“I am not doing that.” No way in Hell.
“Yes, you are.” Not taking any arguments, she clicked her fingernails together in Blake’s face. “If Taddy, Lex, and I get Brazilians to keep the cock a-coming, so will you, gorgeous. Hell, even my little Hedda gets her muffin clipped.”
He looked down at Hedda and wondered if she enjoyed her grooming services. “If a guy wants to fuck me, he’ll have to take it as-is.”
“No!” In his usual melodramatic way, Thor banged his drink on the table. “Have you ever seen a Boeing 757 land in the woods?”
“Can’t say that I have…”
“It’d crash and burn,” Vive reasoned.
His jaw dropped in reaction to the insult. “My crack is not some hairy forest.”
“Ass cheeks have a little fuzz down there. It’s natural. The sugaring will remove it all. You’ll see, and you’ll thank me later. You always do, boo.” He smiled.
“Every last speck?” Blake didn’t think his ass sprouted any hair. Though he admitted he never backed his butt up to a mirror to check, either.
“Your tushie will transform into white marble.” Thor leaned close. “Or as I say, your boy-pussy will be skinned.”
“Cookie, boy-pussy,” he repeated. “Enough with the nicknames.”
“I didn’t call your ass a man-cunt or anything.”
“Thor, stop it.” He couldn’t envision himself in bed with some top guy hovering over him and his legs hoisted over his shoulders while he yelled, “Take my man-cunt.” Blake wasn’t convinced. “Tell me, why is sugaring crucial?”
“A sizeable, thick, veiny dick requires a landing stripa smooth tarmac for touchdown.”
“No turbulence?” he joked.
“Not even a ripple.”
“You’re nuts. Except, I guess you’re right about your sex life preparations.” He had heard about Taddy’s Brazilians for years.
Thor grabbed the device from Blake. “I’m going to log on and book you an appointment for tomorrow morning.” He typed away. “I’m also e-mailing you this list so you’ll commit it to memory.” Hitting one final stroke, he then threw the tablet into his messenger bag. “You’re all set, babes. I want you to make the Seven Desires a priority. Gunter or Nello, I don’t care which, but it’s gonna happen.” He chomped on another crab cake.
What was he getting into? No man on Earth would agree to do this for him. It was nice to dream, but this wasn’t really his cup of tea. He’d been celibate, and for good reason.
Miguel Santana straightened his jacket while his driver pulled the black Mercedes-Benz up to the club’s entrance. He’d planned to meet his friends for dinner. Lately, his days were spent working on his art, and at night, he’d often hook up. Although, in recent months, he hadn’t been having sex; he’d rather spend time alone with his dog or watching a movie.
Feeling vibrations from his rear pocket, Miguel reached for his cell. His screen glowed with an e-mail from Thor sent to Blake and bcc’d to him. The subject heading read, “Blake’s Seven Desires.” Hot damn. The e-mail listed sexual acts fit for the most perverse.
Miguel’s cock stiffened with excitement. He’d mastered one through six ages before. Number seven, raw sex, remained TBD in his life. He’d never had a boyfriend long enough to give being uninhibited a go and he didn’t want to catch the bug trying.
He thanked his driver and stepped out from the car.
“Hmm.” Uncertain if he was reading it correctly, he scrutinized the details. Yes, Blake Morgan’s e-mail was the recipient, yet he couldn’t see his frigid friend trying any of the items on the list. Blake was too much a goody-goody to even think such thoughts, let alone carry them out.
Or was he becoming a bad boy?
The e-mail also held an address to the Exhale Bliss Spa on Fifth Avenue. The message confirmed Blake’s appointment for the following morning. This had his friend’s crazy ways written all over it. Were Thor and Vive up to their old tricks, trying to get Blake and him together? It wasn’t going to happen. No, not this time. He’d learned his lesson a long time ago. Blake was out of his league and off-limits, for good. Adiós, amigo.
He pushed the glass door open and stepped inside. Seated facing sideways, Thor’s ash-blond hair made him easy to spot.
Next to Thor and Vive sat Blake. His chiseled face supported a perfect Hollywood grin. He had a Channing Tatum hot factor mixed with a Ryan Gosling cuteness, which made him simply irresistible.
Miguel’s peripheral vision blurred. After all these years, he found the man gave him jittery feelings as if they were still eighteen, meeting for the first time.
Thor stepped forward and high-fived Miguel. “Hey, buddy.” He sat back down and reached for his drink.
“We started without you.” Vive blew him an air kiss, mocking Marilyn Monroe, then held up Hedda’s paw for a wave and woofed in a dog voice, “Hi, Uncle Miggy.”
He petted Hedda and gave Vive a kiss on the cheek as he turned his attention to Blake. “Hola.”
“Hi, Mig.”
From the table’s rear Blake stood and approached, a muscle quivering at his jaw. His mouth kissed Miguel’s lip to lip for a nanosecond. He felt a mutual sensuousness between them and wondered if it was just his usual wishful thinking.
Releasing his smooch, Blake stood with only an inch distance between them. “I’ve missed you.”
Te huelo muy bien. God, he smelled good. The best asset on Mr. Morgan and a unique feature for any gay Manhattanite was his unawareness and overt cluelessness to his own male beauty. He was fucking hot.
His fingers trembled with eagerness as he wrapped his arms over Blake’s shoulders. They were close in height. His palms remained on his shoulders for a minute. He didn’t want to let go.
Fuck, he felt good to his touch.
He’d been working out and lifting weights. Miguel heard from Massimo that the group had gone to Secrète de St. Barth together, a resort in the Caribbean which Taddy’s boyfriend owned. There, Blake had enlisted in a post-divorce boot camp, Lex had attended the bridal fitness program to get ready for her wedding, Taddy PR’d the spa, and Vive…well, she’d spent her time doing her favorite pastime: boozing.
In his arms, Miguel felt confirmation under Blake’s shirt that his back was broad, biceps hard, and chest firm. Tempting? Yes. Fuckable? Very.
“Sorry I’m late.” He spoke as if time stood still. “Where are Lex and Taddy?
“Stuck playing dress-up for a bridal spread,” Blake griped.
He noted the lack of wedding cheer.
Excusing himself, Blake motioned to the bathroom, and Miguel instinctively followed him. He wanted to talk to him more.
“There’s only one restroom here. Looks like I’ll be a while.” A long line filled with girls waiting to touch up their faces stood alongside the far wall. “Go sit. Catch up with Thor and Vive.”
Miguel watched Blake walk off toward the line for the bathroom. Standing there a little longer than necessary, he admired his friend’s cute ass. Ay, qué chulo. He took a chair next to Thor, glancing over his shoulder to ensure his friend wasn’t within earshot. “What is with the e-mail you sent?”
“Yay. I’m so happy you received Blake’s Seven Desires.” Vive’s enthusiasm piqued, while Hedda didn’t pay him any mind.
“Fierce, isn’t it?” Assuming, as always, booze was in order, Thor poured Miguel scotch from their reserved bottle. He handed him the drink and said, “That’s his wish list.”
“Sí. But what do you want me to do with it?” Curiosity set in.
Both his friends blinked their eyes in a flirtatious encouragement. “You know—”
“No way, José. I’m not doing this for him.” He’d topped enough guys in town to know it didn’t work out the way he intended: a relationship.
“Come on, please with sugar on top?” Vive pleaded. She held up Hedda’s cute face and pouted again in a doggie voice, “Please.”
“Or should we say, with you on top?” Thor snorted loud enough for the onloo
kers seated one table over to catch the giggles.
“No.” Miguel couldn’t, wouldn’t, get hurt again. No way!
Thor sat back in his chair. His stone eyes narrowed while he glanced intensely at Vive, possibly for back-up. What more could they say?
“You know Taddy has booked him with dates this week.” She was pulling out the ammunition. “Fancy dinners, with hot men, leads to kinky sex. Or so I’m told.”
“Good for Blake.” He felt sick to his stomach, but what could he do? It wasn’t any of his business. His father had always said, “You’ll have friends for life if you mind your own business.” But right then, Miguel wasn’t so sure he wanted to listen to his father.
“Every guy in town wants to take him out,” Thor added. “Blake’s a rare find. He’s rich, an anal virgin, smart, and has those blue eyes everyone loves.”
“Who is he going out with?” Miguel didn’t care for the sound of this. Names! He wanted names. He hadn’t objectified Blake in the way Thor did when he’d just summed him up, but it was true. Blake Morgan III was a great catch.
“He and Nello Lamas are having dinner tomorrow.”
“Is that so?” He couldn’t believe it. Blake had only been single for a few hours and already the city’s elite were lining up. Typical. He wouldn’t get in line. But Nello Lamas? Really?
The thought of Nello, who hosted bare-backing parties, touching the all-American boy-next-door pissed him off. Loosey-goosey Lamas was a bottom-feeding whore. Miguel always thought Blake should’ve ended up with a dominant, sweet, yet, loving top, like himself.
“Meningitis is flying around town faster than the flu. How could Taddy be stupid enough to set him up with Nello?” Maybe she didn’t know the dark side he led at night. Most straight people were clueless as to the goings-on in Manhattan’s gay underground sex scene. Men who got sexually aroused on being beaten up then fucked. A new trend was negative guys who had unprotected sex with positive guys for the thrill. The list went on and on. “He’s a bottom. Blake will get bored with that real quick.” Miguel didn’t buy those words as he said them, but he hoped they’d come true. Please get bored, buddy.
“For a top, Taddy booked him with Gunter Khan.”
“Gunter? Are you joking?”
“Nope. The day after tomorrow. Too bad you can’t intervene.” Vive twirled a sapphire ring on her middle finger, probably from Cartier. Sighing, she crossed her long, skinny legs and murmured, “Oh, well…”
“Those guys aren’t right for Blake.”
The corners of Thor’s mouth curled up. “Agreed.”
“Not even for a rebound.” Miguel hated to hear this.
“We know,” Vive snapped.
Gunter was no better than Nello. He was a Dom, all right—the kind who was into fire play and had burned several of his subs, leaving them scarred. Blake’s white skin seemed too perfect to be ruined by the likes of Gunter ‘Guns’ Khan.
“That’s who Taddy is setting him up with, one top and one bottom.” Thor raised his hands in the air and finished with, “Unless…you…step up.”
Miguel knew Blake’s self-esteem wasn’t what it used to be, not since the divorce. He hoped his friend would be strong enough not to go too far with those guys. But he’d seen it on his friend’s face when he’d walked in. Blake wasn’t the same anymore. He hadn’t been for quite some time. His body might be amazing but his eyes…oh, those beautiful blue eyes, which once radiated life were sad, and for the past few months cast hopelessness.
Shaking his head, he just couldn’t do it. “No. I’m not having my heart ripped out again. It was too hard the last time. We didn’t talk for almost a year after Blake and Diego were married.” He couldn’t bring himself to hang out with them as a couple. Diego had been on the fast track on Wall Street, and Blake’d been renovating their penthouse. Watching them play house made him sick. “He made it clear he didn’t want me when he walked down the aisle with his loser husband.”
“He made a mistake. They’re divorced as of today.” Vive stated the familiar facts privy to them all.
He’d also read the newspaper, which had a gossip section. It talked about Diego leaving, but it didn’t say why. The guy bought a condo in Hell’s Kitchen. He figured Blake must’ve purchased it for him because of his fall from grace during the recession. Diego had lost everything including his job when the market tanked.
“Blake’s single and ready to move on.” Thor spoke his language.
“Bueno, he can move on…with someone else.”
“He doesn’t want Nello or Gunter.”
“Oh, no?” He was happy to hear it. Maybe Taddy could find him someone a little more caring and not as selfish. A man who respected him, treated him well, and loved him. Like he would, but he couldn’t.
Annoyed, Thor crossed his arms and extended a high-maintenance, manipulative pout. “Blake wants you.”
“¿Qué?” What in the hell were they talking about?
Lex’s Bridezilla Breakdown
Meatpacking District
I cannot effin’ believe I’m doin’ this. I’m gonna pose nude. Lex held onto Taddy’s arm while she pulled on the fabric. “I don’t get it. I have been dieting and exercising my ass off.” Come to think of it, she did feel a little more bloated than usual. And she was still hungry, starving actually.
“Darling, I know you have. Jesus, Blake did it with you.”
That man exuded six-pack fabulous. During his marriage, he’d gotten a little bearish—his words, not hers. But the minute Diego left, that weight flew off Blake’s body so fast. No longer a bear, he’d become an otter. Again, Blake’s words, not hers. She didn’t even know what those animal nicknames meant until Vive had told her. Either way, she was jealous. She wanted to be an otter, too. Or was it a seal or a cub? She couldn’t remember which.
“Why does Blake look amazing and I don’t?” She wiped her forehead. “Bears, otters, men. Screw ’em all and their ability to drop weight so fast.”
“Does Blake run the top fashion company in the world?” Taddy patronized her.
Lex didn’t care. She needed to hear it.
“No. I do.” She was proud of her accomplishments. Who wouldn’t be after their father overdosed, leaving her mother and her bankrupt and homeless? Easton Essentials started with one garment and no money, only a pattern and some fabric.
“Did he spend eighteen hours in labor giving birth this year?”
“Nope. I did.” Lex wouldn’t trade her son in, even if it meant she could have her old body back. Other than having Massimo in her life, her baby, Massimo Junior, was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
“Does Blake have a lover who desires blow jobs in the middle of the night?”
Laughing, she shook her head. “That’s my Masi.” She enjoyed giving her fiancé head. Better yet, he was the best at eating her pussy. Massimo made her crawl the ceiling when he snarled between her legs like a Beast Kindred in an Evangeline Anderson novel. “Well then, there you have it.”
“What?” She didn’t understand.
“If I had Blake’s life, I’d be fit, too.”
Lex thought Taddy had just summed up Lex’s mom-fiancée-entrepreneur cluster-fuck perfectly.
“I guess.” It had been over a year since she’d let her hair down and had any fun.
She and Massimo met and merged companies while starting to date. They were only a few months into their relationship when she realized Massimo Junior was on the way. Fourteen months after the day they’d met, there she stood, and her life had been nothing short of a glittery whirlwind.
Her wedding week was supposed to be enjoyable. She thought ahead to the reception and imagined all of her friends dancing around them. “I feel bad for Blake. He really needs to cheer up. He looks good, and yet he’s still miserable.”
“He’s depressed, has been since he kicked Diego out.”
“There’s no chance those two can work it out, not after what Diego did.” Initially, Lex hoped they??
?d at least do a trial separation and counseling. Blake and Diego were together for so long, but some things seemed too unforgiveable.
“Nothing makes Blake happy anymore.” Taddy lowered her voice and added, “He’s been unbearable at work. You have no idea.”
“Oh, I can imagine.” Lex respected Taddy and Vive’s diva ways, but when compared alongside Blake and Thor, they appeared humble.
Maybe asking Blake to be in her wedding was a mistake. Was she being selfish?
“With everything going on, does he even want to be a part of the bridal party?” She felt bad for asking, but her own happiness had to go on. If she waited for the perfect moment in everyone’s life to get married, it might never happen. It was bad enough she’d put the wedding off as long as she did.
“Don’t ask such silly questions. He wants to be in your wedding.” Taddy rolled her green eyes dramatically. “We all do.”
“I hope so. When I asked Blake if he wanted to walk me down the aisle and give me away, he didn’t seem too inclined.” Lex tried to look at the bright side. It was only the dress she was upset over, right? He would snap out of it during the week. He had to.
“Lex, hello? What happened in his life the week you asked him to be in the wedding?”
“The private investigator told us what was going on.”
“Duh! Cut him some slack. Could you imagine if Masi had done that shit?”
“I don’t wanna talk about that, or MLD. The mere thought of what went on makes me sick.” She balled her hands into fists. She’d never been so tempted to cause physical harm to another human being in her entire life as when she’d learned what Diego was up to.
“His ex-husband makes more than just my stomach upset. Look, some of my hair has fallen out over this.” Taddy flipped red locks back to show the thinness. She’d stressed on Blake’s behalf, and then some. Only they knew about the private investigator’s findings, no one else. “If I ever get my hands on that piece of shit, I’ll blow his head off. I will.”
Lex didn’t doubt her. Out of all her friends, Taddy was the one who carried a handgun in her Fendi at all times. She had since college. But that was a whole other story.