Title: Poor Little Rich Boy

Author/pseudonym: Tinnean

Fandom: Love and Human Remains

Pairing: Kane/David

Rating: NC-17, m/m consensual sex, language

Status: New/Complete

Archive: Yes, please

Series/sequel: Yes, this is part of a series

Other websites: Not yet

Disclaimers: We don't own Kane and David, but we sure do enjoy playing with them. Sigh.

Notes: This is my first attempt at slash fan fiction. Hope everything works the way it's supposed to. :-)

Summary: Ever wished that you could find the perfect man? Kane does.

Warnings: Spoilers for the movie Love and Human Remains. First Time. Underage consensual m/m sex. Kane is only 17 at the start of this story. However, he does turn 18 during the course of the series. In any case, if that kind of thing bothers you, please don't read this story.

Poor Little Rich Boy

by Tinnean

Kane was not your typical rich kid.

His father had more wealth than God. He spent his days trying to amass more and more of the filthy lucre. Money. He had bought so many toys with it that there was little left to sate his jaded appetite. So now he just accumulated and hoarded, a modern day Midas. He had even lost his taste for the lovely Miss Winstead, his nubile secretary. Every once in a while he would cast a lascivious eye over her, but he just did not have the interest to chase her around his desk anymore.

Kane's mother was forever seeking the fountain of youth. She jet-setted from one spa to another, frantically trying to halt the progress of time. She was on a first-name basis with the most noted plastic surgeons on the continent. She toyed desperately with men who grew younger and younger as each year passed. Her latest cherub was a youth only a few years older than Kane.

Kane told everyone he was eighteen, but he still lacked a few months until that birthday. A bright student, he had completed his schooling early and now, for the past six months had found himself at loose ends.

He didn't do drugs. He had tried them in a rare move to get his parents' attention, but soon realized that nothing he did would redirect their focus from themselves. And he had felt so wretched coming down from the highs, that he wisely concluded that they just weren't worth the pain.

Then, a few days before, someone had caught his eye as he strolled aimlessly through the city. Something about the smile had tugged at his memory, and he had followed the man as he wended his way through the streets.

The man had entered a restaurant and Kane casually took a seat at one of the tables. But then he had lost sight of him. The tousled dark hair, the teasing smile. Where had he seen them before?

A waiter had come to his table and asked if he was ready to order. Kane had looked up and grown still. There was the vision he had been trailing! And suddenly it clicked.

He was Toby! Of all the TV shows that Kane had watched as a child, The Beavertons was his favorite! In a family that couldn't be bothered with teaching him acceptable behavior, that program had shown him what he wanted to be. In a family that offered no role models, Toby pointed the way to the character traits he most wanted to possess! Alone in a house filled with servants who cared for him, but not about him, Toby and Sandy and Amy had become his family.

Almost breathless, he had managed to whisper a request for a hamburger and fries.

Toby...no, the actor's name was David....David McMillan. David had walked away to put in the order and bring him a soda, and Kane had avidly watched him, feeling himself grow warm.

Suddenly he had a purpose.

He was going to get to know David.

Part 2

Kane toyed with his hamburger. How could he strike up a conversation with his idol?

A tray of dishes fell with a crash. Food splattered, drinks splashed, silverware clanked in discord. An angry bus boy was ripping off his red jacket. "I don't need this crap, man. I don't need the lousy tips you give me. I am so out of here!"

With that, the disgruntled youth stormed out of the restaurant.

And just like that, Kane found the means necessary to be near Toby... No, he had to remember his name was David.

He slid out of his booth and walked quietly to the manager of the bistro. "Excuse me, sir. I couldn't help but overhear that. If you should need a replacement, I'd be more than happy to volunteer."

The frazzled manager looked at the young man standing composedly under his scrutiny. The kid was well-dressed, classy, but not flashy. His clothes screamed 'wealth'. Why would he want to work at such a menial position?

Then he realized he didn't care. The weekend was coming, the busiest time for this restaurant. He needed a replacement, fast.

"Kid, you got yourself a job! You can fill out an application after your shift. Here," he thrust the jacket at him. "See if this fits you."

"David, you have a new busboy!"

Part 3

Kane was in despair. The longer he worked with David, the more he saw him as David and no longer as Toby, the character he had played. And the more he saw him as David, the more he ....liked him.

The problem was, David didn't seem to have any feelings whatsoever for his busboy. Oh sure, David had taken him to meet a friend, who just happened to be a psychic dominatrix. They had gotten him stoned on what he first thought was cocaine, but soon discovered was heroin. He had passed out on Benita's bed, and had had the most delicious dream.

*****

David was trapped in a burning building. The heat was fierce. Flames blazed, casting a fitful light in the night. The windows exploded out as fire raced up the drapes, consuming them as if they were paper. David called helplessly for someone to come to his aid. The hair on his hands was singed as he tried to force the uncomfortably hot door open. But it would not budge.

Falling back in dismay, David cried out. "Someone, save me, please!"

Suddenly, a miraculous figure appeared! Clad in a helmet and the coat and overalls of a fearless firefighter, his knight in shiny fireman's gear came to the rescue. David could not see his face, but wept with gratitude when he was swept up into the fireman's strong arms. Bursting through the heat and the soot, sweat pouring down his handsome face, the rescuer carried David out into the cool, soothing night air. The soft breeze felt wonderful on his overheated skin.

David snuggled in the arms of the one who had saved him from such a horrid fate. "My hero," he whispered as he stroked the boyishly smooth skin of his savior's face. He sighed softly, content to be in those arms.

Away, further away he was carried, past the din of the fire trucks, past the shouts of the men struggling to extinguish the blaze, past the heat and the wet.

At last they came to a dimly lit, secluded bit of parkland. Gently, his rescuer set him down on the sweet-smelling grass. Tossing aside his oxygen mask and helmet, the stalwart firefighter leaned over David, stroking the damp hair back from his brow. An errant moonbeam revealed his hero to be Kane! Kane, who worked daily by his side, content with crumbs from the table of David's affection. Kane, who asked for nothing more than a friendly smile. Kane, who would die for him, kill for him, be whatever David wanted him to be!

"Oh Kane, I was so blind! All this time I have been looking for my best beloved, and you have always been there, at my side!" David buried his face in his hands and wept bitterly for the lost, the wasted time.

Kane shrugged out of his gear and stood before David like a young Michelangelo, naked in the moonlight.

"David," he told him gently. "It's all right. I forgive you!"

David threw his arms around Kane's sturdy legs and hugged him fiercely. "I'll make it right, I swear it!" he vowed, looking up at the handsome youth. Then he gasped at the beauty of Kane's manhood, which rose majestically before him. He brushed his lips along the inside of Kane's thigh, against the smooth, tender skin of his thigh. Rising to his knees, he pressed fevered kisses closer and closer to Kane's arousal.

Kane's long fingers wound in David's thick, dark hair, urging his head to where they both wanted it to be. "Kane!" David panted. "Kane!" Hesitantly, he touched his tongue to the tip of Kane's hard flesh, tasting the drop of dew that beaded there. Then his lips engulfed him, seeking to take all of him into his mouth.

Unable to catch his breath, David was forced to pull away, dragging deep mouthfuls of air into his starving lungs. Kane's legs were no longer able to support him, after the loving onslaught of David's lips and teeth and tongue. He sank to the grass, as desperate for oxygen as David.

But David would not let him be. His fingers replaced his mouth, dancing up and down the length of Kane's erection. Breath whistled quickly past Kane's parted lips, followed by soft whimpers and moans.

From somewhere he heard a sweet voice say, "Booze, and junk, and he still gets hard!"

And then he felt as if the world was coming to an end. His heart pounded violently, his legs trembled, and his body poured forth the essence of life.

"David!" he whispered, and then sank so deeply into sleep that even dreams could not find him.

Part 4

David was restless. His skin felt as if it were too tight for his body. He couldn't seem to settle on anything.

He really needed to get laid.

It had been a very long time since he had indulged himself physically; careless couplings had become too dangerous. The odd blow jobs and the familiarity of his own hand had had to suffice, but he wanted the stability of a solid relationship. He wanted a love he could trust, not only with his health, but with his heart.

He *really* needed to get laid. His desire to be inside someone, and have someone inside him in turn, was making him behave badly.

Look what he had subjected Kane to. In spite of himself, he liked Kane. Probably more than was good for either of them. Kane had told him he was eighteen, but Benita had discovered he was still just seventeen.

Christ, the thoughts he was having made him feel like a cradle robber!

Benita had told him that Kane loved him, but when David tried to see him outside of work, Kane became evasive, telling him he had plans he couldn't get out of.

And now this! Looking down from the upper level of the Palladium, the current popular nightspot, David spotted Kane with his arm around a girl! A really tarty looking girl, at that! She was much too worldly for a sweet kid like Kane! He ought to go down there and just pull him away from the slut!

But what he really wanted to do was pull Kane into his arms and press honeyed kisses onto his mouth, sipping at the treasures within, licking at the smooth tissue lining his mouth, teasing Kane's tongue with his own.

David felt his eyes glaze over. With a groan, he bolted for the stairs. What was he thinking? The boy was seventeen! He could get arrested!

He was almost out the door when he heard Kane call his name. "David, wait! David please!" But he kept on going, half hoping Kane would follow him, half dreading that he wouldn't.

Outside, in the parking lot, David felt a tentative hand grasp his sleeve. He whirled around to face Kane. The boy looked shame-faced. He shrugged. "Sometimes I just need to get laid," he murmured plaintively.

"You know something? You're right!" growled David. "And sometimes, so do I! And that's just what I'm going to do right now!"

Kane tightened his hold on David's sleeve. "David, please!" he begged, almost in tears. "Please don't leave like this." Taking a deep gulp of air, he took the plunge. "Why don't you come to my place?"

David touched a gentle fingertip to the tear that clung precariously to Kane's outrageously long lashes. Then he brought that finger to his mouth, tasting the salty essence of Kane. A delicate tremor shivered through Kane's body, and he felt himself becoming aroused.

Kane blushed and lowered shame-filled eyes. "No, it's okay, David. I know you must have people you like better than a stupid kid who just keeps giving you a hard time. But just tell me one thing."

The beautiful chocolate brown eyes pleaded with him, and David reluctantly acquiesced. "All right, Kane. What do you want to know?"

"Who jerked me off, David?" And he held his breath.

"I did. Who did you think?" But the tone of voice was so cruel.

"You did?" Daring to hope, daring to begin to dream, Kane looked at David with adoration flowing out of him.

Disgusted with himself, David said quietly, "No, it was Benita." And the disappointment on Kane's face was too much for him to bear. He sighed. "All right, let's go back to your place. Where's your car?"

Kane threw him a dazzling smile and all but danced to a black Porsche parked a short distance away. David shook his head, mocking himself.

"I am definitely tipping you too much!"

Part 5

Kane handled the Porsche with careless ease, maneuvering the black convertible with casual disregard, glancing often at David.

David sucked in his breath at another near miss. "Christ, Kane! Keep your goddamn eyes on the road! You're going to get us killed!"

"Not tonight, David. Tonight I could tilt at windmills!" The wind whipped through his long, chestnut hair, tearing it free from the thong that held it back from his face. Strands blew in front of his eyes. Helpless, David reached out with trembling fingers to gently brush the errant tresses away from that winsome face. Somehow, the motion developed into a caress.

Like a kitten, Kane rubbed his head against the hand that threaded softly through his hair.

"We're here!" he murmured as he swung the car past a wall that would do credit to a fortress. And still, it took them a good five minutes to actually reach the house. A huge pile, surrounded by luxuriant shrubs and numerous flower beds and towering oaks and maples, it resembled nothing short of a rambling, Tudor-style mansion.

Kane hopped out of the vehicle and waited expectantly for David to emerge as well. Leading up the shadowed walk, where tiny lanterns glittered like fairy lights to illuminate the path, Kane ignored the splendor that was all around him, concentrating instead on the man who held his heart within his hands.

David stared around him, unable not to be impressed. It must take a small army to care for these extensive grounds! A pool appeared beside the path, seeming to reach to the house itself. Moonlight reflected off the crystal blue water, rippled by a scented breeze.

Kane swiped a security card through the electronic lock. "Pretty big, isn't it?" he asked, referring to his house.

The only response David could find was a dumbfounded, "Yeah!"

A glimmer drew his gaze to the right, and there, within the house itself was the pool! Enormous glass walls on sliders closed out the cool night air, but the flick of a switch could open the room to the outdoors, or, closed, on a winter's day, give the impression of swimming in a snow storm.

David began to feel ill-at-ease.

"Where are your parents, Kane?" he asked.

Kane looked back over his shoulder and shrugged dismissively. "My father's in Hawaii, getting laid." David heard the irony, but did not understand it. "And I'm not sure which clinic my mother is in this week. The last word was that she was going to try a new sleep cure. Never mind about them! I want to show you something!"

David felt his heart lurch. Was Kane going to become the aggressor? Was he going to attempt a seduction? The notion intrigued him, making him ache in all his empty places. His mouth went dry.

Uncannily, Kane halted in the middle of an entertainment room filled with state of the art VCRs, a wall that held more audio components than the local electronics mart and a sixty inch color TV with stereo speakers and DVD compatibility.

The room was so huge it comfortably housed a tournament sized pool table off to one side. "David," he asked, "would you like a drink?"

And David licked his lips, and smiled a slow, lazy smile.

Part 6

David followed Kane into a butler's pantry down the hall from the media room. The pantry, ostensibly the size of his whole apartment, loomed as an additional reminder of just how wealthy Kane's background was.

From out of an enormous, fully stocked wet bar, Kane pulled out two frosted bottles of designer water and offered one to David. He leaned back against the fridge, watching dry-mouthed as David tilted the bottle to his lips, swallowing the icy liquid, the muscles in his throat working rhythmically. Belatedly, he realized that his hand was cramping from the force of his grip on his own bottle. He twisted off the cap and gulped convulsively, his eyes closed, his thoughts ingoing.

Why was he so jumpy? he asked himself. This was his turf. He knew what he wanted.

Didn't he?

David lowered the bottle from his lips, which were sheened from the moisture of his drink. He rested a hand on the fridge and leaned closer to Kane, his breath whispering the loose hair around his head. "Just what did you want to show me, Kane?" he asked, nuzzling his ear, then staring into the boy's bedazzled eyes.

Kane felt himself inclining toward David, and caught himself abruptly, much to David's disappointment. Licking his lips nervously, he ducked under David's arm. "It's back in here," he said as he bolted from the pantry, back to the entertainment center. "Ummm, why don't you sit over there," and he gestured to a black, butter-soft, leather loveseat, just large enough to fit two comfortably. David eyed it with interest as Kane switched on the large-screen TV.

Crouching down to select a video tape, Kane turned to David, to see his gaze lingering on the taut muscles of Kane's thighs. Involuntarily he blushed, feeling himself stirring and beginning to grow hard. His tongue peeked out to moisten lips that had gone dry, and his breath stuttered in his chest.

"Are you ready?" he asked distractedly.

And David smiled, almost ferally, at him. "Yes."

Part 7

Kane's fingers fumbled with the video tape. Then he tore his eyes off David's mouth and found the slot of the VCR. He slid the tape in and pressed the play button. Taking a deep, surreptitious breath, he rose to his feet and joined David on the loveseat.

Music started and the camera panned on a snowswept mountainscape. Suddenly the logo for The Beavertons appeared on the screen. David froze in disbelief, unable to take his horrified gaze off the images on the TV. Joe Arthur, who had done the voice-overs every week on the show, introduced the smiling faces of Sandy and Amy. And then his own cocky facade filled the screen.

Unable to bear the sight of his younger self, David jerked to his feet. "Shut it off!" he ordered.

Dismayed at the frost that dripped from David's voice, Kane snapped the remote at the TV and jumped up to hurry after him. David was heading for the door.

"I thought you'd like it!" Kane cried in despair. "I thought it would mean as much to you as it does to me!"

"Oh, what? I should be flattered that you brought Toby back here with you tonight?" David demanded harshly.

"No! It isn't like that! Not anymore! Don't go!"

David wheeled to face him. "What do you want from me?"

At the sticking point, Kane backed off. "I just want to be your friend," he mumbled.

"I don't need another friend!" David told him fiercely.

Almost too petrified to get the words past his lips, Kane finally managed to ask, "What do you need?"

"I need a lover!" Aghast at what he had said, David whirled around and stalked past the pool table, fully intending to get out of there, never thinking of how he would get home, just knowing that he had to leave. Now.

Kane had come to a stumbling halt. Hesitantly, he said, "I don't think I'm like that. Gay." He ducked his head, embarrassed to voice the lie. For David, Kane would be whatever he wanted him to be. Staring helplessly at David's mouth, he waited in resignation for him to leave, just as everyone else in his life that he loved had left him, sooner or later.

But David was not leaving. "You're scared of me," he announced, "Scared of what you're feeling!"

Kane shook his head, his mouth dry, excitement fizzing in his blood like champagne bubbles. His leather trousers were suddenly too tight, caging an arousal that sought freedom. He took a step closer to the older man. "I've never met anyone like you! I want to be like you!"

David snorted. "You want to go from one meaningless one-night stand to another? You want to be stuck in a dead-end job that's the only thing you're qualified for?

"You want to be so paralyzed by stage fright that you can't set foot on a stage without becoming so sick to your stomach that you need to clench your back teeth for fear of spilling your guts in front of everyone?"

Shocked, David locked his lips together, before another truth could come pouring out of the deep recesses he had kept them buried in for what seemed like forever. Surely Kane would be disgusted by the fraud of a man who stood there shuddering in the dim light cast by fixtures that highlighted the fortune in art surrounding them. He waited for him to turn away in distaste.

But Kane took a step toward him, instead. "David," he whispered.

Anger ripped through David. If the young fool didn't know that David was all wrong for him, was no good for him, then he'd just have to hammer it home. "Kiss me, Kane!"

"David!"

"Kiss me!" he ordered.

Uncertain, the younger man wet his lips, then leaned toward David and gently kissed him. Pulling back a whisper, he stared briefly into David's dark eyes, before his own gaze was drawn helplessly back to David's mouth. Biting his lip irresolutely, he wondered if he was doing it right, and then forgot about that to pursue the illusive thrill that had swept through him when he touched David.

He kissed him again, at first softly, and then with growing excitement. Open-mouthed kisses that spoke of trust and desire. Kisses that plucked at lush lips. Kisses that caressed them, trying to tease David's tongue into his mouth, to mimic the act he so desperately wanted. Kane raised his hand to tenderly cup David's jaw, and felt as if he would faint from need.

Abruptly, David thrust Kane away from him. "Now turn around and take your pants down!" he ordered.

"David!" Kane was almost voiceless from excitement.

"Do it!"

Slowly, Kane exposed his back to David. The pool table was there before him. His fingers went to his belt buckle, and he paused for a tiny moment. Then he unfastened it and pushed his trousers down around his ankles. He leaned over, his palms pressed flat on the green expanse, balancing his weight on his arms. Finding it impossible to breathe, his lips parted and he silently struggled to draw much-needed oxygen into his lungs. His nails dug into the felt of the table and he bent slightly, angling his hips further toward David and an experience that he was dizzy with anticipating.

Amazed that Kane had complied with his wishes, David stared in wonder at the taut, firm, young buttocks presented for his pleasure. He groaned almost silently, unable to drag his gaze away.

"Kane!" he whispered, and shed his jacket, tossing it carelessly to one side. "You would let me do this to you?"

Kane bowed his head, preparing for another rejection. "Yes," he replied. That was all. "Yes."

With that one word, David realized the depths of Kane's feelings for him and he felt humbled. "I don't deserve you, Kane," he said as his hands ripped open his shirt and wrestled with the fastening of his slacks. "But I want you like my last hope of heaven!"

Kane whirled around at that, joy filling him, ready to leap on David. The sight that met his eyes halted him. David was hopping around on one foot, trying to get his pants leg over his other foot without removing his shoe first. Kane's jaw dropped as David lost his battle with the shoe and with gravity and he landed on his rump with a painful thud.

"Ow!" he murmured, rolling onto one hip and rubbing his tailbone carefully. Then Kane was there next to him.

"Let me do that for you," the boy said, stars in his eyes.

"Okay. You take that foot, and I'll take this one." But before David could reach toward his shoe laces, he felt tentative fingers on his hip, circling around to touch the abused cheek. Then soft lips replaced the fingers.

When Kane drew back, David felt bereft. But then he saw how Kane was looking at him.

Kane was riveted on the rampant erection that tantalized him, and reached out to delicately stroke its length. He leaned as far forward as his imprisoned ankles would allow and licked at the male flesh which quivered beneath his ministrations.

Soft, full lips engulfed David's arousal, taking in as much as they could, then Kane gently raked his teeth over it as he raised his head back up. Again and again he repeated this, nuzzling his nose in the thick, wiry hair that clustered at David's groin.

Trembling like an untried youth, David felt himself approach the edge and pushed at Kane, trying to draw back.

"No!" Kane pleaded. "Let me taste you!"

And with a groan, David felt himself lose the battle. His hips jerked convulsively as Kane's warm mouth continued to caress him.

"Kane." Gently, David cupped his chin in his hand and forced him to meet his eyes. He pressed warm kisses to his young lover's mouth, tasting himself there. "I really didn't come prepared for this. I have no condoms. And as much as I want you," and the evidence of this was his manhood rising to attention so soon after a most satisfying climax, "I won't take you at the risk of hurting you."

Kane's smile was brilliant. "Tell me what we need and I'll get it for you! David, how do you think my father made his last million?

"In health and beauty aids!"

Part 8

NC-17

(hold onto your ass, Fred)

David sighed contentedly as Kane snuggled up against his chest, his head tucked neatly beneath his chin. Then David felt Kane's erection nudging his hip.

"Sorry," murmured Kane, and he shifted his lower body away.

"No," said David, "I'm sorry. You haven't even come yet."

"Maybe not, but this was the best experience of my life!"

"So far," David reminded him. "Didn't you say something about having protection in the house?"

Kane felt his insides grip, and his arousal grew almost painful. "Oh yes!" he breathed, trying to leap to his feet, forgetting the trousers around his ankles.

David laughed as he propped him up to keep him from falling over, and Kane smiled sheepishly. Sitting back down, he tugged off his shoes and pants, then yanked off the rest of his clothes. Scooping up a remote, he pressed a key on the pad and soft music began spilling from hidden speakers, surrounding them with sound.

Naked as a young satyr, he bounded out of the room, barely giving David time to admire his sleek lines. David began to leisurely divest himself of his own clothing.

In almost no time Kane was back with two boxes of condoms and a tube of lubricant. He tossed one of the boxes to David and settled down next to him.

"From my Dad's private stash. These are primo!"

Two dozen in a box! David had to grin. "And you expect me to use all of them tonight?"

Kane looked dashed. "Do you need to leave soon?" His voice quavered.

David ran a soothing hand through Kane's long hair, loosening the rest of it from the thong that had held it back.

"No, baby, no! I just meant you overestimate me! I'm ten years older than you, you know."

"Doesn't matter," Kane avowed. "They're yours and I want you to use them. On me!"

David's flaccid flesh suddenly grew very interested. "I won't hurt you, Kane!" he promised. The younger man's eyes were starting to look a little scared and David felt his heart lurch. "Are you having second thoughts? Do you *not* want me to do this?"

"No, David! No! I'm afraid I'll disappoint you! I've never done this before," he confessed in a small voice.

David pressed soft, reassuring kisses to the mouth he was fast becoming addicted to. "Neither have I," David told him. "Not with love!"

Kane drew in a sharp breath and an incandescent smile lit his face. "Then take me now, David!" he commanded. "I want you so much; I'm about to burst!"

David kissed him again and rose to his feet, pulling him up with him. “Just lean over the pool table Kane. Find a position that's comfortable for you. I'll take care of everything else!"

Kane braced his forearms on the green felt, his back almost parallel to the table, his legs spread apart to hold himself steady. Looking over his shoulder, he watched with interest as David rolled on a condom and lubricated it liberally. Then David put more of it on a finger, and Kane sucked his breath in, nervous in spite of himself.

"Shhh, baby," David whispered. "Everything will be fine!"

Pressing open-mouthed kisses along Kane's spine, David stroked the shadowed cleft between his buttocks, searching for the spot he wanted, the spot needed. On the stereo, a male voice was singing, "Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door..." When he felt the tight band of muscle give slightly, he reached around to stroke Kane's arousal, seeking to distract him somewhat from what he was doing.

Gently he inserted the tip of his finger, letting the lubricant soothe the intrusion. Between the kisses, the petting and the easy movements of David's finger, Kane was soon writhing and moaning, desperate for his lover's possession.

When he judged Kane to be almost beyond coherence, David withdrew his finger and carefully began a tentative rocking motion that soon saw him partially sheathed in snug flesh.

Kane's breath was whistling from between parted lips. His eyes were clenched shut and his nails dug into the material covering the pool table.

"Am I hurting you?" David gasped.

In answer, Kane thrust his hips back toward his lover. "More!" he begged, "Give me more!"

Then David was completely within his lover and inner muscles caressed his turgid flesh. Lying along his lover's back, he fastened his lips feverishly to the side of Kane's neck. His hips began pistoning more and more rapidly, as one hand played along Kane's arousal and the other caressed his chest.

It had been too long since David had been in a relationship like this, where he trusted his lover enough to become embedded in his body. Unable to contain himself until he had seen to Kane's satisfaction, he felt himself hovering on the brink of a mind-shattering orgasm. Overwhelmed by it, he was blind to everything but the need to empty himself into Kane. Not some anonymous body, but Kane.

Kane bent beneath the onslaught, immobile; shocked and thrilled to the core by David's loss of control, shuddering a little from the aftershocks. His chest stung a bit where David's nails had scored him, and he gently rubbed the spot on the side of his neck where lips had suckled in a frenzy of passion.

He looked down at himself, amazed to realize that he, too, had climaxed. He had been so wrapped up in what David had been doing to him that he had scarcely noticed.

He was basking in the afterglow, almost purring like a kitten when suddenly it occurred to him that all was not as it should be. David's breath sobbed out of him as he withdrew gently from the younger man, collapsing onto the deep pile of the rug.

Just as in Kane's dream, David wept bitterly, but not from wasted time. The loss of control had sent him back to a very dark place in his past. Kane touched a hesitant hand to his lover's hair, but David moaned and rolled away from him, curling into a fetal position.

Kane wasn't sure how to comfort him, but he knew he could not leave him in this condition. Hurrying to the butler's pantry, he filled a small basin with warm water, grabbed a tea towel from a drawer and hurried back to the man who had given him such a fantastic first time experience.

David's sobs had quieted to hitches caught in his throat. His hand shielded his eyes. He could not believe he had done that to Kane! He started as he felt Kane remove the demolished condom, and a warm, wet cloth tenderly wash over his skin. David swiped a hand under his nose and watched from beneath lowered lids as Kane ministered to him.

Then he laughed mirthlessly: almost as an afterthought, Kane was wiping himself casually off, removing all outer traces of their passion.

"Christ, Kane, how can you be so nice to me, after what I did to you?"

"David, I don't know what you think you did to me, but *I* thought it was great! I'm sorry you didn't have a good time. I thought you did, but I'm so inexperienced at this, I guess I read it all wrong. I just love you so much, and I don't want to lose you."

"You love me, even though I hurt you?" David demanded savagely.

Kane looked at him with a furrow between his brows. "I don't understand where you got the idea that you hurt me. You were so gentle, I'm not even sore now. And if you weren't in such a pissy mood," he suddenly spat, "We could probably be doing it all over again!"

Before Kane could gather up the towel and basin and flounce back to the pantry, David grabbed his hand.

"Kane, I...I need to tell you something."

Part 9

Kane turned so pale, David thought he was about to faint. This is it, Kane said to himself. This is where he tells me ˜I love you honey, but the evening's over." Wretchedly, he felt his own eyes begin to tear.

"You're leaving me?"

"You see, when...Kane, what the fuck are you talking about? I'm trying to bare my soul to you, and you accuse me of leaving you? After I told you I loved you? I ought to beat your sweet ass!" Insulted, David tried to get to his feet, but Kane threw his arms around his legs, forcing him back to his knees.

Planting kisses at random, Kane pleaded, "Bare your soul, David. Bare...anything you want to me!"

"You cheeky little monkey!" David grabbed his chin and kissed him firmly, crushing his lips against his teeth, thrusting in his tongue to tangle with Kane's. "All right, now shut up and listen, and don't you dare interrupt again until I finish. This is hard enough as it is."

Kane reached over and squeezed David's torpid manhood. "Not from where I'm sitting, it isn't!"

David ruffled his hair affectionately and settled him with his head in his lap. Kane continued to pet him gently.

"Back when I was first starting in The Beavertons, I was just a few years younger than you. I was only a mediocre actor, but I was desperate for the part. There was talk around the set that the producer wasn't too happy with me, that he had his eye on a younger actor. One afternoon after we had wrapped for the day, he called me into his office.

"And he came on to me."

Kane made a sound of sympathy and hugged David fiercely around the waist.

"No, don't get the wrong idea. It wasn't the casting couch thing, not at that point. I didn't know what I was, if I was straight, if I was gay. I got hard anytime, day or night, looking at a woman, looking at a man. I was so confused. When he started telling me how attractive I was, and how he thought that with a good acting coach I might grow into the part of Toby, I felt like parched ground, thirstily drinking up any drop of praise that fell. Here was this powerful man, telling me he thought I could be a good actor!"

"When he started to kiss me, I let him. And I liked it, so I kissed him back. And then I started getting excited. But I was so stupid, I had no clue what to do. He pushed me into this small, dark closet and told me to take my pants down."

"Like you told me? Were you trying to frighten me off?" Kane wondered.

David refused to answer, although Kane was closer to the truth than he could have guessed. He went on with the tale, speaking of it for the first time since it had happened.

"He told me to take my pants down," he repeated, "And then he told me to turn around. And he was in me before I could brace myself."

"Kane, he really hurt me. That's why I was so concerned about not hurting you. I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy!"

Slow tears began to seep past David's closed eyelids. "He gripped my mouth shut, so hard that his ring cut my lip. It was so deep that I actually bled all over my shirt. There's even this tiny scar." He pointed out a thin white line that bisected the bottom of his lower lip.

Turning his head away from Kane to hide his shame, he continued, "That wasn't the only place I bled from. I was so scared, so fucking scared! Stuff like that isn't supposed to happen to guys. And then he told me to keep my mouth shut, and that I was to be available to him any time he wanted me. He said that if I ever said anything, no one would believe me, and they'd think that *I* had made a pass at *him*. And they'd think that I was a slut."

His eyes were tormented. "It didn't really matter what other people would think: *I* thought I was a slut. Something in me must have given him permission to treat me like that."

"After a few days, when I realized that nothing bad had happened..." he ignored Kane's choked outrage. "Well, but Kane, nothing really had. I didn't need to be hospitalized, or anything like that. Anyway, because nothing bad happened, and because no one seemed to realize what he did to me, I felt I must have deserved that. Because I was so ambiguous about my orientation. So I began sleeping around. I let whoever wanted me have me, and I let them do whatever they wanted.

"Then, after The Beavertons went off the air, I figured I'd better straighten out, so-to-speak, before I did something really stupid and wound up dead. Or dying. I even tried sleeping with women."

"Is that why you got involved with Candy?" Kane asked softly, never having been able to figure out that aspect of his lover's convoluted lifestyle.

"Yeah, and that's just one more mark against me. I made her fall in love with me, and now she can't get past that. She keeps making the same mistakes over and over, choosing partners who can never fulfill her expectations, who are almost guaranteed to hurt her. But then, who am I to criticize? I do the same thing!"

Kane sucked in his breath at the hurt that blossomed in his chest. "David..."

"Oh, no! Baby, I didn't mean that about you! You're the best thing that's ever happened to me!" David's arms encircled the younger man, holding him close and rocking him against his chest. "I kept pushing you away, and pushing you away, but you wouldn't go. And now here we are." There was a smile in his voice.

Kane relaxed against him, winding his arms around David's neck, fitting himself more snugly to his lover's body. "I would never hurt you, David," he told him. "But I need to know if you would ever let me make love to you the way you did to me?"

David rubbed his chin against Kane's soft hair, pondering not that question but the one Kane left unasked. Will you trust me enough to let me into your body?

Generally, just the thought of allowing a man against his back was enough to give him an anxiety attack and render him psychologically impotent. So now he envisioned Kane leaning over him, eager and ready. He imagined him sliding his hard length into him. And he pictured his own vulnerability at being helpless to control the depth or speed of the strokes as Kane pounded into him, much as he had just done to his young lover.

And he waited for the sweats, and the shortness of breath, and the fear, the Godawful fear, of being hurt.

And when they didn't come, he realized that he had freed himself from the nightmare of the past.

And he found himself growing hard with excitement.

"Kane, is anyone else in this house tonight?"

Perturbed by this non sequitur, Kane frowned but gave the question a moment's thought. "No, the servants who live in have tonight off. That's one of the reasons I invited you here tonight: I thought you'd be more comfortable without another presence in the house. And anyway, they know enough never to come to this part of the house after working hours. Are you going to answer my question, David?"

"Yes, I am. I just need to know if you'll be more comfortable here. Or would you rather fuck me in another part of the house?"

Kane's face lit up. "Oh please, David!" But he slightly reworded his response.

"Can I have you in my bedroom?"

part 10

Kane had been a neat, conscientious child who always put his toys away and never left a mess. He had grown into a meticulous, methodical young man who hung up his clothes and cleaned up after himself. In a hurry now, he went about the room gathering up his clothes from where he had flung them. While he leaned over to scoop up the remote and snap off the stereo, David admired the sleek lines of his hips and thighs.

Since David had been less rushed in his undressing, his clothes were tidily stacked in a compact pile. He gathered them up and hugged them to him, amazed at the sudden turn his life had taken.

For so long he had not allowed anyone to get close to him, fearing that they would see the putrescence that was within him and turn away in horror. Now, here was Kane, not only refusing to acknowledge any ugliness in his lover’s soul, but actually enveloping David in his tender, loving embrace, attempting to shield him from the pain of his past.

David felt his heart swell, and a single tear wended its way down his cheek.

Kane tapped a code into the wall panel that controlled the lights, and the room darkened. The dim glow from the pantry spilled into the room, illuminating a path through it to the sweeping, curved stairway that led to the upper story. Turning to take his lover's hand, Kane spotted the trail left by the tear.

Dropping his clothes onto the pool table, Kane went to David and wrapped his arms around him. "David, what's wrong?"

David shook his head and brushed a soft kiss against Kane's cheek. "I just can't believe that you love me!"

"Oh, is that all?" Inwardly, Kane was terrified that David would rebuild the walls that protected his bruised heart, shutting him out. So he pretended to a nonchalance that he didn't feel. "Well, let's just get that gorgeous ass of yours upstairs, and I'll show you how much I love you!" He wrapped his fingers in David's hair and pulled his face down to him. Never taking his eyes off David's eyes, he delicately licked a path across David's upper lip, then did the same to the lower one.

David sucked in a strangled breath. Curiously vulnerable, the older man could only stare helplessly as Kane kissed him, watching David watch him. Their arousals touched and David tossed his clothes aside to take Kane into his arms and plunder the treasure that was his sweet mouth.

"Kane!" he groaned. "I want you so badly, baby!"

Kane rubbed his cheek against David's lightly haired chest, pressing close to him, breast and groin. David's hands stroked his back, each downward glide finding them lower and lower, until at last they cupped the cheeks of his derriere, squeezing and kneading them.

"David, I want to be inside you so much! Please, let's go to my room?"

"My own little monkey!" David whispered tenderly. "Show me the way."

Retrieving their clothes, they left the room and climbed the shallow stairs to the second floor. David couldn't take his eyes off the rhythmic movements of the muscles of Kane's thighs and buttocks. He couldn't resist reaching out to gently run a finger down the shadowed cleft, reaching lower to cup the jewels that swung beneath Kane's engorged manhood.

Kane stumbled and nearly flattened himself on the stairs, but managed to catch himself in time. That maneuver left him at the mercy of his lover, who tossed aside the clothes that encumbered his hands and with a needy cry, encircled Kane's waist with one arm, hauling him back against him. Scrambling frantically for a condom, he prepared himself and his partner for the loving assault about to take place.

"David...?" squeaked Kane, dazed at the rapidity with which the older man had raised his level of excitement, and was even now sliding smoothly into his depths. With a soft moan, Kane hunched forward, offering David a better angle to ravage his tender body. Shuddering and trembling, Kane's hand found his own erection which was already beading with moisture. And while David worked his magic behind him, he stoked himself into a frenzy of need.

"Harder, David!" he pleaded. "Harder!"

But David was in control this time, and he knew that if he gave Kane what he wanted right then, they could both very well tumble down the stairs.

And wouldn't that be difficult to explain to the servants in the morning, their two bodies, sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, still joined, but unfortunately too dead to enjoy it!

So he tempered his strokes with dark phrases of Anglo-Saxon words, telling his young lover in graphic detail what he planned to do to him after they got to his bedroom.

And the words and the images they evoked drove Kane over the edge. He began to come, his breath whining out even as David poured his essence into him.

Bracing a hand on the step below him, he stood bowed, his head hanging, struggling to regain his breath and return to reality. David leaned against him, still embedded deeply inside him.

Kane could not understand how passion could have risen so suddenly, so unexpectedly. In such a kinky spot! As David withdrew from him, he spotted the evidence of his surrender on the stairs and sighed.

"Well, shoot! Now I've got to clean this up before someone slips and breaks a leg. Am I ever going to get you into my bed?"

David's eyes gleamed at him and he tipped his chin up. Rubbing his lips caressingly over Kane's, he murmured, "My sweet monkey, you can bet your tight little ass you will! Don't even doubt it! Now come on. I'll help you take care of this and then I'm all yours," he leaned over to whisper in Kane's ear, "and we're going to fuck each other like mink, all night long!"

part 11

The hallway at the top of the sweeping staircase was a wide-open expanse of plush cream carpeting. It ran the width of the house. Three doors leading into bedrooms faced off it: Kane's to the front of the house, his father's at the back and his mother's over to the side, away from them both.

Kane's steps became more and more hesitant as they approached his room. The door was ajar and he reached around the jam to flick on a switch, then moved aside to allow David to enter.

Soft lighting bathed the room in an amber glow. Encompassing the length of the house, Kane's room was a curiously ambiguous reflection of his personality. On the far wall, to the right were all the electronic toys a boy could want. A video game console vied for room with a computer. A stereo system to rival the one downstairs sat cheek by jowl with a smaller version of the large screen TV: this set was merely forty-five inches. A bookcase held not only paperbacks and hardcovers, but videos, CDs and game cartridges. David found himself examining the titles, drawn to discover the interests of his young lover. Mystic Realm, Dragonflight and Monopoly, the Star Wars edition; Raiders of the Lost Ark and Casablanca; Barbra Striesand and Metallica. Off to one side, almost hidden by a beautifully realistic artificial ivy was a select collection of erotica: The Story of O, the Beauty trilogy, The Pearl and The ShadowLane books.

Hmmmm. His lover had a penchant for spanking? Very interesting. Very....intriguing.

Turning back to face the young man, David watched as he threw his clothes to one side and closed and locked his door. David raised a teasing eyebrow at him, and Kane looked a trifle uncomfortable.

"I just don't want anyone to burst in on us," he explained softly.

"But you told me no one else is home," David reminded him.

"No, but...."

"But what, Kane? Something is disturbing you. Tell me what it is."

For an endless moment David thought he would refuse to answer him. Then Kane capitulated. His shoulders slumped and David couldn't resist the urge to go to him and take him in his arms. Kane's arms came around him, holding on tightly. He was trembling.

"Baby," David said softly, placing gentle kisses along Kane's cheek and jaw, “talk to me. I can't make it better unless I know what’s wrong."

"It's just that this is the first time anyone has ever been in here. This room has been this way since I was little."

At David's startled glance at the bed, huge, round, and covered in a very red satin duvet, Kane gave a brief snort of laughter. "Not the bed, silly. I got that was I was thirteen! I meant everything else. Does all this make me seem too young for you? I mean, you keep calling me 'baby'. And I'm not a baby!"

David stroked the hair back from Kane's face. Almost eighteen, he could easily pass for four years younger. For a disconcerting moment, David feared that his lover's obvious youth was what drew him. Then he relaxed as he dismissed that thought as unworthy of them both.

He loved Kane because he was Kane. "Everything in this room is a reflection of you, Monk. These are what molded you into the person I love, more than I love my eyes, more than I love my life, more, by all mores than ere I shall love wife!" Amazingly, he could feel himself growing hard again, and he took Kane's mouth in a kiss driven by uncontrolled desire. The lust blindsided him, catching him unawares.

"Now, Kane! I want you inside me now!"

part 12

Kane's eyes were incandescent. They glowed with love and passion and mounting excitement. Taking David by the hand, he led him to his bed and flung back the covers. David watched as Kane repeated the actions he had observed earlier, rolling on a condom and applying the lubricant. Relishing the dominant role, he gestured for David to get on the bed and nearly lost control as he gently placed his fingers on his lover's flesh.

David's head drooped, and his arousal vanished. Shuddering, starting to sweat, he said nothing, willing to allow Kane to have his way with him.

But for all Kane's tender years, he was not stupid and he was not blind to his loved one's distress. Murmuring soothing nonsense words, he slid himself beneath David's arms so that he was in the subordinate position. Pulling David down on top of him, Kane brushed gentle hands on David's back and sides and buttocks.

"I'm sorry, baby, I'm so sorry. I know how much you want to fuck me. I want it too. I thought I was past what had happened, but it keeps slapping me in the face. Go ahead and take me. It will be all right."

Kane kissed him sweetly. "David, you can be such a fool! Yes, I want to fuck you, but I also want to make love to you. It doesn't have to be tonight. We've both come so much, I don't know if we have anything left in us! We can just pet each other, or you can fuck me, or we can go to sleep. It's not important!"

David reared back. "It *is* important. This is something you want so badly, and why shouldn't you have it? I've taken you, and taken you. Its only fair that you take me!"

"Not at the risk of hurting you, David. I love you too much for that! I'd rather we just keep doing what we did tonight then do something to you that you don't enjoy!"

Kane was not only adamant, he was also soft. David could spout as much self-sacrificing bullshit as he wanted, but that wouldn't make his lover hard enough to achieve penetration.

At a loss, David rolled over and surged to his feet. He stalked around the room, stopping before the collection of erotica, and his eyes lit as a solution struck him. He ran back to the bed and threw himself upon it, laughing in relief.

Kane's look was decidedly sour. "I'm glad one of us is so happy. You won't make love to me, I can't make love to you..."

"Yes! Yes you can baby! That old text reminded me! It doesn't have to be from behind! If you wouldn't mind trying something....different?"

Kane's physical reaction spoke volumes. Already growing hard, his arousal lured David as nothing else could, and answered his question. Whatever David wanted, Kane was, quite literally, up for. Hurling himself into David's arms, Kane scattered relieved kisses wherever he could reach. "Just tell me what you want me to do, love." He said the last somewhat shyly, as he was unused to endearments.

David felt his heart turn over, and he, too, became erect. "In the ancient world, it was forbidden for a man to take another from behind. But it was permissible through the thighs!

Kane looked puzzled, and David pulled him hard against him, wrapping his hands in Kane's luxuriant mane of hair. David took his mouth with a force that left them both shaken, biting at his lips, thrusting his tongue in an act that mimicked what they both most wanted.

"Lie down on your back, baby."

Kane obeyed and David made sure the condom was in place and well-lubricated. Then he knelt over Kane"s hips, settling himself gently on either side. Easing himself down over Kane's excited flesh, he sat back and began to take his young lover deep inside of him. His eyes widened as muscles relaxed and loosened to accommodate the intrusion. Kane leaned up on his elbows, watching in delight as he became a part of his lover, his lips parted as he tried desperately to catch his breath.

"David!" The name whispered out.

And David began a slow, easy ride, rising up almost off his lover and then sinking back to take him all the way in. Pulling Kane up against him, David placed the younger man's arms around his neck and proceeded to kiss him senseless. Kane's hips began to buck helplessly as he felt the tingles that presaged an overwhelming orgasm. Fighting to delay it as long as possible, his uncoordinated movements brought David even more pleasure than he had anticipated, and his breath began to whine in his throat.

Sex words, hot, dark, passionate whispered in his ear. Kane! Kane was talking to him, telling him he was going to fuck him blind, telling him he was going to bury himself so deeply into David's body that neither one would know where one stopped and the other began, telling him he was going to brand him as his until the end of time.

As on the stairs, the words triggered the response. Clinging to each other with grips that were sure to leave bruises, they rode out the aftermath, trembling and panting and then fell back, still joined, rocking gently to enjoy to the fullest the consummation of their love.

And then David sighed. "I want you to be with me always, Kane. I want you to be mine!"

Part 13

Kane slept the way he normally did: sprawled at the edge of the bed, one arm hanging over the side, his head burrowed under a pillow. His legs were spread wide and a voluptuous feeling crept through him as fingers feathered along the cleft that divided his buttocks. He began to rub himself against the cotton sheets that were so fine they could have passed for linen.

Then he froze. Not at all his most alert the first thing in the morning, he could not immediately recall who he had brought to his bed the night before. The hairy leg that held his own prisoners determined his partner to be male. Kane moaned under his breath. He had slept with a man?

Burying his face further beneath the pillow, he could have wept. He loved David! How could he betray him by letting someone else make love to him for the first time?

Then he heard David's beloved voice, and the full memory of the previous night's activities burst upon his brain, making him impossibly hard.

"I'm sorry, baby," David said sleepily. "I didn't mean to wake you up; I just couldn't resist touching you!"

"Do you want me again, David?"

"Sweet Jesus! I've created a monster! Kane, I love fucking your sweet ass, and I'd take you in a New York City minute, but you've worn me out!" With a deep groan, David pressed a kiss to Kane's lower spine and fell back among the pillows. "Give me an hour baby, okay?"

Before Kane could argue with him, he heard soft snores. David had fallen into a deep, dreamless slumber.

Smiling wryly, Kane got to his feet and made his way to the ensuite bathroom. Should he shower now, or wait until later? The idea of standing under the pounding water with David looming behind him made him unbearably excited. Catching a glimpse of himself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror behind the vanity, Kane observed the marks David had placed upon his body. Turning this way and that, to get a better view of his buttocks, he touched himself in amazement, that David could have fitted so easily into such virgin territory, and brought him such unimaginable pleasure.

Well, virgin no longer. Kane wanted to run back into his bedroom and fling himself upon David. Then he was suddenly bitten by a domestic urge: he would cook for his lover instead. Feeling extremely virtuous for rising above his baser instincts and letting David sleep, Kane decided to leave the residue of their lovemaking on his body, and brushed his teeth instead.

Quietly he reentered his room and pulled a short bathrobe from the enormous walk-in closet that was housed in one wall. The robe barely covered the essentials, and was actually meant to be worn with pajamas, but Kane relished the feel of the silk against his naked flesh. He wasn't worried that anyone would see him. His father's servants spent as little time as possible in his part of the house.

Barefoot, he padded down the stairs and headed for the little kitchen. This was a misnomer, as it was a good deal larger than the butler's pantry. However, it was smaller than the kitchen the servants used to cook for his parents whenever they were home. Which now seemed to be less and less frequently. Maybe Kane would ask his father for this house. Maybe he would ask David to move into it with him.

He smiled softly, liking the idea of sharing a home with David. And the prospect of preparing breakfast for his lover gave him a funny feeling in his stomach, almost as if they were....married. Kane sucked in his breath, and a brilliant smile lit his face. Whistling happily, he crossed to the refrigerator and held the door opened, doing what men have done since the beginning of time: making sure the provisions were where they had been left, and hadn't escaped.

Pulling out a carton of eggs and a package of bacon, Kane placed them on the countertop and turned to the cupboard that held the pots and pans. He pulled out his favorite frying pan and put it on the stove. After the bacon began sizzling in the microwave, he picked up the eggs and was about to crack them into a bowl when a rustle of sound and movement from the breakfast nook caught his eye.

Kane whirled around, suddenly panicky at being caught without his trousers on. The eggs flew from his hand and landed in the middle of the floor with a wet splat. But it was no intruder who sat so casually in the sunlit kitchen. It was no murderer or rapist who had entered his house bent upon mayhem.

It was much, much worse.

It was his father.

And from his finger dangled one of David's shoes.

PART 14

Kane felt the blood drain from his face. His lungs struggled to draw in oxygen. His hands trembled. "Father." His voice was flat, emotionless. "You're back early. Or have I mixed up the date?"

The older man, a harder, colder version of Kane, but with the same chocolate eyes and chestnut hair, although his was now shot with gray, examined his only son carefully. The boy never failed to disappoint him. He had turned down his father's generous offer to buy him into any business he wanted, or a place in any university he chose. Instead, he worked at a menial, minimum wage job as a busboy. The father could have understood it if Kane was using that as a stepping stone, planning to eventually buy his own restaurant.

But Kane actually seemed content to work in such a dead-end job. He must have spoken the words aloud.

"It's not a dead-end job," Kane said tightly. "If my work remains satisfactory, the manager has promised to make me a waiter."

His father continued to regard him, baffled that a child of his loins could be so blasé toward the idea of making money, and more money, and still more money.

Eyeing the shoe which still dangled from his father's hand, Kane attempted another topic, hoping to distract him. "Ummm, how is Miss Winstead these days, Father?"

Neither of them wanted to speak of the bounteous brunette who had at one time been his father's mistress as well as executive secretary. Now she was just his secretary, and she was clever enough not to push for more, knowing that the man who had once loved her would have no compunction about squashing her like a bug. But she *was* beautiful, and at one time he *had* lusted for her.

Lust. Now there was a word he feared would never be used in conjunction with his son. Gawky, gangly, wrapped up in video games, seemingly unaware of the opposite sex. Would the boy ever grow out of this adolescence?

And now this! A cheap pair of loafers casually left beside the pool table. "Did you have a sleep-over, boy? One of your little friends spend the night? I suppose it would be too much to hope for that it would be a girl?"

Kane stared at the man responsible for his birth. Never once, in all the long years, could he remember him offering him a word of praise, a word of affection. Any kind of a word, really. His father never saw that he had grown out of that awkward adolescent phase, never saw him as a young man in his own right.

All he saw was that his son was not what he had dreamed of him being. So he ignored the boy for the most part, and when he couldn't do that, he tore his soul to shreds with words that cut like a razor blade.

As usual, in his father's presence, Kane became tongue-tied. He couldn't have answered if his life depended on it.

But someone else could. David slid his arm around Kane and pulled him back against his body. Clad only in trousers, he told the older man, "Actually yes, it would be too much to hope those are a woman's shoes. They happen to be mine. I was just coming down to look for them."

The older man's eyes suddenly gleamed with avarice. He scented a way to pour more wealth into his coffers. "Exactly just how old are you, young man? And do you realize that my son is a minor? If you've had sexual congress with him, I will have you arrested for statutory rape!"

"Unless.....?" Kane knew his father well. The old man didn't care if Kane was the victim of a gang bang. There was something brewing behind his cold, cold eyes.

"Well, my boy, if you give me control of your trust fund, I just might be persuaded to forget this ugly incident happened."

"You always wanted to get your hands on Grandmama's money. That's the only importance I ever had for you! But you can't have it Father!"

David felt a chill. Was Kane willing to throw him to the wolves to protect his money? Was he, after all, a chip off the old block?

"I'm your only son, your only child. You would arrest the man I love, but you couldn't even remember my birthday, could you? I'm not a minor anymore Father, and you have no legal hold over me."

The older man leaned forward abruptly and then slumped back into his chair. "When....? Ah yes, the other day. Well, it was worth a shot, I suppose. I really just stopped back here to have my belongings packed. I'm moving into the penthouse apartment." And he got heavily to his feet. "This place will be on the market in a matter of days, so you might want to think about moving."

He paused in the doorway, tossing David's shoe to his feet. "By the way, you haven't asked about your mother."

Old habits are very long in dying. "I'm sorry Father. How is Mother? Will she be stopping by to pack also?"

"No, boy, I don't think that's very likely." He was enjoying this. Oh, he was enjoying this more than he dreamed possible. "That last *cure* proved to be one too many. She's dead!"

And with that, he left Kane's part of the house and rounded up his servants, preparing to strip everything of value from the only home Kane had ever known.

PART 15

Kane began to shiver violently as shock at his father's words set in. David turned him gently and briskly rubbed his arms. But Kane was shaking so hard that his teeth were beginning to chatter. Scooping up the slender body he loved so well, David carried him, back up the curving stair where they had found such pleasure, back to the room where the younger man had brought him such delight.

He took him into the bathroom and turned on the shower, getting it as hot as he thought they both could bear it. Then he stripped off his pants, took the robe off Kane, and hustled him into the shower.

This was his fantasy come true. Kane turned his face up to the spray, letting it wash away the tears that seeped from beneath his closed eyelids. Bracing his arms against the wall of the enclosure, he let stinging drops beat at his misery. Behind him he could feel David's presence. He needed him closer. "Hold me, David," he whimpered. "I'm falling apart! Please hold me!"

"I've got you, baby. I won't let you fall." David pressed his face against Kane's long hair and wrapped his arms tightly around him. He angled his lowe body to keep from Kane the knowledge that he was almost mad with wanting him. The opportunity to play white knight was seriously arousing.

But Kane needed more than arms holding him. He needed the reassurance that he was loved, that someone in the world *did* love him. Backing against David, he felt his erection nudge against his buttocks. "Make love to me, David. I need it so badly!"

It Kane had said "I need you." David would have shed his principles like a second skin and taken his young lover right where they stood, without finesse, without a thought to protection, without a thought to comfort.

But the *it* infuriated him, as if he was nothing but a sex toy for Kane to play with when he felt he had an itch that needed scratching.

He knew that Kane was in emotional agony, but he was hurting too. To see the father of his lover treat him with such casual cruelty was devastating. He wanted to commit serious violence upon the man. And since he couldn't channel his anger in that manner, it turned upon him, becoming a ravening beast ready to devour that which it most loved. Kane.

Viciously twisting off the shower, David spun Kane around to face him. Hard, hurting hands on his shoulders, he shook Kane until his hair whipped them both.

Kane stared up at him, openmouthed, and David seized that opportunity to take advantage of him, kissing him savagely, nipping at his lips, ravishing his mouth.

"You don't need *it*! You need *me*! And by God you're going to get me! I'm going to take you in the bedroom and fuck you so long and so hard you won't be able to walk for a week!"

David grabbed a towel from a warming bar and roughly dried Kane. With careless swipes he ran the same towel over his own body, then took Kane's wrist and dragged him into the bedroom.

Kane submitted to all the rough treatment with rising excitement. He knew that David was trying desperately to distract him from the devastating news of his father's parting shot. He knew that David would never harm him. He also realized he had hurt David somehow, although he couldn't recall the exact words that had turned him into a dominating master.

"David," he whispered, "What are you going to do to me?" His erection reached toward his lover.

David looked into chocolate brown eyes and felt himself begin to melt. But no! He had to be strong. He had to teach Kane a lesson. As much as he loved him, he would not allow Kane to treat him like one of his many possessions!

Winding his fingers in Kane's wet hair, he pulled his face close to his. "You will never again consider me an anatomically correct doll to play with at your convenience." His tongue plunged into Kane's welcoming mouth. Pulling back to make sure Kane knew the seriousness of his intentions, David told him, "I am going to fuck your sweet mouth until I come! Then I'm going to spank you until you are all rosy and warm from my hand, as long as it takes until I am hard again. And then I will fuck your ass until you beg me to come inside you!"

David stroked his fingers down Kane's chest, finding the flat male nipples and scraping them lightly with his nails. Kane shuddered and dropped to his knees before David, kissing a path down his body. David's arousal was eagerly seeking the warm, willing mouth of his lover. Kane parted his lips and delicately licked a bead of David's essence from its tip. He rubbed his cheek along the side of his erection, savoring the smooth, soft skin. David took a handful of Kane's hair and positioned his mouth where he wanted it, and then he was thrusting deeply. He had become so unbelievably hot that he was able to reach satisfaction in remarkably few strokes.

It was only then that he came to his senses and realized what he had done to his traumatized young lover. If Kane ever let him near him again, he would be truly surprised. Dropping to his knees beside where Kane crouched on the carpet trying to catch his breath and wiping off his mouth, David encircled him with none too steady arms.

"Oh, my God, Kane! I'm so sorry! I just lost control and I... Did I hurt you baby? What a beast I am to do that to you! I never meant to..... And after hearing about your mother, too! Oh God, Kane, say something to me! Even if it's just to tell me I'm a heartless bastard!"

Kane looked at him with wounded eyes. David was sure that this was the end, that Kane was going to order him out of his life forever, and his heart broke.

"Does this mean you aren't going to spank me?"

PART 16

David's face took on such an stern aspect that Kane leaned back away from him, falling from his crouch and landing on his rump. His lover began to slide up along his body, forcing him down until he was flat on his back, aware that every inch of his flesh was covered by David.

"You want me to spank you, little boy?" David asked huskily. "You want to feel my hand against your tight little butt? Well, I'll give you anything you want!"

David's fingers entwined in Kane's hair and the pressure he exerted was just short of exquisite pain. Kane found it so erotic that he had to struggle to keep from spilling himself all over his dominant lover. His eyes were huge and his lips were parted, trying to drag in ragged breaths of air.

"I'm going to turn you over and mount you!" David's mouth was hard against Kane's, not kissing him, but just letting him feel his exhalations. "I'm going to ride you, and ride you, and ride you! I've already come so much, I won't have any trouble controlling my climax. But you will! And I'm going to make you go higher and higher! I'll leave you so filled with the feel of me that you'll think I'm a part of you!"

David rose gracefully to his feet and walked to the night table where a box of condoms and the tube of lubricant had been placed. He eyed them reflectively for a moment, then sat down on the bed.

Kane was still sprawled on the floor, legs spread apart, staring at his lover, trembling with excitement. David crooked a finger at him and Kane slowly got to knees, scooting to where David sat.

Nervously he moistened his lips. His mouth was so dry he could barely swallow. David leaned toward him and ran his own tongue over Kane’s lips. Then he hoisted him up, and over his knees.

Kane's long hair swung loose to the floor. His hands clutched together. David ran a gentle hand over the curve of Kane's buttocks, then inserted a long finger into the cleft, touching Kane in a way calculated to drive him wild. He started to writhe and David's hand came sharply down, leaving a bright red imprint on Kane's pale flesh.

"No matter what I do to you, no matter what I make you feel, I don't want you to move. Do you understand? Everytime you move, I will spank you!"

David continued his actions, and each time Kane squirmed, or jerked, or twisted, David would leave another imprint on his lover's buttocks. Before long, Kane couldn't keep still, and David's hand was rising and falling with regularity. He could feel Kane's arousal growing against his thigh, but still he contained his own passion, endeavoring to give the younger man an experience to remember.

It was only when Kane was unable to restrain a sob that David uprighted him between his knees. Tears had formed a path down Kane's face and David leaned toward him and gently licked them off. "Did I hurt you?" he asked softly.

Kane pressed close to him and held him fiercely. "No!" he exclaimed. "I know you would never hurt me! I....I loved it! Does that make me weird?"

David urged him to his feet and he gently petted the heated skin he had spanked to a rosy glow. Turning him, he smoothed kisses all over the sweet, tight ass of his young lover. He was getting desperate to bury himself in that ass, but he wasn't sure how Kane would feel about doing that after being so hardily spanked.

"Kane, talk to me. I know the news of your mother's death is a shock, and sometimes making love at a time like this helps. You know I'll do whatever you want. Just....talk to me." And he pulled Kane onto his lap.

Kane winced a bit, then sat there nuzzling David's neck and jaw, taking little nips, leaving tiny love bites, cuddling against the man he loved. "Its so hard to explain. You saw how my father is to me. My mother never showed me any kind of affection. I was under the impression that once I was born, they never had sex again. Getting an heir was the sole purpose for that, and once they had me, there was no further need for them to be together."

He shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know why I reacted like I did in the bathroom. I haven't really seen her in months. It wasn't like...like I...like I loved her..." His voice broke and his shoulders shook as another bout of weeping shook him.

David just held him and rocked him in his arms. "Its okay, baby, its okay."

"Its *not* okay!" Kane wailed. "Never, in my whole life, has anyone loved me!"

David set him on the bed and stood to get some tissues. Gently he dried his lover's tears, turning surreptitiously to wipe his own eyes. "You're wrong, Kane, you are loved! *I* love you, and I'll love you until the day I die." He missed the look that Kane slanted at him, the look that said, sure, tell me another one. "Come live with me. If you have nowhere to go when your father sells this fucking mausoleum of his, then come live with me."

"With you and Candy?" Kane asked for clarification. If he had to share David with the woman who had once been his lover and was now just a friend, he wasn't sure he could do it. But for David, he would try his damnedest.

David held himself very still, examining the idea from all angles. Then he shook his head. "No. Its not a bad idea, but no. We'd be kind of like... well, like newlyweds. You wouldn't want someone else along on your honeymoon, would you?"

Kane hugged David tightly, showering his face with kisses. "Just you. David! Just you!"

PART 17

David caught a glimpse of the bedside clock and swore. "Shit!" He began scooping up articles of clothing. "If we don't get a move on, we are going to be so late for work!" He paused in the act of stepping into his shorts.

Kane sat in the middle of that outrageous bed, starring up at his lover with his heart in his eyes. David leaned toward him, resting his weight on one hand. His eyes stared deeply into Kane's, then fastened on his lush mouth. With a soft groan, he touched his lips to Kane's, resisting the urge to deepen the kiss. "Come on, baby. Get your gorgeous ass in gear and let's get dressed!"

Kane smiled and rolled off the bed, padding to the walk-in closet. He walked out after a few minutes, buttoning a neat white shirt, his denim jacket carried casually in the crook of his arm.

They headed down the stairs and out through the side door to where the black Porsche waited. Something about Kane's silence disturbed him. "What, baby? What's wrong?"

"You mean besides my mother being dead, and me not caring a damn?"

"Come on, Kane, don't beat yourself up over this! If she had been any kind of a mother, if your father had been any kind of decent human being, we wouldn't be going in to work right now, we'd be in mourning!"

"We? That sounds...I can't tell you how wonderful that sounds to me!" Kane offered him a lopsided smile. "I guess you're right, love," and the hesitation he used in calling his lover by an endearment once again struck David. No one had ever called Kane any pet names. Neither had he ever heard his parents affectionately call each other silly things like pretty foots or diddicums.

Well, David vowed, he was going to pour all the care and devotion on his young lover that was in his own starved heart. Kane had been deprived of that all his short life.

But first David needed to find out what was troubling him. "Kane, talk to me. You don't want me to have to discipline you again, do you?" he demanded, outrageously waggling his eyebrows and causing Kane to drop the car keys.

The younger man's eyes were widened in remembered pleasure, and he shivered delicately. "Oh, would you, David? Would you really spank me again? Would you...would you pull down my pants and take me over your knee and...spank me on my bare backside?"

"Kane, I think I have perverted you! Yes, I will do all that, and much more! I saw the erotic books on your shelf, and I know what intrigues you now! I'm going to spank you, and play with you and fuck you! I’m going to introduce you to the most fascinating of sex toys! And most important of all, I am going to love you! Now pick up the keys and get in the car! We've got to get to work, and then we'll go back to my place."

Kane shifted uncomfortably behind the wheel of the expensive European car. "I thought you said we wouldn't be living with Candy?"

"We won't," David concurred, "but I need to change my clothes and pack a bag. We've got a few days to figure out what to do before you'll need to think about moving. It's a good thing we have the same schedule and will have off till the middle of the week. We'll get through this together. I'll be right beside you at the funeral. You trust me to be right there with you, don't you, my pooh bear?"

Kane's hands stilled at the absurd endearment, his eyes pooling with tears. Then he nodded gratefully, putting the car into gear and heading back into the city. David would stand by him. Maybe, just maybe he could start to believe that this time, someone he loved, loved him back enough to stay.

"I love you David," he said shyly.

"Enough to tell me what was bothering you this morning, aside from your father's little bombshell?"

"Oh, that." Kane looked as if he didn't really want to go into it at this particular moment.

"Yes, that!" David retorted. "Kane....!"

Kane ducked his head so that his long hair swung forward, concealing his flushed face. David reached over and brushed the chestnut hair aside. Kane wanted to press his lips to that palm, but settled instead for rubbing his cheek against it.

"David, I wanted to make you breakfast!"

PART 18

The night flew; the night dragged, but somehow they got through to the end of their shift. If Kane was a trifle fumblefingered, well, management wrote it off to his emotional state, not realizing how close to the truth they actually were. They were just so grateful that he had not left them high and dry on a Saturday night.

And if David was a trifle preoccupied, well, David did tend to be that way on occasion, and it was attributed to actor's eccentricity. Having Toby of The Beavertons was such a great draw that they were willing to cut him any kind of slack just to keep him happy; more, perhaps, than was sometimes necessary...

The restaurant closed its doors in the early morning hours, having served the last of the pub-hoppers the late night meals it was noted for. While David counted his tips and prepared to split them with his busboy, Kane finished carting dishes and glasses and silverware to the kitchen and wiped down the tables and straightened the chairs.

Kane was hanging up his neat red busboy's jacket in his locker when the events of the past twenty-four hours caught up with him, and tears slid down his cheeks in a silver path. Then he felt a presence behind him, and he stilled. A hand gently massaged his shoulder, and he rubbed his cheek against it. "David!" he breathed.

David embraced him tightly, highly aware of the curious stares of their coworkers. Not sure if Kane was ready to have his alternative lifestyle exposed to the casual scrutiny that heterosexuals so callously demonstrated, David was prepared to shield his young lover in the only way he knew how at the moment.

"Kane, I'm so sorry for your loss! You're in no shape to drive home tonight! Give me your keys!"

And just like that, the sight of the two males embracing lost any appeal to the onlookers.

David kept his arm firmly locked around Kane and led him out to the parking lot where the employees kept their transportation. Tenderly he tucked Kane into the passenger seat, then hurried around to the driver's side and got in. Casting increasingly worried glances at his young lover, David maneuvered the Porsche onto the road and in the direction of the apartment he kept with Candy.

Candy would not be happy when she learned that David planned to move out. It was hard for her to accept the fact that although David had once slept with her, he had no desire to do so again, and while he allowed her to remain in his life as a friend, she still hoped one day he would grow tired of the one-night stands and casual sex that too often comprised the only kind of closeness he would permit.

Now he had grown past the self-hatred that had governed his actions for so many years, aided greatly by the young man who adored him so unreservedly. And he would leave his arrangement with Candy without a backward glance, sorry she was so discontented, but with no regrets on his part.

****

For once there was an available parking spot in front of his building. The Porsche slid easily into it and David turned off the engine. Angling to face Kane, he saw that the younger man had been watching him. Kane sniffed inelegantly. David ran his fingers through the long strands of Kane's hair, which had slid loose from the thong the habitually held it back from his face.

"I love your hair, Kane. I love when you have it tied back. But most of all I love it when you wear it loose for me, like you did that night when you came up to my apartment. God, you looked so sexy, it was all I could do to keep my hands off you! If Candy hadn't been there, getting ready for a hot date, I would have had you stripped of your clothes and naked on the floor under me!"

Rapt, Kane listened to the sweet words that poured balm on his battered heart. "You loved me even then?" Searching fruitlessly for a handkerchief, he finally settled for swiping his hand under his nose.

David watched with amused eyes. "You really are very young, aren't you?" he remarked as he handed Kane his own handkerchief.

Kane mopped his face and blew his nose, then tried to return it to David, who declined it ruefully. "No, Pooh, you keep it."

"Pooh?" Kane asked.

"Yes, Pooh. My own Pooh Bear, who is sweeter than honey in my mouth!"

"David, you say such things to me! I thought there must be something wrong with me, because I wanted you that way!"

"What way, baby?"

"You know what I mean! What you promised me: in me so deep, so filled with the feel of you! David, I need you like that right now!"

David reached over and cupped the nape of Kane's neck in his hand. "Tell me what you need. Tell me how you want me."

Kane's breath caught in his throat. "David!" he whispered. "I want you inside me! I want you behind me, in my ass, holding my cock in your hand, stroking me, squeezing me, biting my neck, fucking me until I'm weak from it! I want you to come deep inside me; I want to feel you come, without anything between us! I want to feel all of you in all of me."

David almost choked at the pictures painted by Kane's words. "Kane, you do pick your moments! You've gotten me harder in a car than I've been since I was a horny teenager!"

"Does this mean you're going to show me your bedroom?" he asked hopefully.

David gripped his chin, his eyes glowing. "After that description of what you want me to do to you, I don't think I have much of a choice: it's either that, or take you right now in this car! And what I have in mind would startle the neighbors!" He opened the door to step out of the car. Looking at Kane who was already at the apartment house door, he found himself hoping that Candy wasn't at home. The image of having Kane on the floor in the small foyer was so irresistible that he wasn't sure he could make it all the way up the stairs without taking him right there.

David got the door opened, then grabbed Kane's hand as he headed for the elevator. "No, baby, let's take the stairs up."

Kane looked at him curiously, but headed for the staircase. He paused on the first landing, realizing that David was not next to him. Turning, he found David a few steps below him his eyes fastened on the younger man's deliciously tight buttocks.

Kane felt a telltale blush color his cheeks. "Are you going to grope me again, David?"

Part 19

Kane stood above David on the stairs, unable to take his eyes off his lover. His lips parted, his tongue darted out to moisten them, all the while his restless gaze devoured the older man. "David!"

David climbed up until he was level with Kane. Hooking a hand around his neck, he drew him close to him, watching his lips with a fascination that bordered on desperation. "Baby, I need you to kiss me! I need that right now!"

Kane angled his body and oh, so gently touched his lips to David's. Pulling back just far enough to observe his lover's mouth, Kane ran his tongue over his lips, tasting David there. Moving in closer, he leaned his weight against David's body and with a small moan, licked at his mouth.

Threading his fingers through David's dark hair, he seized handfuls to hold him in place for a kiss that ravished him. Plunging into the recesses of his lover's mouth, he dueled with his tongue, drawing it into his own mouth, sucking on it voraciously.

Finally, unable to draw enough oxygen into his lungs, Kane was forced to turn his head away, leaning it on David's shoulder, gasping for air.

"Baby, we'd better get up to my place!"

Stifling a spurt of laughter, Kane said, "But David, I already *am* up!"

David ruffled his hair lovingly and lead the way to his apartment, pulling Kane along by the hand.

When they got the door closed behind them, David tossed their jackets aside and pressed Kane back against the wall, lacing his fingers in Kane's and imprisoning them by his head. He began licking a path from the base of Kane's throat up to his ear, where he paused and nibbled as if it was a great delicacy. Then he made his way to his young lover's tempting mouth.

David crushed Kane's lips under the onslaught of his mouth. Whimpering, Kane writhed, straining to get closer to David, but David teased him by keeping his lower body out of his lover's reach, driving his lust to uncontrolled heights. Finally unable to bear the teasing himself, David nudged Kane's legs apart, making a space for himself there, and Kane moaned into his mouth.

David's erection was becoming almost painful and he needed to free it from his trousers and bury it deep within his lover's body. Holding Kane tightly against him, he breathed hot sex words into his ear.

He was about to lead Kane to his bedroom when they spotted the forlorn figure leaning against the wall, silently watching them. "You never kissed me like that! Are you still not quite sure who this is David?"

David swore under his breath. "Since when have you become a voyeur, Candy?" he demanded coldly. He felt Kane freezing up next to him.

In the deepest corners of his soul he could admit that he had dreamed of Kane long before their mutual attraction became evident. In those dreams he had deflowered his young lover in the most tender of acts, creating memories that would be cherished.

This was not shaping up the way he had hoped. Falling apart after forcing your way into your lover's virgin anatomy was not designed to inspire devotion. In fact, he could not understand how Kane so calmly ministered to him and then actually wanted another physical encounter. And now this, a confrontation with his lover's former lover, and current roommate. No, this was definitely not turning out to be the kind of memorable day they would recall fondly in their twilight years.

Slow tears slid down Candy's face. "I really have lost you, haven't I, David?"

David went to her and put his arms around her. She searched for the lover in that touch, but could only find the friend, and she bowed her head and sobbed.

"Will you be leaving this apartment?"

"Yes. Soon. I want to give you time to either find another roommate or another place to stay."

"No! This place is *ours*! You shared it with me for five years! I won't leave here!"

Kane offered her David's handkerchief. She eyes it with distaste, then reluctantly laughed. "I'll find someone else to split the rent with. Maybe I can ask Jeri." At Kane's confused look, Candy elaborated, "She was a lover too. There must be something about me. Most people leave their ex-lovers. Mine become my friends and move in with me!

"And then find new lovers and move on!"

Part 20

Candy disappeared into her own room. David looked after her, his expression enigmatic. Kane began to get worried again.

"David?" He gently touched the older man's chest. "This isn't a good time. Maybe I should just leave."

Desolate at the thought of losing his lover of a little more than a day, Kane turned to go to the door. He was stooping over to retrieve his jacket, tears beginning to form in his eyes, when a firm hand collided with his backside. The tingle reminded him of all the new experiences David had introduced him to, and he bit his lip to prevent a cry of protest from passing his lips. Keeping his head averted, he sniffed audibly and searched for the handkerchief.

"Kane!" David's voice was short, reminiscent of the time when he wasn't sure whether to keep the younger man as an exasperating, puppy-ish friend or take him to his bed as a lover. His long fingers grasped Kane's chin and turned his face toward him. The sight of his lover's tears dissolved his anger. "No, baby, please don't cry! Just let me grab some clothes and we can get out of here!"

"You're coming with me? You're not going to stay with Candy?"

David halted in the doorway to his room. "Silly monkey!" He held out his hand. "Come help me pack."

Kane rushed to his side, pausing just long enough to hug him tightly. Then he went into David's bedroom for the first time, looking around with interest.

It was a curiously impersonal room, sparsely furnished with a neat, full-sized bed, a dresser and a night table. Although there were rock posters and scenescapes on the walls, it contained no mementos of his years on The Beavertons, nothing to indicate that once he had been an actor of some note. He pulled a carry-on out of the closet and opened it on the bed. As Kane watched, David stacked the items he would need next to it.

Powerless to resist the urge to be near to the man who had introduced him to a whole new side of himself, Kane drifted close to him, touching the silk shirts and wool trousers that David packed, as well as jeans and casual tees and collarless shirts.

David slanted him an amused glance. "Get my gear out of the bathroom?"

Kane hurried away on his mission, giving David time to throw some things into the bag that he didn't want Kane to see. Yet. He had an interesting collection of toys, but he didn't want to frighten his young lover. All in due time. And he shivered voluptuously.

Kane returned with David's razor, toothbrush and hairbrush, and the older man cocked an eyebrow at him. "Aren't there a few other items I might have use for?" he inquired with a laugh.

Leaning close and putting his arms around his lover, Kane shook his head. "I have everything you need, David! Hurry and finish packing. I want you home and I want you in my bed and in my body!"

David quietly shut his bedroom door and pushed Kane back against it. Rubbing his body against his young lover's, David eased his lips apart with his tongue and fitted their mouths together. A soft moan escaped Kane and he slid his hands up David's chest and around his neck, clinging tightly to him.

The kiss left them both shaking and shaken. "Kane!" David whispered. "Baby! Let's get out of here."

Pausing in the tiny foyer, David tapped softly on Candy's door. "We're going now. I should be back in a couple of days to pack up my things. You can have whatever of the furnishings you want, okay?" Pressing his hand lightly against the door, he turned away from it, his lips set in an unhappy line.

They left the apartment without another word from Candy. Kane could see that David was more upset by the rift than he had anticipated.

Having gotten into the habit of denying the existence of love, he hadn't recognized the symptons in Candy until it was too late. Perhaps this was for the best. Without David living in her pocket, she might no longer measure every man she met by his impossible yardstick. Maybe now she would find someone upon whom she could bestow all the love in her heart, and be loved wholeheartedly in return. David hoped so.

Kane took the keys from David's reluctant hand. Knowing how Kane drove, David did not look forward to the trip back to Kane's place. He stowed his carry-on in the miniscule back seat of the Porsche and got into the car beside Kane, making sure his seatbelt was securely fastened.

He was pleasantly surprised at the sedate pace that Kane set this time around. "Are you feeling quite the thing, baby?" he asked him.

Kane glanced at him distractedly, and mumbled something.

"What?" David demanded.

Kane looked uncomfortable. "You call me baby. And Pooh Bear. And Monkey."

"And you'd rather I didn't?" he asked stiffly, hurt that Kane might not enjoy his pet names.

"David, no! I love what you call me, and the way you sound when you call me those names, like I belong to you! But I've got nothing to call you, nothing that doesn't make me feel silly saying it!"

His breath caught in his throat, David had difficulty getting the words past it."Kane, baby, don't you know-----just the way you say my name---no one has ever called me 'David' the way you do! It makes me so hard, sometimes I can barely walk! Your 'David' is worth a ton of Pooky's or Daviekins or..."

"Or honey man? That's what you are to me, David. My own, sweet man, who's poured honey into all the empty places in my life!" And he blushed at his unintentional double entendre.

David was touched. That Kane could worry about something as inconsequential as a pet name, and then come up with one on his own gave David a funny feeling in his chest. At first he thought it must be having heart trouble, angina perhaps.

Then he realized it truly was a heart problem: he no longer had one.

He had given it to Kane.

Part 21

NC-17

While David was contemplating the loss of his heart to Kane, his young lover was slowing the Porsche to a crawl. They were in a residential neighborhood filled with old country homes, most built at the turn of the century. Kane was observing one in particular. With a soft sigh, he murmured, "I was hoping she'd leave the lights on. I guess it's too late though."

David looked at him curiously, but Kane had already shifted gears and the Porsche resumed its normal cruising speed. David clutched the elbow rest on the door and prayed for an empty road.

However fast Kane drove, he was extremely competent behind the wheel and was soon pulling safely past the gates of his home. Again he parked the Porsche by the pool and grabbing David by the hand, he lead him to the electronic door and swiped them in.

David had barely gotten past the door when Kane's body backed into his. "What, baby?" he asked. Then he looked past the younger man. His mouth dropped open and the carryon tumbled from nerveless fingers. "Jesus, Kane! What's happened here?"

Kane was trembling so hard David could see it. He slid his arm around his shoulders, and Kane turned into his embrace. "Oh, my God, David! He's already emptied the media room! And our pool table! He's taken our pool table!"

The room, which hadn't seemed inordinately large when it had been comfortably filled with furniture and a rich man's toys, now echoed their footsteps desolately. Everything was gone: the paintings, the furniture, the TV and stereo systems.

And, as Kane had pointed out, their pool table.

"My room!" Kane suddenly recollected. Seizing David's arm, he pulled him toward the other side of the house and the stairs that led to the family's quarters. In the hall outside his door he slowed, reluctant now to see if the father had violated the son's privacy. David stepped past him, to shield him from the devastating possibility that his room had been stripped of everything that belonged to him. Relief almost made him lightheaded.

"It's okay, baby. It looks as if nothing's been touched."

Kane stepped into the room after his lover, ashamed of the weakness that had momentarily held him back. "Oh!" It was a soft moan.

David began to worry. "What is it?"

"That's just it, David. *Nothing* has been touched! Usually the servants come up here and make the bed and dust and stuff. Look at this! Everything is just the way we left it this afternoon!"

"Which really isn't a bad thing when you think of it, Kane." He gestured toward the night table where an almost empty box of condoms and a battered tube of lubricant had been left carelessly in sight. "I don't think you'd be really comfortable with your father's servants knowing that you have a penchant for an ex-actor!"

"I don't have a penchant for an ex-actor!" Kane mumbled as he buried his head against David's chest. "I have an overwhelming letch, and lust and love for you!"

David tilted up his chin and kissed him. "Let's get ready for bed. It's been a long day for you, and tomorrow is going to be even longer! We'll start looking for an apartment, and maybe you can pick out what you want to bring with you."

He walked back to the door and closed and locked it. Shoving his carryon aside he began to casually unbutton his shirt, keeping his eyes on Kane all the while. Kane stared at him helplessly, his mouth like cotton, the tremors coursing through him now solely due to excitement.

"Ummmm, maybe I'd better take a shower."

"Why don't you wait until morning?" David asked, sitting down now to remove his shoes and socks.

"I think I'm a little sweaty," Kane said weakly.

And David smiled at him. "Baby, that's nothing to how sweaty I plan on making you in just a few minutes!"

Kane's eyes lit up. "Really, David? You're going to make love to me again? I didn't want to ask, in case you didn't feel like it!"

"Ahh, baby, I've thought of nothing else all night while we were at work. All I've wanted to do is peel off those snug leather trousers you're wearing and slide into your delicious body!" He stood and began to undo his pants. "By the way, did you deliberately choose them in order to drive me wild?"

Kane watched, his eyes huge, his tongue licking lips that were suddenly dry.

David groaned and pulled him into his arms. Embracing him tightly, his slanted frantic kisses on those lips, wetting them with his own tongue. "Take your clothes off now, baby! Right now!"

Dazed, Kane took a tiny step back and began tearing at the buttons that held his shirt closed, trying to keep his lips fastened to David's all the while. His usually nimble fingers fumbled with his belt buckle as his tongue toyed with David's in the warm recesses of the older man's mouth.

Panting as he skinned his pants down his legs and off his shoeless feet, he heard David give a muffled laugh. "Naughty monkey! You didn't put any underwear on today!"

"But David," he said huskily as he pressed his now-naked body against that of his lover, "I never wear underwear!"

David wound his fingers in Kane's long hair. Gently forcing his face up, he rubbed his beard-roughed cheek against Kane's smooth one. "You are definitely going to wear me out, baby, you know that?" Shaking his head in mock despair, he took the tone of voice that he knew made Kane wild. "All right, little boy, lay down on that bed!"

Kane's lips parted in excitement. He lay down on his back, angling his head up so he could see what David would do next. His lover was competently rolling on a condom and lubricating it. Kane felt his insides grip with passion. David frowned down at him.

"On your stomach, Kane! Don't make me have to discipline you, little boy!"

Obediently, his young lover rolled over and waited impatiently to see what David would do next. David pressed a series of teasing kisses from the base of Kane's spine to the nape of his neck. Then he encircled his waist with one arm and hauled him onto his knees. "Rest your head on your arms, baby, and relax!" David stroked the shadowed cleft between Kane's buttocks raising his level of arousal.

Kane felt a long finger press for entrance into his body and tensed with excitement.

"Relax, baby."

"David..."

"Shhh. Just...relax!"

David began a gentle in and out motion and Kane pushed himself back against his hand, seeking a deeper penetration. David permitted them both a few moments of enjoyment before he felt Kane was lubricated enough to allow him into his body comfortably. He gently removed his finger and replaced it with his hard erection, slowly rocking against the ring of muscle until he was past it and firmly encased in his lover's snug, hot passage.

Groaning, he reached around Kane's chest and palmed the flat male nipples, feeling the hardened peaks stabbing into his hands. "Do you like this, baby?" he whispered in his ear. "Do you like what I'm doing to you?"

Kane moaned and attempted to thrust his hips backwards and seize more of his lover's arousal. David lightly slapped a buttock. "Don't move, baby! I don't want you to move your delicious ass one centimeter, do you understand me? If you do, I'm going to pull out of you and spank you very hard. I won't come, and I won't let you come, and I will be very angry with you!"

The stern words were extremely difficult for Kane to obey. They made him so hot he was about to go off like a firecracker. David's hands squeezed him. "Not yet, baby, don't come yet! I have something special planned if you can just....hold....out...a little...longer....."

David's lower body jerked as he began to come in his lover's tender body.

"David!"

"Hold on!"

"*David*!!!"

Withdrawing rapidly from Kane's body, he quickly flipped him onto his back. His hot, moist mouth engulfed his lover's quivering arousal, taking it deep into his throat. And with a wild cry, Kane erupted, spilling his essence into his lover’s mouth, trembling with the force of his climax.

David continued to suckle him until he was completely drained. Then he dragged his torso along that of the younger man, gently abrading their senses, until their faces were level. Tenderly, David kissed his love, letting him taste himself on his lips.

Kane's face was wet with tears. "David!" He wrapped his arms around his lover's neck and held him tightly. " I love you, honey man! That was the most marvelous...."

His voice faded and his breathing smoothed out. David brushed the long hair off the younger man's face.

Kane was fast asleep

Poor Little Rich Boy

Part 22

The house was not empty, as they had thought. In the hallway outside Kane's room a solitary figure lurked in the shadows. He could not make out the words his son and his lover shared, but he could hear the laughter, and he heard his son's cry of satisfaction.

His hands clenched in fists of impotent rage, he fumed that the boy was not even mourning the death of the woman who bore him, ignoring the fact that both she and he had had little to do with their son's upbringing. With Kane now of legal age, there was little the father could do to hurt him. The boy was content in a dead-end job, he had sole access to the trustfund his maternal grandmother had left him and the threat of selling the house out from under him was not having the anticipated results.

What Kane's father failed to realize was that this would not be the first time he had been uprooted on the capricious whim of a parent. He had been quiet, well-behaved toddler, and his mother would peripatetically swoop down and carry him off to whatever playground she favored at the moment, displaying him to the sycophants who surrounded her. Quickly bored, with an attention span not much greater than her child's, she would soon send him back to the servants who tended him because they were paid to, and not from any affection for the boy. Paradoxically, if any servant expressed fondness for their child, Kane's parents dismissed them from their service.

Unable to discommode his son in any other way, Kane's father accessed the climate control unit inside his own suite. Each suite contained one, but his was the master and could override the others. Punching in a code, he dropped the temperature in Kane's room from a comfortable 76 degrees to a less tolerable 55. Smiling nastily, he programmed the console to deny access at any other unit, then locked his bedroom door and left the house.

*****

Neither Kane nor David was used to sleeping with a partner, and in the course of the night had drifted apart. The chill in the room roused Kane to a level that sensed the discomfort, but not to the point of waking. He groped for the duvet, and, unable to find it, gravitated toward the one spot in his bed that produced heat. His unconscious realized it was his lover, and with a sigh of pleasure, he wrapped his arms around David, snuggling close. He gently rubbed his morning erection against the cleft of David's buttocks and sank deeper into sleep.

Someone was holding David prisoner, preparing to mount an assault on his body. He moaned and whimpered in his sleep, beginning to thrash restlessly, to no avail: whoever held him was not letting go. He was going to be used against his will again!

Flailing his arms, he struck out blindly and connected with his assailant, hearing a satisfying crunch and a cry of pain. And then he was free, and awake. He scrambled off the bed and reached for the light switch.

The sudden brightness revealed the disaster in the bed.

Blood had fountained from the broken nose that Kane cupped protectively. It splattered across the bed, symbolic of his deflowering. Tears of pain streamed down his cheeks and he watched David reproachfully and warily.

David stepped toward him, but stopped when Kane scooted back, and slid off the bed, keeping it between them. David swore viciously and a sudden shiver wracked his nude body, making him aware of the chill in the room. "What the *fuck* is going on?"

Kane backed his way into the bathroom, slamming and locking the door. Through his tears, he examined the damage done to his nose. Grabbing a towel, he held it to absorb the blood pouring out. Then he, too, shivered, goosebumps rising on his body. What *was* going on?

He couldn't remain in the bathroom. It was too undignified. If David was going to be an abusive lover, they would have to have this out right now. He knew, growing up, that he was merely an addendum to his parents' lives, but his self-esteem was not so low that he would tolerate unacceptable treatment in order to be loved. He opened the door and walked out to face his future.

David was fully dressed. He sat on the edge of the shattered bed, his head in his hands. Kane approached him carefully, moistening his lips.

"David, if you plan on beating me, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Oh God! that sounded so stilted. Next he'd be asking what his lover's intentions were!

David looked up at him, his face ravaged. "Baby," a sob hitched in his voice. He cleared it and tried again. "Baby, I'm so sorry! I thought I had dealt with what had happened in that closet all those years ago. Obviously, I haven't. And obviously I can't be trusted not to hurt you. Do you want me out of your life?"

At first reluctant to even allow the younger man near him, he was now devastated at the thought of losing him.

Before he could answer, Kane began shivering in earnest. He also became aware of just how cold it was in his room. "David, did you turn the thermostat down in here?"

David shook his head tiredly and watched with dull eyes as Kane went to the panel next to the door. But Kane was too cold to get his fingers to obey his brain. "David, would you do this for me?"

"What, baby? Cut my throat? Gladly!" he laughed harshly.

"David! I need you to punch in a code for me. I have to get dressed; I'm freezing!"

Kane pulled out warm clothes and dressed clumsily as he tried to avoid getting blood all over himself. He rattled off the series of numbers and David entered them, with no results. Kane watched as he did it again, holding a clean part of the towel to his nose.

"Are you sure those are the correct numbers Kane? Nothing is happening."

For the first time in the months that David had known Kane, he heard him swear. The younger man's vocabulary was nothing short of stunning. "That cold-hearted, mean-spirited bastard! That cock-sucking, mother-fucking son of a whore prick!"

David's mouth dropped open as Kane went on to enumerate all his father's sterling qualities. Then the light dawned. "Your father, Kane? Your father did this?"

"Goddamned son of a bitch bastard!"

"Uhhh, Kane, you're starting to repeat yourself!"

"And I'm not too happy with you right now, honey man. So just watch your ass!"

David grinned, relieved that Kane seemed to have forgiven him. "I'd much rather watch yours instead, baby," he said winsomely. Then he turned serious. "Will you let me hold you?"

With a small cry, Kane went into David's arms. "I'm going to get blood all over you!" he mumbled.

"....okay, baby. It's okay. We'd better get you to an emergency room and have your nose looked at. I'm so sorry I hurt you. I didn't mean it; I just can't tolerate anyone on my back. Give me time, baby, please! I want you so much!"

Kane leaned back and looked into his lover's dark eyes. "Do you think you'll ever let me ride you the way you ride me?" He rubbed his cheek against David's shoulder. "It gets me so hot just thinking of having you that way!"

David laughed. "It makes me hot too, baby. It's just having someone on my back that gives me the frights. If you're willing to work on it with me, I'll do my best to give you the fuck of your life!"

Kane wanted to kiss his lover, but he was afraid of getting more blood on him. "Led's go ged by dose fixed." It was swelling now, and starting to interfere with his speech. "And Dabid, jusd do led you dnow, as far as I'b concerned, you'b a'ready giben be dhe fuck ob by libe!"

Shaking his head ruefully, David led Kane by the hand down the stairs and out to the Porsche.

Poor Little Rich Boy

Part 23

David drove the Porsche while Kane tried to stop the bleeding with a towel that was fast becoming saturated. More than a little worried at this point, he was wracking his brains for any remedy that might aid his young lover.

"Kane! Do you have any gum on you?"

Kane gave him a startled look, but dug a stick out of the pocket of his denim jacket and offered it to him.

David gave a snort of laughter. "Not for me, baby. For you. Chew it."

Kane shrugged and obeyed this lover's order. "Okay, I've just about worked all the flavor out of it. You want a nibble?"

To his amazement, David felt a flash of lust spear through him. "Kane, please shut up before you make me crash this car!"

Kane looked at him in confusion. "What?"

David took a deep breath. "Don't you realize? Just the thought of your mouth makes me crazy! It doesn't matter that it's only been a few hours since I've had you. I want you again!"

A silly grin crossed the younger man's face. "How, David? How do you want me?"

"Oh, you're really pressing your luck, you bad monkey! Never mind that. I want you to stick that wad of gum under your upper lip on the side where the most blood is coming. Can you do that, baby?"

"Done, David. But I still wish you'd tell me how you want me," he murmured forlornly.

"I'll make a deal with you, Kane. You tell me the bleeding has stopped, and I'll tell you exactly what I plan to do to your sweet ass when we get your nose taken care of!"

Kane settled back in his seat to wait happily, if impatiently, for the bleeding to subside. Taking the towel away from his abused nose, he found that there was less blood. "David! I think it's working!"

"And we're here at the hospital, so let's have a doctor take a look at it."

David was able to find a spot for the Porsche quite close to the emergency room entrance and he hustled his young lover inside. The waiting room was astonishingly deserted, and the receptionist behind the glass enclosure looked the epitome of boredom. Then he got a good look at the towel that Kane still held over his nose.

Shoving the paperwork at David, he paged for the covering MD stat.

A young, good-looking doctor strode through the doors that separated the waiting room from the emergency bay. "What's the problem, Jamie?"

"Dunno, Doc, but we got a lot of blood here!"

The doctor pulled out latex gloves and began drawing them on as he ushered Kane to a cubicle and drew the curtain, blocking David's view of his lover. Distractedly, he began filling out the forms he had been given. Then he looked over the questions again. And again.

And discovered that he could answer most of them. In an effort to learn more about the young busboy he had found so fascinating, he had learned more that he realized. He looked at the man seated in front of him, grinning foolishly. A loud "Owww!" came from behind the curtain where Kane had been taken. David dropped the clipboard and headed in that direction. The sliding door would not open for him, and he began beating on it.

"Open this door!" he shouted. "Open this goddamned door, or I'll break it down!"

Jamie, the receptionist, was about to buzz for night security, when the doctor poked his head around the curtain to see what all the commotion was about. "We're all done here. Just let me write up a discharge note and you two can be on your way."

Kane walked a little unsteadily to the door and the doctor hit the panel that opened it from that side. A butterfly bandage covered the bridge of his nose, and he was daintily clearing away whatever blood was left on his face. The area around his eyes was beginning to take on some startling hues of purple.

David swooped down on him and wrapped him in a fierce embrace.

"See your own doctor in a couple of days. Here's a script for pain medication, but over-the-counter should do fine!" The doctor glanced up from his notes, and observing the affectionate embrace, looked decidedly put out. He slammed the instructions down on the counter. Jamie looked on with interest as he stalked back into the bay.

"Hmm. Now that's a fine how-do-you-do!" Watching the concern with which David fussed over Kane, he bit back a grin and again proffered the papers. "I hate to break this up, but one of you will have to finish filling these out."

David whispered into Kane's ear, "I'm sorry baby, I answered as much as I could, but the insurance information has me stumped."

Kane pressed a brief kiss to David's cheek and pulled out his wallet, thumbing through it to find his insurance card.

Jamie was now grinning unabashedly. The doctor had rediscovered his professionalism and returned just in time to see the younger man bestow a sweet kiss on the older one. "And just who *is* this?" he asked snidely.

"I'm his daddy!" David replied. Putting his arm around Kane's shoulders, he asked, "Are we about ready, baby?"

Kane's eyes gleamed wickedly. "Yes, sir."

"Then thank the nice doctor and let's go home."

Obediently, Kane said, "Thank you, doctor." He smiled sunnily and allowed his lover to pull him out to the parking lot.

"Would you mind telling me what that was all about?" David asked.

"He wanted to ask me out."

"On a date?"

"Yes."

"And what did you say?" David demanded through gritted teeth.

Realizing that his lover was not secure enough in their relationship to take teasing in stride, Kane relented. "I told him my dance card was all filled up. And what did you mean by telling him you were my father?"

"I didn't say I was your father." David got them settled in the car and switched on the ignition.

The sun was streaking the low hanging clouds an amazing shade of pink and orange. A new day was dawning. He would take his young lover home, and perhaps they could wile away a few hours in bed before they would look to the boxing of Kane's belongings.

"David! You did so tell him you're my father!"

For the first time that day, David felt like laughing. "No baby. I didn't say I was your father.

"I said I was your daddy!"

Poor Little Rich Boy

Part 24

David noticed that Kane was getting quieter and quieter. Before he could question him, Kane shifted in his seat. "David, I can't do this!"

David felt his insides clutch. Very carefully he steered the Porsche to the shoulder of the road and parked. "What can't you do, Kane?" This is it, he thought. He's going to tell me last night was too much; he's going to leave me!

Kane's eyes held a world of devastation. "I can't go home now! Just the thought of that empty house, of having to walk through it to get to my room: it's tearing me apart! Would you...would you mind very much if we didn't go back there right now?"

Relief flooded through David. Almost lightheaded, he leaned his head back against the seat rest. "Sure, baby, whatever you want. How about if I take you out to breakfast?"

Suddenly Kane looked like a child whose belief in Santa Claus was verified. "Like in a date, David? Like you're asking me out on a date?"

David felt like a worm. He had never taken his young lover anywhere, except to bed. And while he was anxious to do that again, he felt he owed him more than a fast fuck. Or even a long, slow, deep one.

Then he noticed how tired Kane's eyes were. "Maybe we ought to put that on hold, baby. You need to be off your feet."

"Again, David? We're going to do it again?"

"No, I just meant this has been an eventful couple of days for you and..." David noticed how crestfallen Kane looked and altered what he was going to say. "Do you think you're up to it, because I sure as hell am!" He took Kane's hand and let his fingers slide along the length of his arousal. "You keep asking what I'm going to do to you? Well, I'll tell you!

"When I get you into bed again I'm going to strip you naked. I'm going to start at your toes and kiss my way up your body. I'm going to tease and torment you until you're begging me to slide into your hot body. And I'm going to put you on your back and pull your legs over my shoulders, leaving you exposed to my hands and my mouth. I'm going to eat you until you're ready to explode, and then I'm going to fuck you until we both come!"

Kane sighed blissfully. "That sounds wonderful, David." Then he asked soberly, "But where can we go? I don't want to go home, and I'd feel uncomfortable at your apartment."

"Because of Candy?" David nodded in agreement, realizing it would be too stressful for his young lover. A sudden idea came to him. "How would you feel about going to Benita's place?"

Kane looked self-conscious. "She's the one who jerked me off, isn't she? Will she think I'm a baby for passing out like that from the heroin?"

David ran his fingers through Kane's hair, loosening it, as was fast becoming his tendency. He fingered the long strands, and then pressed them to his lips. "She knew before I did that you loved me. And if she thinks you're a baby, she thinks you're *my* babe! Shall we go there?"

The younger man was still uncertain about visiting Benita so early in the day, but he reluctantly agreed. David put the car in gear and headed for the part of town where the psychic dominatrix lived.

****

The persistent buzzing of her intercom brought Benita out of a deep sleep. Her last client had kept her up long past his time limit, and she was afraid she was becoming too personally involved with him. She enjoyed what she did for a living, seeing it as a means of helping people come to grips with their inner desires, but with him it was becoming personal: she enjoyed what she did to him, and what he in turn was starting to do to her.

She was beginning to dream, and he was making her dreams come true.

Unable to see into her own future, beyond knowing that danger was lurking on the horizon involving her friendship with David McMillan, she was as blind as anyone else when it came to the paths her own relationships would take. And she wasn't sure if she was willing to take the risk of falling in love.

Drawing on a Japanese silk kimono, she brushed her hair out of her eyes and touched the intercom. "Yes?"

"Benita, it's David. I've brought a friend. Can we come up?"

"It's after hours, David."

"He just needs a place to crash for a few hours, Nita. Okay?"

Benita sensed something new and promising in David and pushed the buzzer to let him into the building. She liked him, they had been friends and colleagues for a long time, but his careless attitude toward those who loved him disturbed her. She hoped David wouldn't hurt that young man Kane, who was so obviously in love with him. Something had happened in David's past that had marked him so deeply he would savage anyone who showed an emotional attachment to him, in order to keep his heart safe.

And she hoped Kane was not destined to rue his infatuation. She'd have to ask David to bring him back sometime for another reading. And perhaps this time she could get David to personally handle the young man.

Her doorbell chimed sweetly, the first sixteen bars of Ravel's Bolero, and she opened the door to admit David and his friend.

David brushed a friendly kiss against her cheek and strolled in, tossing his jacket casually onto a chair. "You remember Kane, don't you?"

Benita felt her jaw drop. Kane returned her gaze sheepishly. "Hi Benita," he mumbled.

Large, dark eyes went from Kane to David and back again, her amazement palpable. David became uncomfortable. "Is this a bad time, Nita? Do you have a client?"

"No, David, this is a perfect time! Kane, I'm so glad to see you again, and to see you with David!" Ushering them to her living room, she offered them seats. "I was just thinking of you, Kane. How are you?"

Self-consciously, he touched the bandage on his nose. "Other than this, I'm okay."

Carefully she touched the black and blue discoloration circling his eyes, and sucked in her breath. "David! You did this!"

Before she could tear into his lover, Kane took her hand and squeezed it gently. "He didn't mean to, Benita. He was just reacting to something in his sleep."

David walked next to him and draped his arm around Kane. "He's being too kind, Nita. He tried to hug me and I broke his nose!"

Benita touched David's hand where it rested over the younger man's heart. Images flashed through her mind, naked lovers embracing, the fierce culmination of the act of love, and then bone-chilling cold. An innocent desire for warmth and affection, and uncontrolled fear lashing out, resulting in the violent breaking of Kane's nose.

She also felt something new, the deep, abiding love that David felt for Kane, and a brilliant smile lit her face. Kissing first David and then Kane, she welcomed the young man into the select circle of her friends.

"This has been an eventful night for the two of you! Let me make you some breakfast."

They followed her into the breakfast nook and sat down while she made coffee and drew some microwaveable pancakes and sausages out of her freezer. As she turned to set plates and silverware on the table, she heard David give a muffled chuckle.

"The night appears to have caught up with my babe," he remarked tenderly.

Kane's head was cushioned on his arms and he was breathing through his mouth. His impossibly long lashes fanned against his cheek.

Just like that he was sound asleep.

Poor Little Rich Boy

Part 25

David stood over Kane, smiling slightly. Taking a napkin, he wiped the moisture that was gathering at the corner of his young lover's mouth. Gesturing with it to Benita, he laughed softly. "Can you believe it? I even find this lovable about him!"

Benita's eyes glowed with approbation. "You really care about him, David?" She touched his sleeve. "Don't hurt him. He loves you deeply."

"I'm way too old for him."

Benita smiled.

"There are a thousand things he needs to experience, that I couldn't possibly consider going through again!"

The smile widened to a grin.

David sighed. "And I don't just care about him, I love him! There, are you happy now?"

At her nod, he grunted and stooped to pick his sleeping lover up in his arms, unconsciously mimicking the dream Kane had once had. Following Benita into her spare bedroom, he gently laid Kane down on the flowered coverlet, pulling off his jogging shoes. The younger man mumbled something and turned over, curling onto his side.

David knew the smile on his face was decidedly fatuous, but there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. "I really love him!" he repeated to Benita.

She stood on tiptoe and placed a tender kiss on his cheek. "It's been a long night. Why don't you get some rest too?" she suggested as she walked out, closing the door behind her.

Suddenly he felt exhausted. Padding over to the blanket chest Benita kept beneath the window, he took out a down-filled comforter and placed it over Kane. He unlaced his shoes and toed them off, then slid under the covers and arranged himself along his lover's back, holding him snugly in his arms. Pressing a kiss to the soft skin below his ear, he breathed in Kane's scent and slid easily into sleep.

~Fin~