told you we have a… history?”
“You don’t want to know, babe. It’s a boring story. Very short. Very boring.”
His expression told me he had every intention of worming out each embarrassing detail. Maybe if I told him it was too painful to talk about? No, because then he’d think I was carrying a torch for Charlemagne. Defeated, I nodded.
“A long time ago, we spent one night together. Afterward, I….” Charlemagne tensed and cast a surreptitious glance around. I could afford to cut him some slack, and I changed my words. “We realized it would never work out. Rent boys and happily ever after don’t mix. So we parted.” I didn’t add “amicably.” Anyone eavesdropping would have known that for the bald-faced lie it was.
“Ah.” Wills turned back to Le Roi and offered his hand. “Well, I’m the one who’ll be giving Theo his ‘happily ever after.’ I’m William Matheson.”
The blond and the brunet had returned and taken up their places on either side of Charlemagne. The blond leaned forward and whispered in his ear.
“You were at the Halloween Ball?”
“Yes. We had to leave before the unmasking—”
“You’re the Lone Ranger!”
“That was me.”
“Sweetcheeks monopolized you at the last ball.” He ignored my growl and Wills’s frown at the use of my professional name. “I trust you’ll save a dance for me?”
“Sure. On the condition you stop calling Theo ‘Sweetcheeks.’”
“Why? Does it bother you?”
“Let’s just say I don’t like it.”
“Oh, very well, if you’re going to be tiresome.” I was surprised Charlemagne backed down. He had a sharp tongue and liked nothing better than to cross swords with the unsuspecting. “Theo, take him away. I have better things to do than trade barbs with your boyfriend.”
“Yeah, come on, Theo, take me away. They’re playing our song.” There was deviltry in Wills’s eyes.
Charlemagne looked as if he’d bitten into a lemon.
I waited until we were on the dance floor and began to groove. “‘Cum on Feel the Noize’? Oh, babe, you are just too bad.”
“But you love me anyway, right?” There was that happy grin on his face, and I reached across the small space that separated us and stroked his cheek.
“Yes, I do.”
THE BAND was taking a break, and so we went looking for our table. Charlemagne must have been pleased with me. It was a good deal closer to his table than the one at the Annual Escort Ball last spring had been.
We removed our jackets, hung them over the backs of our chairs, and sat down to sample the caviar.
“Eat up, babe,” I told him. “I doubt the caviar in the limo will be able to match it.”
Wills just smiled and took a bite of the cracker piled with pearl gray roe and crème fraîche.
I pointed out the various dignitaries and officials who were attending this ball, and he let out a low whistle.
“And they’re not afraid they’ll be outed?”
“No. They know we won’t tell, and if word ever did get out, whoever spilled the beans would not only be banned, their life expectancy would be exceedingly sho
rt.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“You’re not?”
“Countries would be thrown into chaos, governments could topple. People get testy when things like that happen.”
“Babe, you don’t want to talk politics tonight, do you?”
“No.” He smiled into my eyes. “I’d much rather dance with you.” The band had returned.
“All right!” I took his hand, and he followed me onto the dance floor.
We danced through a fast set, snagged a couple of flutes of champagne from a passing waiter, then danced some more, a Latin set this time—cha-cha, merengue, samba, and a tango that set the floor on fire. It ended with a flourish, Wills on one knee, plastered against me, a hand resting above my heart, the other on my thigh, and his cheek pressed against my hip. I felt his breath, hot and damp, through my trousers to the silver mesh briefs I wore, and his cock, hard and just as hot against my leg. I leaned toward him and cradled his head.
“How come I always get the woman’s part?” he complained mildly.
I snickered, raised him to his feet, and stole a kiss. Another dance was starting, but I pulled him along after me.
“Hey! Where are we going?”
“I have to go to the men’s room.”
“And you need me to keep you company there?”
“Let’s just say I need you.”
There were a few men in the restroom, but it was nowhere as crowded as it would get as the evening wore on and the music and the champagne worked on libidos. The attendant, an older man, sat by the door, next to warm hand towels and mints and a basket filled with condoms. He smiled up at us, said, “Good evening, gentlemen,” and then went back to reading a James Patterson paperback.
There were a few free stalls, and I pushed Wills into one. I undid his trousers, crouched in front of him, and took his erect cock in my mouth. He locked his knees, jammed the heel of his hand into his mouth, and bit down to muffle his sighs and groans. He looked down at me looking up at him.
Wills was unable to be altogether silent, though. When he came, his head jerked back and hit the wall of the stall.
I grinned as I licked him clean, tucked him away, and righted his clothing. He was a little unsteady on his feet, and I held him for a minute.
