by Sky McCoy
I watched Max’s face and saw his eye movement, and I knew he was considering everything that Austin had proposed to him. Yet Max was angry and it would take more than an apology to soothe this alpha male, who’d sooner destroy Austin for causing this inconvenience and trouble in his marriage resulting in being separated from his family.
When the men parted, Max left, and Austin walked out after him. I imagined they climbed into their limos without speaking to each other. I realized where I should be.
Chapter 14
Dorian
“Well. Well. You finally decided to come into work after all,” Phillip said, looking worse for wear. His shirt pulled out from his jeans, not ironed, with one button missing from a plaid wool jacket with patches on the sleeves, a throwaway from my grandfather’s generation. I raised an eyebrow, taking in his attire and making a judgement. Why not, he’d deserved it, I thought.
“Are you going out to a site today and haven’t taken a look in the mirror? It appears you don’t care how you look?” When Phillip stood, his jeans sagged. He wore jeans that didn’t complement his muscular body. They appeared too tight in some places and loose in others. He looked in complete disarray.
“What’s wrong with what I have on?” Phillip glanced down and tucked in his shirt. When I observed his feet, he wore one black sock and one brown with loafers. The only way I’d spotted the anomaly was my eyes went to his jeans and they were too short.
Shaking my head, I knew he wasn’t seeing what I saw. “This doesn’t look like you, Phillip,” I said, touching and pulling at the jacket sleeve which had an obvious hole on the elbow. It was a large hole, but with a shirt that was white you could stand six feet away and still see that hole.
“All my clothes are packed and in storage.”
“I think if you lose that tie and don’t try too hard to look dressed, you might be able to pass as a hardworking architect, and not one who found the same tie he’d tied in knots and used for sexual asphyxiation.”
Phillip stared, furrowing his brow as if he wondered how I knew. I then grabbed the tie, hooked my finger in, un-looped it, and flung it on his desk. “Now that looks better.”
“Fuck you, Dorian. All you’ve done is come in here and criticize me.”
“I’m not criticizing you. I’m reminding you that we have a business and because your name is first, you have to represent that business, and not in a sloppy chaotic way. Looking at you it signals that you don’t give a damn, and if you’re slack in dressing, then the clients will think that your work is the same. Have you heard about dress for success? Weren’t those your words when I first began working for you?”
“I haven’t been eating much. I’m a little weak.”
“You look as if you lost a few pounds. What is the fuck wrong with you, Phillip? I’ve never seen you look so out of it before. What has Eric done now? It seems that I can’t leave you and that... man alone without some incident. The way you look, he must have lost all your money and his. What? That investment didn’t pan out. Eric never appeared to be a businessman to me,” I chuckled and pushed Phillip’s shoulder.
Shaking my head at how weak Phillip appeared to be, I said, “What? Your diet consisting of early morning cum. It may be protein, but it won’t get a growing boy through the day.” It wasn’t like Phillip to take my critiques without a fight. That wasn’t Phillip. Something had to be wrong.
“I’ve lost my appetite, and Eric is doing the best he can. It takes time for investments to pay off,” he whined. I’d just noticed that Phillip was sitting behind my desk and on my computer.
“What are you doing on my computer?”
“Mine just played out on me, and I haven’t had the funds to buy one.”
“Take it out of our petty cash.”
“I’ve used all of that up, and the money we had stashed away for emergencies, that went to put a down payment on our new apartment.”
“It’s not our apartment. It’s yours and Eric’s. What is he contributing?”
“I said everything he has is tied up in his Pet Clinics and when we’re married—”
“I’m not going to hold my breath for that one, and you said you were leaving within a week. Your week is up,” I said with a smile. “Where is your sometimes fiancé and lover, at work? I hope so, because I’m going home, and I don’t want to see him. I’m going to get a stiff drink and when I wake the next morning, I hope he’s gone to work.”
“Eric has a week off and his assistant is taking care of everything. He took off to look for an apartment, and we found one so you should be happy for me.”
“I will when I can figure out why you’re looking like he put an electric dildo up your ass?”
“Dorian, why do you insist on being obnoxious and saying such hurtful things to me?”
“Because you changed me. I’m not that impressionable young man you once knew. If you wanted me to remain the same gullible twink, you should have ended our relationship without cheating and lying to me. How would you feel if Eric did that to you?”
Phillip walked away from my desk and paced around the office, then he turned back to me. “I thought Jeremy Westbrook would calm you down and you wouldn’t be so spiteful.”
“As soon as I get you and that reminder of what I hate about cheating men out of my home, then I can have time to heal. But the way things are now, I don’t know if that will ever happen.”
I stepped up to Phillip, looked him in his eyes and said, “Call your boyfriend and tell him to go to the park, anywhere, because I’m going home to spend a quiet night alone, and I hope you’re gone too. Why don’t you and Eric go to a hotel?”
“I thought we could stay with you until our apartment is ready and we’d have extra cash. You were supposed to be moving with Jeremy.”
“Think again. It’s not going to happen. I called off the-whatever-the fuck we had together.” I sucked up a large breath thinking about where I’d go from here if I didn’t have Jeremy.
Crossing my arms, I rested my chin on my fist, and then bit my nail. I caught myself because that had been a habit I had, and Phillip knew the signs. I’d done that when we couldn’t get enough business when I first became a partner with Phillip. I’d been afraid that our business would go under and it would have been my fault.
“So that’s why you’re taking this out on me. I’ve had a hard time this week...” Phillip appeared as if what he was about to say was the hardest thing he could tell me—as if he’d said when we were together that he no longer loved me. “Eric has taken a lover.” He crossed his arms across his chest. I rolled my eyes. I didn’t want to hear this. Not today. I wasn’t in the mood for more of Phillip’s shit. How was that a shock? I knew that was coming soon.
“Doesn’t he have enough with you?”
“He’s a man with a large appetite, and if I want to be with him, and I love Eric—”
“Don’t whine to me. I warned you about him—”
Phillip had to fight back.
“What do you think is going on with that man who’s taking care of the baby? Why do you think you’re having problems with Jeremy? You have to have had problems with him, or you wouldn’t be back at the apartment. I’d say that your problem is a lot worse than mine. You have a straight man interfering in your life because he’s bored, and unsatisfied with his life, and he’s a man who lost his children, and now he’s trying to covet Jeremy and your little girl.”
I narrowed my glance and aimed a sour look at Phillip. “And you came to that conclusion by just looking at him?” I tried to maintain my composure and not let Phillip know that I felt the same way.
“That, and what you said about him. I know men. Well, men that I don’t fuck, and I know what I’m talking about. I saw how defensive he was with Jeremy. He’s protecting his job the same way you protect property. He had no reason to interfere in your business with Jeremy, but he took it on himself to do just that. And I will bet and I’m not a betting man—”
“I wouldn�
�t say you’re not a betting man, you’d bet on a donkey in a thoroughbred horse race.” I turned away from Phillip, the room filled up with silence, and as usual I couldn’t stand for Phillip to be in pain, or broke. That would surely be my undoing.
I reached for my credit card. “Here. Order yourself a new laptop and charge it to me. And see the accountant. You can write that off, or haven’t you been paying attention to anything besides who Eric is fucking. Maybe he’s fucking our accountant. Don’t forget to call Eric and tell him to get the fuck out of my apartment, because I’m coming home, and I want to be in my apartment alone, without having to look at his smug cheating face.” I headed for the door but before I reached it I said, “If you want disposable cash to get an apartment, then have Eric sell his Maserati. What the fuck does a homeless man need with a car like that?”
If Phillip was smart he’d insist that Eric do just that. However, I wasn’t betting on Phillip. I’d bet on Eric’s powers of persuasion, and he had it all between his legs. A big cock and balls went a long way.
I LEFT PHILLIP IN THE office to think and headed home. When I opened my door I heard laughter and then scurrying around of bare feet. I knew I didn’t want to see what I thought I’d be forced to see.
“Eric, where are you? Eric?” The door to the bedroom squeaked open, and Eric’s blond hair made its appearance before the rest of him. “Get out of there, or I’m coming in. Put some clothes on,” I demanded. “I’m not in the mood for your narcissistic bullshit, nor your cheating ass in my house.”
It had been the first time since I’d known Eric that I’d seen him embarrassed. More embarrassed because he’d been caught by me than if Phillip had caught him. It became apparent that Phillip might have known about Eric’s antics, and chose to overlook them, but not me. Not in my place. He could do whatever he wanted in a place that belonged to him and Phillip. I didn’t want to be reminded of what he’d done to me with Phillip when I was away.
“If you don’t come out this minute, I’m throwing you and that little friend of yours out of my home.” I had no horse in that race, or dog in that fight, and I meant what I said. Then Eric came out, but not his friend. I gestured for him to follow me.
“What the fuck are you doing in my house with a man while Phillip is at work?”
“Phillip knows about my little trysts and he doesn’t mind.” Eric placed his palm on his hip and raised his arrogant smug head as if to say so what and what are you going to do about it.
“Did you tell him?” He raised his head dropped his hand from his hip and straightened up. He lobbed his head back and forth nervously, then he gave me the answer to the question I’d already known before I asked.
“No,” he snapped, his breathing heavy.
“Then how the fuck do you know that he doesn’t mind? If he doesn’t mind you fucking around on him, that’s Phillip. But you’re in my home, and I fucking do mind. So you tell your little twink or bear, or whatever the fuck you’re into, to get the fuck out of my house and you go the fuck along with him.” Eric narrowed his eyes and tightened his jaw. “That look you’re giving me may work on Phillip, but I have no cock at stake in this contest for love and happiness. And speaking of cocks.”
I paused and looked around my house when something caught my eyes. There was a jockstrap in my living room, my neat and clean house had suddenly become a bath house where Eric was using it to entertain his men.
My jaw tensed at the thought of what had gone on in here when I was away. “Haven’t you heard about hotels?”
“I can’t afford one.”
“And how is that my problem? Get the fuck out now.” When I turned to go to the kitchen, I heard his phone ring, I stopped to listen, because after all, I was in my apartment. I had to remind myself.
I listened and we locked eyes with each other. “Yes, baby. But he just ordered me to go. He wants me out.” There was a silence coming from Eric as he listened to Phillip probably for the first time since he’d met him. Then Eric broke his stare and shoved the phone over to me. I glared at him and put the phone to my ear.
“What, Phillip?” I barked. I’d been angry all day. “Didn’t I tell you to call Eric because I didn’t want to see him? He has a man in here.”
Eric shot me an obvious stare and crossed his arms and pouted.
“That’s no reason to send him away,” Phillip pleaded with me.
“Let him go to his friend’s house,” I argued.
“He’s married.”
“You know about this?” I yelled.
“We’ve been having a threesome for some time. It keeps our sex life exciting.”
“What the fuck, Phillip? He’s not having a threesome now, he’s having a twosome and without you. Tell Eric to send his friend home, and then you tell him to wait for you at your office. I need some rest and peace for a while.” I glanced over at Eric and shoved his phone in his chest, raised an eyebrow, and furrowed my brow. Then I wrenched the phone from him before he spoke to Phillip.
“Use my credit card for a hotel for one night, Phillip. You need to get it through to Eric’s thick skull, that I’m not running a bath house where he can do whatever his oversexed ass dreams about,” I bellowed, locking eyes with Eric.
Shoving the phone back at Eric and facing him, “You have ten minutes to get that man out of here, and another fifteen minutes to get your ass out,” I demanded, marching to my room.
I heard Eric say to Phillip before I reached my room on his way to the guest room, “Honey, I didn’t know Dorian was that disturbed. It’s a good thing you left him when you did, and I shudder to think what he was capable of.”
After that I slammed the door, hard. It was either that or physically eject Eric from my apartment.
Chapter 15
Jeremy
Finally a family meeting where we could have a meaningful discussion about what we should do about Carter. So far he’d been assigned to me to take care of. I’d been taking care of him all his life, and now shouldn’t be any different, except I had a child, and a man I needed to lure back into my arms. I’d been thinking all day and night, what it would take to get him back. What would he want more than anything?
Jack had suggested that the way to a man’s heart was to give him a car or a ring. I’d planned on giving him a ring, but first I had to get close to him to do that, and the way I’d behaved, I didn’t think that would happen any time soon.
I paced around my empty apartment looking for something that reminded me of Dorian. I’d told the movers to leave the large couch, and the bar stools to the island. I had my cook prepare sandwiches for the meeting. I wanted this over with and done so I could get on with my life. I had to straighten it out because of the complications with all the things Thomas had handed over to me. Not to speak of Jarrett and his shitstorm ready to breakout when he returned to Washington DC. “Fuck that,” I mumbled, “I have a shitstorm of my own to calm and it has to do with Dorian.”
Talking to myself in an empty house might be relaxing, however, it could also be a sign that I’d lost it too. When that thought crossed my mind, the bell rang. I’d told security not to bother me just to send up my brothers and let me get this over with because, as the poet said, “I have miles to go before I sleep.”
As I hadn’t had anything to eat, I snagged a sandwich from a large tray, and took a bite on my way to answer the door. I opened it to see Jack standing there. “You’re early.”
“I see you have your mouth full. This time not with your foot, and I assume it’s not to wash down that mouth full of cum you’ve just sucked down. You know protein is good thing, but that bread and meat will kill you,” Jack joked.
I was thankful that he hadn’t thrown me out of his hotel room, maybe it was because he’d been happy and cheerful lately. I was sure it had to do with Austin being in Seattle.
“It’s nice to see you again, Jack.”
Jack strode into the living room and looked around. “You really are moving.”
; “Everything is at the new house,” I said, offering him a sandwich.
“And where is Dorian? I know you said no spouses, and I had to tell my husband that he couldn’t come to the family meeting. He did think that it was odd since spouses are part of the family and will have influence.”
“I set that rule because I didn’t want Alice and Jarrett’s wife here. We have lots of things to talk about, and outside interference will hamper our discussions. I especially didn’t want the discussion about Carter to get sidetracked by you and Alice sniping at each other.”
“Is that all?” Jack said, picking up a finger sandwich. “Where’s the beer?”
“In the fridge. Help yourself.” Jack headed to the kitchen with me following him.
After getting a bottle, Jack turned to me with it in his hand, “When will Thomas and Jarrett get here? I want to get out of here as soon as possible.” He sat and took a bite of his sandwich and drank half of the beer in one swallow. “I want time to make up with my husband.”
“You can’t make up time. It’s limited,” I advised him. I listened to my own words and thought about Dorian and myself. I’d wasted years being unhappy and not making the right decisions how to live my life, and not let others dictate that for me. Annalisa had dictated my life to a point, my brothers, Thomas and Jarrett, told me that I had to be a good boy, and not cause trouble because it was important that I marry Annalisa. I’d listened to their shit and had been a good boy and not rocked the boat.
Until now. Where the fuck were they now that I needed them to help me with decisions about Carter? Fucking late.
“Do you want me to get the door? Jeremy?”
“What?”
“There’s someone at the door, do you want me to get it?” Jack asked, looking at me with narrowed eyes. “Are you alright Jeremy?”