by Kilby Blades
Adam turning on the charm and making it so that Levi couldn’t think straight was something else they’d have to talk about. Levi would save that for another time.
“You get three,” Levi managed, fighting Adam’s sorcery—trying to ignore the way Adam’s thumb stroked his unshaven jaw.
“Three times a year,” Adam murmured. “I think I can work with that.”
Levi shook his head. “Uh-uh. Three times for life.”
Adam’s eyes widened in insult, and he looked like he was about to protest—then his expression melted into a hopeful smile. “For life?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Opening
“LEVI. The man of the hour,” came Paul’s voice from over the din of the crowd. He punctuated his words with a handshake and a clap to Levi’s back. Levi had just arrived at the opening of his gallery, fashionably late, with Adam on his arm.
It had been a hard three months in the making: designing the space, working out the business aspects, and curating a lineup strong enough for a debut. It was the first time in years that Levi spent more time behind a desk than he had behind a camera. It was an adjustment, but there were parts of it that he loved.
“It’s a stunning exhibit,” Paul complimented openly, then lowered his voice as he jutted his chin toward a man whose face had become familiar in recent weeks. “Even Supervisor Jordan’s impressed. That guy he’s talking to? He’s the culture editor for the Chronicle. Jordan’s pitching him an arts-meets-government piece.”
“That’s unexpected,” Levi blurted. Dick Jordan was known in local political circles as having the highest standards and the tightest wad when it came to project approvals. Jordan and a couple of other ornery old city supervisors were the reason Paul’s help had been needed at all. A few growing pains notwithstanding, everything was coming together. Levi turned a grateful eye on Paul.
“Besides,” Levi replied humbly, “I can’t take all the credit. You know these things require support. Thank you for partnering with me—I mean it, Paul. Thank you for seeing the importance in this work.”
“I’m glad it all worked out.” Paul shifted his gaze from Levi and let it linger on Adam. “Looks like all’s well that ends well.”
Adam’s warm hand settled across the scruff of Levi’s neck. “Looks like it,” came the baritone from next to Levi’s ear. Adam was still lukewarm about Paul, but Levi would do nothing to discourage Adam’s shameless possessiveness. Secretly, Levi loved every minute.
“Let me introduce you to a few people,” Paul continued after officially greeting Adam with a handshake and a hello. Never once did Adam’s hand leave Levi’s skin. When keeping hold of Levi’s shoulder became impossible as they followed Paul into the crowd, Adam kept hold of his hand.
With the space so packed with people, it was difficult for Levi to see the art that had been installed in the space which had been subdivided into three: a listening lounge, a retail and reading space, and a double-wide space for visual arts. Photography, paintings, and sculpture took up the latter. Paul had been hands-off as a silent partner, not interfering with how Levi chose to run the collective, excepting one condition: Levi had to exhibit his own work.
It had felt self-aggrandizing at first, to curate his own work into the opening show, and the notion had taken some convincing. Levi had underestimated the emotional resources it would take for him to find his place in this new era of his career. Disorienting, too, given how much and how quickly things were changing.
In the span of three months, Levi’s exhibit at SFMOMA had closed, he’d moved into his new house, set up his gallery, and proclaimed his undying love to Adam. Unlike his first proclamation of love—so fraught with fear and misunderstanding—his second proclamation had been perfect.
Adam had quickly used the first of his three grand gestures on their first date, one he admitted he’d been planning in his head for years. It came two weeks into their reunion, at a time when Adam was still renegotiating his job in New York. It was the first time they’d seen each other since Adam had flown to San Francisco to apologize. During that short visit, they’d taken it slow.
Technically, their date was one day and night in Paris, though it involved a red-eye on Adam’s jet. Apart from what it took to get there, their time was blissfully low-key. They’d spent the day holding hands and stealing kisses as they walked around the city, eating at cafés and taking a cruise on the Seine. They’d gone to a romantic hole-in-the-wall for dinner and drunk too much wine. They’d taken selfies everywhere. They hadn’t wanted it to end, but when night turned to sunrise, they’d gone back to Roissy and boarded the jet. They’d fucked like champions all night on the plane.
The following month that Adam spent backfilling his responsibilities in New York had felt more like a year. But in the six weeks since he’d landed permanently in San Francisco, they’d spent their togetherness in a kind of halcyon, exhausted, bliss. Adam’s decision to move had done nothing—at first—to relieve his duties. That first month, they’d each worked full days before returning home, Levi out of the gallery and Adam out of the offices in his hotel. But at the end of the day, they’d come home to each other.
“Bruce, I’d like you to meet the executive director, Levi Cossio, and his partner, Adam Kermansachi.”
In order to encourage anonymity, Adam had reverted to his ancestral family name. A man about Paul’s age with groomed salt-and-pepper hair, a clean-shaven chin, and a linen leisure suit shook Levi’s, then Adam’s, hand.
“Well done,” Bruce complimented. “I’m very interested in projects like this.”
Adam remained silent as the conversation ensued. Levi spoke about his vision. Paul told Levi of Bruce’s patronage of the arts.
“And tell me, Adam,” Bruce finally asked as Adam’s silence in the conversation became conspicuous, “what is it that you do?”
“I’m a student,” Adam said simply, his dimple coming out.
“Fantastic,” Bruce praised. “What’s your discipline?”
His gaze slid to Levi and his smile widened as he spoke his answer with pride. “Architecture.”
Part IV
Epilogue
Adam
“IS a blindfold really necessary?” Levi wanted to know as the plane made its final descent. He regarded Adam with plaintive hazel eyes. They were tired—light brown in the middle fading into a border of dark green, coloring that would change to brighter green in the morning light.
Adam had long since learned that cutting off Levi’s field of vision was tantamount to cutting off his arms and legs. He hated to be in the dark. Without having to look, Adam knew that the satchel sitting idle at Levi’s feet contained only four things: his camera, his passport, a bottle of water, and a collapsible bowl for Bax.
“Turnabout is fair play,” Adam teased, throwing Levi a cheeky smile. Levi hadn’t at all minded blindfolding Adam a time or ten in bed. “What was it you told me that first time?”
“Just relax and go with it,” Levi parroted himself. Both of them smiled in remembrance.
Adam had gone with it, an act that had yielded dozens of surprises, all proof that Adam knew a hell of a lot less about Levi than he thought. He’d read once that those who dominated in everyday life liked to be dominated in bed and vice versa. Surrendering to Levi had changed him, had changed both of them.
That hadn’t been the only surprise. In the year and a half since Adam had moved to San Francisco, they’d done things together Adam could scarcely have imagined before. It had been the very best, and least expected, part of their transformation: discovering the most delicious, authentic, intimate, beautiful, and kinky things about his love.
“We’ve arrived at our destination,” came the pilot’s voice over the PA system the moment the plane touched down. He’d been instructed not to welcome them to Ramsar. Bax was in her crate, which had been affixed to a special stabilizer Adam had added to all of the company jets the year before. They’d put her in twenty minutes before landing. Adam slipped th
e blindfold over Levi’s eyes as they taxied down the runway.
“Now, don’t freak out,” Adam instructed after the plane had pulled into the hangar. He guided Levi by the elbow down the steps of his fleet’s largest plane. It was so early in the morning that the sun had yet to rise. At that time of day, it would take less than an hour—it was just ten minutes from the airport to the coastal road. From there, they’d go west. “We’re gonna spend a little bit of time in the car.”
“Shouldn’t we have to go through customs or something?” Levi asked as they walked across the floor of the hangar. “You’ve had me in a plane for fifteen hours.”
“For all you know, it’s a red herring and all this time we’ve been circling North America,” Adam teased.
Levi let Adam usher him into an awaiting limo. “You probably would….”
“Now just sit tight while I take care of a few things,” Adam continued. “The limo’s been stocked with food you like.”
The “few things” Adam had to take care of were, indeed, customs paperwork, calling to check that everything was ready, and walking Bax. In an hour, Bax would have all the space she could ever dream of, but Adam still wanted her to stretch her legs. If Adam was honest with himself, he’d admit that walking was as much for his own benefit as for Bax’s. It wasn’t every day you asked your boyfriend to marry you. Adam wanted to get his mind right.
To the day, it was eighteen months since Adam had moved in with Levi. Adam’s plan to propose had been in place for seventeen and a half. But he had no illusions about what it would mean for Levi to be partnered—forever—with a hotel man like him. He’d known even then that the circumstances of his life posed a threat.
So he’d hatched a plan: on his end, he’d minimized travel, shifted his responsibilities, and restructured the leadership team to give himself as few in-person commitments as possible. As it pertained to Levi, he’d vowed to make sure that whenever he did have to travel, it would always be as comfortable and welcoming for Levi as possible.
Family apartments in Kerr hotels were a built-in guarantee that Adam could make feeling at home work. He’d already sat down with Levi and a designer to refurbish the hotels they’d come to frequent. New York, Carmel, Sonoma, London, and even Paris had become their homes away from home. But this… this was something different. This was the gift of Adam’s heart. This was the shrine he’d built for his lover.
“What do you think, Bax? Is Daddy gonna say yes?” Adam asked their dog as they set out into the dark. Adam had been to the tiny airport three times before when he’d come to Iran to supervise the project. He led Baxter behind the hangar to an open patch of grass to let her sniff around and do her business.
Adam had made it no secret that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Levi—that he considered their relationship to be permanent. But it wasn’t official—a detail Adam had once believed that he didn’t at all care about. But somehow, he wanted this. He wanted to be married to Levi.
“C’mere, girl.” Levi patted the seat next to him in the limo when Adam and Bax returned. Bax lay across the seat and settled her head on Levi’s lap. On the other side, Levi tucked Adam under his arm.
“You’re acting weird,” Levi informed Adam before pressing a kiss to his temple and hugging Adam to him a bit more.
Adam spent the car ride thinking about their future—imagining taking the same car ride a year from then, when the building was finished and they’d have their first glimpse at the interior they’d planned. Adam even imagined what it would be like taking the same car ride in two years, then three. Would they have children with them? Would their first child be a son or a daughter?
“I have a confession to make.” Adam broke the silence when he saw they were minutes away. “I’m not taking you on a surprise vacation.”
“O-kaaaayyy,” Levi drew out. “Then why’d you make me pack and put me on a plane?”
“I’ve been working on something in secret,” Adam replied instead of direct-answering the question.
“No shit.” Levi smirked. For months Adam had denied it.
“I didn’t want to say anything because I’ve been a little shy…,” Adam hedged.
Levi’s hand moved to squeeze Adam’s. From beneath the eye mask, Levi’s brow furrowed in mild worry and his lips pursed to do the worried thing too. “You’re too talented to be shy.”
Tears prickled Adam’s eyes at Levi’s faith in him.
“Tomorrow we’ll fly back out and I’ll take you on a real vacation,” Adam continued. “But today… I wanted you to see it first.”
“I’d better see it first,” Levi returned indignantly, a small smile spreading across his lips. “I deserve to know what kept my man from coming to bed at a decent hour all those nights.”
Here goes.
Adam looked down at their joined hands, gathering his courage even as he felt his own hands begin to tremble. “I wanted you to see it first because I built it for you.”
Something on Levi’s face changed then. The car had stopped thirty seconds before. Levi brought his hand up to pull off the sash. Adam didn’t try to stop him—instead, he held his breath and studied Levi for clues. Instead of looking past Adam—craning his neck to see out the window, to look back at the grand gates they’d just passed and the lush, elaborate gardens where the car had parked—Levi’s eyes, which had, indeed, brightened to show more green than brown, were startled and fixed on him.
“Technically it’s a house,” Adam started in when Levi continued to stare, “though I had to have it zoned as a palace, mainly for insurance purposes….”
Levi’s gaze did shift then, past Adam’s shoulder, past the garden and reflecting pool, to the grand estate buildings beyond.
“…which wasn’t as easy as you may think,” Adam continued in a cautious voice, watching Levi take it all in.
The driver had been instructed to afford them privacy once he parked—to let Adam open their door. But Levi beat him to the punch. Still not speaking, Levi coaxed Bax off his lap, gently pushed past Adam, and opened the door to get out—to stand for the first time in the garden he didn’t yet know belonged to him. By then Levi would have had to look past the house—toward a landscape so stunning it doubled the appeal of the house itself: the clear waters and white sands of the Gulf of Oman.
Bax was first to follow, and then went Adam, standing next to Levi as he took it in. In a certain sense, Adam hadn’t created anything new at all. The structure was inspired by what Adam knew to be Levi’s favorite styles and symmetries of Persian design—from the Safavid dynasty to the classical structures of Shiraz. But it did have its own touch. Adam had considered every creature comfort and added features that were decidedly nonclassical, giving the buildings a fresh feel. Adam’s only talent had come in his own ability to make it all flow.
“You built me a palace?” Levi breathed finally.
So far he didn’t look mad—hadn’t scolded Adam for going way over the top.
Adam shrugged. “You said I could have three.”
After their first real date in Paris, which Adam hadn’t even thought was that grand of a gesture, a sated Levi had informed Adam that he’d just burnt one. It had taken Adam real effort not to follow through on dozens of brilliant ideas anyone with comparable creativity and means might have pursued. He liked to dream that one day, Levi would come around.
“Do you like it?” Adam wanted to know, starving for a reaction not to the gesture, but to the building itself.
“It’s incredible,” Levi breathed. “I mean, it’s gorgeous. I just can’t believe—” Levi cut himself off, perhaps to gather his thoughts. “You built me the Taj Mahal,” he blurted.
“Except the Taj Mahal was a mausoleum,” Adam continued. “This will be a place we get to enjoy while we’re still alive.”
“Wow….” Levi sniffed. His eyes were suspiciously wet, and when he spoke again, his voice was hoarse. “You’re really blazing through your extravagances.”
“I t
ook a risk.” When Adam spoke, he heard the choked emotion in his own voice. “Plan B is to let you count this as number two and for me to spend the rest of our lives negotiating more. Plan A is, you give me this one as a freebie because it involves me proposing to you.”
Adam saw the moment understanding dawned in Levi’s eyes. Adam dropped to one knee right in front of the fountain he’d designed with symbolism that linked their house in San Francisco to their house here. There were dozens of details that echoed them—Adam couldn’t wait to show Levi all of it. But first, Levi had to say yes.
“There’s not much inside,” Adam began, his hands shaking for real now as he reached into his pocket. “But that was deliberate. I want it to be ours. I want us to build it together. I want our kids to play in this garden and run around the halls. I want us to be together everywhere and for home to be wherever we are.”
Adam produced the ring box and flipped open the top. From above, the platinum band was simple brushed palladium, but a ring of tiny pavé diamonds adorned each side, visible only when you looked at the ring in profile.
“So, Levi Cossio, will you marry me and be my partner for the rest of this wonderful life?”
Levi beamed down at Adam and held out his left hand. Levi gasped the same breath that Adam held. “Yes.”
Coming Soon
Dreamspun Desires
Home and Away by Ariel Tachna
Lexington Lovers
Taking their shot at love.
University of Kentucky senior Kit Parkins has his life planned out. He’ll graduate, get a good job, find a better apartment, meet the guy of his dreams, and settle down to a happy life near his brother and uncles, the only family he has left. But meeting Lincoln Joyner, UK’s star basketball player, calls all his priorities into question.