Chapter Nine

Griffin helped a thoroughly inebriated Sir Edward up the elevator, holding him up so he didn’t face plant accidentally. He all but carried him to his hotel suite and knocked on the door, hoping against hope that Levi was there.

Levi opened the door immediately and looked at them in surprise. He took Sir Edward from Griffin and said, “I’ll get him in bed, then I’ll come over. Okay?”

“Sounds good.”

He left him with his drunken burden and went back to his own hotel room. The lights seemed too bright when he hit the switch, so he turned off some of the lamps, leaving the sitting room in a soft golden haze. He paced nervously as he waited, listening for his arrival.

It seemed to take forever, but finally his patience was rewarded by a light rap on the door. He hurried over and opened the way for Levi to come in.

As he came into the room, Levi took in the soft lighting and rubbed his hands on his jeans. Griffin closed the door and came over to sit on the couch.

“Hi,” he said. “Thanks for coming over.”

“I wanted to,” Levi said quickly. His words spilled out rapidly, and Griffin could practically smell his anxiety. “I… I have things to tell you. But you said you had things to say, too, so…”

“Why don’t you sit down before you fall over?” he suggested. He patted the couch beside himself, fully expecting Levi to sit in one of the armchairs again.

He sat beside Griffin, twisting so one leg was on the couch cushion and he was facing him, sitting sideways. Griffin shifted so he was sideways, too, and they could be face to face.

“Sorry,” Levi said. “I’m just so nervous.”

“I couldn’t tell,” he said with gentle sarcasm. “Why don’t you go ahead with what you need to say?”

Levi licked his lips, then blurted, “I came out to my parents tonight.”

Griffin’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Wow. I didn’t expect that. How did they take it?”

The other man blushed. “They said they already knew.”

“I’m not surprised. They’re pretty savvy, your folks. Were they okay with it?”

He nodded. “Completely. In fact… they were sort of encouraging.”

“Sort of?”

Levi sighed. “Okay, they were encouraging. Very encouraging. They…” He swallowed, and Griffin could see him editing the words he’d been about to say. “They asked about you.”

“That was nice,” he said. “Tell them hello for me next time you talk.”

“I will.”

“I’m glad it went so well,” Griffin told him, honestly pleased.

“Thanks.” Levi looked at him like a scared owl. “I…I have more to say, but I think I’d like to hear yours first.”

He smirked, unable to resist. “You’ll show me yours if I show you mine?”

Levi smiled crookedly. “Something like that.”

He had been practicing this all day, and it was the hardest set of lines he’d ever had to memorize. He cleared his throat and began.

“Ever since I saw you again here, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about us and about the way we broke up. We’ve talked about it, and nothing was resolved, and I thought that was it. The end. We’d never get back together. But I’ve been thinking a lot, and maybe the reason we can’t resolve the conversation is because the relationship is unresolved. And it’s unresolved because it’s not really over, not for either of us.” He scooted closer, his knee against Levi’s, and took his hands. “I love you. I have never stopped loving you, and I know now that I never will. You are the only person I can see myself growing old with, and I will do anything I can to have you in my life. If that means quitting Hollywood, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything. I just… I need you, Levi. And that’s all that I know.”

He took a deep breath and waited for a response. Levi stared at him, his dark eyes wide, and he looked so winded and uneasy that Griffin feared the worst. He released Levi’s hands, but Levi held on, and he started to talk.

“I could say all of that, too. I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t concentrate on my work because I’m thinking about you and missing us. I can’t stand another day when you’re on one side of the country and I’m on the other, and I can’t take another day when we’re not together. I love you, I have always loved you, and I think we’re meant to be together. When this season is over, I’m quitting the Actor’s Club, and I’m moving to California… if you’ll have me.”

“If I’ll have you?” His face nearly split with the force of his grin. “Come here, you stupid schmuck.”

They leaned into each other’s arms, embracing despite their awkward positioning. Griffin kissed him soundly, pouring his desire and emotion into the touch, and Levi kissed him back just as passionately. Griffin teased Levi’s lips open with the tip of his tongue, then pressed inside the moist heat of his mouth. Levi met the intrusion with a caress of his own, and they breathed each other in. Griffin pulled away from the kiss and stood, pulling Levi to his feet, as well. He wrapped his arms around his lover and held him close, inhaling his sweet, musky scent. He could feel Levi’s erection pressed against his thigh, and he ran a hand down to lightly trace it through its fabric prison. Levi let out a shuddering breath, and Griffin took his hand and led him into the bedroom.

“Stand here,” he directed in a whisper, placing Levi at the foot of the bed. He sat before him and looked up into his lover’s dark eyes, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. “You’re so beautiful, baby.”

Levi blushed. “I should be saying that to you.”

Griffin unbuckled his lover’s belt and pulled it free of the belt loops on his jeans, slowly snaking it loose and tossing it aside. It landed with a clinking thud.

“You don’t need that,” he told him.

Levi shook his head. “Nope.”

With deft fingers, he opened the button on his jeans and teased the zipper down, all the while holding eye contact. Levi’s cheeks were bright pink and his eyes were shining. The way he looked now was something Griffin wanted to always remember. He pulled the jeans down until they slouched at Levi’s knees, and in front of him, his lover’s cock strained against the cotton briefs, aching to be released.

Griffin kissed the tip through the dampening cotton, and Levi breathed out a soft sigh. He stroked him through the briefs, then began to kiss the turgid shaft, caressing it with his lips despite the fabric barrier. Levi’s hands laced into his hair, and he smiled, allowing his lover to guide him to where he wanted Griffin’s mouth the most.

He traced the leg opening of Levi’s briefs, his fingertips teasing just inside the elastic, running all the way around to the back. He reached further, nudging past the fabric and running a light touch along the sensitive taint. Levi gasped, and Griffin used his other hand to finally free him from his underwear.

Levi’s cock, thick and meaty, stood proudly from his body, jutting toward the warmth of Griffin’s mouth where it wanted to be. He obliged, but not before running the tip of his tongue all around the head and from tip to base and back again. He lifted Levi’s heavy cock in his hand so he could lick the underside, all the while teasing his taint until his lover was shaking.

He took him in, sucking him in an inch at a time, working with lips and tongue. He looked up at Levi, who looked back, and their eyes met again. Levi cupped his cheek lovingly. When Griffin’s fingers and tongue combined to send a thrill of pleasure up Levi’s spine, he thrust forward, filling Griffin’s mouth.

“Sorry,” he gasped.

Griffin pressed against his hips, urging him to do it again. He continued to suck and encouraged Levi to thrust, signaling him that he could go ahead. Slowly, with long strokes, Levi began to fuck his mouth, pushing down into his throat with each motion. Griffin swallowed him down, his eyes watering, and he kept stroking Levi’s taint.

“God, Griff,” Levi moaned. “Wow.”

Griffin smiled as well as he could around the pulsating penis in his mouth, and he pulled back, releasing him with a pop. Levi shivered, and Griffin stood up to strip his lover’s shirt away. When Levi was naked, he sat back down, openly gazing at him.

“Now that is a sight for sore eyes,” he said.

“I want to see you, too.”

Smiling, he obliged. Griffin peeled away his own clothes and tossed them on the floor, not caring where they went. He sat back on the bed, stroking his own long penis with one hand, a saucy smile on his face.

“Well,” he said in a husky whisper. “Where do we go from here?”

Levi’s answer was to drop to his knees and push Griffin’s hand away. He went down on him with a happy moan, licking and sucking while his hands massaged Griffin’s muscular thighs. Griffin lay back on the mattress and enjoyed the ride, his eyes closed, still smiling.

Levi’s hands pressed against the backs of his thighs, and he maneuvered his legs up into the air. Griffin bent his knees and obliged, opening himself up completely. Levi licked his balls and took them into his mouth gently, one then the other, rolling them with his tongue until Griffin shivered. He released them and kissed his way down to the puckered skin that waited just below.

Griffin bit his bottom lip as he felt Levi’s tongue, hot and wet and insistent, swiping over his asshole. He could feel his body relaxing, opening, welcoming Levi as his tongue danced inside, darting in and out like a serpent’s. His lover teased him, slicking him with saliva, preparing him for what Griffin now ached to receive.

“There’s real lube in the chest of drawers behind you,” he panted. “You’re too thick to get in with just spit.”

Levi reluctantly left him just long enough to find the promised tube, but he returned, rimming him again. He slicked his fingers and transferred the silicone gel to his cock, which he coated with several strokes of his hand, all while his mouth was still driving Griffin crazy. Finally, when Griffin was just about to complain about how long he was taking, he straightened and pressed the tip of his dick to Griffin’s asshole.

The heat and subtle pressure were a promise that he needed to fulfill. Griffin gasped, “Don’t tease me. Fuck me, please.”

To his vast delight, Levi complied. The head of his cock nudged in, and Griffin’s body happily stretched around it, the burning pleasure searing him straight down to his soul. He moaned and pulled his knees closer to his chest, giving Levi more room to work, and his lover did not disappoint. Once the flaring head was through the tight ring of muscle and Griffin’s body had accommodated the intrusion, he thrust in smoothly and steadily until he was sheathed to the balls inside his body.

Griffin shook. It had been too long since he had known this feeling. The last person to be inside of him had been Levi, almost a decade ago, and he felt almost like a virgin all over again. The pain was sharp at first, but it quickly faded into a mind-numbing pleasure, especially when Levi’s cock brushed against his prostate, sending lightning strikes all the way up his spine. He moaned as Levi pulled out slowly and then entered him again.

“Oh, God, Lee,” he moaned. “Oh, yes…”

Levi knelt on the bed and pushed Griffin back to the pillows, holding him in his arms. Griffin’s legs hooked over Levi’s shoulders, and he dropped one leg to circle around his lover’s waist. Levi kissed him deeply, then bent to lick and suck his nipples while he thrust inside of him.

Griffin moaned again. His entire body was awash in pleasure, the mind-numbing heat, throbbing through him with every thrust, amplified by the rhythmic teasing of Levi’s lips and tongue on his sensitive cock. He could feel his balls tightening, and he knew that he was close.

“Gonna cum, baby,” he whispered.

“Go for it,” was Levi’s panted answer.

His thrusts came faster and harder, and the bed creaked beneath them, an extra sound that made Griffin all that much more excited. He tightened around Levi with his ass and with his leg, pulling him in farther. His lover’s movements quickened, pounding into him until the sound of their bodies colliding filled the air. He was desperate for the man above and inside him, and he didn’t want gentle. He didn’t want romantic, not right now.

Levi seemed to know it, and he continued to drive into him until his rhythm skipped a beat and he groaned. Griffin tightened his grip and pushed his hips up to meet Levi’s downward thrusts, and then he felt his lover explode deep inside him. It was the most beautiful feeling in the world.

Griffin quaked as Levi filled him, and he cried out as he dissolved into a climax of his own, his seed splattering across his own chest. Levi licked it away and kept thrusting, carrying them both through their orgasms and into the afterglow that followed.

He was sad to lose him when Levi pulled out, but he stretched out his arms for him. They held on to one another and fell into blissful sleep.

***

They woke when the bedside telephone rang with Griffin’s wake-up call. He couldn’t reach it from where he was toward the bottom of the bed, but Levi, who had been sleeping half on top of him, managed to stretch and grab it. He mumbled something to the caller and dropped the handset back into the cradle.

“Time to make the donuts,” Levi muttered, his lips moving against Griffin’s skin.

“Mmm. Donuts.”

It was too comfortable there in the bed, too warm and too right, and neither of them wanted to move. They held onto one another and dozed, happy and content.

This was what mornings were supposed to feel like. Levi draped his arm around Griffin’s waist, encircling his lover’s trim form and keeping him close. The other man did not object; instead, he put his arms around Levi, too, and they snuggled down into quiet contentment.

A loud pounding on the outside door shattered the moment.
Griffin cursed under his breath and reluctantly peeled away. He found his jeans from the night before and pulled them on commando-style before making his way out of the bedroom and into the main room of the suite.

Whoever was at the door continued to bang, and he was heavily annoyed. “Hold on!” he called. “Just a damn minute.”

Vexingly, the banging got louder. He walked to the door and wrenched it open, intending to give the cleaning crew a piece of his mind.

Pete Novak and his fiancée, Katie, stood in the hall, the tall actor grinning like a naughty child. Katie snapped a photo of Griffin with her cell phone.

“Surprise!” his television co-star shouted.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Griffin swore, his Alabama twang on full display. “Get your asses in here before you wake up the whole damn town.”

His visitors came in and Pete grabbed him in a strong embrace. “Good to see you, man! You sounded so down on the phone, and I haven’t seen you in a dress before, so I had to make the trip.”

Griffin thumped Pete’s back, then shoved him away. “It’s a toga, not a dress.”

“That’s what you want me to think.”

“Shut up!” He hugged Katie, who was the nearest thing to a sister he’d ever had. “Hey! Good to see you. If you let anybody else see that picture, I’ll break both your legs.”

She laughed and pulled back. “Oh, I guess I shouldn’t have put it on Instapic.”

“Bitch.”

“Queen.”

He ran a hand through his hair, and through the corner of his eye, he could see the bedroom door closing. He’d left it open in his rush to get to the main door, and now Levi, smartly, was trying to hide.

Pete had spent too many years playing a detective on TV to not notice something like a door closing. He turned to face Griffin, his eyes wide. He mouthed, Are you not alone?

He looked up at his TV partner’s face, and his neck, a little stiff from sleeping in a pile with Levi, complained at the angle. Damn Pete for being so much taller than him. Griffin was over six feet tall, but Pete was a giant. He shook his head and mouthed back, No.

Levi?

Pete’s eyes were huge now, and he was pulling that excited face that made him look like a six-year-old on Christmas morning.

“Yes,” he hissed back. “We were sleeping.”

Katie shook her blonde head sadly. “Nobody sleeps through him.”

“Tell me about it.” Griffin scratched his head and yawned. “Where are you two staying?”

“Downstairs. We wanted to get a penthouse view, but somebody already has that room.”

“Sucks to be you.”

Pete chuckled. “Well, if there’s anyone who should be talking about sucking…”

Katie put her hand over her fiancé’s mouth, which took some doing, since she was all of five-foot-three. “We will go back down to our room to give you and whomever a little privacy to get cleaned up. Meet us for breakfast?”

“Sure.” He nodded. “Thank you for coming out.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” She kissed him on the cheek, then wrinkled her nose. “A shower wouldn’t go amiss…”

“‘Go amiss,’” he echoed. “You talk way too purty and smart to be with a dickweed like this guy.”

“Yeah, I know, but you’re gay, so I had to settle.” They laughed together, and then the three of them went back to the door.

Pete said, “We’re in 1910, just downstairs. Call us when you’re ready to meet up for breakfast, and we’ll hit the hotel restaurant.”

“Sounds good.” He opened the door to the corridor so that they could make their exit.

On the other side of the hall, looking like a dyspeptic hawk, Sir Edward Treadwell stood in a red satin dressing gown, his silver hair a frizzy and unkempt halo around his hungover head. He was holding his walking stick as if he intended to use it as a weapon.

“Whoa,” Pete said, rearing back like a startled colt.

“Civilized persons do not bang upon hotel doors in the early morning,” the English actor informed them, his voice gravelly. “Some patrons of this establishment are attempting to sleep!”

“Sir Edward,” Griffin said hurriedly, “I’m so sorry. They were just leaving. I apologize.”

The older man sneered, “I should hope so.” He sniffed. “Tell Mr. Rudd that I require his assistance.”

He was mildly embarrassed, but he only nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Sir Edward disappeared behind his door once more, and Pete turned to Griffin to once again mouth words at him. Crotchety!

“Go downstairs,” he ordered his friends. “I’ll call you when we’re on our way.” Pete opened his mouth again, and Griffin held up a finger. “Ah! Enough. Go.”

Katie took Pete’s hand and tugged him back toward the elevator. “Come on, moose.”

They vanished into the lift and Griffin went back into his room. Levi was sitting on the edge of the bed, yawning cavernously and rubbing a hand over his morning stubble. Griffin flopped down beside him, his arm over his eyes, and sighed.

“Good morning,” Levi mumbled.

“Morning.”

“So that’s Pete Novak?”

“Unfortunately.” He moved his arm. “Sir Edward wants you, and he’s mad as a wet hen, so sorry for that.”

His lover shrugged. “Yeah, well… it’s okay.” He put a finger through one of Griffin’s belt loops. “Shower with me?”

He grinned. “Best thing I’ve heard all day.”

Levi set the temperature and they stepped into the water together. Griffin embraced Levi from behind, and his lover melted backward against him. They held each other that way for a long while, lost in the feeling of being together again at last.

“Baby,” the actor whispered. “Come back to LA with me.”

Levi crossed his arms over Griffin’s, taking his hands in his. He tipped his head back onto his shoulder. “What if I can’t find work?”

“With your talent and your credentials? You’ll find a gig. I promise you that.”

“What if you have to support me?”

“I won’t, but so what? That’s what couples do, right?” He kissed his ear. “I would do anything for you, just to have you with me.”

“Would you come out to your fans?”

Griffin smiled. “Absolutely.”

“And your network?”

“I would. I make them so much money, they wouldn’t dare risk firing me. Besides, it would be a public relations nightmare.” He reached for the body wash and squirted shower gel into his hand as his lover turned to face him. He continued to talk as he worked the soap into a lather over Levi’s chest. “Do you want me to do it today? I can call a press conference.”

“Don’t be stupid!”

“I will.” He grinned and repeated, “I’d do anything for you, baby.”

Levi kissed him gently. “I know you would.” He put soap in his own hand and started to wash Griffin’s torso. “I just think it might be too soon. We just got back together. Let’s not rush it.”

“What’s to rush? We lived together before.”

“Ten years ago.” He ran his slick hands over Griffin’s hips and around to his buttocks, cupping them and holding him close, pelvis to pelvis. “What if we don’t get along as roommates anymore?”

He could feel his body responding to the nearness and contact with Levi, but he didn’t pull away. “Then we adjust.”

“What if your friends don’t like me?”

“Who, Pete and Katie? They’ll love you.”

His lover frowned, fretting. “What if I don’t like them?”

“You will love them,” he reassured. “Levi, stop trying to talk yourself out of this. This is a heart thing, not a head thing. Right?”

He washed Levi’s stomach and sides, then pulled away just enough to take his penis in his hand. He was getting hard, too, just like Griffin, and when he ran his soapy hand over the length of it, Levi smiled.

“Stop distracting me.”

“Stop thinking.”

His lover’s dark eyes sparkled. “Make me.”

He groaned and pushed Levi to face away from him again. Levi bent over and put his palms against the shower wall. He kissed him between the shoulder blades and nipped him for good measure, and Levi gasped in surprise.

“Stop.”

He pressed against him again, wrapping his left arm around his waist while his right hand took him in a firm grip. He pressed his own erection into the cleft of Levi’s ass.

“Thinking.”

He thrust between Levi’s cheeks, rubbing against the delicate puckered skin but not penetrating. Soap was a bad lubricant, and he wasn’t going to take him dry. His lover groaned when he rolled the head of his cock between his thumb and fingers, and he smiled to himself as Levi shuddered.

“God, this is amazing,” his lover said, “but…”

“But nothing.” He rubbed himself against him again, the friction delicious against the bottom of his cock. 

“But it’s really rude,” Levi mumbled. “There are people…”

“They can wait.” He groaned again, then pulled away, depriving Griffin of his ass cheeks. Griffin pouted. “Fine. You’re right.”

His lover turned and kissed him. “I’ll make it up to you tonight.”

“Okay.” He tousled his wet hair. “Let’s finish up and go be sociable.”