Saving Alexander (12 page)

“Thomas has enough security laid on for you to stop a whole phalanx of would-be attackers.” Sage smiled as he stood up. “Come on, your taxi will be here any minute. You’d better go wait in front or they’ll be getting all uppity with you.”

Dianne reached over and hugged him. “You’re a darling. I really don’t know why some lucky man hasn’t snapped you up by now. More fool them.” She picked up her shawl, making her way to the foyer.

Exhausted by the long day of filming, Sage was the last one leaving the television studio, exhausted after a long day of filming. Seeing a light on in the office, he went over to turn it off. As he got nearer, he saw Alex slumped over the desk, arms above his head as if sleeping. Alex’s coffee cup was overturned and there was liquid all over the desk and papers.

Alex. One of the most beautiful men he’d ever seen.

Sage carefully moved the empty coffee cup to the bin and mopped up the spill with tissues he found. He felt just enough charity that he couldn’t leave Alex like he was, despite the man’s recent less than amicable mood. These past two weeks Alex had kept very much to himself. Sage had asked what was wrong, but Alex looked at him stonily, saying it was none of his business and that he wanted to be left alone. Since then, things had become a little frosty.

“Alex? Come on, this is no place to sleep. You need to get home.” He frowned at the lack of response when he gently shook Alex’s shoulder. “Alex?”

The man’s shirt was loose, out of his jeans and rucked up around his ribs against the chair back. As Sage reached to pull it down, he drew a breath, noticing purpling bruises across the man’s lower back. Sage stared at the marks, not wanting to accept them. He lifted Alex’s shirt slightly, wincing in horror at the livid weals and the deep bruising disappearing under the waistband of the man’s pants. Slowly Sage drew the shirt back down, feeling sick to his stomach.

Feeling the first wisps of real fear start deep in his stomach, he leaned in to see if the man was still breathing, “Alex. Wake up.”

Alex’s face was ashen and drawn, his breathing shallow. Sage leaned over with more urgency and gently brushed his face with his fingertips. Alex stirred and moaned, and Sage felt relief as his eyes opened, unfocused and bloodshot, and stared at him in confusion.

Alex sat bolt upright, rocketing back in his chair, away from him in a motion of absolute panic and fear.

“Alex, it’s Sage. You fell asleep.”

Alex stared at him as his eyes focused. He passed a trembling hand across his face. “I fell asleep? What time is it?”

“It’s seven thirty. Everyone’s gone home already. I was just getting ready to lock up and saw the light still on. You need to go home. You don’t look well.”

Sage reached out a gentle hand to help him up, but Alex knocked it away. “Leave me alone! Just stop it, will you? I keep fucking telling you I’m fine.” He spat the words.

“Jesus, Alex! What the fuck is wrong with you? You pass out on your desk, you push everyone away and you act like a bloody drama queen. What bug have you got up your arse that you can’t accept someone’s help?”

“I don’t need help—especially from you, Christopher Sage, so just leave me the hell alone.”

But Alex’s voice quavered and he bit his lip, and Sage’s anger dissipated. He knelt down beside the man. “Alex. Talk to me, please. Tell me what’s wrong.” He hesitated. He wasn’t sure whether he should mention what he’d seen, a bit afraid of being branded a pervert or incurring a sexual harassment charge. But he wasn’t the sort to hold his counsel. His mother always said that the phrase “Curiosity killed the cat” was tailor-made for him, even as a boy.

“I saw the marks on your back. Your shirt was up and I saw the bruising and the swelling. Who did that to you?”

Alex stared at him with such fear and desolation that Sage’s heart finally broke.

“Is someone hurting you?” he asked. “Is that why you’re so defensive? Why you don’t let anyone close?”

When Alex spoke, his voice was that of a broken man. Small. Pitiful. “Just let it go, Sage. Please, just let it go. Don’t make me tell you.”

Sage reached up from where he crouched beside Alex’s chair, cupping the man’s face in his hands. It felt so right. And he was resolved to get an answer. “Who’s doing this to you?”

“Me,” Alex whispered. “I’m doing it to me.”

Sage frowned, not understanding. “I don’t follow. How do you mean you’re doing it? To yourself?”

Alex nodded. “Please don’t ask me any more. Please, Sage.” He pulled away, but Sage stood, pulling him to his feet, holding him close to his chest, wrapping his arms around him. Alex melted into him.

Sage stroked his back with care, mindful of the injuries. For a while there was quiet before Alex finally pulled away. His face was pale, his eyes haunted. Sage again thought he was the most beautiful man he’d ever seen, especially vulnerable and without any barriers. Finally.

He spoke quietly. “Are you going to answer my question, then?”

The man scowled, and for a minute Sage saw the old Alex surface. “Christ, you never give up, do you? You’re like an annoying pressure headache that just won’t go away unless someone drills a hole in your brain.”

“An apt analogy.” Sage laughed. “It’s been said before, just not in those exact words.” He saw the faint hint of a smile on Alex’s face, but the expression was gone before it even took proper shape.

“I can’t tell you. If I do, you’ll never want to speak to me again.” Alex’s voice was expressionless, and he didn’t meet Sage’s eyes. “As we have to work together, that wouldn’t be a good thing.”

“I’m an annoying headache, remember? One way or another I’ll keep asking until I get an answer.” Sage moved closer, unwilling to be deterred. “I want to know how those marks got on your back, who put them there, and why.”

“Have you got a lifetime then?” Alex’s voice was silky, taunting, suddenly more in charge. “Do you really want to hear all the sordid details of my little life? Remember, sometimes you get what you ask for.”

“Yes. I want to hear.”

Alex regarded him thoughtfully and then smiled—fairly nastily, Sage thought with a pang.

“
All right then. I’ll give you the short version first. Then you can decide whether you want to hear any more.”

There was a note of satisfaction in Alex’s voice, and Sage suddenly thought that perhaps this wasn’t the right thing to do after all. The sudden change from vulnerable to “here goes whether you like it or fucking not” Alex was quite scary. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

Alex focused steadily on Sage’s face. “When I was seventeen, I was introduced into a cult by an older man called Rudy. He kept me as his bitch for eight months. He used me for sex, whipped me, slapped me, raped me, burnt me with cigarettes and finally slashed my back four times with a sabre when I said something he didn’t like. This all kept happening until I was rescued by an extraction team. They came to save someone else and found me as well.”

The room spun for Sage. Alex carried on in apparent disregard. “I was repatriated and had counselling for the abuse for nine years with the same people who rescued me. Now I’m in formal therapy. Part of my therapy is that I see a man called Eric at least once a week—more of late—who whips me, slaps me, bites me and then fucks me. It makes me feel better.

“So tell me, Christopher Sage. Is that the kind of man you’d like to take home to meet family?”

Sage looked at Alex, feeling both a surge of overwhelming tenderness and horror at his story. Now Alex’s past behaviour made perfect sense. Sage saw through the bravado, through the curt words, noticed Alex’s trembling hands, the swallowing in his throat, the rapid breathing. But most of all, he saw the sheer anguish in his eyes as Alex expected him to turn tail and run.

He’d expected to shock Sage, to disgust him and turn him away, but all Sage could think of was the wonder that this man could have come through this horrific ordeal and still be able to face his demons in a relatively normal fashion to the outside world.

His happily ever after romance novels made perfect sense now.

Sage moved toward Alex swiftly and Alex flinched as if he expected him to hit him or worse. Instead, Sage pulled him close, kissing him with a hunger that he hadn’t ever felt before for a man. Alex stiffened at first and then finally relaxed into him, his arms wrapping tightly around Sage’s neck, his mouth devouring Sage’s in a kiss that seemed to swallow him whole. Alex’s hands wound themselves tightly into Sage’s hair as he ground his mouth against his, pressing his body against Sage’s, leaving no doubt how the man felt.

Alex seemed to want to meld them together as one. Eventually they needed to come up for air and when they did, they were gasping at the intensity of their passion for each other.

“Jesus, Sage, I wasn’t expecting that. I didn’t think you’d want me after that story,” Alex breathed against Sage’s mouth, driving him even crazier with desire.

Sage thought he might explode there and then. “Does this feel like a man who doesn’t want to be with you?” His voice was low as he ran his hands over Alex’s hips, pressing himself against him.

Both men moaned at feeling their hardness against each other’s stomachs. Alex reached down to caress Sage’s groin.

“God, don’t do that,” Sage groaned. “I’m barely holding it in as it is.”

Alex’s low chuckle made Sage’s control even more difficult as Alex reached out first to turn out the light Sage had originally come to switch off, then to pull Sage over to the two-seater couch in the corner of the office. The room was now pitch dark with only the dim streets lights from outside shining through.

“It’s not the Ritz but it’ll have to do. I
so
want you to fuck me, Sage. It’s all I’ve been thinking about for weeks,” Alex murmured, unzipping his jeans, tugging them and his silk boxers down over his hips.

His erection sprung out, ready and glistening with moisture. Sage couldn’t take his eyes off it as he yanked down his own pants. Alex reached out and pulled Sage’s shirt over his head, then slid a hand through his chest hair and his shoulders.

Sage closed his eyes at Alex’s touch, feeling himself stiffen even more, his breath ragged and deep.

“Christ, Alex,” Sage murmured, knowing his limits and conscious that he’d reached most of them. “I’m not made of bloody steel, and you’ve been driving
me
crazy for weeks as well.”

“I have to leave my shirt on, Sage.” Alex’s voice was filled with resolve. “I’m not ready to take it off yet.”

Sage nodded. “If that’s what you want.” His hands stroked Alex’s back through the fabric, feeling the play of the man’s muscles beneath his eager fingers. He pushed Alex back onto the studio couch, covering him with his own body, so the men’s cocks were sandwiched together, skin to skin, slickness to slickness.

“No foreplay needed,” Alex whispered in his ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin. “I just want to feel you inside me. It’s all I want right now.”

Sage groaned. “Alex, stop. We can’t do this without protection. I have condoms in my jeans pocket. Let me get one.” He could honestly say he’d never wanted to wear a condom less than with this man but he wasn’t going to take any chances for either of them. He hated himself for thinking it, but with Alex’s history it made sense.

Alex released him. “You
are
a good Boy Scout, Sage. Go on then.”

Sage found his jeans on the floor and scrabbled for the pocket. He wasn’t usually in the habit of carrying them around with him but since meeting Alex, he’d made sure he was prepared.

“I want to put it on you,” Alex whispered. Sage grew another inch at the thought of him performing that intimate action for him. He nodded, breaking open the packet, handing over the latex balloon. Sage groaned loudly as Alex reached out and grasped him, sliding the sheath over his cock, his hands artfully caressing him at the same time.

“Jesus, Alex,” Sage said through gritted teeth.

Alex laughed softly, releasing him, pulling him back down. His wet mouth found Sage’s. “I want you to do it from the front. Is that okay? I want to see the man I’m making love to.”

Sage nodded. It was his preference too, giving him access to his lover’s mouth, nipples and all the other erogenous spots he liked to find with his lips, although Alex’s shirt might prove a hindrance to that.

Alex lifted his legs, drawing his knees back as Sage positioned himself at the man’s hole. His cock was burning with the need to be inside Alex. Sage felt a sudden spurt of panic.

“Shit, I have no lube,” he groaned.

Alex laughed teasingly. “Then I guess we’ll just have to use self-lubrication,” he said huskily, spitting on his hands and then coating Sage’s sheath-covered cock. “It’ll be fine, honest. You won’t hurt me. It’s nothing new for me.”

Sage was now ready for him and he slid into Alex, who gripped his hips, pulling him closer.

“Oh, God, that feels really good.” Alex’s moans in Sage’s ear were an aphrodisiac as his greedy tongue nibbled his ear. Sage smelt the sandalwood essence on Alex’s skin, felt the rasp of his stubble against Sage’s own. Alex chuckled as he pushed his hips to meet Sage’s thrusts. “I can really feel you. It
is
true what they say about men with big feet.”

Sage grinned in the darkness, finding Alex’s mouth, their tongues twisting and tasting each other. His thrusts were steady and deep and he heard Alex’s moans in his mouth, sending him into an even deeper frenzy. He looked down at Alex’s flushed face, his half-closed eyes as he moved beneath him. Alex’s cock stood proud, bobbing against Sage’s body as he thrust in and Sage wished he could wrap his mouth around it at the same time he was inside Alex.

“You are something else,” Sage whispered as his mouth grazed Alex’s, his tongue teasing his lips with small licks of wet heat. Alex tried to kiss him, but Sage resisted, pulling his head away, denying him the satisfaction.

“Hell, you are such a tease,” Alex groaned and Sage took pity on him, grinding his mouth against his, tongues finding each other.

It was taking all Sage’s self-control not to come as he strained to pace himself. Alex felt just as he thought he would—tight, hot and very willing. Sage felt his skin prickling with the intensity of his contact with Alex, felt the sweat between their lower bodies mingle and smelled the musky scent of his arousal as Sage’s cock pushed deeper and deeper inside him.