-5-
Xane sighed.Bloody Ava Leigh was stalking him.Every group he stopped to talk to, she immediately latched onto.Every time he moved anywhere, she was on his heels.
The two times that hadn’t been the case, he’d had to stage a bit of drama in order to lure her back from cornering Spook instead.He couldn’t risk Ava getting near him, not when Spook was teetering on the edge of an emotional precipice.Not to mention completely rat-arsed by now.Luckily, Ava’s nose for a story meant she hadn’t been able to resist the lure of gasps when he’d flashed the record label’s European branch CEO a glimpse of his pierced nipples, or the whistles and catcalls when he’d snogged Luthor in full view of the room.
Luthor chose that moment to reappear at his side.Xane swore the whole room took a collective in breath.Gawd.Really?These people needed to get out more, consider getting laid, or you know, investing in a gay porn subscription.
He briefly allowed his gaze to slide over his lover.Elevation from roadie to drummer hadn’t changed his attire much.New pair of shorts that were still stupidly weighed down with stuff.Still no belt, so he was flashing a slice of his boxer briefs.That in particular, made Xane’s fingers itch to sort him out.Of course, it was a toss-up whether that would entail dressing him correctly or relieving him of clothes altogether.Nine months of pretty much nonstop shagging hadn’t dimmed his appetite for this man one iota.
Luthor smelled of Dani’s perfume.The two of them had disappeared outside onto the boardwalk for a while.It amused him how often they felt the need to slip away to enjoy a bit of intimacy.He didn’t give a fuck that the world knew the three of them were a thing.To his astonishment being outted as bisexual… pansexual… sexually fluid – he wasn’t big on labels – hadn’t harmed his image.So what was to say admitting he was in a poly relationship would be any different?
“I think that’s the first time you’ve taken your eyes off Spook since we left the arena,” Luthor remarked in response to Xane’s slow perusal of his person.
Xane shrugged.“And what exactly is wrong with that?”Someone needed to be watching over him after the shit at the arena earlier.Who better than him?He sighed as he watched Spook empty the contents of yet another highball down his throat.Pretty soon he was gonna slide off that stool and turn into a boneless puddle on the floor.
Luthor shifted so that he was lined up shoulder to shoulder with Xane, looking in the same direction.“I never intimated there was anything wrong with it.What I don’t get is, why, if you’re so concerned, you aren’t over there?Also, the looking on from afar, guardian angel thing, is kind of freaky.”
There were whole hosts of reasons why he was maintaining his distance, Ava being the primary one, but there was also the matter of how much Spook loathed talking about emotional shit.He wasn’t going to spill a goddamned sentence until he’d downed enough alcohol to fell a hippo.Quite possibly, he wasn’t far off that now.Then again, Spook was way beyond anal about bottling his emotions.It was just as likely he’d pass out before he uttered a thing.
“You know, he should really be in the hands of medical professionals, or filing an incident report or something,” Luthor remarked.“Tranquilising himself with spirits isn’t going to fix anything.I know you’re pissed at management over Ava being here, but I’m more bothered by the callous lack of regard for his mental well-being.I’m gonna go talk to him.”
“Don’t.”Xane stilled Luthor’s forward motion by clasping his hand.“Let him have his space.All you’ll do by crowding him is piss him off.He’s not going to open up to you, Luthor.”
“Yeah, well I’m sick of standing around doing nothing.Xane, it was hard enough watching what went down with Elspeth when she went off the rails, and she was an absolute bitch to me.Spook’s never been anything but decent.”
“He’s hardly out of control.”
“Are you sure?”Luthor retorted.“Quiet doesn’t equate to control.He’s Swedish.We’re not particularly explosive.Do you want to tell me how many cocktails he’s downed since we arrived, ’cause by my reckoning that’s at least seven—” He glanced at his watch.“—in under an hour.”
The actual count was nearer twelve.“I didn’t say that we should do nothing.”
“Would you be hanging back like this, doing nothing if it had been me or Dani that jerk assaulted?”
Apparently Luthor hadn’t heard Xane’s last remark.
“Of course not.Trust me, Luthor; the bastard wouldn’t be alive right now if he’d laid a finger on either you or Dani.But for God’s sakes listen to me.If you start pressuring Spook, he’s as likely to break your nose as thank you for your support.I’d rather not see you scrapping.I’m aware he’s sinking cocktails like they’re fruit squash, but we have to let him deal with this in the way he thinks best.He’s an adult, with body autonomy.”
“He’s going to wind up having his stomach pumped.Jesus, Xane, I’m not going to shake him until he explains how he’s feeling, I’m just going to stand at the bar with him so he knows there’s someone there if he needs to reach out.”
“He won’t see it that way.”
“What makes you so sure?”
Knowing him.
Unlike the rest of them, Xane knew why Spook kept himself emotionally unavailable.He grasped the logic behind his desire to remain celibate, even if he couldn’t get on board with it.Sex for him was an out.Sex for Spook was… Well, it was something different.What everything boiled down to though, was that Spook had been broken before Xane ever met him.He’d glued himself back together over the years, but every now and then, something reopened a crack.The solution was never to sit him down and ply him with tea and sympathy.It was to let him work himself into enough of a state that all the anger, frustration, and hurt poured out.And then to hold him while it did.
Was it a psychoanalyst approved method?
Fuck no.
Effective?
After a fashion.
It thankfully wasn’t often that something dramatic enough to knock Spook out of his comfort zone occurred.
“Xane?”
