Chapter 19
“THAT’S GREAT,” Sterling told his football-player sitter. He had wanted to pose in his jersey, but both Sterling and his mother had convinced him otherwise. Sometimes it felt like he had the same conversation three or four times a day. Maybe he needed to put together an informational email regarding the types of things that made a good picture. It might help, though somehow Sterling doubted it. “Very good. Now smile a little and keep your eyes right where they are.” He snapped the final pictures of the session, and his subject went to change.
Connor was waiting in the reception area along with the boy’s mother. Sterling handled the business end of things and spoke with her until her son was ready and they could leave.
“What brings you here?” He smiled at Connor, thankful that had been his final client of the day. The routine was beginning to get to him. “Not that you need an excuse. Did something happen?” Connor usually didn’t just come to the studio. The past few weeks had been quiet on the election front, but Sterling always expected some dirty trick out of the mayor, especially as the time ticked down and the election got closer.
“No. I’m getting a ton of support, and I may actually win. It seems the mayor isn’t as popular as he’d like to think he is, and what people really want is someone who will help them.” He came closer. “As I was approaching the house from the front, I saw someone familiar. He was knocking on the door, so I let him in the backyard.”
“Who?” Sterling asked.
“It’s your ex, Alexander.” Connor shifted his weight between his feet. “I….” He swallowed. “Holy hell, I see why he was able to turn your head. The man is gorgeous.” He took a step back. “Do you want me to leave so you can talk to him?” Connor seemed like he wanted to disappear.
Alexander had that effect on people. Sterling had seen it before. Sometimes when Alexander arrived, he seemed to suck all of the air out of the room, overpowering it in such a way that there was nothing left for anyone else.
“No. If anyone is going to be leaving, it’s him.” He locked the studio door and turned out the lights.
Sterling tried not to let his hands shake as anxiety like he hadn’t felt in years slammed into him. Sterling didn’t want to see Alexander and was tempted to ask Connor to just tell him to go, but that was the coward’s way out. He’d hear why Alexander had come all this way, and then send him packing. Still, he found his hand resting on the doorknob without moving.
“Get it over with?” Connor asked, and Sterling nodded, pulling open the door and going into the yard.
Alexander’s expensive citrussy cologne reached his nose before he saw him. For a second, Sterling inhaled. He had loved that scent and came to associate it with warmth and love. “Alexander, what are you doing here?” he asked before he even saw him.
Alexander stood near the outdoor table, looking at the flowers nearby. “Baby, it’s good to see you.” He turned slowly, his smile as wide and bright as ever. For a second, Sterling’s mind skipped a beat. “I missed you.” He strode closer and hugged Sterling in his powerful arms, then kissed him as though he were trying to take possession of him.
It wasn’t until he took a deep breath that he could speak. Inside, something snapped like a cog falling into place. “Stop!” He pushed Alexander back. “You don’t get to do that any longer. Remember Cannes, Monaco, and that woman you decided you wanted? The articles, you ripping me apart?” He glared at his ex.
“That was a mistake. Those other people never held a candle to you. I realize that now.” He put on those puppy-dog eyes, parting his lips just so, giving Sterling the look that sold, well, everything by the millions.
A throat cleared, and Sterling remembered his manners. “This is Connor, my boyfriend.”
Alexander extended his hand, and Connor took it, at the same time sending Sterling some of his strength. The world seemed to spin, and Sterling knew he was being dramatic. Alexander was just a man like any other. His package was superb, but that’s all there was. Sterling looked into Alexander’s eyes, realizing that, like the pictures, there was so very little there.
“Yes. I understand he’s running for mayor of this quaint little town.” The way he said it made Carlisle sound like a dump. “That must be so interesting for you.”
“What did you come for?” Sterling pressed, the scales falling from his eyes. “You want something, and all the airs and sweet talking aren’t going to get you anywhere. So just spit it out and say what it is you want. That way I can tell you no and send you on your way.”
Alexander’s smile didn’t fade a single watt. “I knew you’d be like this. But I had to come.” He looked around the yard as though deciding where he wanted to sit, but Sterling made no invitation. “When I saw the little calendar you did in a bookstore in Philadelphia, I took it upon myself to show your work to a few people, and they sent me here to talk to you. I still care for you, Sterling. I always have, no matter what happened.”
“Don’t feed him your lines of manure to try to get him to do what you want. It isn’t going to work, and it makes you seem stupid.” Connor came closer.
“This doesn’t concern you, kilt boy,” Alexander retorted.
Connor snickered. “Is that the best you can do? That’s like me saying you’re a box of rocks. It’s too damned easy. How about…?” Connor turned to Sterling. “Maybe ‘you should drop your pants to let your brain breathe’? Or ‘beautiful house, empty windows.’” He grinned. “What do you think, Sterling?”
“I think you’re right. Alexander needs to drop the crap.” He squared his shoulders. “I’m not going to come back to you or let you into my life. And I’m not interested in whatever you’re peddling.” Sterling took a step closer, examining the fine lines around Alexander’s eyes and the way his right index finger kept moving slightly. “What is it you’ve gotten yourself into?”
“Excuse me?” Alexander asked.
Sterling turned to Connor. “When he’s nervous, Alexander always gets a twitchy finger. His model training taught him how to move and control his entire body, but that one finger never learned the lesson, and when he’s nervous or upset, it twitches.” He grinned and tugged Connor closer. “What is it you want? Who asked you to come here?” He had a growing suspicion that after two years, Alexander wasn’t going to just show up unless there was something in it for him, and it had nothing to do with wanting Sterling back. “Someone asked you to come?”
“Endrea asked me to speak with you,” he finally admitted.
Connor’s breath hitched. “Even I’ve heard of her.” Endrea Monteros had burst onto the fashion scene less than a decade earlier and had taken the entire industry in a tsunami of praise and publicity. She was featured in high-end department stores but also had a line of clothing that every man or woman could afford. She brought fashion and style and made it available to everyone. Couture customers loved her too, because of her ability to create something special for them each and every time. Endrea was stunningly talented and kept each of her brands distinct, which kept all the lines fresh. In short, she was a fashion genius.
“Well, congratulations,” Alexander sniped.
“That’s enough. You’re here, uninvited. You will be pleasant to my boyfriend.” Sterling turned to Connor. “Would you please give me a few minutes with Alexander? It seems he can’t be civil.” Sterling kissed Connor hard, wrapping his arms around him and drawing Connor close. He knew he was putting on a show, but his body didn’t know the difference, and Connor responded with gusto. Sterling wanted to push Alexander out the garden door and caveman Connor into bed. Damn, he wanted that badly. But he had old business to finish up, and this was his chance. “I’ll find you as soon as we’re through.”
Connor’s eyes shone, and Sterling pulled strength and love from them. Nothing he’d had with Alexander was anything like what Connor offered. With Connor, it was better, free, and without strings or conditions.
Connor nodded and left the yard, turning back before disappearing into the rear of the house. “Just call if you need me to put anything out to the curb.”
Sterling reveled in the support… and Connor’s jealousy. Not that Connor had anything to be worried about, but maybe a little jealousy could do the heart good. Then he whirled back on Alexander. “You and I are over, and I will never come back to you or work with you. Quit your games. You ripped my heart out two years ago, and I loved you. But to you I was just a step up the ladder, and when I didn’t rise fast enough, you tossed me aside.” He put his hands on his hips. “And as for seeing the calendar and thinking of me, I call bullshit. You said you were in a bookstore. Please… when did Alexander ever set foot in a bookstore? That would mean you’d need to read.” He rolled his eyes. “I found someone a hell of a lot better than you, and I love him.”
Alexander swallowed, and his broad shoulders slumped slightly. “I saw your pictures with him, and they—”
“Made you realize what you’d lost? Too little too late. Now that the horse manure portion of this conversation is over, what does Endrea want? Or more importantly, what is it you want from her?” Sterling knew how Alexander’s mind worked. He wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t something in it for him.
“Endrea saw your calendar and apparently went back through your catalog and was impressed. I’m told she read the reports about us and approached my agent, who has been courting her for months on my behalf. She wants you to meet with her, and I want to work with her.” Alexander’s eyes actually lit up for the first time during the visit.
“And you got this idea that if you could get me to meet with her—say by the two of us walking in arm and arm or some such fantasy—that she might hire you.” If Endrea were to agree to use Alexander, then he’d catapult to male supermodeldom. The rarest breed in the entire profession.
“It’s your chance to come back from this backwater. You wouldn’t need to take senior pictures any longer. The fashion world would welcome you back with open arms, and you and I could work together. It would be just like old times.”
“No, it wouldn’t, because I’m not doing it. If Endrea is interested in working with me, then she can get in touch with me easily enough. All it takes is a phone call.” Sterling wasn’t convinced that Alexander was telling him the whole story or that there was much truth in any of this. “As for us, there is no us. Not any longer. There’s me and Connor.”
“A history professor?” Alexander questioned.
Sterling stood and guided Alexander toward the door. “Yeah. And it’s something you should learn about.” He opened the door and pressed Alexander out onto the sidewalk. “Because you’re history.” Then he closed the garden door with a bang.
“IS HE gone?” Connor asked a few minutes later. Sterling hadn’t moved, and Connor’s arms slipped around his waist, chest and hips pressing to his back. “What did he want?”
Sterling was still trying to process the possibilities. “He was trying to pull me back to him.”
“He’s realized he loves you?” Connor asked. “Of course he did—how could he not?” Connor said it like it was a plain-as-day fact. “What did you do?”
Sterling turned slowly. “First thing, I threw him out. And it felt goooood.” He nuzzled right close to Connor’s neck. “But no. He doesn’t love me, no matter what he says. There’s something else going on, but all I got from him was a bunch of supposed facts that may or may not be true.” Sterling held Connor tighter. “One thing is true, I think. It’s possible that Endrea saw the calendar and realized it was my work. She might be interested in me, and Alexander thinks he could use that to worm his way into her fashion house.”
Connor stilled. “I see.”
Sterling chuckled. “I’m glad you do, because I don’t. Something is going on, but I don’t know what exactly. Maybe something will come of this and maybe it won’t.” He wasn’t going to get his hopes up. People got notions and ideas every day, and they changed their minds or something else got priority and nothing came of it.
“But he came all this way to see you. Would he do that if there wasn’t something for him?” It seemed Connor understood Sterling’s ex pretty well.
“I doubt it, but getting the facts out of Alexander when everything is filtered through his own wants and agenda is like pulling teeth.” He sighed and decided he wasn’t going to worry about it. “If something happens, then it does.” He smiled. “What I’m most proud of is I sent him packing. He told me he was interested in getting back together, and I told him to pound sand. He got pissy and then found himself out on the sidewalk.” Damn, that had felt amazing, and when he looked at Connor, the shadows that always seemed to encroach around his heart weren’t there anymore. Damn, that had been too easy… and predictable.
“Feel better?”
“Yeah. I probably should have looked him up and had it out with him months ago.”
Connor shook his head. “Wouldn’t have worked. The only reason you feel better is because he came to you.” Connor hugged him. “You’re a badass, you know that? You threw your ex to the floor and stomped on what he wanted.”
“When you say it that way, it makes me sound mean and awful,” Sterling said.
Connor grinned and ran his fingers through Sterling’s hair, making little tingles that started in his scalp and continued through him. “Maybe. But didn’t it feel good? Welcome to the kick-your-ex-to-the-curb club.” Connor chuckled and kissed him. In a matter of seconds, they were heading toward the bedroom.
“How much of what we said did you hear?” Sterling asked, pausing their progress.
“Not much… enough….” Their gazes locked, and Sterling wondered for a few seconds just what was enough. He swallowed but didn’t turn away. Sterling couldn’t for a second, not with the way those incredible blue eyes glistened. “Okay, almost all of it.” He smiled and closed the distance between them. “For the record, I love you too, and I’m glad you kicked his ass out and chose me.”
Connor kissed him again, and Sterling hefted Connor off his feet. Connor wrapped his legs around Sterling’s waist, and he slid his hands down those strong legs and groaned when he realized that under that kilt was more and more luscious skin all the way to….
Connor nipped at his lower lip, and Sterling headed to the bedroom with as much haste as he dared. Damn, he loved his man in a kilt, with a kilt up around his waist, and most definitely with a kilt in a pile somewhere nearby.
“Alexander couldn’t hold a candle to you—not in a million years.” Connor was handsome, yes, but he was also beautiful all the way to his heart, and maybe that had been what Sterling had been missing all this time.
THUNDER SHOOK the house, waking Sterling from a sound sleep. He tugged Connor closer, holding him as the storm raged outside. But Sterling was content, peaceful inside with Connor next to him, his butt pressed to Sterling’s hips.
“I hate these, you know,” Connor whispered as the next clap of thunder rumbled deeply, vibrating the entire building. He rolled over and pressed Sterling back onto the mattress.
Sterling guided their lips together, wrapping his legs around Connor’s waist. “Forget the storm and make love to me again,” Sterling whispered and pressed a foil packet into Connor’s hands.
Connor whimpered and shifted, the thunder becoming louder, sound waves crashing over the house, eventually eclipsed by the passion that flowed out from Connor, pushing away everything until the crashes in Sterling’s mind overruled everything and all that mattered was him and Connor, their movement together, his heart reaching out and finding Connor’s in the dark.
A crack split the night, so close he could feel the electric jolt race through him as their bodies joined. Another flash illuminated Connor’s eyes, just for a second, but they were as deep and dark as the bottom of the sea. Sterling arched his back, and the next flash silhouetted Connor against the window, muscles straining, a god in stop motion. There was no way Alexander could ever compete with this man, and even in the dark, the shadow of Sterling’s past had lifted and his heart was light, shining the way to Connor.