that Jonathan couldn’t erase from his mind. He was the kind of guy who would look just
as good in black tie as he would in an old sweatshirt. For the first time, Jonathan looked forward to Mike’s predictable patterns and his
conservative ways. It gave him a warm, comfortable feeling to know his safety cushion,
Mike, would always be there.
Then Mike surprised him later that same week and said he’d be working out of his
London office for at least six months—or maybe longer. He wasn’t sure yet. Mike
couldn’t stop smiling when he talked about going to London. He wanted Jonathan to go
with him, too. He’d taken him to a special, quiet restaurant. He held his hand, and asked
him to quit his job and follow him to Europe. Then he pulled a Movado watch from his
pocket and placed it on Jonathan’s wrist. He promised that Jonathan would never have to
worry about money again and that he’d take care of him for the rest of his life. He even
said he wanted to buy a place in the Hamptons and settle down.
Jonathan held his sweet, squishy hand and thanked him, but he told him he loved
his job and he didn’t want to quit for anyone or anything. He’d worked hard to make his
show number one on the network. It wasn’t his dream job, but it was a stepping stone
toward something better. So they went back to Mike’s place, had the usual sex, and
promised to talk on the phone once a week while Mike was gone. And before Mike left
for London, Jonathan made it perfectly clear that while he was gone, they were both free
to date other people. He even offered to return the watch, but Mike insisted he keep it.
After Mike left, the month passed quickly. Jonathan owned a small studio
apartment in Chelsea and he was based in New York, but he’d always wanted to buy
something bigger that he could decorate with a sophisticated, shabby-chic style. A real
home, with quiet crystal chandeliers, white French country chairs, and large antique
armoires. But now that he could well afford a much larger place, it didn’t make sense to move because he was on the road all the time. The show before Ed’s he’d traveled to
Vermont to film on location. And before that, he’d gone to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California,
to shoot. In the past five years, he’d only spent a few months out of each year in his
apartment.
This was fine with him. His place only had a full-sized brown leather bed, two
French gilded end tables, and a large flat-screen television. The few pieces he owned
were tasteful and expensive, but most of the time he couldn’t wait to get out of his
apartment and hit the road.
So it was a nice diversion when an old college friend of his called and invited him
out to East Hampton the weekend before he was to leave for San Francisco. His name
was Joel and he worked in the financial district. He’d rented the house for a year on a
whim, because he had the money to do it. They’d both been journalism majors in college
even though neither one of them had ended up working as journalists.
But more than that, Joel and Jonathan had been lovers off and on during college.
They’d started out as roommates in their freshman year, then began to experiment one
night. Neither one could ever remember who initiated it. Joel loved to receive good blow
jobs, and Jonathan loved giving them. But their relationship never went beyond being
best friends, because Joel had always considered himself straight. And he’d been married
and divorced twice by the time he’d reached his mid-twenties to prove it.
When Jonathan pulled up to Joel’s house in a rented car on Friday evening, he
looked up the front walk and smiled.
This
was his dream house. And he’d been working
on enough dream homes for other people to know what he preferred. This house had a
classic, turn-of-the-century East Hampton design with gray shingles and arched gables. But the trim wasn’t bright white like all the other homes that surrounded it. The trim on
this house was a shade of pale blue-green that reminded him of ocean water. If he’d been
designing a place of his own in East Hampton, this is exactly the color he would have
painted the trim. When he crossed to the front door, he reached out and touched the pale
blue-green porch railing. He ran his fingers up and down the smooth surface lightly and
he smiled again.
When Joel invited him inside, the first thing Jonathan said was, “Great house. I
love the color of the trim.”
Joel hugged him and said, “Yeah, it’s nice. I saw an extra paint can in the garage.
It’s called Waterbury Green. I think the owner decided to compete with Martha Stewart’s
house up the road, but wanted to do something really different.”
“I like it better than Martha’s,” Jonathan said. He’d seen her house during the day
and this Waterbury Green color was more subtle.
Joel led him to a glass-enclosed conservatory at the back end of the house. There
were four other guys sitting around a large round table playing poker. Joel said they were
buddies of his from work. They were all between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five
and they were all wearing wedding bands. The ashtrays on the table were filled with
cigarette butts and a battered plastic trash can next to the table was filled with empty beer
cans and folded pizza boxes. When Joel introduced Jonathan, they all howled with deep,
drunken voices and asked him to join them at the table.
Jonathan loved playing cards, and poker was his favorite game. He didn’t smoke
and he wasn’t in love with the taste of beer, but he knew how to hold his own with a deck of cards. So he wound up playing with them until three o’clock in the morning. He even
won fifty dollars.
Of course he’d been expecting a long weekend alone with his good friend at a
quiet time of the year in the Hamptons, where he could sit and watch the ocean and
breathe in the salt air. He had been hoping he could wake up late on Saturday morning,
drive into town, and stroll through the village shops on Main Street. He’d planned to jog
down to the Maidstone Club and back, then drive over to Sag Harbor and take Joel out
for a late lunch. But with all those other guys there for the weekend, he wasn’t sure what
to expect now.
Jonathan finally said goodnight and stood up from the poker table. It was well
past three in the morning. But when he asked Joel where he’d be sleeping that night, one
of the drunken guys reached back, grabbed his ass, and said, “My bed’s free, baby.”
Jonathan didn’t remember his name.
The guy on his other side said, “My bed’s free, too,” Then he put his arm around
Jonathan’s waist and pulled him into his lap. Jonathan’s legs went up and he had to hold
his shoulders for support. He was a big, stocky guy with large biceps and a thick neck.
The guy’s eyes were glazed and red; his breath smelled like stale beer and tobacco. And
when Jonathan tried to stand up, the guy put his hands around his waist and pinned him
there. The guy laughed and said, “Why don’t you get up on the table and do a little dance
for us? Joel told us all about your hidden talents.”
Jonathan lowered his eyebrows and gave Joel a look. Then he put his arms around
the guy’s shoulders, rubbed the back of his wide neck with his fingertips, and whispered,
“I’ll be right back, big guy. I just want to talk to Joel out in the hallway for a minute.” When they were out in the front hall, Jonathan asked, “What’s going on? Who
are
these guys?”
Joel leaned into him and pushed his back to the wall. He stretched out his arms,
braced his palms against the wall, and kissed him on the mouth. Jonathan’s lips parted
and he pressed his tongue against Joel’s. He tasted familiar and smelled like spicy
aftershave. His body was strong and warm. Then Joel pulled his head back and whispered,
“Why don’t you take off all your clothes now and go back there and surprise the guys? I
told them how smooth your body is and how you give great head, and they’re all so drunk
and horny now they don’t care about anything but getting off. They just want to get off.”
“
Huh
?”
“You know,” he said, “the same way you used to surprise me when we were in
college. Do you remember that one night when me and a couple of my football buddies
were studying and smoking joints, and you came out of the shower and started getting
dressed in front of us? I told the guys about what you did that night. They’re curious and
they want you to do it again tonight.”
Jonathan sighed and rolled his eyes. He’d never forget some of the things he’d
done in college, especially not that night. He’d known Joel and his three buddies were
stoned, and he’d seduced them all on purpose. He’d wound up on Joel’s bed face down
with his legs spread wide, and they’d all wound up taking turns on him. There were black
and blue bruises on the backs of his legs for almost a week.
Jonathan didn’t have any regrets about anything he’d done back then. But that had
been college, and things were different now. So he gently kissed Joel on the cheek and said, “You know I haven’t done anything like that in ages. I think I’m going back to the
city now.”
Joel slipped his hand down the back of his pants and grabbed his ass. He said, “I
know you better than anyone else. I know you want to do this. I know how much you like
dick. I’ll bet it’s been a long time since you’ve had an opportunity like this. Just put your
hand between my legs. I’m as hard as a rock, and it’s all because of you.”
Jonathan couldn’t resist his last sentence. He spread his legs wider and arched his
back so Joel could play with his ass. Joel knew far too well how to make his knees weak;
he had always been able to seduce him with a unique brand of dirty talk most men
couldn’t master.
Part of him did want to do this. The thought of taking on all those guys at once
made his pulse race and brought him back to the carefree, irresponsible days of college.
The fact that Joel would be there to take care of him made him feel safe. It wouldn’t have
been difficult for him to strip naked, tiptoe back into the conservatory, lie down on the
big, round card table and take them all on at the same time.
But another part of him pulled back. So he slipped out from under Joel’s arms and
headed to the front door. Then he picked up his overnight bag and said, “I’m not in
college anymore, Joel. I’ll give you a call when I get back from San Francisco.”
Joel shook his head and smiled. “Are you mad at me?”
Jonathan smiled. “Of course not. I love you. You’re just a big jerk sometimes who
needs to grow up.”
Joel adjusted his crotch and crossed to the front door. Then he hugged him hard
and said, “Drive safe, man. You know I love you, too.” He nodded. “I know that.”
On the way home, Jonathan couldn’t help feeling sorry for the poor bastard who
had rented his house in East Hampton to Joel. He wouldn’t have done that.
Chapter Four
In order to make things easier for Noah and Tucker, Ed rented a small guest house
in Golden Gate Heights near Grand View Park. Lisa agreed to come out and live there
while the house was under construction and the film crew was shooting. She was a
marketing director for a large clothing company. When she wasn’t traveling to sales
meetings, she worked from home.
But it hadn’t been easy explaining this to Noah, who couldn’t talk about anything
but the TV show and Jonathan Haynes. He’d been marking off the days on the calendar
in the kitchen ever since Ed had agreed to do the show. They had the same conversation
at dinner every night. “Why can’t I stay here?” Noah would ask.
“Because you have school and you have to study.”
“But I can study here.”
“There will be too many disruptions, the whole place will be a mess, and there
won’t be a kitchen for a long time.”
“Where will you be staying?”
“Most of the time I’ll be here.”
“Here?” said Noah.
“I’m doing some of the work myself to save money and speed things up.”
“Jake left us millions of dollars and you don’t have to save money.”
“I know that, but I want to do something with my hands for a change.”
This would cause Noah to frown and purposely drop a morsel of food on the floor
for Tucker, and Ed would pretend he didn’t see this and focus on his own plate. In the past, Ed’s deceased partner, Jake, would have moved into the guest house
with Noah and Tucker and he would have turned it into a mysterious adventure. Jake had