by Jet Mykles
His eyes narrowed. “They knew it was yours.”
One brow raised. “Like a hundred people saw me put it on your head.”
He blinked. “Shit.” He hadn’t thought of that.
Luc chuckled, putting the hat on in a smooth, one-handed roll. He was so fucking sexy that it took the wind out of Reese’s ire. “What’d you tell them?”
“I don’t know. Something stupid. Maybe they’re too drunk to remember.” Too much to hope for, but he didn’t want to think about it. He watched Luc take a drag and gave into an impulse. “Can I have one of those?” He pointed to the pack on the table.
Luc’s brows shot up. “I didn’t think you smoked anymore.”
“I don’t.” He held out his hand, wiggling his fingers. “But I want one.”
Luc eyed him, chuckled, then handed over the pack.
Reese hadn’t had a cigarette for years. He’d never been a heavy smoker anyway. Once he’d left the college scene, the urge had pretty much stayed behind. Reese exhaled that first cloud of smoke as he handed the pack of cigarettes back to Luc. He breathed deep, coughing only a little, leaning back against the low brick wall that overlooked the street in front of the nightclub. Heavy bass dance rhythm shook the floor beneath his feet. “I feel like I’ve gone back in time.”
“Feel good?”
Reese inhaled smoke, then smiled on the exhale. “Yeah.”
“I take it you don’t come here much anymore?”
“Hardly any.”
“Why not? Not like you can’t get in.”
True. Not when Reegan worked here. And Dave. And a lot of other people he knew. He shrugged. “Not my scene anymore.”
“Too bad.”
“I guess so.”
Those sable eyes raked him slowly up and down. “You look great.” Stubbing out his smoke, he dropped his foot from the table then crooked his finger, his smile full of dark promise. “Come here, tiger.”
He frowned at Luc then glanced across the way. The entrance to Purgatory was accessed through a courtyard with walls on other side. This patio and another were on the second floor to either side of the courtyard. While this patio was small, cordoned off and guarded, the other was larger and filled with people, some of whom had noticed that one of the night’s headliners was here, close enough to see but much too far away to hear or touch.
“No.”
“Oh, come on.” Luc’s back was to the other people so they couldn’t see the dark promise in his expression. “Just a little kiss?”
Reese crossed an arm over his middle and took in another lungful of smoke. “No.”
Luc leaned forward, elbows on knees, and studied him from under the rim of the fedora. The vest gaped open, and two gold chains shimmered at Luc’s neck. “You want to.”
Reese stared at the glowing end of his cigarette. “Of course I want to. Doesn’t mean I’m going to.”
Luc purred. “So, if there weren’t people watching, you’d let me into those tight pants of yours?”
Reese wouldn’t look at Luc. He couldn’t. If he did, he might forget there were people watching.
“Would you let me figure out how to get you out of that mess of zippers you’ve got for a shirt and suck those tasty nipples?”
“Stop.”
Luc laughed. “Okay. But you know you want me to suck your dick.”
Reese reached for the drink he had sitting on the wall beside him and downed half of it, still avoiding looking at Luc. “Quit or I’m leaving.”
“Tch.” He sat back. “I haven’t had anyone who wanted to keep a relationship with me secret for… ever!”
Reese looked at him before he could help it. Luc’s grin was positively fiendish and the hat… How did a fucking hat make him look even more delicious? “At least you’re not humble or anything.”
Luc lifted his heel back up on the edge of the table. Unfortunately, that just opened up his crotch toward Reese. The tight pants lovingly created a bas relief of Luc’s cock, half hard and lengthening down his left thigh. So inviting a place for Reese to bury his face. Stop that! He lifted his gaze to focus instead on Luc’s face, not sure that it was much better.
Luc grinned at him, one hand casually lifting his drink. “Why teaching?”
Reese blinked, trying to bring his wayward thoughts under control. “Huh?”
Casually, he sipped. “Why teaching?”
Good! They were going to have a nonsexual conversation. Maybe Reese’s boner would calm down. He shrugged, pulling the front hem of his shirt down in an effort to conceal his reaction to Luc. “Why not?”
“Why not accounting or sales or truck driving?”
“Truck driving?”
Luc shrugged. “Seems just as random.”
“Random?”
Another sip while Luc studied him over the rim of the glass. “Is teaching what you want to do? What you love?”
“You mean, my life’s dream?” Reese chuckled. He glanced over the patio’s concrete wall, watching the crowd waiting for entrance one story below. “No. But I don’t have a life dream anymore.”
With a slight frown, Luc set down his glass. “It used to be painting.”
“That doesn’t pay the bills.”
“It could.”
“No.” He stubbed out the butt of his cigarette on the concrete top of the wall. “I’m not good enough.”
“That’s bullshit.”
Reese smiled softly, absurdly pleased that Luc thought his art was worth defending. “It’s my bullshit.”
They stared at each other, Luc clearly thinking as he slowly crossed his arms over his mostly bare chest. Warnings pinged in Reese’s head but he wasn’t sure what about.
“So you’re just going to stick around Woodley? Teach school for thirty odd years and retire with a pension?”
Reese pushed away from the wall. “Something like that.” Mostly for something to occupy his hands, he grabbed the pack of cigarettes from the table where they lay beside Luc’s foot and lit another one.
“Find yourself a nice little girl like Piper to settle down with and raise two point five kids?”
Reese tossed the lighter back onto the table, forcefully expelling the smoke from his first drag. “That’s the plan.”
“You’re completely full of shit.”
Reese stared at Luc. “Fuck you.”
“You are.” Luc pointed a finger at him. “You can’t be happy living like that.”
“Plenty of people are happy living like that.”
“You’re not plenty of people. And you’re not happy living like that.”
The truth was a gut punch that he refused to show. “I…”
“Do not fucking dare tell me that you’re happy.” Luc’s glare was dark and fantastic, because he was clearly pissed on Reese’s behalf.
His heart swelled even though he was irritated. Luc thought that much of him? “Fine. So what’s the alternative?”
Luc dropped his foot back to the cement and leaned forward. He snagged Reese’s wrist before Reese could evade him. The freshly lit cigarette fell unnoticed as Reese stumbled to stand between Luc’s spread knees. He stared down into the endless black pools of Luc’s eyes, his heart pounding.
Luc’s smile was inviting and intense as he twined fingers with both of Reese’s hands. “Come with me.”
The bottom dropped out from Reese’s world. He could not have heard those words, even as a part of his was expecting them. “What?”
“Quit your job. Come hang out with me for a while.”
For a while. He jerked to free his hands, but Luc wouldn’t let go. “Not this again.”
“Why not?”
“Just hang out with you? What about my rent? My bills?”
“I’ll pay them for you.”
“For how long?”
“However long you want.”
“That could be longer than a while.”
“How about forever?”
Reese’s heart stuttered. What was Luc saying? He swallowed, un
able to focus on all that was said. “What do you mean? Let you support me?”
“Sure. I’ve got plenty of money. It’s no sweat. Come with me to Italy.” He stood, looming that few extra inches over Reese, their hands still twined.
Reese backed up, his butt hitting the low brick wall.
Luc stayed with him, stepped so close that they were almost touching. “That’s any artist’s dream, right? To go to Italy? Sistine Chapel? Birthplace of Da Vinci and Michelangelo?”
Reese gaped, mesmerized both by the sight of the man as well as by his words. Harsh lighting gave Luc’s pale skin an otherworldly glow. He couldn’t even remember if those facts were true. “No.”
“I want you with me.”
He blinked at the rawness in those words. “You’re serious.”
There was pure hunger in the way Luc watched him. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I like having you around.” Luc raised their hands, pushing in so that their fists were all that separated them.
Reese couldn’t look away. He felt the steady thump of Luc’s heartbeat against the back of his hand. “What’ll that make me? Your mistress?”
Luc pulled back just enough to thunk Reese in the sternum with his own hands. “Not that again.”
Starting to panic, Reese tried to push back, starting to remember that people could see them. “Why? It’s true.”
Luc held on, using his weight to keep Reese pinned. His lips were a heartbeat away from Reese’s own. “Only if you make it that way.”
“Back off.”
“No.”
“Just because you seem to like fucking me—”
He gasped when Luc ripped a hand free then used it to grip the back of Reese’s neck, hauled him in, nose-to-nose. “I happen to love fucking you.” He shook Reese’s head sharply, snarling. “I happen to love. You.”
Reese gaped.
Luc growled and dropped his head, sealing their mouths together.
Too stunned by Luc’s words, Reese didn’t think to pull away. He melted into Luc’s embrace, sinking against the man’s bare chest. His instinct was to submit and accept.
Until he heard the crowd. Gasping, he pushed back. He glanced to the side, confirming that people on the other patio were watching. Phones were out, clearly taking pictures. He heard someone yell: “Go for it, Luc!”
“Damn it!” He shoved, finding strength in panic.
Luc stumbled away snarling, but he didn’t go far. “Don’t tell me I was in that kiss alone.”
“That’s not the point!” Reese hissed, reaching up to tug his hair forward as he put his back to the other patio. With any luck, the darkness and the fact that he was dressed so differently than his usual, no one would recognize him. Please let the pictures be blurry. He felt his face burn. “People saw!”
“So?”
“There are people here that I work with!” Please, dear God, don’t let Haley or Toni be over there!
“So?”
“So!”
Luc turned profile to Reese, glaring at the opposite patio. His eyes narrowed. “I hope someone did see. I hope your whole fucking school knows by Monday.”
Reese saw red. Before he could think, he lashed out, fist aimed at that beautiful face. Across the way, at least a few women screamed.
Luc dodged, arm up to deflect the blow. The flimsy little table beside them toppled and clattered loudly. Luc’s hat fell to the concrete, freeing his hair to fan like flames about his head.
The bouncer crashed through the door as Reese took another swing at Luc.
Luc blocked forcefully, sending Reese stumbling into the wall. He pointed imperiously at Daniel. “Fuck off!”
“But…”
“Get out of here!”
Confused, frowning, Daniel backed up the way he’d come and closed the door.
They faced each other, glaring. Reese trembled, desperately clinging to his anger to avoid succumbing to other feelings. Luc, on the other hand, stood straight and tall, cool and somewhat imposing. The slight downward tilt of his head made his hair fall in a thick curtain over his shoulder. “I mean it.”
“No.”
“I love you.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Not one bit.” His voice was too calm. “Stay with me tonight.”
“Fuck you!”
“That, too.”
Reese growled, anger and intense, burning lust warring for supremacy inside his body. “Are you trying to ruin my life?”
“I’m trying to give you a life.”
“What?”
“Oh, come on. You’re so fucking bored, you can’t stand it. Try living a little.”
“With you?”
“Yes!”
Thrown by the absolute conviction in those words, he reached up to run a hand through his curls. Stark terror made him shake as his truest heart’s desire seemed to be offered to him on a platinum platter. No. He couldn’t handle it. This couldn’t be real. “And what happens to me after?”
“After what?”
“After you get sick of me? When you don’t want me anymore?”
“Not going to happen.”
Viciously, he stabbed at the hope that threatened to blossom. “Like I’m supposed to believe that?”
“What can I do to make you believe it?”
“Are you kidding me?” He stared into Luc’s face and fought the hope that pushed at his heart. He couldn’t possibly believe this. Could he? No. He couldn’t. There was no way any of this was real. He glared at the rockstar. “You son of a bitch. How dare you judge my life and make fucking promises there’s no way you’re going to keep.”
Luc’s head snapped back like Reese had finally landed a punch. “Reese…”
“No. You’ve got me now and you might even make good on some of what you’re saying but it can’t last and I won’t ruin my life for some fucking dream.”
Luc stared at him, a muscle in his jaw flexing. He glanced at the people across the way, then the fight drained out of him. “Whatever, man.” Luc ran a hand through hair that looked almost bloody in the weird patio lighting. “Stick with your boring little life and die slowly.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and turned his back on Reese. “Have a happy life.”
Reese watched, dumbfounded, as Luc opened the door and left.
Meaningless shouts sounded from the distant audience. Reese fell to his knees beside the toppled table, hiding himself from view. His hands shook. He picked up the pack of cigarettes left by Luc. Angrily, he crumpled the pack. Four feet away, Luc’s hat sat, abandoned by its owner.
People had seen. Pictures had been taken. Could he be recognized? Would word get back to his school? What the hell had Luc been thinking? Did he really believe Reese would just let him take care of him like that? Did he honestly think that he wouldn’t tire of Reese eventually?
What if he did? plead a very tiny voice at the back of his head.
The door slammed open again, and Reegan rushed through, followed by Dave. “Reese!” Her hands gripped his shoulders. “Are you okay?!
Dave’s hand was a warm comfort spread between his shoulder blades. “You all right, man?”
“I’m fine.” He wasn’t, but he said it, staring at the fucking hat that Reegan had barely missed trampling on her way to him.
Reegan cupped his jaw, trying to make him face her. “Daniel came to find me. Did you really just deck Luc?”
“No.” He twisted his head from her grasp. “He ducked.”
“What?! Honey, what happened?”
Reese started to shake. It had to be in the seventies but he was suddenly so very cold. His life was unraveling before him, and he couldn’t figure out where he’d lost control. Wait. That wasn’t right. He certainly could. His life had taken a turn for the worse when Luc first kissed him. Or was that better? No, it was worse.
“Damn it!” He hurled the crumpled pack of cigarettes at the wall.
Reegan and Dave scrambled
to give him room to stand while still hovering too close.
“Honey…” Reegan clutched his arm, her expression anxious.
He broke free of her and headed for the door. “I’ve got to go.” Without thinking, he bent quickly to snatch the damned hat off the concrete.
“Where you going?” Dave demanded, right on his heels.
“Home. Away.”
Back to where he’d known he was going to land.
◆◆◆
Brent found him in their old apartment. Garth had told them that it was empty, mostly a storage space now, and an old trick on the ancient lock had opened the space to Luc. The only light was a bare bulb where once there’d been a hideous fixture from the fifties or sixties dangling from the ceiling. No furniture so he parked his ass on the counter in the long unused kitchen.
“Shit, this place is a mess,” were Brent’s first words as he came through the arch into the kitchen. “Did we really live here?”
“I told him.” Luc wasn’t in the mood for a trip down memory lane. Except, that’s why he’d come here, wasn’t it? Because this was where he’d lost Reese the first time, before he knew what he was pushing away.
Hands in the pockets of his jeans, Brent leaned in the opening. “Told him what?”
“That I loved him.”
“I take it that didn’t go well.”
Luc gripped the counter’s edge to either side of his thighs, wishing he could rip it up to ease the furious ache in his chest. “He wouldn’t fucking listen.”
Brent’s boots clumped on the cracked linoleum as he came closer. He offered a cigarette. Luc took it and they shared a few silent moments.
“So,” Brent stood at the sink, staring out the dingy window. “What happened?”
Luc told him.
“What now?”
“Fuck if I know.”
“You gonna give up? Leave him alone?”
The cigarette dwindled as Luc didn’t answer. Finally: “I want him so bad I can’t stand it.”
“Just sex?”
“More than sex.”
Brent nodded. He knew about last night when Luc had gone to just be with Reese. He knew nothing happened. “You might have to give up for now. Not sure you can convince him in two days. Not if he’s taking swings at you.”
Luc tossed the cigarette into the sink. “I could go talk to him.”