Flux - 42. Chapter 42

August 6, 2002

Escorial

Matt

Since we were welcoming Alex to Escorial, and while he was here, we’d been informed that the dress code for dinner was ramped up, and so that’s how I found myself sitting on the bed next to Wade wearing a suit, while he lay in bed, looking like shit. “Do you want me to bring you something back?”

He gave me a dubious look. “No, if I want something, I’ll call and have someone bring it to me. I may try some toast later on.” I leaned in to kiss him but he stopped me. “You do not want this. And my breath is awful.”

“Just rest. Maybe by tomorrow, you’ll feel better, and you can spend some time with Alex.”

“I hope so. It’s pretty rude of me to completely ignore him after he flew all this way.”

“It would be even worse if you gave him this virus,” I said, assuming that’s what it was. “I’m going to go see if he’s ready for dinner.” He didn’t say anything, so I left my room and walked down to Alex’s. I knocked gently, and waited until he opened it. “I came to escort you to dinner.”

“Now that is thoughtful,” he said, guiding me into his room. “I’ll be ready in just a bit.”

“You still have five minutes,” I said, looking at my watch. “Dinners here are prompt.”

“Much as they are in London, when my grandfather is in residence,” he said with a smile. “I’m a bit tired after travelling all day, so I’ll probably retire early. I wonder what you had planned after dinner.”

“I’m at your service,” I said in my sexiest voice, as I raised my eyebrows. It was fun to see the lust in his eyes.

“Good,” he said. I led him up to the dining room and everyone stood up to meet him. We had a big crowd here, just like last night, and as if to accentuate the formality, we even had place cards. They’d put Alex down at the end of the table adjacent to JP, with me on the other side of him, presumably because he already knew me. I noticed that they’d put JJ a bit further down the table, so Darius was in between JJ and me. I quickly swapped our cards, so JJ was next to Alex. It was important that those two got to know each other.

Alex made the rounds, greeting everyone, and I was kind of surprised that JJ ended up being the last person in the line. “Jeremy Schluter, my lord,” JJ said politely, as he shook Alex’s hand. I looked at Darius and he seemed as surprised as I was that JJ was being so polite, and using Alex’s title.

“You must call me Alex. I have been so looking forward to meeting you,” Alex gushed. God, he was charming. He was so cultured, so smooth, and so handsome, that when you combined that with his accent, he was truly irresistible. “I’ve seen you skate before. You are really quite talented.”

“Thank you,” JJ said, smiling shyly. Darius and I looked at each other again, and he rolled his eyes. Alex had already started to wrap JJ around his finger.

“I am just delighted that we’ll be living together in Boston. Wade tells me that you are almost as good an arbiter of taste when shopping as your grandfather.”

“No one is that good,” JJ said, and smiled at Stef.

“Well, I know whom I shall have to come see if I run out of things to wear,” he said. And so it went, with Alex working the table as well as I’d ever seen JP do. He focused on each of us individually at one point or another, using info he’d probably gotten from Wade to build an almost instant bond. I think that the entire family was infatuated with Alex after that meal, and I was as drawn into his orbit as they were.

I found myself looking down the table at him, admiring his looks and his charm, and felt myself almost overwhelmed with the attraction. It was strange, almost like he had cast some unique spell over me, one that made me want to drag him back to his room and fuck his brains out. It seemed that dinner lasted forever, and I found myself yearning for it to be over so I could be with him again. I distracted myself by focusing on his interactions with the other people at the table. He was at his best with JP, Isidore, and Claire, which was no great surprise, but he was also quite charming with Stef and Jack.

But of all the people at the table, the person he seemed to impact the most was JJ. I’d been so paranoid that JJ would be a complete ass and treat Alex badly, but instead, it seemed to be just the opposite. JJ looked at him with wide-eyed hero worship. An objective assessment of that made it all seem so logical. One of JJ’s less endearing traits was his pervasive snobbishness. He had had a field day in Claremont at the Fourth of July extravaganza, criticizing the locals he saw. It made sense that he would appreciate someone with Alex’s pedigree, along with his style and charm. His aura hadn’t enveloped Darius as strongly, but it had completely reeled JJ in.

We finished dessert and were enjoying an aperitif when JP, good host that he was, seemed to sense that dinner had gone on long enough. “I am sure you are in need of some rest,” he said to Alex.

“Thank you,” Alex said smoothly. “It has been a long day.”

“I’ll show you back to your room,” JJ offered. Darius managed not to snicker at him. It’s a good thing Will wasn’t here, or they both may have laughed out loud.

As Alex got up to leave, I whispered in his ear. “I’ll come check on you in a bit.”

“Do that,” he said, and winked at me.

I managed to get out of there before he did, because he was saying goodnight to everyone, and hurried back to my room. I found Wade looking slightly better. “How was dinner?”

“It was nice,” I said. “Everyone was very pleasant. And guess who hit it off the best with Alex?”

“Claire?”

“No, she did really well though.” I paused for effect. “JJ.”

“JJ?” Wade asked, stunned.

“He offered to escort Alex back to his room after dinner,” I said.

“I should probably get up and go see him,” Wade said.

“He said he was tired,” I told him. I really didn’t want Wade to go talk to Alex; I wanted to go jump in bed with him.

“I’ll go check on him in the morning,” Wade said.

“I think I’ll go down to the gym,” I said. I was going to see Alex first, but I’d have to go to the gym after to make sure that wasn’t a blatant lie. I put on a tank top, a jockstrap, shorts, and my tennis shoes, all with amazing speed. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

“I’ll be here,” Wade said ruefully.

I walked down to Alex’s room and knocked. He opened it, eyed me up and down, and then smiled. “Come in.” He was just wearing boxers, and he was so hot I was eying him as much as he was eying me.

I walked in and smiled, even as he grabbed the back of my head and kissed me forcefully. It wasn’t rough, it was demanding. I pushed him away, and pulled off my tank top, clearly putting on a show for him. He liked that. I’d been with a lot of guys, and I’d learned how to read them pretty well. Alex was one of the easier ones for me to figure out. He wanted me to be slutty. He wanted to get freaky with me. I kicked off my socks and shoes, pulled off my gym shorts and stood there in just my jock strap.

“I want you,” I said, in my sultriest voice, even as I went over to his bed and got down on all fours. I wiggled my ass at him, just like I’d done before, like a dog in heat begging to be fucked. “Come on Alex.”

“You want me to fuck you?” he asked, and I could hear the lust oozing from his words. Combined with his accent, it was fucking irresistible. He ran his hand over my ass, and down my crack, pushing some lube into my hole.

“So bad,” I moaned, almost giggling at myself. I heard the condom wrapper, felt the bed move as he lined himself up, then felt a slight jolt of pain as he surprisingly pushed into me all at once.

“That feels so fucking good,” he said. He pulled the strap of my jock away from my body and then let it snap back against my lower back, making me moan like an old whore. He started pounding away at me, just like he’d done last time, but I stopped him, and almost smiled at his look of annoyance.

“Let me take care of you,” I said, pushing him onto his back. I straddled him, and then sat down on his cock, absorbing him back inside of me. “That feel good?”

“Very good,” he said. I wondered if he’d be passive now, but he wasn’t. We got into a really amazing rhythm, where he’d push up as I bore down, and then he’d pull back as I lifted my ass up. We were in sync, and the stimulation was too intense for me to last much longer. I made to pull my dick out and jack myself off but he stopped me. “Leave it on.”

“I need to cum so bad,” I said, amplifying the sluttiness way beyond what I felt.

“You’ll have to do it with your jock on,” he said. And so I began to rub my hand across my cock, with the material in between my skin. It was really erotic.

“Fuck!” I almost shouted, as I felt my orgasm building, and then I came, with a dull roar for a scream. I felt the wetness in the material of my jock as I ejaculated into it, felt my cum oozing through the cotton because there was just too much of it.

“Now it’s my turn,” he said.

“That’s it,” I said, coaxing him. “Fill me up. Blast that load inside me.” He growled, not quite as loud as I did, and then he came. It was amazing how intense and energetic he was as he ejaculated. Some guys I’d been with had almost become frozen, and just spewed while almost standing still. Alex was at the other end of that spectrum.

When he was done, he smiled at me, ran his hand across my cheek, and then got up; clearly indicating that he wanted me to leave. “You are truly amazing. I will reflect on my decision to keep you in my relationship with Wade, and I suspect I will think it one of my better choices.”

That really bothered me, but I hid it well. “I suspect you will,” I said. I slipped on my clothes and went down to the gym to take a shower. He’d said that he had included me in his relationship with Wade. That made me seem like a sideshow. I went back to my room in a pretty confused state.

“How was the gym?” Wade asked. He was a little perkier than before.

“I stopped by to see Alex before I went down there.”

“Did you blow him again?” he asked.

“No, he fucked me,” I said. I could see his shields go up, as he tried to hide how much that bothered him. “I thought that was OK?”

He gave me a feeble smile. “It is OK. I just have to deal with it.” I wanted to say that if he wanted me to stop fucking Alex, I would, but I didn’t want to do that. If I weren’t here in this room with Wade, I’d probably be sneaking back into Alex’s room to wake him up and fuck him again.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Wade said. I felt bad, that by being with this guy he was totally into, I was upsetting him, but it seemed like he was trying to work his way through it. “How was it?”

I swallowed hard, because this is the question I didn’t want to answer. “Hot and intense.”

“What?” Wade asked, and was really shocked. “What the fuck?”

“Dude, I don’t know, but he’s an animal.” He lay back in the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “Are you mad at me?”

“I’m not mad at you, I’m confused,” he said. “Why will he fuck your brains out, but treat me like a fucking princess?” And then he got that really resolved look in his eyes, the same one he’d had when he reminded me that my ELISA test may have been fucked up. The look that said he’d solved a mystery.

“What?”

“Hand me my laptop, will you?”

“Sure.” I got it and he connected to the internet, and then pulled up Google to do a search.

“Don’t you own a bunch of stock in this company?” he asked.

“Yep,” I said, smiling.

“You’re gonna make a fucking fortune on it,” he said, even as he started surfing the net.

“Yep,” I agreed, making him chuckle.

“This is it!” he said, pointing at the screen. “I remembered this from psych class.”

“The Madonna-whore complex?” I asked. “I thought it was pretty obvious that Madonna was a whore. That’s not very complex.”

“Not that Madonna, dipshit,” he said. “The Virgin Mary. That Madonna.”

“What’s the deal with that?”

“It’s where a guy dates a girl, or in this case a guy, who is really pure and chaste, and puts him up on a pedestal, and respects him so much that he doesn’t want to defile him by having anything but really basic, easy sex. And usually not all that often.”

“That sounds like what he did to you,” I said. “You’re a princess.”

“Terrific,” he grumbled. “That’s the Madonna part. The whore part is where you come in.”

“Dude, I’m a slut, not a whore,” I joked. “I don’t charge.”

He chuckled. “So this dude has this super-pure relationship, but that doesn’t satisfy him, so to get off, he has to have a slut on the side. He needs someone who he hasn’t put up on a pedestal, someone who is pretty nasty, that he can get all freaky with. That’s where you come in.”

“Ha ha ha,” I said, mildly annoyed. “I am not nasty.”

“You can be,” he said, and ran his fingers lovingly through my hair. “I’m not complaining.”

I smiled at him. “He was really into it when I talked like a slut,” I said, putting it all together.

“Freud said that this can be caused by having a cold and distant mother,” Wade mused. “Alex’s mother died when he was young, and he really doesn’t like his stepmother.”

“So what do we do about this?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Wade said.

“I mean, it’s fine with me the way things are. I get to have amazing sex with both of you,” I said, teasing him.

“Sucks to be me,” he complained.

“I can try to satisfy you,” I said.

“That has never been a problem,” he said, smiling at me. “Will you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Help me take a shower,” he said. “I’m feeling a little better.”

I stood up and held out my hand. “Come on princess.”

“Fuck you.” I was laughing as I tossed off my gym clothes, minus the nasty jockstrap I’d already put in the laundry, and led him into the shower. He wasn’t fully recovered, so it was a sensual shower, not an erotic one. I was still pretty calm after my fuck with Alex, and Wade still felt too shitty for sex.

I changed the sheets and tidied up the room while he was finishing up in the bathroom, and then lay down in the bed, smiling at him as if to welcome him back when he was finished. “Come here, baby.”

He rolled his eyes, even as he smiled at me, and then he climbed into bed and snuggled up to me, putting his face against my neck. I lay there, enjoying him, but I couldn’t completely relax, because Alex’s words still bothered me. He pulled away from me and lay on his side so he could look at me, while I turned my head to look back. “What’s bothering you?”

It was so typical of how close we were that he could read my emotions that well. “It’s just something Alex said.”

“Was it when he ordered you to get down on your knees and suck his dick?” he asked, joking around.

“No, that wouldn’t have bothered me at all,” I said, smiling.

“What was it?”

“He said he thought that keeping me in his relationship with you was one of the smartest things he’d ever done,” I said.

“Why does that bother you? It sounds like it’s been good so far.”

“Because I don’t want to be in his relationship with you. I have my own relationship with you. And it made it seem like what you and he have is more important than what you and I have.”

He ran his hand across my cheek in a very affectionate way. “Matt, you and I are not a part of anything else.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t hit you with my insecurities.”

“I don’t blame you. I’m glad you said something. Alex is a nice guy, even though he obviously has some issues, but he does tend to think the world revolves primarily around him.”

“No wonder he and JJ hit it off so well,” I joked.

“No wonder,” he agreed.

“So how do you feel about all of this?” I asked him.

“It’s kind of annoying,” he said. “I’m no fucking princess.” That cracked me up, and his annoyed look made me laugh even harder.

“No, you’re not,” I said.

“I’m kind of hungry,” he told me. “I’m going to try to eat something.”

“Let’s go,” I said, and went up to the kitchen with him. I made him some toast, which he ate cautiously, but that seemed to largely cure him, and he had a sandwich on top of that. “You seem better.”

“I am. It must have been that 24-hour flu thing. That really sucks,” he said.

“So do I,” I said, winking at him. “Want me to show you?”

He giggled, which was so rare and so cute, and then we went back down to my room. “You know, I’m not feeling all that energetic. I think I need someone to make love to me, but in a really gentle and caring way. Maybe I should go down to Alex’s room.”

I laughed with him, and then gave him a gentle kiss. “Stay here with me, and I’ll put you up on that pedestal.”

He shook his head. “I never want you to do that.” I gave him another gentle kiss, then another one, and then started kissing his body, kissing and lightly nibbling as I worked my way across his chest and his abdomen. He lay there, writhing, as I did the same thing to his dick, and his balls, and his taint. By the time I got to his hole, he was all but shoving the lube into my hand.

I lay on my side, with him on his back, and raised up his leg so I could enter him, giving him really affectionate but light kisses as I did. I used my left hand and arm to keep us connected, and let my right hand move up and down his torso, until I finally moved it down to his dick. I gently played with it, keeping him excited as I slowly fucked him. We didn’t say anything; we would kiss for a while, then break apart and just look into each others’ eyes. I knew that all he’d see in mine was love, pure love, and when I looked into his, I saw the same thing.

We built up to a climax so gradually, it almost surprised me when he came, and when he did, he didn’t say a word, he just kept his eyes locked on mine, so I could read the ecstasy in them. I came after he did, and tried to give him the same look, but I was more expressive than him, and there was no way I could be as quiet as he was. Even as I felt my cock deflate and shrink out of his ass, I smiled at him as I scooped his cum off his body and ate it, still maintaining our eye contact as I did.

“That was the most romantic thing I have ever experienced in my life,” I said.

He smiled softly. “You know, I tease you about your sluttiness, and I’ve given you shit about it in the past, but it has made you into a truly amazing lover,” he said, stroking my ego. “That was so meaningful, and so satisfying.”

“You’re right. I’ve been with lots of guys. But it’s never like that with them. It’s never that good. You’re giving me all the credit, but it’s just as much you,” I said sincerely.

“Right,” he said, but he smiled.

I put my right hand on the left side of his head, and gently stroked his cheek. “I really do love you. You are my world.” The words had slipped out, and I was worried that I’d blown it, by exposing how important he was to me. We’d been through so much, but I just didn’t see that I’d ever be really happy with anyone but Wade. As usual, he sensed my distress, and pulled my hand lower so he could kiss my thumb in an incredibly sensual way.

“Ask me again,” he said.

“Ask you what?” That was a little confusing.

“Ask me again,” he insisted, then I got what he was saying, and I smiled.

“In five years, what are the chances we’ll be together, on a scale of one to ten?”

“Nine,” he said. I smiled, then leaned in and kissed him.

“You’re just saying that because you want to get an A. I knew that 80% score would bug you.”

“I always get an A,” he said.

August 6, 2002

Claremont, OH

Will

The limo driver had told me that there was construction on the freeway, so we were going through the city itself this time. I looked out the windows of the limo at this community that seemed to be thriving. It made me feel good to know that my family had done so much to make that happen, and to make these people’s lives better. Of course, that just made me irritated at Wally and Clara again, and at their attempt to tell me I couldn’t come here this past week. I got that they wanted to spend time with Zach, but it was still grating that they thought they could dictate to me where I could and couldn’t go.

We drove through East Claremont, and saw all the construction activity at the new high school, and the new stadium that was named for Robbie. When it was done, we’d have another ceremony, only instead of making me sad, it made me smile. I gave myself credit for doing really well at working through my grief. When I thought about Robbie now, I usually felt my face break into a small smile, and I would remember what an awesome guy he was. I’d be almost cocky at how well I was doing if Darius weren’t doing just as well, and if my father hadn’t totally pulled his head out of his ass. His transformation had been the most amazing of all. He seemed so together, and so confident.

We drove past Zach’s neighborhood, and I so wanted to stop in and see him, but I resisted the temptation. Zach wasn’t supposed to fly back with me until the 8^th, but it had been driving me crazy, being separated from him like this. Even if they wouldn’t let me see him, I could at least be in the same city with him. In addition to that, Alex had gotten to Escorial today, and I really didn’t want to be around for that. There was something about this whole deal with Alex that bugged me. Maybe it was the way Wade had totally changed when he was around him, or maybe it was seeing what that had done to Matt, but for whatever reason, I decided that I didn’t want to be part of the welcoming committee. I didn’t trust myself to be on my best behavior, and I knew that if I weren’t, I would disappoint Grand.

Dad’s pilots had needed a break, since they’d been dragging us all over the place, so I’d talked to Stef, told him what I wanted to do, and he’d let me take the Falcon out here a couple of days early. So here I was, in Claremont, five miles from the man I loved, but it might as well have been two thousand. The limo pulled up to Dad’s condo. I’d decided to stay here this time, since it was part of the Mills and that way I’d have shit to do, and places to eat. I thanked the driver, tipped him, and then went into the complex.

The concierge verified who I was, then gave me a key. I gave him Zach’s name, and told him to let Zach in if he showed up. I am a perennial optimist. I found Dad’s unit and walked in, admiring how nice it was. It had that whole loft look, and from what I could tell from the plans, Matt’s apartment should end up looking a lot like this. I unpacked my clothes, collapsed onto the couch, and pulled out my phone. It was already 8:00pm, so I figured Zach would be done with dinner. I called him and didn’t get an answer, so I walked down to the Mills and found this cool pub next to the river.

I walked up to the hostess station and a ditzy blond was grinning at me. “I know you,” she said. I just stared at her, waiting for her to explain. “I went to the river with you and Gathan.” She must have been one of the girls with that group the first time I’d gone to the river with Gathan; the time I’d chased the cops off our land.

“I remember now,” I lied. “It’s good to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too,” she said, a little too aggressively. Just what I needed: a redneck blond chick hitting on me.

“I just need a table for one. If you have something out front, I’d appreciate it.” The tables in the front looked out onto the pedestrian street. That would be more interesting than the tables in the back that looked out at the river.

“I can do that,” she said, being perky. “Right this way.”

I sensed that she wanted to chat with me, so I pretended like my phone was ringing, then I pretended like I had to answer it. After she sat me and I mumbled “thanks”, I put the phone away. The waiter came up, a really cute redheaded dude. “Welcome! My name is Oliver. What can I get you to drink?”

I’d shut down on the blond who looked like a whore, but I picked up my game for this guy. “My name is Will, and you can get me a Coke,” I said, and flirted with my eyes. It was funny to see him get a little flustered.

“I’ll be right back,” he said. I chuckled to myself, and then scanned the menu. Oliver came back with my Coke, I ordered a cheeseburger, and some mozzarella sticks as an appetizer.

The cheese sticks came out pretty quickly, so I ate them as I watched the people walking by. It was an interesting crowd. There were four basic groups of people in Claremont that tended to cluster together. While Nick tried to tell us that they weren’t segregated, I didn’t really buy that. The first group, the one I’d be lumped into, was the old money people: People who had lived here for a long time, and were rich. It was funny that ‘old’ meant they were here and rich before the tech revolution had invaded the city a couple of years ago. And that was the second group, the new rich. Those were the people who had moved here to work at Triton or one of the other tech firms. The third group was the people I’d call rednecks, but JJ would call them white trash. I hated that term, because they weren’t trash, they were white people without a lot of money. People like the Hayeses, or at least like the Hayeses used to be. And the final group was the minorities, mostly African American. I stared out at the street, trying to figure out the mix, and guessed that it was mostly the new rich. It made sense that they would hang out here, since the whole place had been built to flow seamlessly into the commercial/industrial area where the tech firms were.

Oliver brought my cheeseburger, and I was still hungry, so I ate it pretty quickly. I finished my dinner and paid the bill. I was disappointed that Zach hadn’t called me back, but I shrugged it off. He’d call me later. I’d started walking down the street when I saw him, dressed in a white shirt, black slacks, and wearing a tie. He was handing out brochures with some other people. I stopped and watched him, wondering what the fuck he was doing, when someone walked by me and tossed one of the brochures on top of a garbage can. I carefully picked it up. “Repent Now! Jesus Will Save You!” it proclaimed.

I held it in my hand, completely stunned, and then I looked up from the leaflet just as Zach glanced my way. His eyes shot open in alarm, while mine switched between looking at him, and looking at the propaganda in my hand.