Streak - 25. Chapter 25

October 27, 2002

Escorial

Will

We all watched Grand walk out of the dining room, saying nothing as he did. But even though he was gone, our tempers hadn’t abated. I turned my attention back to the food in front of me, and started eating, even though I could feel Stef glaring at me. I finally glanced up and made eye contact with him, and that spurred him to talk to me. “We planned a lovely celebration for your aunt’s birthday, and you have ruined it!”

“I’m sorry if I ruined your birthday,” I said to Aunt Claire, even though she didn’t seem all that upset about it.

“You did nothing of the sort,” she said, so adamantly it surprised me.

“Well you ruined it for me,” Stef said.

“Grand’s been moping around here for the last week,” I said to them all, and then zeroed in on Stef. “Did you know what he was upset about?”

“I will not be interrogated by you,” he said. I had never seen him quite this angry, but there was no way I was backing down on this topic.

“So you two knew what was bothering him, and you just let it sit there and fester?” I demanded, calling them on treating him pretty callously. “Well now we know why. He’s upset because you two,” I said, gesturing at him and my father, “are climbing into bed with scumballs.”

“We are not doing that!” Dad said, with the volume just below a yell.

“You’re a couple of robber barons,” I said, just to piss them off even more. It worked.

Before either Stef or my father could really lose it, Aunt Claire intervened and spoke directly to them. “I have not questioned your investment decisions in the past, and I will not question them now. The rights or wrongs of that are for you two to discern.”

“Thank you,” Stef said crisply, and gave me almost a smarmy look. Sometimes it seemed like JJ was rubbing off on him more than the other way around.

“But it is unfair to blame Will for upsetting Daddy,” she continued. “He has been grumpy and moody, and thanks to Will’s prodding, the rest of us now know why.” It was easy to detect that she was annoyed with them for keeping this whole thing hidden; only she was a lot nicer about it than I was.

“I am not upset that he got JP to communicate, I am upset that he is treating me so rudely and with so little respect,” Stef said, even as he glared back at me.

“So when we go to war, and the dead bodies of the soldiers who were sent there start coming back, how should I ask you how you feel about being involved with that in a pleasant and respectful way?” I asked. He said nothing, but just tried to vaporize me with his eyes.

“I would like you to review the trusts you manage for me,” Aunt Claire said, “and remove any defense related companies from those portfolios. And I would prefer not to have a position in Halliburton.”

“It may be difficult to eliminate your position in Triton,” Dad said. “And if we did, there would be considerable tax implications.”

“Grand isn’t upset about Triton, he’s upset that you guys are actually investing more in those industries. It’s like you’re determined to cash in on this war,” I said.

“Will is right. Leave Triton there. I will trust you to make sure the company is not funding this drive to war,” Claire said.

“Very well,” Stef said, and then refocused on me. “And we will do the same thing for you. Will that make you happy?”

“I appreciate you doing that,” I said through clenched teeth. I was too pissed off to stay at the table. I stood up and put my napkin on my plate much as Grand had. “But that won’t make me happy. I will be happy when you two find your souls.”

“I have done nothing to feel guilty about!” Dad said loudly.

“You have explained to me that when you invest in a company, you are going into business with them. You have told me in the past that it is like a partnership. So by investing in those companies, you are partnering with those people.”

“That applies to funding new ventures, not buying stock in existing companies to diversify a portfolio,” Dad said. I stared at him, damning that as a lame excuse, but I was too angry to talk about this further.

“If people are killed in Iraq, their blood will be on your hands,” I said to Dad and Stef firmly, then turned and walked out of the room. I went to Grand’s study, assuming he’d be there. I knocked, got no response, and then knocked again. “Enter,” he said in an annoyed voice.

I went in and shut the doors behind me. “Are you alright?”

He gave me an unpleasant look. “Did you want something?”

“I’m sorry that I annoyed you, but you’ve been moping around here, and it seemed important for all of us to know why. And it turned out to be very important.”

“I was not moping,” he said.

“Maybe a better word would have been pouting,” I said, smiling as I teased him.

“At least I didn’t whine,” he said. That made both of us laugh, and got rid of the tension.

I sat down, even though he hadn’t asked me to, but he came over and joined me in the seating area, so I guess that was as good as an invitation. “You know, I try to forget about things in the past that have pissed me off,” I said. “I think that’s part of forgiving someone.”

“Some things are difficult to forget,” he noted, more to urge me on than anything.

I nodded. “This whole thing takes me back to the situation in Norway.” That had been at JJ’s skating competition in Hamar, where Dad and Stef had tried to sweep that whole nightmare with JJ’s guard, Michael, under the rug. Michael had taken pictures of Shane Jackson sucking my dick, and of JJ masturbating, but rather than risk a scandal, Dad let Michael resign and didn’t press charges. Just like then, they’d let concerns about business, in that case, their reputations, stop them from doing the right thing.

“I can see the similarities, in that business interests clouded Stefan and your father’s minds to the point that they put the moral aspects of it aside,” he said.

“Maybe they’re like this country. Maybe they don’t learn from their mistakes,” I said, making a macabre joke.

“Perhaps,” he said, smiling weakly. “I think they will understand eventually. It is disturbing that they have not been able to grasp it yet, but I think it is only fair to give them some time to think it through.”

“Didn’t you already talk to Stef about this?” I asked.

“I did,” he said.

“Then they’ve already had some time to think about it.”

“Maybe they need more,” he said, smiling ruefully, and sparking a similar expression from me.

I thought about what he said. “Yeah, I get that, but it seems so obvious to me. And now that it’s been pointed out to them, shouldn’t that be the moment that they understand?”

“I think Stefan was a bit too angry to think clearly.”

“My dad is like that too, where he’s too pissed off to listen,” I said. “And before you tell me that it’s my fault for being confrontational, when Aunt Claire asked them not to include companies like that in her trusts that should have been a pretty good signal.” That seemed to surprise him.

“I am glad she could see the basic problem,” he said, then seemed nervous that he’d spoken those words.

“You didn’t think she would?”

He sighed. “There are times when it seems that to her, appearances are more important than substance. I am just saying I am glad this is not one of those times.”

“So am I,” I said. I left him alone, knowing that he’d want some solitude, and headed back to my room.

I had about ten minutes of time to myself before Zach came into the room. “Hey,” he said cautiously.

“Hey,” I said, and smiled at him. “I’m sorry I left you there. I was too pissed off to stick around.”

“It was probably a good decision,” he said noncommittally. “Stef and your dad left shortly after you did, and then things were pretty pleasant.”

“I guess we fucked up Aunt Claire’s birthday.”

He shrugged. “She didn’t seem all that upset about it. After all you guys were gone, she said she was glad that she found out what was bothering your grandfather.”

“So am I.”

“Do you really think it’s that big a deal, owning stock in a company? I mean, shit, isn’t it about the investment, about whether it makes money?” It annoyed me that he was as mercenary as my father and Stef. Then again, I’d had to acknowledge that he could be pretty hardcore with people other than me. Ironically enough, that’s one of the things that had most attracted me to him.

“I’ve grown up with this, and I’ve watched my dad and Stef fund all kinds of companies. One of the biggest things they take into consideration is who they’re going into business with, and what the company does,” I explained.

“You’re trying to tell me that everyone at Exxon and Halliburton is evil?”

“What Grand was saying is that the fortunes of those companies are part of the equation dragging us into a war. So if you invest in them, every dime you make has blood on it,” I said.

“I don’t think most people look at it that way,” he said.

“They’re not most people,” I told him, referring to Dad and Stef.

“That’s for sure,” he joked, cracking me up, and then he looked at his watch. “We leave in about half an hour.”

“Want to make good use of that time?” I asked with a leer.

“Fuck yeah,” he said, and we spent 20 minutes on a sexual extravaganza, and then took the last ten minutes to get ourselves put together.

We walked up to the entry hall to find Frank and Grandmaman waiting for us. Stef and my father stood off to the side, giving me foul looks. “Time to go,” Frank said curtly.

Grand came out and we all said goodbye, and ushered them out the front door and into Frank’s Mercedes. These goodbyes used to be hard on me, but now that I had my license, I could go up and see Zach during the week, so things were a lot easier.

“I think we will be going as well,” Aunt Claire said. John and Marie had already gone home, so it was just she and Uncle Jack who were leaving.

“Happy birthday,” Stef said, and gave her a hug and kisses on her cheek. “I am sorry some people opted to ruin it for you.”

He was being so bitchy, that instead of pissing me off, it just seemed ridiculous. I rolled my eyes at him, which just made him angrier. I gave her a hug as well, and saw the twinkle in her eyes. “I’m sorry I made a scene at your dinner.”

“I think that sharing issues that were bothering Daddy, and lurking beneath the surface, was an excellent birthday present,” she said.

“At least some of us got clarity,” I said with a smile, even as I tossed a smarmy look at Stef and my father. She chuckled with me, and then they were gone, leaving me, Stef, Grand, and my father standing on the portico.

“I will be ready to leave in an hour,” Stef said to my father, then gave Grand and me a final dirty look and flounced off.

Grand looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “You’re leaving?” I asked my father.

“We’ve got meetings in Connecticut, so we’re going to New York for the week, to spend some time with the other robber barons,” he snapped.

“They’re running away and pouting,” I said to Grand, which just about set my father free, and taxed Grand’s stoicism, since he was trying hard not to laugh. I stood there, waiting for Dad to really let me have it, but he seemed to think better of it, and stormed off to his own room to pack up his things. Grand patted me on the back, and then we both went off to our own caves, as it were: he to his study, and I to my room.

October 28, 2002

Boston, MA

JJ

“That was a truly fantastic concert,” Alex said as we strode out of Symphony Hall and into our waiting limo.

“I agree,” I said, enjoying this time with him. Ever since he’d met me in Spokane, I’d been on top of the world. I’d kicked ass on my free skate, and won my first international gold medal. I had announced to the entire world that I was back, and that I was one of the best skaters in the world. And the time we spent together had been just as idyllic. “I think I liked this better than Verdi.”

“It is hard to beat Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven,” he said with a nod. We got back to the house, and I was anxious to get up to our floor and get naked with Alex, but Matt and Wade were waiting to talk to us. It was like they were determined to make a habit out of cock-blocking me.

“Good evening,” Wade said pleasantly.

“It certainly is,” Alex said. “The symphony was wonderful.”

“I’m glad,” Wade said, but only to be polite. “I wanted to talk to you both for a minute.” Alex looked a little alarmed, although I had no idea why.

“What’s up?” I asked, wanting them to get to the point.

“I’m making plans for Thanksgiving, and wanted to know what you two were planning to do,” Wade said.

Alex and I looked at each other somewhat blankly. “I am not attuned to your customs surrounding this holiday,” Alex said.

“We celebrate the survival of the first winter by the pilgrims who came over here on the Mayflower to escape British oppression,” Wade explained in a jocular way. “They were able to survive, thanks largely to help from the Native Americans.”

“Ah yes,” Alex said, in the same playful tone. “We dispatched some of our craziest, fundamentally religious people over here, and were glad to be rid of them. It seems as if that brand of religion has thrived here.”

“Unfortunately,” Matt said ruefully.

“And I suspect the Native Americans have spent countless hours lamenting the help they provided,” Alex said.

“I suspect they have,” Wade said, and we all chuckled.

“I haven’t really thought about my plans,” I said, to get us back on topic, so we could finish this conversation and I could get laid.

“I have spoken to your father and JP, and offered to host Thanksgiving at Goodwell. They were fine with that. I wanted to make sure that would be alright with both of you,” Wade said.

“That would be a lot more convenient than flying all the way to California,” I said, more of a stream of consciousness.

“I thought so too,” Wade said. “I assumed that we’d all be at Escorial for Christmas. Alex, you are more than welcome to join us then too.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I think that I should go back to England for the holiday break,” he said. I felt my heart sink, knowing how much I’d miss him when he was gone.

“You can think about that if you want to,” Wade said. “In the meantime, I’ll make plans for us to head to Goodwell for Thanksgiving.”

“That sounds great,” Alex said. I just nodded my head. We walked to the elevator and got in, and I pushed the button, sighing with relief that I’d gotten past them. “I am assuming my going to Goodwell with you is a good thing?”

“Duh,” I said, getting an eyeroll from him. We got to his room, got naked, and blew each other. After we were done, Alex collapsed onto his back while I lay on my side, my head propped up slightly, while he tilted his head sideways to look at me. It was after he’d just cum, at times like this, that his feelings were most genuine. I was getting pretty good at reading him, and it was pretty obvious that he was nervous about something. “Something is bugging you.”

He looked as if he were going to argue with me, and then changed his mind. “I feel a need to clarify the status of our relationship.” He was being relatively terse and his tone more than the words cut into me. He was going to break up with me. He must have been nice to me just to help me through Spokane. But just as I could sense his mood, he must have picked up on my rising panic. “I am very happy being with you.”

That made me blink, since I wasn’t expecting that. My mood soared. “I’m very happy with you, too.”

“We don’t really have a formal commitment, one that says we can or cannot be with other people,” he stated. We didn’t, but I’d just assumed that we did. I wasn’t sure what to think about that. But before I could let myself freak out over that, a part of my brain clicked in, redirecting my thoughts into a much more productive direction.

“I can’t do that,” I said, feigning innocence. “I can’t be with another person if I’m dating someone, or at least I don’t think I could. You’re really the first guy I’ve been with.” He brushed his hand across my cheek affectionately, in a way that he did when I was acting like a virgin, which was pretty cool, because that way I knew it was working.

“I feel the same way,” he said. “But I am relatively, well, unrestrained about sex unless I have a commitment to someone else.” And then I began to figure out where he was going with this. Amazingly enough, I managed to keep my temper under control.

“Have you been with someone since we’ve been going out?”

“I have,” he said. My first instinct was to ask him who it was, but I didn’t really want to know. On the other hand, what if he fucked around with Matt or Wade, or even both of them? What if Will actually slept with him? I ruled that out. Will was too honest to lie to me about that.

“I don’t know how to feel about that,” I said, more to stall for time.

“I worry that I’m hurting you by telling you this, when I’m doing it for what I hope is a positive purpose.”

“You fucked someone else,” I snapped, finally letting my bitchiness out. “How is that positive?”

“By telling you, I can put it behind me, and us. And I can hopefully convince you that the smart thing is for us to be an exclusive couple,” he said.

That blew my mind. I didn’t see him going there at all. “You want to just be with me?” I asked stupidly.

“I do,” he said it as if it were a wedding vow. “Do you?”

I smiled at him. What difference did it make that he fucked someone else. That was a small price to pay to have him all to myself. “I do.”

“Then we must consummate our union,” he said, in a very seductive way. I wondered if that meant he was going to fuck me. I had no problem with that at all, even though it made me nervous, since I’d never done it before.

He rolled me onto my back, and began to kiss my lips, a kiss that became very passionate. We were getting really good at that. He broke off our contact, and began working his way down my torso, using just his fingertips and his mouth. I felt him going lower and lower, the tingles flying up and down my spine. His mouth enveloped my cock, and I gave myself over to the pleasure of it. He worked me for a while, then pulled off and went lower, sucking on my balls. I moaned in pleasure, even as he pushed my legs back and moved lower, until I felt him rimming me. He really was going to fuck me. Holy shit!

Then he abruptly let my legs down and pulled out a condom wrapper. I watched him take it out, even as I grimaced over this blatant sign that he’d been with someone. I shoved that thought into the background, since I was glad he’d told me instead of having unprotected sex with me. Before I went down that tortuous road, he straddled me, but I stopped him. In my family, you learn a lot about anal sex, even if you don’t want to. I knew that unless I got him ready, it would really hurt. That almost sparked a really unpleasant memory, but I managed to get his ass in my face before that happened. I dove in, rimming him like he had me, only more intently. He handed me the lube, and I began to work it into him, stretching him out.

He seemed to think I’d done enough, and turned around and started squatting over me again. He lined my dick up and I felt the head pressing against his ring, until finally with a ‘pop’, he took my whole dick. He moaned and grimaced in pain, so I lay still and just played with his dick. This did not seem like fun. He gently began to slide up and down, and that sparked another bad memory. I was transported back to the time after practice, when my coach had forced me to fuck Shane Jackson. I remembered seeing him crying, even as I caused the pain by driving into his ass. Alex moved forward and kissed my neck. “I have to go a bit slow, as this is only the second time I’ve done this,” Alex whispered in my ear, and then all thoughts of Shane Jackson vanished. Now I was with Alex, feeling his ass wrapped around my dick as he slowly rode up and down.

I watched as he went up and down a few times, then got animated, then got really animated. “Oh yes!” he said. “Yes!” That was almost a shout. His cock fully hardened, and pointed at me, so I stroked it gently. I was so absorbed in his reactions; I almost ignored the stimulation of his ass. He began going faster, moaning more, until he finally let out a really loud moan and began to cum. And as intense as the fuck had been, and as intense as his moans had been, I’d never seen him have anything as intense as that orgasm. It seemed like he came forever. Seeing him shoot his load like that finally sent me over the edge, so right after he finished, I came. He gamely let me keep thrusting into him, let me finish, in an orgasm that was really good, but nothing like the one he’d just had.

“That was pretty amazing,” I said. He seemed almost flustered, so I spooned up behind him, wrapping my arms around him. We didn’t say anything for a while, then he turned around and lay on his back, and we were much as we’d been before we fucked.

“I have never experienced anything like that,” he said, making my ego soar.

“Neither have I,” I said, which was true, since I’d never enjoyed fucking someone until now.

“You seemed to know what you were doing,” he said.

I grimaced, and remembered Will’s words, about not trusting Alex with the secret of my molestation until he opened up to me. He let me fuck him, so I’d say that was pretty open. “I’ve done that once before,” I told him. “It wasn’t a good experience.”

“I’m sorry,” he said sympathetically.

“My coach forced me to fuck another skater,” I said, letting it out there.

“Your coach was molesting you?” he asked and was really upset, but I couldn’t tell if it was concern for me, or anger at my coach. I nodded. “What did he do to you?”

I stared at him, opened my mouth, but I couldn’t talk. “Stuff,” I said, which sounded lame, incredibly lame.

“Did he penetrate you?”

“No,” I said. “That’s what he was bugging me to do, around the time when he was killed, but I couldn’t go there.”

He relaxed a bit, and that irritated me. He’d been freaked out, worrying that I’d been deflowered, but as soon as he found out I was still an ass virgin, he was fine with it. Rather than go postal on him like Will would have, I channeled my emotions, remembering how badly I wanted to be with him. I didn’t want to fight with him. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he said, finally getting a grip on himself. His words gave me the rope to pull myself out of my bitchy mood.

“It was pretty awful,” I said somberly, then perked up. “But being with you almost erases it.”

“I’m glad,” he said.

October 30, 2002

Boston, MA

Wade

Matt came walking into the bedroom just as I finished closing up his suitcase. “Thanks for packing my stuff up,” he said with a grateful smile. “A lot less ironing to do in Sydney.”

“I’ll have to teach you how to pack,” I said.

“Waste of time,” he replied dismissively. “I have you to do it. And since you’ll always be with me, there’s no need for me to learn.”

“Good point,” I said, and gave him a nice kiss.

“I should get going,” he said, looking at his watch.

“You have seven more minutes before the limo picks you up,” I joked, being OCD specific.

“How do you want to spend that time?” he asked with a leer, but he was only joking, because we’d just made love this morning, and we didn’t have that much time.

“Talking,” I told him.

He got nervous. “Wade, I promise I won’t sleep with him,” he said, referring to Hammer.

“You promised me you wouldn’t, so I know you won’t,” I told him, and found that I meant it. “But you are going to be at the gay version of the Olympics, and there are going to be some amazingly hot dudes there.”

“Yeah, there are. So what?” he asked defensively.

“If you want your freedom while you’re in Sydney, I’m OK with that,” I said, and managed to do it while sounding nonchalant.

“You think I can’t control myself?” he asked, all pissed off. This wasn’t going the way I wanted to.

“I know you can, but I want you to have fun and enjoy yourself,” I said. Before he could respond, the house phone rang. I sighed, and picked it up.

“Mr. Matt’s car is here,” Josetta told me. I thanked her, and then told Matt his ride had arrived.

He gave me a frustrated look. “Ride to the airport with me.”

I thought that seemed like a dumb idea, but then again, I didn’t want to leave this conversation unfinished. I had the time. “Alright.” That surprised him, because it was pretty spontaneous of me.

He lugged his suitcase out to the car and the driver stowed it in the trunk. We confirmed the flight info, and then put up the privacy screen.

“So what’s this all about?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Like I said, this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. I’m secure enough with us to be OK with you messing around with another dude.”

He smiled, then leaned in and gave me a nice kiss. “Thanks, but I’d rather not.” I looked at him, confused. “If I can fuck around with other people, that means you can too, and I don’t think I can handle sharing you.”

I shook my head. “I won’t do that. I’m saying I’m fine if you want to fuck around with someone, but I’m not going to.”

“That’s not my plan, but thanks for giving me clearance,” he said, then read my mind. “And no, I still won’t sleep with Hammer.”

“I know,” I said, reassuring him yet again.

We sat there together in the limo, neither one of us saying anything until we pulled into Logan. “That was a really nice thing for you to do,” he said sincerely.

“Is it worth a gold medal?”

“It’s worth a gold medal,” he said. We put down the privacy screen.

“Can you take me back home?” I asked the driver.

He looked flustered. “I’m picking up another passenger, Mr. Danfield. I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine,” I said. I jumped out of the car with Matt, who paid the guy, then went into the terminal with him.

“That sucks,” Matt said, referring to me losing my ride.

“There are cabs,” I said. That was an easy problem to solve.

Most of the guys were flying out today, since you lost time going east. They’d actually arrive on the morning of November 1, one day before the games started. My instructions had been explicit, and they’d all done what I told them and had gotten here early. Hammer saw me and gave me a cocky look, even as he walked up to the counter. He looked at Matt and blew him a kiss, enraging Matt.

“Relax,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. I felt the tension ebb from his body.

“Dude, you’re supposed to be fighting for me,” he joked.

“I am,” I said, but it was more of a question. I hadn’t seen anything to indicate that my mother was fulfilling her side of our bargain.

Hammer walked up to the counter and handed the agent his passport. She looked slightly alarmed, but then began keying things into the computer. About two minutes later, four airport security guards strode confidently forward and grabbed Hammer. “Come with us,” the leader said.

“What the fuck is this?” Hammer demanded. They spun him around and cuffed him, and he had the sense to not resist.

“You’re on the No Fly list,” the cop said.

“I’m no fucking terrorist!” he shouted.

“Then why are you on the list, asshole?” the cop asked. Hammer glanced over at me, and I just smiled at him. Only my mother could have arranged for him to end up on this list. He’d be interrogated for a long time.

“I’m gonna miss my flight,” Hammer said, sounding dejected.

“Looks like it,” the cop said, as they led him off.

“Dude,” Matt said, looking at me.

“My mother is good at being evil,” I said, shaking my head.

“As long as she doesn’t turn her evil on us again,” he said.

“I have magical powers to deflect her,” I joked. “Have a good trip.”

“I’ll see you on November 10^th.”

“You will,” I said. I gave him one last hug, and then took a cab home.