Chapter Nine
Madden
As Madden stepped back, Adryan fell back on the bed.
Cheeks red, lips shiny with saliva, Madden’s eyes ran along his body.
That Adryan was good-looking was no secret nor had he deluded himself on the subject just because he hated his ass, but what he was looking at right now was more than handsome.
His blue T-shirt had pulled out of his jeans as he had dragged them toward the bed and a sliver of skin was now uncovered, beckoning to him.
His fingers itched to feel the toned abdomen hidden under the fabric.
He had to fist his hands to stop them from twitching.
Swallowing hard, he took a slow breath, the air in the room not cold enough to calm down the want rushing through him.
‘Adryan, how much did you drink?’ he asked, his tone much calmer than before.
Adryan bolted up, sitting on the edge of the bed.
‘What?’ His expression twisted in a confused frown.
‘I…’ Madden rubbed his eyes. ‘I’m not sure you’re in full control of what you’re doing and I’d rather you didn’t… we didn’t do something we’d regret later. I’m too angry to be in the mood,’ he said, and he wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince with that.
Adryan, as if reading his mind, dropped his eyes to his crotch, which was right at his eye level, making Madden’s face light up like a ball of fire.
‘It wouldn’t be pleasant,’ he insisted, seeing as Adryan didn’t answer. He bit down on the images of Adryan that were flashing in his mind now, images of him under him, tears in his eyes, begging. What the hell was going on with him? ‘You should go,’ he finished, his voice almost too quiet.
‘But what about our conversation?’
Madden rubbed his eyes.
‘It’s fine,’ he said, when he gathered himself. ‘I’ll get over it. I work with other people I have bad history with and that has never stopped me.’
Adryan winced at his words, and Madden felt a pinch of regret, though he wasn’t sure what about, but he didn’t know what else to say. He was overwhelmed, too hot, too hard. He needed time, space, cold air.
‘I’m sorry,’ Adryan said, his voice heavy.
As if all energy had drained from him, the man pushed himself off the bed and stumbled out of the room.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ he mumbled, stopping at the door for a moment, barely turning to look back.
‘Sure,’ Madden replied, his heart pounding.
The door closed, and he still couldn’t move. His hand lifted to his lips, still swollen. He could still feel the other man’s tongue probing the inside of his mouth.
How had this happened? Was Adryan attracted to him or had he just been trying to shut him up? The way their argument had been going, making out was the farthest thing from his mind. He had been so intent on throwing Adryan out he had even considered calling the cops.
He still couldn’t believe it. Adryan was gay.
The images of him laughing over his brother’s shoulder as Michael’s fists had crashed into his ribs still burnt into his mind, and made his blood boil with anger. Madden might not be that kid anymore, but the memories hurt all the same.
Michael knew how much he had changed too. He had learned that lesson the one time Madden had returned from college.
His second Christmas in college, his dorm was undergoing maintenance work, and it took one day of banging and sawing noises for him to give up on staying, even though he had never had any intention of returning to Troham.
No one else had stayed, just like the previous year.
Determined to lock himself in his room and only come out of it when he had to go back to school, he resigned himself to going home.
He could still remember the moment he stepped into the house, Michael and his father sitting in front of the TV, the smell of beer washing over him, so strong it made him gag.
‘The fag is here,’ Michael chanted. Their father just glared at him in disgust before turning his eyes back to the TV.
Madden didn’t even say anything, and followed his plan, making his way upstairs.
That he stood in shock when he opened the door to the room he had grown up in was a testament to how little he had learned over the years. The room was trashed, filled with empty cans of beer, empty takeout boxes in every corner. And the smell… He couldn’t even tell what the smell was.
A large hand slammed into his shoulder.
‘Like it?’ Michael asked, grinning, his breath stinking of alcohol.
Without warning, Michael grabbed him by the collar and pulled him inside. His bag dropped as he stumbled in, until Michael pushed him down and pressed his head into the bare mattress.
‘Smell that?’ he asked, spit falling on Madden’s ear. ‘That’s what a woman smells like. Thought we’d exorcise all the fag from your room.’
A chuckle came from downstairs, and Michael laughed too, though he doubted they were laughing at the same thing.
Madden had been taken by surprise, and that’s how he found himself in that position but his brother couldn’t manhandle him anymore. He pushed against Michael’s strength and just managed to slip from under his grip.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re—’
Michael didn’t get to finish the sentence as Madden’s fist slammed into his stomach. He had really wanted to go for his jaw, but he wasn’t stupid, he didn’t want to break his hand.
As Michael stumbled, trying to get his bearings again, Madden had grabbed his bag and walked back the way he had come.
‘Hey, where are you going, boy?’ his father said. ‘You worthless piece of shit,’ he mumbled between his teeth as Madden let the door close behind him.
He remembered clearly thinking he should never have come out to them. He had blurted it out in anger, as if to show them he wasn’t afraid, and boy did it come back to bite him in the ass. He should have shut the fuck up and kept his head down.
He sighed, dropping to the bed, burying his face in his hand. Wasn’t that what Adryan would have thought too?
Madden was uncomfortable in the chair. He didn’t know how to sit anymore and he couldn’t concentrate on what he was doing.
His gaze drifted to the window, the sun setting over the distant hills, the sky tinted red.
The same sort of red coloring Adryan’s cheeks as he had laid on that very bed days ago now.
It had been so many days he had started wondering if he hadn’t imagined the whole thing.
Yet it must have been real. How would he be able to recall the very taste of his mouth if it hadn’t happened?
He could picture with mathematical accuracy the shine in the other man’s eyes, the way the red of his skin had brought out the blue in his eyes.
The way his lips had parted when he had looked up at him.
He couldn’t figure any of it out though. Adryan had decided to kiss him made as much sense as the sun coming out from the West. The simplest of explanations is that he was drunk, but the thought of that being the only reason made his chest ache.
And the questions of why Adryan had done it was immediately followed by questions about his own behavior.
He had responded to the kiss, to the touch.
And more importantly, he had not been able to stop thinking about it since.
Images of Adryan under him plagued his every thought.
Images of his face covered in tears. Covered in…
well, not tears. Images of his pleading eyes as he entered him slowly, firmly, dragging out of him every ounce of pleasure.
He imagined what his voice would sound like, what his moans would taste like.
In those moments, just like now, he found himself painfully hard and unable to concentrate until he relieved himself. He put his laptop away and slid his tracksuit bottoms down, his erection lying over his leg.
His cock twitched at his touch and he imagined it was Adryan’s large hands that were doing it.
Adryan’s strong fingers that were now gripping hard around him.
Pre-cum leaked out of him, sliding over his hand as he stroked himself, pressing down at the tip, looking down as if he could see Adryan’s blue gaze on him, from somewhere below him, kneeling at his feet, his hot breath on his throbbing hard-on.
He gasped, biting down on the moan as the sensations multiplied, the feeling of a tongue running over the tip, distant like in a dream, as his body’s temperature rocketed.
He moved his hand faster, harder, panting, the room gone.
Only his fantasies were real now, only the hope for Adryan’s mouth to wrap around his cock, only the dream of pushing into that mouth and fucking it till he came.
His moans louder, he bit his T-shirt to muffle them as the waves of pleasure rushed and bundled, releasing into an explosion of white over his hand and thighs, leaving him spent and dizzy.
Fuck, what was he going to do? Panting, he let his head drop against the wall behind him.
He had to speak to him, but he couldn’t get a hold of him.
He was always busy when he called, forcing him to leave a voicemail message every time.
To his messages he only replied with monosyllables.
It had angered him at first until he realized Adryan was still running his errands, never complaining, but anything he had to bring he left at the door and never even knocked.
He tried to think of a way to get his attention as he got cleaned up. Staring at himself in the mirror, he felt pathetic. Coming back to Troham had been one disaster after another. He sighed in frustration.
His phone rang and he tried to drown the little excited voice in his head that yelled at him it might be Adryan.
It wasn’t.
‘Price.’
‘Boss, Charlie is waiting for you to sign off on those purchases,’ Vicky said in her usual straight-to-business tone. The woman had no time for small talk, though she would drop a VIP client half through a sentence if she caught a hint of gossip anywhere around.
Madden sighed.
‘I was about to do it now.’
‘You sound tired, are you sleeping enough?’
Madden laughed, as if it was a joke.
‘Hmmm, I didn’t think so. You need to relax. Have you even left your hotel room?’
He had, and look what had happened. But he wasn’t about to tell Vicky any of it.
‘Anything else?’ he asked, forcing her to move on.
‘The reps from Global Ricci have finalized the arrangements and have confirmed the date and time of the meeting.’
‘Stick it in my calendar, will you?’
‘Already done.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Do you think it’s going to make a difference?’ she asked after a moment.
‘I can’t imagine it’ll make the slightest difference, no.’
‘Then why do it?’
‘I made a deal.’
‘Hmmm,’ she replied, a sound that said nothing and everything to him. It was Vicky’s way of telling him she had an opinion but he might not want to hear it.
‘Go on, then,’ he said, rolling his eyes.
‘Well, it feels to me like it’s a bit half-assed to set something like this up and just leave it to the odds. It’s not like you. You usually go all out.’
‘Only when I believe the odds are in my favor,’ he said, smirking.
‘This is not the Starving Games, or whatever you called that movie. It’s people’s livelihoods. If you’re going to help, shouldn’t you help for real?’
Madden remained silent.
‘If you’re considering firing me, just be aware you can’t,’ she said casually. They both knew that would never happen.
‘What do you suppose I can do about this? Despite my many talents, I can’t perform miracles.’
‘I don’t know, fix potholes, or something. Find a solution for these people. I’ve seen towns like that before. They end up deserted, when their main industries leave. It’s just sad.’
He was going to retort with something when he heard a bang and a half-grunted ‘fuck,’ and he jumped off his chair, heart thumping in his chest.
‘I have to go,’ he said, throwing the phone on the bed as he rushed to the door. Let it be him, he chanted in his head. Let it be him.
He opened the door in one strong pull and found Adryan on the other side, picking up apples off the ground.
‘There you are,’ was all he could say.
On his knees, Adryan looked up at him, surprised, blushing furiously and Madden found it suddenly hard to swallow or to utter a word.
‘Sorry for bothering you. My mother sent these for you. Just take them and I’ll be on my way.’
‘Listen,’ Madden tried.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Adryan said, taking a step back. ‘It wasn’t… It’s not…’
Madden didn’t know what to say. Adryan was already leaving, he wasn’t going to listen to him out here in the hall and he couldn’t think of any excuses to make him come inside.
Adryan began to turn away, ready to leave.
‘The reps of Global Ricci will be here at the end of next week,’ he blurted, out of ideas.
‘I know, we got the letter,’ he said, turning back, frowning.
‘Maybe…’ What was he going to say? He was wracking his brains trying to figure something out, while all his brain could come up with was Vicky’s pothole comment.
‘Maybe we should get the village in shape for their visit. Show them…’ He was really struggling for the appropriate language here.
‘Show them the vibrant community and the devoted employees they’d be losing.
’ Whatever words he was using, Adryan had taken a step closer now, so it must be working.
‘What do you mean?’ His words were slow, as if they were hard.
‘Cleaning up the streets, a coat of paint on any graffiti or damaged wall. A few flowers,’ he said, feeling more confident.
Adryan looked back at him, pensive.
‘That’s a nice idea, but most of the people in the village work and we don’t have a lot of time. I don’t think anybody will be able to organize it.’
‘I will. I’ll do it,’ Madden panicked.
Adryan raised an eyebrow.
‘Don’t you have a lot of work to do, what with being a genius billionaire CEO?’ Adryan asked, his tone teasing, more natural.
‘I’m Madden Price,’ he shrugged, feeling as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders. ‘There is nothing I can’t do.’