His Ex-Boyfriend Read online

  Alexis's eyes, almost invisible behind his sunglasses, met Jason's.

  So why is Mellor giving me such a stinging look?

  "North,” said Alexis when Jason joined them, “may I have a word with you?"

  Jason had sense. He knew Alexis was pissed, despite the bland smile. Nevertheless, he agreed. "Sure," he replied, smiling just as blandly.

  "There's an alley between that pavilion and the exhibit hall. Let's talk there." Alexis palmed Jason's back with a gesture of friendliness, urging him forward.

  Denny had just left with Lang to get cleaned up, and Carl, who had been calling a taxi for the bespattered bassist, patted his belt. "Hey! My hunting knife is missing. Son of a bitch. I go to the State Fair and get my pocket picked. Wait a minute. Shit! Where did those other two morons go?"

  No one had noticed.

  Chapter 5

  Two words, breathed out, fogged the silvery polish of the knife blade in front of Jason's eyes.

  "HOLY FUCK."

  The guitarist began to sob as the hunting knife shifted from the bridge of his nose to his Adam's apple. It dented skin as it pressed inwards.

  "Please stand very still, North. You're moving too much. You might hurt yourself, inadvertently."

  Jason had never been so scared in his entire life. Sobbing scared, trembling scared, his hands flopping against the brick wall behind him. The knife screwed its tiny point into the skin over his neck. His mouth fell open as he gasped for air, and he felt the other man's mouth cover his own, almost tenderly.

  "I like to taste fear," Alexis whispered. The singer's thumb massaged the pounding artery in Jason's throat, feeling the pulsations. After what seemed forever, Mellor broke the kiss. "Delicious. You're so very afraid. Why are you afraid, North?”

  "Fucking dammit, you're THREATENING ME WITH A KNIFE!" Tiny whimpers were now able to leave Jason's throat.

  "What?" Alexis asked as if surprised. "I may be showing you this pretty knife and asking you--very nicely, I might add--to hold still, but that doesn't mean I'm threatening you, North. Ah, now I remember. Someone once told me you have a fear of knives and other sharp objects. That's so sad. It's a beautiful knife, isn't it? So VERY sharp." Alexis closed in for another leisurely kiss, tonguing his way deep inside Jason's mouth, wet and suffocating. For a very long moment, Jason couldn't breathe around the delving muscle. The other's tongue sank into the very pit of his throat, blocking all air. Alexis stayed there until Jason saw stars appear.

  Finally, Alexis pulled back, and Jason's starved lungs were allowed to suck frantic breaths. "Interesting," said the singer. He leaned forward to lick the guitarist's bleached and trembling lips. "So that is what Jason North must have tasted like to my Rafe. Or maybe not. Is it true you never kissed him? You were man enough to be his rapist, but not his lover? Tell me, is that true?"

  The arm holding the knife jogged Jason's neck. Please God. He won't do it, he won't do it. He's just playacting. He's not really crazy.

  "I'd like an answer to my question, North. It's rude to be so silent."

  "W--we didn't have a close relationship," Jason stammered. There was no way in hell he was going to outline the dynamics of that mess to Alexis, knife or no.

  "Then it is true." Alexis gave a laugh. "So, you've just kissed me more than you ever did your old boyfriend? Oh, the irony." Mellor laughed again. "Why did you stay together, if there was no emotional connection?"

  Jason shut his eyes to hide his welling tears. "The action," he replied. Shame was now warring with terror.

  "Look at me, North."

  Jason did so. Alexis leaned forward until his mouth was right by Jason's ear. "Do you know why I adore Rafe? He's like sugar and lemon. Sweet enough to draw me, yet acid enough to keep from cloying. He's always refreshing. You loved his acid burn, you sucked up the pain. Why, I don't know. But I've always loved Rafe best when he's sweet. It's lovely. Would you ever have used the word 'lovely' to describe your feelings for him?"

  The knife dug in slightly. "N--no," Jason blurted.

  Alexis smiled. Then his face set in hard lines. "What did you two talk about inside that restaurant?"

  "We were just reminiscing," Jason gasped.

  "You showed great interest in his necklace."

  At this, the guitarist lost his temper. "Yes. You have damn sharp teeth."

  "I do?" Mellor raised his eyebrows. "I think you're right. What's this? Drops of blood? A mosquito must have landed on your neck. I'll kiss it and make it better. Hold still, North."

  Alexis's teeth latched onto Jason's neck, biting, sucking hard, gnawing. Jason gasped in pain. The knife shifted, jabbing the other side of the guitarist's throat. A minute passed, two minutes. Without warning, Mellor's teeth let go. Holding the knife like a teacher's pointer, Mellor prodded the damage. "Oh my. You have a beautiful hickey on your neck. It's flaring like a traffic signal. How are you going to explain it to your wife?"

  Jason's stomach clenched.

  Alexis leaned forward again. "Stop making passes at Rafe. If you're a good boy for the rest of the trip, I'll tell Amanda that Mr. Bunny only wanted to play vampire, and you volunteered to be the victim. If you don't behave I'll tell her nothing--or worse." Mellor toyed lazily with the strands of Jason's hair just above the guitarist's eyes. "Don't be a fool and wreck a happy marriage."

  "All right," Jason breathed.

  The singer stepped back, letting go of his prisoner. "After you."

  The guitarist started to plunge down the alley, only to be stopped short by a painful jerk on his hair.

  "Slowly, slowly. You see, nothing happened, here."

  Jason swallowed and nodded. The hand let go.

  "Proceed. And smile, North. Vampire is such a fun little game, isn't it?"

  When the two emerged from the alley, Rafe shut one eye, and his face scrunched up as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

  That hickey must be one hell of a beacon, Jason thought sullenly. The wound stung like an infected fly bite. He jumped when Rafe's shoulder banged into him. "What the fuck were you doing kissing Alexis?"

  "I did not! Your crazy boyfriend FANGED me!" Jason shot back.

  Bewildered, Rafe glanced at Alexis. The singer was untangling a knot of his wig hair with his fingers, smiling.

  Carl tapped Mellor on the back. Still smiling, Alexis handed over the hunting knife. Sam's eyes bugged out.

  “Alexis,” said Carl in warning tones. “Knock it off. I mean it.”

  "Um, Lexi-bear," Rafe started to say.

  "Mr. Rabbit says he wants to see Rafe go all funny in the House of Mirrors," Alexis interrupted. The singer had gone nose-to-nose with the rabbit, and he could not have appeared more innocent or cuddly. "Let's go!"

  Impelled by a will greater than their own, the little group headed for the next attraction.

  "What happened?" Carl asked as he pushed the buggy of plushies.

  Jason waved his arms, trying to keep the others from crowding him. "Nothing!" he snapped, glaring ahead at Alexis.

  "Was it about your old affair with Rafe?" Sam asked.

  "Would you not discuss that?”

  Carl halted the guitarist with a warning hand. "I don't like to interfere in your private life, but as your manager, you need some advice. Don't piss off Mellor again."

  "I'm paying you ten percent for this?" Jason replied angrily, shoving Carl's hand off his shoulder.

  With a pained expression, Carl watched the guitarist disappear.

  He was lost.

  Screw it. Why did I come inside?

  The distorted reflections seemed to have no exit. Occasionally, they trailed water, like tears.

  Because if I wanted to bawl like a two-year-old without being watched, this was the only place to go. He scared the SHIT out of me.

  Whispers.

  "No. Lexi, c'mon. This isn't necessary." The soft protests seemed to come from just a few feet away.

  "Give me your ankle."

  "Lexi, this is--look, I'm not a litt
le kid who gets lost. I don't need this."

  "Yes, you do."

  "Lexi, I really, really, don't want to do this."

  "Rafe, you're traveling with a celebrity who might be recognized at any moment. If we're mobbed and have to run, you might become separated or hurt in the crowd, and we'll need to locate you somehow. Lift your trouser leg."

  "No!" Rafe almost yelled.

  Jason inched closer. Two men appeared in one of the mirrors. Rafe was averting his face with a shamed expression. "This is horrible, I don't want--"

  Alexis waited silently.

  "Oh, fuck it all. Do it."

  The singer strapped something around Rafe's ankle. Intuitively, Jason knew it was a tracking device. That's obnoxious. No wonder he's upset.

  Mellor stood up, holding an electronic device. "Just a second," Alexis said pleasantly. "I have to test it." An electronic beeping went off, and a light flashed on Rafe's ankle. Mellor nodded. "It works."

  "Lexi," Rafe pled again, "take it off, I can't stand this."

  "Now, one other thing."

  "No! Someone might wander in here, dammit!"

  "What's this? Violations used to excite you. Do they bore you now?"

  Rafe's voice shook a little. "It's just--doing it with this damned thing on, it's so humiliating."

  "But that's exactly why I want it, Rafe."

  Jason shuddered and backed away. Oh, fuck. I shouldn't be here. I won't relive this again.

  "Kneel," Alexis said clearly.

  God, get me out of here! Frantically, Jason tried to find the exit.

  "Take it out. Touch it to your cheek. Oh yes, that's good. It feels so soft, doesn't it?"

  In confusion, Jason stepped the wrong way and saw a dark head bowed, eyes shut tightly, nuzzling Mellor's crotch.

  "Give me all your reverence. You love me, don't you? You love this part of me alone, more than any person alive."

  "Yes," said Rafe with violence. He lowered his lips to Mellor's exposed cock and kissed hard.

  "Does Jason taste and feel like this?"

  "Lexi! I--"

  "Don't speak. No words at all. I'm very angry, Rafe. I'm very, very angry. Do you feel nostalgia for your affair with him? Then give me what you gave Jason on your first night. You've told me the story before and described all the details. You sinned with him far too long for my happiness, so let your mouth pay me penance."

  Jason began to hear wet succulent sounds, breathing cut off, then beginning again. Alexis's broad smile came at him from a dozen mirrors. A reflective ripple bloated the singer's organ to the size of a python, slithering its massive, purple-veined width between Rafe's distended jaws. Two club-like hands massaged the hinges to open the student's mouth wider. "As deep as you can," Mellor's hypnotic voice urged, "as deep as you can."

  Rafe began to choke, letting out gasping convulsions of breath that only tickled the snake's head. The singer's eyes half-shut with pleasure. "I love it when you suffer for me," Mellor whispered. "You don't need to breathe anymore. Swallow forever, and hold me." The singer's eyes lifted and stared directly at Jason.

  Jason was too paralyzed to move. He was frightened, horrified, intimidated.

  Watch, those eyes said. Watch. This is mine, not yours.

  It took the guitarist several frenzied minutes to locate the exit. When he did, he ran out into the mindless cheer of calliope music, swearing.

  Chapter 6

  Jealousy. Is that it? Simple, old-fashioned jealousy?

  A sandwich board sat just outside the Hall of Mirrors, advertising 'Amazing sights! All your friends will laugh!'

  Jason kicked it over.

  "Hey you!" the proprietor yelled.

  Jason ignored him, stalking past. A panting Sam caught up with him a moment later. "Well, that was weird," Oskins commented.

  "Yeah," the guitarist replied bitterly.

  "I didn't think those two idiots would do it inside there."

  Jason stopped. "You saw them?"

  "I think I've been put off sex for life."

  Jason grimaced. "Sam, I need some advice. If you saw someone you cared for stuck in a bad relationship, would you think it justified if you seduced the affected person, with the hope of breaking up--"

  Sam gave his bandmate a fish-eyed look. Jason's voice faltered.

  "Hoo boy. You mean a knife didn't convince you? North, I don't think you understand their relationship. They've got a nice little sadomasochistic thing going. In fact, they're about as fucked up as you and Rafe were."

  Jason sputtered. "Thanks a lot! Hey, wait a minute. What makes you think Rafe and I were that bad?"

  “You're no longer coming to work covered with dings and scratches. You didn't say anything at the time, but we knew that whatever you were doing with Rafe, it wasn't lovey-dovey."

  Jason blushed.

  "Forget it, North. They're perfectly happy. Rafe is capable of walking out on Alexis if he didn't like it."

  Jason wasn't so sure. Impressionable, overwhelmed by his idol's personality, being tracked by Mellor's electronic devices? He heard Rafe's voice behind him and saw the pair exiting the Hall of Mirrors. Mellor's hand was resting on Rafe's hip. At the sight of that contact, Jason gritted his teeth.

  "Ice cream?" Alexis was saying. "It's a good palate cleanser."

  "You're right. If I don't get that taste out of my mouth, I'm going to become pregnant," Rafe laughed.

  What the hell? He's smiling? Jason felt his whole world do a somersault. He watched closely as Rafe bought a lime ice at a sorbet vendor's stall and gave it a slow, messy lick.

  Jason was outraged.

  "There you are, North," said Alexis. "I forgot to ask you something."

  Involuntarily, the guitarist backed away and collided with a telephone pole. The flash of pain made him rub his head. Alexis's eyes were steady and cool, noting the little accident. "What are you going to name your daughter? Carl said it would be a girl. Is that right?"

  He's warning me off, reminding me I have a family, thought Jason. Fuck it. He's right.

  "Leila is the name we're planning." Jason looked over Mellor's shoulder at his former boyfriend. "Amanda originally wanted to name the kid after Rafe if it was a boy."

  "Very generous of her," Alexis said in formal tones. "Do you mind if we come to visit you in the hospital after your wife delivers?"

  Jason nearly strangled. This ASSHOLE wanted to see his wife, his baby? No fucking way, Mellor. You'll see my door slam shut in your face, first.

  Then the guitarist understood. Damn, he's clever. Just one sentence, and he roused the raving protective husband in me. He's really clever. "I'll have to see what Amanda says. She might not feel well enough to have visitors."

  Mellor nodded politely. "I understand. It can be upsetting, having to deal with an intruder barging into the family circle like that." An ironic flash of eyes behind the sunglasses delivered the rest of the message.

  Round two to Mellor, thought Jason glumly.

  "Alexis?"

  It was Carl. "I'm having a taxi deliver the rest of the plushies to your apartment, and Denny has packed Lang off in another."

  Jason took the opportunity to edge away from the singer.

  "Too bad about Lang," Sam commented. "I was looking forward to seeing him on more silly rides."

  "That reminds me," Carl said, tapping his cell phone. "Lang had a last request before he left. He said, quote, 'Take my idiot of a brother on a rollercoaster for me.'"

  Alexis tsked. "That's so mean of him, and so petty. Rafe has a fear of rollercoasters." Off in the distance, Rafe was still innocently nibbling his lime ice.

  Jason's eyes narrowed. An idea had come to the guitarist.

  Some fifteen minutes later, Jason was saying politely, "Will you see me off?"

  Rafe shrugged as he licked the last drops of lime ice from his fingers. "It's your doom. I suppose."

  When they reached the queue for the rollercoaster, an odd thing happened. Jason cut to the front of the line with
out any objection from the attendant. Rafe noted this uncharacteristic North behavior, but only shrugged. The seats were emptying from the previous ride, and the guitarist exchanged a glance with the attendant. "Can he see me off?" Jason asked.

  "Sure, if you don't take too long."

  The two young men entered the enclosure. Rafe didn't notice the attendant suddenly clipping the chain fencing shut again, preventing the rest of the queue from boarding.

  As Jason took a seat on the far side of the first car, Rafe shook his head and snorted. "This is such a dumb idea. Who'd want to go on a rollercoaster, anyway?"

  "You," Jason said, yanking Rafe inside the car. The student fell across Jason's lap, and the guitarist swung his ex-boyfriend around so he was sitting upright. "You've got two seconds to get into the harness.”

  The cars were already rattling along the tracks and picking up speed, leaving behind exclamations of bewilderment from the gaping queue. "Hey. Hey! What the fuck?" Rafe yelled. Quickly, Jason strapped the student into the nylon harness. Rafe tried to flail his way out of it, screeching at the attendant, "Hey! STOP THIS THING! I DIDN'T BUY A TICKET!"

  "He bought one for you," the attendant shouted back. "He bought the whole ride! Have fun!"

  The cars were climbing a medium-sized mountain. On the other side was a respectable drop, though not the worst the ride offered. "You motherfucker," said Rafe with venom. "Lang put you up to this, right?"

  "No, it was my own idea."

  They had reached the top of the hill and were approaching the drop. Rafe looked downwards, appalled. "Then why--AAUGH! You motherfuckingcocksucking sonofabitch!"

  They reached the bottom. Glassy-eyed, Rafe swayed in his seat. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" Jason asked with a grin.

  Rafe's eyes blazed. "I'm going to kill you, North, if it's the last thing--oh, damn."

  A series of smaller drops awaited them, not as bad as the first, but there was an entire string of them. Rafe clenched his seat, moaning, as they zoomed over every one. Then they began to climb again, chugging up the largest peak of all.