Salvation

by Land, Alexa

  “Yeah, but still. In my late teens, which is when a lot of people have sex for the first time, I was a total mess. I guess I figured that sex was a complication I really didn’t need at that point, or for quite a while after. Since then, I guess I kept waiting for the perfect guy and the perfect set of circumstances, and I’m beginning to think that doesn’t actually exist.” He ate a couple more grapes and said, “Sometimes I think I should just take one of those internet guys up on their offer and let them fuck me, just to get it over with. That way, my virginity would no longer be an issue.”

  “You really shouldn’t do that, Skye. I think you’d regret it.”

  “Maybe, which is why I haven’t gone through with it yet.”

  “Gone through with what?” River asked, returning to the kitchen with Gianni.

  Skye dodged the question by asking, “How’s the cat situation?”

  “Well, Gianni moved his car out of the garage and there’s nothing else in there for Puffy to destroy, so maybe it’ll be okay. We unlatched the cage and just ran for it,” River said before bringing the conversation back around to, “What were you guys talking about?”

  “You’re very nosy,” Skye told his brother. “You should work on that.” He plucked a big handful of grapes and shoved them in his mouth, which immediately sent River off on a rant about eating all the food they’d brought for the wedding. I had to grin at how completely successful Skye was at creating diversions.

  Just then, the front door slammed open and Nana yelled, “I’m here, and I’ve brought reinforcements! Let’s throw the best goddamn gay homosexual wedding Big Sur has ever seen!”

  She marched into the kitchen with a huge entourage. I recognized three of her little Nana-clone girlfriends, who were followed by so many gay men that it could have been mistaken for a pride parade. She screamed when she spotted her grandson, and practically tackled Gianni in a hug. She then hit him with her purse and said, “Six months is too damn long to stay away from your family, Johnnie!”

  “I know Nana. But I was out of the country, and—”

  Nana interrupted by exclaiming, “I don’t want excuses, I want visits! Even if you’re off in Timbuktu, you can still hop on a plane every couple months and come see your Nana!”

  “Yes ma’am,” he said sheepishly.

  She pulled him down to her height and kissed both his cheeks. “You’re a good boy though for letting us use your house for the wedding. Just wait until you see what I got planned! It’s gonna be a real hum dinger!”

  “Who are all these people, Nana?” he asked, eyeing the crowd that had gathered in his kitchen.

  “That’s the crew! Let’s see.” She began pointing to people. “We got the florists, the equipment rental boys, the lighting designers, the sound engineers, the pyrotechnical consultants, the—”

  Now it was Gianni’s turn to interrupt. “Wait. The what?”

  Nana blinked at him. “Which part?”

  “The part having to do with explosives.”

  “It’s a Fourth of July wedding, Johnnie! We gotta have fireworks!”

  “But...is that legal?”

  “Sure! Cities get to put on big fireworks displays, why can’t I?”

  “Don’t you need special permits, though?”

  “Bah! Useless paperwork!” She turned to the assembled masses and said, “Come on, I’ll show you where the wedding’s being held. We got lots to do!” She led the procession out the French doors like a mother hen with a huge flock of chicks.

  Gianni stared after her, then shot me a look. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go make sure my premiums are paid up on my homeowners’ insurance.” He took off in the direction of the home office.

  “Alright,” River said, pulling a stack of notebook paper out of a canvas shopping bag. “We’ve got a hundred and eleven people to feed and it needs to be spectacular. The good news is, we have about thirty-three hours until the wedding, so there’s no need to panic. Yet.” He handed sheets of paper to his brother and me and said, “I’ve broken down each of our tasks, they’re summarized here.”

  I glanced at the highly detailed list of prep work that needed to be done and said, “This is really organized. Good job, River.”

  Skye rolled his eyes. “All my paper says is stay out of trouble and don’t eat all the food.”

  “Yeah, and you’re going to have your hands full with that,” his brother told him. “Now let’s get to work!”

  *****

  By that evening, we were totally on track with all of our tasks. So when Christopher and Kieran came and got us shortly after sunset, insisting we join them for their ‘bachelor party barbeque,’ we felt okay about calling it a day in the kitchen.

  It wasn’t a bachelor party in most senses, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Dance music cranked from hidden speakers. Dozens of flaming tiki torches dotted the landscaping around the pool, which was filled with colorful beach balls. Dmitri was working a makeshift bar, having donned one of his husband’s loud Hawaiian shirts. Brian was manning a large barbeque, roasting corn, salmon, and skewers of shrimp and veggies. Hunter bounded up to us and said with a smile, “Hey guys. You all look like you need to get lei’d.” He then proceeded to drape necklaces of fragrant flowers around our necks.

  “Oh man, this is awesome,” Skye said, his blue eyes sparkling. “Last one in the pool is a rotten egg!” He took off at a run, then cannonballed into the water fully clothed as his brother sighed. Skye bobbed to the surface a moment later, the lei floating away, and waved to us.

  “That’s the spirit,” Hunter said with a smile. He picked up my hand and led me toward the bar. “You’ve been working way too hard all day. Come and have a drink, or six.”

  Once I’d been provided with an alarmingly colorful Blue Hawaiian in a tall hurricane glass, I found a spot on a lounge chair and watched the festivities. Nana’s petite girlfriends had doubled in number to half a dozen. Along with their tiny white-haired leader, they’d all put on grass shirts and stacks of leis over their demure summer dresses, and were receiving a hula lesson from Jamie. The grooms, after having retrieved River, Skye and me from the kitchen, had jumped in the pool, where they now shared one of the floating loungers, making out as if they had the place to themselves. I grinned at that. Vincent and I had shared that same chair and done exactly that earlier this week. Except that then, we really did have the place to ourselves.

  “You’re a million miles away,” River said, settling in beside me with a florescent blue drink of his own.

  “I was just thinking about Vincent,” I admitted.

  “Ah yeah, I heard that y’all had a romantic little rendezvous earlier this week. Anything you can talk about, or was it all NC-17?”

  “You heard about that?”

  “Yup. Nana told me she sent you both ahead under false pretenses. She’s very proud of herself.”

  I grinned at that. “I wish he was here right now.”

  “Why’d he take off?”

  “Lots of reasons. For one thing, there’s bad blood between Dmitri and him, but I also think he felt like he was intruding once the wedding party arrived.”

  “He was probably trying to avoid Dante, too.” Gianni had just walked up to us, a drink in each hand. “Sorry, totally eavesdropping. But apparently Vincent’s been steering clear of the family lately, except for Nana. From what I hear, everyone besides her keeps grilling him about his clandestine business pursuits, especially big brother D.” Gianni finished the drink in his left hand and set it on the table, then held that hand out to me. “Come dance with me, Trevor.”

  “But nobody’s dancing.”

  “So somebody needs to start it off!”

  “No thanks.”

  He dropped his hand and said, “Party pooper. Where’d that cute blue-haired guy go?” He turned from me and spotted my friend in the pool. “Hey Skye, come dance with me! Trevor is acting middle-aged!” he yelled.

  “Don’t have to ask me twice!” Skye exclaimed. He
hoisted himself out of the pool, stripped off his wet t-shirt and kicked off his sneakers. He then bounded over to the patch of grass beside the hula ladies and threw his hands in the air, swaying in perfect rhythm to the pulsating dance music. Immediately Nana and her little clones abandoned the hula lesson and started emulating what Skye was doing. Gianni laughed delightedly and joined them, and pretty soon almost everyone was on the little makeshift dance floor, except me.

  “Come on, Trevor,” River called. “Join us!” His moves were more jumping around than dancing, but it looked like he was having fun.

  “In a minute,” I lied, and retreated indoors. I knew I was being a dork. I should be out there having fun, but somehow I just couldn’t make myself cut loose like that. Dancing at parties was not for the shy, clumsy and awkward.

  “You’re as bad as me,” a deep voice said, “hiding in the kitchen when you should be out there having a good time. You and I really do have a lot in common.”

  I gasped and spun around, then ran to Vincent, jumping up onto him and kissing him as he caught me in his arms. “You came back,” I said between kisses, wrapping my legs around him.

  “I had to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t think about anything but you, Trevor. I want you so fucking much that I can barely function.”

  “I feel like I haven’t seen you in a month,” I said before pushing my tongue between his lips and running my fingers into his thick, dark hair.

  He stopped kissing me long enough to say, “Then you’re as crazy as I am, because it’s only been a day.” He licked my neck and bit my earlobe, making my cock twitch in response.

  “More than a day. A good day and a third. Almost a day and a half!” I started fumbling with the buttons on his short-sleeved black shirt as his hands slid to my butt. When I got the shirt open, I unwrapped my legs from around his hips and dropped to my feet, then took one of his small brown nipples between my lips and sucked it until it was hard, my hands running up his sides.

  Soon both of us began rubbing each other through the fabric of our shorts, his erection swelling in my hand as my cock pushed against its confines. When I started to reach for his belt, he stopped licking my ear long enough to whisper, “Let’s move this to our bedroom. Quickly.”

  “Slight problem. It’s no longer ours. River and Skye moved in with me last night since all the guest rooms are full now.”

  “Where should we go?”

  “Out front? No one else is out there, and as long as we’re quiet we should have some privacy. Do you have a car here?”

  “I do. Let’s go.” He grabbed a decorative bottle of oil off the counter, and we rushed hand-in-hand through the house and out the front door.

  There were several cars in the circular driveway. He went up to a silver Porsche 911 and pulled a key fob out of his pocket, pressing a button. I asked, “No more Jag?”

  “It was a rental. This is, too.” He swung the door open and frowned at the interior. “Damn, it’s a pretty tight fit in there.”

  “So, let’s improvise.” I guided him around the car door, then pushed him against the front fender before pulling him down to me and kissing him again. We stripped each other as we kissed, and soon I was totally naked while he was down to just his unbuttoned shirt.

  Vincent grabbed me and swung me around, seating me on the car’s hood. He pushed my legs up and apart, one hand on the back of each of my knees as I tipped onto my elbows, then sucked my cock as I tried not to cry out. There was a huge house between us and the partygoers, but I could faintly hear their music and laughter, so I figured loud moans would carry back there, too.

  It took a lot to keep quiet when Vincent began licking the sensitive skin beneath my balls, then started rimming me. When he pushed his tongue in me, I arched up, threw my head back and drew in my breath. It was so hard to fight back a yell of pleasure.

  As soon as he’d opened me up, he grabbed the glass decanter, held it about three feet above me, and drizzled oil all over my cock and balls with a flourish. I chuckled at that as I swung my ankles up onto his shoulders. He stroked my slick shaft as some of the cool liquid ran between my legs, then took hold of his own hard cock and rubbed the tip up and down along my crack before pushing it inside me.

  He took me so hard that the car beneath us rocked slightly, his big hands grasping my hips, pulling me down to meet each thrust. He was at just the right angle to massage my prostate, and the pleasure was so intense that I started moaning despite myself. I flung my arms up over my head and braced my hands against the hood of the car so I could drive myself even more forcefully onto him.

  This went on for several earth-shattering minutes, until finally I started shooting all over my body without even touching my cock, cum spraying as high as my chin. “Oh fuck yes,” Vincent growled, and soon he began cumming too, deep within my body. While that was going on, he picked me up and kissed me. I threw my arms around his shoulders and deepened the kiss, my tongue in his mouth. Even after his orgasm subsided, he kept holding me to him and kissing me, gently now, his hands caressing my back.

  Eventually, he eased out of me carefully and I smiled at him as I reached up and straightened his glasses. He then fished around in the car, locating a white t-shirt in a duffle bag. He used the shirt to clean me, wiping all the oil and, um, other liquids from my body. “That’ll never wash out,” I told him. “You’ll have to throw that t-shirt away now.”

  “I know. That’s okay.” He tossed it into the back of the car and handed me my clothes, then kissed me tenderly.

  Once we were both dressed again he said, “I’m going to go find a hotel for tonight, I’m too tired to drive back to the city. If you want, I’ll sneak back here toward the end of the reception tomorrow. I’d like one slow dance with you.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “That’s right. You’re not going to go slinking off, you shouldn’t have done that in the first place. Come and say hi to your brother Gianni, who you haven’t seen in months. I’m sure he’s going to want you to stay here in his house, not in some hotel.”

  Trevor—”

  “No arguments, excuses, or rebuttals. Just come inside with me. Please?”

  He knit his brows at me. “It’s really hard to say no to you, especially when you’ve got those baby blues locked on me.”

  I took that as a yes and smiled at him, then led him back into the house. We found Gianni in the kitchen, pulling all the booze bottles out of one of his cabinets. He exclaimed, “Vinnie!” before hurrying over to us and grabbing his brother in an embrace.

  Vincent’s first response was to stiffen up. But he relaxed after a few moments and rested his hands on his brother’s back. “Hey Johnnie. Long time.”

  “I know, Vinnie. Too damn long.”

  “Do you really have to call me Vinnie?”

  “Do you really have to call me Johnnie?”

  “Force of habit,” Vincent said.

  “Likewise!” The brothers let go of each other and grinned affectionately. I could tell right away that they were close. Vincent was more relaxed with Gianni than I’d seen him with anyone, besides me. His brother said, “I was so bummed when I found out I’d just missed you. Thank you for coming back, although I know you did it for that little hottie over there and not for me.” Gianni smiled and winked at me.

  Vincent picked up my hand and told his brother, “I do find it impossible to stay away from him.”

  Gianni started gathering up an armload of bottles, saying, “I’m restocking the bar. The guys brought tons of booze, but we somehow seem to be burning through it. Come on out and join the party.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Vincent said. “No way am I crashing the party of a couple people I barely know.”

  “Okay first of all,” I said, “it’s just an informal gathering. Secondly, your grandmother and Dante are out there, and so is your brother-in-law Charlie. And it is, in fact, being held at the home of another of your
brothers. You know Hunter and Skye too, they’re both here. Counting me, that means you have ties to almost a third of the party guests. It’s really not like you’re just some guy that wandered in off the street.” I started to head toward the double doors, tugging on his hand. He stood his ground for a couple seconds, then sighed and let me lead him out to the pool.

  As soon as we got outside, we ran into Dmitri. He spotted Gianni first and said, “Hey, I’m going to make a run to the liquor store so we don’t drink up all your alcohol.” When he spotted Vincent, his smile vanished. He glanced at our joined hands and then at me.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Vincent said.

  Dmitri stared at him for a long moment before saying, “Go ahead.”

  “I’m just going to run these to the bar,” Gianni said, and retreated toward the pool. I would have done the same, except that Vincent had a tight grip on my hand.

  “I know we’ve been at odds for a long time, but you’re one of my brother Dante’s best friends and my boyfriend’s employer, so I’d really like it if we could somehow lay the past to rest.” Vincent shifted uncomfortably as he said that, then met Dmitri’s gaze. “I apologize for pulling a gun on you. I know that doesn’t exactly excuse it, but I don’t know what else to say.”

  Dmitri considered that for a while, then said, “You saved Hunter’s life, which makes me think maybe there’s some good in you after all. I hope that’s the case. But just know this: I care about Trevor, not just as an employee but as a friend. If you do anything to hurt him, anything at all, you’re going to have to answer to me.” That was no idle threat. There was cold, hard menace in his eyes, something I’d never seen in Dmitri.

  Vincent actually relaxed his posture and grinned a little, which was not the response I’d have expected. “I’m really glad you’re looking out for Trevor,” he said. “Thank you for that. Just so you know, he means more to me than anything and I would never hurt him.”

  After a beat, Dmitri relaxed a bit too. “Well, as long as we’re on the same page about Trevor’s wellbeing.” He obviously wasn’t about to just trust Vincent all of a sudden, but it did feel like they’d reached some sort of understanding.