Conquest (28 page)

Greg looked at him, a smile relaxing his pained expression. “I wondered what had happened to it. I was afraid he got rid of it like he did all his others when he left.” He nodded to himself, and cleared his throat to proceed. “There were times when I thought the album would never get finished. Not that I was upset with Evan. I understood that he needed to care for his father. He was the one who took Ethan to all his doctor appointments. He prepared all of his meals for him, helped him bathe, took care of his medications. He did it all.”

“He told me his mom didn’t handle things well when his father became sick, but I didn’t realize he did so much for him.”

“Well, Evan pushed her away a lot because of that, but I also think he felt she wasn’t capable of caring for Ethan as well as he could, and that was probably true. To this day, I still believe Evan holds some resentment against her.

“At Ethan’s the funeral, I expected to see Evan break into hysterics, but he cried so silently you wouldn’t even be able to tell unless you looked at his eyes. I didn’t see him again for a week, then at twelve o’clock at night there was a knock on my door, and when I opened it, there he was. But there was a strangeness about him, a coldness that hadn’t been there before, and he said, ‘My album’s been out for two months. It’s time to get this tour rolling. Make the arrangements tomorrow. I want to be on the road before the month ends,’ and he turned to walk away. I called to him to come inside, but he refused, and disappeared into the night. From that moment, he was never quite the same person as when his father had been beside him.”

Both Jesse and Greg sat silent. The ghosts of Greg’s spoken memories hovered in the air above them. A physical ache tightened Jesse’s chest over Evan’s emotional pain. After a long pause, Jesse stood up and walked over to Greg.

“I know Ev would’ve told me eventually about everything, but it’s nice to hear someone else talk about his father. He sounds like he was a wonderful person.”

“He was. I tried my best to be a father figure to Evan after

Ethan passed, but I know I failed. It doesn’t change the fact that I love him like a son of my own.” Greg looked at Jesse intently. “So, you take good care of him.”

Jesse turned for the door. “I will. I already promised that to him.”

 

” ” ”

Jesse walked through the house, his thoughts weighing down his mood from everything Greg had told him. To hear how dedicated Evan had been to his father, to picture him so diligently caring for the man he admired and trying to battle an unconquerable foe in the illness, made such sorrow for Evan well up inside him that he could hardly breathe.

Then to think after years of hiding Evan had finally found the courage to make his music public again, and he could be the one to destroy his comeback, made determination mix with the sadness. He wouldn’t allow that to happen. No matter what it took, no matter what he had to do, he wouldn’t drag Evan down, and he would make sure Evan’s comeback was successful, if not just for Evan, then for Evan’s father, whose dream had been to see his son share his beautiful gift with the world.

Jesse stopped at the French doors in the music room and looked outside. The sun was beginning to set, turning the sky to burning oranges and reds, misty blues and violets. Evan walked onto the diving board at the far end of the pool. He bounced once, and for an instant, his sleek body became silhouetted against the golden sky. He arched in the air and descended into the water with hardly a splash. He surfaced, shaking his drenched hair from his eyes, the gold and copper highlights bright against the saturated darker tones.

So beautiful, Jesse thought. His gift, his spirit, his physical appearance, all that made Evan who he was, was beauty so supreme to rival the angels. Watching Evan at that moment and knowing what he knew now, if it was possible for the immense love he felt for him to grow, then it doubled its depth into his soul, and he knew whatever future they would have, his love for Evan had melded into his very essence.

Jesse took a breath to pull himself from his thoughts and opened one of the doors. He walked toward the pool, holding one arm behind his back, and watched Evan swim, admiring the ripples in his deltoids and how the water rolled off the muscles in his back.

Evan reached the shallow four-foot section of the pool and touched bottom. His eyes fell on Jesse and a wide smile shone over his features. “I knew you were here,” he said, walking through the water and brushing his hair back with one hand.

Jesse went to one knee at the pool’s edge. “Did you see me standing inside?”

 

Evan reached the edge of the pool and shook his head. “I felt you. Does that sound weird?”

Jesse stroked along Evan’s cheek with his fingertips. “No. It’s happened to me when you’re near, too.”
Evan gazed up at him, his smile fading slightly. “Are you okay?”

Jesse nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just tired. It was a long day and I feel bad for getting home later than I told you.”

“Don’t feel bad. I know how it goes when you’re trying to get stuff done in the studio, especially when you got new people playing for you.” Evan smiled up at him. “But pretty soon we’ll be going to work together. I talked to JJ today and he’s flying in on my birthday. He’s planning on taking the next day to recover, but after that, for the rest of the week we’ll be in the studio getting things ready to start recording and working with the other guys Greg’s bringing in.”

“I can’t wait to meet him. Are we all going to go out for your birthday?”

“Well, his flight comes in late in the afternoon, and I was planning on picking him up, but I’m not sure he’ll be up to partying. He’s flying from Australia and he’s not the best flyer to begin with, so I’ll probably just get a drink with him then come home.”

Jesse leaned down, stopping with his lips a fraction from Evan’s. “I was thinking about taking your birthday off, so I’ll go with you.”

Evan put his index finger to Jesse’s lips. “No. You’re not going to disrupt your work because of me. It’s just another day.”

“It’s not just another day. It’s your birthday.”
Evan tapped his finger once against Jesse’s lips. “No.” Jesse exhaled a frustrated huff. “Fine.” He brought his arm

forward from behind his back, revealing a gold bag featuring a stylized design of a nude woman with long hair riding a horse. He pulled out a gold box with the same design on the lid, and opened it to neat rows of Godiva dark chocolate truffles. “Even though you’re mean to me, I guess I’ll still give you these since you were pouting last night about there not being any good chocolate in the house.”

“You’re scary perfect, you know that?” Evan pulled one of the truffles from the box. He bit it in half and held the other half up to Jesse. Jesse bent down and took the delicacy, along with Evan’s fingertips, into his mouth. Evan slowly drew his fingers back and tugged on the bottom of Jesse’s khaki shorts. “Are you coming in?”

“Yeah.” Jesse set the box to the side and stood up, pulling his T-shirt over his head.

Evan gazed at Jesse’s wiry muscles stretching with each movement. “I love watching you strip.”
Jesse pushed his boxers down with his shorts, exposing his rapidly rising cock. “I should do a striptease for you one of these days.”
Evan chuckled. “You’re such a little exhibitionist.”

“And you love it.”

Jesse sat at the edge of the pool. He slipped his legs in the water and eased the rest of his body in. A shiver shook him from the shock of the cold water, but passed as Evan’s warm flesh pressed against him. Evan claimed his mouth, his lips wet and cool from the pool water, his tongue tasting of the chocolate he’d just eaten. Jesse sent a quiet moan from his mouth to Evan’s and wrapped his arms around his neck. Evan pushed him back against the pool wall and thrust his hips slowly against him.

Jesse broke the kiss with a soft sigh. As good as Evan’s cock felt behind the black nylon fabric of his swimming trunks, he knew it’d feel ten times better without the cloth in the way. He drifted his hands down Evan’s back and around to his hips, hooked his thumbs over the top of the trunks and pushed them down.

Evan kicked them off underwater and caught them on one foot, which he lifted to remove the trunks, and tossed them from the pool. He took a handful of Jesse’s hair behind his head and pulled his head back, kissing down the full length of his throat.

Jesse groaned and embraced Evan tighter around his neck. “Let’s worship each other for the rest of the night. Let’s make it last for hours.”

Evan briefly sucked on Jesse’s bottom lip. “That’s what I want, too. I feel like I won’t be able to get enough of you tonight.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to get enough of you for the rest of my life,” Jesse said, and met Evan’s tongue as their lips closed together.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-
ONE

Jesse spun away from the mic to glance at the clock behind him. When he saw it was almost three o’clock, he stopped playing his sunburst Fender Stratocaster and pulled the black leather strap over his head, announcing, “I’m outta here.”

The music came to a jumbled halt.

 

“You couldn’t wait two minutes until we finished the song?” Kenny asked.

“Nope. Ev didn’t want me to take his birthday off, but he didn’t say anything about cutting out early. He should’ve left the house by now to pick up JJ, so that’ll give me plenty of time to get home and get things ready for him.”

“Awe, isn’t that sweet?” Trish scoffed.

 

Jesse turned to look at her. “At least it isn’t some girly excuse like cramps or something.”

Trish tapped a steady, annoyed beat with one drumstick. “Do I look like the kind of woman who whines about cramps?”
“No, you’re a
manly
strong girl.”

Trish’s drumstick whizzed by his head and crashed into the window between the live room and the control room.

“Damn, you may drum like a boy, but you still throw like a girl,” Jesse laughed.
Kenny set his new black Les Paul down on a stand. “What do you need to do to get ready for him?”

“I’m baking a cake.”

“
You’re
baking a cake?” Kenny snickered. “Since when do you cook? Maybe we should change our name from Conquest to Suzie and the Homemakers.”

Jesse shoved him before turning for the door. “Don’t forget I won’t be here tomorrow either.”
“Then I can leave my Advil at home,” Julian teased.
Jesse flipped him off and disappeared into the control room. He said a quick farewell to Jeremy and a silent thank you that Greg had left half an hour before for a teleconference at the Phoenix corporate offices. He headed out of the studios and across the street to the parking garage. His eyes fell on Tim walking toward the exit, causing his elevated mood to become tainted with irritation.
Tim veered directly into Jesse’s way. “And where do you think you’re going?”

Jesse kept marching forward. “Home.”
They both stopped, neither willing to diverge from his path.

“Greg didn’t say anything to me about you leaving. He sent me down here to work with you guys for the rest of the afternoon.”

“He probably didn’t tell you because, unlike me who knows of your incompetence, he assumed you would know today is June 14
^th
and the birthday of the biggest star under the Phoenix label.”

Tim’s small eyes shrank further as he narrowed them. “Exactly. It’s the birthday of Phoenix’s most important artist, which isn’t you. But I guess you probably have a special little present for him, don’t you? You better hurry along home now so you can give it to him. Maybe after you do, you’ll be able to hit that high note in ‘Euphoria’ you seem to think you’re capable of.”

Jesse burst out with a fake laugh. “It cracks me up that someone as tone deaf as you works in this business. But then I should cut you some slack since multi-tasking between watching Trish’s boobs bounce while she drums and actually paying attention to the music is too much for your small mind.” He moved another step closer to him, locking his gaze into Tim’s in a threatening glare. “Now get your ass out of my way.”

Tim stood unmoving, staring back into Jesse’s eyes. He took a slow step to the side. “Go. I wouldn’t want you crying to him that I was the reason you were late.”

Jesse stormed through the space Tim vacated. He jumped in the ebony Enzo and utilized many of the six hundred and sixty horses to get to Evanston in record time, where he ran into a grocery store and bought a dark chocolate cake mix with dark chocolate frosting, then hit a florist shop and cleaned it out of red roses, knowing roses were Evan’s favorite flower.

He reached home and set about making the cake, and having never made a cake before, was surprised at how easy it was. While it baked, he ran upstairs to shower, then dressed in a tight V-neck, royal blue T-shirt since Evan loved him in blues. He came downstairs and swung back into the kitchen to set the cake out to cool while he went to the backyard with his supplies for the evening.

He placed tall white candles in silver holders on the glass top of the white wrought iron patio table and set a vase of roses in between. Not far from the patio, he laid a blanket over the thick grass. He put lube within easy reach and set small candles in votives around the blanket. By the time he finished, the sky had darkened to deep blue, the horizon edged with a golden glow in the sun’s goodnight wish.

He went back inside, collected two small plates and forks, and brought them out. He lit the candles, put a CD that had the original version as well as different renditions of Pachelbel’s Canon in the player, and hit the repeat button. The disc spun under the clear plastic lid, drifting the first soft notes across the yard.

Smiling in approval at his work, he headed into the house a final time to frost the cake. He grabbed the pan and flipped it to shake the cake out, gasping when only half fell onto the serving tray. He stared at it, dumbstruck. He glanced at the frosting and decided the only thing to do was use it as glue to mend it.

As he dotted on the last glob of frosting, the security system beeped, signaling Evan was home. He sprinted toward the door. He heard one of the garage doors open, followed by the deep rumbling of the new Lamborghini Murcielago that had been delivered a few days before, which had Evan bouncing around the house all day until the delivery truck carrying it arrived. The car was an unquestionable work of art, but he still felt it necessary to tease Evan about buying another black car.