3
The elevator is empty, and Jay-Cee exhales as the heat from Chris’s body sinks into his. He can see Chris’s face in the glossy mirrored surface. He looks peaceful, eyes closed and a soft smile on his face. Jay-Cee pulls Chris in more tightly against him, and Chris feels almost sleepy in his arms. Too bad they’re only going three floors down, Jay-Cee just kind of wants to ride the elevator like this for a while.
The couple that enters pushes the button for the lobby and Jay-Cee thinks what the hell and rides down with them. Chris’s head is tilted into Jay-Cee’s chest, and he looks half asleep. The door opens onto the lobby. The woman meets Jay-Cee’s eyes and quietly asks, “Floor?”
“Thirty-two,” Jay-Cee whispers. She presses the button before exiting.
It’s not the fastest elevator in the world, and they’re taking the slow way up, people entering and exiting at most of the floors, so Jay-Cee has plenty of time to imagine how amazing he and Chris would look fucking inside this mirrored box, their reflections repeating into infinity. He thinks some of the other passengers would approve, might even clap if they knew how ready Chris’s body is for his, how he could just slip that plug out and slip right into him. Luckily for the other guests, Jay-Cee couldn’t get it up again right now if they were paying him. Though that doesn’t mean he couldn’t make Chris come spectacularly, make him dirty up this shiny surface.
The elevator dings as it passes the 31st floor and Jay-Cee gently pushes Chris up and off him. The smile hasn’t left his face. He leans in close to Jay-Cee’s ear. “Was that your surprise? A little elevator ride? Not even gonna fuck me in front of all these mirrors?” Jay-Cee’s hand tightens on Chris’s arm, and Chris chuckles low and quiet. “Would be so hot.”
“Narcissist,” Jay-Cee jokes.
“I was thinking of watching you,” Chris replies as the elevator stops. They hear the bass thump of music before the door open.
The elevator opens right into the red-velvet-roped waiting area. Jay-Cee and Chris get the nod, not a surprise. Jay-Cee pays the cover, and they’re in.
The club is packed. Music two decibels below aerial-assault level, beautiful half-naked people dancing, crammed together. There are dancers, men, women, men who might be women and women who might be men, dancing together or alone in cages hanging from the ceiling. Jay-Cee can’t tell if they’re paid entertainment or just really happy club goers.
The moist heat of sweaty bodies envelopes them, and Chris takes off his jacket as soon as he’s inside, carrying it slung over his arm. Even in this crowd of glitterati, Chris stands out with his stark black and white tux and silver tipped cane, and the crowd parts in front of him as people try to figure out if they know him; if they should know him.
Mirrored columns separate the dance floor from the rest of the club, and Jay-Cee checks out their reflection while Chris searches for a place for them to sit. They look damn good, and he turns Chris’s head to the sight of the two of them together. Chris’s smile is wide, and he’s got that that look in his eyes like every second they spend clothed is just a waste of time. Jay-Cee loves that look.
“Got a thing for mirrors?” he asks. “Guess we’d better do some renovating back home.”
Jay-Cee just tilts his head back and kisses him, one hand cupping his face, one hand on his hip. He sees a lady passing behind them trip over a low table, she’s staring at them so hard.
Chris pulls his lips away, so Jay-Cee just moves onto his neck. “Jay-Cee?” Chris asks.
“Hmm?” Jay-Cee murmurs, not moving his lips off of Chris’s neck. That jacket looked awesome on Chris, fits him like a sin, but it blocked Jay-Cee’s access to Chris’s skin. With the jacket off, he can finally get to that soft spot on Chris’s neck that he loves to mark up. Actually, Jay-Cee thinks, if Chris were naked, he could reach all of his skin. Maybe it’s the $200 scotch talking, but part of Jay-Cee actually contemplates stripping Chris right here, right now.
Chris shifts the jacket to the arm with the walking stick, then reaches behind him, runs his hand up the back of Jay-Cee’s thighs. “I’m sensing a theme here.”
Jay-Cee smiles into Chris’s skin, nips at it sharply before pulling away. “Oh?” he asks.
“Is this, perchance, a club of the homosexual persuasion?” He nods across the floor.
Jay-Cee follows his gaze to two women in a rather heated embrace. When the blonde’s hand slides up the redhead’s skirt, he bites down on Chris’s neck again, loving the shudder that goes through him. “I believe it is. And I believe that I am going to fuck you in this club, and I want everyone to see.”
Chris’s reaction to that is exquisite. He trembles, bending over like he’d been punched in the stomach. “Jay-Cee,” he gasps, pushing his hand hard against his groin to stave off what Jay-Cee is sure is going to be an epic orgasm. “Fuck. Don’t...don’t say things like that if...”
“If what?” He licks up Chris’s neck, digging his fingers hard into his hips. “If I don’t mean it? But I do mean it. You’re perfect and brilliant and gorgeous and amazing and beautiful and mine. Only mine. And I want everyone to see and be jealous.”
“Possessive,” Chris says.
Chris doesn’t know the half of it.
Chris turns in Jay-Cee’s arms and pulls them back into the mirror, mouth sealed to Jay-Cee’s. That’s one way to get people to look at them. Why isn’t there another word for what happens when his mouth is on Chris’s? A kiss is something mothers give their children. What happens between them when it’s like this is different. It’s an affirmation that they are still here, still alive, and they still have each other, despite all the crap in their past and years between them.
By the time they make their way to one of the low loveseats near the dance floor, Chris is limping a little, leaning hard on his walking stick, and they both have their jackets off.
Jay-Cee’s black on black waistcoat is still buttoned up neatly, but he’s taken off his tie and loosened the collar. Chris’s still got his tie on and the suspenders up, but the sleeves of his white shirt are rolled up, and Jay-Cee is mesmerized by the muscles in his forearm and the golden hair on his skin. He really wants to see Chris messed up now.
They watch the dancers for while, listening to the music. It’s too loud to talk easily, so Jay-Cee leans back and pulls Chris between his legs, his back pressed against Jay-Cee’s chest. He can’t stop touching, rubbing his hands down Chris’s arms, his thighs. Kissing his temple, the side of his neck. Chris’s breathing gets deeper, and Jay-Cee can feel the faintest of tremors starting in his legs as he struggles to keep from rolling his hips. God, Chris still hasn’t come yet. Jay-Cee can practically feel him trembling in his bones.
Jay-Cee slips his hand under the suspenders, right where they attach to Chris’s pants. His fingers dip down under the waistband, quick and light. Chris’s muscles flutter. Chris is firm and hot under his palm. He drags his hand slowly up under the suspender strap, stopping to pinch at a nipple, tugging at the rings. Does it again, rolling the rough point between his fingers just to hear Chris moan his name again. He pulls Chris’s head to the left with one hand as he slides the suspender down off his shoulder, trapping Chris’s arm against his body.
A low fuck yeah carries below the music, and Jay-Cee looks up without moving his mouth from Chris’s neck. A slender young man with dark hair is watching them, gaze locked on where Jay-Cee’s hand disappears into Chris’s clothing. As Jay-Cee pulls the other suspender off Chris’s shoulder, the man points his partner in Jay-Cee’s direction. Jay-Cee pulls Chris’s chin up so he can see the men are watching them. Then he gently pulls Chris’s shirt out from his pants and unbuttons it. He slides his hand back down into Chris’s pants, feeling Chris hard and leaking. The contact makes them both moan and the music thuds through them like a shared heartbeat.
They draw the dancers like moths to their flame. Vegas is full of jaded, sophisticated social climbers who try to hide their desire under a mask of ennui, but Jay-Cee can sense their eyes sliding over him and Chris, sees them dance a little closer, the crowds thickening near their loveseat. He completely understands why people can’t look away, he knows what Chris looks like when like this, seen it a hundred times, and he still can’t ever look away either. The soft, almost-feminine prettiness, the lean body, and the plushness of his lips and the lush sweep of lashes around his blue eyes.
So Jay-Cee lets them watch as he strokes Chris slowly and firmly from root to tip, moving with the rolling of Chris’s hips. There’s a temptation to just keep it building like this, just slow and deep and his hand moving steadily until Chris comes hot and wet over Jay-Cee’s hand, sweeping them both along in a pyroclastic flow of heat. But he wants more than that. He wants Chris’s brain fried and body boneless by the end. And he knows exactly how to do that.
He pulls his hand out of Chris’s pants. “I love you,” Chris whispers. Letting Jay-Cee know he’s okay with whatever Jay-Cee wants.
And Jay-Cee needs to know that he can do things for Chris. Chris gives himself over and over to the world through his art. It’s Jay-Cee’s job to give back to him. To bring him back to himself and gather up all those pieces he’s given away. To put him back together with his hands and his words and his cock and his love.
Jay-Cee’s hand stills as the urge to protect Chris wars with the urge to show the world the shining thing that is Chris Dobbs in ecstasy.
Chris makes the decision for him when he rolls his head against Jay-Cee’s chest languidly, decadently. “Kiss me,” he demands into the skin of Jay-Cee’s neck.
And Jay-Cee does. There is no power on earth that could stop him.
Their mouths press and slide over each other, the angle wrong for the deep kisses Jay-Cee prefers, where he feels like he can breathe Chris’s air. These soft, teasing touches of lips and tongue that make Jay-Cee crazy is Chris’s territory. More than once Chris has tied Jay-Cee to the bed, blindfolded him, and tortured him with his mouth for what seems like an eternity. Nipping, licking, and sucking - never in one place long enough to let Jay-Cee relax. Not until Jay-Cee is trembling, arms and legs pulled tight against the restraints, every muscle strained and outlined in sweat, not until the tears fall from his eyes and his voice is hoarse from begging, does Chris take pity on him. The wet-hot-tight plunge of Chris’s mouth on his painfully hard cock is like a punch to the gut, and Jay-Cee comes with a white-blind scream that him grateful for the thick brick walls of his loft.
Jay-Cee’s groans with the memory. Resting his head on Chris’s temple, he can see the fine lines feathering out from his eyes get deeper as Chris smiles, can feel Chris’s chest press out, thighs drop open a little further as he shows off. Seducing the crowd. Chris knows he’s gorgeous.
Jay-Cee growls into his Chris’s ear. “You make me crazy. I’m two seconds away from fucking you on this couch.” All the air leaves Chris’s lungs in a long exhale, and his fingers dig into Jay-Cee’s thigh muscles. It’s the closest he gets to begging like this, and it’s all Jay-Cee needs to know.
He pries Chris’s hands off his thighs and pulls his arms up over his head, hooking them around his neck. Chris’s shirt is in Jay-Cee’s way, so he yanks it out from under the suspenders. He slides one hand back down, gripping Chris’s cock hard, pinching his nipple with the other. Chris gasps and twists up with a pained moan. Jay-Cee hears the moan echoed back from somewhere behind him. “Keep your eyes open as long as you can,” he tells Chris. “I want them to see how gorgeous you are when you come.”
“Okay,” Chris pants.
Jay-Cee jacks him in earnest now, hand tight and deliberate, from top to bottom, over and over. There’s not a lot of room in the tux pants, and Jay-Cee wants to watch. He feels Chris pulse hot over his hand on the next upstroke and give the shuddering exhale that means he’s close and Jay-Cee just has to see it. He stops torturing Chris’s nipples long enough to one-handedly open the fasting on the trousers. A push from the back of his hand and the zipper slides down. Chris’s cock arches from the opening of his briefs. “Oh fucking hell,” Chris curses, pressing his head back into Jay-Cee’s chest. Jay-Cee kisses his head as his hand slips over the wet tip and slides back down.
The dark-haired man is openly rubbing his erection through his pants. The lesbian couple is leaning back against a pillar, watching. The blonde stands behind her partner, rolling the other’s nipples between her fingers. Jay-Cee loves it. “Fuck, Chris,” he growls. “You’re so fucking gorgeous. Look what you’re doing to them.” Chris melts against Jay-Cee and Jay-Cee curves as much as he can over Chris, holding him, protecting him, and making him feel so, so good.
And, oh, this is Jay-Cee’s favorite place to be. When everything falls away and all Jay-Cee can see and feel and hear is Chris, under his hand, his mouth, pressed against his own hardness. All his focus is on pushing this to the edge, to pulling absolutely everything from Chris he can. So when a body knocks against his leg, the only thing he can process is not Chris. The disorientation is dizzying. In the space of a blink, Chris’s arms are gone from around his neck, and he hears a small scraping sound and the air around them goes oddly quiet and tense.
The flashing lights and the pounding music come crashing back into his consciousness. The black and white flash of the strobe illuminates the tableau in bits and pieces. A small crowd around them, standing stock still. Flash. The brunette man, eyes wide, hand held out in front of him. Flash. Jay-Cee’s arm rock steady, holding the long knife from the walking stick against the man’s palm. Flash. Jay-Cee can see the point pressing just the smallest bit into the soft flesh. Chris’s body is still relaxed against Jay-Cee’s chest, his cock still hard under Jay-Cee’s hand.
He doesn’t even remember reaching for the cane.
Lust shoots through Jay-Cee, and his hand tightens around Chris at the same time he thrusts against Chris’s back. The point of the knife doesn’t waver. Oh, fuck. It all feels so good. He can tell from the pulsing of Chris’s blood, and the way he swells under Jay-Cee’s hand that he is right on the edge.
The strobe lights give over to a rain of wildly swinging colored lights, and Jay-Cee sees the crowd part from the rear as security makes its way towards them. He drops the knife and leans as far over Chris as he can, sliding his hand down to push hard against the plug still inside Chris. It’s slippery from the come leaking out of it. He rubs around so gently in contrast to the rough fast way he is stripping Chris’s cock. “Come for me Chris, before those security guys get here. Then I’m gonna take you back to the room and -”
And Chris is coming, almost silently just some soft grunts. Jay-Cee’s eyes roll back in his head at the feel of Chris’s heat sliding over his fingers, and the strength in Chris’s body.
Security is getting closer, and he hears the crowd murmuring. Chris is still half-hard and working through the aftershocks of his orgasm as Jay-Cee maneuvers them off the couch. The dark-haired man stumbles back into the crowd.
He zips Chris’s pants back up. They stand, neither one steadily, and Chris sheathes the knife. They walk towards the door in silence, jackets flung over their arms, Chris’s open shirt flapping in the breeze. Jay-Cee drags Chris by the hand, and they make it out in record time. Chris nods at the bouncer as they walk into the blessedly empty elevator.
Jay-Cee drags Chris in, pushes the button for their floor, and leans heavily against the wall with a sigh. He hears a choked sound from Chris. When he opens his eyes, he sees Chris in the reflection across him. God, Chris looks amazingly, completely, debauched. Shirt open, pants undone and clinging to him damply. His beautiful face and perfect neck are still flushed, hair wild. And he’s looking at Jay-Cee all bedroom-eyed, smiling that wide shit-eating grin that’s brighter than all the disco lights in the club. When he sees Jay-Cee looking at him, he laughs silently and holds up their (come-covered Jay-Cee realizes) hands. “Nice surprise, Jay-Cee,” he says with a smirk. “Sex and violence, my favorite. I haven’t been almost arrested in a while.”
They both burst out laughing. Air is already in short supply from the gasping laughter when Chris pulls Jay-Cee’s hand up to his mouth and starts licking at it. Impossibly, Jay-Cee feels another orgasm building. “Chris,” he warns as the bell dings and the doors slide open.
The walk to the room is a blur, and Jay-Cee is pushing Chris through the door, dragging him towards the dresser. Stripping him as they go, kissing him, telling him how perfect he is, how beautiful, and how hard he’s going to fuck him. Chris is almost drunk with it, can only take all Jay-Cee gives him. Eyes heavy-lidded, limbs heavy and languorous.
Chris’s legs are still trembling a little when Jay-Cee positions him in front of the mirror over the black lacquer dresser. So many mirrors tonight. Maybe he is a narcissist, but he never gets tired of watching them. He loves the way Chris’s pale skin looks against the black of his tux.
He places Chris hands down on the top of the dresser and makes him look at the both of them: Jay-Cee fully dressed, Chris’s naked body. Jay-Cee pulls him upright against his body. He yanks Chris’s head back to kiss him, tongue pressing in, lips sliding, flicking at Chris’s incredible mouth, biting until Chris is panting and his lips are red and swollen. One of Jay-Cee’s hands cups Chris’s face, keeping it just where Jay-Cee wants it. The other caresses Chris’s body, scraping across nipples, pinching, running down his torso, scratching into this pubic hair. When he finally grabs Chris’s cock, already hard again and dripping, Chris pulls off with a gasp. “God, Jay. So good.” He closes his eyes, hips rolling into Jay-Cee’s loose hold.
“Open your eyes, Chris,” Jay-Cee whispers. He does, as mesmerized as Jay-Cee is at the picture they make - Jay-Cee so dark and tall behind him, his black-clad arm reaching down and across the white skin of Chris’s body. Almost a study in black and white except for the blood red of his lips and the bright blue of his eyes. The hard gorgeous head of Chris’s cock slid through Jay-Cee’s huge hand that almost covers his entire length. Chris shudders hard, hips thrusting forward quickly, jerkily, as he moans out Jay-Cee’s name again.
Jay-Cee shushes him and pushes him down with a gentle hand at his back until Chris is braced once again against the dresser. “Should fucking film it, Chris. You’re so beautiful.”
Jay-Cee reaches down and feels for the edge of the plug, spreading the wetness around gently with his fingers. Chris’s skin twitches, but except for the jerk of his hard cock, he makes no sound, doesn’t move. Jay-Cee lays a line of gentle kisses down his back, licking up the spine as he fingers dig in a little, searching for purchase on the slick silicone. “I’m going to pull it out now,” he whispers into Chris’s back.
Chris exhales, leans a little lower, and spread his legs wider. Jay-Cee tugs and he can’t look away. They both groan as the widest part stretches Chris open. Jay-Cee stops holding him open like that. “Jesus, Chris,” he chokes out.
Chris’s answering groan turns to a hiss as Jay-Cee slides it out slowly over the red, tender skin. Chris’s exhale is broken, and slick pulses from of his cock, slipping down the Jay-same way Jay-Cee’s come drips out of Chris.
Jay-Cee watches as it slowly seeps around the curve of his ass. Despite three orgasms, Jay-Cee feels his cock twitch as it tries to rise to the incredible sight. Moving his hands to either side of Chris’s hips, Jay-Cee sinks down onto his heels, dragging his mouth down Chris’s body as he does. Gently he spreads Chris’s cheeks and blows gently across the tender flesh.
“God, Jay-Cee,” Chris moans, head hanging heavy down, his shoulders are trembling. Jay-Cee presses forward and licks in hard, tasting himself and Chris together. Chris yells, and his arms give out. He falls to his forearms on the desk. “Fuck, oh god.”
“So good for me, baby. Oh, fuck. You took it so gorgeous. So amazing.” The praise falls from his lips when he pulls off, rolls through his mind when he licks and sucks until Chris is a trembling mess in front of him.
Chris groans long and low, like the roar of a race car’s engine, his flanks trembling.
Jay-Cee pushes up, getting his arms under Chris’s arms before he collapses. He turns Chris in his arms until they are face to face. Kissing everywhere he can reach, Chris’s forehead, neck, cheeks, mouth, chin, as he walks them backwards until Chris’s knees hit the bed and he sits heavily.
Jay-Cee sinks down to his knees, spreading Chris’s legs as he does until he is kneeling between Chris’s spread thighs. Chris struggles for breath, cock hard and shiny, dripping wet. His hands are clenched around his own knees, knuckles white. He eyes are shuttered, and Jay-Cee knows Chris is deep in it now. He’s where he needed to be. And now what Jay-Cee needs is to bring Chris back. Needs to see his lover is in this with him.
So Jay-Cee smiles a wicked smile up through his hair, knowing that makes Chris crazy. He is rewarded by Chris’s deep indrawn breath and the jerk and throb of Chris’s dick. He knows Chris is right on the edge, the orgasm in the club nothing, a tease.
Bending down to kiss the inside of his left thigh, Jay-Cee pulls Chris’s hand off his knee and puts it on his head. Chris’s fingers instantly twine into Jay-Cee’s hair. He repeats the gesture on the other side. “Hold on,” he purrs as he opens his mouth and slides right down Chris’s dick until he feels it pushing against the back of his throat.
“Jesus!” Chris yells, his hand tightening in Jay-Cee’s hair. Jay-Cee sinks down to his heels and groans around Chris’s cock. Pulling back, he twirls his tongue around the head and slides back down. “Oh shit. Fuck.” Chris’s curses give way to grunts and heavy breaths. Jay-Cee does it again and again, feeling Chris thrusting up and pushing back against the bed, knowing Chris can feel the come seeping out of him, feel the rough bedspread rubbing against his over-sensitized hole. Jay-Cee goes up and down and around until he hears Chris starting to chant his name, feels his hands spread across Jay-Cee’s skull, cradling him gently. He pulls off and looks up, meeting Chris’s eyes. The deep blue ring sparkles around the lust-wide blackness of the pupils. And finally sees the wicked, effervescent Chris who Jay-Cee would do anything and everything for.
“Chris,” Jay-Cee whispers.
“Hey, baby,” Chris purrs back. “You sure look good on your knees in that fucking tux with your mouth around my cock.”
“Oh god,” Jay-Cee moans, as the blood flows almost painfully into his rapidly swelling cock. “Jesus, Chris. Come on, fuck me. Fuck my mouth.”
“Well since you asked so pretty,” is all the warning Jay-Cee gets before Chris uses his grip in Jay-Cee’s hair to drag his face back down. Chris lets himself fall backwards on the bed, keeping Jay-Cee pressed against him so that Jay-Cee has to quickly rise up on his knees.
Chris fucks into his mouth hard and perfect, and Jay-Cee can hardly breathe. He digs one hand into the meat of Chris’s thigh. The other, he manages to slide underneath Chris. He pushes two fingers into the hot, wet slick of his abused hole. Chris yells so loudly Jay-Cee tenses, waiting for the pounding on the walls from their neighbors that doesn’t come. So he does it again, thrusting as best as he can in the confined space. Chris’s slamming down onto his finger and up to his mouth.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Oh, god, oh, Jay-Cee, Jay, God!” and with that his hands slam Jay-Cee down and with three short, sharp thrusts he comes in Jay-Cee’s mouth, sitting up with the force of it, pulsing so long and hard Jay-Cee can’t begin to hold it all and it drips out the side of his mouth, pushing out with each of Chris’s thrusts. Tears force their way from the corners of Jay-Cee’s eyes. His hand flies off Chris’s thighs to clutch at his own cock, And with the press of his hand, he comes inside his pants.
Chris yanks him off his oversensitive cock while he’s still coming, and he falls back on the ground, hips thrusting against nothing, back arched. Chris groans, watching Jay-Cee come in his pants, cock jerking with aftershocks.
Chris collapses back down on the bed as Jay-Cee’s back thuds onto the carpet. The only sound is pained panting as they struggle to get their breath under control. Chris’s strangled breaths gradually turn into incredulous laughter. “Jesus fucking Christ. I think you killed me.”
“You?” Jay-Cee says from the floor. “Who’s on the floor here? I don’t think I can ever come again. Goddamn. I’m too old for this kind of thing.”
“Yeah, right.” Chris snorts skeptically and kicks weakly in Jay-Cee’s direction.
Jay-Cee gathers his energy and drags himself up off the floor. Chris is half-asleep already, but Jay-Cee kisses his shoulder and covers him as he starts to shiver. He makes him drink some water, then turns him onto his side and tucks him in as he starts to slip into sleep. It’s incredibly hard to stop himself from sinking into the bed next to Chris. He doesn’t think he’s come so many times in one night in a decade. But the night isn’t over yet. And they need this next part as much as they needed everything else.
The light in the bathroom is too bright as he starts the water, filling the huge tub. This giant tub is his main reason for getting this room. He adds the bubble bath he bought with him because he and Chris both love bubble baths. There are a million light switches on the wall, and he fiddles with them until the light is just right. Then he calls housekeeping and orders the bed linens changed and two steak dinners, telling them to just come in and leave the tray in the room.
He strips and wakes Chris gently, coaxing him into the tub with the promise of a hair wash.
Once in the tub, Chris leans with his back against Jay-Cee’s chest. “Fucking amazing, love.”
“It was good?” Jay-Cee tries to keep the neediness of out of his voice, but he pushed it tonight in the club, and he needs to know if it was okay with Chris. “Not too much?”
Chris shakes his head. “Just perfect.” He moans as Jay-Cee works the shampoo into a lather. “Lucky for you I’m easy.”
Jay-Cee laughs. “Not easy. Not at all. Just…perfect. Perfect.”
“Yeah?” Chris twists to look at him suspiciously.
“Yeah.”
Chris shrugs. “Well, I guess I have to trust you. You’re the boss.”
“Damn straight,” Jay-Cee jokes, trying to push him down under the water to rinse his head. He stops when Chris hisses as his foot hits the end of the tub. “Hurts my knee,” he explains.
“Oh, sorry. Sorry.” He looks around for some other way to rinse Chris’s hair. Notices the shower head detaches, he reaches for it and figures out how to make it work. He pushes Chris to lean forward. “Sorry,” he apologizes again, fingers rubbing the shampoo away. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice you were in pain sooner.”
Chris shakes his head, turns as best he can in the tub, and kisses Jay-Cee again. “We’re both just doing the best we can. I know it. When I’m not being a bitch, I know it.”
The door to their room opens, and they hear housekeeping remaking the bed. “God, they’re going to think we’re sex maniacs. Tell me you put the plug in a drawer or something?”
Jay-Cee just laughs and calls out to the housekeeper. “Can you leave some extra pillows?” He finishes washing them both as she works, then drags them both out of the tub and into the soft, plush complimentary bathrobes.
Chris sighs, wincing a tiny bit, as he sinks onto the bed, back propped up on the extra pillows. There’s a knock at the door, and it opens, a red-suited bellhop pushes in a room-service cart. “Now I know you love me,” Chris says as the bellhop rolls the plates of steak and potatoes over to the small table.
Jay-Cee opens the split of champagne and pours them each a glass. He hands one to Chris and toasts him. “Yeah, I do.” If it takes the rest of his life to prove it to Chris, then that’s what he’ll do. “Ready to face the world again?”
“No. We’re booked in here for a few days. I need a break, too. I was just too stupid to notice.”
Chris stretches his leg out and rests it on Jay-Cee’s lap. “Can we go to the Grand Canyon? I’ve never been.”
Jay-Cee rubs his foot with one hand. “Me neither,” he confesses.
“Let’s do it. We’ll do the whole helicopter tour. Won’t that be amazing?” Chris’s eyes light up with excitement. “Oh, that would be so fun. I’ve never been a helicopter either.”
Jay-Cee has been in enough helicopters for four lifetimes, but at least he won’t be expected to jump out this one. “You got it, babe. Anything you want.”
Chris pushes his foot against Jay-Cee’s hand. “I already have everything I want.”
Now Jay-Cee has to kiss him again. He leans across the table, reaching for the man he loves beyond any expectations he ever had. “I love you.”
“Love you, too,” Chris answers. “Now let’s eat.”
Jay-Cee listens to Chris rambling excitedly about all the things he wants to do on their short vacation and makes a mental note to take Chris more places. If he thinks Vegas is exciting, just wait until he sees what Jay-Cee has planned for his birthday.