“And your ex?”
“Oh please,” Kyle said. “It was nothing, and a very long time ago.” Pushing past him, Kyle reached out to Chess with an outstretched hand. “I like to tease André, but he knows better than to think I’ve spent the better part of almost twenty-five years pining after him. I happen to have a young, pretty thing who satisfies me quite nicely, thank you. I’m Kyle Lewis, and you must be the famous Chess, whom André can’t keep away from. I missed meeting you when you came to visit André.”
No. I kept him away from you deliberately, you little shit, André wanted to say, but he kept silent.
“I’m Chester Braxton. So you two did have a relationship?”
“I’m not sure. What would you call it, sweetheart?”
“A mistake. One I hadn’t thought about in years.” That smarmy grin on Kyle’s lips flattened to a thin line, and inside, André gloated. As intended, his barb had hit home, and this time, when he reached to take Chess’s hand, Chess let him. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to our room to relax before dinner. Have a nice flight home.”
They’d only progressed several steps when Kyle called out, “But I’m staying here,sweetheart. There are some projects that can’t go forward without your input and approval. Decisions need to be made and contracts signed. It’ll be so much easier when the two of us are in the same room.”
“All of which could’ve been accomplished without your physical presence, disturbing my time with Chess. I told my mother—”
Kyle cut in with a not so helpful, smug smile. “Margery is aware of me being here. She sent me.”
The canny bastard. He’d obviously played up the need for André’s presence. “I don’t care. I’m on a break and have no intention of concentrating on anything other than spending time with Chess.”
“So he’s forcing you to make that decision? The André Webster I knew wasn’t the type of man led around by his nose.” He paused. “Or dick.”
He counted to ten to keep from exploding. “Get out, Kyle.”
“No can do. Last I recall, this isn’t your house. It’s your mother’s, and like I said,sheinvited me. So if you have a problem with me staying here, I suggest you go to your home on the premises.” The self-satisfied smile reappeared. “It’s a lovely house from what I remember. Don’t you agree, Chess?”
This time Chess neither responded nor looked to him for answers. He turned away from them both and walked away, and André felt his joy over their engagement had been torpedoed. Leaving Kyle, André swiftly followed Chess and caught up to him outside their room.
“Why are you running from me?”
Chess entered the room, waiting until the door closed and they were alone to speak. “Do you want to tell me about him? I’ve never heard you mention his name before, and now he pops up, calling you sweetheart like you were lovers. Were you?”
“No, we weren’t lovers.” He might’ve thought so when they were together, but being with Chess showed him what it meant to be with someone you truly cared about.
“But you slept with him.”
André hesitated, and as the silence rose between them, anger flared in Chess’s eyes.
“Dammit, I’m not gonna have a breakdown if you say yes. You were in your midthirties when we met. I sure as hell didn’t expect you to be a virgin.” He held up his hand, the thick gold band sitting on his finger where André had dreamed of seeing it. “Wearing this means something to me.”
“It means everything to me.” His voice caught as he fought with himself over how much to reveal. “Yes. I slept with him. But it was nothing. It was over twenty years ago. Sex was everywhere, but none of my friends were gay, so when we met…we hooked up. It wasn’t ever meant to be anything other than what it was. Sex.” It wasn’t a lie. What he’d thought was love with Kyle was really lust and the out-of-control, fiery passion their drug-infused nights led to.
“How did you meet?”
André would never forget. It was at a club in Southampton they’d gotten fake IDs for, and they couldn’t believe they’d finally made it inside. He’d just turned nineteen, and high didn’t begin to describe his euphoria. Dawson and Mike had gone to the bar for more shots, when a hand touched his back.
“I’ve never seen you here before,” a deep voice murmured in his ear, shooting sparks through him. “How about we go somewhere more private? Get to know each other better?” The stubble of a hard jaw brushed his cheek, and desire flooded him. The club was dark, the music loud. Bodies gyrated around and on him, and with his head whirling from the combination of too much tequila and molly, he let himself be led farther into the bowels of the club, then through a door marked storage. The man pushed him up against the wall, took his jaw in his strong hand, and kissed him, thrusting his tongue between André’s lips. To keep from falling, André clutched his shoulder and held on while the man ravaged his mouth.
“God, you’re gorgeous. Come on. Let me suck you.”
André’s tongue felt too thick to allow him to speak, and his head spun as he watched the man pull down his zipper and shimmy his jeans and briefs to the floor, but nothing prepared him for the touch of a mouth on his dick. Hot wetness engulfed him, sucking him to the root, and he moaned unashamedly as his hips took on a life of their own. He scrabbled for purchase on the rough wall, feeling like he was flying while at the same time falling apart.
“Fuck. Oh, fuck.”
He came hard, and so fast as to be embarrassing, but he didn’t care. It was his first blowjob. His sank to his knees, gazing at the man, who licked his lips, and unzipped himself, freeing his thick cock. Tapping the swollen crown on André’s lips, the man commanded, “Tit for tat. Come on, open up.”
André had no idea what to do but willingly took it into his mouth, and with some encouragement, sloppily sucked the man off. He knew he did well when he heard a groan and hot cream splattered his throat. He let the man’s dick go and spit out a little but swallowed some. It was like nothing he’d ever tasted—bitter with an edge of sweet. He licked his lips and rose, his legs still shaking.
“You’re young,” the man said, though André could tell he was only a few years older.
