by D. J. Manly
Noah sighed. “Yes, yes.”
“Oh God, I better go home and change then,” he said and hung up.
Noah rolled his eyes heavenward. It wouldn’t be until tomorrow.
On the way back, Noah fell into a restless sleep. When he opened his eyes, he could have sworn that Ace Taylor was beside him, touching him.
When he got off the plane and into the taxi, he was exhausted but he went to the office anyway. George was the only one there. The man practically lived there. He looked up in anticipation when Noah walked in. “Oh, only you.”
“Thanks a lot. The golden boy won’t be here until later. Did you talk to Peters?”
“Yep. He said everything was cool.”
“What did he say about the tattoo?”
“He got confused, that’s all. He insists we be there when he faces Taylor.”
“Damn right we’ll be there. I won’t let Taylor bully him. He doesn’t have to worry.”
“He didn’t sound worried. So”—George grinned—“did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Come on, Noah. Did you fuck Taylor?”
“It was rather the other way round.”
“You dog!”
“It was just sex,” Noah said, shrugging. “No big deal.”
“No big deal. Ace Taylor and no big deal? What I can’t figure out is … well, no offense, but isn’t he pissed at you?”
“What did you find out about Brian Jacobs?” Noah asked, deciding to avoid the question.
“He and Ace have been friends since childhood. Jacobs has had a lot more problems with drugs than the other band members. He’s been in and out of rehab three times.”
“Sex?”
“He’s been married twice; neither marriage lasted more than a few months. He’s rumored to be straight with a sex addiction.”
“Sure. Jacobs is in the closet. Any indication that he and Taylor are more than just jamming together musically?” Noah almost held his breath on that one. Somehow the idea of Ace screwing the lead singer didn’t sit well at the moment.
George shrugged. “If you were Jacobs, wouldn’t you want to be Ace Taylor’s sex slave?”
Noah cleared his throat.
“Hey.” George laughed. “You did that already.”
“Shut up. Well, I’m going to pay a visit to our boy at the hotel. Coming or not?”
“Sure, but isn’t this overkill? I just spoke to him.”
“I want to speak to him again. Hey, it will be good exercise for you to get out of that chair,” Noah said, smirking, “with all those doughnuts, you’ve put on a few, haven’t you?”
George threw his half-eaten doughnut at him as he rose from his seat. “Oh shut your pie hole. We’ll take my car.”
When Noah stopped in front of Lindsey’s hotel room, he heard voices. He looked at George. It was obvious from George’s expression that he heard them too because he mouthed, “What the hell?”
“You did warn Lindsey about not talking to anyone before the interview, didn’t you?”
“Of course I did. He even signed the disclaimer.”
“Well, looks like he isn’t honoring it.”
“Probably just some cheap trick he picked up for the night.”
“Well, for a cheap trick, he’s doing a hell of a lot more talking than fucking.” Noah knocked at the door.
The talking ended abruptly and there was silence.
“Come on, Mr. Peters. I know you’re in there,” Noah growled. “Open this door.”
The chain rattled against the wood and the door opened. Noah couldn’t have been more stunned if Dracula himself had stood there in front of him.
“Come in, Noah.” Ace Taylor opened the door wider. “And eh … Mr. Osgrove,” he nodded at George, “nice to meet you.” Ace Taylor walked down the carpeted entrance and into the main room where Lindsey Peters stood poised in the corner.
“He knows my name,” George said, beaming at Noah.
“Don’t you see what’s going on here?” Noah muttered, looking over at Ace and Peters. “Isn’t this nice and cozy? How much is he paying you, Peters?”
“It’s not about that,” Peters replied.
Ace met his gaze. “You see, Lindsey and I also have a cause, Noah. Our cause is … if a guy wants to languish in the fucking closet then it’s not your place to pull him out of it.”
“Who are you really?” George demanded, moving closer to Lindsey Peters.
“I’m Ace’s cousin. You should have done your homework.” Peters folded his arms across his chest.
Something felt horrible in the pit of Noah’s stomach. “You weren’t on a roof with Ace, and Brian wasn’t there either. It was all a fabrication.”
“But if you wanted to keep Brian out of it, why mention him at all?” George looked confused.
“We knew you were one step away from focusing on Brian,” Ace volunteered. “I don’t have time to play these kinds of games, Noah. I had to make sure that you backed off from me and from all the guys in the band once and for all.”
“This won’t stop me,” Noah retorted angrily. “It’s only going to make me more determined to fry your ass, and that closeted canary, Brian Jacobs, as well. I know why you’re protecting him.”
“Do you now?” Ace glowered at him. “Oh yes, that’s right, we’re supposed to be lovers.”
“You son of … you set me up, wasted my time, my resources, and—”
“And you haven’t given me a moment’s peace with your bullshit crusade to out me and everyone else. Like I told you, honey, I’m not in the damn closet but I’m not going to be the poster boy for homophobes obsessed with what they consider fucking appropriate masculine behavior.” Ace looked at the other two men. “Can you please leave the good reverend and me alone for a few minutes? I have a proposition for him.”
Peters crossed the room to the door and George followed, closing the door behind him.
“I’m not interested in any proposition you might have in mind,” Noah scoffed.
“That’s not what you said last night.”
“Fuck you.”
“No, I believe you said, ‘fuck me, fuck me.’” He smirked as he walked over to the bed and perched there. He patted the place beside him.
“Like I said, fuck you.” Noah wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face.
“Suit yourself. Here’s the deal. You forget all about Savage Heat, as well as the members of our immediate families. I don’t want to hear a whisper about any of us, do you understand?”
“You’re dreaming, baby.”
“Am I?” Ace smiled.
God, he was too damned handsome. “Yeah, dreaming with a capital D. Like I said, you’ve pissed me off now and that’s made me all the more determined to root you out.”
“That’s a shame.” Ace stood. “So, I guess I will have to go ahead with my press conference tomorrow night.”
“Press conference about what? What could you possibly have to say except that you like cock, and have been hiding it for years?”
Ace laughed. “I could say that, I suppose. Or, I could tell them how you lured me to your hotel room and threatened to make my life hell if I didn’t fuck you.”
Noah’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t do that. Besides, you have no proof. It’s your word against mine.”
Ace Taylor drew something out of his pocket. “It’s a portable movie camera. You’re beautiful when you’re sleeping, and did you know, your cock is always hard?”
Noah’s eyes widened. “You son of … you had no right.”
“All’s fair,” he replied with a shrug, flashing him a picture.
“Give me that,” Noah growled, lunging for the camera.
Ace held it high over his head while Noah struggled for it. The movements forced Noah to rub up against Ace’s hard lean body. He felt his cock harden and his mouth go dry.
Ace laughed. “You can have it if you want it,” he said. “The pictures, I mean, not me. And they’ve already been t
ransferred to my computer so breaking this won’t do a thing to get rid of the evidence. They make one hell of a nice screen saver.”
“Fuck!” Noah stood back, resigned to the fact that he’d been had.
“I’m not sure you know if I offered you the choice, if you’d take this”—Ace waved the camera at him—“or this?” The smirk on his face reappeared as he grabbed himself between the legs.
“Keep them both. Neither of them are what I’d call top scale.”
“Ouch.” Ace pretended to wince but he was still laughing. “You are so full of shit, Daniels. It’s not even funny. So, do we have a deal or not?”
“I might just call your bluff.”
“You might, but realize that you have a hell of a lot more to lose than I do. I go public with this and your rag is going to take a hit where integrity is concerned, sweetheart. No one is ever going to believe anything you print again. As for me,” he continued with a shrug, tossing the camera onto the bed, “I’m already considered to be a decadent rock star; shagging a few guys is only going to widen my fan base, especially since I am the victim in all this.”
“This conversation is over,” Noah snapped. “Take your sleazy cousin and get out of here.”
He placed a card on the bureau. “That’s my private cell phone number. Don’t think about giving it out because it gets changed every week. If I don’t hear anything from you before tomorrow afternoon, look for me on the six o’clock news, baby.”
Noah took the card off the bureau then picked up the camera and threw it across the room. It hit the wall.
“I’ll send you a bill for the camera.” Ace raised a hand and walked out.
George was waiting in the lobby when he came down. He took a step back when he saw Noah’s face. “What … Noah?”
“Don’t.” Noah put up his hands. “Don’t talk to me. Don’t even look at me.” He walked right through the lobby and out to the parking lot.
George drove quietly back in the direction of the office. They were almost in the parking lot when he asked, “Can I talk now?”
“If you feel you have to.”
“This was a setup, right?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“And you slept with him, right?”
“He threatened to ruin me. And last night meant nothing. He just used me, set me up and…”
George looked at him. “That’s what really bothers you, right? It was more than just sex to you. You thought he meant it?”
“Ace Taylor was out to get me, and I got to tell you”—he put his hand on the door and prepared to get out—“he got me good.”
Noah hardly slept that night. He kept remembering the sensation of Ace’s hard body against his, his cock and what it had felt like inside of his body. And then the way he’d looked at him today, with disdain and mockery.
The thing was, Ace was going to win. There was no way Noah could let him go on national television with what had happened. Hide magazine would be finished. And he wished that was all there was to it. But he knew it wasn’t. Sure, he was miffed at being set up, but what really bothered him was that Ace hated him, that the night they’d spent together had meant absolutely nothing to him, and that it would never happen again.
He’d lived out a fantasy with Ace last night, finally admitting to himself that part of his pursuit of Ace had been personal, born of desire, born of the hope that they’d meet and make love. And he knew now that this was all about Brian Jacobs, who was obviously his lover.
Early the next day, Noah crawled out of bed and picked up the card Ace had given him. The card read simply A. Taylor. He punched the number into his phone, taking some satisfaction in the fact that it was a little after five in the morning.
The phone rang at least five times before a sleepy male voice said, “Hello?”
Noah closed his eyes. He remembered that sleepy male voice, so smooth and sexy, whispering in his ear as he lay close to him in bed.
“Hello?” he repeated, then cursed.
“Don’t hang up.”
“Noah? Do you know what fucking time it is?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t sleep. I’d say I was sorry but—”
“You’re not.”
“Not really, no. I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided to let it drop.”
“Okay, we’re even then. It’s over.”
Over. “I suppose it is. Brian’s a lucky guy.”
“Not so lucky. He’s fragile. He deserves a break.”
“He must love you very much.”
There was silence.
“Well, back to work.”
“Noah?”
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s okay,” Ace said. “Good luck hunting.” He hung up.
Noah sighed. He’d wanted to ask him for his pictures back but what was the point? Ace wasn’t going to use them.
Two hours later, he sat in his office staring at the wall. George came in with coffee. “Noah? Are you all right?”
“Fine.” He looked up, taking the coffee. “But from now on, Savage Heat is off-limits, understood?”
George nodded.
“I’ll send a memo around as well.”
“Good idea. Okay, so … would you like to go downstairs to look over this month’s edition before it goes to print?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” Noah said, picking up the file on Ace Taylor then taking it over to the shredder.
Was it possible to fall in love with a man in one night? Noah would have never believed it to be true before he’d spent that night in Ace Taylor’s arms. But eventually, as the days and then weeks went by, he became convinced.
Hungry for a glimpse, any glimpse of Ace, he bought every music video he could get his hands on and spent many evenings watching them over and over, anxiously awaiting each close-up of Ace pounding away on his drums.
George came over one night when he had the video on pause where the camera was focused on Ace. Sweat rained off his hair; his strong muscled arms gleamed.
“Oh my God,” George said, “how pathetic.”
Noah went to switch off the set.
“No wait, come on, let’s be pathetic together, haven’t seen this one.”
So they sat and watched the entire thing together, drinking whiskey sours.
“You’ve got it bad for him,” George told him, “must have been some night.”
“I don’t have it bad for him.”
“Hey, I’ve seen you moping around every day. I know. And it’s getting worse. Next, you’ll be erecting a shrine to Ace in your bedroom.”
“Stop it,” he muttered. “You’re not helping.”
“Then go out, find a guy, fuck. You’ll forget all about that bad boy drummer.”
“You’re right. Let’s go,” Noah said, dragging George off the sofa by the arm.
“Now?” he croaked.
“Yeah. Now.”
The finding a guy and fucking bit didn’t work. It distracted him for the time he spent actually doing the deed, but when it was over, he missed Ace more than ever. There was no measuring up, no getting over. No guy compared to Ace Taylor.
Chapter Four
“I hate him.”
“Who?” George asked.
“Ace Taylor.”
“I’ve heard this before. What did he do now?”
“Nothing.” Noah walked into his office and slammed the door.
Later that morning there was a knock on his door.
“Come in,” Noah called.
Barbara, one of his best reporters just back from assignment, poked her head in the doorway. “Hi Noah.”
“Hey, Barb.” Noah motioned for her to come in. “How was it?”
“Fine. I got the story but it’s not quite what we expected. I’ll tell you all about that but first”—she beamed, sitting across from him—“I know Savage Heat is off-limits, but this is too good to—”
“No. I don’t want to hear it.” He put up his hand.
“But boss, listen,
it’s about Brian Jacobs. I got pictures.”
Noah’s eyes widened. “Pictures of what?”
“Brian Jacobs kissing a male prostitute outside the Ritz.”
“Where? Show me,” he insisted, leaning forward.
Barb passed the envelope across the desk. “I want the byline.”
“You got it if it’s good.” Noah grabbed the envelope and opened it. He pulled out the glossy photographs and stared at them. “Holy shit!” No, there was no mistaking it. “This is worth a gold mine. I love you!” he shouted, jumping up and grabbing Barbara. He danced her around the room, which brought several of the other employees to his office, wanting to know what was going on.
When George saw the pictures, he whistled then met Noah’s eyes. “What about the deal you have going with Taylor?”
Noah grinned. “All bets are off.” He looked at Barb. “Write the copy. I’ll contact Brian Jacobs’ agents to find out if they care to comment.”
They were really busy the entire day. He had all his messages put on hold. At the end of the day, his secretary told him there had been one phone call from Brian Jacobs’ agent, who had only said, “No comment.”
Noah’s cell phone rang as he was driving home. He saw “restricted number” on the screen and narrowed his eyes. He pulled over and opened his phone. “Noah Daniels here.”
“Hello, Noah.”
Noah squeezed the phone. He closed his eyes a second. “Ace.”
“You broke our agreement.”
“I have the pictures.”
“Look, I’m going to ask you to do this as a favor to me. If that night we spent together meant anything at all to you, please don’t do this. Don’t publish those pictures. It will devastate him.”
“And you? Were you surprised to see your lover with that prostitute?”
“Brian is not my lover, Noah. He’s never been my lover. We’re like brothers. We grew up together, started this band together. And he’s always stood by me. All the drugs and booze … the time in rehab … he’s finally clean. But this will set him back. He’s fragile. Please, Noah, don’t do this.”
“I’m sorry, Ace,” he said, but his voice faltered. “And don’t talk about that night. You used me. It meant nothing to you at all, did it? How can you use this to…” He trailed off.
“I did what I had to do.”