Embrace My Reflection (4 page)

“Do you know if Ms. Cindi or Mr. Percy was expecting anyone tonight, Ms. Lake?”
Tomas’s question broke through the memories playing in Ronnie’s mind. He glanced ahead and saw a figure standing on the sidewalk in front of the courtyard leading to Cindi’s. He squinted to get a clearer view of the man.
“Shit. He just can’t take no for an answer. His parents totally spoiled him as a child.”
“Is that the senator?”
“Yes.” Ronnie stopped Tomas from continuing. “Come on; let’s head to Sly’s. You can let Cindi know the senator’s at her place, so she doesn’t get surprised. I’ll call Lucius.”
Sly’s was a bar just around the corner from Cindi’s place. Thank God, the bar was still open. Sometimes, when they couldn’t sleep, Cindi, Percy, and Ronnie would go there to unwind. Sly didn’t care.
They managed to duck around the corner and into Sly’s through the side door before Cameron spotted them. Ronnie dug out his phone and Lucius’ card. Tomas knocked on Sly’s office door.
“What’s the racket out here?” Sly stuck his head out the door and grinned when he saw it was Tomas and Ronnie standing there. “Come for a night cap?”
“Sort of. We need a place to hide out for a few.” Tomas waved as they walked past.
“Sure. You hiding out from that bum who’s been stalking you?” Sly followed them into the main room of the bar.
“Yes. I need to use your phone to call Ms. Cindi.” Tomas headed for Sly’s phone.
Ronnie dialed Lucius’ number, pulse racing.
“Montagne.”
Lucius’ voice was low and rough, like Ronnie had woken him from a sound sleep.
“Oh, Lucius, I’m sorry about calling so late.” Ronnie frowned.
“Don’t worry, honey. What’s wrong?”
“Cameron was waiting outside of Cindi’s when I returned home.” Pacing, he brought the end of his ponytail to his mouth and started chewing on it.
“Stop chewing on your hair, Ronnie. Tell me where you are, and I’ll come and get you. You can crash at my place tonight and you can stay with me for as long as you want.”
Rustling sounded over the phone, and Ronnie closed his eyes, imagining Lucius climbing out of his bed and getting dressed. Ronnie’s cock stiffened at the thought of Lucius being naked. Would he have a chance to share Lucius’ bed again?
“I’m at Sly’s Bar.”
“I know where that is. I’ve been there a time or two since I got back. Some of the guys at the precinct like to go there for a drink after work.” Lucius yawned before chuckling. “I should’ve just stayed around to watch the rest of your show.”
“I’m sorry. I know you have to get up early.” Ronnie nibbled on his hair again.
Lucius grunted. “Ronnie, I told you stop chewing on your hair. It’s okay. When we were in high school, I said I’d always come if you needed me and I meant it. Things haven’t changed in the ten years since we’ve seen each other.”
“Okay. I’ll try not to feel guilty.” He laughed softly.
“Good. Try to relax and not to worry. I’m sure Sly’s bouncers will keep an eye out for the senator if you ask them. Who else is with you?”
Ronnie looked over at Tomas, leaning against the bar and sipping from a beer bottle. “Tomas walked me home and he’s still here.”
A door shutting sounded under Lucius’ voice. “Good. Ask him to stay until I get there. It should take me about ten minutes. Just don’t go outside until I call you to let you know I’m outside.”
“Thanks, Lucius.”
“Hang up, Ronnie, and have a drink. I’ll be there soon and I’ll take care of it all.”

Lucius gritted his teeth as he drove through the nearly empty New Orleans streets, heading from his place in the Garden District into the Quarter. Who the hell did Cameron think he was? What right did he have to terrorize people, especially a person as wonderful and sensitive as Ronnie? His grip on the steering wheel turned his knuckles white.

He had to admit Cameron had good taste wanting Ronnie, but Lucius didn’t plan on letting the man harass his friend any more. It didn’t matter how rich or powerful the man was or who his friends were. Forcing someone to spend time with him or her when that person doesn’t want to was wrong and cruel. Not to mention, illegal.

Pulling to a stop in front of Sly’s bar, he dug out his phone and dialed Ronnie’s number.
“Hello?”
“I’m outside, honey. Have Tomas walk you to the car.” Ronnie’s laugh eased some of Lucius’ worries.
“I’m not some celebrity being stalked by the paparazzi. I can

Lucius watched the front door. “Well, I hate to admit this. For the first and only time, I agree with Cameron on something. I find you unforgettable as well.”

He climbed out of the car and walked around it to open the passenger door when Ronnie stepped from the bar. Tomas stayed with him step for step. Lucius enjoyed the view of Ronnie in tight jeans and high heels, making the man’s legs look a mile long. He noticed how Ronnie glanced up and down the street.

“Unless he’s in a doorway, he’s not around. Please, get in and I’ll take you to my place. Ms. Cindi knows you’ll be with me?”
Ronnie dashed across the sidewalk and into the car. Lucius made sure he was safely in before shutting the door.
“Thanks, man. I appreciate you taking care of Ronnie.” He shook Tomas’s hand after taking the bag the bouncer carried.
“You told me to, plus Ms. Lake’s a nice person. Been good to me. It’s not right what that asshole is doing to her.” Tomas grimaced. “Ms. Cindi and Mr. Percy know she’s staying with you. You must’ve made a good impression because Ms. Cindi didn’t protest at all.”
“Good.” Lucius returned to his side of the car. After opening the door, he tossed the bag in the backseat. “Ronnie’ll call Cindi in the morning.”
Tomas waved good-bye and strolled back in the direction of the cabaret. Lucius slid behind the wheel and started the car. He pulled into traffic and headed home, reaching for Ronnie’s hand as he drove.
“Cindi said I should’ve gone home with you earlier,” Ronnie murmured, his grasp on Lucius’ hand firm.
“I would’ve liked that, but I figured it was too soon to ask. Hell, this is only the second time we’ve seen each other in a decade. As much as I always believed we’d be attracted to each other after all these years, I don’t want to rush anything.” He winked at Ronnie. “Besides, I didn’t want to come off all stalkerish.”
“Oh, good. One stalker is quite enough for me.” Ronnie seemed to relax the farther Lucius drove away from the Quarter.
“I noticed the waiter at the club and Tomas both call you Ms. Lake. This might be a question I shouldn’t ask, but do you identify as male or female?”
Again, Lucius was uncomfortable asking, but he wanted to treat Ronnie with respect and part of doing that was calling him by the right pronoun, as silly as it might seem to others.
“They usually only do it at the club. It’s my stage persona. Just because I dress like a girl doesn’t mean I want to be one.” Ronnie chuckled. “I like having a dick.”
“I’m very glad you have one as well.” Lucius laughed.
He saw Ronnie studying him out of the corner of his eye. “What is it?”
“Would it have made you nervous if you had to call me ‘ms.’ or ‘she’?”
Ronnie had the right to an honest answer, and Lucius never wanted to lie to him either. “At first, it probably would have.”
He could almost hear the apology sitting on Ronnie’s tongue. He shook his head.
“Don’t say you’re sorry. It would’ve been my problem to deal with, along with getting used to you dressing in women’s clothes. It’s a part of you, Ronnie. It makes you the beautiful, sexy man I cared about all those years ago.”
They stopped at a red light, and Lucius met Ronnie’s teary gaze. He rubbed his thumb over Ronnie’s bottom lip, enjoying the slickness of the lip-gloss covering Ronnie’s plump mouth.
“You’ve changed. I think the years have given you a maturity and confidence you didn’t have before, and I have to admit, the older you turns me on a hundred times faster than when we were eighteen.”
The blush staining Ronnie’s cheeks was prettier than any make-up Ronnie could put on in Lucius’ opinion.
“Seriously?”
A car honked behind him, and he stepped on the gas. They continued, and Lucius nodded.
“Yes, I’m serious. I’m not ashamed to tell you I want you in my bed, but not tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow night. I’d like to take you out on a date and show you how special you are to me. Do it right, instead of jumping you like I did when I was eighteen.”
Ronnie squeezed his hand. “See, I told Cindi you think you did something wrong, but I don’t see it that way.”
“How do you see it?”
Lucius had worried Ronnie would hate him for leaving him, or at least resent him for taking his virginity. Ronnie peered over at him for a moment and shook his head.
“I’m not going to tell you just yet. After we’ve spent a few days together, I’ll tell you.”
Okay.
Lucius could wait until Ronnie felt like telling him. It wasn’t like he would abandon Ronnie again. He’d spent ten years holding Ronnie’s memory tight to his heart, never letting anyone know how he cared for the young man he’d left behind. Yet it looked like Ronnie had done well for himself.
“How’s your mother?” He figured that was a safe topic.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in ten years. I stayed in New Orleans after you left and I’ve only gone home once since then. It was a couple of months after I got my job at the cabaret. She hadn’t even noticed I was missing. Decided if she didn’t notice my absence, I wasn’t going to waste my time worrying about her.”
Lucius snorted softly. “I send my dad a card on his birthday and Christmas, but we don’t talk or see each other. He disowned me when I told him I was gay. Their loss, right? Your mother doesn’t know how great a son she has.”
“Thank you, but I sometimes think you were the only one who thought that when I was younger.” Ronnie stared out the window, a pensive expression on his face.
“Well, people are idiots. What can I say? But look at all the people who know how marvelous you are now. Not just your friends at the club, but all the people who come to watch your show. I’m sure Cindi and Percy feel like you’re part of their family or they wouldn’t have opened their home to you.”
Lucius parked on the street just a few feet from the Victorian house he owned. “I hope you’ve always known no matter what, you’re a part of my life, even if I don’t happen to be around. If you’d called me, I’d have come to help you.”
Ronnie didn’t say anything until they were inside Lucius’ apartment. It took up the entire top floor of the building. Ronnie stared around in awed wonder.
“How can you afford this?”
A high vaulted ceiling graced the living room, dining room, and kitchen area. Large windows looked out onto the street and one set of French doors led to a small balcony. Ronnie glanced out the French doors and spied another small courtyard in the back of the building and how the bottom apartment opened onto it. The other apartment had a balcony in the front and one looking out into the back yard. In Lucius’ place, walls had been built to separate out two bedrooms and the bathroom.
Lucius had grabbed Ronnie’s bag from the car and he gestured down the hallway. “I’ll show you to your bedroom. The sheets are clean since I haven’t had any guests for a month or so. Oh, one of my buddies in the army owned this entire house. We became pretty good friends when he learned I was from Louisiana as well. Unfortunately, he was killed by a sniper two weeks before he was to ship home.”
“Oh, Lucius, I’m so sorry.”
Ronnie rested his hand on Lucius’ shoulder, and Lucius covered it with his free hand.
“Thanks. I mourned him when I got back here. Come to find out, he didn’t have any family, so he’d left it to me. Said he wanted to give it to someone who would appreciate it. I do the maintenance on the other apartments for the people who live there. It’s worked out good for me. I certainly wouldn’t be able to afford this place on my salary.” He pushed open the door to the right. “Here’s your room.”
He set the bag on the bed and turned to see Ronnie standing in the doorway. There were black smudges under Ronnie’s eyes, telling Lucius his friend was running out of energy quickly.
“Is there something wrong with the room?” He glanced around.
Interior decorating wasn’t a trait he had, so he’d left the guest room the way he’d found it. Rather bland in tan and white. It didn’t really suit Ronnie’s personality, or at least that’s how Lucius felt about it. Maybe Ronnie felt the same way.
“No, there’s nothing wrong.” Ronnie bit his bottom lip, and Lucius groaned softly, wanting to be the one who did that.
“Then why don’t you look happy?”
Ronnie tugged on the end of his ponytail while he stared down at the hardwood floor. “I guess I was hoping I’d be sharing your bed tonight.”
In two steps, Lucius stood directly in front of Ronnie. Using his knuckle, he lifted Ronnie’s face so those brilliant hazel eyes met his. Everything about Ronnie spoke to Lucius, digging deep into his soul where he’d cherished all his memories of their time together.
“You can share my bed any time you want to, honey. I didn’t want to rush things or presume anything since you’re here because some jackass is trying to force himself into your life. You should be asked, Ronnie, never told what to do.” Lucius dropped a gentle kiss to Ronnie’s cheek. “Come on. I’ll show you my bedroom and the bathroom. You can take a shower and get ready for bed. There’s an unopened toothbrush in the drawer under the sink.”
Ronnie pouted slightly, and Lucius laughed.
“You need to sleep and so do I. You’ve been up late and had a little bit of a scare. I have to get up in four hours to meet with my boss. We’ll revisit what you were thinking later, when we’re both more awake.”
“Promise?” Ronnie looked happier.
“Have I ever broken my word to you?”
Ronnie shook his head. “You’re the only one who hasn’t.”
“Then you can trust me when I say that we’ll be having fun in bed soon enough.”
He slapped Ronnie’s ass as they stopped outside Lucius’ bedroom. “Here’s my room and the bathroom’s across the hall. There are clean towels and everything in there. If you want something to sleep in, there are T-shirts and sweats in the top drawer. When you get up, why don’t you run over to Cindi’s place and pack? Bring some clothes over you can wear for the rest of the week, and on the weekend, we’ll move the rest of your wardrobe over.”
“Are you sure you want to do that? I have a lot of clothes.” Ronnie grinned.
“I’m not surprised. Good thing there’s a walk-in closet in the guest bedroom. You can fill it to your heart’s content.”
Lucius watched Ronnie slip into his bedroom before turning to head back to the living room. He wanted to write up what had happened tonight. He planned to add it to the file he was gathering on Cameron. The senator stalked blonde women regularly in D.C. and New Orleans, but every time someone complained, they were dismissed because Cameron was as charming as the anti-Christ, plus no one could ever find any evidence tying the senator to the stalkings. He wasn’t sure why the senator chose to continue to harass Ronnie since the man wasn’t blond like the others, but Cameron was crazy, so there really wasn’t any rational explanation for what he did.
All the other cops bought his lies hook, line and sinker, but not Lucius. Not after having read Ronnie’s first complaint. The officer who had taken Ronnie’s statement had written down a snide comment about not believing that the senator would chase a tranny. Lucius planned to point that out to his boss in their meeting.
A gut instinct warned Lucius that Cameron was a serial stalker and it could escalate into more, if something wasn’t done soon. Actually, he feared it already had. One of the ladies who complained and asked for a restraining order against the senator had disappeared. When Lucius asked the officer who had taken her first statement about it, the man dismissed it as just a disgruntled ex-girlfriend trying to get revenge on the senator. Maybe so, but it didn’t explain why the woman had gone missing.
Lucius swore nothing would happen to Ronnie. Cameron would never get his dirty hands on him. Mostly because no man, no matter how powerful, had the right to terrorize other people into doing what he wanted. The other part was because Ronnie was Lucius’ and no one else got to have him. Well, unless Ronnie wanted the other person and didn’t want Lucius.
The water kicked on, and Lucius fired up his laptop, quickly typing up everything that had happened tonight. He’d get Ronnie to go over it and make sure he got all the details right. He shot an email off to his friend at the Bureau. When he’d asked him for the information on Cameron, Lucius had promised the agent he’d keep him updated on what went on down in New Orleans.
“Lucius.”
He looked up and almost swallowed his tongue. Ronnie stood in the doorway, one foot resting on top of the other, wearing one of Lucius’ T-shirts. His hands were clasped behind him in a shy demeanor that suited Ronnie.
Lucius shut his computer down and set it on the coffee table. He pushed to his feet and approached the slender man. After encircling Ronnie’s waist, he pulled Ronnie closer to him. Ronnie raised his arms and wrapped them around Lucius’ neck.
Their lips came together in a gentle kiss, welcoming and caring. Lucius nibbled along Ronnie’s bottom lip, sucking on it softly to soothe the sting of his bite. Ronnie whimpered and tried to climb Lucius, but Lucius eased back a few inches and shook his head.
“Let’s go to bed, Ronnie. You’re exhausted and so am I. When I make love to you, I want us both to be awake for it.” He kissed Ronnie again quickly. “You’re too special to fuck fast and leave behind.”
“No one’s ever believed that about me before,” Ronnie murmured. “I guess they see the clothes and assume I’m crazy or kinky. I’ve had guys want to tie me down and whip me. Or they want to do other things to me. I’m not saying those things are terrible or anything like that because it’s not like I can talk, right? But I’m not into those things. I just like pretty things, yet some people think that gives them a green light to use me.”
Lucius swept Ronnie into his arms and carried him back toward his bedroom. “If I ever do anything you don’t like, you tell me. I’d prefer to do nothing to disrespect you or make you feel bad.”
Ronnie rested his head on Lucius’ shoulder. “You’re doing pretty good so far, but believe me, I’ll tell you what I think. You’ve been the one person I’ve trusted to accept me, warts and all.”
“Wait. You have warts?” He set Ronnie down on the bed. “That might be a deal-breaker.”
The giggles coming from Ronnie made Lucius laugh and dodge Ronnie’s fist as the man tried to punch him. They wrestled on the bed until Ronnie ended up on top and Lucius was pinned to the mattress, or at least he pretended to be.
“You’re a dip shit,
cher.
” Ronnie kissed him, smiling the entire time.
“That might be the truth.” He rested his hands on Ronnie’s hips.
Lucius’ fingers slipped under the hem of the T-shirt and rubbed along the edge of Ronnie’s black lace panties. “Oh, these are nice.”
Ronnie wiggled slightly, his tight ass moving against Lucius’ cock. A groan tore out of Lucius’ chest and he tightened his grip on Ronnie’s hips.
“Lie down next to me, honey. Let’s get some sleep.”
They snuggled together under the covers. Lucius spooned with Ronnie; his hand rested on Ronnie’s flat stomach and he nuzzled Ronnie’s neck. Ronnie had braided his hair to keep it out of his face.
“I used to dream about your hair, that and your singing. I relived all those times you sang me to sleep when I’d stay over at your house,” Lucius admitted in the dark as they settled down.