OffsideChanceFormat2 (41 page)

“I’m
not you. Or Tracy, or even Bo. I’m not… I really am just a Neanderthal. But I
clean up nice. I won’t embarrass you, Jude. I can’t talk about law or high
finance. But I’m smart enough to know when to play dumb.”

“And
that makes sense how?” Jude traced his nose along Will’s jawline. “Playing dumb
never gets anyone anywhere. I—”

“You
are over-thinking again.” Will couldn’t take it anymore, he leaned forward and
kissed him. “I’m not intimidated by your brain. And you’re not in awe of my football…
heroship.”

“Oh,
the ego,” Jude teased, easing a knee between Will’s legs. He opened for him,
his legs, his mouth, and his heart.

“I
have one, guilty. I am the best at what I do. I will not lie to you. I have a
big fucking ego. And so do you.”

“I
am my father’s son. And my brother’s—brother.” Jude closed his eyes and sighed.
“And that’s not necessarily a good thing. I’m an asshole. I like things the way
I like them. I am set in my ways and driven to succeed at everything I do. I
take failure very badly.”

“Then
that makes us just alike. I get what I want even if I have to tackle it to the
ground and make it see reason. And Jude, I want you. Plain and simple. Right
now. Inside me. Because you’re lying on my dick and it’s turning me on. So, if
this relationship is going to happen it’s like this, fuck me or get the hell
off and let me get on with my life.”

“So,
that’s my choices. Put up or shut up?”

“Pretty
much, yeah.”

“For
how long?”

“As
long as this is mutually beneficial. I need a personal assistant. And someone
to suck my dick. What are your needs?”

Jude
seemed to think about it for a moment. “I’m not the personal assistant kind of
boy. I’m more the CEO type. And after yesterday, I’m thinking I’d like to be
the one on the receiving end of the dick sucking. Slayer, fuck, you nearly
killed me.”

“You
called me ‘Slayer.’ Does that mean you like me?” Will lifted his hips as he
tried to push his and Jude’s pants down at the same time. But he didn’t have
enough hands, and the man on top of him wasn’t being cooperative.

“Tell
me you love me.”

Will
lay very still as the despair that he’d worked so hard to obliterate returned
to Jude’s voice. He swiped his hands through Jude’s unruly hair and pulled him
down for a kiss. “If I say it will you repeat it?”

“Yes.
I will.”

“Alright
then, consider yourself loved. And will you please get me naked and have your
fucking way with me?”

Jude
shoved at his Will’s clothes, stripping him to his skin with very little
effort. He pushed his own pants down just enough to free his dick. “Consider
your love returned.” Jude pushed his legs wide, and with a bit of spit and a
grunt, he took Will into the end zone right there on the second floor landing
of the ugly house in nowhere Alabama.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

“There’s
king cake left in the kitchen. And there’s roast for sandwiches if anyone is
hungry.” Tracy’s mother was a touchy-feely woman that always seemed to want to
keep his stomach filled, and until recently, she tried to not so subtly suggest
that maybe Jude and Tracy’s sister Britney might have enough in common to be
perfect for each other.

Britney
Wright was older than him by several years with the same Nordic good looks that
all of the Wright children were blessed with. She was sweet and devoted to her
students at the high school. But she just wasn’t his type.

Will
seemed content to let Mrs. Wright fawn over him as if it were his birthright
that all women naturally just fell into line to please him. Watching him move
from one female to the next was entertaining. And Jude wondered why he’d never
noticed this before. They naturally flocked to him. He didn’t do anything but
enter a room. No wonder he had women in line to sleep with him. Yet, today, he
didn’t seem to see any of them.

“Are
you going or staying?” Levi slid into the empty seat beside him on the living
room couch. Jude had left most of the noise outside earlier to escape to the
nearly empty house. Rain had driven the Mardi Gras party inside and practically
into his lap.

“I
dropped my classes. So…”

“That’s
not what I asked.” Levi nodded toward Will and his entourage of local single
women. “I meant are you and Slayer…”

“Oh!”
Will studied his… boyfriend, lover… what the hell were they now? After talking
all night they’d hashed out everything but that particular detail. “He told me
he is in love with me. He wants me to be his personal assistant and oversee his
house construction. He hasn’t thought about what people will say if it gets out
that he’s sleeping with me.”

“Maybe
he has. Who knows? And Jude, go back into real estate. It’s what you love. Buy
a couple of old houses and restore them. I’ll even help. Here or there. Doesn’t
matter. But do it on your terms.”

“I
came to that conclusion on my own, thank you very much.” Well, he and Will had
come to that conclusion last night when they weren’t fucking.

“Good.
The first sensible thing you’ve ever said.” Levi leaned back against the seat
to watch Tracy’s family and friends mingle over beers and beads and king cake.
“I didn’t know people had barbeques for Mardi Gras.”

“Guess
if you don’t want to go down to Mobile or over to NOLA for the parades you make
your own party. This is nice. No pressure to be anything or do anything. No
asses to kiss. No crazy brothers hanging upside down on stripper poles. Just
nice quiet family fun,” Jude said as he watched Tracy and his older brother,
Rodney arguing. But they’d argued off and on all afternoon. This argument
seemed different somehow. More intense. “Except for those two. What the hell is
eating them?”

“Same
old situation, all fucked up. Rodney is a miserable asshole with nothing better
to do than preach his version of which neighbors it’s not okay to love. Namely
me. Usually he keeps his bullshit on the down low. Hell, Tracy hasn’t even
mentioned to his parents how much of a dick the man is when they’re not around.”

 
“Move into my house. You don’t need that shit.
And I’m not going to be using it for a while. Someone should live there.” Jude
said by way of answering Levi’s first question as the argument moved in front
of the television and into full view of the guests.

“I
could kiss you right now. But I don’t want to give him any more fuel… you know
gay incest rants at the dinner table aren’t good for the digestion.” Levi tried
not to pay attention to the argument going on across the room, but Jude knew
Levi was agitated when he saw Levi’s leg bouncing. His face remained passive… almost
too passive. “So this means you’re going to live with Slayer? I mean live, as
in co-habitate in the same room and get sexed up on a regular basis so that you
don’t turn into a bitter old man before your thirtieth birthday?”

“Well,
someone needs to be there to keep him in line. And someone needs to be there to
put your house back together so you won’t have to worry about that.” Jude
rested his hand on Levi’s thigh and pressed hard. “Relax, Leviticus, you’re not
alone here.”

Levi
followed his gaze to Tracy’s family and over to Will who were all watching the
two men in front of the television. “Yeah. I know. I’m just used to not… I’ve
been alone so long I don’t know how to just let go and be. We never had a
family. All this sometimes is too much. I know he can take care of himself, and
I try not to take it personally but—”

“But
when all you’ve known is the ugly side of family… You know, when we were kids
we never fought. What happened to us?”

“Something
like that.” Levi nodded to the older man poking Tracy’s shoulder. “Only worse.
And I’m sorry for leaving you. I forgot how to be your brother. I forgot how to
be anything while I was trying to not to be me. I forgot that you needed me to
be there because we were all we had. I am so sorry that I left you.”

Jude
closed his eyes and tried to stop the storm of memories from flooding. The
night Levi came home. His spirit broken. His body marred. His eyes vacant. He’d
lost his brother that night twenty-one years ago. And he never knew why. He
squeezed Levi’s hand in his. He knew all of Levi’s secrets now. Even the one
Levi thought he’d hidden so very well.

“I
love you, Liv. I loved you back then. You were the best tutu wearing brother a
kid ever had. You made my life so much better. And I’m as much to blame as you
are. I let my resentment control me. I’m sorry. So fucking sorry that we lost
those years. I just want you back in my life.”

Levi
glanced over to the man that they shared, his eyes sad. “I love him. Not like
that. I just want you to know that. He’s a good man, Jude. His family is
probably as fucked up as ours was. I don’t know what happened between the two
of you, but I like it. He’s my family, and now he’s yours. And I couldn’t be
happier… except maybe if I knew one of you were playing dress up in my
closet…wait don’t answer that. Never mind. Go give Will a kiss. I dare you.
Right here in front of God and everyone.”

“I
take back everything I just said. Really, Leviticus, you are such an asshole.”
But Jude didn’t mind, he’d missed this. “God, I missed you.”

“Back
at you, Judah.” Levi’s laugh turned all eyes in the room their way. And for
once Jude didn’t mind being the center of attention.

*

The
television set on the front wall came to life. Tracy obviously lost the battle
and threw his hands in the air as he headed for the brothers sitting on the couch.

Will
couldn’t keep up with all of the unfamiliar people around him, who
was
family, who were friends, or who just wanted to know if
he was single and… All he wanted was to throw Jude over his shoulder and run
for the hills. Now before this thing between Tracy and his older brother got
ugly. But he and Jude had decided that in public they were just friends. And
that was fine by him.

Tracy
joined his lover and future brother-in-law on the couch, and the laughter that
Levi and Jude shared over some whispered detail turned into silence and grim
expressions.

Will
hated not knowing what was going on. He hated that everyone seemed to be in on
some secret except him. And right now he was getting the idea that there was
some huge fucking secret that only the three of them were privy too. And it all
had something to do with the talk show Rodney Wright had turned on.

Levi
tensed at the first sight of the man that appeared on the TV screen. Jude followed
his brother’s gaze as the volume rose. Jude hid his reaction behind the stone
cold lawyer exterior he was so damned good at. Tracy tried to drag Levi out of
the seat, but Levi seemed frozen as if in a trance.

The
Reverend Joseph Grantham, the same asshole preacher that Aaron had been quoting
sound bites from, filled the room with his movie star good looks. He seemed
familiar to Will, too familiar but Will couldn’t place why. He just knew that he
couldn’t stand the bastard or his rhetoric.

The
interview started off on a happy note. The Reverend’s sold out “Old Time
Revival” Tour would be stopping in the Dome on Wednesday night to bring God’s
word to the people and cleanse the stadium of evil.

Images
of Sunday football flashed behind the reverend and the interviewer. Shots of
Levi and Bo in uniform. More shots of Levi and Bo floated in the background of
the screen, representing the supposed sin cursing the Dome and corrupting
American sports. Levi shot up from the couch as an image of Liv and Bo froze on
the screen behind him. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is what has invaded
America’s sports. Queers allowed to freely fornicate in locker room showers.
And we reward this behavior with multi-million dollar contracts.”

Will
tuned out the rest of the spiel. He’d heard it. All his life. Sex is evil. He’d
go to hell if he touched himself. The strange fascination Will had with the
male form when he was young. His boy crushes that weren’t so cute as he grew
into his teens. His grandmother’s switch when she caught him touching himself.
He’d liked men. Way back then. Jesus. Bi, gay, curious. Jude. Jude, had been
his undoing, his salvation. How could something so wrong… He couldn’t finish the
thought. He couldn’t focus on anything but the man he loved and the horror on
his face as he punched the call numbers from the screen into his phone and held
the device to his ear.

After
a moment, the interviewer on the television announced, “We have a caller. Levi
Brody’s
brother
Jude. Go ahead, Mr. Brody. You’re on
the air with the Reverend Grantham. What would you like to say?”

Jude
turned his back to the screen so that he missed the reverend’s struggle to
maintain his composure. Guess he didn’t expect someone to call him on his
crusade to destroy Levi.

Jude
walked purposefully up to Will and wrapped his arm around Will’s neck as he
took a breath. He stared into Will’s eyes, seemingly in need of strength or
courage to get him through this call.

“Jude,
don’t!” Levi shouted out a warning but Tracy held him back since it was too
late now anyway, Jude was about to take this asshole downtown for an ass
whipping.