SERIOUSLY, ALWAYS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL by Randall Morgan Chapter 5
Okay next installment of our little tale. Justin makes a move! ADULTS ONLY!
FIVE: Eric’s POV
Everything is as it should be. He’s feeling the draw from my blood and it’s annoying to him. I get that but I don’t care. He needs some time to simmer, get the flavor going and then, when he boils over, I’ll move. Until then, a little separation is a good thing. A human as beautiful as Brian Kinney is accustomed to having his way when it comes to sexual partners. I’m going to teach him a lesson in humility.
Pam is staring at me in that unnerving way of hers. “What?” I demand and she says,
“What’s going on between you and that human, Eric?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ve had your fair share of men over the centuries, but you always preferred women. What makes this one different from the others?”
“Nothing,” I repeat, not wanting to have this conversation.
“I agree. Nothing. He’s handsome enough, but so what? They all are. He has the same number of entrances and exits as anyone else. You’re toying with him like a butterfly on a pin. Why?”
“He amuses me.”
“That again. Why don’t you just hire a clown?”
“Why are you interrogating me?”
“Because you make my life more difficult when you develop an infatuation for a human. You’re around less which leaves me to run the club. It always ends badly for you and then you’re impossible for weeks.”
“I’m not infatuated with anyone. I’m bored, Pam. We’ve been here a long time and I’m bored. I need a break from Louisiana.”
“We could go back to Sverige for awhile,” she uses the Swedish word for Sweden. “Get out of this fucking heat.”
“I am, like all of our kind, a nomad. I have no allegiance to any kingdom or land. There’s nothing left for me there.”
“You have a farm, lands.”
“Which you hate.”
“Yes, but it might be a nice break.”
“No.”
“Let me guess. Pittsburgh is such a garden spot for a vacation break.”
“Is it?”
“Do you even know where Pennsylvania is, Eric?”
I shrug. “One of those square states somewhere in the middle? I don’t require a geography lesson, Pam. But I do require your assistance.”
“Here we go. What do you want?”
“I want you to hire his firm. Tell them we only want to work with Brian Kinney. Tell them we want him down here in a week to show us an ad campaign. Set up the account with them in our records. Can you do that much?”
“Don’t fucking insult me. I’m the one who keeps all the records around here. If you were in charge of the books, we’d be broke in a week.”
“I never claimed to be a shopkeeper.”
“I guess the plus side of all this is that it takes your mind off that twat, Sookie Stackhouse.”
She references the fairy-girl whose blood tantalizes me. Unfortunately my lust for Sookie is blocked by her affection for another vampire. Pam is right. I haven’t thought about Sookie since Brian entered my club. “Don’t you have something to do?” I snap at her and she taps the desk.
“You’ll have to move so I can get at the computer. Why don’t you go lord it over the club for awhile? Half the humans who come to Fangtasia do so hoping to get a glimpse of the Viking god on his throne.”
I chuckle at that. “You flatter me. A glimpse is all they’re getting.”
I get up and motion her into the desk chair and she uses the lever to raise the height of it and says, “Eric, please think about your track record when it comes to any kind of repeat business with humans. There was that beautiful boy in Paris who was lots of fun, you said, until he jumped off the Eifel Tower when you jilted him. Remember the two sisters in Dallas who…”
I hold up a hand to stop her. I really don’t need a rundown of my romantic failures with humans. There are too many. She’s right, of course. I know our kind and their kind can never form a successful bond. They are too fragile and their lives are too short. But for some reason we are drawn to them, as if we want to recreate our lost humanity, which cannot be done.
Brian Kinney has a very strong spirit and no fear. That appeals to me. It will end badly, I know that, but I intend to enjoy whatever we have together for as long as I want. I give Pam a serious glare. “I’m done with your bitching and complaining over things that are none of your business. Understand? Stay out of it.”
She looks hurt. I know her interest is not traditional jealousy, that’s not how we are. Our relationship with each other transcends such things. She’s just worried for my well-being and I have to appreciate that on one level. I lean down and kiss her forehead. “You worry too much.”
“I love you too much.”
“Probably,” I agree, recalling the intensity of my emotions towards my own maker. “Just be a help to me, Pam. Not a nagging wife.”
She laughs at that. “God forbid.”
“Exactly,” I give her a wink and return to the club.
BRIAN’S POV
I’m sulking in my office when Ryder comes in. It’s been three days since I returned from Louisiana and not a word from the Viking vampire. I stopped calling him, since he never called me back. I’m not that pathetic. Fuck him.
“Congratulations,” Ryder says. “We got the Fangtasia account. You have a week to pull a campaign together. And then go back to Louisiana and sell it. They asked for you, specifically so I guess you made a good impression.”
I don’t know whether to be mad or glad. Part of me is thrilled to have a reason to see Eric again, and part of me never again wants to see his beautiful face. “Can’t someone else do it?”
“Did you hear me say they asked for you specifically?”
“I have no say in it?”
“No. It’s business, Kinney. Get to work.”
I wave him out of my office and start thinking of what would draw me to a vampire club. I always come back to the same thing. Eric Northman. It’s dark outside my windows when I get a call from the guard’s desk in the lobby. After hours, they’re picky about who they let into the elevators. “Mr. Kinney, your Chinese food is here.”
“My what?”
“There’s a kid here, delivering your Chinese food.”
I smile. I instantly know it’s my stalker. “Send him up.”
I have to meet him at the glass doors leading to our suite of offices since they lock them up after normal work hours. On the other side of the glass, the twink holds up a couple white sacks and grins at me. I wave him in, and say, “Don’t expect a tip for this.”
“At least pay me back for the food.”
“Fuck you. I didn’t ask you to bring me food.” I lead him into the conference room and start unpacking cartons on the wide table. “Did you get fiery duck dick? You know that’s my favorite.”
He laughs and picks out an egg roll with a pair of chopsticks. “You’ll have to get your own dick.”
“Never been a problem,” I dig into some chicken friend rice only now realizing how hungry I am. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“No one’s seen you in days. We thought you might have become a vampire or something.”
“We?” I can see he is ingratiating himself with my friends. One of them obviously told him where I work, because I didn’t. Certainly wasn’t Michael. He doesn’t like the twink, partially because he’s always jealous of my tricks and partially because his mother, Debbie, likes him so much. “Unlike the rest of you underemployed losers, I am working. I have a project and a short time frame to finish it.”
“You know what they say about all work and no play, don’t you?”
“Your balls turn blue?”
“It could happen.” He pushes me back in my chair and straddles my lap. He’s just too peachy cute to be real. While they are both blond, he couldn’t be more opposite of Eric. This one is like a little pixie with that smile and his small stature and the sparkle of extreme youth in his eyes. Eric is his dark reverse, foreboding and big and scary. And yet they both make my dick hard. He kisses me and I kiss him back.
“Shouldn’t you be studying for a science test or something?” I tease him and he laughs.
“I’m a straight A student. Don’t worry about it.”
“Why are you stalking me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. Why are you avoiding me?”
“We had our moment. I told you at the time, I’ll see you in your dreams.”
“This is what I dream about.”
“I don’t even remember your name.”
“Yes you do,” he reaches under him and squeezes my cock. “Say it.”
I sigh. The thought of having him on this table where I’ve snoozed through so many boring meetings with my eyes wide open has some appeal. “Joseph? James? Johnny?” He squeezes me harder and I smile. “Oh yeah, it’s Jason.”
He narrows his eyes at me and then kisses me again. I throw him back on the table, sliding cartons out of the way and climb on top of him. He clamps his arms around my neck and swallows my tongue. Within minutes, his legs are propped against my shoulders and I’m pounding into that sweet ass of his with a need I didn’t even know I was feeling. My peripheral vision picks up an image of a cleaning woman walking by the glass walled room and staring, but I don’t stop. Enjoy the show, lady.
When we both get off, only then do I feel the pain in my knees from the unyielding wood of the table and I wince as I peel off of him and fix my clothes. Our audience has gone. Rosy with excitement and pleased with the success of his plan, he gets decent and then starts feeding from the cartons. “Let’s go back to your place.”
“Justin, I’ll say this in the nicest way I can. We aren’t boyfriends. We never will be. I don’t do boyfriends and you need to get on with your incipient homosexuality and find out what it’s all about.”
He shrugs as if he could not care less about any longer term commitment from me, like I can’t read the word “crush” on his forehead. “I knew you knew my name. I’m not looking for a boyfriend. I just want to have a good time. Let’s go to your loft.”
Now is as good a time as any to draw the line with the kid. “I have to work. I have a grown up job. You have to put your nighttime retainer in your mouth and get your rest before school tomorrow. Can’t you see we’re in different places in life?”
“You mean because you’re old?”
“I’m not that old.”
“Thirty is old.”
“I’m not thirty yet.”
“You will be soon, Michael said.”
Of course he said that, so typical Michael. “There, you see? Too old for you.”
“I don’t care. You don’t look old.”
Was that a compliment? “Ok, break time is over. I have to get back to work and you have to leave.”
“Can I wait for you at your loft?”
“No. And don’t come to my office again. Move on, get on with life, lots of men to meet and cocks to suck.”
“I could have my pick, you know. Everyone at Babylon wants me.”
I give him a glance. Been there, done that. Still doing that. “You say that like it’s an accomplishment. You’re a hot little chicken. But you aren’t the only chicken in the box, Colonel. And it doesn’t last long. So better make the most of it.”
“I know you’re the reigning stud at Babylon and everywhere else on Liberty Avenue. You’re a fucking legend, but you’re getting older, Brian, and that won’t last. Then what will you have?”
“Memories,” I say, but he hit a nerve and now I’m mad. “Go. Dethrone me, little chickadee. I have work to do.” I lead him to the front door and he reaches up unexpectedly to kiss me and then walks to the elevators with a smile as I lock the door behind him.
FIVE: Eric’s POV
Everything is as it should be. He’s feeling the draw from my blood and it’s annoying to him. I get that but I don’t care. He needs some time to simmer, get the flavor going and then, when he boils over, I’ll move. Until then, a little separation is a good thing. A human as beautiful as Brian Kinney is accustomed to having his way when it comes to sexual partners. I’m going to teach him a lesson in humility.
Pam is staring at me in that unnerving way of hers. “What?” I demand and she says,
“What’s going on between you and that human, Eric?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ve had your fair share of men over the centuries, but you always preferred women. What makes this one different from the others?”
“Nothing,” I repeat, not wanting to have this conversation.
“I agree. Nothing. He’s handsome enough, but so what? They all are. He has the same number of entrances and exits as anyone else. You’re toying with him like a butterfly on a pin. Why?”
“He amuses me.”
“That again. Why don’t you just hire a clown?”
“Why are you interrogating me?”
“Because you make my life more difficult when you develop an infatuation for a human. You’re around less which leaves me to run the club. It always ends badly for you and then you’re impossible for weeks.”
“I’m not infatuated with anyone. I’m bored, Pam. We’ve been here a long time and I’m bored. I need a break from Louisiana.”
“We could go back to Sverige for awhile,” she uses the Swedish word for Sweden. “Get out of this fucking heat.”
“I am, like all of our kind, a nomad. I have no allegiance to any kingdom or land. There’s nothing left for me there.”
“You have a farm, lands.”
“Which you hate.”
“Yes, but it might be a nice break.”
“No.”
“Let me guess. Pittsburgh is such a garden spot for a vacation break.”
“Is it?”
“Do you even know where Pennsylvania is, Eric?”
I shrug. “One of those square states somewhere in the middle? I don’t require a geography lesson, Pam. But I do require your assistance.”
“Here we go. What do you want?”
“I want you to hire his firm. Tell them we only want to work with Brian Kinney. Tell them we want him down here in a week to show us an ad campaign. Set up the account with them in our records. Can you do that much?”
“Don’t fucking insult me. I’m the one who keeps all the records around here. If you were in charge of the books, we’d be broke in a week.”
“I never claimed to be a shopkeeper.”
“I guess the plus side of all this is that it takes your mind off that twat, Sookie Stackhouse.”
She references the fairy-girl whose blood tantalizes me. Unfortunately my lust for Sookie is blocked by her affection for another vampire. Pam is right. I haven’t thought about Sookie since Brian entered my club. “Don’t you have something to do?” I snap at her and she taps the desk.
“You’ll have to move so I can get at the computer. Why don’t you go lord it over the club for awhile? Half the humans who come to Fangtasia do so hoping to get a glimpse of the Viking god on his throne.”
I chuckle at that. “You flatter me. A glimpse is all they’re getting.”
I get up and motion her into the desk chair and she uses the lever to raise the height of it and says, “Eric, please think about your track record when it comes to any kind of repeat business with humans. There was that beautiful boy in Paris who was lots of fun, you said, until he jumped off the Eifel Tower when you jilted him. Remember the two sisters in Dallas who…”
I hold up a hand to stop her. I really don’t need a rundown of my romantic failures with humans. There are too many. She’s right, of course. I know our kind and their kind can never form a successful bond. They are too fragile and their lives are too short. But for some reason we are drawn to them, as if we want to recreate our lost humanity, which cannot be done.
Brian Kinney has a very strong spirit and no fear. That appeals to me. It will end badly, I know that, but I intend to enjoy whatever we have together for as long as I want. I give Pam a serious glare. “I’m done with your bitching and complaining over things that are none of your business. Understand? Stay out of it.”
She looks hurt. I know her interest is not traditional jealousy, that’s not how we are. Our relationship with each other transcends such things. She’s just worried for my well-being and I have to appreciate that on one level. I lean down and kiss her forehead. “You worry too much.”
“I love you too much.”
“Probably,” I agree, recalling the intensity of my emotions towards my own maker. “Just be a help to me, Pam. Not a nagging wife.”
She laughs at that. “God forbid.”
“Exactly,” I give her a wink and return to the club.
BRIAN’S POV
I’m sulking in my office when Ryder comes in. It’s been three days since I returned from Louisiana and not a word from the Viking vampire. I stopped calling him, since he never called me back. I’m not that pathetic. Fuck him.
“Congratulations,” Ryder says. “We got the Fangtasia account. You have a week to pull a campaign together. And then go back to Louisiana and sell it. They asked for you, specifically so I guess you made a good impression.”
I don’t know whether to be mad or glad. Part of me is thrilled to have a reason to see Eric again, and part of me never again wants to see his beautiful face. “Can’t someone else do it?”
“Did you hear me say they asked for you specifically?”
“I have no say in it?”
“No. It’s business, Kinney. Get to work.”
I wave him out of my office and start thinking of what would draw me to a vampire club. I always come back to the same thing. Eric Northman. It’s dark outside my windows when I get a call from the guard’s desk in the lobby. After hours, they’re picky about who they let into the elevators. “Mr. Kinney, your Chinese food is here.”
“My what?”
“There’s a kid here, delivering your Chinese food.”
I smile. I instantly know it’s my stalker. “Send him up.”
I have to meet him at the glass doors leading to our suite of offices since they lock them up after normal work hours. On the other side of the glass, the twink holds up a couple white sacks and grins at me. I wave him in, and say, “Don’t expect a tip for this.”
“At least pay me back for the food.”
“Fuck you. I didn’t ask you to bring me food.” I lead him into the conference room and start unpacking cartons on the wide table. “Did you get fiery duck dick? You know that’s my favorite.”
He laughs and picks out an egg roll with a pair of chopsticks. “You’ll have to get your own dick.”
“Never been a problem,” I dig into some chicken friend rice only now realizing how hungry I am. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“No one’s seen you in days. We thought you might have become a vampire or something.”
“We?” I can see he is ingratiating himself with my friends. One of them obviously told him where I work, because I didn’t. Certainly wasn’t Michael. He doesn’t like the twink, partially because he’s always jealous of my tricks and partially because his mother, Debbie, likes him so much. “Unlike the rest of you underemployed losers, I am working. I have a project and a short time frame to finish it.”
“You know what they say about all work and no play, don’t you?”
“Your balls turn blue?”
“It could happen.” He pushes me back in my chair and straddles my lap. He’s just too peachy cute to be real. While they are both blond, he couldn’t be more opposite of Eric. This one is like a little pixie with that smile and his small stature and the sparkle of extreme youth in his eyes. Eric is his dark reverse, foreboding and big and scary. And yet they both make my dick hard. He kisses me and I kiss him back.
“Shouldn’t you be studying for a science test or something?” I tease him and he laughs.
“I’m a straight A student. Don’t worry about it.”
“Why are you stalking me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. Why are you avoiding me?”
“We had our moment. I told you at the time, I’ll see you in your dreams.”
“This is what I dream about.”
“I don’t even remember your name.”
“Yes you do,” he reaches under him and squeezes my cock. “Say it.”
I sigh. The thought of having him on this table where I’ve snoozed through so many boring meetings with my eyes wide open has some appeal. “Joseph? James? Johnny?” He squeezes me harder and I smile. “Oh yeah, it’s Jason.”
He narrows his eyes at me and then kisses me again. I throw him back on the table, sliding cartons out of the way and climb on top of him. He clamps his arms around my neck and swallows my tongue. Within minutes, his legs are propped against my shoulders and I’m pounding into that sweet ass of his with a need I didn’t even know I was feeling. My peripheral vision picks up an image of a cleaning woman walking by the glass walled room and staring, but I don’t stop. Enjoy the show, lady.
When we both get off, only then do I feel the pain in my knees from the unyielding wood of the table and I wince as I peel off of him and fix my clothes. Our audience has gone. Rosy with excitement and pleased with the success of his plan, he gets decent and then starts feeding from the cartons. “Let’s go back to your place.”
“Justin, I’ll say this in the nicest way I can. We aren’t boyfriends. We never will be. I don’t do boyfriends and you need to get on with your incipient homosexuality and find out what it’s all about.”
He shrugs as if he could not care less about any longer term commitment from me, like I can’t read the word “crush” on his forehead. “I knew you knew my name. I’m not looking for a boyfriend. I just want to have a good time. Let’s go to your loft.”
Now is as good a time as any to draw the line with the kid. “I have to work. I have a grown up job. You have to put your nighttime retainer in your mouth and get your rest before school tomorrow. Can’t you see we’re in different places in life?”
“You mean because you’re old?”
“I’m not that old.”
“Thirty is old.”
“I’m not thirty yet.”
“You will be soon, Michael said.”
Of course he said that, so typical Michael. “There, you see? Too old for you.”
“I don’t care. You don’t look old.”
Was that a compliment? “Ok, break time is over. I have to get back to work and you have to leave.”
“Can I wait for you at your loft?”
“No. And don’t come to my office again. Move on, get on with life, lots of men to meet and cocks to suck.”
“I could have my pick, you know. Everyone at Babylon wants me.”
I give him a glance. Been there, done that. Still doing that. “You say that like it’s an accomplishment. You’re a hot little chicken. But you aren’t the only chicken in the box, Colonel. And it doesn’t last long. So better make the most of it.”
“I know you’re the reigning stud at Babylon and everywhere else on Liberty Avenue. You’re a fucking legend, but you’re getting older, Brian, and that won’t last. Then what will you have?”
“Memories,” I say, but he hit a nerve and now I’m mad. “Go. Dethrone me, little chickadee. I have work to do.” I lead him to the front door and he reaches up unexpectedly to kiss me and then walks to the elevators with a smile as I lock the door behind him.