Caught in the Act

by Lydia Thorn

  My trembling hand points the lens right at them and press the button.

  That shutter sound might as well be my funeral bells.

  Ivan’s head shoots up and I stumble back in my clumsy effort to escape and hit the water cooler, knocking the thing over, spilling chilly water all over the wooden floor. My limbs shake and buckle as my nerves pump full of pure adrenaline, mingling with unsatisfied arousal.

  The Adonis is on me, yanking me by the arm and dragging me out the door.

  IVAN

  He saw me! My mind is unable to register my movements from standing and then dragging the smaller man out the door. I’m a fucking moron! I cursed myself to hell and back. Hell, if I can punch myself I would do that if I can make it hurt. I knew hell awaited me for what I was about to do, I knew I was taking advantage of someone who had only tried to help me, but in a moment of sheer weakness I thought only of my selfish desires and if hell was where men like me belonged then I was going to make it worth the burn.

  I’m now eighteen, my inheritance is as good as mine and I was ready to make do with the promise I made to myself three years ago. But Damien was in the teacher’s lounge nursing a hangover from last night. His drinking habits didn’t go unnoticed by me. Actually, it had gotten worse over the years. Most likely a byproduct of what happened to him in the past which landed him here to begin with.

  I had only meant to talk, but the words failed to escape my lips and it wasn’t long before Damien was fast asleep, the spring sun shining on his moist pink lips as if beckoning me to partake. Something was wrong, it felt wrong. I wanted to kiss him but wasn’t sure if I wanted it because it was something I had always wanted or if the desire was there.

  I kneeled over him, pressing my lips to the other man’s in a chaste kiss. Nothing, I felt…nothing. No, this isn’t right! My mind raged, my fantasy clashing with reality. I slipped out my cock and stroked the shaft as if to revive a dead creature, my eyes focused on Damien’s sleeping serene face. You have to feel something. The languid heat pooling, my cock hardening step by step. I pressed my lips to Damien’s again, my tongue sneaking out to lick the crevasse of his mouth. It aroused me, the heat getting to me, but…is it for him?

  This was it, the point of no return, the place where the threshold between heaven and hell meet. Where you just do something that you know will guarantee your spot if such a spot existed. I freed Damien’s lengthy cock from his pants, the cool scent emanating with his heat, and quickly slipped him into my mouth while griping my cock—

  And that’s when the crash of the cooler shook me, and standing in front of me was the one I had taken to calling: The Raven. His black hair and eyes continue to strike at me whenever I saw him.

  LOUIS

  “I saw nothing!” I resort to the most panicked defense mechanism it is, as if anyone got off on the ‘I saw nothing’ defense. Especially when the perp saw you standing right there. “I swear!” Ivan tosses me into the empty bathroom and pushes me in a stall and closes the door locking us both inside.

  What the hell is he gonna do to me?! My heart is pounding out of my ribs. Getting past him is going to be next to impossible. My eyes lower to his very long thick cock still hanging out of his pants. Which he stuffs back inside. I look away; my breathing intensifies as Ivan's powerful gaze hammers me down.

  Screw it, it’s all or nothing. I’m the one with the power now, not him. “I sent the pictures to my Google account!”

  Ivan stops, his hand hovering around my neck.

  “That’s right…I saw everything and I have the pics to prove it.”

  His hand drops. My heart is beating like a jackhammer but this powerful man has no choice but to do what I say. Three years at this school and he was the impenetrable sun king. We walked the same halls and yet he was a million miles away. To have him so close, to smell his surprisingly minty breath in my face and two distinct types of cologne, one cool and the other warm, is jarring. I don’t know which smell is his versus Mr. Bowie and my member strains to get out as my penis would rather daydream about the scene we just saw rather than help me get the hell out of here.

  “What the hell you want?” He steps away from me in the stall and I can’t believe this is happening right now. I may get away from this with my neck not squeezed to death. “Money?” He rolls his silver eyes, a smirk plays on his plump red lips. I have the power in my hands to destroy him and he’s still looking down on me, like I’m nothing in his eyes. “How much do you want?”

  “I’ll get back to you.”

  “Tell me what the fuck you want before I kick the shit out of you in this bathroom.”

  “A million dollars!” I blurt out absentmindedly.

  “Where the hell am I supposed to get that from?” He chuckles, his skin glistening, bringing out every sharp angle of his jaw.

  I want to lick the sweat.

  “I need money for my dad’s medical bills.”

  “Then how much are they?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe around one hundred grand right now, but he’s going to rack up more.”

  “That’s not how this works, if the one you’re blackmailing thinks there will be no end to the blackmail then they have no incentive to cooperate. Pick a number and stick with it.”

  “Then a million dollars!”

  “Be reasonable.” He argues, and I feel my power draining.

  “You’re rich.” My voice grows small.

  “My brother is rich.”

  “If he loves you, then he’ll pay.”

  “He’s likely to kill you.”

  The heat of our bodies so close…

  “Then two hundred grand and you have to do whatever I want until graduation.” Just what the hell am I thinking?

  “What do you want me to do?” He rolls his eyes again and looks away from me as if he can’t wait to be away from me, though he looks more bored than scared or on edge. Hell, I think I’m on edge enough for the both of us. He senses my hesitation and looks at me, a sardonic smile on his well-shaped mouth. “Come on, you’re so close. Do you want a job? A reference for whatever college you’re trying to get into, my name beside yours to guarantee your success in life.”

  “Pretend you’re in love with me.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  IVAN

  Pretend you’re in love with me.

  Now that was a request I didn’t expect at all. I took him for yet another blackmailer and I was almost disappointed. In my brief fantasies about him, when I had the time to think of him, I’ve always pictured him as more or less sweet and shy, but nothing else beyond that. Has three years gone by already? It seems like it was yesterday that this black-haired raven barged into the principal’s office interrupting our meeting. He was good enough eye candy to distract me from the boredom of having to tell our principal what he could do with his money-grubbing demands. But once math was over, I lost sight of him and with that; he left my thoughts too. As usual, it didn’t take long for the popular people to welcome me into the fold and he was almost always alone or with another guy who was far livelier than him. I can’t remember his name. Hell, I can’t remember either of their names. I had no reason to remember. We hardly spoke two words to each other in three years, and I have no reason to concern myself with people who won’t impact my life.

  “What happened?” Damien stops me in the halls. His cool scent taking over, I look down, his pants fixed, I didn’t have time to do that when I was running from the room with that guy which means he fixed his pants himself, and he has to know he wasn’t the one to unzip himself even though he’s still nursing a hangover. Did he notice how wet his cock was? I didn’t have much time to start sucking when I was caught, but I got enough to taste his salty flavor.

  I’m a terrible sonofabitch.

  The guilt is already too much to bear. I of all people know why he’s stuck teaching at this school, I of all people understand how the rumors that followed him here is hurting him to this day and yet, I let my selfish desires dictate my act
ions and I took advantage of him while he was vulnerable. Now I have to do everything in my power to protect him. If this gets out then he’ll never get another job as a teacher again. And this is his passion.

  “I don’t know what happened. I left you when you fell asleep on me, and now this. Did someone attack you?” I reply, covering my sorry ass as best I can.

  “Don’t use this as an excuse to skip class.” He wags his finger at me, and I feel relief that nothing has changed. He doesn’t know what happened, maybe he thinks he was jerking off and fell asleep? I don’t know and don’t care; I’ll take this outcome.

  Now the only thing left is keeping him safe, and the key is my blackmailer, the so-called sweet shy guy who's now standing across the hall like a deer caught in a headlight.

  His black eyes lock on me and despite the chaos surrounding me, my cock twitches for some unknown reason. I hate guys like him, who act like they’re sweet and innocent but are manipulative bitches. I’ve underestimated him big time, I took him for a loner and loser, but someone who wouldn’t think of doing something like this. In that…I don’t know. I took him as being too sweet, or perhaps simple-minded is a better word. But he took out that camera and took that picture fast as hell, which makes him a quick thinker and someone I won’t underestimate again.

  But in his request for my love, he’s revealed his weakness.

  Me.

  And I plan to take full advantage of that.

  LOUIS

  Why the hell did I say that?!

  And why did he stare at me, the smile vanishing as he says the one word I never expected. “Okay.”

  He leaves and I’m alone.

  I still can’t control my breath or my heartbeat when I exit the bathroom to the small crowd gathering outside the teacher’s lounge. Mr. Bowie is up and near Mr. Mortensen, the two are conversing about something. Did he notice his cock was out? I mean it isn’t out now, and everything seems… Kosher… but I mean I doubt Ivan had the time to fix his pants before he was grabbing me and yanking me out the door.

  I try to read his face for any hint of stress on his elvish like features, but maybe I’m not the best judge for reading other people. If anyone had asked me ten minutes ago that I would see the hottest guy in school with his bow-shaped mouth engulfing another man’s dick, I wouldn’t have believed it. And if they said it was the dick of our sexy math teacher, I would have had a heart attack. Like the one I’m on the verge of having now.

  My brain is frying but still, I’m plagued with questions.

  Was it a consensual thing? Like some sleep sex fetish role play? Or did Ivan do that without Mr. Bowie’s permission? I run my fingers through my plain black hair and feel them tremble at my scalp. Gotta get myself together, and fast, but there is so much for my mind to process.

  I have the pics on both my phone and account. Should I make more copies? No, that would just end in disaster. And as far as this pretend boyfriend or lover thing, just what the hell was I supposed to do about that? It’s not like he can pretend to be my boyfriend in public as that would defeat the entire purpose of him wanting to keep this secret. So, what did I want?

  To be his lover.

  “So, I guess this wasn’t your doing.” Mr. Mortensen approaches, his haughty brown eyes staring me down.

  “No!” I quickly protest. “I swear.” Ugh, why does he have to make me feel so uncomfortable? “I swear…”

  “Calm down, I was only joking; the papers are still inside.” He says, but he doesn’t smile nor does he sound amused. I someone had told me this guy was an android pretending to be a man I’d believe them, big time.

  When Mr. Bowie approaches, I take my chance and escape the suffocating air Mr. Mortensen always emanates whenever he is too close. I don’t know what it is about that guy, he just seems like he’s always planning something like a villain in a secret base.

  Toby stands away from the crowd, his tanned hands in his pockets trying to look like he didn’t care about what was going on, but I know him, not as well as I would like, but I know him well enough to know that he needs to have his nose in anything exciting going on. I had met him only a year ago. His light green eyes, light brown curly hair, and smooth warm skin drew me in straight away. He promptly told me I wasn’t his type and the two of us along with Rei had been friends since.

  “You look shaken,” Toby says when I meet up with him. “Did you knock over the cooler in the lounge?”

  How the hell?! “No!!” I don’t know how I look but if it's anything how I feel I must look like hot garbage.

  “Okay, relax, I’m only joking.” He says and unlike Mortensen, I can see the smile reach his eyes. “You do look nervous.”

  “Yeah, just…it’s stupid.”

  Like a cornered mouse on edge, my eyes dart to Ivan straight away as if I can hear his footsteps separated from the dispersing crowd. He settles near the group of popular kids, the others making space for him. The sun has returned to the orbiting planets. A girl with long wavy blond hair whispers something in his ear and he neither smiles nor seems like he cares and yet when his face meets hers his lips form a smile which doesn’t reach his crystal eyes.

  Faker

  I have the sudden urge to out him to every one of them, watch him suffer, and see what he would do when he was no longer the sun king. I laugh to myself; he would probably switch schools out of embarrassment even if he spent four years laughing at other people’s humiliation.

  Coward

  But then again, I’m here at this school because I ran away from the last one.

  “Oh, look it’s the assholes of the school, all glued to each other’s hips as usual.” Toby sneers at the group across from us. They all look like they belong in some fashion magazine. The girl with the blonde hair who can’t stop clinging to Ivan is Melissa. No one knows if she and Ivan are dating, but she’s always around him. The stereotypical Queen and King.

  “Yeah, I can’t wait until this year is up and we can get out of here and move on with our lives.”

  “Moving on, is that what you think will happen?” Toby scoffs.

  “Kill the pessimism.”

  “It’s not pessimism, it’s pragmaticism.” He replies with a heavy sigh. “People like us usually spend our high school years believing that everything will change once we get out into the real world.” He picks up his red and black backpack. “But let’s face it if we can’t change now then when will we?” He asks but doesn’t stay to hear my answer.

  But I don’t have an answer to give him, not one that will make him happy. All I know how to do is keep my eyes on my future prize, and that prize is Alexandre Pfeiffer École de Patisserie. The most prestigious pastry school one can get into. They only take twenty students for two years. I already applied and sent in a ten-minute video of my current pastry making skills. If all goes well, they’ll contact me for an interview.

  Toby, on the other hand, hasn’t had his eye on any college, I think his dad wants to move to the countryside to help on the family farm and Toby doesn’t seem too happy about that.

  Rei speedily sashays through the hall, the short red plaid skirt swaying with each step, his white shirt half opened at the collar, the small red plaid tie hanging loose. Behind him was Mr. Thomas, old, balding, with glasses, and a tweed suit and trying his best to stop him.

  “Stop it right there, young man!” Mr. Thomas calls out to Rei, who doesn’t stop until he hides behind me. Rei and I had been friends since my freshmen year at my previous school, we met the brief moment our mothers threw us in Karate classes together, we both quit around the same time, and he was a part of the reasons why I switched to this school.

  “Protect me!” He says, using me as a shield. His small lips are light pink, well the bottom lip is. He must have gotten caught putting on the makeup. “Class is over, I can wear whatever I want!”

  “What the heck am I supposed to do?” I scramble about. Seriously, Rei is in need of an alpha protector and that I am not.

  “
Not on school grounds.” Mr. Thomas yells, that vein popping up the center of his skull.

  “He’s right, it is after class and if he’s about to leave…”

  “Shut up!” Mr. Thomas shut down my defense.

  “I like the girl’s uniform better!” Rei peeks from behind me.

  “That’s it, I’m a Capricorn, I’m not chasing you all over this school, they do not pay me enough for this crap.” Mr. Thomas rants while raising the church hands. “You have detention.”

  “For wearing a dress after school?”

  “Yes, and for giving me a headache.”

  “Transphobe.” Rei points an accusatory finger at the man.

  “What?!” Mr. Thomas replies incredulously. “You said you weren’t trans.”

  Rei shrugs.

  “Detention, now.”

  Rei rolls his blue eyes. “Fine.”

  “I’m not the alpha warrior you’ve been looking for,” I say with an amusing chuckle.

  “I know, I was supposed to disappear behind your muscles on top of muscles. Too bad.” He poohs-poohs.

  Ah, this is why we’re friends.

  And if Mr. Thomas’s day couldn’t get worse, a crumpled ball of paper fly at his head.

  “Who the hell threw that?!” He glares at the popular kids and points out the obvious culprit. Xander, tall and built like a brick shit house, half Asian demi-god. If every King needed a right hand, then the right hand to Ivan was Xander. He was just as wealthy; his father owned a major tech company that was a rival company to Ivan’s brother. I guess there’s no bad blood between them. “Xander, come here now!”

  Xander laughs and saunters over, easily looking down on the man both physically and with pure attitude.