Chapter 9
Clay
I’d made up my mind. There was no way I’d fuck up another good thing by fucking around with my boss. My friends, Marty and Tyler, had warned me about this. “It doesn’t end well,” they had said to me, because they knew my history and roommate experiences.
I’d found another roommate to help me pay the outrageous rent in an upscale apartment, but only upscale if you’re from New York and New Jersey. Any other state, it would be considered the hood.
In other words, I didn’t need to occasionally rent a cat to keep the mice at bay and that for me said it all, and I was all in for living in the city during and after college. Nevertheless, living in Manhattan came with advantages.
What started out as a wonderful arrangement turned into something far less. My roommate became intoxicated, and I had been far too long without sex that I let him hop into my bed to which he wouldn’t leave.
I’d enjoyed sleeping alone and reading at night to pass tests, but now he’d invaded my privacy and my chances of graduating early.
I was laser focused on my studies, and he had been the party guy who never needed to study.
And for some reason he managed to get the grades to graduate.
What I didn’t know he took the easy path to everything and that included fucking whomever to get tutored, grades, and rent.
Because he thought we were sleeping together that relinquished his responsibility from paying rent and bills we’d agreed to before he moved in with me. And because the apartment was in my name, I had been responsible for everything when he snuggled up to me each night and wanted sex.
“You know, tomorrow is the first and...”
“I know, baby, but can we talk about that another time?” he’d said on the night I’d asked him to leave if he didn’t have the rent in a few days.
Those days came around and then he disappeared on me and left me having potentially bad credit and not able to get or afford another apartment, and I had to get another loan from my mother and father.
As usual I promised to pay them back, but until now those were empty promises.
Now that minor indiscretion in the men’s room with Mason, wasn’t like before, I tried telling myself.
I could chalk that up to two men attracted to each other and things got heated.
It’s not like I’m waking up in his bed because that can’t happen.
Mason won’t hold me to the promise of seeing him later, I surmised.
After all, he is married, and he should be empty from what I experienced with him.
Therefore, to avoid having to apologize and look for another job immediately after allowing my better judgement to get the best of me, I decided to take a walk outside the building in my expensive suit, get in a cab, and get myself home to a borrowed cat who only likes me when I fed him, and two roommates who are better than me, because they allowed me to crash on their sofa when their relationships were new.
All I need to do was go to work that Monday morning, pretend I was drunk and didn’t know what I was doing when I had been in the restroom, and accepted Mason’s offer. I would try to avoid Mason for as long as I could until I found another job if it came to that.
I can tell you now, that would be fucking hard. As hard as my cock was now thinking about him.
I didn’t know what kind of man he was, but I felt he would understand my reluctance to getting involved with a married man. Maybe he would admire me for having that much integrity and restraint.
As I strode outside with my hands in my pockets, and finally I could breathe and think, I couldn’t help but wonder what if.
What if I’d gone with Mason? Would he have been the love of my life?
He certainly felt like it at the time. Could I have survived in his company long enough to meet him as an equal one day when he wasn’t married?
Finally, my mind focused on the line of cabs stretched out in front of the hotel waiting for a fare, when a man in his fifties, probing blue eyes, dressed in a black suit stood in front of me and said, “Do you need a cab?”
I thought it strange that he wasn’t in regular clothes that cabbies in New York wore and that he didn’t have an accent of some kind from another country.
However, he did have an accent as if he was from somewhere in the south.
But isn’t that like being from a foreign country if you’re from New York or Jersey?
“Yes, of course.” I glanced around waiting for him to stroll back to his cab.
“My limo is available, and I can take you where you need to go, and you don’t have to worry with a dirty cab and a driver from hell.
” I smiled not because he had been right about a dirty smelly cab, and someone who’d learned how to drive on the streets of Manhattan dodging pedestrians and red lights and green, stopping and starting where you had to hold on to something for dear life.
Glancing over at the limo, I asked, “That ride looks like it’s going to be very expensive. I’m not sure I can afford it.”
“I’ll take you where you need to go for the price a cabbie would charge you. Looking at that suit, you don’t want to ruin it. That’s a damn nice-looking suit and expensive too.”
“Okay, you sold me,” I said, not waiting for him to ask where I’d got it or how much it cost. I began walking in the direction of the limo trotting behind him.
“No. Let me drive up and then let me open the door before you step in.” He held out his hand. “My name is Lawrence.”
“Clay,” I answered, and dropped my hand.
“You know, fake it till you make it. But then I don’t have to tell you that, Clay.
” And he gave me a once over in my suit, smiled and strode to the driver’s side of the limo and pulled only a few feet up to me.
I could have walked those steps. I didn’t know why he wouldn’t allow me. Perhaps he had an image to protect.
I stood and glared at him as he stepped out and strode around and opened the door. In my amazement and the excitement of going to the apartment in a limo, I stepped inside.
“Were you going to leave without telling me?” A sultry strong sexy voice came from out of nowhere. I focused my eyes on a man who wasn’t a stranger by no means.
“I didn’t think you would notice,” I said, my voice shaking. I had been caught. Mason had anticipated my moves. Damn, but he must be a good attorney.
“Oh, I would notice. But why would you leave without some kind of explanation?”
“I wasn’t sure you wanted to do this because I’m an employee.”
“I can understand that. Don’t you think I thought of that. I had reservations about what happened in the men’s room, but I felt as if we understood each other and we wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize each other’s careers.”
“But I was thinking about you, Mason. Sir.” He placed his hand over mine and smiled with dimples so deep I wanted to reach over and kiss them.
“I know, but I was thinking with my heart. It’s the first time I’ve considered myself and I’ve been my authentic self.
My wife is divorcing me, not because I was unfaithful and tonight would be the first, but because we never loved each other, and I didn’t want to ruin my career by divorcing her.
She has a lover, and I’ve never taken a lover except now.
” Mason squeezed my hand. “Now I have you, and I want to know if I’m not rushing you, do you still want to be with me? ”
I didn’t hesitate. “Of course, I want you, but when your firm discovers we have been dating they won’t get rid of you, it will be me.
I worry about that.” I turned and glanced out the window at the Christmas decorations.
Large reefs on the doors of high-end stores.
Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, and I smiled at Tom Ford.
Places a clothes horse like me dreamed of shopping. When Mason spoke, I turned.
“I can take care of you if that happens.” Wow, that sounded hot, but I hadn’t gone to school to be a lawyer all these years to have a man take care of me.
I didn’t tell him how I felt. I wanted him to be happy the way I was riding in a limo and dreaming about the magic of the holiday and Christmas season.
“There’s a possibility someone will find out about us because the people on your staff are smart. I guess that’s why you hired them. They’re observant and nosy for want of a better term,” I explained trying my best to make Mason understand what he and I were dealing with.
Mason glanced out of the window. “Look at that couple holding hands and window shopping. That could be me and you once I get my divorce.” He laid his head on my shoulder and I raked my fingers though his soft curls.
And I thought, This man needs me the way I need him and the feeling I got from him was he was in love with me, but not as much as I loved him.
But love didn’t make sense. This is too soon, I objected.
And my heart whispered, It’s not love’s objective to make sense.
Love was there to connect two people together.
Love’s objective was to ruin your life if you fell in love with the wrong person.
But in my heart Mason was the right person for me.
Mason raised his head and met my eyes, “Halifax has the final say, and he would never go against me if I want to keep my lover on or my fiancé.” Somehow, I knew that this was wishful thinking on Mason’s part.
However, this was my wish for Christmas, to meet the man of my dreams, and like a child on Christmas morning I got my wish.
The car pulled up to a large home, and after opening the security gate he drove up the driveway and parked in front.
Lawrence hurried and opened the door, never giving me a look as if he didn’t care about Mason’s private business.
We strolled to the gate together and Mason opened it and we were inside the home.
My eyes wandered. I could only imagine how some people lived because this wasn’t my world.
“Get comfortable. I’ve given the staff a day off except for Lawrence.
He has been with me a long time and he’s very handy.
He’s not just a limo driver, he’s a trusted companion.
” I tried to relax in these beautiful surroundings.
There stood a large real Christmas tree from the floor to the high ceiling decorated with an assortment of baubles and ornaments.
Unlike the tree at the apartment that Tyler kept in a box and would pull out each year with a promise of getting Marty a real tree.
That tree came with attached baubles and ornaments and could be standing in minutes.
Mason’s tree looked as if it took days to emerge the way it looked now—just plain beautiful and magical.
I couldn’t get comfortable, not because of Mason, but because I wearing this expensive Tom Ford suit.
It wasn’t me. I didn’t know how to be comfortable in it because I was worried that I’d spill something on it or sit in something in a cab.
The suit was wearing me, and it owned me, instead of the other way around.
I was still standing looking around the large living area when Mason handed me a glass of brandy. I knew how to drink it—slowly, from watching the rich and the famous shows.
Mason placed his snifter on the large table before us, and we sat together on the white sectional. “This is beautiful,” I said, passing my hand over it. “And that tree is out of—” Mason cut me off because I was a lost for words.
“One of April’s friends is a designer and she tried to introduce him to me hoping I would date him.”
“And did you?”
“We went on a date once. It was a complete disaster. He was too old and pushy. And he drank and told me too much. A man wants to find out things for himself. Well, I do. He wasn’t my type, and it was all a setup, because April had been dating his sister and she wanted to divorce me and say I had been unfaithful.
I’m not that kind of man.” Mason turned to me with a sadness I couldn’t understand.
Here he was handsome and beautiful and rich.
“What kind of man are you?” I asked. He raised an eyebrow and moved closer to me.
“The kind of man who doesn’t cheat. When I fall in love it’s for good.
I’m not easily overcome by flattery, and I like a man like you.
Young and impressionable where I can teach you and you can teach me about the gay lifestyle.
I’ve been married a long time, and I had feelings for men, but I never met a man I thought I wanted to be with until now.
I never met anyone I’d risk everything for until I met you.
” His voice told me everything I needed to know.
He was kind and gentle, a man who didn’t love often, but loved deeply.
That was a lot to take in. I glanced into his eyes, and I saw the truth. He needed me as much as I needed him, but in a different way. “What do you want from me?” I asked.
Mason didn’t hesitate, “I want your respect and love.” I knew I could give him love, and I had a lot of respect because of his honesty. I wanted to believe everything he’d said to me, but I had been hurt in the past by men I thought would be my soul mate.
“Before we move to the next phase of our relationship...” I said, “Are you a top or bottom?” He glared at me as if he didn’t know what that meant. But of course, he was a top. He had demonstrated that in the men’s room. He had never thought about any other way.
“I ask you this because I’m younger and I like to experiment.”
“Do you mean you want to...?”