Paternity - 9. Chapter 9

September 23, 2000

Malibu, CA

Wade

It was one of those serendipitous mornings, where I was actually up and ready before I needed to do something. I sensed it would be an intense day, and I knew I’d have to be at the top of my game, since I’d be dealing with my mother. My phone rang, emphasizing the whole serendipity thing.

“Wade Danfield,” I answered, since I didn’t recognize the number. If it was one of my friends, or someone I knew, I’d be more casual.

“Wade Danfield,” I heard Ben Solomon say, with the same tone he’d used last night. “I wasn’t sure if you’d answer a strange number.”

I felt my face break into a smile as I enjoyed his flirtatious attitude. “A strange number for a strange guy,” I replied, being pleasant so he’d know I was teasing him.

“You didn’t think I was so strange last night.”

“No, I didn’t,” I admitted.

“You gonna be in town tonight?” he asked, getting to the point.

“Yes.”

“Good. I want you to go to a dinner party with me.”

“A dinner party?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah. You’ll have fun. Think you can meet me at my house around seven?”

“I can.” I didn’t say anything after that, just to mess with him. I was starting to get my game back, and have fun with this.

“Well aren’t you excited?”

“I’m not sure excited is the exact word.”

“Oh? What is the exact word?”

“I’d say that I was glad you called and I was looking forward to tonight.”

He laughed. “In LA, we call that excited.” He said goodbye, we hung up, and for the first time in a very long time, I actually had a real date.

I’d barely put the phone back in my pocket when it rang again. The ring tone told me that this time it was Matt. How ironic that he should call right after I set up a date for tonight. I was irritated with myself for feeling guilty about that, so I wasn’t in the happiest of moods when I answered the phone.

“Hey!” he said cheerfully. “I just wanted to check up on you and see how you’re doing.”

I almost laughed at his strategy. He knew me so well, so he called me just to talk about shit, leaving the big crap in the background. He was trying to build a bridge to me. “Doing fine,” I said. “What are you up to?”

“Not much. Practice today at two. Big parties tonight since school starts on Monday.” I found that I really wasn’t all that sad about missing them.

“Cool. Sounds like fun.”

“I heard you went to a party last night,” he said, kind of digging, but trying not to.

“I did. It was fun. What did you do?”

He paused for a minute. “I hung out with some of the guys. No big deal.”

“Some of the guys,” I said, shaking my head. He'd know I was doing that from my tone, even though he couldn't see me.

“You said you didn’t give a shit if I hung out with him,” he said, referring to Carl, “so I don’t get why you’re giving me shit when I do.”

That was a good point. “I’m just marveling at what a dumb fuck you are for being his friend,” I snapped before I could stop myself. “Did he fuck you yet?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Did he use a condom?”

“Fuck you, Wade. I called you to try and just have a nice conversation, and you go there.”

“Did you?” I demanded firmly.

“He didn’t fuck me,” he said.

“Why not?” I knew why, I just wanted to hear his reason.

“He’s not ready for that yet.” I just broke up laughing. “What?” he demanded.

“Dude, really?” He said nothing, but I could feel him glowering over the phone. “You’re being so played. It’s the classic routine. He’s holding out on you, to make you want it more.”

“That’s not…”

I cut it off. “Look, you’re so fucking stupid I want to puke. You don’t believe me, fine. Ask Cody. Even after you describe everything in a totally biased way, he’ll be able to see right through this douche bag.”

“What about you?” he demanded. “I heard some guy was hitting on you.”

“Wow. I have spies tracking my every move. So which guy was this?”

“There was more than one?” he asked.

I decided to ease the tension a bit. “Yeah, there was. I blew the first one off,” I said, acting arrogant.

“Not the other ones?” he asked playfully. Still he really wanted to know.

“No, not the other one.” He was quiet for a while, because he was digesting that.

“So what are you doing tonight? Another party?”

“No. I’m going out with the guy I didn’t blow, uh, off last night.” I was hoping he’d chuckle at my double-entendre, but he didn’t.

“A date?”

“Yeah. Haven’t had one of those in a long time. I think it’s a dinner party. It will be nice to unwind after dealing with my mother.” I said it matter-of-factly, since me going out was going to be the new feature in our relationship, and I didn’t want it to sound like a big deal.

“Your mother is coming to visit? What’s wrong?”

“She wants to see Riley, and talk to me about something she can’t say over the phone.”

“Do you know what it is?” he asked me, talking to me like he had when I trusted him.

“Not really,” I said, blowing him off, unlike I would have if I still trusted him. He was quiet for a long time; he’d figured it out. Just as I was about to say something, he chimed in.

“You gonna be late tonight?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Why?”

“Just curious.”

“You can always check in with me later,” I said. “Enjoy the parties.”

“Yeah, you have fun too,” he said, and hung up. I got what he was doing with these calls. He was trying to re-spark a connection, to heal the wound he’d caused. It was only slightly effective. I appreciated the effort, but I didn’t see any changes to convince me that he was sincere, or that I could trust him. He was still out there trying to get Carl to fuck him, and to let the guy play games with his head. It scared the shit out of me when I thought about how much of me was in that head of his. And finally, I’d be lying to myself if I said it didn’t bother me that he hadn’t followed me down here to grovel.

That made me sound like a fucking diva. I didn’t want to be that way. I just wanted him to show me that he really was sorry, by making some sacrifice to show me that he was. And it would be really nice if he chose to hang out with me instead of Carl. He always partied like a rock star this time of year, but last year and the year before he’d done it with most of the team. This time, he was focused on Carl. That put Carl up there pretty high in his priority list.

My phone rang again, which made me want to just turn the fucking thing off. Another strange number, only this one was from the City. “Wade Danfield,” I answered.

“Mr. Danfield, this is Sean Massey.” This guy had a deep voice, so deep it was almost intoxicating. “I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time?”

I’d just gotten into a bitchy fight with my boyfriend, accepted a date with a Hollywood playboy, and I was awaiting a visit from my mother. “Not at all,” I lied.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you called yesterday. My secretary didn’t give me the message until last night.” His tone made me suspect that secretary was in for a rough time.

“It’s not a problem.”

“I’m kind of curious...how did you hear about me?”

“JP Crampton referred you,” I said factually.

“Best professor I ever had,” he said, the admiration dripping from his tone. “If you have a moment, I was wondering if you could tell me what we’re meeting about on Monday.”

“My mother set up some trusts and arrangements for my son. I’ve reviewed them, but I’m worried that I may have missed a clause, or some other bomb in the document.”

“Your mother is a formidable woman,” he said respectfully. So he’d done his homework, and he knew who I was. That’s why he called me back now. I suddenly felt unarmed, since I didn’t know much about him at all. I’d called him and started working with him solely on JP’s recommendation. I smiled. That was good enough. “Do you trust her?”

“No,” I said simply.

“Is there any way you can fax these contracts to me? That way I can look at them before you get here.”

“What if I don’t hire you?” I asked, being jovial.

“You will,” he said confidently. I liked him. He was probably right. He gave me his fax number and I went in to Brad’s office to send the documents, including the original with my mark-ups. I was just finishing that up when my mother called to tell me she’d be there in 20 minutes. I alerted Tiffany, and then went to wait for my mother.

“Darling,” she said as she breezed in. She was actually dressed down today, in a nice pair of jeans and a stylish top. She usually only dressed that way when she was on the farm. That didn’t diminish the power she emanated at all. She gave me her normal faux kisses. “Where is my grandson?”

“Tiffany is bringing him down shortly.”

“Did you sign those agreements?” she asked. “If so, I can take them back with me.”

“I haven’t finished looking at them yet,” I told her evenly. Her reaction told me that there was definitely something in there. I hoped that Sean Massey was a good attorney.

“I see,” she said, getting that I wasn’t just going to blithely sign off on them. “We need to talk privately.” She looked around, as if to suggest the room was bugged.

“Let’s go out on the patio,” I told her. It was a good location, since the noise from the crashing waves would drown out any listening devices, assuming the salt water hadn’t corroded them. We sat at the nice table and she handed me a document. It was a very detailed timeline of all the things that Brad had done to destroy Omega last year, including a train of events that led to the murder of two people. I read it, and I wasn’t all that surprised by it, but I was impressed with the way he’d planned it out. And the two people who were dead were Brian and Carson, and I wasn’t the slightest bit upset about that. They were scum.

“Quite a busy time for Brad, wasn’t it?” she asked. Her expression and tone were smarmy.

“How much of this can be proven? This is merely speculation.”

“And that is merely a summary. It could be proven, if it had to be,” she said.

“This would put him in jail for life,” I said.

“I doubt it will come to that. I need that woman controlled. If I do it, no one will be happy about the result.” There was a severity in her voice that was very scary.

“And if she’s not?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. She merely responded by raising her eyebrow too. “Mother, if you want to put pressure on Brad by letting him know you have this, feel free. But you’re not going to use it.”

“I’m not?” she challenged.

“No, you’re not.” I didn’t have to threaten her, I didn’t have to rant and rave. I’d thrown down the gauntlet, and she could infer the rest.

“Where are your loyalties, Wade?”

I smiled at her weak argument. “These people have adopted me. I’m loyal to both of my families. If they’re in conflict, I have to do the right thing. And I will.”

“I see.” We just stared at each other for a few minutes, then she stood up, giving me a frosty look, and went in to find Tiffany. Instead, we ran into Brad. “Well hello there,” she said to him, as if Brad were her best friend, and not the man she was contemplating sending to jail for the rest of his natural life. “It’s so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you as well,” he told her, only he was sincere. That made me nervous. He had his guard down with her, and that was a fatal mistake. “I was looking for you,” he said to me.

“You found me.”

“I have a solution to the dilemma Jeanine has given us.”

“Go on,” I said attentively, but my mother was even more interested.

“There’s a doctor in the Bay area that specializes in post-partum cases. We’re planning to bus Jeanine, Maddy, Tiffany, and Riley up to Paly tomorrow. She’ll be safely secured behind the gates of Escorial, and won’t be able to create problems.”

“Thank you, Bradley, for working out a viable solution to the problem,” my mother said sweetly. “And that way, Riley will be with you,” she said to me. Clearly she liked the idea.

“It’s a good plan,” I said to Brad, even though I was a little skeptical about having Jeanine in ‘my’ world.

“If you want to ride in the bus, you can,” he said. “Or you can take Tiffany’s car up there. Or you can fly back. It’s your call.”

“I’ll think about it,” I told him. Tiffany chose that moment to come in with Riley. My mother seemed to transform yet again, and became almost human while she held her grandson. That lasted for about 15 minutes, and then she was ready to leave. I walked her out.

“Don’t forget about what I said,” she cautioned.

“You heard the plan,” I told her.

“I didn’t ask for a plan, Wade. I asked for results.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek, glided gracefully into the car, and whisked off.

Tiffany had taken Riley back upstairs, but Brad was waiting for me. “She seemed happy enough.”

“Appearances can be deceiving. We need to talk where no one can hear us,” I told him seriously.

We went into his office. “It’s swept for bugs periodically.”

I handed him the paper she’d given me, and watched his eyes bulge. “A pretty impressive plan,” I said with admiration. This plan he’d pulled off was a masterpiece. I eyed the man who launched it, with his handsome face, green eyes, and confident manner, and regretted that I hadn’t slept with him when I’d had a chance. He was definitely on the list of guys I’d let fuck me.

“Not if people can figure it out,” he groused.

“I don’t think there are many people as resourceful as my mother,” I said soothingly. “Besides, she knew enough of the information behind the scenes that it was easier for her to connect the dots.”

“How do I deal with this?” he mused, then looked at me nervously. “I’m sorry Wade. I don’t mean to put you in the middle of this.”

“I’m already in the middle. That’s why she talked to me. She wanted me to show this to you so you’d know she has this hanging over your head. The smart thing to do is to make sure Jeanine shuts the fuck up.”

“What if she doesn’t?” he asked.

“Then you’ll have to remind my mother that you can destroy her just as easily,” I told him. “I want you to know, though, that before that happens, I’ll stop it.”

He raised his eyebrow. “I really appreciate that Wade. I’ve got enough ammunition to handle that myself. I don’t want to create problems with you and your family.”

I laughed. “You’re talking about my family? Dude, I’m so in the middle it’s not funny. She asked me where my loyalties are, and I told her that I felt I was as much a part of this family as my own. She’s a little pissed at me.”

“I’m glad you finally get that.” He got up and walked over to his safe, whirling the dials quickly and smoothly, then opened it up and pulled something out. He handed it to me. It was his copy of the tape of my father raping me.

“This may be your only real guarantee that she won’t come after you,” I said, amazed.

“I trust you,” he said. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and this time, one of the few occasions, I couldn’t stop them. He walked over to me and wiped the tears away, then wrapped his arms around me. For once, with these guys, it was a hug I actually wanted and needed.

“Sorry. Lost it there for a minute,” I said, embarrassed. “It’s just that I’m learning that trusting people can be dangerous. But I won’t let you down.”

“You won’t. I would never doubt that for a minute.”

I kept thinking of how much Matt’s betrayal had hurt me, and knew that he was right. I switched tones because the conversation had gotten too uncomfortable, and too maudlin. “So next time you and Robbie revise your list of fuckable guys, make sure I’m on there.”

“Right,” he said dismissively.

“I’m not hot enough for you?” I teased, practicing my flirting.

“Matt will figure this out, you know,” he said, not getting that I really did find him attractive. “Stef spent most of the morning ripping his guts out.”

“He probably didn’t hear a word Stef said. He’s focused on fucking Carl.”

“He did, but having JP chime in for good measure probably opened his eyes a bit more.” I nodded. That would have had an impact, a huge one.

“I wonder if that’s before he called me.”

“It was after,” Brad said confidently. “He was bitching to them about how he couldn’t even have a pleasant conversation with you anymore. That started the ball rolling.”

“It’s going to be different. How he handles this will determine how different it is.”

“What do you mean?” He was expecting a clone story of what happened with him and Robbie, where Matt would snap out of this, and we’d go back to the way things were.

“I’m not going to sit at home and be his cum dump when he can’t find someone new to fuck,” I said much too bitterly. “I’m going to go out and have fun. I’m going to meet new people, and I may even fuck them. I’m not going to do it to spite him, I’m going to do it because I can, and I want to.”

“What if that’s not what he wants?”

I thought about that. “I’m not at a point to be monogamous with him. It’s not what I need, but more importantly, if I did that, he’d end up hating me for it. He needs to be the way he is. I get that. I’m fine with that. I’m just demanding equal rights.”

“It should be interesting, especially for Matt.”

“It should be. And now, I have to go get ready for my date.”

“Date?” He was such a gossip.

“Ben Solomon called me this morning and asked me to a dinner party.”

“He’s a total playboy.”

“Good,” I said, and winked at him, making him laugh. I decided to mess with him. I walked up to him, grabbed the back of his neck, and pulled him to me, planting a nice kiss on him. It was a bit more intense than either one of us thought it would be. It was funny to see that I recovered from it first. “My audition for when the list expands.” I was chuckling to myself as I took the tape, the paper my mother gave me, and strolled out of the room.

 

 

I drove up to Solomon’s house in Brad’s Porsche. I’d borrowed it from him because I didn’t really want to go on my date in a Volvo station wagon. I mean, it was nice, but it was so not me. His house was in Bel Air, up in the hills, so I paused to admire the same vistas of LA I’d seen last night. I knocked on the door and the maid answered.

“You must be Mr. Danfield,” she said with good, but accented English. “Mr. Solomon asked me to show you to the pool room. He’ll be with you shortly.”

I thought that was funny, that he’d leave me in the room where we’d had that nice kiss last night. She got me a drink, and then left me alone. I took that opportunity to rack up the balls and take a few shots.

“Practicing?” I heard him ask. He had this annoying ability to appear from nowhere.

“After last night, I think I need it,” I joked. He walked up to me and got right up in my face. I wasn’t really expecting him to kiss me, but he did. There are guys that I kissed that seemed like horrible kissers. I wasn’t sure if that was it, or if they just weren’t good kissers with me. This guy was good. His lips meshed with mine perfectly, but when his tongue probed past my lips, I backed away from him.

“You sure don’t need to practice that,” he said, and pulled me in again. I stopped him again. He was getting me really fired up, and in a few minutes, I’d be naked in bed with him.

“You move fast, big guy,” I teased.

“Most people call me that,” he joked with bravado. I reached down and grabbed his hard cock through his pants, and made him sigh. “Now who’s moving fast?”

“Good point. Were you going to feed me or what?” He moved his hand to his zipper, but I just rolled my eyes.

“Follow me,” he said. He led me into the dining room, where there were only two places set.

“Dinner party?”

“I like my parties more intimate,” he said as he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. I felt his hard cock lining up between my ass cheeks, and that made me uncomfortable. I headed toward one of the chairs and sat down. “You sit there,” he said, cracking both of us up.

“So what’s a New York boy doing in LA?” I asked him. One of the servants brought out a salad, some sort of spicy Caesar thing that was really good.

“We wanted to expand our banking services to the entertainment industry. It’s a great place to be young, handsome, and rich, so I jumped at the chance to get it going.”

“A big job for a young guy to tackle,” I observed with admiration.

“I’m not alone. I’m just the guy who makes the deals. I’ve been watching my dad do it for years, so it’s not like I’m a rookie.”

“You have a reputation for being a hard-core negotiator,” I observed. I watched that comment fuel his ego.

“You’ve done your research,” he said.

“Always,” I said, which was true. I liked to know what I was getting into.

“So what about you?”

“What about me?” He’d have to know a little bit about me to frame questions. I wasn’t letting him off the hook.

“Your dad’s a senator,” he said lamely. This guy didn’t know shit about me, and I could damn near write his resume for him.

“So why did you invite me over for dinner?” I asked.

“You’re interesting,” he said. I felt his hand on my leg.

“I’m still hungry,” I joked. He shook his head, and sat back just as the staff brought the main course. “So why am I interesting?”

“Something about you. You’re smart; you’re sexy and aloof all at the same time.” He took a bite. “Besides, you’re like the ultimate WASP.”

That really made me laugh. “So you’ve put the entire WASP-nation on my shoulders?”

“Maybe.” We finished dinner, and then he got up and held out his hand.

“Where are we going?”

“Let’s see how your pool game is.” We went up and played a few games of pool. We had a nice conversation, but the deal with this guy was that he just wouldn’t put his game aside: he was the consummate player. I’d try to get to know him, not intensely, but he’d shut me down by giving me some offhand comment. I mean, I’m not the most forthcoming person, but he didn’t even answer my question about what sports he played. It was a total exercise in superficial talk.

And he made me feel like a sex object, which was pretty hilarious, but I actually kind of understood how some of those women felt who got their asses pinched or grabbed at work by pervy coworkers. He walked behind me as I was getting ready to shoot and his hand ran across my ass, with his fingers grazing the crack. I think he was impressed that I made the shot anyway. I finally decided that I’d had enough. “Thanks for a fun evening,” I said.

“You’re leaving?”

“I have an early morning. I’m driving up to the Bay.” It was way too early for me to have to worry about it, but I was still surprised that he called me on it.

“Dude, stay. Spend the night.”

“I can’t,” I said firmly. I gave him a quick kiss and then strode from the room and from the house before he could argue anymore.

I couldn’t wait to get away from there, and found myself driving like Matt. I actually started laughing, thinking about what a disaster my date had turned out to be. Holy shit. It was horrible. Did all guys just fuck first, and then get to know each other afterward? Or not at all? It was almost depressing, to think that the whole world operated like Matt did. I looked at my watch and it was only 10pm. Three hours. Was that like the shortest date ever?

I got back to Malibu and the house was deserted. Brad and Robbie had some event to go to, Tiffany and Riley were asleep, Cody was doing someone, and even Will and JJ were gone. I walked up to my room, shaking my head at how funny the whole thing was. I opened the door and got a bigger surprise.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be home,” Matt said. And as pissed off as he’d made me, as sad as I was that he was banging Carl, and as upset as I was about what he’d told Carl, I was really glad to see him.

I rushed over to the bed and jumped on top of him, tackling him. We wrestled around on the bed until we fell off and landed on the floor. “Ouch!” he cried.

“Sometimes it hurts to be on the bottom,” I said. I leaned in and kissed him. “I’m glad to see you.”

He beamed at me, so happy that I wasn’t busting his balls for a change. “I’m glad to see you too.” I kissed him again, and I could feel the passion and the love breaking through for both of us. It was like those emotions had been suppressed, and suddenly they were released, like a dam bursting. I tore my shirt, I was so anxious to get it off. Normally we had a good time with foreplay, but this time that wasn’t the deal. There was just this huge drive to couple at the most primal level.

He jumped on the bed and lay on his back, pulling his ankles back and begging me to fuck him. “Come on Wade,” he said urgently. “I need you inside me.”

I growled and grabbed the lube, squirting it carelessly on my dick and his hole. That he chuckled as he watched me do something so haphazardly, when normally I would have been so deliberate and neat with the lube, just fueled my desire. He knew me so well. He loved me for who I was. I slid right into him, as if it were meant to be, as if we were meant to be, and felt his body respond to my invasion. I bent him over even more, so I could kiss him while I fucked him, but that didn’t last long either. The drive was too intense for that. I grabbed his ankles and just started fucking him hard, just pounding him. I looked down as his exquisite body writhed in pleasure beneath me. His face was switching expressions rapidly, from moan, to his eyes rolling back into his head, and back again, signs that he was real close. I picked up my pace and looked down in time to see the first shot fly from his dick, the first blast of cum that landed on his cheek. He grabbed his dick and nursed his orgasm on, but by then I was on my way to complete euphoria, riding the wave of an orgasm the likes of which I hadn’t had in a long time. I closed my eyes and just blew and blew and blew until I almost blacked out. When I was done I just stopped in place, my dick still buried in his ass, and my whole body quivering.

“Dude, you are fucking amazing,” I heard him say, calling me back to earth. “Un-fucking believable.”

I smiled at him, laughed, and then my normal self asserted itself, and I got up to get a towel to clean us both up and guilted him into helping me make the bed. He flopped into it on his back as soon as it was done.

“Come here, baby,” he said, spreading his arms and wide. I shook my head and relaxed into him, letting him envelop me with his strong arms.