The Virgin Billionaire and the Evil Twin

Ryan Field

A Ravenous Romance® Original Publication

A Ravenous Romance® Original Publication

www.ravenousromance.com

Copyright © 2011 by Ryan Field

Ravenous Romance® 100
Cummings Center
Suite 123A
Beverly, MA 01915

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60777-411-2

This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thiteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter One

Gage Weston never wore hats, especially not baseball caps. He had thick, wavy hair that he kept longer than most gay men in their late twenties did; he worked hard not to look like everyone else. He parted it in the center and bleached it himself with a drugstore frosting kit because he couldn’t afford to waste money on foil wraps in an expensive New York hair salon. He even cut it himself, with three mirrors and a cheap pair of scissors he’d purchased at a beauty supply on Broadway.

His wardrobe revolved around six white dress shirts, three pairs of jeans, and two black blazers. He owned three neckties, a pair of good black leather quarter boots, and a pair of running shoes. The black belt he owned was ten years old and his beige jeans and black dress slacks were almost twelve. Everything else in his small closet was either a castoff he’d found in a secondhand shop for less than five dollars or something he’d owned since he was a teenager.

On the morning he went to the opening of the new building for the Angel Association in the West Village, he wore a black baseball cap on purpose. He also wore a white shirt, his darkest jeans, his black quarter boots, and the newest of his black sport jackets. He wanted to look nice, because this was one of those almost-formal affairs. But he didn’t want to be recognized.

As he entered the Angel Association building, he lowered his head and pulled the brim of the cap down as low as he could, practically covering his eyes. He shoved his hands into his pockets and hunched over a little. Gage had the kind of natural walk that could turn heads even when he wasn’t trying for attention, and he wasn’t trying now. His body seemed to swagger and his hips swayed a little. An older woman in a Chinese red dress standing beside the entrance door smiled and stepped aside. He noticed the way she glanced up and down at his legs and he sent her a smile so fast his head didn’t move and the corner of his lips hardly turned up. A group of pudgy gay men in their forties standing near a refreshment table sent him quick, individual glances and gaped at his crotch as if they hadn’t seen a decent crotch in years. Gage kept walking as if he didn’t notice them. He crossed through the main lobby, lowering his head even more, and stopped behind a group of people who were listening to Luis Fortune give a speech.

Gage knew more about Luis Fortune than anyone else in the room. Luis was “married” to Jase Nicholas, who had been dubbed the Virgin Billionaire by the press because he had made his billions with his Virgin Alaskan Spring Water company. Gage had been following Luis Fortune’s life in New York for some time, ever since Luis had accidentally become mixed up in a sordid drug ring that involved Luis’s used underwear and a few older gay real-estate agents in Manhattan who had fallen on hard times. Gage had read Luis’s sappy blog posts on that ridiculous gay romance blog called Elena’s Romantic Treasures and Tidbits. He’d seen Luis’s photos in magazines for which Luis had modeled professionally more times than he cared to recall. Gage even knew Luis and Jase had a weekend house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, called Cider Mill Farm; they traveled to Alaska as much as they could to spend time with Jase’s family; and they had a preschool-aged son named Hunter who was really Jase’s biological child.

It wasn’t difficult to follow Luis Fortune’s life now that he was married to the Virgin Billionaire, especially since Luis had recently made headlines for getting involved with a shifty character named Darius-something who had been harboring a grudge against Luis Fortune for exposing an underage pornographer in Los Angeles.

When Luis Fortune started speaking about how dedicated he was to this organization, the Angel Association, and how he wanted to prevent young unwed mothers from abandoning babies on doorsteps and in Dumpsters, Gage looked down at his shoes and rolled his eyes. Gage thought the cause was worthy; he just questioned Luis Fortune’s intentions. As Luis continued, Gage yawned. Some things never changed: Luis always loved being the center of attention. Toward the end of the speech, when Luis thanked everyone who had helped him reach the point where the Angel Association could now have its own center for unwed mothers—as if the whole thing had been his sole responsibility—Gage clenched his fists in his pockets and exhaled. When Luis finally ended the long, drawn-out speech and everyone in the lobby began to applaud him, Gage bit the inside of his mouth so hard he almost drew blood.

But Gage didn’t walk up to Luis right away. He stood on the sidelines observing as people shook Luis’s hand and thanked him for everything he’d done for the Angel Association. He looked at Luis’s wide smiled and noticed how short Luis’s dark brown hair was cut. It was such a typical haircut for a young gay man in New York, with that silly little turned-up wave above his forehead, that Gage had to restrain himself from walking up to the platform and kicking Luis right in the ass. It looked as if he had his hair styled at the clip-and-dip poodle parlor. But Gage had to admit Luis’s outfit wasn’t bad. Luis wore a light brown suit and a white V-neck shirt that had probably cost him more than what Gage paid in rent that month for his studio apartment over a grocery store in Brooklyn Heights.

When the crowd finally began to dissipate and Luis kissed a thin woman with long straight black hair on the cheek, Gage squared his shoulders and crossed to the head of the platform where Luis was gathering his things to leave. The thin woman turned and walked to the back of the building, and everyone else started heading toward the exit door. Luis bent down to pick up a Gucci briefcase by the shoulder strap as Gage walked up to him and removed his baseball cap. Gage waited until Luis slipped the strap over his shoulder, without saying a word. And when Luis finally looked up and saw Gage standing there, Gage tilted his head to the side and sent Luis a blank gaze.

Luis’s head jerked back and he pressed his palm to his stomach. He said, “Eddie,” then looked Gage up and down a few times, as if to be sure he hadn’t been mistaken.

No one had called Gage by that name in at least five years. It caused a slight burn in his stomach, especially coming from his twin brother’s identical voice. But it could have been because Gage hadn’t seen his twin brother in more than ten years. If it hadn’t been for Luis’s short dark hair, it would have been like looking into a mirror. Part of the reason he’d dyed his hair blond was so he wouldn’t look anything like Luis.

Luis took a cautious step toward him and smiled. “What are you doing in New York? It’s been such a long time.” Though his voice rose with a friendly lilt, Gage detected a strong hint of reservation. “I’d almost forgotten how much we look alike.”

Gage felt a pull in his stomach. “I probably shouldn’t have come here today. It was a mistake.” He turned and started walking toward the exit, truly wishing he hadn’t gone there.

“Wait,” Luis said. “Don’t leave. It’s been a long time.”

Gage stopped walking and turned around to face him again. “It’s been more than a decade.”

Luis reached for Gage’s arm and said, “Look, my husband and son are in Alaska this week visiting family. Why don’t you come home with me and we can talk?” He glanced back and forth to be sure no one was watching them.

Gage hadn’t expected an invitation from Luis. So he thought for a moment, then nodded. “I guess I can spare a few minutes.” He figured it was the least he could do. After all, he’d been the one to approach Luis without warning.

“My driver is right outside,” Luis said in that overly friendly way he’d always had when he was trying to win someone’s trust.

Gage nodded and said, “I can only stay for a minute.” Then he put the baseball cap back on and pulled it down over his eyes so no one would notice they were twins as they walked to the car, knowing that for weeks to come, he’d probably regret the decision to go back to Luis’s home.

Chapter Two

The Virgin Billionaire’s New York residence was far less impressive than Gage would have imagined. He’d pictured something larger, with a marble entry hall, a butler, and massive crystal chandeliers hanging in every room. But this was one of those older town homes on the Upper West Side, with modest-sized rooms and sleek original hardwood floors that had been painstakingly refinished. The walls were white and the furniture was traditional, with fussy, uncomfortable chairs and antique side tables that looked very expensive. He would have imagined black leather and chrome and glass, stippled with some of that mirrored deco furniture that seemed so popular everywhere. When Luis led Gage into the living room, a small dog with a shaggy mop of blond hair on its head—but bald everywhere else—jumped off the sofa and growled. The dog glared at Gage and showed his teeth, kicking his back legs and arching his back.

“Camp,” Luis said, “knock that off and be good.” Then Luis turned to Gage and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s normally so friendly with everyone.”

Gage shrugged and looked the nasty little dog in the eye. At a glance, it would have been easy to mistake it for a rat. “If I looked like him I’d be in a bad mood, too. It’s completely bald. Is it sick?”

Luis laughed. “He’s a Chinese crested. I found him in a back alley a few years ago before I met Jase and he followed me home. I’m not even sure how old he is. That was when I was living in this very building when it was apartments. Then Jase bought the building and turned it back into a one-family home.”

The dog barked at Gage, then ran to the back of the house.

Leave it to Luis to be so politically correct he’d own a rescue dog instead of an expensive, well-bred show dog like most billionaires. “I was never a huge fan of animals,” Gage said. “I’m sure you remember. I wasn’t fond of any animal on the farm, and they felt the same way about me.”

Luis smiled. “Do you mind if we go upstairs? I’d like to change my clothes. This is the most uncomfortable suit I’ve ever worn.” He sent Gage a sarcastic grin. “I’d like to be more comfortable, like you, and put on some old shabby things.”

Luis hadn’t changed. He always knew how to use a compliment to put Gage down. Gage shrugged and followed Luis to the staircase in the entry hall. He didn’t take the reference to his old clothes as an insult. They were old clothes; he couldn’t afford to buy the clothes Luis wore. Though Luis could have been kinder, Gage had learned years ago never to expect any sincere compliments from his twin brother. They’d been at each other’s throats since the day they’d been born.

As they climbed the stairs, Gage noticed a few paintings on the wall with the names of famous artists he wouldn’t dare try to pronounce aloud in front of Luis. He remembered the way Luis had always been so culturally superior to him, always making fun of the way he spoke, laughing at how little he knew when it came to books and art. Once, when they were only about thirteen years old, riding in the car with their parents, Gage had pointed to a sign that said, “Antiques” on the side of the road. But he’d pronounced it ANN-tee-kews, and Luis laughed at him for the rest of the day. Gage learned that the less he said, the better off he’d be.

When they entered Luis’s and Jase’s bedroom, Gage remained silent. The walls were the same stark white as the first floor, the floors the same hardwood, and the furniture was just as simple. But he didn’t comment. He had a feeling this minimalist simplicity, with plain white bed linens and white sheers on the windows, was just as forced and pretentious as everything Luis had ever done in his life. All these simple American furnishings were probably rare antiques that cost as much as most regular people earned in a year. Leave it to Luis to marry a billionaire and pretend in such an understated way that he was just like everyone else. And leave it to Luis to work this hard to be tasteful and elegant. If Gage had married a billionaire, the room would have been filled with gilded mirrors, French furniture, and chandeliers dripping in crystal. There would have been red satin sheets on the bed, with several leopard pillows.

Luis opened a set of double French doors in a small hallway that led to the bathroom and said, “I can’t wait to get out of these pants and into a pair of sweats. These shoes are killing my feet. You’d think a three–thousand-dollar pair of shoes would fit perfectly. But there you are.”

Evidently, Luis needed to mention the price of his shoes.

Gage remained silent, with his hands folded below his waist, and crossed to a fireplace with a white marble surround. He’d purchased his shoes at a small shop in Brooklyn for $49.99. He looked above the mantel at an oil painting of Luis, Jase, and their son. They were all wearing matching crewneck sweaters with a tasteful little emblem just below the left shoulder. He smirked and shook his head back and forth, wondering how long it took Luis to decide on whether or not to wear simple crewneck sweaters or V-neck sweaters so they’d all look as though they’d just stepped off a yacht.

A moment later, Luis walked out of the closet wearing nothing but a skimpy black thong. He crossed to where Gage was standing and put his arms around Gage’s shoulders. He hugged Gage tightly, with his cheek pressed to his twin brother’s. Then he kissed Gage on the cheek very gently and said, “It’s so good to see you again. I think about you often. You’re my brother, the only family I have left now.”

Gage rolled his eyes and took a step back. He’d never been affectionate with Luis, and hugging his almost-naked brother made him uneasy. He remembered how Luis had always been so obvious about flaunting his naked body in front of other people. He’d been that way since they were children, without a hint of shame.

Luis turned and slowly walked to the other side of the room. He opened a cherry highboy and pulled out a pair of beige sweatpants and a black V-neck T-shirt. Then he walked to the bed and set them on the edge. When he bent over, he spread his legs slightly and Gage noticed he and Luis were identical in every single way. They had the same smooth, round ass and the exaggerated arch at the small of their backs, with two perfect dimples. They had the same legs and the same smooth skin. There wasn’t even a distinguishing birthmark that could define them as individuals.

“What are you doing in New York?” Luis asked, pulling the black shirt over his head, leaving his bottom half naked. Anyone else would have put on their pants first. But not Luis. “Are you here to see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building and all those other fun touristy things we New Yorkers never bother getting around to see?”

Gage smiled, knowing this was another subtle insult. People who didn’t know Luis very well wouldn’t have recognized it as an insult. Gage knew Luis was insinuating that Gage was just a country bumpkin from Tennessee who’d taken a bus to New York to check out the tourist attractions. “I’m afraid not, Luis. I’ve already been there and done that. I’ve been living in New York for almost five years.”

Luis stopped dressing and sent him a stunned glance. “You’ve been here for five years and you’ve never contacted me? I don’t understand.”

“We haven’t seen each other in more than ten years and you never tried to contact me, Luis,” Gage said. He noticed they even had the same well-defined stomach muscles and small, round chest muscles.

“Where do you live in New York?” Luis asked

“Brooklyn.”

“Brooklyn,” Luis said, as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.

Gage smiled, expecting this reaction. “I have a nice little studio in Brooklyn Heights, above a grocery store.”

Before Luis could reply, there was a knock on the open door and a young man with a dark beard stepped into the room. He was handsome in a rough way, and Gage wasn’t sure whether he was gay or straight. He took one look at Gage and blinked. Then he looked at Luis and shrugged.

“You’re not seeing things,” Luis said. “This is my twin brother, Eddie.” He didn’t seem the least bit awkward about walking around in a thong in front of this guy.

Gage said, “My name is Gage Weston now. I changed it when I moved to New York five years ago.” He smiled at the young man with the dark beard. “I changed it from Eddie Bowles to Gage Weston just like Luis changed his name from Freddie Bowles to Luis Fortune.”

“Don’t be so hostile, Eddie,” Luis said. “I’m sorry, Gage. This is Cory Rhodes. He works for us at our home in Bucks County. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Cory smiled and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Gage.” Then he turned to Luis and said, “I’m heading back to Cider Mill Farm now. I fixed the problem in the kitchen sink and I want to leave before the traffic gets too heavy.” He didn’t seem flustered or surprised that Luis was half naked, which made Gage wonder what the story was between them.

“Thank you, Cory,” Luis said. “I can’t thank you enough for coming into the city like this. I’ll see you this weekend. Jase and Hunter are coming home Friday and I’ll drive out before they arrive.”

Cory smiled. “I’ll see you then.” He turned to Gage and smiled. “It was nice meeting you. I can’t get over how much you look like Luis. Except for the blond hair, of course, I honestly couldn’t tell you two apart.”

Gage smiled. “I’m the nice one.”

Luis laughed. “I wasn’t going to say anything about my brother’s bleached blond hair, Cory.” He turned to Gage and stared at his head. “Why on Earth did you ever do that to your hair? It’s so brassy and it should be cut much shorter like mine. I’m afraid it’s not very becoming. I’m sure it will grow out eventually. Accidents happen. We all go through those bad hair stages.”

Gage ignored Luis’s commentary. Luis had been trying to make him feel inferior since they’d been children and he was used to it. The competition never ended. “It was nice meeting you, Cory. But I doubt you’ll be seeing much of me. I just stopped by for a moment today.” He smiled and spoke with a lighter tone. “I can only take about one visit with my twin brother every ten years. More than that, I might have to be hospitalized.”

“Ah well,” Cory said, not knowing how to reply. “I’ll see you this weekend, Luis.”

“One more thing, Cory,” Luis said. “Jase doesn’t know I have a twin brother. I like to keep the past in the past, if you know what I mean. I’m going to tell Jase eventually. But I’d rather we keep this just between us for now.” He turned to Gage and smiled. “Cory and I have a special friendship and we trust each other completely. Cory would never betray my confidence.”

Cory shrugged and said, “I know nothing at all.” Then he left the room as fast as he could and clomped down the front staircase as if running from a grenade set to explode at any moment.

“You seem so comfortable walking around half naked with your young, handsome employee,” Gage said. “Most people would have covered themselves right away.”

Luis smiled. “Cory is like family. He’s seen me naked many, many times. Like I said, he’s a very special friend. He’s the man around the house when Jase is away, and he takes very good care of me.”

“I’ll bet he does,” Gage said in a snide tone.

Luis put on his sweatpants and said, “Why on Earth are you getting so hostile? After all, if anyone should be hostile, it should be me. You’re the one who got me kicked out of the house when I was barely able to take care of myself. I’ll never forget what you did to me that day.”

Gage wouldn’t forget that day either. Luis had somehow discovered that Gage and one of the hired hands on their father’s farm were having an affair. At the time, neither brother knew the other was gay—those things were not discussed openly in their home. The hired hand, whom everyone called Snake because of the snake tattoo on his bicep, was one of those lanky, manly, bow-legged types who wore a Stetson hat and cowboy boots all the time. He had constant five o’clock shadow, a nine-inch dick, and always smelled like beer and tobacco. Gage couldn’t get enough of Snake back then. He was madly in love with him; he was the first man Gage had ever been with. Snake had screwed him from one end of the barn to the other for almost a year. When Snake wasn’t fucking Gage’s tight young ass, Gage was on his knees blowing Snake.

But Luis started having his own fling with Snake just to get even with Gage. Gage’s heart was crushed when he found out, and so he took care of things as fast as he could. He followed Luis to the barn one hot summer afternoon and watched Luis strip down for Snake. Luis removed all his clothes, even his socks, and stood in a pile of hay. When Snake pulled down his zipper and spread Luis’s legs apart, Gage went into the house and told his father something wrong was going on in the barn he needed to see. And when their father went down there and found Snake fucking Luis over a barrel as Luis begged Snake to fuck him as hard as he could, their father fired Snake on the spot and threw Luis out of the house for good that same day.

“But I guess I should thank you now, Gage,” Luis said, exaggerating Gage’s new name on purpose as if he was making fun of it. “If you hadn’t told Pop what I was doing with Snake in the barn that day, I might still be back in Tennessee working on that God-awful farm instead of being married to one of the wealthiest men on the planet, with a thriving career of my own as a model.” He turned fast and smiled. “No hard feelings here, Gage. I think everything ended well.”

Gage knew Luis was rubbing it in now, putting him down for remaining in Tennessee and helping out on the farm long after he’d left. “Well, there are still plenty of hard feelings here, Luis. Why did you invite me here? To show me how wealthy you are now? To shove it in my face?”

Luis shrugged. “I haven’t seen you in years. You’re my identical twin brother. I thought it would be nice to catch up. Why did you come back here with me if you’re still so bitter?”

“I guess I was just curious, is all,” Gage said. “I wanted to see if you were still the self-centered little prick you always were.” He turned to leave. “Now that I know you are, I think I’ll go home. Have a very nice life.” He remembered one of the things that bothered Luis the most was complete dismissal.

“Don’t be so serious,” Luis said. “It’s impossible to be so serious with a name like Gage. It sounds like the name of a porn star.” He laughed. “How would you like to have some of my old clothes? I have tons of things I’ll never wear.” He looked up and down at what Gage was wearing and frowned. “From the way it looks, you could use a little help in the fashion department. I didn’t know people were still wearing sport jackets with lapels like that. ”

Gage could have used Luis’s castoffs more than Luis even knew. He was barely able to pay his rent and eat, let alone buy new clothes at discount prices. But he wasn’t about to accept charity from Luis. “I think I’ll pass, but thanks just the same.”

“Do you go back to Tennessee often?”

“There’s no reason to go back,” Gage said.

Luis took a step closer. “What do you mean?” His tone grew more serious.

“Mom and Pop died five years ago,” Gage said. “If you’d bothered to contact them even once after you left, you would have known. Pop had a heart attack and died suddenly. Mom was diagnosed with cancer a month later and it took about a year for her to go. I took care of her until the end. When she died there were so many liens on the farm because they didn’t have medical insurance that I just decided to let it go to the creditors and move to New York and start fresh.”

Luis sat down on a trunk at the foot of the bed and set his palm on his chest. “I had no idea.”

He seemed shocked, but Gage knew Luis well enough to know he’d get over it fast enough, probably before the next new trend in jeans came along.

“I wish you’d take some of my old things,” Luis said. “They’ll only wind up going to charity.”

“I’d rather pass if it’s all the same,” Gage said. “And I really do have to leave. I have to work tonight. I’m a stripper at a small club downtown. I need those tips.” He figured he’d mention this just to see the shock on Luis’s face. When they’d been kids Luis had always been the aggressive one, looking for attention, and Gage had always been the shy one afraid to step out of his shadow.

Luis turned and looked at himself in a full-length mirror, examining his expensive designer sweatpants. “You really hate my guts, and over something that happened over ten years ago.”

“I was in love with Snake,” Gage said. “I was a virgin. He was the first. You took him just to piss me off, like you did with everything else I loved.”

Luis threw his arms up. “His name was Snake. Think about it, you idiot. He was a character from a Tennessee Williams play. He didn’t even take off his pants when he fucked me. He just pulled down his zipper and yanked out his dick. It’s not as if you had a future with a man like that. He’s probably sitting in an old recliner right now in a stained T-shirt, with a beer belly and an abused woman named Stella.”

“How do you know that?” Gage said. “He was in love with me, and I was in love with him. We were planning to run away together and start a new life. He was in a country rock band.”

“But the man didn’t shower.”

“So he had a few flaws.”

Luis rolled his eyes. “He smelled like aged cheese and wine vinegar.”

“So he wasn’t perfect.”

“I’ll say. I had to hold my nose when he pulled down his zipper.”

“He smelled like a real man,” Gage said.

“He smelled like a fucking barn on a hot day.”

“But we were in love,” Gage said. “And when you’re in love you overlook the minor flaws in a person.” Gage lifted his chin. Though he didn’t have money like Luis, at least he didn’t judge people on a superficial level.

“Well, then, you should thank me for saving your life,” Luis said, raising his voice. “Because if you’d wound up with Snake it would have left you even worse off than you are right now.”

“It wasn’t just Snake,” Gage said. “You did it to me all my life. You intentionally made me feel inferior just for sport.”

“Did Mom and Pop know Snake was fucking you back then, too?” Luis asked. “Did they know you were blowing him in the cornfield?”

“Of course not,” Gage said. “They would have hit me over the head with a Bible and thrown me out of the house with you.”

“But you didn’t have a problem outing me and getting me thrown out of the house, did you? I’ll bet they went to their graves never knowing you were gay.”

“I couldn’t tell them,” Gage said. “I wanted to tell them many times. But I couldn’t. After they kicked you out, I was all they had left. You were the favorite. You were the one with all the personality. They had to settle for me. It would have been too cruel to tell them. It would have killed them five years earlier.”

“But it was okay to toss me out on the street and let me fend for myself?” Luis said. “It was okay for me to go live with Dr. Barton, a man twice my age, until I couldn’t take it anymore and wound up running away to New York with nothing but the clothes on my back? And it was okay for me to make a living as an escort in New York, with clients in their sixties and seventies? I guess what happened to me didn’t really matter at all. The only one who ever gave me a break after I was kicked out of the house was our uncle, the one you didn’t like. But he was too sick to take me in. When he died of AIDS, before I had a chance to help him with money so he could get his HIV drugs, I was devastated.”

Gage frowned and felt a lump in his throat. “I didn’t know he died.”

“That’s because you never liked him.”

“He always favored you and ignored me.”

“I loved him,” Luis said. “It wasn’t easy on my own. When I look back, I don’t know how I did it all alone at such a young age.”

Gage looked around. “I can’t believe you’re complaining. You didn’t do too badly for yourself, Luis. You saw our options and took advantage of them. I wish I’d done the same thing, but it took me a long time to realize I had options. From what I can see you have no right to complain about anything.”

“You have no idea what it was like,” Luis said. “And it’s all because you outed me, thanks to the fact that your so-called boyfriend, Snake, who smelled like a horse’s ass, wanted me more than he wanted you.”

Gage lowered his voice and spoke in a growl. “You have no idea what it was like back in Tennessee after you left,” Gage said. “You were the favorite, and they never let me forget it. Even though I did all the dirty work after you left, they still kept looking in the mail for something from you. When nothing arrived, they took it out on me, mostly with their blank silence. I think Pop even blamed me for telling him what you were doing in the barn with Snake. I think he would have preferred not to have known.”

Luis turned and said, “Go fuck yourself, you self-righteous asshole.”

“No. You go fuck yourself,” Gage said. Then he stormed out of the bedroom and ran down the stairs so fast he took them two at a time.

Chapter Three

It took Gage almost an hour to get back to his apartment in Brooklyn Heights. He tended to stay near his own neighborhood and the neighborhood in the East Village, where he worked at a strip joint. He wasn’t familiar with the way the subways ran on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Luis didn’t offer to let his “driver” take Gage home. So Gage took the wrong train downtown and wound up in Long Island City, clutching his fists and cursing his twin brother the entire time.

Thankfully, all he had to do was cross the street in Long Island City and take another train to backtrack. He didn’t have to be at the strip joint until nine that night, and it was only four in the afternoon. But he’d only slept about three hours the night before and he wanted to take a nice long nap before work. There was nothing worse than a male stripper with dark circles and puffy bags beneath his eyes. Most of the guys he was competing with at the strip club now were in their late teens and early twenties. Gage was pushing twenty-eight and he knew the clock was ticking. Though he could still pass for a guy in his early twenties in the right light, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it forever.

When he reached his building in Brooklyn Heights, he took a deep breath and walked into a small grocery store sandwiched between a used bookstore and a dry cleaner. His studio apartment was above the grocery store and the only easy way to get to it was to walk through the store, into the back storage room, and out the back door where there was a set of wooden steps that led to the second floor. There was also a side alley, but it was very narrow and you never knew when a rat would scurry by, so Gage preferred walking through the store. Gage was the only resident who lived there. The owner of the building used the third-floor apartment as his own personal storage space and filled it, supposedly, with antique furniture and castoffs he couldn’t seem to part with.

Gage smiled at the owner of the store and said, “Hey, Billy. How are they hangin’?” Gage had been living there for five years and the grocery store had only been there three years. When Gage had rented the apartment, the storefront had been vacant. So when the landlord rented the storefront to Billy two years later, he worked out an arrangement between Gage and Billy so that Gage could gain access to his apartment at any time, even when the store was closed, so Gage wouldn’t have to walk up the narrow side alley. Billy gave Gage a key to the store and trusted him completely. Gage knew the security system code and often worked at the store part time whenever Billy needed extra help in a pinch. Gage had even filled in for Billy when Billy had the flu.

In return for the inconvenience of having to walk through a grocery store to get to his apartment, the landlord gave Gage a discount on the rent. Although there was nothing luxurious about this building or his apartment, he felt safe and comfortable there, as if it were his own little private corner of New York no one else knew about. And he was surrounded by very nice people all the time.

“Hey, Gage,” Billy said, with his usual hoarse voice. “They’re hangin, like they always hang: one lower than the other.” Billy was the type of guy who smiled more than he frowned and he treated Gage like a kid brother. The twenty-year age difference between them, and the fact that Billy had a wife and two kids, kept them from socializing often. But they both knew they had each other’s backs at all times.

Gage crossed to the rear of the store and swiped a green apple from a basket on top of the deli counter. “I’ll pay you later,” Gage said, biting into the apple. He hadn’t eaten all day and probably wouldn’t have time to eat until after work.

Billy laughed. “I’ll put it on your tab, kid.” He was slicing American cheese that day for a special he ran during week. A pound of American cheese for $2.99 brought him customers from all over Brooklyn who wound up buying other things as well.

Gage glanced down at the huge meatball sandwich next to the slicing machine and frowned. Billy weighed close to three hundred pounds and he was always eating the wrong foods. “I thought you were starting your diet this week,” Gage said, taking another bite of the apple. He wasn’t insulting him because he was fat. Gage worried more about Billy’s health than his looks.

When Billy smiled, the red sauce from the meatball sandwich on his upper lip grew wider and thinner. “I thought so, too,” he said. “I guess I’ll start tomorrow. I had a few meatballs left over from last weekend and didn’t want them to go to waste.”

Gage gave him an affectionate punch in the upper arm and said, “That’s what you always say. Fuck, Billy, I worry about you, man.” He started walking toward the backroom. He didn’t have time to stop and talk for long if he was going to take a nap.

Billy stopped slicing the cheese and lifted the sandwich. “If you ask me, you could use a sandwich like this instead of an apple.” Then he closed his eyes and bit into the sandwich with such absolute delight his eyelids fluttered.

Gage pushed the back screen door open and said, “I probably could use a few pounds, Billy. But they don’t like fat male strippers where I work. They want them young and skinny. Besides, I’m so used to starving I’ve forgotten how to eat a real meal.”

Billy knew Gage was gay and he knew what Gage did for a living and he never judged him on a moral level. But Billy often told him he had to start thinking about his future and what he was going to do with the rest of his life when it was time to stop stripping. Billy swallowed and said, “You never know. You might make more money if you put a little meat on that skinny ass. I know this guy who loves big women. Can’t get enough of them.”

“Yeah, well, most gay guys like young skinny asses better than fat asses, trust me.” Gage laughed and said, “In gay weight, I’m probably five pounds too heavy right now.”

Billy shrugged and rested the meatball sandwich on the counter. “By the way, Mr. Bousum stopped by to see you earlier.”

Gage stopped and frowned. “Did he say why?” Bousum was the landlord; no one knew his first name. They even wrote the rent checks out to “Mr. Bousum.” He rarely paid personal visits to his building. Gage always mailed him the rent check and they communicated mostly through e-mails or phone calls.

Billy started slicing more American cheese. “I asked if he had a message but he said he’d come back later and talk to you. Did you miss a rent check? If you’re having problems, I can advance you.”

“I’m good, thanks,” Gage said. “I’m all paid up.”

“I’ll let you know if he comes back today,” Billy said. He didn’t look up. He was concentrating on the slicing machine and didn’t want to lose another finger. He’d already lost part of his right middle finger the first year he’d opened the grocery store.

Gage smiled and stepped outside. “I’ll see you later, Billy. I have to get some sleep before I go to work.” He wouldn’t see Billy until morning. By the time he left for work at night, Billy would already be home with his wife, eating a huge bowl of ice cream.

“See you in the morning, kid,” Billy said.

Gage climbed the back steps two at a time, thinking about his visit with Luis. A small part of him had been hoping Luis had changed and that maybe there was hope for them as brothers. But after the way Luis had treated him that afternoon, he knew they’d never be close and there was no use trying.

When he slipped the key into the lock, he found the door to his apartment was already unlocked. He waited for a moment, trying to remember if he’d forgotten to lock the door before he’d left earlier that day. He turned the knob and pushed the door open slowly. It wasn’t a bad neighborhood, but anything could happen in New York. He stepped inside and flipped on the kitchen light switch next to the door. When he looked up, he saw Donny sitting in a club chair at the far end of the living room bedroom area.

Donny Vitelli was a guy he’d been dating regularly for about two years now, a NYC cop with thick black hair, a husky muscular body, and size thirteen feet. He stood over six feet, four inches in his bare feet and he could lift Gage up over his head and carry him around without breaking a sweat.

Gage closed the door behind him and said, “What are you doing here? I thought someone broke in. You scared me to death.” He tossed his keys on a chipped Formica counter and gazed around at his shabby, dismal surroundings. After coming from Luis’s perfectly appointed townhouse on the Upper West Side, this place looked like a dump.

“Billy let me in,” Donny said. “I asked him not to say anything. I wanted to surprise my hot young blond boy on my way to work. I don’t have to be in until eight tonight.” He stood from the chair and walked to where Gage was standing in the kitchen area. He didn’t wear a police uniform to work. Donny was a plainclothes detective and he usually wore a dark suit and tie. He rested his large palms on Gage’s small waist and said, “You look nice today. Where were you?”

Gage lifted his arms and rested his hands on Donny’s broad shoulders. He inhaled and smiled. Donny always used the same spicy aftershave and by the end of the day it had mingled with his own masculine scent, creating an aroma that made Gage’s legs go weak. “I went to a charity event in the West Village this afternoon with a friend who is into helping unwed mothers who leave their babies in Dumpsters and on doorsteps.” He didn’t want to lie. But he didn’t mention the name of the organization, nor did he mention he’d gone to see his identical twin brother who was now married to the Virgin Billionaire. Donny was one of those good-natured types who believed anything Gage told him. Though Gage could have taken advantage of this many times, he never did.

Donny’s head went down and he kissed Gage’s neck. He pulled him closer and his hands went down to Gage’s ass. “Did you have fun?”

Gage laced his fingers at the back of Donny’s neck and tipped his head to the side so Donny would continue kissing his neck. Donny was big and awkward and all man. He had a thick, dark beard. His five o’clock shadow began to surface an hour after he shaved. “I would have come back sooner if I’d known you’d be here this afternoon. I thought I wouldn’t see you again until this weekend.” Donny worked long, odd hours. That particular week he was working every night on some kind of a sting that involved a pedophile somewhere in Manhattan. He never discussed his work in detail because it was considered classified information. But he did offer basic information, which usually kept Gage up worrying at night, probably more than if he’d known exactly what Donny was doing.

Donny squeezed his ass and said, “I thought I’d stop by before I went to work and tap that ass. I also thought I’d bring you a little present.” He stepped back, pulled a small box out of his suit jacket pocket, and handed it to Gage.

“What is this?” It wasn’t a special occasion and Donny and Gage never bought each other gifts without a reason. They weren’t a clingy, hand-holding couple, sending each other mushy cards and calling each other all hours of the day. They didn’t go out to dinner often, or to nightclubs. In fact, they weren’t really a couple at all, just two people who had been seeing each other for a while and had grown very familiar. No one at work knew Donny was gay, so he and Gage kept a low profile and were never seen together in public. This arrangement suited them well.

“Open it and find out,” Donny said.

Gage gently pulled the silver gift wrap from the small box and set it on the counter beside his keys. When he opened the black velvet case and saw a diamond bracelet, he smiled and said, “This looks like it’s real.” But he wondered about wearing a diamond tennis bracelet. He wasn’t the type to wear more than a wristwatch.

“It is real,” Donny said, with a wide grin. “It’s diamond ankle bracelet. I saw it in a shop window earlier this week and thought you’d look hot wearing a diamond ankle bracelet.”

Gage set the case on the counter and threw his arms around Donny’s shoulders, relieved it was a bracelet for his ankle, not his wrist. “I love it, you big fool. It must have cost a small fortune.” Donny had always reminded Gage of a professional wrestler on TV. His chest was forty-eight inches and Gage could never wrap his arms all the way around him, but that was what Gage liked most about Donny. Gage had never been attracted to men who were built like he was, the male-model types with slim, defined bodies and narrow hips. Gage liked his men big and strong and muscular, with thighs that could crack walnuts and hands that could crush beer cans. Gage didn’t waste time in this respect. He wanted a man who could climb on top of him and overpower him in every single way. Donny Vitelli, who happened to prefer his men thin and smooth, was never shy about doing this.

“I think you’re worth it,” Donny said, reaching down to grab his ass again.

Gage reached back and took the small jewelry box from the counter, with one hand still braced on Donny’s shoulder. Then he pushed Donny gently and they slowly made their way back toward the bed. When they reached the bed, Gage placed the jewelry box on a small nightstand and started to remove Donny’s suit jacket. After that, he removed the rest of Donny’s clothes, working slowly downward, kissing Donny’s body each step of the way. Gage went down on his hands and knees and untied Donny’s size-thirteen black leather dress shoes. He slipped them off Donny’s huge feet and pulled off his black dress socks. After he kissed Donny’s feet, one toe at a time, he helped Donny step out of his pants and slowly rose to his knees. By that time Donny was only wearing white boxer shorts and his nine-inch dick was sticking out of the open fly. Gage closed his eyes and ran his tongue down the length of Donny’s shaft. He pressed his face between Donny’s solid legs and inhaled his strong musky scent. He remained this way for a moment, taking in as much of Donny as he could, then yanked Donny’s boxer shorts down his legs and helped him step out of them.

When Donny was naked and his big hairy legs were spread wide, Gage smiled and pushed him back toward the bed. Then Gage quickly removed all his clothes, tossing them in a pile on top of Donny’s. Donny sat back on his elbows with a big smile. His legs hung over the edge of the mattress just enough so his large feet couldn’t touch the floor. He watched Gage strip for him without saying a word. He gaped at Gage’s smooth naked body and licked his lips. His eyes glazed over and he eventually started choking his dick with his right fist.

When Gage was naked, he handed the diamond ankle bracelet to Donny and lifted his right leg on to the bed. He rested his foot next to Donny and said, “I want you to put it on for me.”

Donny sat up and Gage leaned into his shoulder for support. When Donny took Gage’s ankle and lifted his leg higher to he could fasten the diamond bracelet, Gage arched his foot and closed his eyes. Donny fumbled with the tiny clasp for a moment or two. But when the ankle bracelet was secure, Donny slid his large hand up Gage’s smooth leg and leaned over to bite his ankle.

After that, Gage knew exactly what to do. First he climbed on top of Donny and straddled his waist. For a minute, he rubbed Donny’s hairy chest lightly with the tips of his fingers. Then he spread his legs wide and wrapped his arms around Donny’s size-seventeen neck. When he slipped his tongue into Donny’s mouth, Donny’s hands traveled down Gage’s back and stopped at the bottom of his ass. They kissed this way, gasping for breath, as Donny spread Gage’s ass apart. Finally Donny took control and forced Gage down on his back. Donny climbed on top of Gage and pinned him to the mattress, and Gage didn’t resist. His body went limp as Donny yanked the back of his neck with one hand and shoved the back of his thigh with the other. Gage’s hands remained at the back of Donny’s neck, pulling Donny’s handsome face toward his as he let out gentle sighs and soft moans. He felt Donny poking his groin and he spread his legs wider.

They kissed and groped each other like this longer than they usually did, then Donny pulled a tube of lubricant out of the nightstand. Even though they weren’t actually a couple in the truest sense of the word, they’d agreed to remain monogamous and they’d both tested negative for HIV. Gage knew, deep down, Donny would never come out of the closet. But Gage liked being with one man at a time, and Donny treated him very well. So Gage spread his legs and closed his eyes. Donny sat back on his haunches, lathered his cock with lube, and shoved two fingers into Gage’s hole.

While Donny’s thick fingers probed Gage, opening him up so he could plunge inside fast, Gage spread his legs as wide as he could and braced his feet on Donny’s hulking chest. He liked the fact that no matter how hard he pushed against Donny’s chest, Donny never budged. When Donny looked down and saw the diamond ankle bracelet, he licked Gage’s ankle. Gage closed his eyes and smiled. He knew this ankle bracelet was partly a gift for him and partly a gift for Donny. He knew Donny had a thing about ankle bracelets and kinky things. They had a drawer filled with Donny’s kinky sex toys. Gage had once worn a thick black ankle bracelet to bed with Donny, at Donny’s request. Gage hadn’t given the ankle bracelet a second thought; he could take kink or leave it. But when Donny noticed it, he went wild that night.

Donny seemed to be going wild over the diamond ankle bracelet now. Gage didn’t mind at all because Donny knew what Gage liked, too. The relationship, though more sexual than emotional, had always worked both ways. Donny didn’t take his time entering Gage, asking for permission, trying to be a gentleman. He didn’t insert the head of his dick slowly or wedge it in with care. Donny Vitelli just grabbed his thick, slightly curved cock, with the cute little squiggly vein at the top just below the head, and shoved it into Gage’s hole fast and hard. Then he started fucking him with such intensity Gage’s arms went back over his head and bounced on the rocking mattress.

Donny slammed with such brut force his pelvis cracked against the bottom of Gage’s tiny ass so loud it would have sounded painful to passersby. The bed rocked so fast the box spring squeaked and the lamp on the nightstand vibrated. Sometimes Donny would turn Gage over and fuck him on his stomach this way, nailing him to the bed face down. Sometimes Donny fucked him on his side, with one leg high in the air. In the last two years, they’d fucked standing up and they’d fucked doggie style on the floor. There wasn’t a place in that apartment—or a position—they hadn’t tried at least two dozen times. But this particular position, with Gage on his back and Donny looking down at him and fucking him on the bed, always seemed to get them off faster than any other.

When they came this time, they didn’t even speak. There was no need for words by then. Donny squeezed Gage’s thighs tighter and started fucking harder. He looked down and gazed into Gage’s eyes, grunted a few times, and nodded up and down. Gage whimpered softly, grabbed his own dick, and nodded back at Donny, understanding without speaking. A minute after that, they came at the same time, with Donny doing one of his classic, expected moves. At the exact moment Donny and Gage climaxed in this position, Donny went up on his knees, slammed his cock into Gage’s ass as deeply as he could, and lifted the bottom half of Gage’s body two feet off the mattress. Donny showed no signs of strain; his face didn’t even turn red.

After that, Donny pulled out and fell on top of him the way he always did after they’d fucked in this position. Donny always asked, “Am I too heavy for you?” And Gage always replied, “Of course you’re not too heavy, you big fool. You feel good on top of me.” Then Gage would wrap his arms around Donny’s shoulders and wrap his legs around Donny’s waist. He would close his eyes for a while, trying to catch his breath. They would remain this way, as they did that late afternoon, without saying a word to each other, until they either fell asleep in each other’s arms or they were forced to get up because they had to go somewhere.

Chapter Four

After a two-hour nap, Gage opened his eyes and noticed it was already dark outside. Summer had turned into fall and Gage hadn’t even noticed it until now. He glanced over Donny’s hulking shoulders at a small digital clock on the nightstand and saw it was after seven. Gage was flat on his back and Donny was face down with half his naked body covering Gage’s. They often fell asleep together in this position and Gage never minded it in the least. He liked the way Donny pinned him down, as if Donny were taking ownership and no one else could come near him. Gage didn’t feel that kind of security often. Most of the time he was worrying about his dwindling tips at work, getting older, and how he was going to manage to pull together enough money to pay for his cell phone after all his other monthly expenses had been paid.

He ran his palm up and down Donny’s naked back lightly, then reached down with his other hand to hold Donny’s balls. They were large and filled his hand. He squeezed gently and said, “You have to get up now. You have to go to work.” He felt the bracelet slide down on his ankle and he smiled.

Donny groaned and spread his legs a little wider so Gage would continue squeezing him. Donny was fond of this kind of quiet attention; he loved being treated like a big baby. He pulled Gage closer to his chest and said, “I hate to get up now. I wish we could just stay like this for the rest of the night.”

Gage smiled. He wished they could too. He wished they could be a real couple, but knew it would never happen. “We both have to go to work. My tips have been awful. And you’ll barely have enough time for a shower.” Gage didn’t have to be at work until nine, so he had plenty of time. But he didn’t want to show up with puffy eyes and swollen lips. He’d started using a new bronzer he thought made him look a few years younger. And he’d been looking into Botox treatments.

“I’m not going to shower tonight,” Donny said, bucking his hips into Gage’s side. He was almost fully erect now and ready to go again.

“You’re not going to shower?”

Donny lifted his huge leg, threw it over Gage’s lower half, and rolled on top of him. “I want to smell like I’ve been fucking you for hours.”

Gage’s legs parted and he wrapped his arms around Donny’s shoulders. “You have been fucking me for hours.” He always took a quick breath when it occurred to him he was lying beneath a man this large and this strong.

“And I’m going to fuck you one more time before I leave.”

“What if I don’t want you to fuck me again?” He tried to close he legs but Donny pushed into his groin with more force.

Donny smiled. “You know you want it.”

He opened his legs, lifted them higher, and said, “I guess I don’t have a choice.”

Donny moved his hips forward and pressed the head of his dick to Gage’s opening. This time he didn’t bother with lube. With one hard thrust, Donny entered him dry and Gage let out a small whimper. Then Gage spread his legs wider and Donny started sliding in and out of his body. Gage wasn’t in pain; his muscles were still relaxed from the previous session. In this traditional missionary position, all Gage had to do was remain on his back and take whatever Donny had to give him without moving a single muscle.

Gage closed his eyes and threw his head back as Donny pounded him with a distinct, even rhythm. The old bed began to squeak again and the nightstand wobbled with a repetitive click. The heat from Donny’s solid body and the friction Donny was creating at the lowest spot between Gage’s legs made Gage break out in a sweat. Droplets came from his forehead and trickled down the sides of his face. Donny was sweating, too. Gage could feel the wetness from Donny’s torso against his. He could smell the strong scent coming from Donny’s underarms, mingling with the spicy deodorant Donny had used that day. Donny was the only man who had ever fucked him this way without making it awkward; as if Gage were a woman and Donny was fucking his vagina instead of his anus. Most of the guys Gage had been with in the past preferred to fuck him doggie style, or to have Gage on top straddling their hips. But not Donny Vitelli. He wanted to be on top and in complete control at all times.

This time they only fucked for about fifteen minutes. Before Donny climaxed, he wrapped his arms around Gage’s shoulders and held him so tightly Gage could barely lower his right hand to jack his own dick. Each time Donny slammed into him, going as deeply as he could possibly go without splitting him wide open, Gage winced and the back of the bed hit the wall. There had been times when Gage had been amazed his small opening could accommodate such a violent intrusion. But he never complained, and he never asked Donny to slow down. By the time they both climaxed together a second time, their hearts racing and their bodies dripping with sweat, Gage wound up biting Donny’s bicep and moaning so much that if anyone outside had been listening they would have thought Donny was hurting him instead of driving him toward the best climax he’d had in weeks.

After they came, Gage lowered his legs. Donny kissed him and fell on top of him again, remaining inside until he’d deposited everything he had to offer. A minute or two later, Donny pulled out and climbed off the bed. Gage took one look at him, standing beside the bed naked, and laughed.

Donny bent down and started searching for his underwear. “What are you laughing at?”

Gage climbed out of bed to help him find his clothes. He switched on a small lamp beside the bed and said, “You look like one of those big, confused football players who can’t find his jock strap on the locker room floor.”

Donny dropped his boxer shorts and reached for Gage’s slim waist. He pulled Gage up against his slightly hairy chest with a rough jerk, and wrapped his arms around him. “Is there anything wrong with that? Last time I wore a jock strap you couldn’t stop chewing it.”

Gage tried to push him away, but Donny was far too strong for him and Donny knew it. “Let go of me, you big idiot. We both have to get dressed.” Sometimes he liked playing around this way more than the actual sex they shared. There was an unspoken connection between them, creating a sense of urgency and subliminal ecstasy at the same time—something Gage would have had trouble explaining to anyone. But he knew it was there; he could feel the connection through every nerve ending in his body whenever Donny touched his flesh. Yet they’d never actually defined their relationship in words. They’d never made plans for the future to live together as a couple and they’d never spoken a word about where they were going to wind up eventually. It was partly because Donny was afraid of coming out of the closet and partly because Gage wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to commit to one man. So it was better to leave things unsaid for the time being. The relationship worked well without having to talk too much about it.

Donny kissed him one last time that night, then slapped Gage’s ass hard and pushed him back. He picked up his underwear and socks at the same time and started to get dressed for work. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” Donny said. “I’m working late every night this week until we wrap up this case.”

“I’ll get dressed and walk you downstairs,” Gage said. “Billy has probably closed the store by now and I’ll let you out.”

But when they went downstairs and Gage unlocked the door to the shop, he found his landlord, Mr. Bousum, standing outside. If Gage had known ahead of time, he would have put on a shirt and a pair of shoes.

Mr. Bousum cracked a thin, crooked smile and said, “I’ve been calling you all day but you didn’t answer. I have to talk to you about something very important.”

“I’ve never been a slave to my cell phone,” Gage said, folding his arms across his chest, staring down at Mr. Bousum.

Then the landlord and Donny exchanged glances and Donny said goodnight to Gage. Gage didn’t introduce Donny to the landlord and Donny didn’t seem to care. Gage’s landlord was an older gay man and Gage knew there was no need to explain why Donny had come to visit.

When Donny was down the street and out of listening distance, Mr. Bousum sent Gage a smirk. He glanced over his shoulder, watching Donny head down the street with heavy steps, and said, “You certainly are a lucky young man. That guy is the great dark man who never comes along that Quentin Crisp was talking about years ago. I’d hold on to him for as long as I could, if I were you.” He spoke with a quiver in his voice that was almost as thin as his lips.

Gage had no idea what he was talking about. He’d never heard of Quentin Crisp. He didn’t feel very lucky that night, especially not after his visit with this twin brother. If anything, Gage felt slightly insulted by the way Mr. Bousum was referring to Donny as a piece of meat. “He’s a very good friend, Mr. Bousum.” He wanted to tell the old goat Donny was a highly respected detective in the NYPD, but didn’t want to out Donny by accident.

Mr. Bousum ran his thin fingers across his long narrow jaw and smiled. “I’m sure he’s a very good friend.” Then he looked up and down at Donny’s half-naked body and laughed.

Donny folded his arms across his bare chest and frowned. “Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Bousum?” He knew his rent was paid for the next two weeks. He had no idea why Bousum was there.

“Can I step inside for a moment?” the old man asked. He was wearing his typical brown tweed jacket and brown wool slacks. Gage would have guessed neither had been dry cleaned in years. All he needed were a pair of suede elbow patches to finish the look of eccentric old queen with a snarky attitude and quick, vicious tongue.

Gage stepped aside and gestured the old man into the dark grocery store. “I’m afraid I don’t have much time, Mr. Bousum. I have to be at work soon.”

The old man stepped into the store and turned to face him. “This won’t take long. I’m afraid your lease is up at the end of the month and I’m going to have to ask you to vacate the apartment. I tried e-mailing you two weeks ago, but you never replied.”

Gage’s heart dropped to his stomach. His face grew hot and he pressed his palm to his chest. He hadn’t checked his e-mail account in over a month. He didn’t own a computer and he went to the library to check e-mails once every two weeks. And there was never anything very important. “Leave?”

“I’m afraid so,” Mr. Bousum said. “It’s nothing personal. I explained everything in the e-mails. My disabled niece needs an apartment and I can’t say no. She’s deaf and mute and doesn’t go out often. Her mother, my sister, is re-marrying and we all think it’s best for my niece to have a place of her own now. She can’t afford much. She’s on permanent government disability. So I said she could take your apartment.”

Gage took a step back. His heart began to race. “But you can’t give her my apartment. Give her the apartment on the third floor. No one goes up there. It’s been vacant for years.” He kept his voice low and even, but a sense of panic started to build so fast he felt lightheaded. He’d never be able to find an apartment this cheap in New York. Even if he could afford something else, he’d never be able to find it in such a short period of time.

The old man shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t let her use the apartment on the third floor. It’s where I store all my things.”

“Can you put your things in storage?” Gage asked. “If your niece is disabled, I can look out for her if she’s in the third-floor apartment.”

The old man frowned. “I don’t usually go into explanations about this, but I feel I owe you at least that.” He cleared his throat. “The apartment on the third floor was once a playroom of sorts.”

“A playroom?” This was getting bizarre. Gage didn’t know the old guy had kids.

“You see,” Mr. Bousum said, “My dear departed partner, Albert, and I made amateur films up there.” He leaned forward and whispered this next part, even though there was no one around to overhear him. “We made pornographic films, with leather and whips and chains. The entire place is filled with kink and sex toys, including a cage for prison fantasies. Albert had a penchant for things of that sort. He loved prison sex. It was almost a shame he was such a good, decent man who never committed a crime in his life.” Bousum smiled. “He would have loved a couple of years of hard time with burly, sweating convicts.”

“A cage?”

Bousum shrugged and looked down at his shoes. “My late partner was into bondage and discipline. He even went so far as to have the entire apartment soundproofed so no one outside could hear anything that was going on inside. None of the films we made ever took off or made money. But we did have a lot of fun making them, let me tell you.” He sent Gage a sideways glance and winked.

Gage closed his eyes and shook his head. “I thought there were priceless antiques up there. Why on Earth would you keep all that bondage and discipline stuff up there this long when you could have been renting the place out?”

The old man shrugged again. “Sentimental reasons, I guess,” he said. “I just can’t stand the thought of clearing it out. It will probably remain that way until the day I die. Then I don’t care who finds out about it.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Bousum,” Gage said. “I just don’t see how I can find another place and move so fast. I’ve been a good tenant. I’ve always paid my rent on time, sometimes two months in advance. I’ve never called once and complained. Whenever a pipe breaks I call the plumber myself. You can’t do this to me.”

Mr. Bousum shrugged. “I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry. You have been a good tenant. But I have to think of my family first. My sister has a chance to start a new life and she won’t be able to do that with my niece around. This apartment is perfect for my niece. She rarely goes out during the day. She’s never learned to mainstream well. And she’ll never have to worry about groceries with a grocery store right downstairs. It’s the perfect arrangement for everyone. I did give you written notice in an e-mail a month before the lease expired.”

“It’s the perfect arrangement for everyone except for me,” Gage said.

“I’m sorry, but your lease is up, and I have to think about my family. My sister has been through a rough time and I can’t turn my back on her.”

Gage turned and pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead. He started to pace up and down the first aisle, between the packaged goods and a refrigerated dairy case. There was no way he could find another apartment that fast. He didn’t have enough money for the first and last months’ rent. “Can we do this, Mr. Bousum? If I can’t find anything in the next two weeks, can I live temporarily in the apartment on the third floor?” He started to panic, knowing Bousum wasn’t going to change his mind about letting his niece take over his apartment.

Mr. Bousum lowered his eyelids and scowled. “I don’t know about that. I’m not sure it’s even legal to rent an apartment that way.”

“Look, Mr. Bousum, you have to give me a break here.” Gage turned his back on him and took a deep breath. He hated flirting with older men to get what he wanted, but this situation called for extreme measures. So with his back turned, he unbuttoned his pants and pulled the zipper down. Then he tugged on his pants and lowered them to the middle of his slim hips. When he turned around, he sent Mr. Bousum an innocent, sultry smile and said, “Please, Mr. Bousum, can’t I stay there for a while? At least until I can find a decent place to live?” He stepped forward and his pants slid lower. He felt them slide down his hips and he did nothing to stop them. “I promise I won’t be there longer than six months.”

Mr. Bousum gaped at his drooping pants. Gage wasn’t wearing underwear. “Ah well, I suppose you can stay there temporarily.” He pressed his palm to his throat and took a quick breath.

Gage knew he had him where he wanted him. There were very few gay men Bousum’s age who cold resist a little show and tell. So, to close the deal without any questions, he took another step forward and let his pants fall to his knees. The old man’s head jerked and Gage stood still for a moment, pretending to be surprised. Then he reached down, grabbed the waistband of his pants, and said, “I’m so sorry. I can’t seem to keep these pants on, no matter how hard I try.” He pulled them up slowly, shoving his genitals back inside with care so Mr. Bousum wouldn’t miss anything. He didn’t fasten the button and he didn’t pull up the zipper.

Mr. Bousum rubbed his jaw and exhaled. He smiled and said, “I always find wearing a belt helps keep my pants up, young man.”

Gage returned the smile. He moved closer to Mr. Bousum and reached for his hand. He took it gently and said, “Are you going to charge me the full rent up on the third floor while I’m there temporarily?” He figured that as long as Mr. Bousum had dropped this bomb of an announcement in his lap without warning, he might as well get a discount on the soundproof sex room. This way he could save up for a better apartment while he lived there.

“I can’t let you live there for free,” Bousum said, squaring his shoulders, trying hard to pretend Gage’s sexual advances weren’t influencing him. “I’ll only charge you half the rent you were paying on the second floor. But I don’t want you there for long. I never intended to rent that apartment out to anyone.”

“I won’t be there long,” Gage said. “I’ll only be there long enough to find another place.”

Mr. Bousum took back his hand and turned to leave. “Just be sure you’re all cleared out by the first of the month so my niece can move in. I trust you and I’m not even going to come by and check it out. You can continue to send the rent check to the same address. We won’t need a lease this time. I’d rather go month to month. I keep a hidden key on a small hook behind the railing next to the door, and I don’t want anything touched up there. I keep the electric turned on all the time in case I want to stop by, so that’s included in the rent just like your old apartment. If you need me, you can e-mail me.”

As Bousum stepped outside, Gage said, “I’ll do that. I won’t touch anything in the third-floor apartment. I’ll leave it just the way I found it.” But that was all he said. He didn’t thank the old man for letting him stay in the third-floor apartment and he didn’t wish him a good night. Gage’s chest was still pounding and his head was still spinning about losing his apartment without notice. He was so sick and tired of everyone dumping on him all the time. He kicked the dairy case so hard with his bare foot he thought he broke his big toe.

* * * *

Things didn’t get any better when Gage went to work later that night. Thanks to his conversation with Mr. Bousum, he didn’t arrive at the strip joint until almost nine o’clock. When he did, the owner of the club was waiting for him in the large open rear dressing room where all the strippers hung out at the same time before their performances. When the other guys saw Gage enter, they all exchanged quiet glances and left fast, as if they knew something Gage didn’t know.

Gage’s boss, a fat, bald guy everyone called Mr. Cline, remained seated on a tall stool near a long mirror that was surrounded with light bulbs. Every third or fourth light bulb was burned out, and had been that way since Gage had started working there five years earlier.

Gage rushed to a dressing table and dropped his backpack on a chair. He wasn’t one of those strippers with a gimmick and a costume. He usually just walked out on the stage, slowly removed his street clothes, and performed as if he were stripping on a subway platform. He’d learned that most of the customers appreciated it when he kept his show real, especially when he let them slide their hands down his G-string for a quick feel when no one was looking. “I’m sorry I’m late, Mr. Cline. But I’ll be ready on time.” From what he saw as he’d jogged through the bar, it was a packed house, which meant he’d be getting a lot of tips that night.

Mr. Cline stood up and smiled. “Take your time, Gage. I hired three new boys today and they’ll be going out first. You won’t have to go out for at least a couple of hours.”

Gage’s chest caved in. He stopped moving and turned to face his boss. “I don’t understand. I always open.”

“Look,” Mr. Cline said, gazing down at his lap. “It’s like this, Gage. You’ve been working here for a long time and everyone who started with you is now gone. Business has been slow lately and I decided to hire a few more guys younger than you.”

“I’m only twenty-eight years old,” Gage said.

“In this business that’s not considered young. The clients want them in their late teens and early twenties. When you’re pushing thirty and you’re a stripper, it’s time to start thinking about the future.”

“That’s age discrimination,” Gage said. “It’s against the law. You could be sued for this.”

Cline laughed. “This isn’t a union job. You’re not working for the state. You’re working for me, a poor bastard running his own business and trying to pay for his own medical insurance. What do you think you’re going to get, collective bargaining? You’re a stripper, not a schoolteacher.”

“So you’re firing me,” Gage said. He felt a burn in his stomach.

“Of course not,” Mr. Cline said. “You’re a great guy. I’m just cutting back on your stage time. I may even let you work at the bar mixing drinks. This way you can pursue other things and give the younger guys a chance. We all have to keep moving forward.” He laughed again. “Maybe you can go back to school and become a teacher.”

Gage looked down at the crooked hardwood floor. This place was even more of a dump than his apartment in Brooklyn. He couldn’t say he was stunned by the news. He’d seen it coming for a while but he hadn’t paid attention to it. He was afraid to ask the next question. “How much of my stage time are you cutting?”

Mr. Cline hesitated for a moment. Then he looked up and rubbed his jaw. “You’ll only have to work part time. Maybe one or two nights a week. I’ve wanted to make these changes for a while now. Eventually, you’ll understand this is the best thing for you.”

When Cline made this announcement, Gage’s head jerked back. If he hadn’t lost his apartment that night, he may have reacted differently. If his twin brother hadn’t treated him with such disdain, he might have taken this news in his stride. But it felt as if the entire world had decided to kick him into the ground and he was tired of sitting back and taking it. So he grabbed his backpack from the chair and glared at Mr. Cline. He lowered his tone and said, “Eventually, you’ll wind up getting kicked in the ass by one of these younger guys. They don’t give a damn about you or this club. For most of them this job is just a stopover until something better comes along. They all think they’re too good to be strippers for too long. I’ve seen so many come and go over the years I stopped getting friendly with them years ago. Eventually, you’ll drop dead and I’ll piss on your grave.” Then he turned fast and headed toward the exit, without waiting for Mr. Cline’s reply. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a few of the younger strippers eavesdropping from behind a shabby black curtain. When Gage glanced in their direction, they giggled and jumped back.

“Don’t leave this way, Gage,” Mr. Cline called after him. “I didn’t mean you had to stop working completely. A lot of the regular clients still come here just to see you.”

Gage shouted over his shoulder, “I know that better than you do. Good luck.”

He didn’t stop walking until he was out of the club and he’d reached the end of the block. His head was spinning by then and he wasn’t sure where to go or what to do. He felt even worse than the time his parents died and left him with nothing but a broken-down, mortgaged-to-the-hilt farm and more debts than he’d ever imagined. This time he was pushing thirty and wasn’t trained or skilled to do anything but take off his pants and wiggle his ass for other men. He couldn’t call Donny and tell him what had happened. He and Donny weren’t partners in a committed, defined relationship and he didn’t want to cross the line. He thought about going to another strip club and auditioning for a job that same night. He knew he could at least lie about his age and pass for twenty-three instead of twenty-eight. But after what Cline had just told him, he was terrified to have someone else tell him he was too old.

So he didn’t go to another strip club and he didn’t audition for another job. Instead, he pulled his cell phone out of his back pack and dialed his twin brother’s phone number. He had a basic plan, but he wasn’t sure what he was going to say. All he knew was that son-of-a-bitch Luis was rolling around in billions of dollars and Gage was scraping his pockets for dimes. Gage had been the one to care for their parents in the end, not Luis. Gage had been the one who’d given up the best years of his life, not Luis. And it just wasn’t fair.

Chapter Five

When the phone rang, Luis thought it was Jase calling from Alaska. He was just getting out of the bathtub and there were still suds on his body from the bubble bath he’d used. He rarely took bubble baths because he never had enough time to indulge himself. But with Jase and Hunter in Alaska visiting Jase’s family, Luis had decided to pamper himself a little that night. He’d been hoping a nice hot bath would calm his nerves a little, too. His stomach had been turning since his twin brother, Eddie, who now referred to himself as Gage Weston, stormed out of the house earlier that afternoon, leaving them with unfinished business once again.

Luis reached for the phone he’d placed on the marble vanity in the bathroom in case Jase called and said hello. He grabbed a thick white towel with his other hand and started patting a mound of bubbles between his smooth, wet legs. He was hoping it would be Jase and they could have phone sex. He felt sexy standing there naked with bubbles dripping down his ass.

But it was a bad connection and Luis had to ask twice, “Who is this?”

“I said, it’s your brother, asshole.”

“Eddie,” Luis said. “Is that you? Where are you? We have a bad connection and I can hardly hear you.” He wiped a few bubbles on his ass and set the towel on the marble vanity. The minute he knew it was his twin brother, he’d stopped feeling sexy.

“I need to see you tonight,” Gage said. Though the connection was terrible, Luis picked up a hint of panic in his brother’s voice.

“I just stepped out of the bath tub,” Luis said. “I’m dripping in bubbles and I was just going to go to bed. Can’t this wait until tomorrow?” The last thing Luis wanted that night was another bad scene with his brother.

“It can’t wait,” Gage said. “I need you to come to my apartment. Be there by midnight.”

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Luis asked.

“I don’t want to get into it on the phone,” Gage said. “Just be at my door by midnight.” Then Gage rattled off his Brooklyn address and said he’d be waiting for him inside the grocery store.

“I can’t come to Brooklyn at this hour,” Luis said. “I never go to neighborhoods like that at this hour.” He knew he was being vicious with that comment. If it had been anyone else calling, Luis wouldn’t have thought twice about going to Brooklyn. He had good friends in Brooklyn; he loved Brooklyn. But he wanted to hurt Gage’s feelings and he wasn’t even sure why. They’d been this way with each other all their lives, constantly competing, always trying to hurt each other. Now that Luis knew his twin brother couldn’t even begin to compete with him financially, Luis took advantage of the opportunity to make him feel like a failure.

“What’s the matter, Mrs. Virgin Billionaire?” Gage asked. “Are you too good to come to Brooklyn? Are you too important to socialize with peasants like me?”

Luis sighed. He decided to take a different approach. “Don’t be an idiot. I don’t know my way around down there,” he said. “I’ll get lost.”

“Take a taxi,” Gage said. “Don’t give me that bullshit innocent act you use with everyone else. I don’t buy it. If you can figure out a way to leave home at seventeen years old and survive by moving in with a man twice your age, then figure out how to leave him and move to New York and survive on your own, you can certainly find your way to Brooklyn tonight.”

Luis thought for a moment. Maybe his brother was in trouble and was too proud to admit it over the telephone. Maybe he needed money. So Luis exhaled and said, “I’ll be there at midnight.”

When Luis agreed to come to Brooklyn, Gage didn’t even reply. He just hung up and left Luis dangling on the other end of the phone. Luis stood there gazing into the mirror for a moment, watching a small mound of disintegrating bubbles slide down his flat stomach. Then he picked up the towel again and finished drying his wet body.

He dressed quickly that night, but made sure he looked as good as he could. Even now, after not seeing his brother for so many years, he felt the need to compete by looking better than his brother and wearing one of his most expensive designer shirts. This shirt was black with thin gray pinstripes. Luis knew it wouldn’t take much to look better than his brother since his brother had bleached his hair that brassy shade of blond. Normally, for a trip like this, Luis would have worn sweatpants and sneakers. He wouldn’t have spent twenty minutes in front of the bathroom mirror making sure the little turned-up wave above his forehead stood at a perfect angle. He wouldn’t have tried on four different pairs of jeans to find the one perfect pair that made his ass look the best. And he wouldn’t have worn his brand-new Prada shoes to meet someone at a small grocery store in Brooklyn in the middle of the night.

As he put on his shoes, he wished Jase was home. Though Jase wouldn’t have gone with him to Brooklyn because someone would have had to remain at home with Hunter, Jase would have offered him advice and calmed his nerves. Luis would have been able to explain all about his family and how it had been growing up in Tennessee to Jase. Luis had never done this with Jase, not in detail anyway. He’d told Jase all about his past with regard to Dr. Barton and the time he’d spent working as a high-priced escort when he’d first come to New York. But he’d never mentioned anything in detail about his family or growing up in Tennessee. He’d told Jase his mother and father kicked him out after they caught him with a man in the barn. He’d told Jase his parents were religious Bible fanatics and they wanted nothing to do with a gay son. But he’d never gone into any details about what had happened back then, or that the man he’d been caught sleeping with was his identical twin brother’s lover. Jase knew nothing about Gage’s ongoing, consensual affair with a smooth-talking, slim-hipped farmhand named Snake. But more than that, Jase had no idea Luis even had an identical twin brother who now went by the name of Gage Weston.

It was a part of Luis’s life that caused him so much pain and confusion he’d chosen to forget about it and move forward with his life. But now he saw he’d made a mistake. He should have told Jase all about his twin brother, and he should have mentioned what had happened with the guy named Snake. He vowed that when Jase returned from Alaska, he’d tell him everything.

Luis stood up and crossed to a full-length mirror near his dressing room. He turned sideways and glanced at the way his ass rounded out in the tight jeans he’d chosen to wear that night. He told himself he wouldn’t be condescending and he would treat his brother like he treated everyone else in his life: with respect and love. But he knew it wouldn’t be easy to do; he wasn’t even certain he could do this. His twin brother was the one person in his life who could turn him into a petty, jealous monster. But Luis didn’t want to be that way anymore. He wanted a relationship with his brother. So he took a deep breath, reached for a black leather jacket he’d tossed over a chair, and turned off the bedroom lights. On his way downstairs, he stopped and patted his dog, Camp, on top of the head and said, “You be good. I’ll be home in a few hours.” The little dog barked twice and Luis smiled. Then he headed outside, walked up to the avenue, and lifted his arm to hail a cab that would take him to Brooklyn.

Chapter Six

After he hung up with Luis, Gage walked to a drugstore and bought a kit of dark brown hair dye. He paid so fast he didn’t bother waiting for a bag or a receipt. He didn’t take his change. He just shoved the hair color box into his backpack and left the clerk in the store gaping after him. He walked at a brisk pace to the subway with his head up high and his jaw set, slipping in between passersby. He had a lot to do before Luis arrived at his apartment and there wasn’t much time. If his plan was going to work, he had to stick to a schedule. It was almost ten o’clock and he knew Luis wouldn’t be on time. Luis had always been late for everything, as if he were too grand to actually arrive anywhere on time. The little bastard had been like that since they were children, and Gage assumed nothing had changed.

When he arrived at his building in Brooklyn, Gage ran through the grocery store and jogged up the back steps. It was almost ten thirty by then and he didn’t have a moment to waste. He yanked off his clothes, left them in a pile on the floor, and pulled the hair color kit out of his backpack. Then he went into the bathroom naked, quickly read over the directions on the hair color package, and applied the hair color to his already bleached head. He knew it wouldn’t take long to process the darker color over the blond, probably less than fifteen minutes to get his hair back to its original dark brown. While he was waiting to rinse his head, he went back into the main living space and picked up all his clothes. He folded them neatly and placed them on a top shelf in his small closet beside the bed. After that, he straightened up the rest of the place so Luis wouldn’t think he was both poor and messy.

He rinsed the excess color out of his hair at the kitchen sink and wiped the dark spots on the counter clean. Then he stood in front of the bathroom mirror with a pair of scissors and gazed at his wet, dark brown hair. His hair hadn’t been this color in almost five years, not since his mother died and he’d moved to New York. He hardly even recognized himself. When he looked down at the scissors, he bit his lip and inhaled. It wasn’t hard to visualize Luis’s short haircut with the turned-up little wave above his forehead. Every gay man under forty in New York had the same haircut. Gage wasn’t worried about making a mess of the job. He’d been cutting his own hair for years because he couldn’t afford expensive salons, so he knew what he was doing. He opened his medicine cabinet door slightly so he could see the back of his head through a few mirrors he’d hung on a wall next to the bathroom sink. All he had to do was tilt his head at just the right angle and bend down a little, and he had a perfect view of the back of his head.

When there was more hair on the bathroom floor than on Gage’s head, he glanced into the mirror and sighed. Though his hair had only been medium long, his head felt slightly lighter. But the haircut looked very professional, if he did say so himself. He looked good with short, dark hair, only he didn’t feel like the same person anymore. But he knew he didn’t have time to think about that now. He still had to clean up the bathroom and work on that silly little turned-up wave above his forehead so he could go downstairs and meet Luis at the door.

As he’d predicted, Luis didn’t show up until about fifteen minutes after midnight. Gage had been standing there in a short black bathrobe waiting for him since midnight. The taxi pulled up to the curb in front of the grocery store and Luis climbed out of the backseat. From what Gage could see through the door, Luis handed the driver cash to make sure he’d wait for him. It looked like a fifty-dollar bill; it could have been more, but Gage doubted it would be less. This was something Gage had never done in his life. Fifty dollars to Gage meant paying the cell phone bill or getting new soles on his good dress shoes. Fifty bucks was a lot of money to someone who lived above a grocery store in Brooklyn. But to Luis it seemed like nothing. He just pulled the money out of his pocket, flipped it toward the cab driver with a casual smile, and never gave it a second thought.

As Luis approached the storefront, Gage set his jaw and opened the door. “You’re late, as usual,” Gage said. “But I’m not surprised. You never cared about making other people wait for you. You were always too grand to be on time, always too important to rush for anyone but yourself.”

Luis crossed through the doorway and sighed. “I told myself before I left the house I was going to be nice to you. I said I’d be nice if it killed me. But I see now it was pointless of me to ever expect we could be civil with each other. We’re going to regress back to our childhood tonight like we always do. If I’d known, I would have taken a pill.” He spoke with a disinterested, deadpan tone, as if all this was boring him to death. Then he looked up and down at Gage’s bathrobe and frowned. “I see this is a casual meeting.”

Gage frowned. “Very casual.”

Luis sent him a quick glance. “You changed your hair.”

Gage smiled. “Do you like it? I wanted it to look just like yours.”

“It’s does you a world of good,” Luis said. “That brassy bleached blond, messy-looking, porn-star haircut you had earlier today was so bad it hurt my feelings.” Then Luis sighed. “At least now we look like identical twins again. Maybe there’s still hope for you after all. Maybe I can be a positive influence on you. I was hoping for that when I saw you this afternoon.”

It was typical of Luis. He actually thought Gage wanted to be like him, and that he’d cut his hair so he’d look like him. Gage snorted and said, “I’m glad you approve. You know how I live to please you, Luis.”

Luis looked at his watch, an expensive piece with a diamond-encircled face. “Can we please get down to business? I’m supposed to drive out to Bucks County tomorrow for the weekend. Jase and Hunter will be arriving tomorrow night and I wanted to get a fresh start early in the morning. I took a short break from my modeling career this fall to be home with my son. We had a few nasty problems with a male nanny I hired last summer and Jase and I decided it was best for me to take off until I find another nanny for Hunter. So I’ve been throwing myself into projects at Cider Mill Farm to keep busy.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Gage said. “I don’t want to hear about your nanny problems.” He’d already read about the nanny named Darius and the underage pornographer.

Luis rolled his eyes. “I’m sure you don’t. So can we get down to business? Why am I here?”

Gage locked the front door and escorted Luis through the store. When they reached the storage room where the back door led outside to Gage’s steps, he caught Luis looking up and down with his palm pressed to his chest. Gage smiled and said, “What’s wrong?”

“You actually live here?”

“Follow me,” Gage said. “My apartment is on the second floor and the only way to get there is through the store.” He knew it would be a waste of time to mention he liked living there, with his friend Billy who owned the grocery store, and his lover, Donny, who dropped by all the time. Luis never understood the simple things in life.

Luis followed Gage up the wooden steps and into the studio apartment. When Gage closed the door behind them and he noticed Luis’s expression, he smiled and said, “It’s a shit hole, isn’t it? I’m sure you’re wondering how anyone could live here.”

“It’s homey,” Luis allowed, as he ran his fingertips across the top of Gage’s dusty old television set. “I haven’t seen a TV like this in years. It’s so big and boxy and retro. Wherever did you find it? In an Ann-tee-kew shop?” He sent Gage a condescending glance.

Gage shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “Go ahead, Luis. Laugh at me all you want. I could have fucked my way through life like you did. I could have sucked off every rich old man who came along. But I decided to work for a living on my own two feet, instead of on my back with my legs up in the air.”

Luis turned fast. “You have no right to say something like that. I never slept with anyone I didn’t have feelings for. I never had sex with any of the older men I escorted. You have no idea how much Jase and I love each other or what we’ve been through. I didn’t marry Jase for money. I married him because I love him.”

Gage walked to the other side of the room. “Spare me the melodramatic details, Luis. I know you too well. I’ve seen this act before too many times.” He gestured to an old maroon club chair next to a lopsided rock maple dresser where he kept sex toys in the top drawer. “Why don’t you sit down?”

Luis crossed the room slowly and sat on the edge of the maroon chair, as if sitting all the way back would ruin his expensive jeans. “Why did you ask me here tonight?”

Gage sat on a bench to the right of the old dresser. He smiled and said, “I didn’t ask you to come. I ordered you to come.”

“This is getting tired, Gage,” Luis said, looking down at his lap. “If you don’t get to the point, I’m going to leave. I have better things to do with my time than argue with you. When you feel like having a grown-up conversation with me, I’ll be more than happy to listen. But this is just ridiculous. I have a very full life now.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Gage said in a deep, low voice. He clenched his fists and held them close to his sides. “You’re still the same whiny little bastard you always were. Oh, I know, everyone thinks you’re sweet Luis Fortune, married to the Virgin Billionaire. I’ve read all your blog posts on that ridiculous website, where they post so-called artistic gay nudes and review gay books and movies. Every time I read one of your posts I have to force myself not to gag. It’s so bad I can’t eat for at least an hour before or after.”

“I’ll have you know I’m the most popular guest blogger on that site! I get tons of fan mail all the time.”

Gage twirled his finger. “Tell someone who cares.”

Luis moved forward, as if he were about to get up. “I’m leaving. This is a waste of time. There’s obviously no use talking to you. There never was.”

Gage stood up and pushed him back in the chair. “Sit still. I’m not finished with you yet, bitch.” He walked back to the bench and sat down. “I’m curious about a few things.”

“Like what?”

“How long were you fucking Snake behind my back?” Gage asked.

Luis rolled his eyes. “Does it really matter? The guy was trash.”

“Yes, it matters,” Gage said. “It matters to me.” His face softened and he turned to the left. “We were in love. Snake promised me he’d take me away from that horrible farm. We didn’t just have sex. We weren’t fuck buddies. We made love to each other. He was my very first love.”

“He fucked you just like he fucked me,” Luis said, raising his voice. “The only thing he wanted was a piece of ass. Grow up already, Gage. He wasn’t going to take you away with him. The only thing he wanted to do was tap your ass. He didn’t make love to you. And when he found out he could fuck us both, he couldn’t get enough. How can you not see that? I’ll admit he was a good fuck, and certainly not the kind of man anyone in their right mind would throw out of bed. But he never had any intention to take you away with him. Both of us were nothing more to him than a notch in his belt.”

“You always did know how to twist things around,” Gage said. “You know it was nothing like that. You’re jealous because he loved me and he didn’t love you.”

“He seduced me,” Luis said. “I didn’t seduce him. He approached me first. And he told me the same things, that he was going to take me away and we’d spend the rest of our lives together. Only I was smart enough to know it was a lie.”

“How long were you seeing him?” Gage asked. “I want to know.”

“If you must know, it lasted about a year.”

“A year?”

“I didn’t want to say anything,” Luis said in an exasperated tone. “But you didn’t give me any choice.”

“All the time, you knew I was in love with him,” Gage said. “You knew I was sleeping with him, too.”

“You’re the one who told on us,” Luis said. “You’re the one who got Snake fired and got me kicked off the farm when you sent Pop down to find us in the barn.”

“I didn’t have any other choice,” Gage said. “When I found out he was screwing you, I lost my mind.” He felt like he was losing his mind all over again. The room started to spin, his face grew hot, and he felt lightheaded.

Luis closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “I was young. What else can I say? I was young and confused. I knew it wasn’t right, but he was so good looking, and I enjoyed it so much. I don’t know. Maybe I did get some pleasure in knowing you were sleeping with him first. We were always competing, always fighting to get attention.” He looked into Gage’s eyes and said, “Maybe things can be different now. Maybe we can stop competing and be real brothers. I’ve never even told Jase about you, and I should have done that a long time ago.”

Gage clenched his fists. “You whore.”

Luis glared at Gage. “You lifted your legs for him just as often as I did,” he said. “You’re just as much of a whore as I was. At least I cleaned up my act and moved on. You’re still whoring your ass to make a living, working in some trashy strip club, wiggling your ass in front of all kinds of men. You have no right to judge me or point fingers at me.”

But Gage thought he had every right in the world, especially now that he didn’t have a job, he was losing his apartment, and his entire life was falling down around him. He didn’t have many options left. So he reached down and grabbed Luis by the collar. He lifted him off the chair and hit him right in the mouth. “I’ve been dying to do that for years,” he said, noticing a drop of blood at the corner of Luis’s mouth. “I should have done it long before now.” He’d been planning all along to hit him over the head with something, but it felt so much better with his fist.

Luis’s eyes bulged and he lunged at Gage, which was something Gage hadn’t expected Luis to do. Luis had never been an aggressive fighter; he’d always backed away from physical confrontation. Luis grabbed the back of Gage’s head with one hand and punched him in the stomach with the other, leaving Gage out of breath and absolutely stunned.

After that move, it was as if they’d plunged back into their pre-teenage years all over again. They started throwing fists and hitting each other as hard as they could. They knocked over a table beside the maroon chair and wound up rolling around on the floor. Gage’s short black bathrobe opened wide and Luis ripped it off his back, leaving Gage stark naked and even more vulnerable. At one point, Luis grabbed Gage by the throat and pinned him to the floor with strength Gage hadn’t anticipated. As Gage kicked, Luis climbed on top of his brother’s naked, writhing body, straddled his waist, and started choking his neck. But Gage knew he was a better fighter, and slightly stronger than Luis. He’d always been more physical and athletic, and Luis had always been softer and more refined. So Gage clenched his teeth and pushed Luis off his naked body. Even the thought of being naked and this close to his vile twin brother twisted his stomach into knots. He stood up on his feet and braced his fists for more. Luis crawled for a moment, then stood up with both fists clenched for combat.

But this time, when Luis lifted his arm to throw the last punch at his brother, Gage swung at Luis first. He hit him in the jaw and knocked him out cold. Luis went down so fast, and with such force, he landed on the maroon chair with his head slumped forward and his arms hanging limp over the sides of the chair. At first, Gage thought he’d killed him. But then he checked Luis’s pulse and confirmed he was just unconscious.

Chapter Seven

Before Luis regained consciousness, Gage removed all of his twin brother’s clothes as quickly as he could. The only thing he didn’t remove was Luis’s expensive watch; the heavy, garish watch made Gage’s stomach turn. When he unzipped Luis’s tight jeans and pulled them down to his ankles, Gage was not as surprised as most people would have been when the back of his hand brushed against Luis’s bare ass. He knew Luis rarely wore underwear. Gage remembered that when they were growing up, their mother used to argue with Luis all the time because he refused to wear underwear. Luis always said it made him feel confined and uncomfortable. Their mother would just shake her head and laugh it off, calling Luis her naughty little boy.

When Luis was naked, still slumped forward in the chair and unconscious, Gage picked up his short black bathrobe from the floor and put it on Luis’s body without tying it shut. Then Gage pulled two sets of handcuffs out of the top drawer of the dresser where he kept the sex toys he used with Donny. They weren’t just any old flimsy sex handcuffs from a sex shop. These handcuffs were the real thing, given to Gage as a gift from his cop boyfriend, Donny Vitelli. They were older models, castoffs that the cops didn’t use anymore. But Gage knew they were very strong, from the many times Donny had handcuffed his wrists and ankles to the bedposts and fucked him into oblivion. Both sets of handcuffs had two sets of keys.

Gage fastened the handcuffs to Luis’s wrists and ankles, then pulled out another sex toy he’d used many times with Donny Vitelli. This toy had come from a sex shop in the East Village. It had a black ball attached to a rubber strap. The ball fit into his mouth and Donny would tighten the strap around his head so he couldn’t speak during sex. Donny loved to dominate him completely, and Gage had always been willing to accommodate all of Donny’s wishes in bed. In fact, Gage enjoyed being bound and gagged by Donny. He wouldn’t have trusted anyone else in the world to do it. But with Donny, in its own peculiar way, this bondage and discipline turned out to be one of the few romantic experiences they shared. It was their own special brand of sex, just something between them no one else ever had to know about, which made it extremely personal for Gage.

Gage felt a burn in his stomach as he shoved the black ball into his twin brother’s mouth and fastened the straps at the back of his head. Gage had a basic plan, but not a definite plan. He wanted to get even with Luis for stealing his boyfriend and altering the course of his life ten years earlier, but he wasn’t sure how far he’d go.

Gage had to get even. If Luis hadn’t stabbed him in the back by sleeping with Snake, everything would have turned out differently. Gage wouldn’t have wound up taking care of his sick mother without an ounce of support from his flighty, selfish twin brother. He wouldn’t have had to lie to his mother on her deathbed and tell her Luis had called and said he loved her just to make his mother feel better.

Gage bit his bottom lip as he fastened the black strap at the back of Luis’s head, making sure the gag was in place. Gage knew it wasn’t painful because Donny had fastened the strap just as tightly to his head many times. But when Gage realized he wasn’t sure when he’d see Donny Vitelli next, a thought that hadn’t occurred to him until now, a feeling of extreme sadness passed through his entire body. More than that, Gage hated to waste his most romantic toys with his twin brother, especially the gag and handcuffs. He should have thought ahead and had ropes and duct tape handy.

When the gag in Luis’s mouth was set tightly in place, Luis slowly regained consciousness. He lifted his head and looked up at Gage. When he tried to speak, nothing but a few quiet groans came from his mouth. Luis looked down and noticed his wrists and ankles were bound together and he couldn’t move. His eyes opened wide and his head went back as if he were in a state of panic.

Gage was still naked. He put his hands on his hips and smiled down at his twin brother. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not exactly sure yet what I’m going to do with you. So stop that annoying moaning, stop trying to move, and just try to relax.”

Luis wiggled around and tried to move forward so he could stand up. But he toppled over and landed on the floor with his face beside Gage’s bare feet.

Gage glanced down and shook his head. “I told you not to move,” he said. “You never did listen to anyone, always wanted to do things your way, no matter what anyone thought. Some things never change, Luis.”

Luis looked up at him and moaned again. He seemed to be pleading with his eyes.

But as Gage was about to reply, there was a knock on his door and he turned fast. For a moment, Luis and Gage both stopped moving. Luis’s eyes darted back and forth and he took a quick breath through his nose. Gage had no idea who could be there at this hour. The only one who knew about the narrow path that led back to his apartment between his building and the building next door was Donny, and Donny was supposed to be at work, dealing with that important case he couldn’t talk about.

There was another knock and a deep voice said, “Hey, it’s Donny. Let me in.”

Gage glanced down at Luis and said, “Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you. And don’t try anything. He’s a friend of mine. I’ll get rid of him.”

“Hey,” Donny shouted through the locked door. “What’s going on in there? If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you had another guy in there.”

Luis rolled his eyes; he did know better.

Gage smiled and said, “I’ll be right there, Donny.” Then he looked down at his twin brother and said, “Keep your mouth shut. I’m warning you.” For added effect, he pressed the sole of his bare foot to Luis’s cheek. “Are you going to be good?”

Luis closed his eyes and nodded, with Gage’s foot pressed against his cheek.

Then Gage turned and walked toward the door. He fastened the chain lock before he unlocked the door so Donny couldn’t come in or see anything that was going on inside. Gage didn’t want Donny to even glimpse his new hairstyle. If he did, Gage knew there would be too many questions. “What are you doing here at this hour? You’re supposed to be working.”

Donny pushed the door forward and said, “We wrapped up this case tonight and I figured I’d come by and surprise you.” His large hand wrapped around the door and he pushed forward. “Let me in. You’re freaking me out now.”

“I can’t,” Gage said, feeling his chest cave in. He’d never turned down Donny before. He’d always been there to submit to Donny’s every request and desire, even when he didn’t feel like it.

“Why? What’s going on?” Donny’s voice contained a hint of disappointment now. “Are you okay?”

Gage glanced back toward his living room bedroom area and rolled his eyes. All he could see were Luis’s cuffed ankles and his bare legs. “I’m fine,” he said. “But I’m coming down with a bad cold, is all. I took some medicine and all I want to do is sleep. I’m sorry.”

“You were fine earlier.”

“I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure,” Gage said. “But on the way home from work every muscle in my body started to ache. And I look terrible right now.”

“Well, let me in and I’ll take care of you,” Donny said. “I’ll put you to bed and make you tea in the morning.”

“No,” Gage said, with an abrupt tone. “I want to be alone.”

Donny hesitated for a moment, as if Gage’s tone had hurt his feelings. Then, in a lower voice, he said, “Are you sure you’re okay? This isn’t like you.”

“I’m fine,” Gage said, trying to make his voice as reassuring as possible. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Okay?” Then he pushed the door hard, closed it right in Donny’s face, and clicked the lock fast so Donny couldn’t open it again.

When Donny jiggled the knob and noticed it was locked, he must have turned and headed back down the wooden steps; he didn’t say another word. Gage heard his heavy footsteps and he sank back into the door and sighed. Gage pictured Donny sulking on his way down the steps, with his shoulders slumped and his head bowed down. He had strong feelings for Donny, but had always known deep down they didn’t have a future. For as nice and as wonderful as Donny was, Gage had a feeling Donny would wind up living his entire life in the closet and keeping a male lover on the side so none of the other cops, or his Catholic Italian family, found out he was gay. Even though Gage had strong feelings for Donny, the thought of living the rest of his life in this same situation with Donny, in a broken-down Brooklyn apartment above a grocery store, just barely scraping by to make ends meet, seemed dismal at best. There had to be something more, and Gage knew a good opportunity when he saw one.

So he crossed back to where he’d left Luis lying on the floor and said, “I have big plans for you, bitch. Oh, you have no idea the things we’ll do together now.” Then, as Luis watched with bulging eyes, Gage gathered up the clothing he’d removed from Luis’s body and put them on himself. He was silently amazed at the way five-hundred-dollar jeans fit his small ass so well. When he slipped his feet into Luis’s soft leather shoes, they felt as if they’d been custom made.

When he was dressed, he looked outside and saw the taxi was still waiting in front of the shop. He knew he had to deal with this, so he reached into Luis’s back pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. He gaped at the handful of cash for a moment, counting more than five hundred dollars in twenties and fifties, then smiled at Luis and said, “I’ll be back.”

He ran down the back steps and into the grocery store. Before he went outside to the curb, he stopped and glanced in the dairy case window to be sure his hair looked right and his clothes weren’t rumpled and crooked. He twisted the little turned-up wave above his forehead and opened the door. Then he walked over to the taxi, handed the driver two fifty-dollar bills, and said, “I’ll be a few more minutes. Can you please wait?” He lowered his eyelids and flirted with the driver. When he handed the driver the money, he made sure his fingers brushed against the driver’s big, thick fingers. He’d noticed the driver staring between his legs and he figured he’d take advantage of the opportunity now that he was pretending to be Luis.

The driver took the money and stared at it. Then he smiled and said, “I’ll be right here,” without even noticing it really wasn’t Luis anymore. He even winked and added, “I’ll wait for you forever, baby.” Then he looked down between Gage’s legs and ran his tongue across his bottom lip.

Gage nodded and said, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” There was something about this taxi driver that made him pause. He noticed the driver spoke with an accent he couldn’t pinpoint, and he had those dark, scruffy good looks that always made Gage look twice.

The driver spread his legs wider and said, “I’ll be here.”

Gage tapped the roof and turned to go back to his apartment, feeling vindicated because the taxi driver hadn’t noticed anything unusual, and because he knew the driver was watching his ass as he walked back to his building. When he was in the store, he ran all the way back and up the steps, taking two steps at a time. Before he went back to his own apartment, he went up to the apartment on the third floor and found the hidden key his landlord had told him about. He opened the door to the vacant, sound proof apartment above his and left it wide open. Then he returned to his own apartment, where he found that Luis had crawled halfway across the room. Luis was on the kitchen floor now, working his way toward the door, trying to make an escape.

Gage sent his twin brother a disappointed glance and said, “I told you to stay where you were. You never did listen to anyone. You always did exactly as you wanted all your life. And now it’s my turn.”

Without waiting for Luis to moan, Gage bent down and scooped his brother up in his arms. He carried Luis up to the third floor and focused on his footing so they both wouldn’t wind up falling down three flights of steps. When they were inside the apartment, Gage set Luis down on the floor beside the refrigerator. From what Gage could see, this studio apartment was the exact replica of his. You walked into the kitchen first, the bathroom was to the left, and the living room-bedroom area was in the back. This was really the front of the building because it looked out to the street. Gage switched on the dim kitchen light and looked around. The floors were the same old scuffed hardwood, the twenty-year-old appliances exact duplicates of the appliances in Gage’s apartment. Even the fake marble Formica countertop was the same.

But as Gage moved forward and crossed into the living room-bedroom area of this third-floor apartment, he noticed that was where everything changed. He switched on the overhead light and blinked. A row of red spotlights illuminated above his head. The walls were littered with whips, straps, chains, and dildos in all sizes and colors. There was a shelf lined with butt plugs and a row of hooks beneath the shelf supporting leather chaps, vests, and garter belts. On the floor, he saw another row of kinky leather boots and high heels. When he looked to the right, where the bed was supposed to be, he saw a leather sling suspended from the ceiling, three or four wooden torture devices, thick chains hanging from the ceiling, and a long cushion on a low platform covered with black rubber fitted sheets. When he gazed right and he saw a large cage that resembled an actual jail cell from the Old West, he pressed his palm to his throat and gulped. His landlord hadn’t been joking around about this place. The door to the cage was open and there was a set of keys attached to a large metal ring hanging from the latch.

Gage walked closer and stepped into the cage. On the right, he saw a twin-sized bed with more black rubber sheets, a small nightstand, and a pile of rumpled black covers that looked as if they hadn’t been laundered in years. To the left, he noticed a rust-stained toilet, a grimy urinal, and a small sink. He flushed the toilet and turned on the faucets. The sink and toilet both worked. Then he examined all four sides of the jail cell to be sure it was secure. When he was certain no one could escape from that jail cell, he carried his twin brother inside, set him on the twin bed, and went back outside. By that time, Luis wasn’t wiggling or moaning anymore. He just watched and followed Gage around the room, as if waiting to see what he’d do next.

Gage locked the door to the jail and tugged on it hard to be sure it worked. After that, he walked around the exterior of the jail cell and slid his hands in between the bars. He pulled keys out of his pocket and removed the cuffs from Luis’s ankles and wrists, then removed the gag with the black leather ball.

When Luis could speak and walk again, he jumped up from the bed and ran to the door of the jail cell. The short black robe opened wide and exposed Luis’s naked body. “You’re insane,” he said. “Let me out of here or I’ll call the police and have you arrested, you fucking asshole. What on Earth is going through your mind?”

Gage smiled and walked to the front of the jail. He stepped back and leaned into the wall opposite the cage door. He crossed his feet at the ankles and said, “Temper, temper, Luis. It’s my turn now. I’m tired of watching you get everything you ever wanted and all I get is dumped on. I’m tired of you having all the luck and me being the loser all the time. This was going to be my new apartment, but now it’s going to be yours for a while. I’m tired of you rubbing everything you have in my face. You’ve been doing it all your life, and now it’s time for you to see how it feels to be me.”

“I’ll scream,” Luis said. Evidently he knew he couldn’t get out. “Someone will hear me and call for help.”

“The entire place is soundproof,” Gage said. “This used to be where my landlord and his dearly departed lover made kinky movies. You should feel right at home now. To bad I couldn’t find good old Snake and lock him up with you in here. That would really make me smile.”

“Have you lost your mind, seriously?” Luis said. “You can’t go around kidnapping people and locking them up in cages.” He lowered his voice and spread his arms out wide. “Don’t do this, please, Eddie.”

“I told you my name is Gage, not Eddie.” Then he smiled and said, “But that doesn’t really matter anymore because I’m going to go by the name of Luis now.”

Luis took a few steps back and sighed. He tightened the drawstring on his robe and lowered his tone. “Look, Gage, this is wrong. You’re my brother. If I’ve done anything to offend you or upset you, I’m sorry. I mean that. But please let me out of here. I’ll die in here. Is that what you want? Are you trying to kill me?” He stopped talking and pressed his palm to his mouth. “Do you hate me that much?”

“Oh, stop being so goddamn dramatic, Luis,” Gage said. “I’m not trying to kill you, and you’re not going to die in here. I’m going to take very good care of you while you’re in here. Starting tomorrow morning, I’m going to bring you food, entertainment, and plenty of things to keep you busy. Think of it as a vacation. And while you’re in here relaxing, I’ll be out there finding out what it’s like to be married to the Virgin Billionaire. I’ve always wanted to be a billionaire, and now I have the chance.”

“You won’t get away with it,” Luis said. “Jase will know. You can’t fool him. Jase and I have a bond and it’s stronger than you realize. We love each other.”

Gage sent Luis a smile. “We’ll see about that, won’t we?”

“If you let me out now,” Luis said, “you won’t get into any trouble. I promise I won’t call the police. I’ll help you, Gage. I promise I will.”

Gage clenched his fists. “I’m tired and I want my turn now. When you ruined my relationship with Snake, you ruined my life. I wouldn’t have done that to you, Luis. I wouldn’t have stolen your lover away. But you didn’t think twice about doing it to me, and it’s altered my entire life.”

Luis shrugged his shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know how much you loved him. I thought you’d get over it. I thought he was a bum.”

“Well, I didn’t get over it, Luis,” Gage said. “When I saw you this afternoon for the first time in ten years and I realized how you ruined my life, it all came rushing back to me. If you hadn’t done what you did with Snake, my entire life would have turned out differently.”

“Listen to what you’re saying,” Luis said. “You’re not an old man. You still have time to have a wonderful life. But if you kill me, it’s all over. You’ll wind up going to jail for the rest of your life. And I know you, Gage. I know you can’t live with that on your conscience. Besides, think about what all those men in prison would do to you.”

Gage sent him a serious glance. “I told you I’m not going to kill you. I’m just going to have some fun with you, is all. I want you to know what it’s like to suffer for a while. I want to even the score. And I want you to know what it’s like to be me for a change.”

“I’ll give you money,” Luis said. “I’ll give you anything you want. Just let me go.”

“It’s not about money all the time Luis,” Gage said. “It’s not about designer clothes, expensive cars, large homes, or jewelry. Sometimes it’s more than that.”

Luis’s voice became stronger. “I know that better than anyone. I don’t care about money. I care about Jase and my son, and my life. I love them more than anything else in the world. I’d give up everything I own to keep my life with them safe.”

“Yeah, right,” Gage said. Did Luis really think he’d believe this line of bullshit?

Luis looked down at his bare feet. “I have a child who loves and depends on me,” he said. “I have a husband who loves me very much. Don’t do this to them.”

Gage waved his arm and turned to leave. “I’m not hurting them. If anything, I’m going to take very good care of the Virgin Billionaire in ways you couldn’t even imagine. By the time I’m finished with Jase Nicholas, he’ll be wishing he’d married me instead of you.”

“Don’t leave me here,” Luis said. “Please don’t leave me here. I’ll die here.”

Gage continued walking. “You’ll be fine. You have water, a nice bathroom, and a comfy little bed. I’ll be back in the morning with clean towels and plenty of food before I leave for my weekend in the country with Jase.”

Then Gage walked outside, locked the door, and went down to check that his own apartment door was locked. He didn’t expect Donny back; no one ever visited him without notice. For the first time in his life he felt as if things were looking up for him. And it wasn’t because he was married to the Virgin Billionaire now. It was because his twin brother, Luis, was finally about to get what he deserved.

Chapter Eight

When Gage climbed into the back seat of the taxi that had been waiting outside for more than an hour, the driver turned halfway around and looked him up and down. “Where to?” he asked in a deep, hoarse voice and a thick, heavy accent Gage still couldn’t identify. It could have been Middle Eastern, but Gage had never been good with things like that. All he knew was there was a sexy guy with dark hair in the front seat sending him sultry glances, and that was enough for Gage.

Gage smiled and said, “Home, now, where you picked me up earlier, on the Upper West Side.” He knew Luis and Jase lived on 95th Street, near Riverside Drive, but he wasn’t sure about the exact address. But he shouldn’t have been worried. The driver didn’t seem interested in anything but the way Gage’s jeans pulled across his thighs.

The driver turned slightly more toward Gage and smiled. Gage noticed he had dark, dangerous eyes, almost black. He had thick black hair styled to look messy on top. “Maybe I won’t charge you for the ride back,” he said. “I feel guilty after taking so much in tips from a nice-looking guy like you. You’ve been very generous to me.” Then, very slowly, his lifted his left arm, slipped it through a window divider, and reached for Gage’s knee. He squeezed his knee a couple of times, smiled, then moved his palm higher so he could fondle the inside of Gage’s thigh.

Gage looked down at the driver’s large, strong hand and parted his legs a little, inviting him to go higher. His fingers were thick and he had those wide, flat fingernails that men with extra-big dicks usually have. “I’m very thankful to you for waiting as long as you did,” Gage said, moving forward an inch or two so the driver could continue to feel up his leg. “Most drivers would have left me stranded here all alone.”

His hand went higher and stopped at Gage’s upper thigh. “I’d never do that.” He bit his bottom lip and squeezed harder.

Gage took a quick breath and his eyelids fluttered. Even though this sort of thing happened to him all the time with men, he usually ignored their advances. Male strippers learn early not to mingle with their customers. But now that he was pretending to be Luis, he wanted to see how far this taxi driver would go. Gage wanted him to not only keep feeling his leg, but to jump into the back seat and pull down his pants. There was something about this guy’s dark black hair and the dark, wiry stubble on his face that made Gage’s jeans grow tighter. From what Gage could see, the guy wore stained jeans with threadbare knees and a red plaid shirt. His foreign accent and his deep sexy eyes had an irresistible quality Gage didn’t see very often. Although he was strong and rough around the edges, there was also something quiet and reserved about him. He seemed to be the kind of man who took what he wanted, but also the kind of man who treated what he took with great care. The higher his hand went up Gage’s leg, the faster Gage’s heart started to race.

So Gage decided to do something he normally wouldn’t have done if he’d been living his real life instead of Luis’s life now. He spread his legs a little wider and said, “Why don’t we go someplace quiet before you drop me off at home? I’d like to thank you again for waiting so long for me. And this time I’d like to thank you in a way you won’t forget.”

The driver sat up and smiled. He nodded and said, “I know a place not far from here.” Without waiting for Gage to reply, he turned around, pulled his arm back through the opening, and sped off with a loud screech and a jerk that made Gage fall back into the seat.

A few minutes after that, the excited driver parked the taxi between two large trucks in the parking lot of a warehouse near a waterfront area with which Gage wasn’t familiar. Then he got out, opened the back door, climbed into the back seat and literally crawled on top of Gage’s body. Gage went down on his back and submitted completely, noticing the driver’s thin, sinewy body and his thick neck. This guy wasn’t even husky, the way Gage liked his men, but there was something about him that made Gage lose his breath and submit completely. In less than a minute after climbing on top of Gage, the driver pulled Gage’s shirt up over his head without asking for permission, then pulled Gage’s pants down to his knees. His big hands went in all directions, groping Gage’s smooth ass, pressing into the two dimples at the small of Gage’s back.

Gage put his arms around the guy’s shoulders and they kissed for a few minutes. Just as Gage had predicted, the guy’s rough beard scratched his smooth skin; his hands were rough like fine sandpaper. This guy was good with his hands without trying too hard. The natural, unplanned way he held Gage in his strong arms, with such force and determination, made Gage moan quietly as their tongues locked and their chests heaved. Gage’s legs went up and he spread them wider, caressing the back of the driver’s soft dark head.

Oh, Gage knew this was wrong on so many levels. He’d just locked his twin brother in a kinky sex cage without even a set plan for the future. He’d assumed his twin brother’s identity and wasn’t even certain he could pull it off. Now Gage was cheating on his almost-boyfriend, Donny the cop, with a dark stranger he’d just met, who spoke with a thick accent and made Gage’s knees go weak with emotion.

But Gage was having so much fun in the backseat of this taxi cab, arching his back and inhaling the driver’s masculine scent, he stopped kissing for a moment and said, “Take off my shoes, my socks, and my pants. I want to be completely naked when you fuck me.”

When the driver heard he was going to fuck Gage that night in the back seat of his taxi, he didn’t hesitate. He removed all of Gage’s clothing with his big fumbling hands, then pulled down his own zipper. When his cock fell out of his pants and naked Gage saw how long and dark and thick it was, Gage held it in his right palm and stroked it as gently as he could. There was enough length to wrap both hands around the shaft, and enough girth so his fingers didn’t meet. Gage was still on his back, with one bare foot resting on top of the back seat and the other resting on top of the front seat. Gage noticed the ankle bracelet on his right ankle, but the driver didn’t seem to care at all. The driver with the dark dick was kneeling between Gage’s legs on the seat, fully clothed, reaching for something in his back pocket while Gage stroked him slowly. When the driver pulled a condom out of his back pocket, Gage smiled and said, “Let me put it on for you.” He had a feeling this guy would enjoy this almost as much as he was about to enjoy fucking Gage’s tight hole.

Gage lowered his legs, sat up, and took the small condom package from the driver’s hands. He guided the driver into a sitting position, gently caressing his chest, and tore the small package open. When Gage placed the unrolled condom on the head of the driver’s dick, he bent down between the driver’s legs and pressed his lips against the rolled edge of the condom. The driver moaned and opened his legs wider so Gage could unroll the condom down his shaft with his mouth. The driver rested one hand on the back of Gage’s head and the other on Gage’s bare ass so he could slide his middle finger into Gage’s body. Gage moved forward so the driver wouldn’t have to stretch too far to play with his hole. With the driver’s condom-covered dick halfway in his mouth, Gage arched his back and took the driver’s entire finger.

But by the time the condom was on the driver’s dick, they were both breathing too fast to slow down. The driver pulled his finger out, grabbed the back of Gage’s neck, and guided Gage onto his lap so Gage would be facing him. Gage followed his moves, as if they were gliding across a dance floor and the driver was leading. The driver moved forward and slumped down in the seat as Gage straddled his hips to find the right position. The guy’s old jeans felt soft and smooth against Gage’s naked thighs. When he found the perfect position, Gage sat on the guy so fast the initial thrust flooded the lower half of Gage’s naked body with so much pain that he went lightheaded for a moment. But the pain didn’t last long, and it wasn’t bad pain at all. They moved faster now. The driver immediately grabbed Gage’s hips and started bucking his own. Gage started rocking his hips back and forth, pressing the lower half of his body into the driver’s soft jeans so the driver would remain as deeply buried in his hole as he could.

This was the first time since Gage had been with Snake, the hired hand on his father’s farm, he’d felt so reckless and free with his body. This was the first time since Snake he’d wanted a man to treat him with as much tenderness as he did force. It felt as if time had stopped and nothing else mattered. The fact that Gage and this man were total strangers and they were fucking in the back seat of a taxi in a parking lot created an element of danger Gage hadn’t experienced since Snake had fucked him in his father’s barn. And Gage and this total stranger went at it with such enthusiasm, anyone watching outside from a distance would have thought there was something seriously wrong inside that rocking, bouncing taxi. But anyone peeking through the window would have seen a hot naked guy in his late twenties sitting on the lap of a dark, fully clothed taxi driver. They would have seen that this hot naked guy couldn’t get enough of this dark, thick man. They would have seen the driver’s face turn a deep shade of red. And they would have heard the hot naked guy begging the dark stranger to go deeper and harder.

At one point, Gage lost control and ripped the driver’s red plaid shirt wide open so he could feel the hairy muscles on his broad, unfamiliar chest. The driver’s shirt buttons flew in different directions and Gage pressed his palms against the driver’s chest and rode him even faster. The driver didn’t seem to mind that Gage had just ruined his shirt. He smiled when Gage leaned forward and inhaled the scent from his armpits. He started slapping Gage’s ass harder and bucking his hips with even more force, giving Gage the abuse he kept begging for. The more Gage whispered he wanted it hard and that he wanted to be slapped, the more the driver gave him. The friction between Gage’s legs grew more intense; beads of sweat dripped down the sides of his face. When the driver finally began to grunt out loud and wiggle his legs, Gage knew he was about to climax and fill the condom buried deeply inside his body.

“Come for me,” Gage said in a stage whisper. He took himself in his hand and held on tightly. “Fuck me until you come. Don’t stop. Keep fucking.”

The driver closed his eyes and nodded, as if too weak to speak. He grunted a few more times, still fucking hard, and slapped Gage’s ass with such force Gage felt the sting in his back teeth.

“Fuck, yeah,” Gage said, with the same soft tone, more like a gentle plea for help than a sexual command. “Come for me. Give it to me.”

A minute after that, as if what Gage had just asked for became the catalyst to end it all, they both exploded at the same time. Gage was riding him so hard by then, Gage’s entire body was bouncing up and down. The driver stretched his legs out as far as he could and opened his mouth wider. All Gage had to do to get off that time was hold himself and stroke once or twice. The strange dark penis with a slight upward curve buried inside his body was doing most of the work for him.

With this orgasm, it felt as if the lower half of Gage’s body expanded and contracted. He felt absolute pleasure from the lips of his anus to the tips of his naked toes. For a few minutes after they came, Gage continued to ride the taxi driver, experiencing a series of smaller, less intense orgasms. This unfamiliar dark cock seemed to be manipulating a part of Gage’s body he didn’t know he had. Though he thought the sex he’d shared with Donny the cop had been good, the sex with this exotic taxi driver was beyond anything he’d ever experienced before with another man.

In fact, Gage didn’t want to stop riding him. He would have ridden all night if the taxi driver hadn’t slapped his ass and said, “You’d better calm down now. You don’t want to hurt yourself.” Then he laughed to show he was only joking and caressed Gage’s thighs with those big rough hands.

Gage smiled and rested the bottom of his ass against the driver’s jeans. He could feel the driver going flaccid inside his body and he didn’t want to let go. So he tightened his sphincter and rotated his hips in slow half circles, as if goading the guy to remain at least semi-erect. “I’m sorry I got so rough,” he said. “But that, what just happened, felt so good I didn’t want it to end. I haven’t done anything like this in so long I forgot how much fun it could be.” When he said these words, he lifted his eyebrows as if he’d surprised himself.

The driver laughed. “I had no idea you would be this way,” he said. “When I picked you up earlier tonight, I never would have guessed you’d turn out like this.”

Gage smiled. He relaxed his muscles and let the driver’s dick slide out of his body. “Turn out like what?” he asked. He knew what the driver meant, but he wanted to hear him say it aloud.

“I never dreamed you’d be such a hot little fuck,” the driver said. “I’ve met both men and women who like dick and like getting fucked. But I swear to God I’ve never met anyone in my life who can ride a cock like you just did.”

Gage kissed him on the lips and climbed off his lap. “I had no idea you had the most perfect dick in the world.” He shrugged and said, “You’re a nice-looking guy. I had fun. Is there something wrong with that?” He kissed his cheek fast. “I love the way you smile. It’s very sexy. And the sound of your voice is adorable. I know that sounds silly. We’re total strangers. But I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

The driver laughed and sat up. He reached for Gage, pulled him back, and held him in his arms. “There’s nothing wrong. I had fun, too.” He kissed him again, shoving his thick tongue into Gage’s mouth as deeply as he could. When he stopped, he said, “And I’ve never met anyone like you before either.”

Gage hadn’t expected the tender kiss, so he collapsed into the driver’s arms and returned it in a sloppy, carefree way he never would have kissed Donny the cop. With Danny the cop the sex was mechanical, with very little emotion. But with this guy, he even spread his legs a little, wondering if the driver wanted to fuck him again. If he had wanted to fuck again, Gage wouldn’t have refused. That sensitive spot deep inside Gage’s body was still tingling with post-orgasmic sensations and he could have taken him on at least one or two more times that night.

But the driver stopped kissing and pushed him forward. “You’d better get dressed so I can take you home and make sure you’re safe and sound. It’s getting late and I have to get home, too.”

Gage sat up slowly and reached down to find his clothes on the floor. He didn’t want to ask any questions. He figured the guy either had a wife or a lover and it was none of his business. But he did feel bad about what he’d done to the guy’s plaid shirt. He’d ruined it when he’d ripped it open. So he handed his shirt to the driver, which was really Luis’s shirt, and said, “Let’s trade shirts. You take this one and I’ll take yours.”

The driver stared down at the shirt in Gage’s hand and said, “Are you sure? That looks like a very expensive shirt, and mine is just an old plaid thing I should have thrown out a long time ago.” The shirt Gage had handed him was a soft gray-and-black stripe, with tailored cuffs and a starched collar.

“I insist,” Gage said. “I want you to have it. I kind of like the idea of wearing your old shirt home. It makes me feel safe and warm, and it will give me something to remember you by.” And though he didn’t admit this to the driver, Gage loved knowing he was helping someone out by handing out Luis’s clothes for free. Gage had seen shirts like this in expensive Manhattan department stores and he’d gazed at the vulgarity with his mouth hanging open. He knew Luis had probably paid at least five hundred dollars for it, if not more. This was obscene, in Gage’s opinion, especially when there were people starving all over the world. Gage couldn’t think of a better way to thank the dark, sexy, hardworking taxi driver than by giving him this ridiculous shirt, compliments of his wretched, spoiled brother, Luis.

On the way back to the Upper West Side, they ignored regulations and Gage sat up front with the driver. No one saw Gage sitting up front because his body was down and his head was resting across the taxi driver’s lap so he could gently massage the driver’s nuts. It had been Gage’s idea, not the driver’s. But when the driver heard Gage make the offer, he smiled and told him to get up front.

When they reached Luis’s and Jase’s home on 95th Street, the driver reached across and pulled a small pad and pencil out of a small compartment beneath the dashboard. He wrote something down fast and handed it to Gage. “This is my name and phone number. Would you like to give me yours?”

Gage blinked. He hadn’t expected this turn of events. He took the piece of paper from the driver’s hand and slipped it into his back pocket without looking at the driver’s name and without offering to tell the driver his name. “I’m a little surprised,” Gage said. “I figured you were either married to a woman, sneaking around on the down low, or had a lover.”

The handsome driver smiled and shrugged. “None of the above.” Either his accent wasn’t as strong now, or Gage wasn’t paying attention to it anymore. “I’m a part-time student, studying acting at The Actor’s Studio, and I work full time driving this taxi to make money. I have two roommates and we share an apartment in the East Village.”

Gage frowned. “I see,” he said. “Look, I can’t give you my number right now. I’m going to be busy for the next month, and maybe longer. I don’t know yet. I’m going through something complicated right now in my life I can’t talk about.”

The driver smiled and lifted his arms. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s cool, man. I understand. No need to explain any further.”

But Gage could see he didn’t understand. The expression on the driver’s face suggested either polite defeat or a trained actor taking rejection well. “You don’t understand,” Gage said. “I’m not lying to you. I want to give you my number and I want to tell you more about me. But I can’t right now, and I’m not sure when I will be able to again.” He leaned across the seat and kissed him again. No one had ever made him feel this confused this fast, not even his first love, Snake.

“Let’s do this,” the driver said. “You call me when you can. We leave it open for right now.”

Gage smiled. “You’re not mad I won’t give you my number?”

The guy smiled. “Not at all. We don’t even know each other.” He grabbed Gage by the back of the neck and kissed him hard one last time. So hard that when his tongue entered Gage’s mouth, Gage’s pants started getting tight again. Then he drew back and said, “No questions asked.”

Gage smiled and opened the door to get out. He checked his pocket to make sure Luis’s keys were there and said, “Thank you for tonight, and I’m not just talking about what we did in the back seat. I’m talking about how nice you were.”

The driver smiled and said, “You don’t have to thank me for that, or for anything.”

Gage laughed. “If you knew my life right now, you’d understand.” Then he tapped the roof and shut the door.

The driver watched as Gage jogged up the front steps, as if making certain Gage was safe from harm. He waited for Gage to unlock the front door and step into the front hallway of Jase’s and Luis’s house. When Gage opened the door, there were no beeps or sirens: Luis hadn’t bothered to set the security system, which didn’t surprise Gage. Luis never paid attention to details like this; he trusted everyone. The only sound Luis heard came from the barking bald dog hopping down the front staircase.

As Gage closed the front door, he turned sideways and waved at the driver. The driver waved back, honked the horn, and took off with a light screech that caused a gentle tug in Gage’s stomach. Gage wondered if he’d ever see him again. He wondered why he couldn’t have met this wonderful guy just one night earlier. If he had, it might have changed everything.

Chapter Nine

The next morning, a sunny, crisp New York dream, Gage unfolded himself from Luis’s silky white sheets and went down to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. The ugly little hairless dog they called Camp—of all things to name such an ugly dog—barked and snarled at him. The skinny little runt even ran up to the edge of the bed, grabbed a sock that belonged to Luis that Gage had been wearing, and shook it back and forth. But when Gage went down to the kitchen to make the coffee, he found a box of sugar cookies in the pantry and gave the dog a handful. After that, although the dog kept sending him wary sideways glances, the creepy little thing stopped snarling and growling. Gage decided to keep a few cookies in his pocket at all times just in case he needed them.

Before he showered that morning, he sat down at a Chippendale desk in Luis’s bedroom and went over a few details about Luis’s life. Thankfully, Luis had left his computer on and he was already signed in to his e-mail account. Gage figured he’d focus on the most important things in Luis’s life first, and he’d worry about the rest later. At this point his only goal was to pass as Luis, without saying too much to anyone who knew Luis well. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The fact that Luis wasn’t doing any modeling jobs for a while would help Gage, because Gage knew nothing about modeling and he knew it would have been impossible to pull something like that off without a great deal of rehearsal first. Gage decided to take it all one step at a time, and the most important thing he had to worry about that weekend was finding out where Luis’s and Jase’s country house, Cider Mill Farm, was located in Pennsylvania and get there before Jase and Hunter arrived from Alaska later that evening.

At least Gage had already met the handyman. He had a feeling he’d be able to manipulate this guy in order to get all the information he needed. There was something odd about Luis’s relationship with the so-called handyman that Gage couldn’t quite figure out. But he had a feeling the guy would do anything Luis asked.

But first Gage had to deal with Luis, who was still locked up in the third-floor apartment in Brooklyn. Though it was tempting to let him stay there all weekend without food or any kind of entertainment, Gage wasn’t sure he could do that to his twin brother. So he came up with a much better plan, a plan that would torture Luis far more than starvation.

Gage found out where Luis parked his car in New York by looking at his checkbook in the desk drawer. Evidently, Luis didn’t pay his bills online. Luis wrote checks and sent everything through the post office the old-fashioned way; he kept a detailed ledger. At the parking garage not far from Luis’s house, a rough-looking young parking attendant in baggy jeans didn’t ask Gage any questions at all. The young guy simply assumed Gage was Luis and pulled Luis’s black Cadillac sports sedan right up to the front entrance. He even handed Gage Luis’s keys and sent him an unusual glance, as if he and Luis shared a secret. Gage smiled and handed the young guy a twenty-dollar tip from the cash he’d found in Luis’s pocket the night before. Then he slid into the front seat and pulled away, with his chest pounding and his face warm. When he was out of the parking garage and on the street he took a deep breath and exhaled. The parking attendant, who must have known Luis fairly well, didn’t give him a second glance.

From there, Jase drove to Brooklyn, where he was more familiar with the shops. He stopped at a discount clothing store first and picked up a few outfits so his brother wouldn’t have to walk around in a short black bathrobe all weekend. Then he stopped at a grocery store where they sold prepared foods, a small appliance store, and one of those big bookstores where they sold all kinds of things. He paid for everything with a credit card he’d found in the wallet Luis had left in his other pocket. Gage and Luis both had deplorable handwriting and Gage was certain no one would question him about his signature. And if anyone did, he had Luis’s driver’s license to prove he was Luis Fortune.

He loaded the trunk of the Cadillac until he had trouble shutting the lid, then drove back to his building in Brooklyn to set his twin brother up for the weekend in the soundproof apartment on the third floor. He parked a few buildings away so no one on the street would recognize him. He didn’t know many of the neighbors because he worked nights and kept to himself. But he didn’t want to take any chances, so he put on a pair of dark glasses and a dark red baseball cap he’d found in Luis’s closet earlier that morning while he’d been choosing which one of Luis’s many outfits he’d wear that day. Gage had never seen so many clothes and such an elaborate closet in his life. It was like walking into an expensive department store, with the dark walnut shelves and handcrafted nooks. Everything was color coordinated and all the wooden hangers were lined neatly and spaced an inch apart.

The entire block was so quiet Gage could have rolled a bowling ball down the street and no one would have noticed. It was a Friday morning, which meant everyone was working. He knew Billy, his neighbor downstairs, would be up front in the grocery store, nowhere near the back storage room. Billy didn’t run any specials on Fridays and he spent most of the day either slicing deli meat, making sandwiches, or waiting on customers in the front of the store. If Gage slipped down the narrow side alleyway, which he’d always hated doing, he knew Billy wouldn’t hear him walking up the back steps to the third-floor apartment. Billy, though he was the sweetest guy Gage had ever known, was one of those large, overweight men who didn’t move beyond where he had to move unless he had a serious reason to exert himself.

When Gage unfolded from the car, he pulled the baseball cap down as far as it would go and adjusted the dark glasses. He was wearing the same jeans Luis had been wearing the day before, but he’d put on a different shirt that morning. This shirt was a slim-fitted black polo that hugged his chest muscles and made them pop out. He’d always wanted a shirt just like this, but he’d never been able to afford one. He’d also found an expensive rust-colored suede jacket to put on over that. Even if anyone Gage knew just in passing happened to walk by, they wouldn’t have recognized him as Gage getting out of a brand-new black Cadillac, wearing clothes like that. Most people knew Gage for his bleached blond hair and the white shirts he wore all the time because he couldn’t afford anything else. No one on that street had ever seen him drive a car. But more than that, no one who knew him had ever seen him wear a baseball cap in public.

He filled his arms with groceries and large plastic bags and slammed the trunk lid. He’d have to make two trips upstairs, because he’d bought so many wonderful little goodies for his twin brother. In the alleyway, he held his breath, praying he wouldn’t run into a rat. When he reached the back staircase, he carried the bags up, left them on the third-floor porch, and went back down for the rest of the things. He wound up making four trips instead of two. Two of the items he’d bought for Luis required him to carry them up one at a time, and they weren’t as light as he thought they’d be.

On the last trip up the wooden steps, he unlocked the door to the third floor apartment and stepped inside with a large box in his arms. He set the box down in the kitchen and brought everything else inside and closed the door. After that, he walked back to see Luis and found him right where he’d left him the night before, still inside the kinky sex cage, wearing the same short bathrobe Gage had dressed him in when he’d carried him up the stairs.

Gage set the car keys down on a small black table and smiled. He removed the sunglasses, looked around the room at all the kinky sex gadgets, and rubbed his jaw. In broad daylight, with sun streaming through dingy white sheers hanging on the living room windows, the kinky playroom looked even more dismal than it had looked the night before. The glum, black sling hanging from thick metal chains wasn’t as shiny as it had been. And the narrow bed with the black rubber sheets had cracks he hadn’t noticed beneath the red spotlight. He could see now that the walls had been painted a flat black, and not very well. There were images of the old floral wallpaper showing through the black paint in certain areas, and there were spots of dried black paint dotting the hardwood floor. Mr. Bousum’s deceased partner must have been a sloppy painter. Though Gage had never actually seen a kinky sexy playroom before, he had a feeling this one had been pulled together by amateurs who didn’t know what they were doing.

There were cobwebs on the ceiling, dust bunnies on the floor, and every flat surface had a thick layer of dust. When Gage inhaled, the room had that damp, moldy smell the interior of a boat gets when no one bothers to drain out the excess water. He rubbed his palms together and sent Luis a glance. His twin brother was in the jail cell, sitting on the edge of the twin bed, with his legs crossed at the knees. “Good morning,” Gage said. “Did you sleep well?”

Luis stood up and glared at him. “I didn’t sleep a wink. How could I sleep in a place like this? It’s the most disgusting room I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing but sex things in here. How could you do something like this to me? I have friends in the country who have a room like this, and I’ve only been there once. You know how I feel about these things, Gage.”

Gage smiled, enjoying this adventure more than he should have been. “I didn’t really have a choice. This apartment happens to be available and I wasn’t the interior designer, Luis.” Though this kinky playroom hadn’t been planned, it couldn’t have turned out better for Gage. Luis had always been more conservative in this respect than Gage had been. Gage had always been more open-minded than Luis about these things. The darker side of life had always made his heart race faster, especially when it came to sex. But he knew Luis was just the opposite. Luis liked flowers and pretty, frilly things. He wrote love notes to himself when they were kids and kept wedding magazines under his bed. When it came to sex in general, Gage had a feeling his twin brother was more talk and tease than action.

Luis walked to the door of the jail cell and said, “Let me out of here right now. I’ve had enough. I can’t stand any more of this. I’ll die in here. I want to go home. I want my life back. I want to see my husband and my child. I’ll do anything you want.”

“Ah well,” Gage said. “I’m not finished with you yet, not by any means. I have so many surprises for you before I leave for Cider Mill Farm today, you’re going to be amazed.” Then he turned and left Luis standing at the cage door.

He carried the large boxes into the living room first, knowing he didn’t have much time to set all this up before he had to leave for Cider Mill Farm. He still had to go back to the house on 95th Street and pack a small bag for the weekend. And he had to bring that awful little dog with him to Cider Mill Farm. He thought about leaving a message on Donny Vitelli’s voice mail, just so Donny wouldn’t wonder what happened to him. But he decided to wait a while. The pathetic odds were Donny wouldn’t even know Gage was gone, which actually didn’t bother Gage as much as it could have.

Luis went back to the bed and watched every move he made. Gage dragged the kitchen table into the living room and pushed it up against the cage so Luis could reach through the bars to get what he needed. Gage opened the largest box first and put a miniature refrigerator on top of the kitchen table. Then he plugged it into an outlet near the window and went back for the other box. When he opened this box, he pulled out a small microwave oven and set that up next to the small refrigerator.

“What on Earth are you doing?” Luis asked, gaping at the microwave with his head tilted sideways.

“You’re going to need food,” Gage said. “And I’m going to be at Cider Mill Farm all weekend. I figured it would be best to just set you up until I come back on Monday to check on you.” He knew Luis had a toilet and running water inside the jail cell, so he wasn’t worried about that.

“You can’t leave me here all weekend,” Luis said. “Have you gone completely insane? This is worse than the time you left me up in that tree house when we were kids.”

Gage smiled. He had, indeed, left Luis up in a tree house when they were kids. He’d taken the ladder away and Luis had been forced to remain up there until his parents went looking for him. But he’d done it for a reason. Luis had slashed the tires on his bicycle because Gage had refused to trade bicycles with him. They’d both just received bicycles for their birthday. Gage’s bike had been blue and Luis’s had been red and Luis preferred the blue bike. When Gage refused to trade and give Luis the blue bike, Luis slashed the tires when no one was looking. Gage knew it was Luis. It couldn’t have been anyone else, so he waited until Luis went up to the tree house and took the ladder out from under him. If Gage had told his parents about the slashed tires they wouldn’t have believed him. Luis would have lied and they’d always taken Luis’s side.

“Oh, stop complaining,” Gage said, as he crossed back to the kitchen for a few of the bags he left near the door. “You’re going to be well taken care of, trust me.”

When he returned with three bags of groceries, he set them on the table and opened the refrigerator door. The first item he pulled out of the grocery bag was a large microwavable frozen lasagna. He waved the box at Luis before he put it in the refrigerator and said, “You’ll love this. I’ve had it before. It’s the best frozen lasagna you can buy. It tastes like it was made from scratch.”

After that, he pulled out containers of prepared food and showed them to Luis. “In case you don’t feel like lasagna, I got you some prepared food from the gourmet section. Here’s a dish you’ll love, vodka penne with lots of cream sauce. And I bought four other different kinds of prepared pasta dishes in case you don’t like the penne.” He reached for the other bag and started loading the items in the refrigerator. “For dessert I picked up a few of those rich cakes, the ones with gobs of frosting. And I didn’t forget about snacks. I bought you ten different kinds of cookies, a large bag of chips, and several different kinds of spicy nachos in case you’re in the mood for something hot.” He pulled a half dozen bottles of sugary soft drinks from the last bag and smiled. “And here’s just what you’ll need to wash down all this great food.”

Luis sent him a glare. “I don’t eat things like that. I only eat protein and fresh vegetables. I’m a staunch supporter of the first lady’s fight against obesity. I’d never eat garbage like that, not even if I were starving to death. And I never drink sugary soft drinks. I only drink a special brand of bottled water.”

Bingo. This was exactly what Gage had portended. “You’ll have to eat sooner or later, and you’ll have to drink something. If you don’t drink the soft drinks I bought, you’ll be forced to drink water from the tap in that small sink. And you never know what kind of kinky sex games have been played in that sink. I’ll bet if that sink could talk, it would be X-rated.”

Luis turned and kicked the bed. “I’d rather die of thirst,” he said. “Let me out of here. The game is over, Eddie.”

“I told you my name is Gage.” It was fine for Luis to change his name, but not Gage?

“Let me out of here, Gage.”

Gage smiled and went back to the kitchen. He was having so much fun now he felt like doing one of those happy dances all around the apartment. He carried the rest of the bags into the living room and started emptying the contents. He tossed some new clothes through the bars and said, “I don’t want you walking around in nothing but a bathrobe all weekend, so I got you these nice things. I hope they all fit. I bought extra large to be certain.”

Luis bent down and picked up the clothes. He gaped at the plaid flannel shirts and winced; he scowled at the inexpensive discount store jeans and threw them across the jail cell. “I’m not wearing those things. What do you think I am, a bull dyke? And you know damn well I’ve always been a twenty-nine waist.”

Gage passed a pair of heavy beige work boots through the bars and said, “If you don’t like all these wonderful new clothes, you can just walk around in that bathrobe all weekend, for all I care. I’m just trying to be nice, is all.”

Luis kicked the work boots and turned to face the wall with his arms folded across his chest and his head bowed down. And while he sulked, Gage reached into the last bag for a few more items. He set up a small radio on a shelf that was too far for Luis to reach through the bars. He plugged the radio into the wall and turned it on. When he finally found the radio station he was looking for, he turned up the volume and smiled at Luis. “I wanted you to have some entertainment this weekend.”

Luis’s jaw dropped. “That’s country western music. God, no. You can’t do this to me. You can’t leave me locked up in a filthy sex room, with nothing but carbs and country western music. I’ll die. I’ll wither away to nothing. Please don’t do this to me.”

“Nonsense,” Gage said. “I even have one more surprise. I bought you one of those little video players so you can watch a movie if you get bored. And I got you a few books and magazines, too, in case you feel like reading.” He knew his superficial, spoiled rotten twin brother had never read a book from cover to cover in his life. In fact, Gage had never thought Luis was very bright.

Then Gage slid the video player through the bars. He set the movie he’d bought on top of it.

When Luis looked down at the movie, he pressed both hands to his mouth and shrieked so loud Gage was thankful the apartment was completely soundproof. “You’re leaving me locked up in this hell hole with one movie, and that movie is Jennifer Lopez in Maid in Manhattan?” Luis kicked the movie across the cell and shouted, “You may as well just hit me over the head with a hammer and be done with hit.”

“Now, now,” Gage said, enjoying this far too much. “Maybe you’ll like the books and magazines better.” He slipped two books through the bars and set three magazines beside them in a neat row so Luis could see all the titles.

Luis blinked.

“What’s wrong now? Don’t you like them?”

Luis pointed to the books. “You hand me a book written by that woman named Snooki from The Jersey Shore, another book by that anti-gay conservative Rush Limbaugh, of all people, and one written by Joy Behar?” He glanced at the magazines and shook his head. “And three copies of Playboy, filled with nude women?” Luis punched the cage and started to shout. “Don’t do this to me. Please don’t do this. I won’t be able to last.”

“You’ll be just fine,” Gage said as he gathered up the empty shopping bags and boxes and carried them into the kitchen.

When he returned, he found Luis sitting on the twin bed again. He set a few clean white towels, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a bar of soap on the table where Luis could reach for them without any problem. “Here are a few things for your toilette,” he said. “I know how vain you are.”

Luis stood up and glanced down at the items on top of the towels. “There aren’t any razors. You can’t expect me to stay here, locked up in a cage with a Joy Behar book, a Jennifer Lopez movie, and sugary soft drinks without a fucking razor. I shave my entire body daily. You know I like to be smooth all over. I haven’t had hair on my legs since I was thirteen.”

Gage smiled and laced his fingers together at his waist. “Well, then, looks like you’re going to have hairy legs once again, because I completely forgot about a razor.” He wasn’t lying. He had forgotten to buy Luis a razor, and now he was smiling so wide he felt his gums showing. “I guess I’ll be off now. I have a lot to do before I head out to Cider Mill Farm to see Jase, my new husband.”

“Please don’t leave,” Luis said, running to the corner of the cage, clinging to the bars with both hands. His robe opened wide, exposing the front of his naked body. “Please, I’ll do anything you want. I know you’re not a mean person. I know you care about what happens to me. We’re brothers. We finally have a chance to work things out together as adults, Gage. We should take advantage of that.”

Gage turned to leave. Without looking back, he said, “I think I’ve taken very good care of you, Luis. You have everything you need. It’s not like I’ve kidnapped you for ransom, and it’s not like I’m holding you hostage in a torture chamber.”

Luis moved toward the cage door and held the bars. But he didn’t jiggle the door, which Gage found interesting. If he’d been locked in there, that’s what he would have done. “But this is a torture chamber. Just the country music alone is enough to drive me insane. I’d rather you waterboard me.”

Gage took a quick breath and exhaled. “I’d never hurt you, Luis, and you know that. I’d never hurt anyone, especially not like you’ve hurt me all these years with your jealous, competitive stunts and your condescending remarks.”

“Then why are you doing this to me now? I don’t understand.”

Gage shrugged. “I want to find out what your life is like. I want to know all about you, which is partly why I’m doing this. I want to know what it’s like to be you. I’ve never had the kind of luck you’ve had.”

Luis’s tone softened, almost as if he finally understood what Gage was trying to say. “Are you going to sleep with Jase this weekend? If you do, he’ll kill you when he finds out what you’ve done to me. Jase and I don’t have an open relationship. We’re completely devoted to each other. We were married in a real ceremony. And he is a very strong-willed man.”

Gage didn’t answer him. He remained standing there, wondering whether or not he was going to sleep with Jase. He hadn’t thought much about it. But now that Luis had mentioned it, he knew it was something he’d have to decide very soon.

“At least change the radio station before you leave,” Luis said. One of those twangy country songs started to play. Something about leaving clothes hanging outside on the clothesline and leaving suds in a big bucket.

“I’ll be back on Monday,” Gage said, smiling as he listened to the words of the country song. Then he walked to the door without looking back, as Luis continued to beg and plead.

On his way down the steps, Gage had to admit this wasn’t as simple as he thought it would be and he was starting to have second thoughts about leaving Luis there all alone. But as much as he wanted to go back and release Luis, he couldn’t stop now. He’d already gone this far and it would have been a waste of time to turn back. He never would have found out why he and his twin brother were so different if he set Luis free now. And he still wanted to even up the score for all the nasty, competitive things Luis had done to him in the past, the most important of which was Luis stealing his first love, Snake, the man Gage was still in love with after all these years. If Gage did sleep with Jase that weekend, it would serve Luis right for ruining his chances with Snake. Then there was the issue regarding their mother and father. Luis just left all the responsibility on Gage’s shoulders, never once calling or writing to see how things were. Gage had spent the best years of his life caring for two old people who cared more about Luis than him.

Before he left the alleyway, Gage pulled the baseball cap down and hunched forward. He walked down the street faster than usual to reach the car. Maybe if Luis had apologized to him for stealing his lover and leaving him in Tennessee to take care of his parents, Gage would have set him free. Maybe if Luis had apologized for always making him feel inferior, Gage wouldn’t have continued with this bizarre plan. He knew what he was doing wasn’t rational. It was childish at best and criminal at worst. And he knew he’d eventually wind up in serious trouble for doing this to Luis. But when a person thinks he doesn’t have any options left, and his entire world comes crashing down around them, he does things he would never do under normal circumstances.

Chapter Ten

While Gage was packing, the dog sat on a bench at the end of the bed and gaped at him. At least he wasn’t snarling anymore, mainly because Gage kept feeding him sugar cookies to win him over.

Gage had to pack fast. It was almost noon and he wanted to get to Cider Mill Farm before Jase and the little kid arrived. He needed to look around and get to know the place on his own so he wouldn’t look completely baffled in front of Jase and the kid. Gage wasn’t even sure which key opened the front door. He’d have to go through all the keys on Luis’s key ring and figure it out on his own. At least he’d been lucky enough to find a small piece of paper in Luis’s desk that had security codes for both the New York house and Cider Mill Farm. He’d taken the codes and written them down on a separate piece of paper and hidden it in his back pocket, along with the phone number the handsome dark taxi driver had given him.

Luis’s closet, though filled with clothes, turned out to be less exciting than Gage had imagined it would be. At a closer glance, Luis’s clothes were far more conservative than he would have imagined. There were tons of white dress shirts, crewneck sweaters, and T-shirts in subtle shades of beige, gray, and pale blue. There was a row of polo shirts in the same colors, with the occasional olive or pale green. His slacks were either jeans or casual chinos. There was a row of dress slacks, but they were just as quiet and conservative as the rest of Luis’s clothes. And he had five or six black sport jackets. But not many formal suits and ties. Gage knew everything in Luis’s closet was expensive and well tailored, but he was surprised to see that most of the clothes Luis owned were things he would have bought for himself, including the black and brown leather shoes.

When the small Gucci bag was packed with everything Gage thought he would need that weekend, he turned off the lights in the bedroom and tapped his leg for the dog to follow him downstairs. He decided not to bother with the security system. If Jase asked, he’d just say he forgot. It took two more cookies to get the little runt off the bench and down the front staircase, and three more cookies after that to get him to submit to the leash Gage had to hook up to his small black collar. But the dog sat in the back seat of the Cadillac all the way out to Cider Mill Farm without making a sound, as if he were so used to this trip it meant nothing to him. It was a shame the dog couldn’t talk and help with directions, because when Jase finally crossed the bridge from New Jersey into Pennsylvania, he had a few problems finding Cider Mill Farm.

He drove around in circles, admiring the rolling hills of Bucks County, trying to find the house. He tried using the navigation system in the car, but it wasn’t accurate enough to lead him there directly. Finally, by sheer luck, as he was driving up a narrow tree-lined road, an older man who was pulling letters out of his rural mailbox turned and waved at him. Gage took a quick breath and slowed down. He stopped beside the older man’s mailbox and lowered the passenger window.

“How was your week?” the old guy asked. “It’s been perfect fall weather out here all week. I can smell it in the air.” He spoke with an affected, singsong lilt, and his silver hair had a slight hint of blue. He had a large round stomach and a warm smile and he reminded Gage of Santa Claus—the gay version, with a professional manicure. Evidently the old guy knew Luis because the dog in the back seat started barking and wagging his tail.

Gage looked at the old guy’s mailbox fast. He saw the black numbers and knew he had to be close to Cider Mill Farm. Above the numbers, he read the name “Reverend Thomas von Klingensmith.” They lived near a reverend? Maybe he was one of those gay ministers Gage had read about. Gage smiled and said, “It was nice in New York, too.”

The Reverend leaned on the passenger door and reached back to pat the top of the dog’s head. “Hey, Camp. How you doing back there?” Then he laughed and said, “I just said to myself this morning, I said, ‘Thomas, I’ll bet Luis comes out here early today.’ And here you are.”

Good thing Gage hadn’t tried to pronounce the old guy’s name right away. The old guy referred to himself as Tho-mas, with the accent on the last syllable, not the first. Pronouncing the Reverend’s name wrong could have sparked suspicion. Gage decided he’d better be more on guard when it came to these things.

“I wanted to get out here early, Thomas,” Gage said, pronouncing his name correctly. “Jase and Hunter are coming home from Alaska later this afternoon and I wanted to be here before they arrived.”

Thomas leaned back and said, “I’m glad you mentioned this. I’ll use my ear plugs when I take my afternoon nap.”

This statement went right over Gage’s head. But he smiled anyway.

Before Thomas turned to go back to his little house on the side of the road, he gestured toward a gravel road beside his house and said, “They just spread the new gravel on the easement road all the way back to the main house. It looks very good. And they even did my little driveway, too. I can’t thank you and Jase enough. I tell everyone I have the best landlords in the world.”

So Thomas was their tenant and they owned the little house. “You’re welcome, Thomas,” Gage said. “I’ll see you later.”

He pulled away from the side of the road slowly, as the old Reverend remained at the mailbox, waving goodbye. Gage turned right into the easement road that had just received new gravel, and continued straight at a very slow pace. The sides of the gravel road were lined with tall trees still in the process of turning vivid shades of red, yellow, and orange. The little dog sat up in the back seat and started sniffing the air and wagging his tail.

When Gage reached what looked like a clearing, the gravel road widened and he saw a small dark green sign with flashy gilded letters that read, “Cider Mill Farm.” He stopped for a moment and gazed at the surroundings. Not far from there, he saw a stately old home that seemed to ramble in different directions. The exterior was white stucco and there were sections, mostly at the corners of the building, where fieldstone was showing through. It sparkled with simplicity, and once again Gage gazed forward with his lips parted and his palm pressed to his throat. He’d imagined something grander for the Virgin Billionaire and his spoiled twin brother, with statues and columns and ornate lamp posts. But this house, though large enough to be considered a small mansion, was as simple as the clothes in Luis’s closet. Even the exterior had a minimalist look: vast green lawns and nothing but perfectly trimmed round boxwoods.

To the right of the main house, down a slight incline, was a huge red barn with a thick cobblestone foundation that looked as old as the house. There were more round boxwoods down there, and beyond that nothing but wide green meadows stippled with fall-colored trees and the occasional tall thin shrub Gage had seen in photos of Italy. His chest caved in when he realized the magnitude of what he was doing. This was their home he was invading, not to mention their lives. And it was far from the vulgar, suburban atrocity he’d thought it would be.

But it was too late to turn back now. He’d already been spotted. The guy he’d met in New York in Luis’s New York house the afternoon he’d gone home with Luis after the reception at the new building for the Angel Association was walking toward a Jeep Wrangler in the driveway. The Jeep was parked beside one of those massive, four-door pickup trucks Gage remembered were so popular back in Tennessee with wealthy farmers. He assumed the truck belonged to the Virgin Billionaire, because he truly couldn’t picture his prissy twin brother driving a truck that big.

The handyman waved and Gage honked the horn. Then Gage continued forward and parked the Cadillac beside the large black truck. Before he got out of the car, he thought for a moment, trying to remember the handyman’s name. He knew it began with a C or a K, but couldn’t remember exactly.

But the handyman made it easy for Gage. When he opened the back door to let Camp out of the back seat, he bent down and said, “Hey, Camp. Did you miss me this week? Cory’s got a big bag of treats for you in the house.” He smiled and gazed into the car at Gage with big brown eyes. “I went to the Feed and Grain this week and picked up a twenty-pound bag of dog treats for him. Hope that’s okay. They told me it was all natural and organic.”

Gage shrugged. He’d been feeding the little runt sugar cookies all day; he couldn’t have cared less what the ingredients in the dog treats were. Though he looked like a hairless rat, Camp was a helpless creature and he didn’t get many pleasures in life. Why make the poor thing suffer through organic dog treats? Wasn’t it bad enough he was bald as a monkey’s ass? If they were lucky, he’d live ten, fifteen years. At least let the poor little bastard eat food that tasted good. But that was Luis for you, always organic and trendy, always following the crowd toward the next ridiculous trend. If the first lady in Washington D. C. said we should all be eating buttered grass, Luis would be the first one to make a buttered grass sandwich on whole wheat toast.

Gage climbed out of the car and walked to the other side where Cory was kneeling and petting Camp. “Thanks, Cory,” he said. “That was a nice thing to do.” He noticed Cory was wearing baggy short pants and a flimsy white T-shirt on this cool, brisk day. He also noticed Cory had hairy, muscular legs and large tan work boots with chunky heels like construction workers wear. His hands were wide, with a few calluses, and looked competent and strong.

Cory stood up and smoothed out the baggy short pants. When he did this, his dick moved to the right and Gage knew he wasn’t wearing underwear. Gage could actually see the outline of the head of Cory’s dick showing through the cotton fabric. He wondered whether or not his twin brother had ever gotten into Cory’s pants. Oh, Luis said he was monogamous, but Gage wasn’t so sure. It would be awfully hard to ignore a handyman like Cory, with his thick black hair, dark almond-shaped eyes, and neatly trimmed beard. Gage could almost smell the masculinity coming from his wiry body.

Cory shoved his hands into his pockets and said, “I had plenty of time this week. I’m still on a break with my boyfriend. We didn’t break up for good, just took a break. I know he was there for me when I was run over by Darius last summer. But I’m just not sure I’m ready for a permanent relationship yet. I have to be honest with him. There are things in the relationship I’m missing.”

Gage smiled, trying not to gape between Cory’s legs. “Well, you have to do what you think is right,” Gage said. “And if you don’t think you’re ready for a relationship, then you probably aren’t.” What else could he say? He’d never been ready for a relationship himself, especially not with Donny Vitelli, his kinky closeted lover who liked to see jewelry wrapped around Gage’s naked ankle. But he had to be careful now, because he wasn’t Gage Weston anymore. He was Gage Weston pretending to be Luis Fortune, who did, in fact, have a permanent, monogamous relationship with Jase.

“Well, we’re on a break right now from the relationship,” Cory said, gazing down at the gravel driveway. “And I’m not sure how long it’s going to last.”

“You’re a nice-looking guy,” Gage said. “I’m sure you’ll find the right person eventually. Sometimes it’s better to stop thinking about it and let everything happen naturally.” That sounded like good, solid advice to offer.

Cory sent him a glance and smiled. “Can I carry your bag inside and help you get undressed before Jase gets back? I missed you this week.”

Gage didn’t reply. He gulped and smiled, wondering what on Earth was going on between the handyman and his twin brother.

Cory laughed. “I think my boyfriend gets a little jealous of our silly little game sometimes. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him about it right away. I know it doesn’t bother Jase at all. But Jase is a strong, secure man and he knows how much you love him. The little teasing games we play with each other mean nothing to Jase.”

Gage smiled, wondering what the fuck he was talking about now. Leave it to Luis. They played little teasing games with each other? What the fuck were little teasing games? It all sounded a bit twisted to Gage. “I’m sure it will all work out for the best, Cory.”

Cory reached into the back seat and pulled Gage’s Gucci bag out. Then he crossed to where Gage was standing and placed his wide palm on the small of Gage’s back. “Let’s go inside. I’ll help you unpack.” Then he slapped Gage’s ass and said, “C’mon, Camp. You must be thirsty.”

Gage blinked, then allowed Cory to guide him up a winding brick path that led to the rear patio. When they were inside the country kitchen with barn board countertops and a walk-in stone fireplace—also far more conservative than Gage would have imagined—Cory gave the dog a bowl of water. Then he guided Gage through the kitchen, up the back staircase, and into the master bedroom. At least Gage didn’t have to figure out how to find the master bedroom, thanks to Cory’s strong hand.

When they were in the bedroom, Cory dropped the Gucci bag on the pine floor. Then he sat at the foot of a large pencil-post bed that was covered with a white French quilt and leaned back on his hands. He smiled at Gage and said, “You look nice in those jeans. Are they new?”

Gage wasn’t sure, so he said, “I just haven’t worn them a lot.”

“It’s been a long time since you undressed for me,” Cory said, reaching down to adjust his dick without a hint of shame. “I hope you’re wearing that red silky thong I like so much.”

Gage shrugged. “Ah well, sorry. I’m not wearing any underwear today.” He couldn’t believe he was telling the handyman this.

Cory smiled. “That sounds good, too. At least I got to see you in the black thong yesterday. But your twin brother was there, and I didn’t get a chance to enjoy it. I’m curious about something. Why doesn’t Jase know you have a twin brother?”

Gage said, “My brother and I never got along. I’m going to tell Jase eventually. But when I’m ready. I hope you won’t mention anything to him.”

“I won’t say a word,” Cory said. “You know you can trust me.”

It seemed as if Cory had absolutely no idea he was really Gage Weston pretending to be Luis. Gage didn’t want to give away his identity, so he figured he’d better follow Cory’s obvious lead and get undressed. He picked up the Gucci bag first and walked to a set of double doors that he hoped would lead him to the closet. When he opened the doors and discovered this was indeed Luis’s closet, he glanced back at Cory on the bed and smiled. His eyes opened wider and he took a quick breath. Cory was sitting there now with his legs open wide, his zipper down, and his semi-erect dick hanging out of his pants.

Gage set the Gucci bag down in the closet and returned to bedroom. He smiled and said, “I’ll unpack later. I just want to get out of these clothes right now, if that’s okay with you.” He figured he might as well have a little fun.

Cory’s thick dark cock was fully erect now. He grabbed it and said, “Sounds good to me.” Then he laughed and waved his dick back and forth.

By that time, Gage was ready to drool. He didn’t know what kind of games his spoiled twin brother played with this rough, well-hung handyman, but he wasn’t about to let an opportunity pass him by. So he kicked off his shoes and yanked off his socks. While Cory sat there stroking himself, Gage dropped his pants, stepped out of them, and removed his jacket and shirt. When he was completely nude, he turned and bent over slowly to pick up his clothes, knowing Cory was watching every move he made.

He set his clothes in a heap on a small club chair beside the fireplace. He was fully erect himself by then and wasn’t sure what to do next. Cory patted his leg and said, “Come sit on my lap. We can talk about the time you climbed up on my shoulders naked and put that big pot back up on a shelf in the kitchen.”

This was, without a doubt, the most bizarre experience Gage had ever had in his entire life. He wondered what Cory and his twin had done in the kitchen with the big pot, then wondered how what kind of teasing games they played with each other. Whatever they were doing, Jase didn’t seem to mind. From what Cory had mentioned outside, Jase knew all about the games they played with each other. So Gage crossed the room and climbed up on Cory’s lap. When Cory’s dick rubbed against the bottom of Gage’s naked ass, Gage closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Cory’s wide shoulders.

“That’s nice,” Cory said, resting both of his palms on Gage’s ass. He pressed harder and smiled. “Isn’t it nice that we can do this and never have sex with each other? You have to admit, we have a very unique relationship.”

Gage opened his eyes wide. They did this all the time and never actually had sex? This made no sense at all. Why even bother? He was dying to ask Cory to explain in detail. But he knew if he did this he’d give away his identity. He figured the best he could do was play along and try to figure it all out on his own. Besides, sitting there naked on the rough handyman’s lap, rubbing the bottom of his ass against his erection, wasn’t exactly difficult to do. “It’s very nice,” Gage said, moving his hips. “We do have a unique relationship. And we never have sex.”

Cory slapped Gage’s ass hard with both hands and said, “Well, I guess I’d better zip up and go back outside. I have some work to do down at the barn and you probably want to rest before Jase and Hunter get here.”

The hard slaps made the lips of Gage’s anus tighten. It felt good sitting on Cory’s lap and he didn’t want to get up yet. What he really wanted to do was roll over on his back and let Cory climb on top of him. But he thought that might be too obvious, being Cory and Luis never had sex. So Gage reached down with his right hand and grabbed Cory’s thick, solid shaft. “Let’s just stay like this for a few more minutes. I hate to let go right now. You smell good.”

“I need a shower,” Cory said.

Gage inhaled the top of his head. “I think you smell fine.”

Cory ran his right hand up and down Gage’s naked back. “What’s gotten into you today? This is when you always tell me to put my big ugly dick away and get back to work. This isn’t like you.”

It sounded like something his stupid twin brother would say. Luis always had enjoyed teasing men a little too much. Gage often thought Luis enjoyed teasing men more than he did making love to them. But Gage was having a serious problem letting go of the handyman’s cock and he didn’t care about Luis anymore. Cory was obviously attracted to him. The guy was ready to bust a nut any minute. Gage felt the slippery pre-come at the tip of his dick. If there was one thing in the world Gage Weston couldn’t resist, it was a hot guy with hairy legs and loads of pre-come.

Gage climbed off Cory’s lap and went down on his knees. He braced his naked shoulders against Cory’s hairy knees and went down on his dick with one quick swallow. He did this before Cory had a chance to object and talk about Luis’s insane teasing game, or whatever the fuck it was. Gage started sucking Cory so fast and with so much pressure the only thing Cory could do was fall back on the bed and moan out loud.

It didn’t take long. A minute of two after that, Gage felt the head of Cory’s cock swell against his tongue. He increased the pressure with his lips and started moving his head up and down faster, sliding his tongue along the bottom of Cory’s shaft. Cory smelled like a man should smell after he’d been working outside in a barn all morning. The dark hairs between Cory’s legs tickled Gage’s nose. He couldn’t get enough; he hadn’t sucked off a guy who smelled like Cory in years. Cory reminded him of Snake, his first lover back in Tennessee. His pre-come even tasted like Snake’s: slightly salty with a trace of sweetness he couldn’t compare to any one single thing he’d ever had before. There wasn’t really any way to describe the taste. Describing the smell of come was simple: chlorine bleach. But the taste was completely unique.

When Cory finally ejaculated in Gage’s mouth, he let out a deep, low moan. His pelvis made a sudden jerk and his legs stretched out. When Gage gulped and swallowed him, Gage jacked off a load of his own on the pine floorboards at the foot of the bed.

Cory fell backwards again and waited quietly while Gage finished draining what was left. When Gage stopped sucking and lifted his head from between Cory’s legs, Cory gazed down at him and frowned. “We crossed the line this time, Luis. We said we’d never do that. But we just did. Oh my God.”

Gage reached for Cory’s dick to see if there was anything else left to suck. When he saw Cory’s dick was perfectly clean, he put it back into Cory’s pants very gently and pulled up his zipper. Then he stood and said, “Stop worrying, Cory. No one has to know about this but us.” After all, he wasn’t really Luis.

Cory sat up and held his face in his palms. “But what about Jase? He trusts us completely.” He smacked his forehead. “Shit! I should have had more willpower. I feel like shit now.”

Gage felt a pull in his stomach. The poor guy really seemed to be hurting. He wished he could let Cory in on his little secret so he wouldn’t feel so guilty about what they’d just done. Neither one of them was really committed to anyone else. There was nothing to feel guilty about. But Gage knew that would be too dangerous. Cory would want to know what he’d done with Luis and he’d tell Jase everything. Gage would never have a chance to find out what it was like to be Luis.

Gage sat down on Cory’s lap again and put his arms around Cory’s shoulders. Then he kissed his rough cheek and caressed the back of his head the same way he’d always caressed the back of Donny Vitelli’s head when he wanted to calm him down. “Look, stop worrying,” he said. “Seriously. You didn’t do anything wrong. It was my fault, not yours. I’m the one to blame. I promise you I will never lose control like that again.” He crossed his heart and lifted his palm, trying to change the mood and make things lighter.

“But I can’t help feeling guilty,” Cory said. “Jase trusts me.”

“Why? It was my fault. Blame me.” He kept his tone light.

Cory sighed. “I feel guilty because I liked it so much. And because no one has ever done that to me before.”

“Are you trying to tell me your boyfriend never gave you head before?” Gage said. He couldn’t even fathom this. Any young gay man with a boyfriend like Cory who didn’t service him regularly needed a kick in the ass, in Gage’s opinion.

“No,” Gage said. “He gives me head all the time. But he’s never, ah, you know, swallowed and liked it. Actually, no one has ever swallowed like that. You really enjoyed it. My boyfriend tried it a few times and said it wasn’t for him.”

Gage couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you serious?”

Cory nodded.

“Your boyfriend said he didn’t like sucking you off?”

Cory shrugged. “Not the way you just did. I’ve seen it done in videos and the guys always seem to be having so much fun. I used to ask my boyfriend to do it that way. He did it a few times and then he refused. He said he didn’t like the taste of come.”

Gage had heard this before. He knew for a fact a lot of people, men and women, weren’t fond of the taste of come. But he wasn’t one of them (thankfully). “Well, Cory, not everyone likes come. That’s just a sad fact of life. I’m sorry. Maybe this break you’re taking with your boyfriend is important.”

“You mean because he doesn’t like come?”

Gage turned and smiled. “Absolutely not,” he said. “Don’t be an idiot. I mean because you’re going to have to get used to the fact that your boyfriend doesn’t like the taste of come and learn to respect this. And you’re going to have to love him in spite of this small flaw. And, trust me, this is a very small flaw in the grand scheme of things. Life is not like a porn film, far from it. So please, whatever you do, don’t blame the poor guy and don’t ruin what might be a great lifetime with the right person just for this one little thing. There are far more important things in any relationship than the taste of come. If you really love someone, and I mean really love someone, this is something that shouldn’t matter at all.”

“But it felt so good when you just did it,” Cory said, reaching down to caress Gage’s ass with his fingertips. “Did it taste good to you? I’m just curious.”

“I could sweeten my coffee with it.”

“So it’s not me. It’s not that I taste bad.”

“No,” Gage said. “You tasted wonderful. Your boyfriend just isn’t into come and there’s nothing wrong with that. Some guys aren’t. You can’t blame him. Frankly, I’m not fond of cilantro. The slightest hint of it makes me gag.”

“But you liked my come.”

“I loved it.”

“I like that,” Cory said.

“What we just did was have sex, Cory,” Gage said. “It wasn’t love. Don’t get the two mixed up.” He stood up and started walking back to the closet. “You’d better go back to work now. I am kind of tired and I think I want to take a short nap before Jase comes home.”

Cory stood up and adjusted his short pants. “I think what we just did should remain between us,” he said. “There’s no need for Jase or my boyfriend to find out. And, from now on, I think we should stop playing the teasing game. I was always afraid it would get out of hand and we’d cross a line, and that’s exactly what happened this afternoon. I’m just glad I didn’t fuck you.”

Gage turned and smiled at him. He was starting to feel uncomfortable being naked in the room with Cory and that wasn’t like Gage. “I agree, Cory. We keep this to ourselves, and we stop playing the teasing game. From now on, we’re just good friends.” Although he knew nothing about the teasing game Cory and Luis played, he figured it had to be a good thing to put an end to it once and for all. It sounded rather sordid and twisted, in Gage’s opinion. He’d have to remember to tell Luis about this next week when he checked in on him on Monday.

Cory crossed to the door and said, “Thanks for talking to me. I think I’m going to give my boyfriend a call tonight and talk things over. You’re right about the swallowing thing. It’s not the most important thing in the world. I’ve been hard on him lately. But after what you just said, I think I’ve been too hard on him. He was there when I needed him the most, after Darius ran me over, and I haven’t been there for him at all.” He smiled and tilted his head. “I have to thank you, Luis.”

Gage pretending to be Luis waved his arm and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I enjoyed myself. You have a nice dick.”

Cory laughed. “I’m not talking about the blow job.”

“Oh.” He could have been.

“I’m thanking you for talking to me like you just did,” he said. “To be honest, I didn’t think you had it in you to be so wise. You’re a sweet guy and all, and I know you’d never hurt anyone on purpose. But I didn’t know you were so smart, too.”

Gage smiled. He’d always thought reading more books might have helped Luis. He wished he could tell this guy the truth now more than ever. His stomach turned; he hated lying to people. But he nodded and said, “I’ll see you later. And good luck with your boyfriend tonight. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you both.”

Before Cory left, he stopped and said, “I’m curious about one thing.”

“What?”

“Do people ever acquire a taste for swallowing? Is it possible for them to start out hating it and learn to like it?”

Gage shrugged and said, “I honestly don’t know. I supposed it could happen with practice. Although I can’t imagine ever liking cilantro. Tell your boyfriend to start slowly and see what happens.”

“I’m going now,” Cory said. “Thanks again for everything.”

When he was gone, Gage went into the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the shower. He hadn’t expected his first afternoon at Cider Mill Farm to turn into a scene from a porn film and a sex therapy session at the same time. But at least Cory hadn’t noticed anything unusual about him. And, from what Gage had just heard, Cory knew more about Luis than most people. The only problem now was trying to pull off the charade with Jase and Hunter.

Chapter Eleven

After the shower, Gage soon realized the things he’d packed in New York had been a complete waste of time. After Cory left and Gage went into the closet to find something more comfortable to wear, he noticed Luis had duplicates of his entire New York wardrobe at Cider Mill Farm. Even the way the closet as organized looked identical to the New York closet, with casual clothes on the right and more formal things on the left.

He found a shelf where Luis kept shorts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, and T-shirts. He pulled down a pair of black sweatpants and a white T-shirt and put them on. But even they didn’t feel comfortable because they didn’t belong to him. He wished he’d brought along at least one article of clothing of his own. His favorite navy sweatpants with the threadbare knees would have calmed his nerves. Jase probably wouldn’t have noticed the difference and Gage would have been able to relax in at least one familiar article of clothing. The biggest problem with wearing Luis’s clothing was that everything smelled like Luis, an aroma that reminded Gage of sweet boiled corn and scented hair product.

In one of the dressers, Gage found white athletic socks. He put them on and crossed to the bed to take a nap. After he’d given Cory that spectacular blow job, he’d brushed his teeth and splashed cold water on his face, hoping his swollen lips would go down before Jase and Hunter arrived. He’d worked so hard to get the handyman off his lips were now puffed up, giving him a trout face like one of those preposterous celebrities who had had too many injections to get fuller lips. He wasn’t sure what time Jase was arriving, just that it was sometime late that afternoon. He was hoping a short nap would bring down the swelling so it wouldn’t look as if he’d just blown the handyman.

An hour later, he woke from a deep sleep to the sound of intense pounding. He’d been dreaming about driving Luis’s Cadillac, in vivid color. He’d parked it somewhere in New York and couldn’t remember where he’d left it. In the dream, he was walking the streets aimlessly trying to find the car. When the loud pounding racket woke him up, he was on the verge of remembering where he’d parked the car. Now he’d never know.

He sat up fast and rubbed his eyes. The pounding grew more intense, to the point where he could almost feel it in his chest. It was louder than anything he’d ever heard before, so he jumped out of bed, grabbed a pair of running shoes he’d seen in Luis’s closet and put them on fast. Then he ran down the back staircase and through the kitchen, following the loud noise as it passed over the house. The noise led him to the back door and he stepped outside. He looked left, then right, and saw nothing. But when he looked straight ahead, down past the barn, he saw a huge helicopter slowly descending on to a flat patch of green meadow.

No wonder the old Reverend had mentioned using ear plugs for his nap. He must have known Jase would arrive by helicopter instead of limousine. Gage had never been this close to a helicopter before and the sound was earsplitting.

The dog had followed him out to the patio. He started barking and running toward the meadow beyond the barn, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Gage clenched his fists and took a deep breath, then followed the dog, hoping Jase wouldn’t notice anything unusual or different about him.

When he reached the helicopter, he saw Jase climbing down with the little boy in his arms. Jase tossed a large suitcase to the ground, and it bounced and landed on its side. The helicopter had the words, “Virgin Enterprises,” painted across the side in red, white, and blue, and the background was a gleaming shade of silver. Jase climbed down and hunched forward to avoid the propellers, holding the little fair-haired boy close to his chest. Then he shouted something to the pilot and shut the door hard. As the helicopter took off, Jase put the boy down and reached for the suitcase. They both started running toward Gage, one shouting Luis’s name and the other shouting, “Daddy!” The little boy, Hunter, reached Gage first and threw his arms around Gage’s legs. He lunged at him and hugged him so tightly Gage almost fell over backwards. He couldn’t help smiling.

“Daddy,” Hunter said, “We got you a present from Gram. I missed you so much. Dad says you’re not going to like it and I shouldn’t say anything. But I think you might like it. And Gram couldn’t wait to give it to you.” He spoke well for a kid who seemed to be about four or five, without a hint of annoying baby talk that most people find so adorable. Gage had never been great with kids; he’d spent a good deal of his life avoiding them. But he had to admit there was something special about this kid.

Gage patted the boy on the back and said, “I missed you, too, Hunter.” He knew when the boy referred to “Gram” he was talking about Jase’s grandmother, Isabelle Nicholas. Gage had read all about Jase’s quirky ninety–year-old grandmother from Alaska in the blog posts Luis had written for the gay romance blogger in France.

Hunter released his grip and bent down to pick up the little dog. By that time, the dog was running around in circles and walking on its hind legs, begging for attention from the kid. The kid scooped the dog up in his arms and hugged him. “Camp, I missed you so much. I’m not going away again for a long time. I promise.”

Jase jogged up to Gage and dropped the suitcase. He threw his arms around him and hugged him tightly. Evidently, he and Luis didn’t hold back their affection for each other in front of Hunter. He hugged Gage harder and kissed him on the mouth right in front of the boy, making Gage feel somewhat awkward. Hell, Gage couldn’t even get Donny Vitelli the cop to hold his hand in public. “Damn, you look so good,” Jase said. “I missed you more than you know. This is the last time I’m going away without you for a long time. Next time, we all go together as a family or we don’t go at all.”

Gage smiled, trying to force emotions he didn’t have, feeling creepier by the moment. He hesitated, waiting to see if Jase would know he wasn’t really Luis, and said. “I missed you guys, too.” He stepped away from Jase. Jase was a great-looking guy, with sandy blond hair and a strong, rugged athletic body. He was better looking in person than the photos Gage had seen of him in newspapers and magazines. But he wasn’t Gage’s type at all, and it wasn’t because he was over forty. Gage had never been attracted to men with light hair, and it had nothing to do with age. There was something about men with light hair that made them taste so different from men with dark hair and darker skin, men like Cory and the taxi driver. It was almost a bitter, metallic taste Gage couldn’t describe in words. Whenever he kissed a light, fair-haired man, the taste it left in his mouth reminded him of the sanitized tools used in dental offices and he wanted to rinse out his mouth.

Hunter put the dog down and they both started running up to the house. When they were far enough out of sight, Jase reached around and grabbed Gage’s ass. He squeezed it hard and said, “I’m so fucking horny I could fuck a rock right now.”

Gage blinked and lurched forward. So much for small talk with his brother-in-law. Gage smiled and looked down at his shoes. “Let’s go inside and see what Hunter’s doing.”

Jase reached for Gage’s waist and pulled him closer. “What’s wrong? You don’t seem happy to see me. And your lips are swollen.”

“Ah well,” Gage said, “I had an allergic reaction to a strawberry I ate earlier this afternoon at The Plaza. I went there for strawberries and cream at lunchtime. And I’ve had a headache all day. I just can’t seem to shake it, no matter how hard I try.”

Jase lowered his hand and slipped it down the back of Gage’s sweatpants. He squeezed his bare ass this time, sliding his middle finger into the crack, and said, “I know how to make you feel better. One good fuck and you’ll be as good as new.”

Ah well. This was getting weird. Gage wasn’t sure how to respond to his over-sexed brother-in-law. So he backed away fast and said, “I think I might be coming down with a cold. We’d better take it easy for a while, Jase. I’m sorry.”

Jase picked up the suitcase with one hand and placed the other on the small of Gage’s back. (Luis certainly did like being pushed around by the men at Cider Mill Farm.) He pushed him forward and said, “Come to think of it, you do sound a little different. You’re voice sounds off, a little deeper. Let’s go into the house and I’ll show you the present from my grandmother. I know you’re not going to love it. But she meant well and all you have to do is thank her next time you talk to her, then forget all about it.”

When they were in the kitchen, Hunter ran up to Gage and asked if he could have an ice pop. He said he hadn’t had any ice pops all week in Alaska and he was dying for one.

“Sure,” Hunter said, “Help yourself. You know where they are.” Gage didn’t have a clue if they even had ice pops in the house.

But when he said this, both Jase and Hunter exchanged glances, with their mouths wide open and their eyebrows arched.

“What’s wrong?” Gage asked. He knew his zipper wasn’t open because he was wearing sweatpants.

“You really must be feeling bad,” Jase said. “I’ve never seen you let Hunter eat sugary ice pops, or any sugary snacks, before without giving him a lecture about fresh, organic, healthy foods. What on Earth would the first lady think if she heard you now? You’re behaving positively decadent.” Jase spoke with a sarcastic tone, smiling the entire time, as if he thought Luis’s food obsessions were odd, too.

Gage smiled. Jase should have seen him suck Cory the handyman off a few hours earlier. That was decadent, at least compared to ice pops. “The first lady will just have to get over it. I haven’t seen my kid in a week and I think he deserves an ice pop.” Of all things, Gage thought. All the poor kid wanted was an ice pop, not a vodka stinger. And from what Gage could see, Hunter was a normal, nice-looking kid, with almost all of Jase’s handsome features. The kid was far from being fat. If anything, Gage thought he could use a few extra pounds. Poor Hunter was probably so thin because of all that fucked-up organic food Luis had been forcing down his throat. “In fact,” Gage said, turning to Hunter, “if you want, you can have two ice pops.”

Hunter blinked. “Before dinner?”

Gage smiled. “Let’s live a little, kiddo,” he said.

“Thanks,” Hunter said, as he crossed to the refrigerator. “I promise I’ll eat all my vegetables tonight at dinner. I swear I will. I’ll even eat that white stuff you make me eat sometimes.”

“White stuff?” Gage asked.

Jase laughed. “He’s talking about the tofu.”

Gage frowned. The poor kid sounded as if he’d been brain washed by aliens from a creepy organic planet. “Don’t worry, Hunter. We’re having pizza for dinner. I’m not feeling well and I decided we’re getting take out tonight.” Too bad Gage couldn’t cook. If he had been able to cook, he would have fed them both huge portions of Southern fried chicken and biscuits. Jase, in Gage’s opinion, could stand to gain a few pounds, too.

When Gage mentioned they were having pizza, Hunter smiled so wide Gage saw every tooth in his little mouth. “You never let us have pizza. You say it’s bad for us. You always say it will make me obese and it will make Dad’s blood go crazy.”

Gage had to think about this for a moment. A kid that age shouldn’t even know the word obese. When he realized Hunter was talking about Jase’s blood pressure, he laughed. “Well, I’m breaking all the rules this weekend because I’ve missed you so much. I don’t think the occasional pizza is going to kill any of us.”

“Can I have soda with the pizza?” Hunter asked.

Jase sent his son a wary glance and said, “You’d better not push your luck, Hunter. You know how he feels about sugary drinks of any kind.”

Gage laughed. The way Jase had looked at his son anyone would have thought Hunter had used foul language. The poor starved kid looked as if he needed a big glass of cola to go with his pizza. “What the hell? We’re celebrating this weekend. You can have all the soda you want.”

“And no vegetables at all this weekend?” Hunter asked.

Gage smiled. “Go get your ice pop before I change my mind.”

While Hunter went to the freezer, Jase plopped the big black leather suitcase on top of the kitchen table and unzipped it. Before he reached inside, he frowned at Gage and said, “Luis, promise me you won’t get upset about this. My grandmother wanted to give you this because she loves you. She’s not trying to insult you and she’s knows nothing about being politically correct.”

When Jase looked at him this way, Gage experienced a rush of adrenaline. What on Earth could be inside the suitcase that would hurt or offend his finicky, politically correct twin brother, Luis, so much? So he clasped his hands together and said, “I’m sure she meant well. I can’t wait to see it.”

Jase fumbled for a moment and dug to the bottom of the suitcase. He slowly pulled out a coat. But not just any old coat. This one was made out of some type of fur, with a brownish, reddish color.

Jase lifted the coat and handed it to Gage. “I know how you feel about wearing dead animals and how strongly you feel about animal rights,” Jase said. “But this is vintage beaver. It belonged to my grandfather long before it was against the rules to wear fur coats. My grandmother says it dates back to the l930s, when wearing fur in Alaska was all about keeping warm, not fashion. She said my grandfather wore it to work every day when he had to walk two miles to get there. She specifically said she wanted you to have it. I know she meant well and I didn’t have the heart to tell her how you feel about wearing fur. You don’t have to wear it. You can put it in the back of the hall closet and never look at it again. Actually, I almost decided not to show it to you.”

When Gage felt the soft fur, he ran his right hand down the back and smiled. Oh, this would absolutely kill his politically correct twin brother, and Gage couldn’t have been more pleased. If this had really been Luis, instead of Gage pretending to be Luis, Luis wouldn’t have even touched the coat. He would have dropped it on the floor and shrieked, ordering Jase to pick it up and remove it from his house immediately.

But Gage only smiled and slipped his arms through the sleeves of the vintage beaver coat. Gage wasn’t fond of real fur either. But he’d never worn real fur and he’d always wanted to see how it felt. This coat was a three-quarter-length affair, and he knew the reddish-brown color would look wonderful with his new dark hair color. It would have looked even better with his bleached blond hair. Oh, he was missing his blond hair more than he thought he would.

Jase’s expression remained serious. “After my grandfather died,” he said, “my grandmother kept it in cold storage, had it cleaned and glazed regularly, and said she was keeping it for me. But it’s way too small for my shoulders. Besides, I’d never wear real fur. She said you were exactly the same size as my grandfather and she wanted someone in the family to have it.”

Gage ran both palms down the soft fur and turned sideways so he could gaze into a mirror near the walk-in fireplace. He wanted to scream and shout; he wanted to throw his arms around Jase for bringing this coat back to Luis, knowing how Luis would react to real fur. But he knew that would have been way out of character. So he smiled and said, “I’m okay with it, Jase. Next time I talk to her I’ll be sure to thank her for it. And, as you said, this coat was made long before it was unfashionable to wear real fur and it’s a shame to think those poor little beavers died in vain. You don’t have to worry. It’s all good. I’ll call and thank her tomorrow.”

Jase exhaled and reached out to hug Gage. “Wow, I was so worried I wasn’t even sure if I should show you the coat. Thanks for being so understanding. This is one of the reasons why I love you so much. You truly are one of a kind.”

Gage almost laughed in his face. If Jase only knew he was really two of a kind. “If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to go upstairs to take a nap. I’m not feeling that great and my head is pounding. It’s probably just a little head cold coming on.”

Jase hugged him and said. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll take care of Hunter and I’ll order the pizza for dinner. I’ll call you when it’s time to come down. You need your rest for later tonight when Ted Barker and Thomas come over.”

Gage turned and said, “Huh ?” He knew Thomas. But who the hell was Ted Barker?

Jase smiled. “Oh, you really must be feeling bad if you don’t remember what we’re doing tonight. Ted and Thomas are coming over after dinner. You’re the one who has been reminding me for two weeks. Thomas promised to finally do a full psychic reading for you. You’ve been bugging him for ages.”

Leave it to Gage’s gullible, jackass twin brother to bug someone for a full psychic reading. What a fucking crackpot. Luis had always been that way. As kids, whenever they went to a carnival, you could always find Luis hanging around the gypsy tent looking for a tarot card reading, gaping with parted lips at the way the queen of the gypsies gazed into her crystal ball. Luis read his horoscope daily, and even believed in ghosts and the supernatural. Gage had always laughed at him and shrugged it off, preferring to stick to reality and what he could see and explain based on scientific facts. If there were real psychics, Gage had never met one. And now he had to sit through a psychic reading with the old gay Reverend who lived at the end of the road. But he didn’t want Jase to know he thought this was all a huge waste of time, so he yawned and said, “I didn’t forget. I’ll be fine. I just need a little nap, is all.”

* * * *

After dinner—greasy, cheesy pizza and sugary orange soda—Jase put Hunter to bed and Gage went into their bedroom to change his clothes for this Ted Barker person and the old psychic Reverend. From what Gage had figured out so far, this Ted Barker guy lived at the end of the road, too, adjacent to where the psychic reverend lived, in a little stone house that was one of the oldest buildings in the county. When Jase talked about Ted during dinner, Gage noticed a hint of jealousy in his tone, as if Ted was a little fonder of Luis than he should have been. The more Gage coaxed Jase into talking about Ted Barker, the more Gage smiled. When Jase mentioned Ted’s little antique shop in town, he smiled and called it, “slightly

pretentious in a quaint way.” And when Jase mentioned Ted’s background in Bucks County history, Jase implied Ted was a pedantic know-it-all and one of those boring, fuzzy-headed historically accurate types that made him yawn.

As Gage put on a pair of Luis’s jeans and an olive green polo shirt, he had a feeling the evening might be more interesting than he thought it would be. But then Jase walked into the bedroom and told him Hunter was all tucked into his bed and he started removing his clothes. Jase laughed and said he’d never seen Hunter so tired; he thought it was the pizza and soda. Although Gage was already dressed by then and ready to go downstairs to wait for Ted and the psychic Reverend to arrive, Jase cornered him in the closet and started kissing his neck. Jase was in his boxer shorts by then and Gage could feel Jase’s growing erection pressing into his pelvis. There had to be at least eight inches down there.

So Gage pushed him back and slipped out from under his arms. “I have to go downstairs. They’ll be here any minute, Jase. And you’d better get dressed.” The pizza and soda didn’t seem to have calmed Jase much. Gage could feel the animalistic urges coming from Jase’s body; he could almost smell the testosterone. And he couldn’t miss the firm erection pitching a tent in Jase’s boxer shorts. This was a man who hadn’t had sex with his partner in over a week and he was ready to take him hard and fast.

Jase grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him into the closet wall again. He squeezed his shoulders hard and said, “Let them wait. I wanna fuck.” Then he lowered his head and bit Gage’s neck.

“Let go,” Gage said. “I’m sorry, Jase. I have a headache and I’m not in the mood.” Gage knew the ultimate revenge would have been to sleep with his twin brother’s husband. He knew this would hurt Luis the most. Yet he still couldn’t bring himself to stoop so low. He felt so terrible for Jase. The poor guy needed to fuck something so bad he was ready to put his fist through the wall. But Gage simply couldn’t do it. He entertained the idea of giving Jase a quick hand job just to calm him down. He wondered if that was against the rules or not when it came to gay brothers-in-law. But he couldn’t even bring himself to do that.

“C’mon,” Jase said. “You’ve let me fuck you before when you’ve had colds. Remember that time you had the flu and you rolled over and let me fuck you on the bed? You don’t seem as sick now as you did then.” Jase took a step toward him. “Just a quick one. I’ll get in and out fast.” Jase lifted his arm and made a fist. “Bam, bam, bam. You won’t even know you’ve been fucked.”

No wonder Luis looked so happy. With a billionaire like Jase begging to fuck him like this, who wouldn’t be smiling all the time? But Gage stood his ground. “I’m sorry, Jase. I’m just not in the mood. It’s nothing personal. But my head is pounding.”

Jase’s shoulders relaxed and he sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. It’s just that I don’t want to fall back into that pattern where he have to start making appointments to have sex. Remember how hard it was to have sex when we first found out I had a son? You were all wrapped up with Hunter and I was jacking myself off in my office, it was so bad.”

Gage nodded, as if he really did remember, and said, “Well, you might have to jack yourself again, because this is one of those headaches I think might last for a while. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you when I’m feeling better.”

Jase leaned forward and kissed him. “You don’t have to be sorry. I love you now more than ever. We’ve always found ways to work through the rough patches. If I have to wait another week, I’ll do it without a problem.”

They really did love each other. Luis hadn’t been blowing smoke up Gage’s ass when he’d told Gage about the wonderful life they shared. Gage’s chest started to cave in when it occurred to him he may have gone a little too far with this charade. The best he could do now, until he could figure out his next move, was to keep refusing to have sex with Jase. On his way out of the closet, he gave Jase a brotherly pat on the arm and said, “You’re very good man. Now put your dick away, get dressed, and come downstairs so I don’t have to entertain these two fucking bozos alone.”

Jase blinked. “But you wanted to do this reading with Thomas.”

“I’m sorry,” Gage said, trying to react like Luis. “It’s just the headache talking.”

* * * *

The psychic reading with the gay reverend, Thomas, with the accent on the last syllable, turned out to be as uneventful as Gage had predicted it would be. The old guy made them lower all the lights so that the only light in the family room came from the burning logs in the walk-in fireplace, and then he grabbed both of Gage’s hands and closed his eyes so he could concentrate. He made a few dramatic gestures and his body jerked a few times. He even changed his voice, as if one of his so-called “spirit guides” was talking through his body. A lot of what he said was gibberish, and the rest was all so vague and pointless Gage could have done it himself with a turban and a crystal ball. He told Gage there were exciting things in his future. He said he’d lead a very active life so far and would continue to do so. The one thing the psychic reverend couldn’t seem to figure out was that this wasn’t Luis Fortune at all he was reading. It was really Gage Weston pretending to be Luis Fortune. This was enough for Gage to know the old man was simply entertaining them, not giving them a true psychic reading. If he had been psychic and he had been able to predict the future, the least he could have done was figure out he wasn’t really talking to Luis. A true psychic, if there was such a thing, would have known Luis was locked up in a dusty sex cage in a third-floor apartment in Brooklyn, eating cake and pasta and listening to the country western countdown that night.

Ted Barker, on the other hand, turned out to be one of the most charming, engaging men Gage had met in a long time. He wore a tweed jacket and beige slacks. He had a reddish-brown beard like the color of the beaver coat and thick reddish-brown hair. When he spoke, he sounded like a professor teaching a classroom full of students. He kept Gage and Thomas laughing for most of the night and even invited Gage, assuming he was inviting Luis, to take a look at a Piranesi engraving he’d recently purchased at an auction house in Philadelphia. Of course Gage knew nothing about engravings or Piranesi, the famous Italian artist, but he smiled and accepted the Sunday morning invitation without even consulting Jase first—a bad move, he realized too late, thanks to never having been in a monogamous relationship himself.

Jase seemed to notice Ted didn’t invite him or Thomas, just Gage pretending to be Luis. So Jase squared his shoulders and cleared his throat. “I thought you were going fishing with us tomorrow morning, Luis. I promised Hunter I’d take him fishing and thought you’d like to come along, too.”

Gage smiled. Evidently this Ted Barker knew how to push Jase’s buttons. Gage was actually curious to find out what a Piranesi actually was. So he smiled at Jase and said, “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll skip the fishing thing tomorrow and take Ted up on his offer.” He was also extremely attracted to Ted Barker. There was something about men with reddish-brown hair, unlike fair-haired men, that made his pants tighter. Ted reminded him of someone, but he couldn’t put it together.

Jase forced a smiled and said, “If that’s what you want to do, fine with me. Hunter and I can go fishing alone.”

After that, the party broke up. It was only eleven o’clock, but Thomas started to yawn and his head began to droop forward. Ted had driven Thomas down the easement road and they didn’t want Thomas walking home alone in the dark. Although the old reverend was a complete fake as a psychic, there was something sweet and nice about him that allowed Gage to overlook his eccentricities.

When Ted and Thomas were gone and Gage and Jase were upstairs getting ready for bed, Jase asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to go fishing with us tomorrow? Hunter will be awfully disappointed.” Jase was undressing at the foot of the bed, tossing his clothes in different directions, scratching the back of his head with one hand and his balls with the other.

Gage went into the closet and found the sweatpants and T-shirt he’d been wearing earlier. There was no way he was getting into bed with Jase Nicholas, his brother’s husband, naked. “I’ll make it up to Hunter later,” Gage said, speaking louder because he was inside the closet and felt awkward changing in front of Jase. “What did you think of the reading Thomas gave me tonight?” He wanted to change the subject so Jase wouldn’t continue harping about fishing.

“I thought it was bullshit,” Jase said in a flat, dry tone.

Gage stepped out of the closet and walked to the bed. “He’s a nice man, though. I’m sure he means well.” He forced himself not to watch Jase climb into bed. Jase had removed all his clothes this time, even his boxer shorts, and Gage didn’t feel right about seeing him naked.

Jase pulled the covers over his naked body and gaped at Luis. “You’re wearing clothes to bed? What the fuck?”

Gage smiled and walked to his side of the bed. “I had a slight chill. I think it’s because it’s getting cooler outside and I’m coming down with this cold.” It sounded plausible.

“You’ve never worn clothes to bed before, not even when you’re sick.”

“I’m just not feeling like myself,” Gage said.

“Well, if you’re not feeling any better when we get back to New York this week, you’re going to see Dr. Strand. I don’t want you getting sick on us.”

That was a sweet gesture. Gage was beginning to see that Luis really had fallen in love with a wonderful man. Jase was nothing like Luis. He was strong and simple, kind and wise. Gage couldn’t seem to find a single flaw in the man no matter how hard he tried. And, Gage was starting to feel guiltier by the minute for intruding this way.

He climbed into bed and pulled up the covers. Before he turned on his side with his back facing Jase, he said, “Don’t be mad at me. I really don’t feel well.” It was the truth. Being in the same bed with naked Jase, his brother’s lover and husband, caused a burn in Gage’s stomach he’d hadn’t experienced since he’d lost his first lover, Snake. It was a shame Luis hadn’t felt the same way about fucking Gage’s lover, Snake. If Luis had felt an ounce of loyalty to Gage back then, Luis wouldn’t be locked up in a sex cage in Brooklyn. And Gage wouldn’t be in bed with Luis’s naked husband at Cider Mill Farm, pretending to have a severe headache.

Chapter Twelve

In the morning, Gage faked a few coughs and cleared his throat. He sniffed back and rubbed his forehead. He did this because Jase had rolled over in bed, reached down beneath the covers, and slipped his big hand down the back of Gage’s sweatpants without asking for permission. When Gage felt Jase’s hand groping him, his eyes opened wide and he practically jumped out of bed. That’s when he covered his mouth and faked the coughs. Without looking down at Jase in the bed, Gage walked to the bathroom in Luis’s sweatpants and said, “I’m still not feeling like myself. It’s probably a low-grade head cold or a virus.” Gage wished Jase wasn’t so aggressive. He would have loved to have slept longer that morning. For a guy in his forties, Jase seemed to have a constant erection.

Jase sat up and sent him a concerned glance. “Do you have a fever? I can get the thermometer.” He smiled and winked. “I can even get the rectal thermometer.”

Gage was in the bathroom now, but the door was wide open. He was standing in front of the mirror over the vanity smoothing out his hair. He noticed the dark hair color was lightening on its own and bleached blond highlights were starting to appear. He hoped Jase wouldn’t notice. “I don’t think I have a fever. I’ll be okay. It could even be an allergy to the falling leaves. I’ve heard people get this in the fall.” He wasn’t even certain there was such a thing as having an allergy to falling leaves. Maybe he should have said he had an allergy to something he’d eaten instead.

Jase untangled his body from the covers and loped into the bathroom in his bare feet. He was stark naked, with a semi-erection swinging between his legs. “Maybe we should cancel going fishing this morning,” Jase said. “I’m only going because Hunter likes to go. We’re not going to catch anything.”

Gage kept his eyes focused on the mirror, trying hard to avoid gaping at Jase’s dick. “I’ll be fine. You go, seriously. I’m going to Ted’s to see his engraving anyway. I promised I would and don’t want to let him down.”

Without going to the toilet first, Jase reached down and placed both hands on Gage’s waist. He leaned forward and kissed the back of Gage’s neck. “I’ll take you to Ted’s myself if you want. I don’t mind seeing his engraving. Then I’ll bring you back home and you can rest while we’re out fishing.”

It sounded to Gage as though Jase was still jealous of Ted and Jase didn’t want Gage going over to Ted’s place unescorted. Though Gage frowned when he thought about disappointing Jase, he shook his head and said, “You’ll crush Hunter if you do that. I know how excited he is about going fishing. I’ll be fine.”

Jase’s hand went lower and stopped in the middle of Gage’s ass. “I know you’ll be fine. It’s Ted I worry about.”

Gage figured he’d better reassure Jase, so he turned fast and said, “You don’t have to worry about anything, Jase. Ted is a nice guy and all he’s interested in is showing me his Piranesi. Stop worrying so much. Luis Fortune would never cheat on you. He loves you too much.” He figured it was a safe thing to say. Though he wasn’t sure about whether or not Luis was a cheater, he had to say something to reassure the poor guy.

“I know,” Jase said. “I just can’t help thinking that Ted is always concocting ways to get into your pants. And he is a nice-looking guy. He reminds me of Prince Harry in England.”

Jase was right. Ted did resemble adorable Prince Harry, with his reddish-brown hair and his wiry, lanky, athletic body. Pddly, his skin was darker, unlike most redheaded guys with freckles. But Gage didn’t want Jase to become alarmed, so he said, “If you like the Prince Harry type, which I don’t.” He lied. Gage loved the Prince Harry type. Gage would have licked adorable Prince Harry from his toes to the top of his head if given the chance. But he didn’t want Jase to know this. “I’m just going to see the engraving. You have nothing to worry about.”

However, Gage was very wrong about this. After Jase and Hunter left to go fishing in New Jersey, Gage walked to the end of the easement road and knocked on Ted’s front door. Ted answered the door wearing nothing but a pair of pale blue plaid boxer shorts. No shirt, no socks. His hair was all messed up and his face was red and wet with perspiration.

Gage wore Luis’s faded jeans—Luis’s only pair of old jeans—and a plain white dress shirt with a button down collar that morning. The weather was warmer and he wasn’t wearing a jacket. He tried to avoid gaping at Ted’s lean naked chest and said, “Am I too early? I’ll come back.”

As Gage turned to leave, Ted took his elbow and said, “You’re right on time. I just came back from a four-mile jog. Sorry I look so bad. I’ve been running late all morning.”

Ted looked far from bad, with his defined chest glistening and his half-soaked reddish-brown hair all messed up. The aroma coming from his warm body reminded Gage of red wine and damp leaves. So Gage smiled and said, “You look fine. I don’t mind at all.”

Ted returned the smile and gestured for Gage to enter the house. “The engraving is up in my bedroom. I wanted to keep it up there for a while so I can admire it before I go to bed at night.”

When Gage stepped inside the little stone cottage, he followed Ted up a narrow semi-circular wooden staircase with pie slice stairs. Ted warned him to keep to the right so he wouldn’t miss a step. But Gage concentrated more on Ted’s bulging leg muscles climbing the staircase. He had large, well-proportioned feet, with nice flat toes.

There was something about a man in boxer shorts that made Gage’s mouth water. When they reached to top of the stairs, Gage missed a step and Ted turned fast. He went back down the steps and reached under Gage’s right arm. “Here, let me help you. I warned you to keep to the right.”

Gage regained his balance and Ted helped him up to the second-floor hallway, with Ted’s crotch in his face the entire time. This house had the same wide plank barn board floors Luis’s and Jase’s house had, with all the same simplicity, from the period furniture to the white walls. Only on a much smaller scale, with much lower ceilings. Gage tried to pull back and walk on his own, but Ted held him with force and refused to let go. Evidently Jase had been right about his neighbor, Ted. The guy did want to get into Luis’s pants after all. Gage wondered how long this had been going on between Ted and Luis, then wondered whether or not Luis had actually slept with Ted behind Jase’s back. Gage’s affection toward Jase—as a human being, not a lover—seemed to grow with each conversation they shared. He hoped Luis wasn’t cheating on Jase.

But Gage didn’t have to wonder for long, because when they were in the bedroom staring down at the Piranesi engraving Ted had placed on an easel near the foot of the bed—a dismal black-and-white drawing of an Italian prison scene that reminded Gage of a bad cartoon—Ted removed his sweaty boxer shorts and placed his right palm on Gage’s back. “Would you like to hop into the shower with me?”

“Ah well,” Gage said. This guy didn’t seem shy. Now he was really starting to wonder what Luis had been doing behind Jase’s back. “I told Jase I wouldn’t be gone long.” When he glanced down between Ted’s legs, he saw an uncircumcised, eight-inch dick with a patch of reddish-brown hair that had been trimmed into a neat triangle. Gage wouldn’t have predicted the shaved triangle or the uncut dick. On the surface, Ted seemed so conservative and collegiate.

“Jase will be gone with Hunter for hours,” Ted said. “This is the perfect opportunity for us to have a little fun on our own. You’ve been turning me down since you moved out here to Bucks County. You know I never give up. I have to have you just once.”

“I’ve been turning you down?” Gage wasn’t sure how to react. He wanted to see if he could get more information out of Ted about his twin brother.

Ted moved closer and placed his other palm on Gage’s abdomen. “Stop trying to fight it, Luis. You know how I feel about you. I’ve wanted you since the first day I met you. It’s time we stopped pretending and did something about it. Jase doesn’t have to know anything. I’ll never say a word. I’m not trying to break up your relationship with Jase. I just want you once, just one time, and I’ll never bother you again.”

So Luis hadn’t done anything with Ted behind Jase’s back, even though Ted looked like Prince Harry, with all that thick reddish-brown hair and those slightly bowed athletic legs. And Luis hadn’t touched Ted’s thick, uncut dick, even though Ted had been practically waving it in Luis’s face for a very long time. Gage had to hand it to his twin brother for having such strong willpower, mainly because Gage didn’t have the same willpower. Besides, Gage wasn’t really Luis. He was Gage and he was free to take any man he wanted. The Piranesi engraving was the ugliest fucking piece of art he’d ever seen. But when he saw the way this Prince Harry lookalike named Ted was staring at him, he simply couldn’t resist.

He leaned into Ted’s sweaty naked body and turned. His arms went up and he laced his fingers at the back of Ted’s neck. He inhaled more of Ted’s athletic, jock aroma and said, “If you promise me it will be just this one time, and this one time only, I’ll agree. But I need you to promise me this will never happen again.”

Ted grabbed him by the waist and pulled him closer, so hard Gage’s head jerked back. Ted had the kind of invisible, unexpected strength most thin, wiry guys have. “I promise. Just this one time, and no one will ever have to know about it, especially not Jase. I swear on my life.”

Gage smiled and lowered his right hand. He wrapped his fingers gently around Ted’s uncut dick and started stroking his foreskin with his thumb. “Then I guess it will be okay.” Ted was not the kind of man Gage would ever get serious about, mostly because Ted seemed to take such delight in cheating with Luis behind Jase’s back. Though Gage had to admit he was extremely attracted to Ted’s looks, he never would have taken a man like Ted seriously when it came to having a relationship with him. Gage had his flaws, but infidelity of any kind made him think twice about a person’s general character. And even though Gage wasn’t really Luis, Ted didn’t know that. Ted was, in fact, taking another man’s lover, whether he knew it or not, and enjoying it a little bit too much.

But that wasn’t going to stop Gage from fulfilling his Prince Harry fantasy. He closed his eyes and pulled Ted’s foreskin out an inch from the head of his cock.

Ted kissed him and said, “I’ll get the shower hot and we can soap each other up.”

Gage returned the kiss, inserting his tongue in Ted’s mouth, pressing his tongue softly against Ted’s. A minute later, still pulling Ted’s foreskin, Gage said, “No. I want you just the way you are. No shower. I like men to smell like they’ve just been playing football, not like soap and cologne.” Gage had heard a line similar to this on a soap opera once and he’d always wanted to use it.

Ted smiled. “But I just ran four miles. I’ve been sweating all morning and I might be a little, ah, ripe and saucy.” Then he laughed, as if he wasn’t sure whether he was joking or being honest.

“I know,” Gage said. “That’s why I want you this way. I like saucy balls.” He’d never heard that line on a soap opera.

“I always had a feeling you liked it dirty,” Ted said. He kissed Gage again, this time taking him so hard Gage’s entire body tilted backward as if he were being dipped on a dance floor.

Gage’s heart began to race. He pushed Ted away and removed all his clothes. After he pulled off his socks, he went down on his knees and buried his mouth between Ted’s solid, sinewy runner’s legs. His thigh muscles were as long and lean as his calves. He took a deep breath and inhaled Ted’s spicy, natural aroma again and held his breath for a moment. He licked the inside of Ted’s crotch, to the right and left of Ted’s balls. He pressed his face so deeply between Ted’s legs he had to turn sideways to catch his breath every few seconds. His scent wasn’t obnoxious at all. He smelled like a man should smell.

When he was finished licking the last inch of Ted’s groin, way down beneath Ted’s balls, he started working on Ted’s balls one at a time. They were low-hanging, and one hung slightly lower than the other. Gage wound up sucking both into his mouth at the same time, always taking deep breaths, inhaling as much of this sweaty Prince Harry lookalike as he could. While Gage worked between Ted’s legs, Ted remained standing and caressed the top of Gage’s head, pulling it back every so often to look down into Gage’s eyes.

When Gage finally released Ted’s balls, he wiped his chin and swallowed. Then his head went up and he sucked Ted halfway into his mouth. He didn’t suck it all the way in at first because he wanted to play with the foreskin for a little while with his tongue. Gage had always been fascinated with uncut cocks. There was something mysterious and exciting about them that he couldn’t resist. He thought Ted’s uncut dick even tasted different from other dicks he had sucked. This could have been Gage’s imagination, though, or it could have been because Ted needed a shower. But it didn’t stop Gage from sucking Ted until his jaw started to go numb.

Ted wasn’t a fast pre-comer like other men Gage had blown. It took a while to milk out the first few drops. But once he reached that point, the pre-come didn’t stop flowing. When Ted finally reached a point where he was ready to climax, he stepped back, leaving Gage on his knees, with his tongue hanging from his mouth, and said, “Get up on the bed. Let’s fuck now.”

Although this wasn’t the most romantic invitation Gage had received from a man, he knew Ted wasn’t going to be his life partner and Gage was more than willing to oblige. So he climbed up from the floor and went to the bed. It was one of those large sleigh beds with a thick footboard. And it was higher than most beds, too. Gage had to lift his leg and literally hop onto the bed. While he did this, Ted crossed to a small closet near a dresser and opened the bottom drawer.

Gage lay on his back in the middle of the bed. He bent his legs at the knee and spread them wide, inviting Ted to take him. There was no confusion. Ted was the top and Gage was the bottom, which Gage had always preferred. He thought Ted was looking for a condom in the dresser drawer. So he grabbed his own dick and started stroking himself until Ted returned. When Ted did return and Gage glanced up at him, Gage saw he had a condom in one hand and some strange peculiar contraption in the other.

Ted tossed the contraption on the bed and said, “You put this on while I put on the condom.”

Gage reached for the contraption and lifted it up to examine it. It looked like some kind of belt, but he wasn’t completely sure. There were two cuffs at either end of the belt-like contraption and a thick black pad at the back. He looked up at Ted and said, “What do I do with it?”

Ted rolled the condom to the bottom of his shaft and smiled. “It’s a stirrup belt,” he said. “You put the pad at the back of your neck, bring the stirrups down and slip your feet through them. Then you tighten the stirrups around your ankles. This way your legs stay up without any discomfort and I can fuck you as long as I want.”

Not a bad idea, Gage thought, as he wrapped the stirrup belt around his shoulders and set the thick black pad against the back of his neck. He wondered why kinky Donny Vitelli had never thought of this before. Gage lifted his legs and slipped his feet through the stirrups, and then tightened them around his ankles. It was then when he realized the diamond ankle bracelet Donny Vitelli had given him was missing. It could have fallen off anywhere; Gage wasn’t going to think about it now. In this position, with his legs up high and spread wide, all he wanted to do was lie there and get fucked. The stirrup belt was actually quite comfortable. When Ted climbed up on the bed and kneeled down between his legs, Gage took a quick breath and spread his legs wider so Ted could enter him without having to struggle.

Ted bit his bottom lip and guided his dick into Gage’s opening with his right hand. With his left, he held the stirrup that was fastened to Gage’s right ankle. The condom was pre-lubed and Ted entered him slowly. He slid his uncut penis inside, still biting his bottom lip, and didn’t stop until his pelvis pressed up against the bottom of Gage’s ass.

Ted’s dick wasn’t as big as Donny Vitelli’s, but there was still a small amount of discomfort. There always was for Gage, at least in the beginning. But after being with a man like Donny for so long, the pain didn’t last long. As Ted began to slide in and out of his body, the friction began to stimulate his anus. And with his legs secured in the stirrup belt, all Gage had to do was concentrate on his own dick while Ted fucked him.

Like most wiry athletic guys, Ted was quick and fast and right on target. It felt as though he were aiming his cock, plunging all the way in and then all the way out of Gage’s hole. He didn’t just fuck with his hips and his pelvis. He fucked with his entire body until his face took on a distorted look and his forehead started to drip with sweat. He had the endurance of a long -distance runner and never broke his stride. At one point, he fucked and poked so fast, and with such force, he had to grab hold of Gage’s ankles so he wouldn’t knock Gage off the bed. He went deep each time he entered Gage, slapping into the bottom of Gage’s ass with noises that sounded like someone was smacking a paddle against Gage’s ass.

Gage lost track of time. He closed his eyes and moaned, constantly stroking himself as Ted fucked him. Whenever he opened his eyes and looked at the stirrups fastened around his ankles, he had to concentrate on not coming too soon. He looked sexy in the stirrup belt, and felt completely dominated by Ted. He didn’t let Ted know this, but while Ted fucked, Gage pretended it was really Prince Harry fucking him. It was a good thing Gage knew how to contain his own orgasm, because Ted was one of those guys who could fuck for hours without coming. Unlike Donny Vitelli, who usually came within fifteen minutes after he entered Gage, Ted pounded him for at least an hour. It could have been longer than that, but Gage wasn’t concentrating on the clock. In fact, no man had ever fucked Gage for so long, not even his first lover, Snake.

But Gage didn’t complain. He reached a point where he started to edge and his entire body slipped into a pre-orgasmic state. He even whimpered a few times, which is something Gage never did in bed with anyone. When Ted finally grabbed his ankles and said, “I’m there. Ah fuck, I’m gonna come, fuck,” all Gage had to do was stroke his shaft with two fingers in order to climax.

He waited until Ted’s face contorted. Then Ted started saying, “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” While Ted filled the condom inside Gage’s body, Gage blasted an arc that landed on the right side of his face, not far from his right ear. He tried to turn his head to avoid being hit, but he didn’t move fast enough. He was thankful it didn’t land in his hair. He didn’t feel like washing his hair again and he didn’t want to smell chlorine for the rest of the day.

After he came, Ted pulled out fast. Before he helped Gage removed his ankles from the stirrups, he leaned over Gage’s body and started licking the right side of Gage’s face. Gage hadn’t expected this bonus from Ted. Gage usually cleaned the mess and swallowed. But Ted seemed so eager Gage didn’t say a word. When Ted finished licking his face, his head turned and he kissed Gage right on the mouth. Gage hadn’t expected this either. Good thing he didn’t mind the taste of come, especially his own. Another guy, one like Donny Vitelli, or poor Cory’s boyfriend, who despised the taste of come, might have kicked poor Ted across the room for doing something so bold and unplanned.

A minute or two later, while Gage could still taste himself, Ted stopped kissing and said, “I had a feeling you were good in bed. But I never thought you’d be this good. You’re game for anything.”

Gage shrugged and reached up to caresses the back of Ted’s head. “You’re not too bad yourself.”

Ted smiled. “I like to fuck.”

Gage lowered his palm to Ted’s shoulder and smiled. Then he caressed the side of Ted’s cheek and said, “You’re going to have to help me get out of these stirrups. I think my legs went numb about a half hour ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Ted said, moving to the other end of the bed so he could help Gage removed the stirrup belt. He loosened the stirrups and said, “It’s just that when I realized we’d only be doing this once, I wanted to make it last as long as I could.”

Gage’s feet slid out of the stirrups and he lowered his legs. He rested them on Ted’s lap and stretched. “You’re a sweet guy, Ted.” He had to admit he enjoyed being naked there with Ted, who still looked so much like Prince Harry it was hard to believe they weren’t twins like he and his brother, Luis. “Did anyone ever tell you how much you look like Prince Harry?” He lifted his foot and ran his toes across Ted’s lean abdomen.

Ted laughed. “All the time. You have no idea how annoying it is to look so much like someone else. I’ve even been stopped in airports.”

Gage smiled. He removed his foot from Ted’s stomach and sat up. If Ted only knew how well Gage understood this. “I have to get dressed now and go back home. Jase will be back with Hunter.” He felt a weird burn on his stomach and he wasn’t even sure why. It wasn’t because he felt guilty about cheating on Donny Vitelli with Ted. He and Donny didn’t have any real commitment, and Gage was starting to realize their relationship had run its course anyway. And it wasn’t because he felt guilty about cheating on Jase with Ted. Jase wasn’t his lover or partner, and Gage wasn’t even attracted to Jase.

He climbed off the bed and reached for Luis’s white shirt. He looked around on the floor for the ankle bracelet but didn’t see it. He must have lost it at Cider Mill Farm. When he reached for his pants on the floor, he lifted them upside down and the contents of his back pockets fell onto Ted’s hardwood, wide-planked floor. Luis’s cash fell out and two small pieces of paper. Gage hadn’t spent much of Luis’s money on anything, and the one small piece of paper made him sigh out loud. This was the piece of paper on which the taxi driver had written his telephone address and telephone number. Until then, it hadn’t occurred to Gage how much he remembered about the dark, handsome taxi driver. He didn’t even know the guy’s name until he picked the piece of paper up and looked down at it. Above the address and phone number it read, “Daksha.” This was the first time Gage had actually read the piece of paper and noticed the guy’s name. He’d been carrying it around in his back pocket since the night he’d kidnapped his twin brother and wasn’t even sure why he still had it. The name Daksha sounded like it was from India•

By that time, Ted was up and walking around—even when he walked, it looked as if he were sprinting on the balls of his feet. He’d removed the condom and he was holding his blue plaid boxer shorts in his hands. “You okay?” he asked.

“I’m curious,” Gage said. Ted seemed so smart he figured he’d ask. “What kind of a name is Daksha?” He quickly shoved the small piece of paper back into Luis’s jeans.

“I think it’s from India,” Ted said. “Why do you ask?”

Gage shrugged and fastened his pants. “Just curious, no reason. I heard it the other day and couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

“I think it means brilliant,” Ted said. “I had a student from India once with the same name.”

Gage sat down on a small chair and put on his socks and shoes. “It’s really a nice name, isn’t it? It has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”

Ted shrugged and said, “I guess. I never really thought much about it.”

After that, Gage didn’t mention Daksha again. But he couldn’t stop thinking about him. He even repeated the name aloud a few times as he walked back to Cider Mill Farm, allowing the name to roll off the tip of his tongue. Though he’d just enjoyed himself with Ted, it wouldn’t be one of his fondest memories. He couldn’t stop thinking about the way Daksha had made him feel that night in the taxi. And it hadn’t been just the sex. It was the way Daksha had looked him in the eye, as if Daksha had been able to read his innermost thoughts. Ted, sweet as he was, hadn’t done this.

Daksha could have been insulted when Gage wouldn’t give him his name. But Daksha hadn’t pushed him. No one had ever made Gage feel this way before, not even his first lover, Snake. And the saddest part of all: Gage knew he had screwed things up by kidnapping his twin brother he knew he’d never have a future with anyone, especially not a decent guy like Daksha.

Chapter Thirteen

On Sunday, it rained all day. It wasn’t a heavy rain, just a light, constant drizzle that never stopped. It was colder, too. Hunter couldn’t go outside and play with his best friend—a kid named Justin who also lived in New York with his two gay fathers and came out to Bucks County on the weekends—and Jase couldn’t putter outside to relieve his sexual frustrations because Gage still wouldn’t have sex with him. He’d tried climbing on top of Gage early on Sunday morning, but Gage politely pushed him off and coughed a few times. Then Gage climbed out of bed, went into the bathroom, and pretended to take aspirin to relieve the quasi-congestion in his head.

While he was in the bathroom, Jase said, “I found a diamond bracelet on the floor last night. Is it yours?”

So the ankle bracelet had fallen off in the bedroom. He hated bracelets of any kind for this reason. “Yes, it’s mine. I’ve had it for ages. I usually don’t wear it because it falls off all the time. Just leave it on the nightstand. I’ll get it when I come out.” At least he hadn’t lost the ankle bracelet. He was planning to put it in his pocket and return it to Donny Vitelli. It was much too expensive to keep, especially since he was planning to stop seeing Donny when he returned to New York and sorted out his affairs with Luis. He was beginning to realize the affair with Donny had run its course. Donny the cop would never come out of the closet and Gage wanted more from a partner. He wanted what Luis had: a real life, with a real husband. He wasn’t going to settle for less. He even thought about calling the taxi driver whom he’d slept with on Thursday night. Daksha. Gage couldn’t stop thinking about his brown eyes. But he wasn’t sure about that yet. He didn’t want to get into another dead-end relationship.

Gage spent the rest of the day lounging in the family room at Cider Mill Farm beneath a thick comforter. Jase kept checking his forehead for a fever and looking at his eyes because he wasn’t feeling well; he even brought him hot chicken soup on a tray for lunch. Hunter kept brining him glasses of orange juice and individually wrapped cough drops from the time Hunter had been sick.

When Gage saw how much Hunter and Jase loved Luis, and he realized they would have done anything for Luis, he really did start to feel ill. Each time Hunter frowned and asked him how he felt, Gage’s stomach turned. Each time Jase offered to take his temperature, Gage’s chest caved in. When Gage had kidnapped Luis, he thought he was just getting even with his competitive twin brother for all the nasty, snarky things Luis had done to him in the past. But now he realized he was hurting two very nice people, Hunter and Jase.

So Gage didn’t object when Jase suggested they all drive back to New York earlier that day than usual. Jase said he’d heard the extended weather forecast and they said it would rain this way for the next two days. Hunter smiled and said he could work on a school project back in New York. Jase said he had a few important meetings on Monday afternoon for which he could prepare. Gage wasn’t sure what their pattern or routine was, but he didn’t object when Jase suggested they go back to New York early. Gage had to figure a few things out, especially what he was going to do with Luis. He had a feeling his twin brother was seething inside that kinky, dirty jail cell.

At five in the afternoon, they all piled into Jase’s big truck and drove back to New York. Gage didn’t say anything aloud, but he kept checking his seatbelt and gripping the seat all the way back to the city. Though Jase had turned out to be the sweetest, most unpretentious man he’d ever met, especially for a billionaire, he wasn’t the best driver. He drove down the highway in the middle of two lanes. He barely stopped at stop signs. When he entered a highway, he didn’t yield. He just plowed right into the middle of flowing traffic while everyone behind him honked their horns and flipped him the bird. While they were rounding the curve at the Lincoln Tunnel, Jase told Hunter to look back to see if there was an opening to change lanes. Gage wouldn’t have depended on a little kid to help him drive. Gage would have turned all the way around himself and looked. But Hunter seemed used to this. He turned, checked the traffic behind them, and said, “Okay, Dad. But hit the gas hard because there’s a big truck coming.” Gage reached up to hold the handle above his head and closed his eyes. When Jase hit the gas and switched lanes, the guy in the truck behind them honked his horn with three aggressive gestures.

After they parked the car in the garage, Jase mentioned Gage’s hair on their way back to the town house on 95th Street. “Did you do something to your hair? It looks lighter.”

Hunter was walking ahead of them, holding the end of Camp’s leash. Gage shrugged and said, “I think it’s a new shampoo I’ve been using. It’s supposed to put highlights in your hair.”

“Ah well,” Jase said.

Gage was curious, so he asked, “Do you like it lighter? Or do you like it without the highlights?”

Jase smiled and sent him a cautious glance. Then he shoved his hands into his pockets and said, “I like your hair any way you have it. It always looks good.”

Gage smiled. “That’s very diplomatic of you.”

Jase’s eyebrows went up. “I know a trap when I see one.”

When it was time for dinner that night, Gage suggested they order Chinese takeout. They were all in the kitchen. Hunter was working on a school project and Jase was reading The New York Times. Jase and Hunter looked up at Gage as if he’d lost his mind, and then they exchanged glances with their mouths open.

“What’s wrong?” Gage asked. These two certainly did have peculiar reactions to normal suggestions.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Jase asked. “Friday was pizza, Saturday was fast-food takeout, and now it’s Chinese. Maybe I should call the doctor tomorrow.”

“I just have a little cold,” Gage said. “No need for a doctor. Why do you ask?”

Hunter sat up and said, “The last time we wanted Chinese you refused. You said the MPD would kill us all.”

Gage blinked.

Jase laughed and said, “Not the MPD, Hunter, the MSG.”

Gage rolled his eyes. There didn’t seem to be an end to Luis’s finicky eating habits. Then he said, “Well, one night won’t kill us. Jase, you get the menus and figure out what you want. I’m going upstairs to take more aspirin.”

After dinner they watched a little TV, but the only thing on that was halfway decent was Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice. And since Donald Trump had come out publicly against gay marriage, Jase flatly refused to watch. He folded his arms across his chest and said, “I know I’m not the most political guy in the world, and I do have mixed feelings about what side of the fence I’m on most of the time. But I know that civil rights and all issues LGBT are important to me, and I refuse to support anyone who will not support gay marriage, especially Donald Trump. First, I could buy him and sell him ten times over. Second, after all the marriages and divorces he’s had, he should be the last one speaking out on marriage in any capacity. And if you ask me, he should be banned from marrying again. Trump gives marriage a bad name, not gays.”

So they watched a few reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond, then went to bed early. Jase put Hunter to bed that night because Gage wasn’t feeling well. When Jase walked into the master bedroom afterward, he tried to climb on top of Gage one last time that weekend. Gage was on his side of the bed, reading a magazine about organic food—it was the only magazine he could find in the house. He wore Luis’s black sweatpants and a clean white T-shirt. Jase didn’t even drop his pants. He just climbed up on the bed without warning and shoved his crotch in Gage’s face. Then he smiled and said, “I’ve heard this is a good cure for the common cold.” He swung his hips and rubbed his crotch against Gage’s lips. “All you need is a little bit of this every four or five hours and plenty of liquids.”

Gage closed his eyes and shook his head. This time he laughed and said, “Get on your own side of the bed and leave me alone. I’m not in the mood and I don’t want you to catch my cold.” For added effect, he coughed a few times and cleared his throat.

Jase climbed off the bed and stripped down to his underwear. He was wearing a silky, paisley pair of boxers that night and the outline of his semi-erect dick was visible. When he turned, Gage could see it shift left and right. And though it looked like a nice dick, he felt nothing sexual toward Jase. In fact, the thought of having sex with his brother-in-law made him want to get out of bed and sleep downstairs on the sofa.

Gage slept well that night, in spite of having to push Jase off his back four times. In the morning he went downstairs and found Jase and Hunter already in the kitchen eating breakfast. The entire kitchen was white with stainless steel, and the wicker kitchen chairs were a pale shade of sage. Jase had given Hunter an odd-looking cereal, with bran and nuts and dried fruits, which Gage assumed was something organic Luis had purchased at a health food store. Jase sat across from Hunter at the white table, sipping a cup of black coffee, going through his briefcase. He was dressed casually for the office, in a pair of beige slacks and a light blue button-down shirt. Hunter wore navy slacks and a white polo shirt with a school emblem on the right side of his little chest. As usual, Camp sat in front of Hunter’s chair, looking up at Hunter, waiting for Hunter to drop a piece of food.

Jase smiled and asked, “Are you feeling better this morning?”

Gage crossed to the white marble center island to pour himself a cup of coffee. He smiled and said, “Much better. I still have a headache. But I’ll live.” He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do about Luis. But he knew this charade had to end soon. The thought of deceiving Jase and Hunter any longer than he had to caused his chest to tighten.

When Gage sat down on a stainless steel stool that resembled an old office chair at the center island, Jase said, “Hunter wanted to go to school today, so I figured it would be okay with you.”

Hunter’s head went up. “Someone’s bringing a snake to school today and I don’t want to miss it.”

Gage smiled and pretended he knew what they were talking about. He’d figured the kid went to preschool every day. But now he assumed they must have worked out an arrangement where Hunter only went to preschool certain days of the week. When he thought about it, Gage was surprised Luis let Hunter go to preschool at all. Knowing his quirky brother, Gage figured Luis would want to home-school Hunter. It must have been Jase who forced the preschool issue. Gage smiled and said, “I think it’s nice you want to go to school today.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” Jase said. “I’ll drop him off on my way to the office. I have this big meeting this afternoon and I want to spend the morning preparing.” He stood up and crossed to the counter. He placed his palm on Gage’s shoulder. “And I want you to stay inside and rest today. I don’t want you getting sicker than you already are.”

“Thanks, Jase,” Gage said. “Thanks for being so understanding.”

Jase leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “I’ll see you tonight.” Then he turned and said to Hunter, “Let’s move it, buddy. You don’t want to be late.”

When they were gone, Gage turned on the small TV in the kitchen and sat down so he could figure out what he was going to do next. But while he started to sip his second cup of coffee, the anchorman on the news started talking about a hit-and-run accident in the West Village late last night and Gage forgot all about his twin brother locked in the kinky jail cell. The anchor said the man who’d been run over by the hit-and-run driver was just getting off work, and while the anchor mentioned the victim’s serious condition and what hospital they’d taken him to, they flashed a photo of him across the TV screen.

Gage looked up at the screen and pressed his palm to his throat, gasping. The photo they showed on TV was the same taxi driver he’d met on Thursday night, the same driver with whom Gage had made love with in the back seat of the taxi, and the same driver who had given Gage his name and contact information. The anchorperson on TV even said his name was Daksha Kalita.

Gage sat and started down for a moment. At first, he’d thought he and Daksha were having casual sex. But the more he thought about what they’d done together, the more he realized it wasn’t just casual sex. It was the first time in a long time Gage actually wanted to get to know a man better. He jumped up from the table and ran to the TV so he could turn up the volume. A reporter said the guy was rushed to Downtown Hospital in Lower Manhattan and that he’d suffered multiple injuries and was in critical condition. Then the reporter said something that made Gage’s jaw drop. He said they had no personal information on the victim and didn’t know who to contact as next of kin. And if there was anyone out there who knew him, or had been in his taxi the night of the accident, they should contact the police.

For a moment, Gage sat at the kitchen counter wondering what to do. Then, without stopping to think, he ran upstairs and got dressed. He didn’t even bother to look for something new to wear. He just put on the black sweatpants and white T-shirt he’d worn to bed the night before. As the little dog watched from a stool at the foot of the bed, he shoved his feet into a pair of black sneakers, not bothering with socks. Then he pulled a black jacket out of Luis’s closet and ran down the front steps.

When he reached West End Avenue, he hailed a taxi and told the driver to take him to Downtown Hospital. When he reached the hospital, he handed the driver two of Luis’s twenty-dollar bills without waiting for change and jogged inside to find out where the Intensive Care Unit was located. With all the ailments Gage’s parents had been through, Gage had learned how to navigate hospitals very well. And he knew without having to ask that if Daksha was in critical condition, he had to be in the ICU.

He found the ICU without having to look too hard, thanks to excellent signs in the hallways. He walked up to the nurses’ station and asked which room Daksha Kalita was in. He was prepared for their blank stares and questions. When they asked him who he was, Gage squared his shoulders and said, “I’m his partner, Gage Weston. I just saw what happened to him on the news on TV.” He didn’t lie and say he was Daksha’s American cousin or his next-door neighbor. Evidently, Daksha didn’t have anyone in this country and Gage knew he might be the only one there who could claim the poor guy as his own. He even looked the nurse in the eye and said, “Don’t tell me I can’t see him. He’s my partner and I’m going to see him if I have to knock you down to get in there.”

The nurse smiled and said, “Calm down, Mr. Weston. He’s in room 379 and he’s just regained consciousness. I’ll take you there right now.” She wore one of those pajama-type uniforms: pink with little red rosebuds. “He’s weak and confused. But that’s normal right now. He’s doing very well, considering. It could have been much worse.”

As Gage followed her down to Daksha’s room, he glanced at the ICU and inhaled. It smelled as if someone had poured antiseptic on the floors and walls, and the air was thick. He often wondered why hospitals didn’t have windows for fresh air, especially when the weather was nice. Wouldn’t it be logical, not to mention healthier, to be able to open a window and take in the outdoors? Even New York air was better than the stuffy hospital air, with germs and staph infections everywhere.

This ICU was typical of most, with a nurses’ station in the center, surrounded by small rooms with sliding glass doors. Some of the white curtains were drawn, others weren’t. The old man in the room next to Daksha’s room was plopped up on the bed, hooked up to all kinds of wires and tubes, his head hung sideways. This brought back all the memories of the many times Gage’s mother had been hospitalized when she was dying of cancer. She’d been propped up the same way. Even the sounds—the bells and whistles from the machines that were hooked up to the patients—were the same.

When the nurse escorted him into Daksha’s room, he shoved his hands into his pockets and clenched his fists. You never knew what you’d find in an ICU room, and he wanted to brace himself for the worst. But when the nurse moved to the side and he saw Daksha sitting partway up in bed, with his big brown eyes wide open, Gage took a quick breath and sighed.

Daksha glanced at him and smiled.

The nurse said, “You finally have a visitor.” She turned to Gage and said, “We were afraid he didn’t have anyone. He’s been unconscious since he arrived and he couldn’t tell us a thing. He just opened his eyes a few minutes ago.”

“Can he speak?” Gage asked the nurse, as if Daksha wasn’t in the room.

“I think I can,” Daksha said. “I’m still not sure why I’m here. But I can talk.”

The nurse smiled. While she checked a few of the machines he was hooked up to, she said, “You just try to rest. I’ll give you two some privacy and I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Gage said, crossing to the left side of Daksha’s hospital bed, This hospital bed was one of those modern affairs with, thick plastic sides and all kinds of buttons and gadgets so it could be lifted and tilted fifty different ways, and looked far more expensive than the hospital beds Gage had seen in Tennessee.

When she was gone, Daksha tilted his head to the side and said, “I’m not sure what happened. And how did you find out I was here?”

Gage reached down to hold his large, warm hand. “You were run over by a hit-and-run driver last night. That’s all I know right now. I just happened to see it on the news this morning.”

Daksha’s eyebrows went down and he sent him a cautious glance.

Gage said, “I know it sounds unlikely, but that’s what happened.”

“And you came?”

Gage nodded. He would have been just as surprised if he’d been in Daksha’s position. In Gage’s experience, this wasn’t the sort of thing two gay guys did after tricking in the backseat of a taxi cab.

“But you don’t even know me.”

“I know,” Gage said. “But I couldn’t stop thinking about you all weekend.” He pulled the piece of paper on which Daksha had written his contact information, and showed it to him. “I’ve had this in my pocket since Thursday night. I was going to call you anyway.”

“You were?”

Gage nodded and smiled. Even though he was standing in a hospital, with all the sounds that usually gave him nightmares, a warm pleasant feeling passed through his body.

“What did they say on TV?”

Gage squeezed his hand. “They only said you were run over and in critical condition. Then they flashed your picture on the screen and asked that if anyone knew you to contact the police. So I just came right down here. If I have to talk to the police later, I will. I don’t mind. But I wanted to see how you were first.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to get to know you better,” Gage said. It was too soon to say love. But it was what he wanted to say. “Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” He didn’t realize it until now, in the hospital room with Daksha, he was telling the truth. “But don’t tell the nurses we just met on Thursday. They think we’re partners and have no idea we only met last Thursday. That’s why they let me back here.”

Daksha laughed. “Of all the things I could have predicted, I have to say this is the last. Actually, I wasn’t even sure you’d call me back. I thought about you, too, this weekend. But I had a feeling you were a little mixed up.”

“You did think about me?” He thought Daksha’s accent was adorable.

Daksha smiled. “I’d like to get to know you better.”

A pleasant sensation passed through Gage’s chest. “How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”

Daksha removed his hand from Gage’s. He moved his arms, then his legs. “I feel like I have a hangover, but I think I’m going to be okay. Everything seems to be working.”

“I’ll talk to the nurse and see what she says,” Gage said. “I haven’t had a chance yet.” He knew, thanks to his mother’s illness, how all hospital patients need someone to watch what’s going on while they’re incapacitated. And he wasn’t afraid to do this for Daksha.

Daksha smiled. “I’m glad you came. I don’t have any family in this country. I have a lot of acquaintances and people I know from The Actor’s Studio. But no one who is close.”

Gage reached out for his hand again. He squeezed it and asked, “Is there anything I can get for you? Anything at all. Just tell me.”

Daksha smiled. “Nothing. Just sit with me for a while. I’m getting a little tired and I’d like to close my eyes. It’s even hard to talk right now. I just feel so tired.”

Gage released his hand and crossed the room to get a red vinyl chair in the corner. He pulled the chair up to the side of the bed and said down. “You rest now. I’ll be here for a while. I have to leave this afternoon. But I’ll stay as long as I can.”

When Daksha went back to sleep, the nurse came in to check his machines. Gage asked if Daksha was going to be okay, and she said he had a few internal injuries but that he’d been very lucky. They’d scanned him from head to toe and he didn’t seem to have any serious life-threatening problems, not even a broken bone. Considering the accident, he was lucky to be alive. She also said the police had no idea who the driver was, and there was a strong chance they might never know. The nurse frowned and looked down at her soft running shoes and told Gage she saw this sort of thing often and could never understand how someone could just run someone else over and leave them lying in the road.

At noon, Daksha opened his eyes and reached out for Gage’s hand. Gage was still sitting in the red vinyl chair, gazing down at his lap and wondering what he was going to do about Luis, who was still locked up in the third-floor Brooklyn apartment. He felt silly now; he wished he hadn’t kidnapped his brother. But then again, if he hadn’t kidnapped Luis, he never would have met Daksha.

Daksha squeezed his hand and said, “You’re still here. I was afraid I was dreaming you came here today.”

Gage stood up and leaned forward. He looked back to see if any of the nurses were watching. When he saw the coast was clear, he pressed his lips against Daksha’s warm full lips and kissed him. At first he’d only planned to kiss him on the lips. But when he felt Daksha’s tongue enter his mouth, and he felt Daksha’s warm hand caresses his cheek, he closed his eyes and returned the gesture.

When Gage finally lifted his head, feeling as if he’d just taken a downhill trek on a steep rollercoaster, he looked into Daksha’s eyes and said, “I have to leave in a few minutes. There’s something I have to do in Brooklyn.”

“Are you coming back later today?” Daksha asked. “I’ve never been in the hospital before.”

Gage smiled and lifted his arm. He brushed a thick shock of dark wavy hair away from Daksha’s forehead and said, “I’ll be back later. You can count on it.” He caressed his forehead gently and said, “I’ll make sure the nurses know I’m coming back, so they treat you better.”

“I want to get to know you better,” Daksha said.

“I want to get to know you better, too,” Gage said.

After that, he kissed Daksha goodbye one last time. On his way out of the hospital, he stopped and told the nurse he’d be returning later that afternoon to check in on Daksha. After all the horror stories he’d heard about gay couples not being able to visit each other in the hospital, Gage was slightly amazed at how receptive everyone seemed to be. They welcomed him and treated him just like Daksha’s family. He found it was quite the opposite from what he’d read and heard; the nurses were more than eager to accept him as Daksha’s lover and allow him access to Daksha. They actually seemed glad to see him. It made Gage feel stronger and more hopeful about the future.

Chapter Fourteen

Gage took the subway to Brooklyn and walked to his building. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still dark gray and the air felt colder than normal for that time of year. Gage walked slowly, with his shoulders hunched and his hands buried in the pockets of Luis’s sweatpants. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do about Luis, and he wasn’t looking forward to listening to Luis complain about how he’d locked him up all weekend.

As he approached his building, Billy from the grocery store was outside sweeping the sidewalk with the same old cornhusk broom he’d been using for years. Billy swore there was hing like a cornhusk broom; he’d never part with his. When he saw Gage, he looked up, blinked, and said, “Where have you been? And what the hell happened to your hair?” He set the broom against the front door and stood there gaping at Gage’s new haircut.

Gage shrugged. “I went away for the weekend,” he said. “I got a haircut. Did I miss anything important?” Nothing important ever happened there; he was trying to be sarcastic. And he didn’t feel as though he owed anyone an explanation about why he’d changed his hair. Besides, his hair was getting lighter on its own. It was dark blond now. He must have used a semi-permanent dye instead of a permanent one. He’d bought the hair color so fast he probably hadn’t noticed. By the end of the week, after more shampooing, he knew he’d be blond again.

But Billy’s head went back. “I’ll say. Our landlord has been trying to get in touch with you all weekend about something important. And that friend of yours, Donny, the big guy with the dark hair, has been looking everywhere for you. And this guy who says he’s your boss came by twice on Saturday looking for you.”

Gage knew why Donny was looking for him. Knowing Donny, the horny cop, he probably had time off and wanted sex. But Gage had no idea why his landlord or his boss would be trying to contact him. “Did the landlord say why he wanted to see me?”

“He said he left a few messages on your cell phone. And he sent you a few e-mails,” Billy said. “It sounded important.”

Gage hadn’t checked his e-mail in a week, and he hadn’t taken his cell phone with him while he was pretending to be his twin brother. It was still upstairs on his kitchen counter. “I can’t imagine what he wants. I’ll go up and check my voice mail right now.” Before he turned to leave, he asked, “Did my boss say what he wanted?” He didn’t mention it was really his former boss.

Billy shook his head. “He didn’t say anything. He just told me to let you know it was very important and for you to call him back.”

Gage patted Billy on the back and said, “I’d better go upstairs now and take care of these things.”

Billy reached for the broom and smiled. “The big guy is up there right now.”

“Huh?”

Billy smiled and started sweeping, as if he knew Gage didn’t want to see Donny that day. “He said he wanted to go up and wait on the steps for a while, just in case you came back.”

Gage rolled his eyes. He knew how he would deal with Donny Vitelli. But he thought he would be able to wait a while. “I’d better go up,” Gage said. “This isn’t going to be easy. Thanks, Billy.”

Billy smiled and looked up from the sidewalk. “If you need me, just yell.”

“Thanks, Billy. I appreciate it. But I’ll be fine.”

Then Gage crossed through the small grocery store, passing piles of pre-sliced American cheese at the deli counter Billy was planning to sell that day, and walked up the back steps. When he reached the second floor, he glanced up and saw that the door to the third-floor apartment where he’d locked up his twin brother seemed untouched. He found Donny Vitelli sitting on the top step, just outside the door of his second-floor apartment. Donny wore a dark suit and tie again, and sat there with his elbows resting on his knees, as if killing time before he had to go to work.

Donny stood up and smoothed out his pants. Gage was two steps down and Donny’s crotch was practically in his face. “Where have you been all weekend?” Donny asked.

Gage smiled and stepped to the side. He went up the steps, around Donny’s large body, and invited Donny into his apartment. Before the door was even shut, Donny grabbed Gage by the waist and started groping Gage’s ass with his massive hands. But Gage pressed his palms to Donny’s hard chest and he pushed him away with all his strength. Then he told Donny part of the truth. He didn’t tell Donny he’d locked up his identical twin brother in the apartment above them, or that he’d pretended to be his identical twin brother all weekend. He didn’t mention he’d blown his twin brother’s handyman or that he’d let his twin brother’s neighbor who looked just like Prince Harry fuck him senseless in something called a stirrup belt. But he did look Donny directly in the eye when he told him he’d met a guy on Thursday night and he thought he was falling in love. He said the guy was a taxi driver, with warm brown eyes and a nice accent. He said the guy was in the hospital now because he’d been run over by a hit-and-run driver at the end of his shift.

After that, Gage told Donny he didn’t want to see him anymore.

Donny just stood there gaping at him, with his arms spread, palms forward. “How could all this happen in just one weekend?”

Gage smiled. He crossed to where Donny stood and reached for his large hand. “This didn’t just happen in one weekend. We’ve been nothing more than fuck buddies for a long time. You’re never going to come out of the closet, and I want more. I want a partner I can spend the rest of my life with. I want a partner who is willing to admit he’s proud to be gay. I want it to happen sooner, not later. I’m not getting any younger.”

Donny gulped. “I’m just not ready. You know that.”

Gage squeezed his hand. “Yes, I know that. I’m not blaming you and I’m not mad at you. We all come to terms with who we are when the time is right. I didn’t officially come out of the closet until I moved to New York five years ago. My parents died without knowing I was gay. But I’ve met someone wonderful and I’m in love with him.” This was the first time Gage realized they’d never actually discussed their pasts in depth like most lovers do. He knew he was doing the right thing.

“It’s this guy who was run over?”

“Yes,” Gage said. “I can’t explain it. We just met. But I’m in love with him.”

“I think I heard about that accident on the police radio this weekend,” Donny said. “He was just getting off work and they took him to Downtown Hospital? He was a foreign guy. They posted his face on the news because they didn’t have anyone to contact.”

Gage nodded. “That’s him. His name is Daksha Kalita. It was love at first sight.”

Donny laughed. “There is no such thing. Stop being ridiculous. You know how I feel about you. I gave you the diamond ankle bracelet to prove it.”

Gage crossed to a stool in the kitchen and lifted his right leg. Then he removed the diamond ankle bracelet and handed it to Donny. “Here,” Gage said, “I wouldn’t feel right keeping it.”

At first, Donny refused to take the ankle bracelet. But when Gage explained he wasn’t going to change his mind and that he didn’t want to see Donny again, he finally took the bracelet and slipped it into his coat pocket. Before he left, he took Gage in his arms and rubbed his back. “I’m going to miss you. If this thing doesn’t work out with the taxi driver, call me.”

Gage knew he’d never call Donny again, at least not for sex. He was tired of sneaking around with a closeted gay cop. He wanted more in life, and he knew he’d found it with Daksha. He knew this with every single living cell in his body. But he didn’t want to be cruel to Donny. In more ways than one, because he knew what it was like to live in the closet, with all those fears and worries, he understood Donny better than anyone. So he smiled and said, “I hope we can still be friends.”

Donny reached down and grabbed his ass one last time. On his way out, he looked over his shoulder and said, “I hope it all works out for you. I mean that.”

Gage smiled. “I know you do. Thanks. I hope things work out for you, too.”

After Donny left, Gage checked his voice mail. The first three messages were from the landlord. He spoke with an annoyed tone, as if he didn’t understand why Gage wasn’t answering his phone or checking his e-mail. At first, Gage leaned into the counter and groaned. But when he heard why his landlord was calling his shoulders went up and he smiled. Evidently, something had gone wrong with the landlord’s sister’s impending marriage—the landlord didn’t give any details—and the landlord’s niece wasn’t going to take over Gage’s apartment after all. He said Gage could stay there forever if he wanted, then asked if Gage would call him back as soon as possible.

Though Gage had to admit he was relieved about the apartment, he didn’t call the landlord back right away. He decided to wait until he saw Luis, and let the landlord wonder. He’d been the model tenant since he’d moved there and the landlord had treated him poorly and given him very little notice about leaving. The nasty old queen deserved to sweat a little.

Gage listened to his other messages. There were three more, all from his boss at the strip club. The boss wanted him to come back to work. He said he’d give him a huge raise and let him work any hours he wanted just as long as he promised he’d come back to work as soon as possible. Of course Gage’s boss didn’t say why he wanted Gage back so badly. But Gage had a feeling he knew why. Gage had always treated the older clients at the strip club with respect and dignity. He’d never given them attitude and he’d always let them fondle him anywhere they wanted to fondle him. The younger male strippers in their late teens, the ones with attitude and that unwarranted sense of entitlement that seemed so popular nowadays, didn’t do this. They treated the older men with disdain, and wouldn’t even let the old guys touch their legs. But not Gage. He’d let the old guys put their hands right down his pants as many times as they wanted to. Once in a while he’d even wrap his legs around their shoulders, pull down the front of his G-string, and rub his naked crotch in their faces. He liked seeing them go home with smiles on their faces, and he knew it was all harmless. There was no sex involved. In fact, the older guys treated Gage so well, and tipped him so well, he thought of them more as friends than as customers.

Gage knew his boss wasn’t going to find this trait in one of the younger guys he’d hired. If Gage’s boss was lucky, the younger guys he’d hired would last six months. Most of the time they moved on to different jobs within three months, as if stripping was beneath them. They were all wannabe fashion models with expensive portfolios no one cared about. They all had delusions of grandeur that wouldn’t get them anywhere but the unemployment line. They were all going to be rich and famous, all going to be stars one day. But Gage, who was a little older, knew life didn’t work out that way.

Gage didn’t return the phone call this his boss right away either. He decided to let him wait like the landlord. He set the phone back down on the counter and braced himself for the inevitable. Then he took a deep breath, walked outside, and went up to the third-floor apartment where Luis was still locked up in a kinky sex cage.

The moment the door opened, Gage heard Luis speak. “So you’re finally back. I was wondering whether or not you’d show up again. When you didn’t show up this morning, I figured you decided to leave me here to rot.” The country western music was still blaring in the background. A male singer this time, something about not being as good as he once was but still being good once in a while. This made little sense to Gage.

Gage walked to the living room area and turned to the right. He saw Luis sitting on the narrow twin bed inside the jail cell. Luis wasn’t wearing pants, just one of the oversized plaid shirts Gage had left for him. Leave it to his twin brother to make an ugly shirt like that look good. He had to admit, even though they were identical twins, Luis had a lot more style than Gage had. If anyone tried to tell them apart, all they had to do was see which one had more flair. “Did you miss me?” Gage asked. He maintained a deadpan expression, waiting for Luis’s response.

Luis sent him a smile. “Did you miss me?”

Gage returned the smile. “Actually, I did. But I missed myself more. I guess I thought it would be different being you. But I like being me more, if that makes sense.” He walked over to the table he’d set up beside the cage. He turned off the music first, then looked inside the refrigerator to see what Luis had eaten.

“I wasn’t very hungry,” Luis said, crossing his legs at the knee.

Gage looked into the cage and said, “You haven’t eaten anything at all.” Luis must have been starving by then. He’d always been stubborn this way, ever since they’d been children. If he didn’t want to eat something as a child, he’d sooner starve to death than give in.

“I said I wasn’t hungry.”

Gage noticed Luis had a little dark stubble on his face and his legs. “I forgot to bring a razor again. There was so much going on, it slipped my mind.”

Luis tiled his head and lifted one eyebrow. “What did you do this weekend? And how are my husband and my son?”

Gage walked back to a club chair, turned it so it would face Luis, and sat down. “It was a very eventful weekend,” he said. “Jase and Hunter are both fine. We left Cider Mill Farm early yesterday because it was raining. Jase had an important meeting and Hunter’s little friend, some kid from New York named Justin, wasn’t home, so he was bored.”

Luis lifted his chin as if in defiance, and asked, “Did you sleep with Jase?”

Gage smiled. He hesitated for a moment. He wanted Luis to sweat for a while, just like his landlord and boss.

“I want to know. Did you sleep with Jase?”

“No,” Gage said, “I didn’t sleep with Jase. Oddly enough, I didn’t even want to sleep with him. Actually, I’ve grown very fond of Jase and Hunter in ways I didn’t expect. The thought of sleeping with Jase made me sick to my stomach.”

“Jase is a hot guy and there’s nothing wrong with him,” Luis said. He stood up and placed his hands on his hips. “And he’s a very good lover.”

“Oh calm down, you silly little queen,” Gage said. “The reason I didn’t sleep with him had nothing to do with his looks. It was because he’s your husband, not because I didn’t want to sleep with him. It didn’t feel right. And, to be honest, I felt creepy sleeping in the same bed with him.”

“You said you didn’t sleep with him,” Luis said. He sat down and his tone softened.

“I said I didn’t have sex with him. I had to sleep with him in the same bed, otherwise he would have known there was something wrong and he would have figured out I wasn’t you. As it was, he was so fucking horny I was afraid to bend over all weekend.”

“Jase has strong needs,” Luis said. “He’s always been that way.” He smiled, sending Gage a bragging look.

“I also saw how much he loves you,” Gage said. “I didn’t expect it. When I saw the way he feels about you, I told him I had a head cold and pretended to be sick all weekend.” Gage laughed. “The poor guy was ready to fuck a tree stump by Sunday night.”

Luis smiled. “Well, I suppose I should thank you for not sleeping with him. At least I’m glad to know you have some feelings left for your own twin brother.”

Gage hadn’t thought about it this way. For most of the weekend, he’d been thinking about Jase’s and Hunter’s feelings, not Luis’s. But Luis was right: the main reason Gage hadn’t slept with Jase was because of Luis’s feelings. “I discovered something interesting this weekend,” Gage said.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t hate you, Luis,” Gage said. “I don’t really even envy you anymore. I know I shouldn’t have locked you up the way I did. But if I hadn’t locked you up, I never would have figured these things out. For so long I wanted to be you and to have your life. But when I finally did have it, I realized I missed my own life far more than I ever thought I would.” He ran his fingers through his hair and smiled. “And I miss being blond. You have no idea what a different world it is when you’re blond.”

Luis said, “I had time to think this weekend, too. I’m sorry about what I did with Snake back in Tennessee. It was wrong. I shouldn’t have slept with him, especially knowing how much you loved him. I hope you can forgive me for that.”

Gage thought about Daksha and he smiled. “I’d like to put what happened with Snake, and everything from the past, behind us now. I met someone this weekend and I’ve fallen in love. I know it sounds like it’s too soon to call it love. But I know how I feel.”

Luis leaned forward. “Who? Is it someone I know? Is it someone from my life?”

“Not quite,” Gage said. “Do you remember the taxi driver who drove you over here on Thursday night?”

Luis thought for a moment. “The guy with dark hair, the nice lips, and sexy brown eyes?”

Gage nodded. He had a feeling Luis would remember him. Daksha wasn’t the type of guy who was easily forgotten. “One thing led to another, and we wound up falling in love with each other.” He didn’t go into details about how they’d fucked in the back seat of the taxi. But he did tell Luis about Daksha’s accident and that he was now in Downtown Hospital waiting for Gage to return to him. “I know it sounds crazy because it happened so fast. But I know it’s love. I can feel it.”

Luis smiled. “It doesn’t sound crazy at all. I knew I was in love with Jase the moment I met him. It took a little longer for us to admit it to each other. But when I look back now, it was love at first sight.”

“I’d like to go back to Daksha this afternoon,” Gage said. He wasn’t sure what Luis was going to do to him. He had every right to call the police and have him locked up. “I’d like to let you out now so you can get back to your own life and I can get back to mine.”

Luis stood up from the bed. The plaid shirt was shorter than Gage had imagined; it stopped just above Luis’s ass, exposing parts of his naked lower body. It looked more like he was wearing an oversized plaid minidress. Luis walked to the door of the jail cell in his bare feet and jiggled it a few times. When the door clicked open, Gage pressed his palm to his throat. When Luis stepped out of the jail cell and into the living room on his own, Gage nearly fell off his chair.

“Is something wrong, Gage?” Luis asked, walking to an armchair beside the jail cell. He sat down, crossed his legs at the knee, and smiled. “You look a little pale, Gage.”

“How did you get out?” Gage asked.

Luis’s head went back and he laughed. “That old lock didn’t work, you moron. After you left me alone, all I had to do was jiggle it around a few times and it popped right open for me. Seriously.”

“Are you telling me you’ve been able to get out on your own all weekend?” Gage asked.

Luis smiled. “I knew I could get out on Thursday when you thought you’d locked me up for good. I knew I could get out when you came back with all that awful fattening food and those horrible Playboy magazines. Do you think I actually listened to that country music station all weekend? I’d lose my mind. I only turned it on again this morning because I figured you’d be back early.”

Gage sent him a somber glance. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you leave? Why didn’t you run out and call the police? Why didn’t you at least call Jase and warn him? After how I acted• ”

Luis sat back and sighed. “I didn’t call Jase because he doesn’t know about you. All he knows is I come from a dysfunctional family who threw me out because I was gay. I never lied to him. I just didn’t tell him about you, and I never went into any details about my family. I knew this might be our last chance to get it right once and for all. I knew you wouldn’t sleep with Jase, especially not when you saw for yourself how much we love each other. Despite our conflicts, I knew you’d never do anything to harm Hunter. I wanted you to get to know Hunter and Jase better, to see that I’m not this awful, ugly creature you thought I was all this time. And this seemed like the best way to do it.”

“You took an awful chance with me,” Gage said, still in shock.

“No,” Luis said. “I know you. You’re my brother. I knew you wouldn’t betray me.” Luis looked down at his lap and sighed. “In many ways, I know you’re a better man than I’ll ever be. I can be very superficial and flighty at times. I mean well. I try not to be that way. But I can’t help it.”

Gage frowned. “Ah well, you’re not that bad. And don’t praise me too soon. I’m not as decent as you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“Although I didn’t sleep with Jase,” Gage said, “I did fool around with the handyman and your neighbor at the end of the road.”

Luis blinked. “You slept with Cory and the Reverend von Klingensmith in the same weekend?”

“I only blew Cory,” Gage said. “And, dear Lord, I didn’t sleep with the Reverend. I slept with the other neighbor, the guy with reddish hair who looks like Prince Harry.”

“Oh my God,” Luis said, pressing his palms to his mouth. “You blew Cory and you slept with Ted? And they both thought you were me?”

Gage shrugged. “They both seemed so needy I couldn’t help myself. And it worked out for the best. After I blew Cory, he swore he’d never tell Jase. Then he told me he was getting back with his boyfriend and your kinky little teasing game with him was all over. By the way, what is this teasing game?”

Luis closed his eyes and frowned. “It’s nothing important.”

“Well, I’m sorry to tell you it’s all over. After the blow job, Cory felt so guilty he said no more games and that he was going back to his boyfriend. He’s really a nice guy. I think blowing him actually helped him more than anything.”

“What happened with Ted?” Luis asked, with his palm pressed to his forehead.

“Jase and Hunter went fishing and I went to Ted’s house to check out a new engraving, something called a Piranesi, I think. He practically begged me. I didn’t have the heart to say no. Besides, he looks so much like Prince Harry. And he fucks like he’s overdosed on caffeine. He’s a fuck machine.”

Luis shook his head. “Spare me the details. I never had any intention of sleeping with Ted. I’ve never cheated on Jase, and I never will.”

Gage held back the urge to laugh; he was sparing him the details. He didn’t mention the stirrup belt, or the way the Prince Harry look alike had licked his chest clean after they came. “I made Ted swear it was only a one-time deal. He agreed and said he’d never mention anything to Jase.”

Luis took a quick breath. “I don’t know why I’m worried. It wasn’t me they actually had sex with, it was you.”

“They both said they’d never speak about it to anyone.”

“I’m curious,” Luis said, “I’m curious about this taxi driver. You told me you were in love with him. If that’s the case, why would you blow Cory and let Ted fuck you?”

“I didn’t realize how I felt about Daksha until I knew he’d been in the accident,” Gage said. “If I had realized, I never would have had sex with either of them.”

Luis stood up from the chair and laughed. “Believe it or not, I actually do understand. I almost left Jase and flew to Vancouver to live with an older man in the beginning because I didn’t want to admit that I was in love with Jase. Jase seemed so out of my reach. I was so confused I actually tossed poor little Camp out of a taxi and left him alone on the streets of New York.”

“I guess we are a little bit alike in some ways,” Gage said. For the first time in his life, though they were both pushing thirty years old, he felt as though he and Luis were having a real conversation.

“How is Camp? Did he miss me?” Luis asked.

“He’s fine,” Gage said. “But you really should stop with those organic dog biscuits. He prefers sugar cookies.”

“You didn’t.” Luis’s jaw fell and his eyes bugged out.

Gage shrugged his shoulders. “And once in a while you really should let Hunter have a pizza and some Chinese takeout, with soda. I’ve never seen a kid eat so fast and love something so much. And you should have heard him snore when he went to bed.”

“Oh, Gage,” Luis said, “that’s just wrong. I try hard to balance Jase’s and Hunter’s diets. I can understand with Camp. But it hasn’t been easy training Jase and Hunter. They wouldn’t eat anything but toasted marshmallows and chocolate-chip cookies if they had their way.”

“Don’t worry,” Gage said. “They thought it was a fluke because you had a cold and weren’t feeling well. From what I can see, you’ve done a good job training them. Actually, you’ve done a good job with everything in your life.”

After a moment of silence, Luis walked to the window and said, “What do we do now? Where do we go from here?”

“That’s up to you, Luis,” Gage said. “If you call the police and have me arrested for kidnapping you. I’ll understand. What I did was wrong.”

“Don’t be a fool,” Luis said. “First, I don’t want that kind of publicity. I can just see the headlines now: The Virgin Billionaire’s Gay Lover Kidnapped By Twin Brother. No, thank you. Second, you didn’t actually kidnap me, remember? I didn’t even spend the weekend here. I went home, to 95th Street, and slept in my own bed and ate my own food most of the time. I only spent Thursday night and Sunday night in this dump, and it was my choice, not yours.”

Gage stood up and walked to the window where Luis was standing. “Are you saying you want to forget about all this and we go our separate ways?”

Luis turned and put his arms around his twin brother’s shoulders. He kissed him on the cheek and said, “I’m saying I want to remember this weekend and try to act like real brothers from now on. You’re my only family, Gage.” Luis said this as though he still had trouble with Gage’s new name. “I’ve never even told Jase or Hunter about you. I still have my own demons. I’ve never told Jase much about my past in Tennessee. I’ve been waiting for the right time. And right now seems just as good as any time. I want Jase and Hunter to meet you. I want them to know who you are. I want you in my life from now on.” He hugged him tighter and rested his cheek on Gage’s chest.

Gage put his arms around his brother and rubbed his back. He smiled and nodded yes. “I want that, too, Luis. But I think we should wait a week.”

“Why so long?”

Gage laughed; he wasn’t serious. “Because I have a feeling you’re going to be very busy taking care of Jase for at least a week. The man is ready to put his fist through a brick wall, he’s so horny.”

Luis closed his eyes and sighed, his cheek still pressed to Gage’s chest. Growing up in Tennessee, Gage’s family had never shown any physical emotion. Luis and Gage had shaken each other’s hands plenty of times, and they’d hugged each other on occasion, but not with any sincerity. This time it brought a sting to his eyes to hold his twin brother in his arms. So Gage slowly pulled Luis closer and said, “I’m sorry.”

Luis kissed Gage’s cheek again, then caressed the back of Gage’s head with a light, gentle stroke. “I’m sorry, too.”

Then Gage removed his hands from Luis’s body and stepped back. He kicked off Luis’s sneakers and pulled Luis’s black sweatpants off his legs. He stepped out of the sweats and tossed them in Luis’s direction. “We’d better change clothes, so you can go back home and I can get back to the hospital to see Daksha. I promised I’d go back. I hate to leave him alone there. He’s never been in the hospital before and he’s counting on me.”

Luis pulled the large plaid shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. He put on the sweatpants Gage had been wearing and said, “I’ll go to the hospital with you. I don’t have to be home right away. You can introduce me to Daksha. I’d like that, and at least Daksha will know you have a twin brother. And after the hospital, we can go back to 95th Street and I’ll introduce you to Jase and Hunter. You’ll just have to pretend you’ve never met them before.”

Gage, who had just removed Luis’s white T-shirt and black leather jacket and was now stark naked, smiled and said, “I just have to go downstairs to my apartment and make two phone calls first. One to my boss and one to my landlord.” As he wrapped the plaid shirt around his waist so he could step outside and walk down to his apartment, he said, “I want to put on my own clothes. You have some very nice things, don’t get me wrong. But it’s amazing how you can miss your own things when you don’t have them. Hell, it’s amazing how much you can miss your own life once you’ve stepped into someone else’s life.” He planned on wearing his favorite faded jeans to the hospital, and his softest white boxer shorts. And maybe the comfortable white button-down shirt he’d found at a thrift shop.

Luis put on his T-shirt and said, “You go down now and I’ll be there in a minute. I have to put on my sneakers first. I’ll meet you on the landing.”

Gage turned to leave. Before he opened the door of his landlord’s kinky, sexy playroom apartment, he made sure the sleeves he’d tied around his waist were secure. He knew the odds of anyone seeing him naked back there were slim. But he didn’t want to take any chances. He was planning to be in this apartment for at least another year. He wanted to spruce the place up and bring Daksha back there when he was discharged from the hospital. Though Gage wasn’t certain how long he’d continue stripping for a living, he couldn’t just quit, especially now that he knew how much his boss needed him there. He had bills to pay and a life to maintain. He missed his regular customers; he missed everything about his life. Of course he’d have to talk this over with Daksha and see how Daksha felt about him stripping for a living. He knew some men might not like the idea of having a partner who is a professional stripper.

He jogged down the steps to his own apartment, leaving the door to the third-floor apartment wide open so his identical twin brother could join him. He looked forward to meeting Jase and Hunter as Gage, not as Luis. He looked forward to introducing Luis to his new love, Daksha Kalita. And for the first time in Gage’s life, he felt as if he were moving toward something more important than just surviving and getting by as best he could.

And, he’d met the love of his life, a dark, handsome taxi driver named Daksha Kalita who wanted to be an actor.

THE END

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