The alarms in David’s brain went instantly to full red alert, nuclear meltdown imminent. It couldn’t be.
But yes, yes it was.
“David, this is Kieran Reilly. Kieran, honey, this is David Sullivan. Kieran is the star of that new cable series,
What a Drag
.
I’m sure you’ve seen it. It’s like
Sex in the City
except with drag queens.”
“Cross-dressers,” Kieran corrected. His eyes had gone very wide; those beautiful, intensely blue eyes.
God, how could he have forgotten how blue Kieran’s eyes were.
“Hmm?” Christine lifted one fi nely arched dark brow.
“Cross-dressers. The only drag queen on the show is Cleo.
The rest of us are cross-dressers.”
“Oh. Well. Drag queens, cross-dressers. In any case, it’s a fabulous show.” She touched Kieran’s shoulder. “And the shoes!
Honey, I would die to get my hands on some of those shoes.
They are simply divine!”
Kieran laughed, but it sounded a little forced. “Tell me about it. You should see my shoe closet these days.” ENCORE! ENCORE!
133
Christine laughed too. Her gaze was sharp as she glanced from Kieran to David and gave a little nod. “Well, I’m sure you two will have a lot to talk about, so I’ll just scurry along. Can’t neglect my other guests, you know.”
And with that she faded into the crowd, leaving them alone.
There was a moment of awkward silence where they just stood there looking at each other. Well, Kieran was looking.
David, for his part, devoured Kieran with his eyes. He felt like a man who had been stranded in the desert, dying of thirst, who had now suddenly been presented with a cool, clear waterfall in the form of his ex-boyfriend, the only man in his life who had ever successfully won and then broken his heart, a heart Kieran still held, whether he knew it or not.
“So,” Kieran said, dragging out the single syllable. “Which one of us is going to tell her that she didn’t just make the match of the century?”
“I was sort of waiting for you to do it. I don’t really know her that well.”
“Don’t look at me.” Kieran sipped his drink. “Sorry, but I didn’t want to see our past mistakes splashed across the front of Tine’s blog tomorrow morning.”
The barb struck home, sudden and sharp. “Is that what it was, a past mistake?”
“You know what I mean.” Kieran lowered his voice. His gaze scanned the immediate vicinity as if he was afraid they would be overheard.
“No, I don’t think I do.” David looked around. Suddenly he wanted a drink very badly, if only to have something to do with his hands. His damn hands that kept wanting to reach out and touch Kieran, maybe just to see if he was real. Or maybe to pull him close and see if they still fi t together as well as they once had.
Because he was afraid that they would indeed fi t just as well, maybe better, he balled his hands into fi sts and stuck them in the pockets of his linen jacket.
134 Gardner ~ His Leading Man
Kieran looked so damn good, so damn touchable, with his dark hair falling in wild curls around his perfect, heart-shaped face, his gorgeous eyes dramatically shadowed and lined, and his lips, full and wet and begging to be tasted.
Fool.
Those pretty lips turned down at the corners and Kieran’s slim shoulders sagged. “Look, David, I didn’t mean… That is, can we start over?” he set his glass down on a nearby table and held out his hand. “Hi, my name’s Kieran. Nice party, isn’t it?” He smiled that heart-stopping smile that still haunted David’s dreams. “It’s a little warm in here, don’t you think? Would you maybe like to take a walk outside?”
For a moment David couldn’t breathe. He stared at Kieran’s extended hand. Oh, this was such a bad idea. He shrugged. “Sure.
Let’s walk out by the pool.”
Because he so much wanted to, rather than take that hand, he turned and led the way back through the crowd. Opening the sliding door, he stood aside and waited for Kieran to go ahead.
Though he promised himself he would not look, his gaze was inexorably drawn to the tempting swell of Kieran’s ass under shimmering blue silk.
The outfi t was some kind of tunic over loose-fi tting pants, both were the color of sea and sky on the most brilliant of summer days. The tunic fell to mid-thigh and should have concealed more than it revealed. But thanks to the drape of the silk, David could see every perfectly delineated muscle, the sleek line of slim hips and lean thighs, the trim waist and, oh yeah, the delectable roundness of Kieran’s tight little butt as he stepped through the door and onto the terrace.
Once outside, David half-turned toward the bar. “Do you want a drink?”
Kieran shook his head. “I’m good. But if you want one I’ll wait right here while you get it.”
“No. No, that’s fi ne. I don’t really need one either. Let’s just walk.”
ENCORE! ENCORE!
135
Rather than heading toward the pool, Kieran gestured toward a path that led around the side of the house. “Let’s go this way.
Do you mind? There are some people over there that I’d rather not have to talk to.”
It was on the tip of David’s tongue to ask if he himself didn’t fall into that category, but he swallowed the question back down.
It was a beautiful night and beautiful nights were not made for confrontation.
The air was balmy with a light breeze off the ocean and no sign of the rain that had been predicted earlier in the day. As they rounded the side of the house, the scent of fl owers tickled David’s nose and soon he knew why. He found himself entering a lush garden with profusions of fl owers blooming everywhere.
They spilled from beds and speared out of pots and scented the darkness with their rich perfume. A gravel path twisted around bushes and under trellises heavy with climbing roses and lit with tiny fairy lights. In the center of it all shimmered a pool of water with a small waterfall burbling over rocks at the far end, its musical splash blending with the crash of waves against the distant beach.
Kieran led the way to a small, white wrought iron bench.
He sank down on it with a sigh and, after a moment’s hesitation, David sat next to him.
“I love this place.” Another sigh.
“It’s a great house.” The bench was small, their hips snugged up close, Kieran’s thigh pressed warm and solid along the length of David’s. He shifted, trying to gain some space, but there was nowhere to go.
“It is a nice house, but I meant this place, this garden. It’s peaceful. Sitting here you can almost forget that there’s anyone else around, maybe even in the whole world.” It was true. Although they were not all that far from the terrace, the sounds of the party were little more than a distant murmur, nearly inaudible under the splash of the tiny waterfall and the pounding of the surf.
136 Gardner ~ His Leading Man
It was beautiful and very, very romantic.
“Is peace what you’re looking for?” David asked.
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“You said you like this place because it’s so peaceful. I was just wondering…” He let the question trail off, mostly because he wasn’t sure what exactly he’d been wondering.
“It just gets to be a bit much sometimes, all the people and the cameras and having to watch everything you say. Sometimes you just want to turn it all off and just be.” Kieran laughed a little. “That must sound really odd to you, doesn’t it? I mean, after all the work to get where I am, after all the struggle and disappointment and now… Hell, it sounds odd to me and I’m the one saying it.” He touched the back of David’s hand, very lightly, just with the tips of his fi ngers. “I didn’t mean what I said before, you know, about past mistakes. I don’t think of our relationship that way.”
David didn’t know what to say. Suddenly he was in the middle of a minefi eld where a single misstep or unwise move might result in catastrophe. So he just sat there, saying nothing, not moving and almost not breathing. Just being, and, yeah, it was nice.
“Do you?” Kieran asked very quietly.
“Do I what?”
“Think of it that way, as a mistake?” Yes. It was a horrible mistake, the worst mistake he’d ever made. But not the relationship. No, the mistake had been letting Kieran Reilly slip out of his life.
Beside him, Kieran shifted, started to rise. Clearly he’d taken David’s silence as an affi rmative. “I’m sorry. We should just—”
“No.” David caught Kieran’s hand and tugged him back onto the bench. “Don’t go.”
In the refl ected light from the fountain Kieran’s eyes were luminous, the blue so dark it looked black.
ENCORE! ENCORE!
137
“Don’t go,” David repeated. And because Kieran didn’t go, because he just sat there looking at David with his lips slightly parted, because it was what he most wanted at that moment, David leaned forward just that little bit and brought their mouths together.
For a single, heart-stopping moment nothing happened.
Kieran didn’t move, didn’t kiss back, didn’t even seem to breathe.
But then his lips parted, a small sound escaped and slipped between their mouths. It might have been a sigh or a moan or even a gasp, David couldn’t be sure. But whatever it was, for him it had the seismic effect of an eight-point-nine on the Richter scale.
Kieran’s hand came up and cupped David’s cheek. A thumb lightly traced his cheekbone as their tongues met and tangled in an old familiar dance.
And, oh God, it was so very sweet. That taste, that touch, that small sound, all of it. And it wasn’t enough, not nearly.
David slid his arms around Kieran’s waist and pulled him close. Kieran’s arms slid around his neck and he angled his body to bring them into even more intimate contact. But the little iron bench conspired against them. It held them close but not close enough.
Kieran broke the kiss. “Wait. David, wait. I need more.” He crawled into David’s lap and straddled him.
And oh yeah, that was perfect.
David shifted his hips as Kieran’s fi ngers plunged into his hair, fi sted there, tugged. Their cocks brushed. Even through layers of clothing the contact sent an electric jolt of need up his spine and down into his balls.
He groaned. “Kieran, God.”
Their lips fused once more, the kiss even hungrier, even hotter than before, Kieran’s tongue thrusting aggressively past David’s lips. He rocked forward, increasing the delicious pressure of cock against cock.
138 Gardner ~ His Leading Man
David’s brain shrieked at him that they couldn’t do this here, that they had to stop or at least take it somewhere more private.
Like his hotel room, which was an even worse idea than making out right here in Christine Ferrar’s garden.
Except damn, he wanted Kieran, wanted him with every cell of his being, wanted him on his back with his legs in the air, naked and wild and wanting him right back. And wasn’t that a pretty mental picture?
Kieran chose that moment to reach between their bodies and give David’s dick a squeeze which nearly sent him into orbit. But when he tugged on David’s zipper, sanity came rushing back.
David laid a hand over Kieran’s. “We can’t. Not here.”
“But I want to—”
“And I want you to, believe me. I want it more than you can imagine. But we can’t do it here.”
As if to drive the point home, a high-pitched laugh reached them from the direction of the terrace.
No, they absolutely could not do this here.
“You’re right. I know you’re right.” Kieran sighed, rested his forehead against David’s shoulder and let go of his zipper. Sliding off his lap, Kieran got to his feet.
He wanted to weep at the loss of that lithe body in his arms.
Catching Kieran’s hand as the other man adjusted his rumpled clothing, he asked, “Come back to my hotel? I want to fi nish this somewhere more private.”
This was probably a really bad idea.
Kieran slipped his arm through his ex-lover’s as they left the garden and followed a path around to the front of the house.
Saying nothing, David took his hand and laced their fi ngers together.
Scratch probably, Kieran thought as the smile broke across his face, this was the worst idea he’d ever had, bar none. Except just then he was too happy to care. Happy? Hell, he was giddy.
They stopped by a mid-size dark sedan and David opened the passenger door. Ever the gentleman, he laid his hand on top of Kieran’s head and guided him into the car. “Careful, this roof is kind of low.”
“Is this your car?” Kieran tucked himself into the passenger seat and couldn’t resist smiling up at David.
“It’s a rental. You can’t spend any time in southern California without a car. But I’m sure you know that.” The door shut with a thunk.
Kieran watched through the windshield as David, tall, lanky and just the tiniest bit awkward, rounded the hood and opened the driver’s door. Mmm, how could he have forgotten what a fi ne looking man David was, and what a terrifi c kisser too? He had always been able to get Kieran’s engine revving with just the softest brush of his lips. Nothing had changed there. In fact, Kieran’s lips still tingled from the kisses they’d shared back on the bench in Christine’s garden.
Christine. Geez.
Kieran briefl y closed his eyes. He was going to have quite a bit of explaining to do where she was concerned, because although his friend knew the history of his relationship with David, she had no clue that the sexy, blond director she’d introduced him
140 Gardner ~ His Leading Man
to at the party was the same man the two of them had discussed over endless cups of chai at their favorite tea shop.
And wasn’t she going to be surprised? Especially given that Kieran himself had asked her to make the introduction. Yeah, he knew it was a little deceptive, but when he’d looked up and seen his former lover in the middle of that party, he had been physically unable to do anything but stare. Forget walking up to him and actually forming a coherent sentence. So he’d done the only thing he could at the time. He’d caught Christine’s eye, pointed at David and mouthed, “introduce me.” And now here they were on their way back to David’s hotel to make love. No, they were not going to make love, they were going to have sex. They were going to fuck. Yes, that was exactly what was going to happen. It was fucking, pure and simple and he wouldn’t turn it into anything more.