His Ex-Boyfriend Page 9

  Chapter 10

  A bright flutter of musical notes hung in the air, blown from the fipple of a wooden flute. This was Alexis's customized ring tone. Irritably, Mellor rolled over on his stomach and grabbed at the bookshelf above his head, dislodging plush animals. "Who is this? Don't you know I've forbidden all calls before breakfast?"

  A mysterious voice answered, “I want Rafe.”

  The voice seemed to be speaking through a scarf, and what's more, in a tantalizingly disguised accent.

  "You're not Lang, are you? You sound crabby the way he does."

  The phone spewed invective.

  "I'm holding the phone out the window," Alexis singsonged. "I'm about to let it drop several stories."

  The phone fell silent. Alexis eyed it a moment, then returned it to his ear. "I am planning to spend a pleasant morning with Rafe. We are going to rise from this bed, make fruit smoothies because it's hot outside, then have a mutual shower with whatever ensues if we're in the mood and because we usually are, it does--and afterwards we will dry each other off with towels and dress in silk kimonos, and enjoy the view from the balcony while we reheat that leftover Cassoulet Toulousain from the French restaurant we ate at last night. Now, doesn't that make you feel like an absolute bitch for interrupting us?"

  The muffled voice only replied, "Rafe. Now."

  How rude, thought Alexis. Handing the phone over meant waking Rafe, and Mellor hated to do that. Rafe always slept as if starved for sleep. Alexis studied his bedmate and noticed he'd stolen Mr. Bunny again and was dozing on his side, arms folded over the plushie. This habit of sleep-thieving the rabbit had bothered Alexis at first, but the singer had grown used to it. Besides, it was only proper that the children be shared by both parents. Nevertheless, he wanted Mr. Bunny back. The singer picked up a stuffed armadillo and carefully insinuated the stealth plushie into Rafe's arms, retrieving Mr. Bunny in the process. He put Mr. Bunny aside and began to sing a little nonsense song in Rafe's ear.

  The cell phone bellowed. Alexis snatched up the instrument. "I am singing him his wake-up song," the singer scolded. He windmilled the bad, bad cell phone into a nearby trash can and let it grumble to itself.

  After another verse, Rafe woke, opening his eyes with a lazy smile. "Lexi?" he asked sleepily. Then he noticed the plush animal in his arms. "Mr. Bunny! What happened to you?" the student squawked.

  "He decided he wanted to be an armadillo," Alexis said. The rabbit put his face over the edge of the bed, sniffed around, and hopped into Rafe's arms to join the armadillo.

  Rafe let out a relieved sigh. "Whew! It was a shock waking up with this strange, furry snout in my face."

  Alexis leaned across the other's chest. "You have a phone call."

  A little perplexed, Rafe replied, "Okay. Are you going to let me up to answer it?"

  "In a while. Do you realize you're completely naked under that sheet?"

  Puzzled, Rafe lifted a corner to look. "I thought I was wearing boxers when I went to bed last night."

  Alexis smiled. "They disappeared."

  "Whoa. I hope no one ate them. The strangest things keep happening in this bed while I'm asleep. Vanishing plushies and underwear."

  "A vortex opened up during the night and sucked them off. In fact, I think the vortex took every piece of underwear you own and hid it."

  "Muh," said the student, nonplussed.

  "Mmm?" Mellor replied pleasantly.

  "Mm-hum. Mmm-mmm," Rafe threatened.

  "Mhum!" the singer replied.

  The two could have whole conversations consisting of these wordless noises. They exchanged a few more volleys before Rafe conceded. "Okay. I have no underwear anymore. Where'd you put the phone?"

  "In the trash."

  Too jaded to ask why, Rafe clawed for the wastebasket and fished out the cell phone.

  "Hello?"

  "Rafe Leeland? I have a mission for you."

  "Who is this?"

  The caller didn't identify himself, instead muttering about Yoko Ono.

  "Huh? YARRRRGH!"

  Alexis, eavesdropping, perhaps bored, had suddenly gone down on his boyfriend.

  "The relationship is wrecking Jason's health and his ability to work with Mullerin," the caller explained.

  Rafe was too busy swatting Alexis with the armadillo to pay attention. "What the hell am I--guh--supposed to do about it? Lexi! Stop that! Goddamn, this relationship is wrecking my health, too."

  "Seduce him!" the phone demanded.

  A momentary frown crossed Alexis's face.

  "Ngh?" Rafe asked fuzzily. Seduce him? Was the caller reading his mind or something?

  Alexis tossed the armadillo aside and attacked again. Disarmadilloed, Rafe was forced to thump his boyfriend with the cell phone.

  "Wreck his marriage!" the phone prompted.

  Rafe paused in his defense long enough to reply, "Hey! Amanda's my friend."

  "But she has your old lover. Don't you hate her for that?"

  "Wohg!" Rafe grunted. Alexis had stuffed Mr. Bunny's paw into the student's mouth, gagging him. Then Mellor really set to work. Slowly, the phone slid out of Rafe's hand.

  "Leeland? Are you listening?"

  The phone struck the carpet facedown. On the bed, the silent assault continued.

  Feast, ravishment, engorge, assault, were the words that rolled through Rafe's mind.

  Release.

  Alexis's face appeared, hanging above Rafe's still-gagged mouth. "Nice?" Mellor asked.

  Rafe nodded dully. Alexis plucked Mr. Bunny's damp paw from the student's mouth.

  "Could you--" Rafe begged.

  Concentrating like a surgeon, Alexis pulled it out.

  "God, you scared me when you did that. I wasn't expecting it."

  "I like surprises.” Mellor placed his hand on Rafe's chest. "Your heart is fluttering like a bird's. I only put it in a little way so you wouldn't be hurt."

  Casually, Alexis unsheathed the samurai sword and rested its razor-sharp edge alongside Rafe's body, causing Rafe to shrink away from this curious taster of his flesh, this unexpected member of their threesome. Without the protection of the sheath, Mellor's whim would have been lethal. Rafe shuddered at this knowledge, and at his own sexual thrill at its penetration of his body. Alexis rolled his lover over, shutting out the sight of the blade, and lowered himself, filling the place where the sword had been. Rafe sucked in his breath. It wasn't as abrupt as the sword, but the shock still made all his muscles tighten. Alexis's eyes were shut, his face lost, frozen, waiting for the tension beneath him to ease. There was nothing worrisome on his face. No anger, no resentment, no jealousy at the words of the phone call.

  Nevertheless, Rafe knew the sword had been a warning from his lover. Mellor's hand pushed the student's head into the pillow, stroking the fine hairs at the base of the boy's neck a moment. This delicate handling caused Rafe's tension to ease, and he relaxed into the pillow. Then the singer's shoulders began to sway, his face melting into the pleasure, the motion snapping his hair like angry whips.

  After they had eaten the leftover cassoulet, Rafe removed the dirty dishes from the balcony table. Alexis was left behind, holding out a forkful of rice. The singer was hypnotized, chin in hand, watching the pigeons bob and snap at his offering.

  Nervously, Rafe rinsed the plates as he inspected his boyfriend through the glass doors. Alexis was dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt, though he wore motorcycle boots instead of his usual tennis shoes. Mellor looked glamorous, even if the style differed from what he usually wore. Something about the outfit disturbed Rafe, until he remembered Jason. Jason often wore flannel shirts with jeans, and motorcycle boots.

  Oh, fuck, thought Rafe.

  When he had finished with the plates, he joined his lover out on the balcony. The pigeons flapped their wings at his arrival, but didn't leave.

  “We're going to be meeting Diane at the airport in a couple of days,” said Alexis.

  "Who?" Rafe faltered, still off-balance.r />
  "Diane Durand. She's arranged for me to have a part in a film she's making with Salvatore Moreno.”

  “You know her?” asked Rafe in surprise. Despite his fit of Jason-angst, even he felt some curiosity to meet the famous actress.

  “She's been a friend of mine for several years. What are you going to do about that phone call?" Alexis asked suddenly.

  Rafe snorted. "I don't even know who it was. Do you know anyone who goes around trying to recruit people for weird conspiracies in a fake accent?"

  "It must have been either me or Carl, and since it wasn't me, it had to be Carl." The singer was still watching his pigeons, reloading his fork from time to time. "He wants you to have an affair with Jason to break up his marriage."

  "What the hell?" Rafe's heart began to pound.

  In a few sentences, Alexis explained the difficulties the guitarist had been having with his wife. Rafe listened in silence.

  "That's fucking ridiculous, that's bullshit," Rafe protested. "I told Carl that Amanda's my friend and I'm not going to screw her over. Of course she doesn't want to be left alone with the baby. She's just given birth, dammit. Look, if you had given birth to Mr. Bunny, I'd want to be there for you. That's only normal."

  Mellor smiled briefly.

  "Amanda's just one of Jason's victims."

  Alexis met his boyfriend's eyes. "Is that what you really think?"

  "Yeah."

  "You still love him, don't you?" The singer studied his lap.

  "Lexi," Rafe protested. "I love you!"

  "You didn't answer my question."

  "I--he started dating Amanda right after we first went out. I never let myself get close to him because of that. Look, if it could have worked, it would have, okay? Let's go inside."

  The two rose, abandoning the pigeons. But before Rafe could open the balcony doors, Alexis caught his lover's shoulders. "If--you--" Alexis faltered. "If you leave me--will you come back to me again?"

  "Lexi! I'm NOT GOING TO LEAVE YOU!" cried Rafe.

  Malcolm Hyde was resting in his office chair, hands laced together in his lap, trying to meditate away the morning's stress. With Jason's surprise announcement, the subsequent necessity of tracking down a replacement guitarist and ministering/threatening the remaining members of a demoralized Mullerin, the morning had been quite eventful. Hyde made tickmarks of 'fixed' down his mental checklist of the various emergencies, then slowly began to relax.

  So when Alexis stormed into the office and threw a chair at Malcolm's desk, it was a little unexpected. The chair crashed off the front of the desk, and the impact sent all of Malcolm's paperwork to the floor in a flapping waterfall. A moment later, Hyde stood up, his face pained. "May I ask what brings this on?” Quietly, he pressed the emergency button that signaled Carl's beeper. Malcolm wasn't afraid of his bandmate. He simply didn't want his office more trashed than it already was.

  "What's this about Jason having to quit Mullerin because his wife's given birth?" Alexis yelled. "Haven't you ever heard of a nanny? Either hire someone to stay home with Amanda, or make arrangements for her to accompany the band on tour!"

  "The extra expense--"

  "I'll pay for it!"

  "He's already quit--"

  "I'll get him back!"

  "Denny's already tried--"

  "I'm not Denny Dinkel, dammit, I'm Alexis-fucking-Mellor!"

  Carl walked in, and Alexis bawled, "SPEED DIAL THAT IDIOT!"

  "Which one? Half the people in this building are idiots."

  "The guitar player!"

  The cell phone rang, and Amanda answered. Instantly, the fuming Alexis transformed. He beamed into the phone, asking about her health. He asked about the baby. He asked her to hold the baby up to the phone and cooed. Leila cooed back. He asked about Bunny Junior, and Amanda answered with a fangirl excitement audible to everyone in the office. He asked for a photo of the mother and baby. Amanda's blush was audible. When Alexis raised the subject of the tour, he waved away all her objections, talked her into the nanny, and pooh-poohed the expenses, letting her know that everything was on him. Yes, Alexis Mellor was doing all this for his friend Amanda and her sweet little Leila, whom he adored with all his heart.

  Near the end of the conversation Amanda transferred the phone to Jason, at Alexis's request. The singer's speech to him was short. "Moron. Pack your guitar and some clothes because you've rejoined Mullerin. Amanda will be happy to explain it to you."

  Alexis clicked the phone shut and returned it to Carl. "All she wanted was someone to take care of her. Why didn't you imbeciles understand?"

  "Because Carmen has never had an insecure day in her life," Malcolm replied evenly. “It's not one of my traits, either.”

  "Nor one of mine,” Carl added. "Why the heck would I have joined the military if I felt insecure?”

  Alexis paused with his mouth open, his finger in the air. "Okay, I forgot. Mr. Bunny says he is sorry for the mess, and he didn't mean to kill the chair. Add it to my tab." The singer left.

  Carl and Malcolm exchanged wry looks.

  A few minutes later, the manager exited the office, but was stopped by a voice coming from a nearby broom closet. "Mr. Bunny says he wants to talk to the big blond man, preferably at that bar across the street with the nice umbrella drinks."

  "Is this a clandestine meeting?" Carl asked a sprinkler head. "I can arrange to be there in about ten minutes."

  "Good. Mr. Bunny wants a strawberry daiquiri the size of a vat and might need someone to drive him home afterwards."

  "Rabbits are supposed to stick to carrot juice."

  A few minutes later, Alexis was sulkily stirring his Shirley Temple, since Carl had somehow suborned the waiter. "It's not an amusing game, Carl, trying to use my boyfriend to wreck Jason's marriage."

  "I have my reasons. If you're afraid Rafe will leave you, you've lost your mind."

  Alexis did not answer immediately.

  "You're not that much of a bastard," Carl added, trying to be helpful.

  In reply, Alexis blew the paper wrapper off his straw right into the other's face. "I've never been as decent to him as I ought to be. I've almost made Jason's mistake."

  "Then try being nicer."

  "I'm scared of that, too. I'm afraid I'll bore him. I always have to be his idol, the great, crazy Alexis Mellor. If I destroy the myth, will he still want to stay with me?"

  "I think he's rather tired of the God-like Mellor."

  "Do you think so?"

  "Hell, yes. Turn it down a notch."

  Alexis thought for a long moment.

  "If you're still skeptical, remember he's stuck by you for two years. He was living with Jason for a few months."

  "So short a time?" Alexis said, pondering. "I hadn't thought of it that way before."

  "Look, if you're afraid of being ordinary, remember that Jason's a pretty regular joe, and Rafe didn't mind."

  "I suppose you're right. But keep Rafe out of your schemes. Interfere with my love life, and I'll fuck with yours. I know your real motive."

  The manager made a scoffing noise.

  "Promise me."

  "I'm not going to hurt either of you. I'm not interested in seeing Jason paired off with someone as nutty as Rafe. Amanda's a lot more stable. Hell, she'd make a good wife, except for this stupid urge to destroy Jason's career. I happen to know she's been wanting Jason to leave Mullerin ever since they first married, but it wasn't until the kid was born that she's had any leverage."

  "Your game is much too reckless. I'm warning you. Leave Rafe alone."

  The manager only smiled and huffed Alexis's paper umbrella off his drink.

  Chapter 11

  Two days later in Alexis's apartment, Rafe was listening to his cell phone. Alexis was away, and the caller seemed to know this.

  "You still want him," the mysterious voice whispered. "You kissed him at sixty miles an hour."

  "Fuck you," Rafe yelled. He was chain-smoking, and the fumes hung in the air like smog. This
must be why his eyes stung and watered, and felt so scratchy.

  The caller laughed and hung up. Half-wild, Rafe threw the phone to the carpet. He scrambled for another cigarette, unable to stop himself from remembering.

  Jason lowered his head to avoid meeting Rafe's eyes. "Sorry I'm late, but they made us stay after rehearsal doing interviews. Hey! What are you doing?"

  Two hands were jerking the guitarist's pants down, and they quickly located the residual traces of female moisture on the sleek cock. Rafe plucked at the still-damp hairs, running his fingers through them. The smoke from his cigarette floated up between their leveled eyes. His fingers began to tease.

  "Don't hold that thing so close to me. You've burned so many holes in my shirts that everyone knows whenever we've been doing it."

  Rafe's cigarette jutted dangerously close to the flannel, and a loose thread sizzled. "Good."

  "I had to get a boyfriend who likes to smoke during sex. God, it's like a coal factory in here." Jason's lips parted.

  "Give it a kiss."

  "What?"

  "My cigarette."

  "Do you realize--that thing is--on fire?" Jason's voice was moaning.

  "Then I guess my hands are going to be bored after all."

  For a moment, Jason just stared at the cigarette end, watching Rafe suck it red-hot.

  Rafe lounged forward, his elbows on his knees, trying not to remember and failing. Plushies were gazing down at him, wide-eyed.

  "What the hell are you looking at?! I didn't do anything wrong, so stop staring at me! I was just trying to find out how much he--"

  He stood up suddenly, trying to breathe. His lungs felt filthy, like ashtrays. The air had turned yellow from all the dead smoke. He thought he was about to asphyxiate.

  Jason's mouth clamped shut over the hot cigarette and released, fast enough he managed to avoid burning himself. He coughed explosively, blowing out ash. The dead flecks stuck to his lips.

  "I guess you do want sex after all. As you can tell, I'm in the mood for something different tonight."

  That was the first time they ever broke any of the furniture. Sex with a hidden core of anger and jealousy. The birth of the sickness.