Saving Alexander (2 page)

“You feel so good, Alexander. I did well.” His voice was deep and husky with desire. Alex’s buttocks rose in rhythm with Eric’s fingers toward the man who controlled him with every stroke.

Eric moved over him, covering his body. Alex winced at the pain of the lacerations and welts on his back and buttocks as he felt Eric’s hardness, slick and velvety smooth, pressing into his buttocks, teasing, not quite willing to give Alex relief.

He licked Alex’s ear, removing his fingers from Alex’s anus as his mouth sucked at the skin on the back of Alex’s neck.

Alex knew from experience he’d have bruises on his fair skin.

Alex’s cock felt ready to explode and he gritted his teeth, trying to hold it back until he was commanded to come. Eric’s fingers slid inside him again, thrusting deep. Alex bit his lip as he pressed his face even harder into the pillow.

Eric growled. “Raise yourself,” he commanded. Alex obeyed, lifting to his knees and presenting himself. His own cock stood hard and rampant against his stomach, and he wanted nothing more than to feel Eric’s hands on it, stroking it to release.

That would only come later.

Eric reached over his body to the table, taking the condom and ripping the packet. He sighed deeply.

Sheathing his cock was something Alex insisted on, despite Eric’s sulky entreaty that he was clean and had no need of condoms. Alex point blank refused to go bareback.

Finally ready, he grasped Alex’s hips, his hardness ramming into Alex’s entrance deeply from behind, filling him so completely Alex thought there was no room for any more of him. The sound of skin slapping skin as he drove into Alex echoed in the room. Alex pressed back against him, wanting more, wanting to drive him deeper and harder.

Eric grunted in satisfaction, finally taking hold of Alex’s cock with one hand as he started to work it, deep, hard strokes that Alex knew wouldn’t take long to bring to him to orgasm.

“Come, Alexander,” Eric commanded as he drove his cock into Alex. Alex’s heart beat faster, the warmth of his climax already spreading through his loins, flooding him with sheer erotic heat.

He groaned loudly into the pillow as hot spurts of his semen covered Eric’s hands, his wrists, Alex’s stomach and the sheets below. His body shuddered as Eric let go of his cock and gripped his hips tighter, going deeper, until finally he called out loudly, using Spanish words when he climaxed.

Alex felt the throbbing inside his passage as Eric collapsed, groaning, on top of him. Alex’s eyes filled with tears as he lay there under the other man’s body. Fiercely he blinked them away.

It always happened after one of his sessions with Eric. The release of his orgasm at the end of the night’s activities never completely assuaged the emptiness inside him.

Their breathing slowed and finally Eric rolled off Alex’s back, allowing him to turn over. Eric removed the semen-filled condom, tied it and placed it on the bedside table.

Alex ran his hands through the other man’s thick, short, deep-red hair, loving the crisp feel of it and marvelling once again how a man of Latin descent could have hair this colour. Eric had told Alex laughingly in one of their more playful moments that his mother had been a wild redhead from Scotland and he seemed to be a throwback to her Gaelic ancestors. It made for a very unusual and striking combination.

Eric leaned over, moving a strand of hair from Alex’s forehead. “Do you feel any better after that?” His hands caressed Alex’s chest as he slid his fingers gently across his flat stomach.

Alex sighed. “I always feel better after that. You are definitely one of the best at what you do. Perhaps I need to make it more than once a week, but I’m not sure I could afford any more.”

Eric sat up, regarding him thoughtfully. “I’ve told you before. We can take this outside our current relationship. I’m happy to see you outside of Study in Scarlet where I can give you some more personal attention.” He leered at him.

Alex shook his head. “You know my answer to that. I’m not interested in a relationship outside of Scarlet. That would be far too complicated. And I don’t like complicated.” He ignored Eric’s frown, swinging around to get off the bed to stand up. “There’s a reason I come here. It’s to keep my two lives apart—the one I choose to show to everyone and the other one that I hide inside me.”

The one he hid concealed a need he didn’t want anyone to know about.

Alex walked over to the corner of the room where his clothes lay in a heap on the floor after Eric had undressed him, or rather, ripped off his clothes. He’d lost count of how many times he’d had to replace his shirts at the buttons because of Eric’s passion but he was relieved to see this time his clothing was intact.

Alex was conscious of Eric’s eyes following his every move as he dressed. He spoke gently. “You’re very good for me. You give me what I need and take the urge away for a little while. But I need to keep it separate or God knows what’ll happen.”

He finished dressing and turned to see the mutinous look on his Eric’s face. Alex smiled. “Eric, go out and find some gorgeous bloke who’s not as fucked up as I am. He can make you happy. I can’t.”

The words rang with finality as Alex opened the door and stepped out into the dimly lit corridor of the basement of Study in Scarlet.

Chapter 2

Christopher Sage breathed in the welcome scent of warm horse, sawdust and straw as he stroked the nose of his grey mare, Tallulah Briar.

She’s bloody skittish
.
I need to keep her calm.

That was no surprise considering the wound on the horse’s side.

Better known to friends and family as Sage, the young man leaned forward as the mare snickered, moving around the stable nervously on the cool April afternoon. Sun streamed in through the thin cracks in the wood slats that made up the stable, slivers of pure light criss-crossing the ground like a tic-tac-toe template.

“Relax, Lulah, easy now.” Sage murmured to his horse, his soft, slightly lilting Irish tone soothing the anxious beast.

Miles Conway, the vet, examined a nasty gash on the horse’s left haunch. He scowled, his grizzled face close as he peered at the wound. “Keep her still, Sage,” he said quietly. “I’m nearly done.”

Sage nodded, rubbing her flanks and stroking her sides as Miles finished his inspection. The vet sighed and stood up, his hands rubbing his back as he winced. “Jesus, my boy, I’m getting too bloody old to be doing this still. I’m supposed to be retired.”

Sage chuckled. “Come on, old-timer. You live for this stuff. What’s the prognosis?”

“She’ll be fine. I’ll patch her up, give her a shot and she’ll be as good as new until the next time she runs into a bloody broken tree branch.”

Sage heaved a sigh of relief. Tallulah was his favourite. “Good. Shall I grab your bag and you can get started?”

He didn’t wait for a reply, leaving the stable with long strides across the yard, returning in a few moments with Miles’ black medical bag. Sage watched as the vet prepared the dressings. He crooned to his horse and held her halter as Miles administered an antibiotic shot deftly to her rear.

Tallulah reared slightly and Sage once more coaxed her into submission.

“You have a way with animals,” Miles said quietly. “Pity you can’t do the same tricks with your men.”

Sage scowled at his godfather, knowing the barbed comment referred to his latest breakup with a long-standing boyfriend. “Horses are easier to understand than people. They don’t need as much attention. They also don’t lie to you.”

Miles laughed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. Thirty-four years old, men throwing themselves at you and you still end up going to bed alone most nights.” He smiled slyly. “Apart from the occasional itch-scratching I’d guess. But I’m too old to remember those times. Now I’m lucky if I get to see a woman naked, let alone get into bed with her, and God forbid I actually get to do something with her.”

He shut his bag, looking at Sage, who was smiling widely.

“You’re only sixty-four, old man.” Sage loved teasing Miles. “There’s hope for you yet.”

He frowned as his mobile rang, drawing it out of his jeans pocket and answering. “Chris Sage.”

“Sage, it’s Jenny. I have great news for you, hon. That part you auditioned for in that new Moorcroft Film production? It’s yours if you want it.”

His agent’s voice was teasing. Jenny was well aware he coveted the part of the feisty and independent photographer, Carter West, who travelled the world, managing to cause havoc wherever he went. It was a part Sage knew he could really do justice to.

At her words a surge of sheer happiness flooded his body. “That’s great news, Jenny. The best I’ve had all day. Tell them of course I’ll do it. It’s a great script and the storyline is really appealing.”

Jenny chuckled. “I’m glad you’re happy. Can you come in tomorrow around ten A.M. and I’ll give you the packet and we’ll get everything formalised? I also want you to meet the writer of the series, Alexander Montgomery. He’s really keen to see you again.”

Sage remembered the man from his audition a few days ago, a rather stunning dark-haired fellow who’d stood quietly on the periphery of the set watching the performances. He hadn’t been sure what his role was in the proceedings until someone had pointed him out as the creator, the author of the books.

“Of course I will. I’ll see you at your office tomorrow morning then. Ten A.M. Cheers, Jen. You just made my bloody day.”

He finished his call, beaming from ear to ear. “I just got offered the lead part in that TV series I told you about,
Double Exposure
. We start filming in a month’s time from what I remember of the schedule.”

Miles hugged his godson with pride. “I told you they’d give it to you. They’d be fools not to. That part sounds like it was made for you.”

Sage frowned. “Strange you should say that. Apparently the writer insisted I audition. The film company already had me in mind and it was apparently written into the contract that the author have a say on the main character casting. It’s unusual but I’m not complaining.”

“Who is the author?” asked Miles.

Sage shrugged. “I don’t know much about him. His name’s Alexander Montgomery. He’s written these books and they’ve become an instant hit, so the producers sniffed around, sensing a buck or two. Now that I remember, I’ve seen some pictures of him in the entertainment magazines. He’s quite a looker with black hair and really odd eyes.”

Miles leered at him. “There you go, then. You can get stuck into that one.”

Sage grimaced. “Jesus, give it a rest, will you? After Mason I’m quite happy to vow off men for the short term. I’ll concentrate on the career and get my nooky where I can when I need it. No ties, no responsibilities.”

Closing the stall door, he gave Tallulah one final stroke on the nose before turning to Miles as he made his way to the front door of his thatched cottage.

“I suppose I need to make you tea and feed you Hobnobs before you go?” he said to Miles in resignation.

Miles nodded, rubbing his hands together in satisfaction. “That you do, lad. It’s a tradition isn’t it? You can’t break with tradition.”

Sage’s cottage was set in Finchingfield in the northwest of the county of Essex. It was a small, picturesque village and Sage owned the cottage and two acres of land. His mother and father had been killed in a plane crash when Sage had been nineteen. Luckily the life insurance payout had been generous, allowing him to keep the house and still fund his drama studies at the University of Essex.

He’d lived in this cottage all his life, with horses and various farm animals that his mother had kept. The farm animals had gone but two horses remained, Tallulah and a stallion called Mixed Jack, a huge black beast that was probably more trouble than he was worth but as he was family, Sage kept him on.

Miles had always been there for him, a surrogate father. As Sage’s career had taken off and he’d landed various roles in both London theatre productions and various mainstream TV series, Miles kept the home fires burning and looked after the two horses when Sage wasn’t around. His godfather lived only a mile down the road, in an old barn that had been converted to something fairly comfortable and modern.

Sage bent his six-foot-plus frame just to make it under the oak beams to get into the kitchen. Miles, being fairly short, had no such problem. They sat down to tea and biscuits at the old wooden table in the kitchen.

“So then, I suppose this means you’ll be in London at the film studio more often than not?” Miles looked at the younger man with raised eyebrows.

Sage looked guilty. “I suppose so. I guess I’ll stay with Dan whilst I’m there and that’ll save the commute. I’ll find out more about it when I see Jenny tomorrow morning. Apparently the writer will also be there.”

Dan Costyn was an old friend of Sage’s who lived in a fancy apartment in Chelsea and was always amenable to having Sage lodge with him.

Sage hoped fervently that Dan hadn’t shacked up with some woman since he last talked to him. He’d best call tomorrow, perhaps pop round and see him.

“So that means I’ll be taking care of the animals and the house while you’re gone.” Miles sighed in mock exasperation. “You really take the mick out of your godfather, don’t you? You think that Irish charm will get you in my good books, son?”

Sage grinned. “It’s worked for most people so far, hopefully it’ll still work on you.” His look turned serious. “I do appreciate you. I don’t know what I’d do without you being around.”

Miles shook his head. “I promised your folks I’d always take care of you. It’s no hardship, I promise.” He regarded Sage fondly. “You just get up to that studio and blow them away. You’re a fine young actor and this part could be just what you need to launch you firmly into the big time.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Didn’t you tell me this series was about some photographer chap who meets a woman through some quite dangerous circumstances and they start a relationship?”

Sage nodded. “Yes, that’s the gist of it. They meet in the hospital after being involved in a bombing, and the series is really all about all the things they have to overcome. It’s quite violent actually, with lots of action and some unexpected turns of events. I really enjoyed the books, strangely enough for what’s billed as a romantic suspense novel. The main protagonist, Carter West, the part I’ll be playing, is really quite a character. I can do a lot with him.”