Metamorphosis Read online

  Amanda was taken aback by his anger. He was yelling, loud enough to bring Hunter downstairs and outside. She was relieved to see him appear. Scott was in a rage, and although she wasn’t afraid of him, she was a little tense. He could be really destructive when he was in this kind of mood. “Scott, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re not making any sense.”

  He pointed at her. “You brought him here. You threw us together, made me touch him, made me want him, enjoyed it all like a fucking movie, and now look at me. Look at me, you manipulative bitch!”

  Amanda winced.

  “What’s going on?” Hunter asked, glancing at Amanda, then at Scott.

  “Ask him about love. Ask Hunter,” he muttered, throwing the liquor in his glass to the back of his throat. “You don’t know this pain. He does. He knows it too.”

  “Scott,” Amanda said softly, “why don’t you just go to bed?”

  “Answer her, Hunter,” Scott persisted, moving toward him. “Answer her, and I’ll go to bed.”

  Amanda looked at Hunter. “What’s he talking about?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Fuck you,” Scott threw at him. “You have no idea? Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking about Ramsay last night when your cock was up my ass!”

  Amanda gasped. “You fucked Scott last night?” She stared at Hunter.

  Hunter sighed. “It just happened. We were both feeling a little…”

  “He was missing Ramsay,” Scott announced. “He’s in love with him. And don’t make excuses to her. She doesn’t own you, although she thinks she does.”

  Amanda tried not to let the words Scott was spouting get to her, but they were. She walked over to Hunter. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Hunter opened his mouth to speak, but Scott answered for him. “You’ve lost us all, Amanda. We’re all passionately in love with other men, me with Ciel, Hunter with Ramsay, Chase with Jordon … why in hell don’t you find your own man, goddamn it?”

  Amanda’s eyes sparked with tears.

  “You just sit around and play with us like we’re figures in a doll house and…”

  “Enough,” Hunter snapped. “You’re drunk and belligerent, and you don’t have the right to abuse Amanda. You have a choice. Either get your ass upstairs and sleep it off, or I’ll move your ass for you, man.”

  Amanda swallowed hard.

  Hunter placed his hands on his hips. He was glaring at Scott. Scott was glaring back.

  “Fine, I’ll go,” Scott said flippantly. “You’ll learn. You’ll learn the hard way.” He tossed his glass into the swimming pool and stumbled across the patio to the door, knocking over two chairs as he went.

  “I’ll follow him up, make sure he makes it all right,” Hunter muttered.

  As soon as he was gone, Amanda sank down into one of the chairs and started to cry. Is that what she’d done? Had she manipulated people, thrown them together and sat back to wait for the fireworks? If she had, she had never intended to. She didn’t know Scott would fall in love with Ciel. She didn’t know that Hunter loved Ramsay. She’d never meant to hurt them. She loved them. She loved them all.

  * * * *

  Hunter helped Scott into bed. He took off his shoes and covered him over with a blanket. He was just about to leave the room when Scott said his name.

  “Scott, I’m not in the mood for your any more of your bullshit, okay?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I … didn’t mean to … is Amanda all right? I said some horrible things to her. I didn’t mean all that. I just want…”

  “Scott, sleep it off. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Hunter walked out into the hallway and closed the door.

  Amanda was standing there when he came out. “Is he all right?”

  “No,” Hunter said. “He’s in love, fatally, and he can’t deal with it. That’s not your fault, Amanda.”

  “What if it is?” Her eyes looked red and swollen.

  Hunter opened his arms. She moved into them. He held her close. “It’s not,” he insisted. He moved her out of his embrace, and they walked down the hall. “Listen, it’s true you manipulate men sexually, but they are well paid, and they know exactly what they’re getting into. You don’t manipulate their emotions, how they feel when they’re making love. You have no control over that. People fall in love, Amanda. It’s some kind of voodoo shit, or something.”

  She laughed a little. “Voodoo shit?”

  “Yeah, like a spell someone puts over you,” he said. “It’s like a joke sometimes. It’s not like someone somewhere says, ‘Hey, here’s a nice guy, let’s make him fall in love with this fellow over there, and this fellow will love him back.’ No, it’s like, ‘Let’s pick the most fucking unlikely guy who’s fucking in the moon, and make some poor fuck fall for him’ … and then he becomes all you want, all you can ever think about and…” He stopped. Amanda was standing there looking at him, her eyes wide. He began to laugh. “I’m sorry, don’t pay attention to me, okay?”

  “I think Scott hates me deep down.”

  “Scott doesn’t hate you, Amanda. He’s had one hell of a childhood. He was never loved by anyone. He never had any security. That does strange things to people’s heads. They need to protect themselves by building barriers, and they finally believe they aren’t worthy of love at all. Scott has found love, against his will.” He laughed a little. “What he wants is not to love Ciel, but he does. And at the same time, he wants to believe that Ciel loves him, but he can’t. Can there be anything more painful than that?”

  She shook her head.

  “None of that has anything to do with you. He was just letting off steam, probably what he did with Ciel, which is why he’s here. He felt bad about treating him like that.”

  “Hunter, you, too … you haven’t had such a great time of it.”

  “It’s true, we were poor when I was growing up, but I never went hungry. I had no father. My mother worked hard, and she made sure I had what I needed. The main problem was that I look more white than black, and I’m gay, which meant I wasn’t winning any popularity contests back home. And although I never told you, I was attacked by a bunch of gay bashers. They did some damage to my knees. It was what prompted me to leave there.”

  “Oh, no, Hunter,” she gasped. She reached out and squeezed his arm.

  “It’s fine now,” he murmured. “They ache a bit at night sometimes, nothing serious. But, Amanda, my mother always loved me. I knew that. My scars are not as deep as Scott’s. I was happy when Ramsay and I were together. If Ramsay hadn’t been so hell-bent on living the life of luxury, we could have made it. I believe he loved me.”

  “What’s not to say he still does?”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore if he does or not. He’s never going to admit it, so, I’m trying to move past Ramsay, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Now, do me a favor, get rid of all the booze in the house, or hide it somewhere.”

  She smiled. “Good idea.”

  “You’re not angry about Scott and I…?” He lifted an eyebrow.

  She shook her head. “No. I was surprised, that’s all.”

  “It just happened, it was no big deal. I’m going to bed. Try to get some sleep. Oh, and Scott told me he didn’t mean to say all that stuff. He’ll tell you tomorrow.”

  “I know he didn’t. Goodnight.” She kissed him softly on the mouth.

  “Goodnight,” he said and went to his own room.

  * * * *

  The place was filled with sweaty, horny men, and Ciel had been approached often to accompany an array of them into the dimly lit back room where he was told anything went.

  He was officially, certifiably drunk now. His inhibitions were gone, and his cock was hard. He was watching this guy on the dance floor, a real tease, moving his ass seductively. He wanted attention, and he was getting it. It was making Ciel feel downright aggressive. It didn’t hurt that the guy was black, but very light-skinned like Scott, or that he had a
hard, round ass, a little large, but damn inviting. He was wearing tight jeans, ripped in the right places, and a sleeveless cotton shirt which was now hanging open, revealing a ripple-board stomach, and a sweaty, sculpted chest, definitely shaved, with big, brown pointed nipples. Yes, he was that close, too damn close, and although Ciel was still hanging off the same little piece of bar, the siren on the dance floor had been moving in his direction for quite some time. He was making it clear that he wanted him, throwing him smile after smile, and now dancing near to the bar, completely off the dance floor. Ciel pushed back some of his own damp, black hair, his eyes on him as the dancer loomed closer still, close enough to speak to him.

  “Goddamn it,” the dancer moaned, slowly gyrating his hips in an unmistakable rhythm. “If you aren’t the most fucking beautiful hunk of man … I want to worship you.”

  It was a corny line. Ciel didn’t care.

  The dancer stopped dancing. He was so close Ciel could feel his breath on his face. Ciel searched his face, looking for something in it, but he wasn’t sure what. He looked into his eyes. “You live close?”

  “Um, not far.”

  “How far?” Ciel wanted to know. He wasn’t into a long drive. What he needed, he needed right now.

  “We can walk there, actually,” his gaze swept the length of Ciel’s body. “You look like you’re fully loaded. Are you any good?”

  “Let me take you for a ride…” He lowered his eyes. “—and you can judge for yourself.”

  “Sounds promising. What’s your name, baby?”

  “Does it matter? Just call me C.”

  “C? Um, how mysterious.”

  “Not mysterious, my name is French, and it’s complicated, and I don’t feel like explaining what it means, so … let’s just go back to your place and fuck.”

  “A man after my own heart,” he laughed.

  “Baby, it’s not your heart I’m after,” Ciel groaned, leaning his mouth down beside the guy’s ear. “Is that ass all yours?”

  He laughed. “One-hundred percent authentic. Will you talk dirty to me in French?”

  “Anything you want. Lead on,” Ciel told him.

  Chapter Five

  In spite of the fact that it was threatening rain, Ramsay declined Clive’s offer for a lift and decided to walk back to the Agency. He stopped into an all-night coffee shop and ate a chocolate-covered doughnut and drank French vanilla hot chocolate. The place was almost empty, except for a tired-looking girl behind the counter and a dopey-looking dude swinging a mop across the floor.

  He had come here a few times with Hunter. Hunter liked strong coffee, and he said they made it best here. He always ordered a cream-and-fruit-filled doughnut and got the filling all over his chin. Ramsay would take the napkin and wipe it off, and sometimes Hunter would stare all dreamy-like into his eyes for a second, then lean over and kiss him on the lips, a tender, sweet little kiss, flavored with cream and jelly.

  He remembered coming here one night after making love to him for hours. They’d been so hungry. They ordered an entire box of doughnuts and sat wolfing them down like two teenagers. The person behind the counter probably thought they were crack addicts. Ramsay laughed. They were addicted all right, but not to crack and not to doughnuts. They were addicted to each other, to each other’s bodies, each other’s taste and smell, and cocks, and tongues.

  But Hunter was no one. He had no money. He had no great future stretched before him. They’d live lean and poor, leaving the Agency behind them because he wouldn’t be able to stand the thought of Hunter fucking someone else. What would they do? Where would they live? God, he had mulled this over and over again in his head, and still the answer was the same. He couldn’t be with Hunter, unless he wanted to settle for being poor the rest of his life, and he couldn’t bear the thought of that. He’d gone hungry as a child. He’d gone to school with holes in his shoes, no coat in the winter, shivering in the cold while his mother shot her veins up with heroin. He’d had a rat crawl over his feet at night, lived without electricity, no heat. No one should live like that. He couldn’t do it again. He had to find that man who could give him the life he craved. He was out there somewhere. He just knew it. And if Hunter was his sacrifice, then so be it, but … Hunter with Scott?

  Scott had left Ciel and was living with Amanda again, and with Hunter. It wasn’t hard to imagine them together. Scott was good-looking. He and Hunter had really seemed to hit it off when Scott was there before, going off together alone. Had they fucked then? Had Hunter fucked Scott? There had been a definite attraction between them. He swallowed. Maybe Ciel would go and get Scott, take him home with him. Ramsay closed his eyes a minute. Goddamn it, go and get your man, Ciel, and take him home where he belongs. Ramsay got up and left the coffee shop. He took a hesitant look up at the night sky, felt the sprinkling of the rain, and then began to walk.

  * * * *

  The guy’s apartment was a pigsty. Even in his drunken state, Ciel didn’t want to touch anything. The bedroom didn’t look much better.

  The guy, who’d told him on the way to his place that his name was Gary, was ripping at his shirt now as Ciel contemplated the messy bed. “Let’s do it in the living room,” Ciel suggested. “On the floor.” He pushed the guy gently away and headed back down the hall.

  “Sure,” Gary said. “I’d do you anywhere, stud. You’re pretty kinky.”

  Ciel undid his own shirt. He threw it aside.

  “God, you’re buff,” Gary exclaimed, running his hands over Ciel’s chest. “Do you work out?”

  He didn’t want to talk, at all. “Look, could we please just do this?” He went about undoing his pants. “Take off your clothes,” he told him. He swayed a little as he dipped down to remove his pants. Wow, he was wasted.

  Gary was suddenly naked, his cock erect. He didn’t look as good naked, but that was okay. Ciel reached out for his arm, turned him around, and pressed his chest to Gary’s back. “You feel that?” he urged, pressing his cock against Gary’s ass.

  “Oh yeah, I feel it.”

  Ciel grabbed Gary’s hips and propelled him over to the sofa. He pushed him forward, holding his hips up, pressing his stomach down to rest over the sofa arm. “Lube, condom?”

  “Condoms on the kitchen counter. They’re lubricated, and believe me baby, watching you walk over there naked is enough to lubricate me for a hundred men.”

  Ciel retrieved the condoms. He ripped one open and rolled it onto his cock.

  “Look,” Gary said, standing up. “I want to touch you. Can I? You’re just about the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what you’re doing here with me, but I figure I got lucky. So indulge me, okay?”

  Ciel shrugged. “Whatever.”

  “Just a minute.” Gary disappeared into the bedroom. He emerged with a pair of handcuffs in his hands. “You mind?”

  “For me?”

  “Look, I’ll just cuff your wrists and hook them over your head. Nothing heavy. Come on, you’ll look so sexy bound. I promise I won’t do anything you don’t want. Please?”

  At this point, he didn’t really give a shit. He was horny, and if this guy took care of that, okay. Not to mention that the booze, which had initially made him feel aggressive, had now made him mellow. He would have agreed to just about anything.

  Gary quickly cuffed his wrists and then told him to lift them up so that he could attach them to the hook which was screwed to the ceiling.

  Ciel closed his eyes, only opening them again when he felt something wrap around his cock. “Hey, what are you doing?”

  “A leather strap, to bind your cock,” Gary said. “It will give you a hell of an orgasm later. And these…” He dangled a pair of nipple clamps on a chain in front of him. “—to make those nipples of yours stay hard. But before I do that, I’m going to stimulate those nips myself.”

  Ciel watched him walk over to the refrigerator. He opened the freezer and took out some ice cubes. “Look … eh, Gary, I just want to fuck. This look
s like it’s going to turn into an all-night thing. I didn’t want to…”

  “Don’t worry baby, you’ll fuck me all right,” Gary whispered. “Don’t worry. You’ll fuck me for hours, beautiful.” He lifted his hand and pressed something between Ciel’s teeth before he was even aware of what it was. Something slipped down his throat. “When I have something this beautiful, I’m not letting it go until I have my fill, and that won’t be for a long time.”

  “What was that you put in my mouth?” Ciel demanded.

  “Don’t panic, stud,” Gary rubbed the ice cube over one of Ciel’s nipples. “It will keep you hard, awake and horny all night long.”

  Ciel sucked in some breath as his nipple stiffened.

  “You walked into that bar looking for rough trade tonight, didn’t you? Why a guy who looks like you was alone, I’ll never know, but it was my lucky night.”

  Ciel watched him swirl the ice cube over his nipple. It was getting red, the cold causing the nipple to elongate. Gary’s tongue and teeth went to work on it. Ciel’s head went back, the effects of whatever he had given him making his cock stiffen even more. He pushed his hips forward, moaned in his throat as Gary nibbled at his nipple, and began to ice the other one.

  “Fuck,” Ciel hissed.

  “Um, feels good doesn’t it, baby? God, you’re so sexy. Do you feel that strap around your cock? Mmm, it looks so good. You look good.” He began to lick the other nipple. Then without warning, Ciel felt it being pinched. Gary clamped it, then the other. “There, perfect.”

  Ciel licked his lips, the pleasure was intense.

  “Now … something for that ass.” He walked around him. “You have a great ass. I’m greasing up this big butt plug.” He showed it to him, pulled on the nipple clamps, then slapped him firmly on the ass.

  Ciel felt the plug being pushed into him, and he grunted. God, he was horny. He licked his lips, his eyes closing. Scott was there, moving his hands over him, telling him how sexy he was. “I love you, Ciel,” Scott said.