Chapter 13 - Good and Ill Together.

Beks had been staring at the email from Aleksi Kacmar for nearly thirty minutes, but still had no idea what to do next. 

Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with the carefully worded report she’d sent him the day before. It wasn’t her fault that Brian Kinney was gay. Clearly, though, that fact was causing her client to have to significantly revamp his ‘plans’. Plans that - although she didn’t understand them completely - Beks already knew she didn’t want to have anything to do with.

Over the past several days the lawyer had managed to turn up a lot more information about Brian Kinney. She wasn’t sure how Kacmar had missed the fact that this guy was a raging homo, even if that fact hadn’t been in the financial dossier she’d sent him earlier. Kinney was about as out and proud as it was possible to be. The guy was a known donor for several local and national LGBTQ+ charities - although he tried to play that fact down - and had even been interviewed by the local gay rag, ‘Pittsburgh OUT’, when he’d first opened Kinnetik. When asked about his sexuality, Kinney had been quoted in the magazine article, saying, “Of course I’m gay. But if I’m not fucking you, what does it matter?” 

Beks would have thought Kacmar’s people would have vetted the guy better than they had. Especially since it appears their plans seemed to hinge on Kinney. It was beyond sloppy for Kacmar to have missed how truly and outrageously gay Kinney was, even if that fact hadn’t been in her initial report. 

However, this clearly was NOT the outcome that Kacmar had wanted to hear from his US contact. The responding email she’d received was scathing. Kasmar seemed like he was taking Kinney’s homosexuality as a personal affront. Or, perhaps, more like a failing that they would be able to use as leverage against the man to help them attain their aims? Beks wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work. You weren’t going to be able to use his sexual orienation against a guy who flaunted the fact of his gayness as often and as loudly as he could. 

Kacmar, though, was unable to accept that conclusion. If Beks was reading this latest email correctly, her client was insisting that she find something he could use to force Kinney to capitulate to his plans. She read the email again and then just shook her head. It made no sense. What possible leverage did Aleksi think she might find that would be enough to tempt Kinney to forget he was gay and accept Kacmar’s offer to send him a Croatian bride? 

Reading between the lines, though, it was pretty clear to Beks that Kacmar wanted her to find him something he could use as blackmail against Brian Kinney. No, he hadn’t worded it that way, of course, but that was the only interpretation that made sense. Aleksi wasn’t satisfied with the publicly available documentation she’d sent him. He was now asking that she ‘intensify her investigations’ and provide a more ‘in-depth and personal analysis of the subject’. He specifically stated he wanted photographs. 

Fine. Whatever. Beks supposed she could spend a few nights tailing Kinney around town and taking photos of him. He seemed to have ties to several of the more popular clubs and bars down on Liberty Avenue, so she should be able to get more info about him with some judicious questions in that neighborhood. Not that Beks thought it would give Kacmar what the Croatian was looking for; no way was Kinney ever going to agree to take on Aleksi’s ‘Red Sparrow’. But that wasn’t her job; Aleksi was only paying her to investigate Kinney and whatever he used that information for was none of her business. She didn’t want to be involved in any of that shit. 

Slightly more problematic, though, was the fact that she still hadn’t been able to find out anything substantive about the mysterious ‘Justin Taylor’. Aleksi was not happy about that fact either. But the only information Beks had on the guy was a name, a blurry photo, and the address he’d given to the airline when he’d checked in for the flight from Split to the US. That address had turned out to be an apartment building in Hanover, New Hampshire, but the current residents there - a group of stoner Dartmouth dropouts - claimed they had never heard of this Taylor guy. It was a total deadend. The name alone wasn’t any help at all; according to a quick online search Beks had run, there were about five hundred and fifty ‘Justin Taylors’ in the US and another thousand or more ‘J. Taylors’. That was not much to go on.

She’d asked Kacmar to get her any other info he had on the guy the last time she’d written. It sounded like Aleksi had gone back to the woman, Laura, who was supposed to have been the one sent to Kinney in the first place. This Taylor guy had apparently lifted the plane tickets off Laura in a public cafe - not the best OpSec on Kacmar’s part, letting his operatives carry important papers out in the open around town like that, but whatever - but despite extensive questioning, Aleksi hadn’t gotten much more info on Taylor in the almost week since the theft had taken place. Kacmar had found out only that Taylor had been in Split for about a month before he took the ticket, had been traveling around Europe with a bunch of different guys for several months before that, and seemed to have a lot of rich influential friends. Kacmar seemed to think, based on the skill the guy had used in stealing the plane tickets from right under Laura’s nose, that he was either a professional grifter or that, maybe, he was working for a rival European ‘Organization’. The second option was the possibility that had Kacmar the most worried, which was why he was pressing Beks so hard to keep looking for the kid. 

Not that she thought she’d be able to find him, even if he was still in Pittsburgh. It was a big city and, if Taylor really was a professional, he’d likely left town already or was at least lying low. Of course, Kacmar’s demand that she keep looking hadn’t been worded as an optional request. And you didn’t dare say no to a direct order from someone like Aleksi Kacmar. So it seemed Beks would be continuing the fruitless search for a young blond man who maybe went by the name ‘Justin’ while she staked out Brian Kinney. 

Fuck it all. When had this become her life, anyway? And how could she get out from under the thumb of Aleksi Kacmar?

Now that Justin had had a taste of the cock he had been fantasizing about, he was determined to get even more of it. 

But, as soon as they got home from Babylon, Brian had headed into the house, telling the blond ‘Goodnight’, before literally turning his back on the hot and bothered blond. Justin wasn’t sure what had happened. They had been all over each other in the car and then, once they were back at the firehouse, it was like someone had poured cold water on Brian.

Well, Justin wasn’t going to just give up and head to bed, horny and alone. 

As Brian headed to the fridge, Justin started stripping, right there in the kitchen. Brian took a bottle of water out and turned to see a naked blond walking toward him, smirking. Brian stood there biting his bottom lip, his cock now swelling in his pants. Justin made sure to shake his hips a little, his arms held out in a ‘This Could Be Yours’ gesture, enjoying the way Brian’s eyes widened. Then, with a chuckle at his own audacity, Justin winked at his intended prey. Brian set the bottle of water on the counter as the blond walked right up to him and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling his head down so he could get to the taller man’s handsome mouth. 

Justin proceeded to gently lick the brunet’s lips until they opened for his invading tongue. Once inside, Justin tongue fucked Brian’s mouth until the man was moaning and hanging onto the counter behind him as if that were the only thing keeping him upright. Justin then lowered himself to his knees, keeping all his motions slow and deliberate, before he carefully undid the button and lowered the zipper on Brian’s pants. 

As soon as the beautiful, hard cock was released, Justin dug his tongue into the tip, releasing a rush of precum. Brian reached for the soft blond strands to get Justin’s mouth back where he wanted it. Justin resisted, slowly licking, nipping, and sucking at the swollen cock until Brian couldn’t take any more. 

“Stop fucking around, dammit. I need to cum,” Brian admitted. 

Looking up through his long blond lashes - those huge, blue, deceptively innocent eyes locked on Brian’s hazels - Justin finally took the cock all the way down his throat and swallowed hard a couple of times. Brian didn’t even last a full minute before he began to cum so hard that Justin had to push him against the counter to hold him up. The blond eagerly swallowed all Brian offered, then backed off enough to allow himself to kiss and lick the softening cock clean. When he was done, he politely tucked Brian back away in his pants and redid the man’s fly for him.

After he got his mind back, Brian pulled the blond up and gave him a toe curling kiss. 

Justin responded by kissing Brian’s nose, saying, “Goodnight,” with a bad Croatian accent before picking up his clothing and heading, still buck naked, up to his room.

Justin was still smiling to himself as he shut the door of the guest room behind himself. He loved this feeling of power. He liked knowing how much control he had over the otherwise self-contained businessman. Even Brian Kinney wasn’t immune to the temptation of Justin Taylor at his best. He had finally gotten back at Brian, a little, for all those lecherous comments he was always shooting Justin’s way. 

He knew he couldn’t answer Brian outright - not without giving away his secret - but he really was getting a little annoyed by the man’s constant teasing and sexual innuendos. Well, two could play that game. If Brian was going to constantly make erotic comments, then Justin would simply shut him up by acting on them. Although, maybe he really should be playing a little more hard to get. Just because he’d taken the place of the potential mail order bride didn’t mean he had to act like one. It had been fun to make Brian weak in the knees with one of his best blow jobs, though. Let that be a lesson to the big tease; best be careful what you ask for because you just might get it. 

Of course, sucking Brian off for a second time in one night hadn’t done anything to relieve Justin’s own horniness. He was so worked up by that point that he thought he might explode. And he really was getting tired of jerking off alone in the shower. Maybe he’d rethink that playing hard to get thing. Perhaps he should just walk right back down there and crawl into Brian’s bed, confessing everything, and beg the man to please, for the love of all that’s gay, fuck him already?

But that would entail Justin admitting to the fact that he’d been deceiving Brian all week and . . . He didn’t know how that would pan out. Brian would probably be so furious that, rather than fucking him, he’d throw Justin out of the house. That’s what Justin would have done if their positions were reversed. He felt so guilty about not being up front with Brian from the start. If he were to jump into Brian’s bed without confessing first it would only get worse. 

Fuck. He was going to have to tell Brian the truth. He knew it was the right thing to do.

Continuing to hide out here in Brian’s house under false pretenses wasn’t tenable any longer. Not when Justin was starting to have real feelings for the other man. He didn’t want to keep playing this stupid game they were caught up in. He wanted Brian to break his back, fucking him so hard they both collapsed, until he screamed out the other man’s name. But, before he’d let himself have that, he was going to have to figure out a way to explain to the man why he hadn’t been honest with him from the beginning. 

It was time, though. Justin was going to have to figure out a way to tell him. The only thing that was still holding him back at all was the fact that, by telling Brian about the guy who had threatened him, he might be putting his kind host in danger too. Justin hoped that potential was remote enough, though, that Brian would be able to find a way to protect himself. And, maybe, telling him would be better in that respect too; knowing about a potential threat was better than having something like that hit you completely unsuspecting, right? Plus, Brian was smart; if Justin explained what was going on, Brian could help him figure out what Justin was supposed to do. Just hiding here for the rest of his life certainly wasn’t a viable option. Not when it was causing him to be so horny it was giving him blue balls. 

Justin pulled open the door to the shower and turned on the water to let it heat up. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror as the room slowly grew steamy. He knew it was time for the truth to come out. He was going to have to face the music eventually, and the sooner he confessed, the sooner he would be able to throw himself at Brian Kinney with a clear conscience. 

He would do it, he promised himself. Soon. He just had to find the right moment.

Ted rolled into work the next morning, finding Brian already hard at it in his office, and couldn’t help but make a snarky comment. “I didn’t expect to see you here so early. Judging by the exit you and ‘Youstin’ made last night, I figured you’d be too fucked out to make it in before noon.”

“Yeah, well, you figured wrong then,” Brian grumbled. 

Sensing some juicy gossip, Ted closed the door behind him and made himself comfortable on the sofa in his boss’ office. “Don’t tell me, the Kinney charm has finally failed? The horror! This is truly a sad day for all of Gay PA!”

“Fuck off, Theodore.” Brian shot his CFO a look that would have annihilated a lesser man. “My ‘charm’ is fine. And so is my dick. I’m just not sure I should be letting either have full rein with a guy who might, possibly, be casing me out for the fucking Yugoslavian mafia.”

“Point taken,” Ted conceded with a contemplative smile. “So, I suppose you haven’t gotten anywhere with the plan to pump the kid for more info about Aleksi?”

“How the fuck am I supposed to do that when I can’t have an actual conversation with him?” Brian shot back, the frustration in his voice evident. “There’s actually been very little pumping, I’m afraid. We’ve got each other off a few times, although I haven’t actually fucked him yet. I just don’t feel comfortable doing that when I still don’t know if he’s part of this thing with Aleksi. And I’m starting to think this little plan you came up with was intentionally designed to bust my balls.” Brian stood up and began to run his fingers through his hair. “I can’t ask Justin what, if anything, he knows about Aleksi without letting on that I know he really isn’t who he says he is. As it is, I have to type out the every single fucking conversation on my phone and then translate it into Croatian - which, by the way, is a pain in the ass - not to mention the fact that I have no idea if he even reads Croatian, so I always have to show him both the Enlish and Croatian versions . . .” Brian held up both hands, fingers curled into claws as if he wanted to tear something apart, and growled. “Just asking him what he wants for dinner is a whole production, Ted. I’m not going to try and have a conversation about the mob affiliated goon who may be targeting me via Google Translate.” 

“Sorry about that, Boss,” Ted replied, sounding genuinely apologetic. “I can understand how difficult the situation must be for you. And I promise - Scout’s Honor - I did not intend to cause you or your balls any torment with my suggestion about letting a hot little blond you can’t fuck stay with you.” Then he let a crafty little smile escape, adding, “no matter how humorous I find the situation now. I’m sure it must be very stressful.”

“Fuck you, Theodore.” Brian shot his CFO the bird and then shifted uncomfortably in his seat because even the mere thought of the enigmatic blond - no matter how frustrating the situation was - had caused him to sprout a boner. “Fucking little cock tease,” he added under his breath, causing Ted to grin even wider. “The only reason for letting Justin stay with me in the first place was to try and get more information out of him about Aleksi. But I can’t do that without letting on that I’ve known he was American almost from day one. Assuming he really is in on this with Kacmar, he’ll probably just up and disappear the moment he knows that I know what his boss seems to be trying to do. Then I’m back in the same position of still not knowing anything. And I still probably won’t have gotten to fuck him. So why am I still playing this stupid game? It’s a fucking Catch-22.”

Ted sat back and crossed his arms, looking thoughtful. “I’m afraid I haven’t found much more about Aleksi either. The investigator is still waiting for the criminal check from the US Embassy in Zagreb. Apparently, they’re not known for their promptness. Nobody at Princess Mia Resorts is returning my calls either. All my calls to Lucija have been going straight to voicemail and the only response I got was an email saying she was out of the office for the rest of the week.” 

“Do you think they’ve realized we’re onto them?”

“I hope not,” Ted replied with a shudder. 

Brian felt goosebumps rise on his skin and only barely held back a shudder of his own. “Well, either way, I’m not about to sit around here waiting for the next shoe to drop,” Brian declared. “I think it’s time I confronted my little blond freeloader and find out exactly what’s going on. I’m not going to be some pawn in whatever game Kacmar is playing. I’d rather he find that out now, right up front, before Kinnetik gets dragged into this any further. And if Justin is part of Aleksi’s crazy plot, then it’s time for him to get the fuck out of my house - and my life - because I don’t need a ‘bride’, male or female.”

“Agreed. Even Princess Mia’s millions aren’t worth getting caught up in something illegal,” Ted proclaimed, getting up off the couch to offer a reassuring pat on his boss’ shoulder. “I only hope that Justin isn’t part of whatever’s going on. I kinda like the kid. He’s grown on me, you know. And it would be a shame to find out it’s all been just an act.”

“I know. Trust me, Theodore, I know,” Brian agreed wistfully, palming his swollen crotch for emphasis. The kid had grown on Brian too. His eyes went unfocused as he thought back to the phenomenal blow jobs the little blond had bestowed on him the night before and how much he’d regret not being able to pursue all his plans for the kid’s hot little bubble butt. Then he realized he was just being a lust-addled fool and added, “but, either way, he better have a damn good reason for all the shit he’s pulled. I don’t appreciate being lied to. And if he thinks he can play Brian Kinney, he better think again.”

“Actually Bri, if you ask me, it seems more like your young blond wants to play with you,” Ted commented, enjoying watching his boss changing his position every time the blond in question was mentioned. “Or, at least that’s what the gossip on Liberty Avenue is saying after his performance last night in the backroom.”

Brian replied by looking away and shaking his head, not denying that Ted was probably onto something there.