“You could hide his keys.” Adam loaded the dishwasher.
“Yeah, right.” Steve put the leftover food into the refrigerator, while Jack threw away the empty containers and wiped the counter.
“How could you allow him to buy it?” Jack asked.
Steve gave Jack a weary look.
Adam didn’t comment.
Jack said, “Ya know, for the first time in a long time, I don’t want to fuck him. I’m so tired of his bullshit.”
“We don’t have to make love, Jack.” Adam wiped his hands on a towel. “We can just watch a movie.”
“I’m good with that.” Steve made sure the kitchen was in order. “There might be a baseball game on.”
Adam rolled his eyes at the thought.
Steve pointed to the top floor. “Let me check on Mark.” He trotted up the stairs and looked into the bedroom. Mark was sound asleep, holding Praline.
Steve looked down at him. Mark, Mark, Mark… Nothing ever changes. It’s insane.
He sat beside Mark, caressing his long mane of brown hair. Mark stirred from his nap.
“I’m sorry, Steven. I’m knackered.”
“It’s okay. We’re going to watch a movie. I just wanted you to know.”
“No lovemaking?”
“Maybe later? Before bed?” Steve touched Mark’s cheek.
Mark set the stuffed bear aside, and reached for a hug.
Steve brought Mark into his arms. They embraced tightly and Steve inhaled Mark’s scent; whether it was his cologne or natural body aroma, Mark always smelled so good.
Steve nuzzled into Mark’s neck. “You can sleep. We’re fine hanging out.”
“I want to be with my boys this weekend.” Mark backed up, rubbing his eyes.
“We’re here. Come down and watch a movie with us.”
“What film?”
“I don’t know. You can help us decide.”
“I don’t care much for mainstream media.”
“I know.” Steve smiled.
“Steven?”
“Yes?” Steve got lost in Mark’s green eyes.
“I love you.”
Steve kissed Mark. “I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”
“And?” Mark made a silly face at him.
“Oh,” Steve teased, “Am I supposed to say it back?”
“Brute.”
“Come here.” He held onto Mark, rocking him in his arms. “Love, love, love you.”
“Mmm.” Mark went limp in Steve’s embrace.
“So? Up for a movie with our two favorite men?” Steve brushed Mark’s hair back from his forehead.
“Of course.”
Steve stood and reached for Mark.
Mark took his hand and Steve noticed, as Mark stood, he may have gotten dizzy. Mark was notorious for fainting before photo shoots since he tended to starve. No amount of nagging, coaxing, or complaining, would change it.
Steve waited, and then he realized Mark wasn’t going to faint. He held him around his waist, and walked Mark down the stairs to meet with the other two.
Jack and Adam were together on the large sectional sofa, and they had brought their drinks with them.
Adam looked up at Mark. “Did you nap?”
“I did.” Mark sat down and stared at the TV. “What nonsense are you watching?”
Steve smiled and thumbed over his shoulder. “Anyone need anything?”
“Water, Steven?”
“We’re good.” Jack pointed to himself and Adam.
Steve left to get Mark a bottle of water, as well as one for himself. Once he did, he opened the door to the garage, looking at his Mercedes, Mark’s TVR, and the new addition, the Ducati. There was no way to prevent Mark riding. Mark was forty-four, not sixteen. And even though Mark may appear weak at times, he was as stubborn as a mule; Milt Richfield’s blood was in Mark’s veins, whether he hated the old man or not. And the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Alexander Mark Richfield was the same. Not only did he look exactly like his top model dad, he had Mark’s stubborn streak as well.
Steve closed the garage door quietly, and lowered his head. There was nothing he could do. Nothing.
And that was the most frustrating part about it.
He brought two water bottles into the den, adjusted his expression, since Mark immediately watched him like a hawk, and then Steve sat beside Mark.
Mark thanked him for the water, cuddling up against Steve.
Steve sipped his water, setting it on a side table, and put his arm around Mark as they did something very rare. Watched TV on one of their sex-weekends.
Maybe they needed this. Time to just hang out without the expectation of a four-way sex romp. It didn’t matter. Steve was glad he had Jack and Adam here, and he would enjoy his lover, his husband, the man who had become his world, until he no longer could.
~
LAPD Captain Billy Sharpe sat at his computer and looked up flights to Ontario. He had gone through the long process of applying for the position of Chief of Police at his old stomping ground, Santa Monica. It was now up to them.
And…
He had made Alex a promise.
Billy looked for a direct flight, but coming from Los Angeles, he wasn’t going to get one. He had to stopover in either Chicago or New York.
His phone chimed with a text message.
Thinking it may be Alex, Billy reached for it. It was from one of his old SWAT buddies in the Los Angeles Police department, Manny Rodriguez. ‘was Alex’s father out on the highway on a motorcycle today?’
“Oh, fuck me.” Billy thought about Mark possibly lying to him when he asked him that same question. He texted Manny, ‘Why?’
‘my daughter showed me photos of him taken at a lookout point on H1. The CHP sent out a BOLO for a red crotch-rocket going over the century mark.’
“Fuck!” Billy took a moment to calm down at the thought of Mark riding that fast. I fucking knew it! Mark had just taken the motorcycle endorsement course recently, and was by no means an experienced rider. Although he knew it had to be Mark and Mark had lied to him, Billy typed, ‘no. not him. sorry.’
‘okay. just giving you a heads up.’
‘thanks.’
‘any word on the C-o-P position?’
‘still waiting. keep it off the radar.’
‘no prob. let’s have a beer soon.’
‘cool. when I get back from Canada.’
‘see ya.’
Billy set the phone down and rubbed his face in frustration. “Goddamn it, Richfield!” He stopped his hunt for flights and instead, looked up Mark’s latest mess via his computer’s search engine. Sure as shit, there was a candid photo of Mark, in his leathers, standing near his red crotch-rocket, at a lookout point. Under the photo was a caption, ‘Mark Antonious in leather on an Italian super-bike? Does it get any hotter than that? Thank you Dangereux Red!’
Both he and Steve had watched Mark film the latest commercial ads for Mark’s cologne. The new ‘Red’ campaign had Mark in leather, riding the bike in the television commercials, and standing next to it, topless, in print.
He and Steve knew Mark getting the motorcycle was inevitable. And? Now Mark had and was riding recklessly.
Billy closed his eyes to decompress. He was married to Alexander, Mark’s twenty-six year old superstar son. Not Mark.
Although he adored Mark, Billy had to stop feeling as if he were responsible for him. Not only for the sake of his marriage, which was already tough since he and Alex had a twenty year age gap between them, not to mention, two careers which demanded most of their time.
Billy couldn’t stop Mark from doing, basically, anything. And if Steve, Jack, and Adam couldn’t, how could he?
He shook off the feeling of terror that thinking about Mark dying on a motorcycle gave him, and resumed his search for a decent flight.
~
Alex relaxed in his hotel room as he read tomorrow’s paperwork and remembered his lines. The film was set on a sprawling ranch with horses, and open spaces. He and his co-star Jeremy Runner, had finished all of their sex scenes while still in Los Angeles. Now, they were doing everything else. He adored Jeremy. The man was kind, honest, and respected the fact that Alex was married. The entire team in Ontario were professional, never made any degrading comments about him, Billy, or his top model dad. It was a great production company, and he had a feeling this film was going to do very well at the box office.
Gay romances had finally hit mainstream. Alex couldn’t be happier to be a part of that movement.
Well, he could be happier. If his captain were here.
Alex rolled to his back, reading the lines, closing his eyes and memorizing them. He heard a tap on his hotel door. Alex perked up and set the paperwork down, answering it.
Jeremy was there, holding his papers. “Want to read with me?”
“Sure.” Alex invited him into his hotel room and closed the door.
Jeremy dropped down on the foot of the bed and stared at the paperwork. Alex sat beside him, holding his. “You start.”
“Right.” Jeremy yawned, rubbed his eyes, and then read from the script. “I have to tell ya something.”
“I hope it’s good.”
“It ain’t.”
Alex waited, since Jeremy had the next line.
“We had to notify State. We got ourselves a homicide.” Jeremy paused, since the notation was in the script, and then said, “She’s a young woman, maybe twenties… her initials were ‘C-L’.”
“How do you know?”
“Buddy found a bracelet. Anyway, State is going to do up some computer shit and make a drawing of what she looks like. Then the captain and I are going to announce it at the town hall, next Thursday.”
“You aren’t saying she was killed at my ranch.”
“I’m going to try to be as discreet as possible, Cole, but what do you think the town’s people are going to ask when we tell them?”
“Goddamn it, Hayden. I thought we had an agreement.” Alex could see Jeremy was struggling with remembering so much dialogue. He was basically reading his, while Alex had most of his own lines memorized.
“We had no such thing, Cole. Jesus. I’d think you’d want to see justice done for the poor girl. Buddy told me she put up a fight. She’s just a tiny thing. She had wounds on her arms. Think of that, will ya? Someone’s mother lost a daughter.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I said. I don’t know what to do, Cole. I mean, this town? Nothing happens here. We never have anyone in the holding cell.” Jeremy paused and tried not to look at the script. “And getting the State to pitch in? Curdles my blood. Those bastards will send in some goon squad and harass everyone here. I’m sick about it.”
“I don’t think my dad will handle this news well. He didn’t even want the locals to know.”
“And I’m sick about that young woman, Cole. Who’d want to harm a young girl? Jesus H. Christ.”
Alex stared at Jeremy’s handsome profile, knowing how excited they had gotten during the sex scenes in LA. “I don’t know, Sky. I really think it has to be an outsider. There ain’t no one we know capable of that.”
“Yeah. I told the captain it has to be a drifter. Someone passing through.”
“But why there, ya know? I can’t understand if it’s someone from out of town, why would they dump a body back there? Christ, on my property? Like we don’t have enough trouble.”
Jeremy went back to reading. “Finances?”
“Dad’s got us in debt to the eyeballs. We need a new roof and we thought we could ask for a loan against the property. Then Leo looks into it with the bank, and finds out Dad’s been refinancing the shit out of it. We don’t have a pot to piss in.”
“Damn, Cole. I didn’t know it was that bad.”
“We’re going to the horse auction, ya know, sell a few of the older hack horses.”
“Christ, Cole.”
At that point in the script, Alex was supposed to touch Jeremy. So he did. Jeremy didn’t flinch and pull away, like he was supposed to do in the script. Alex stopped touching him. “Sorry. I… you don’t have to go.”
“I’m dead on my feet, and have got to get out of this uniform. Goddamn twelve-hour shifts. I swear, I’m never out of this clown suit.”
The fact that Jeremy was playing a downtrodden sheriff in a one-horse town, hit Alex hard and made him think of Billy. “I guess being one of the few cops in this shithole is easy, until something happens.”
“Ain’t never easy. And it’s all from behind the scenes that’s the bitch. Not the town itself.”
“Why? What’s going on, Hayden?”
Jeremy tried not to look at the script but kept doing it. “There’s talk they’re getting rid of us, and just letting State take over. Talk about broke? There ain’t even enough taxes in this place to support the few of us working here.”
“So… what’ll ya do? Leave?”
“I’m not thinking that far in advance. I can’t. My head will explode. I’m like you. I grew up here. My gran is in a nursing home nearby and my parents are buried here. Where am I going? Huh? Lateral into some big city department? Get into a shootout with a gang? I can’t do that.”
Alex again thought of Billy changing police departments, and lost himself for a moment. He studied Jeremy’s expression. “I would have thought you’d split the first chance you got. I can tell ya, what you’re saying surprises me.”
Jeremy gave Alex a look that set Alex’s skin on fire and goose bumps rose on his forearms. “Why do you think I stay around, Cole?”
“Don’t you go saying anything you don’t intend to keep.”
“Yeah? You want to face that? Huh? A queer couple in this town? Bad enough I have to stand up on Thursday and talk about a homicide. But I’d rather do that than let them know.”
“Know…” Alex used his index finger to touch the back of Jeremy’s hand since he could see Jeremy struggling to remember so much dialogue.
Jeremy sighed loudly and held up the paper. “Good luck telling your dad… see ya.”
That was it the end of the scene.
Jeremy flopped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “I’m burned out already, Alex. I’m so fucking tired.”
Alex set his script on the nightstand and relaxed beside Jeremy. “Me too. We’re near the end. Only one more week.”
Jeremy shook the paperwork in his hand. “Look at all this fucking dialogue!”
“I know.”
“How do you remember it? You seem to have the right brain for it.” Jeremy put the papers beside him on the bed.
Alex thought about it. “I guess I just get into the character. You know? I think of it as talking with someone. And your character is so much like Billy—”
Jeremy rolled to his side, held Alex’s head, and kissed him.
Alex’s eyes sprang wide open and he backed up. “Whoa!”
As if he realized how wrong his actions were, Jeremy covered his face. “Sorry. Shit.”
Alex stood up, shaken, and hoping this wouldn’t happen. But the chemistry between him and Jeremy was scorching hot. And they weren’t even doing sex scenes any longer.
Jeremy sat up, placing the paper over his lap, hiding his crotch. “That was out of line. Alex, I’m sorry.” Jeremy got to his feet, and to Alex, he appeared completely spent and defeated.
“Jeremy.”
His gorgeous costar glanced at him sheepishly.
Alex reached out his arms in sympathy. He’d been there; been stressed, overworked to exhaustion, and knew when someone needed a friend.
Jeremy set the papers on the bed and held Alex, squeezing him tight. “Billy is one lucky fucker.”
Alex felt Jeremy’s cock against his, and they were both hard. “I’m not so sure.” Alex smiled as he rested his chin on Jeremy’s shoulder. “He’s got his hands full.”
In his ear, Jeremy whispered, “Does Billy love your father?”
Alex closed his eyes in reaction and didn’t answer.
Jeremy rested his forehead on Alex’s. “It’s all over the news, Alex. I’m not trying to throw fuel on the fire.”
“I know.”
“Did you read the latest story about why Being Screwed got cancelled?”
Alex kept still, trying to think. “My director, Charlotte Deavers, said it was because the film producers didn’t want the conflicting schedule.”
“Um, no.”
Alex backed up so he could see Jeremy’s eyes. “What am I missing?”
“I read that they cancelled it because of the affair Billy was having with your father.”
Alex felt his skin crawl. “Jeremy, they’re not having an affair.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. You don’t know my dad. He almost tried to overdose when he and—”
Jeremy tilted his head. “He and? Go on.”
Alex sat down on the bed.
Jeremy sat beside him, leaning on his shoulder. “They did fuck, didn’t they?”
Alex didn’t want to confirm the suspicions. “I think we should keep our relationship professional.”
“It is. You know it is. I adore you. And as I’ve said, I certainly respect your marriage to Billy.” Jeremy stood, holding his paperwork. “But, does Billy respect you?”
Alex winced and turned away. “I’m really tired.”
“Okay. Alex, thanks for reading with me. You’re a pro.”
Nodding, Alex didn’t look up, hearing Jeremy leave. He stayed still for a long moment, and then picked up his laptop from the desk. He sat down with it, booted it up, and looked for the gossip Jeremy had told him. What he found made him furious. He loved that vampire series, and was crushed when they ended it. Was he lied to? Lied to in order to prevent retaliation between himself and his husband, and his father?
Is Dad still having sex with Billy?
Alex looked at the door to his hotel room and brooded.