Streak - 39. Chapter 39

November 30, 2002

Goodwell, VA

Wade

I watched the huge Suburban limo as it drove off toward Charlottesville airport, taking the bulk of our Thanksgiving revelers with it. Yesterday had been a very calm day, and as far as I knew, Mary Ellen and Alex still hadn’t made any definitive plans. There had been no discussion about their situation, or Mary Ellen’s baby, we’d just focused on trying to have a good time. But now the crew was gone, and that left Goodwell occupied by the key players in Mary Ellen’s drama. Alex, Matt, JJ and I were here, along with Tiffany, Mary Ellen, my mother, and Nana.

“That didn’t turn out like you planned,” Nana said unnecessarily, as she stood next to me.

“It did not.”

“What’s going to happen with Alex and Mary Ellen?”

“I haven’t heard anything yet, but my guess is that they’ll try to work out a way for Alex and Mary Ellen to get married, so her child is a legitimate heir to Alex,” I said.

“Haven’t they talked about it yet?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “No one has said anything to me. Mary Ellen has spent a lot of time with Mother, so God only knows what those two have dreamed up.”

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good,” she said. “I’m sure your mother is just dying to get involved in this whole thing.”

“What would her role be?” I asked, to lead Nana down the train of thought I needed her to travel.

“Well, she’s the mother of the bride.”

I nodded. “That gives her a place at the wedding, and maybe planning it, but not before then.”

“You don’t think she’ll be the one who sits down with the Duke and hammers things out?”

“I don’t think she’ll be the one who does that,” I told her. “You will.”

“Me?”

I smiled. “Yes, you. In order for a deal to work, Mary Ellen has to bring a chunk of money to the table. You’re the one with all the cash.”

Nana laughed at that. “If I were still in the nursing home, your mother would have handled this whole thing. Now she has to let me get involved. That’s bound to piss her off.”

“I’m hoping,” I joked. “If they approach me on the topic, I plan to tell them that you’re the one who needs to be involved.”

“Let’s see if we can get a plan put together this weekend,” she said. “I’ll need your help, and you’ll be busy when you get back to Boston.”

“I will,” I agreed.

I walked inside and Nana headed off to her room. I found Matt in the kitchen, which was no surprise. It seemed like he and I spent most of our time at home either in the bedroom or the kitchen. “It was nice seeing everyone, but it’s kind of a relief to have them gone.”

“No shit,” I agreed. “I was just hoping they’d all leave before something else happened.”

“When are we heading back?”

“I need to see how this deal goes with Mary Ellen and Alex, and JJ’s going to want to be here too. I think you should get comfortable. I’m betting we’re not home until tomorrow night.”

“Want to get comfortable with me?” he asked suggestively. I grinned at that, and we both began to eat our food pretty fast. I was just about to escape with him when Alex came in.

“I have been looking for you,” he said to me.

“You found me,” I said cheerfully.

“Mary Ellen asked me to meet with her to discuss our situation. It is her intention to have your mother there. They will thus outnumber me, so I was wondering if you would join me.”

“Your mother is the dragon,” Matt joked. “You’re the dragon slayer.” That was actually pretty funny.

“Where are we meeting?”

“In the library,” he said.

“I’ll be right there.” I watched him walk off, and then turned to Matt. “I’m sorry I can’t get comfortable with you.”

“Find me when you’re done,” he said, in his sultry voice, sending my hormones into overdrive. “I’m going to go check up on JJ.”

“Good idea,” I said. I strode through the familiar halls and rooms and entered the library, where I found Alex, my mother, and Mary Ellen sitting in chairs around a coffee table.

“Wade,” my mother said crisply, to acknowledge my presence and to let me know she didn’t want me there.

“Mother,” I said in the same tone.

“What brings you in here?” Mary Ellen asked.

“I asked Wade to sit in with us. He is a good friend, and I would like his input,” Alex said. Neither my mother nor Mary Ellen liked that, but there wasn’t much they could do about it.

“I’m sure you’ll be handy to have around,” Mary Ellen said insincerely. I said nothing, but just took a seat. “So what should we do?” That was directed at Alex.

“I think that we initially had three choices, but you have already ruled out terminating your pregnancy, so that really leaves us with only two options,” Alex said.

“And what are those options?” she asked.

“We can work out an arrangement where you and I are married, and the terms of that union are mutually satisfactory,” he said. “If we can’t do that, you can still have the baby, obviously, but he or she would be illegitimate. Even though I would acknowledge the baby as my child, it would not have any standing in the UK to succeed to our peerage, or inherit assets tied to our title.”

“I think it would be better for the child if he or she weren’t a bastard, so in that case, I think we should see if we can work out an arrangement that will allow us to marry,” Mary Ellen said in a businesslike way.

“There are two parts of that,” Alex said. “The first is for you and me to work out, and that involves how we will interact with each other. The second has to do with property arrangements and the like, which will most likely be handled by my grandfather and whomever you designate.”

“I believe that would be my role,” Mother said. Mary Ellen didn’t argue with her, so clearly that was the plan all along.

“I’m wondering what you would contribute?” I asked my mother. She gave me her fearsome look, the one that had no effect on me at all.

“Someone has to make the arrangements, Wade. It will be preliminary before we get lawyers involved,” Mother said.

“In order for this marriage to go through, I am guessing that Mary Ellen is going to have to bring a sizeable dowry to the table,” I said to both of them.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Mother said.

“Really? Do you have a hundred million dollars or so to toss out there?” I asked. Mary Ellen and my mother looked shocked, as if that was way too much cash to contribute, while Alex’s posture indicated that he didn’t think it was enough.

“I have more than that in my trusts,” Mary Ellen said, being kind of bitchy.

“But you don’t control those trusts, and neither does Mother.”

“Nana does,” Mary Ellen said in a truly despondent way.

“You can’t expect a woman of her age to handle something like this,” Mother said.

“I don’t think it’s up to me, or you,” I explained. “I think it’s up to Nana. If she wants to be the one talking to Alex’s grandfather, then that’s how it will have to be.”

“In other words, you’ll handle it,” Mother said bitterly.

“I think Nana is quite capable of striking a bargain with His Grace,” I said. “And I think the Duke would feel comfortable with her, and know she was someone he could trust.”

“I would also like to point out that my grandfather is one year older than your grandmother,” Alex said. “I would avoid mentioning that she is too old to handle such affairs in front of him. He is quite sensitive about his age.” I wanted to laugh in my mother’s face. She couldn’t complain about Nana’s frailty without insulting the Duke.

“Have you talked to him about this?” I asked Alex.

“I have not,” he said. “I wanted to have this discussion first, so I could give him a more complete picture.”

“Then let’s get the other matters out of the way,” Mary Ellen said.

“While I enjoyed your company and our time together, there is no great bond pulling us together, other than the baby. I don’t feel that a normal marital agreement is appropriate under the circumstances.”

“You’re trying to tell me that you want to sleep with other people. That’s fine with me. I want the same freedom,” Mary Ellen said.

“Only you won’t have the same freedom,” Alex said. “You will have to be very restrained, and very discreet.”

“So I have to skulk in the shadows, while you can openly squire around a girlfriend or boyfriend?”

“No, both of us will have to be discreet, but you have a greater obligation than I do. You have to produce legitimate heirs, which means you will have to be careful about whom your partners are, and when you sleep with them.”

“I would imagine that your family would perform a paternity test on any child that was born,” I said.

“Indeed,” Alex agreed. “And if the child is not mine, there will be relatively expensive consequences.” In other words, Mary Ellen may find herself without a husband and a good chunk of her fortune.

“Where will we live?” Mary Ellen asked.

“I am committed to being in Boston for the next few years, but there is really no need for you to move there. I would think that if you wanted to stay in Virginia until you give birth, that would be a plausible reason for us to be separated.”

“You don’t want me in Boston, jamming your groove,” she said in a snarky way.

“I don’t,” he said. He was being very direct, and very businesslike. “After the child is born, especially if it is a male, he must be raised primarily in Britain.”

“Which means that I have to move to London,” she said, pretending to be grumpy about it, when she wasn’t.

“Not necessarily,” he said. “The child will undoubtedly spend much of his or her time at a boarding school once it is older, as is the custom for children such as ours. Before then, it is reasonable to expect that nurses will provide the primary care, so if you wanted to absent yourself for a period of time, that should not be a problem.”

“So you’re telling me that I can have babies, leave them with you along with a pot of money, and run off and do whatever I want?” she asked.

“As long as you don’t cause the family undue embarrassment,” Alex said.

“And what if I want to be involved in his or her life? What if I want to raise this baby myself?”

“Then you would have to move to England, but you would still have nurses to handle primary care.”

“This baby will be half American,” Mary Ellen pointed out. “I think it’s important for him or her to spend time in this country as well.”

“I am not opposed to that, as long as he or she primarily resides in England. I would submit that is what holidays are for.”

“We call them vacations,” Mary Ellen said, in a slightly smarmy way.

“I would expect that if we can work out a marriage arrangement, it will have to happen quickly, probably within the next two months,” Alex said. “That means you will probably need to spend some time in London, acclimating yourself to our environment.”

“And how will I do that?”

“We will have someone coach you on how to act, and how to conduct yourself in our social circles,” Alex said. I found his attitude condescending and grating, while Mary Ellen was just as furious. Alex picked up on that. “Ponder that I will have to do the same thing, so I do not embarrass you in front of your friends.” That took the sting out of his original statement. I remembered how he’d explained the protocol when I’d met William and Harry. It was not a matter of having good manners; it was a matter of understanding country-specific customs.

“You think I will embarrass you? You’re ashamed of me?” she demanded.

“I think it’s reasonable to think you may make an error, since you aren’t familiar with our forms and customs,” he said smoothly, voicing the same thing I’d been thinking. “I would think you’d rather feel comfortable, so you could more smoothly fit in.”

“I socialized with many of your friends this summer,” I pointed out to Alex. “I didn’t seem to unduly embarrass you.”

“You did not,” Alex said, and smiled at me. “You conducted yourself in a manner that made it seem like you belonged in our group. But you were not my wife.”

“Are you sure about that?” Mary Ellen asked, giving me shit.

“And that would be an example of inappropriate behavior,” Alex said to her, in his bitchiest tone. He turned on his heel and left the room abruptly.

“I think you just had your first fight,” I said to Mary Ellen, making her laugh.

“They’re usually more memorable than that,” she said.

“I cannot believe you are inserting Nana into this negotiation,” Mother said, changing the subject, and showing me just how annoyed she was that she wouldn’t be the lynchpin to this whole thing.

“I did not insert her, she was already in charge, you just didn’t recognize reality,” I said in a crisp way. “I think she’ll do a better job than you would, anyway.”

“And why is that, Wade?” Mary Ellen asked, mostly because she was enjoying watching me really piss off our mother, and she was trying to egg me on. I obliged her.

“The Duke of Suffolk is a very refined gentleman, and an honorable man. I think that Nana would be able to discuss this with him, Matriarch to Patriarch, and come up with a solution everyone is pleased with,” I said.

“I could have accomplished that much more easily,” Mother said.

“No, you couldn’t,” I said. “You would try to bargain with him, and attempt to extract concessions from him, and you’d use all the dirty tricks in your arsenal to do it. The poor man would probably be assaulted by damn near everyone in the British establishment. And all you would do is antagonize him, and create an adversarial relationship.” I wasn’t watching my mother, I was watching Mary Ellen, and I could tell that I’d guessed exactly what my mother’s plan was. “And in the end, I’ll bet you’d end up with a worse deal.”

We were interrupted when Alex walked back into the room. “I was wondering if you’d fancy going for a ride?” he asked Mary Ellen.

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Mother said. She was clearly nervous about leaving the two of them alone, where they might work out a deal without her input. “You are pregnant.”

That was a ridiculous reason, so Mary Ellen embarrassed her by laughing. “I would love to,” she said to Alex, and the two of them left.

“Just because you hate your sister, that is no reason to drain her trust,” my mother said, using her vicious whisper.

“I don’t hate my sister; I’ve actually grown to almost like her. And I certainly am not trying to drain her trust. What’s in this for you, Mother?” I asked suspiciously.

“I’m just doing my job, Wade, looking out for our family,” she said, then gave me a parting dirty look and strode out of the room. I rolled my eyes, and went up to my room to get comfortable with Matt.

JJ

I put another five pounds on the leg press and started to do another set of reps. The gym here at Goodwell wasn’t as nice as the one at Escorial, but it was still pretty slick. When I wasn’t on the ice, I made a point to work out, and it had helped me more evenly build my muscles. This afternoon, I was focusing on my legs, willing them to lift the weights one more time, when I heard that familiar and pleasant voice.

“There you are Jays,” Alex said enthusiastically. He looked at the machine and raised his eyebrows. “That is a lot of weight.”

“Sometimes strong things come in small packages,” I said, and winked at him. I hated that I was short, so the fact that I joked about it was another sign of how much I liked him. “Did you need something?”

“I need to have a conversation with you, but seeing you in these skimpy gym clothes is making me need something entirely different.” I giggled, because he was funny and because he liked it when I did.

“We can do both of those things,” I said, and released the weights with a somewhat loud crash. We walked back to our room together, even as I wiped the sweat off my face with a towel. “I need a shower.”

“Would you like some company?”

“I would love your company,” I said. We took a shower and it was wonderful. We kissed under the pounding water jets for a long time, and then we blew each other. We both pulled on boxers and sat on the couch in the sitting area.

“Have you ever had sex with a woman?” I just blinked at him. That question was totally not what I was expecting. But this gave me another chance to be virginal, so I grabbed it.

“No, I haven’t,” I said shyly, and even managed to make myself blush slightly.

“Would you like to?”

“I really only want to be with you,” I told him honestly. He looked disappointed, which surprised me. “Alex, if you want me to do something, I’ll probably do it,” I said gently, with a slightly submissive tone.

He smiled. “I went for a ride with Mary Ellen. It was nice, and we have hammered out an arrangement that I think will work.”

“OK,” I said nervously.

“I told her about us.”

“You told her about us?” I asked him, outraged, but then I calmed down. We were sharing a bedroom, so it wouldn’t be too hard for her to figure out that we were together.

“I did.” He got nervous, and swallowed hard. “The topic of the three of us having sex came up.”

My mind raced as I tried to not just grapple with that, but to try to think about how to play it off. Did I want to sleep with Mary Ellen? She wasn’t my type, because she was so slutty, but she was also smoking hot. The thought of being with her was slightly erotic, but the thought of being with her with Alex was at a whole other level. Should I be the loyal boyfriend who would do anything to satisfy my man, or should I be prudish and act revolted? I decided to do both. “That’s pretty freaky,” I said, acting like he had asked me to do something really kinky. I pretended to be all bent out of shape, even as I watched his reaction. And just when he was about to get upset and backpedal, I stopped him. “But it might be fun. As long as I’m with you, I’d be willing to try it.”

He got a huge grin on his face. “You are just spectacular Jays. I think it would be fun, and I personally would be honored to be with you when you have sex with your first woman.” I smiled back, happy mostly because I’d played this off perfectly. Yet another one of my cherries he’d get.

“So how is this going to work with Mary Ellen?”

“We have agreed, at least for the time being, to have a very close group of partners with whom we can have sex.”

“Who are these people, and how does that work?” I was starting to get upset again. Did this mean that our pledge of monogamy was off completely?

“There are three people. You, me, and Mary Ellen.”

“So it’s like all three of us are getting married?” He was blowing my mind with this shit.

“In a sense, yes, although Mary Ellen may want to broaden her horizons in the future,” he said. I said nothing, even as I processed things. “Are you alright with that?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I put my hand on his shoulder so he could feel how much I cared about him. “To be honest, I was completely happy just being with you. And I really wasn’t expecting this, so it’s kind of a surprise.”

“We don’t have to do this,” he said, reversing himself because he was worried that he’d taken me too far out there: too far into the land of kink.

“Alex, just give me a little time to process this, OK?”

“Sure Jays,” then he got really nervous. “I need to phone my grandfather.”

I gave him a really nice, loving kiss. “Good luck.” I took my phone and found a private alcove, something that was pretty easy to do in this massive house. I called Stef’s number, thinking he’d be the best guy for sex advice, but he didn’t answer. I stared at the phone, and reluctantly dialed Will.

“Hey,” he answered, sounding irritated.

“Hi,” I responded. “I called to ask you about something.”

“What?”

“It’s about sex,” I said nervously.

“Awesome!” I rolled my eyes at him and his idiocy.

“Alex wants to set it up so that the three of us, he, Mary Ellen, and I, can have sex with each other,” I said, cringing.

“How do you feel about that?” he asked. I was expecting more of his bullshit bravado, but he was actually serious.

“I don’t know,” I said. “That’s why I called you.”

“Dude, here’s my take on shit like that. When the person you’re with asks you to do something that’s a little bit freaky, unless it grosses you out completely, you should at least try it.” I didn’t say anything, as I thought about what he said. “It takes a lot of guts to even suggest shit like that, so Alex is probably a little whacked out that you didn’t go for it right away.”

“I can see that,” I said.

“Do you like Mary Ellen?”

“Not really,” I answered honestly. “But she’s definitely hot.”

“You’ve never been with a woman,” he said. I didn’t dignify that statement with an answer. “Here’s your chance to try one out, and do something for Alex at the same time. You find women attractive. I’ll bet you like it.”

“I do,” I said. Before Alex, I fantasized about women more when I jacked off than men. “I’ll think about it.”

“If you do it, and it’s weird, you don’t have to do it again,” he said.

“I’m worried I won’t like it but they will,” I said. And then I’d feel pressured to do something I didn’t want to do.

“I think that if it’s really strange, they won’t want to go back there either.” That made sense.

“Do you think if I don’t do this, I’ll lose him?” I asked.

“He’s going to marry her, and he’s offered to basically include you in that group. Dude, he’s telling you that he’s pretty into you. But if you turn him down, then you’re not part of the group, the married group. You’re on the outside looking in.” And then what he said made perfect sense.

“You’re right. It really is sweet of him to do that. He must really care about me.” I felt my mood soaring, at this proof that Alex really liked me.

“You have to call me and tell me how it is,” he said.

“I will.”

“There’s one more call you have to make.” I said nothing, waiting for him to go on. “You have to call Darius.”

“I am not going to go off on him for joining the military,” I said in a relatively nasty way, assuming that’s what he was talking about. “All you’re doing is pissing him off, and if anything, that will just make it more likely he’ll join.”

“That’s not what I was talking about,” he snapped. “You need to talk to him about Mary Ellen. He’s your brother, and he was into her at one time. He probably doesn’t give a shit, but if you call him and make sure he’s cool with it, you’ll earn some props in his eyes, and he won’t get pissed at you.”

“Sorry for jumping on you,” I grumbled, because I hated to apologize. If I did, that meant I was wrong, and I hated being wrong even more than I hated apologizing. “That was good advice.” We hung up after that, and I called Darius.

“Dude, if you called me to bitch at me because I’m joining the Navy, just hang up the phone,” he said as he answered. He and Will were really starting to piss me off with this bullshit.

“Join if you want, don’t join if you don’t want to. It’s your decision, but you have no fucking reason to bust my balls, since I didn’t say shit to you about it,” I said in a really nasty way. This time I was right, and that cheered me up.

“Sorry,” he grumbled just like I had. I had to stifle a giggle. “What the fuck do you want?” He asked that in a more playful way.

“Will you be pissed off if I fuck Mary Ellen?” Not gonna lie, sometimes it was fun to blow his mind by being so blunt.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Alex wants to have a threesome with her. If I do, are you OK with it?”

“Dude, tap that all you want. I’m high fiving you when I see you,” he said, making both of us laugh.

“Thanks.”

“Gotta run,” he said, because he hated talking on the phone.

“Wait!” I said.

“What?”

“How do I handle it?” He was quiet for a minute, and then he chuckled, which really pissed me off. He got that, even though he couldn’t see my expression.

“I’m sorry,” he said, still chuckling. “I never thought anyone in this family would ever ask me for advice about sex.” That made me chuckle too. Darius sometimes seemed like a heterosexual outcast in a sea of gay guys.

“Well, I am,” I said.

“I think you should let Alex take the lead, and pretty much do what he says,” Darius said, which was good advice, and how I would have handled it anyway. “When you deal with Mary Ellen, tell her you’ve never been with anyone, and ask her to teach you how to be with a woman.”

“Won’t that make me seem like a total dork?”

“You are a total dork,” he joked, then got serious. “She’ll know anyway, so by facing that head on, you’re just setting the stage. Besides, I’m betting she’ll see it as a pretty big honor to get your cherry.” And that would only make my virginal persona that much stronger for Alex.

“Got it. Thanks,” I said, and then we hung up. My brothers were a pain in the ass sometimes, but at times like this, they were worth their weight in gold.

I went back to our room and saw Alex over in the corner, talking on the phone in an animated way. I sat on the bed, making sure I was far enough away so I couldn’t eavesdrop, because I didn’t want to hear him getting reamed out by his grandfather. About fifteen minutes later, he came in and collapsed onto the bed, looking uncharacteristically frazzled. “That wasn’t fun.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “He wasn’t happy for you?”

He was about to get pissed off until he noticed my grin. “He was not. He was very annoyed that I would do this, allow myself to get all but trapped into a marriage.”

“Won’t this ultimately be good for you? I mean, you’ll be able to get enough money to keep your land and art in your family, at least through your generation.”

“I think such a plan was on his mind, but there are British heiresses he would probably have preferred,” Alex said. “That would make things less complicated.”

I shrugged. “So it’s not exactly what he wanted. It’s damn close.”

“Which is why our conversation ended on a positive note,” he said. “He and I have a very close relationship. He has always watched out for me, and tried to guide me down the right path. I think that by taking this detour, as he sees it, I disappointed him.”

“Well, if things ended on a positive note, he must not be all that disappointed,” I said.

“Perhaps not,” he said, smiling at me. “I am sorry to have sprung the concept of a threesome with Mary Ellen on you.”

“I’m not sorry,” I told him. “I just needed some time to think about it, and to make sure it was okay with Darius.”

“Why would Darius have any input on you sleeping with Mary Ellen?”

“Because he was with her last summer, and it was pretty intense,” I said.

He nodded. “That was the honorable thing to do.”

“Thanks,” I said, knowing that was a huge compliment coming from him. “So I talked to him about it, and if you guys still want to, I’m actually looking forward to it.”

“You are?” That really surprised him.

“I’ve never been with a woman. I think it would be awesome for my first time to be with you there too. That would make it so much more special,” I said.

“Thank, Jays,” he said, and gave me an affectionate kiss. It turned into a passionate one, and then he let me fuck him again, presumably to seal the deal.

“I can’t imagine how being with a woman would be anywhere close to as fun as that,” I said, as I lay there with him after we were done.

He chuckled. “It may not be better, but it will be different.”

“Makes sense.” He got up and wiped himself off, then started to get dressed. “Where are you going?”

“I have to go talk to our group. My grandfather is planning to visit next weekend to meet everyone.”

“That should be interesting,” I said.

“Undoubtedly.”