Whistling in the Dark (14 page)

Not prepared for an impromptu recital, Sutton nevertheless couldn't decline. While he played, most of the guests danced, but others gathered to listen, Jack among them. Sutton hadn't considered Jack a flirt because Jack was glib and breezy with everyone. Even now, he gabbed with other guests, most of them male, between songs--and Sutton had to wonder if he would be walking home alone.

When Eleanor appeared with the records, Sutton stood and the guests swamped him with enthusiastic applause. Theo bestowed another glass of champagne on him and with an arm around his shoulders, took him on a circuit of the rooftop to introduce him to the other guests. They were interrupted en route by a young blond woman in a beaded blue gown who introduced herself as Amelia and boldly asked if Sutton wanted to dance.

Taken by surprise, he had no chance to stammer agreement before she pulled him to the dance floor. It wasn't his first dance with a girl, but it felt surprisingly less awkward than usual. Half-expecting to be vamped, he was relieved when Amelia chattered with all the guileless charm of girls he knew back home. When she let him go, he discovered that the other girls were just as forward in requesting a whirl around the floor. He escaped for a bite to eat, only to find Lewis prowling in the arbor as if he'd been waiting for a moment to talk to Sutton alone.

"Enjoying the party?" Lewis asked.

"Yes, very much."

"Jack's always one for a bit of fun, isn't he?" Lewis lit a cigarette and tilted his head back as he exhaled a cloud in the lantern light. "He tells me you were in some trouble and he helped you out."

Sutton wondered if Jack had offered the information or if Lewis had asked. He looked toward the dance floor where Jack two-stepped with a laughing Theo. "Yes, I owe him quite a bit. More than I think I could repay."

Lewis followed his gaze. "Making your best effort, all the same?"

Sutton wanted to laugh. "We barely qualify as friends. I don't know why everyone's so quick to assume there's more to it."

Lewis raised broad shoulders in a careless shrug. "Jack can do as he pleases. God knows he does, anyway. Just don't suppose you can make anything out of it. His feelings don't run that deep."

"You can't always know what's in another man's heart."

"Ah. Been jilted, too, have we?"

Before Lewis could provoke him into saying something he would regret, Sutton smiled distantly. "I think I'll walk around." He was having the most fun he'd had since coming to New York and he didn't intend to let anyone spoil it. Amelia ran into him again and, after appropriating a bottle of champagne, led him to a comfortable sofa. Other guests wearied of dancing joined them one by one, until Theo appeared and suggested a round of pantomimes.

Lewis rolled his eyes. "If you can spare us scenes from your own productions this time."

"Ah, but my patrons deserve the advantage." Theo winked at the group. "Never mind. To be fair, I will let Miles choose the game. And not blind man's bluff or we'll lose someone over the side."

"The game we played at that party in August," Miles said.

"Oh yes," Theo said, "I remember. Peppered a poor soul with all sorts of intimate questions--"

"And if he refuses to answer," Miles said, "call for a forfeit."

"What are the forfeits?" Amelia asked with a nervous giggle.

Theo looked thoughtful. "The usual, I think. Song, joke, or kiss. All right?" He grabbed a couple of pillows and, dropping them onto the threadbare Persian carpet, sat cross-legged. "Well, come on. Who'll be our sacrificial lamb?"

The others rose, bringing pillows, and sat to form a wide circle. As Sutton looked for a spot, Theo snagged his trouser leg. "You're next to me, baby chick. I'll keep you safe if they play too rough."

Amused, Sutton sat between Theo and Miles and, he noted, directly across from Jack, who waved. Amelia's nervous laughter had spread to the rest of the women as they tucked their skirts carefully and waited for Theo's decision. Theo cast a considering eye around the circle, but before he could choose, Lewis got up. "I'll be first. I'm not afraid. Ask anything you like."

"Everyone may have a turn," Theo said. "And if you make it all the way around the circle with no forfeits, you may have a song, joke, or kiss from anyone you choose. All agreed?"

"Oh do let me ask first," Miles said as Lewis took center stage. "How many bad reviews did you get for your Hamlet?"

"They're meant to be cruel questions, then?" Lewis inquired of Theo, who appeared to be suppressing a grin with some difficulty.

"I'll rephrase it," Miles cut in, hands upraised. "How many good reviews did you get?"

At everyone's half-stifled giggles, Lewis smiled thinly. "Three. And not merely good, but excellent."

More laughter bubbled, along with assuaging applause. Theo patted Sutton's knee. "Your turn, my dear."

Caught unprepared, Sutton blurted out the first question that came to mind. "Have you ever been in love?"

Theo threw an arm around Sutton's shoulders. "A true romantic. I should like to hear the answer to that, myself."

"I have." Lewis looked forlorn. "Several times, in fact. Tragically. Always tragically."

"That would be with someone other than yourself?" Miles asked.

"Miles, you're heartless," Theo said, preempting Lewis' retort. "My turn, and I have a perfectly delectable one. Have you ever broken someone's heart?"

Lewis snorted. "Wouldn't I first have to be involved with a man in possession of one?"

All turned Jack, who smiled. "I'd prove it exists, but I think I lost the pawn ticket."

The laughter that followed chastised Lewis. Questions came rapid-fire then, Lewis bravely answering each until it was up to Jack. "Have you ever been arrested for indecency?"

Soft gasps followed and Lewis sniffed in disgust. "Trust you to turn it into something vulgar. Really, Theo, we're going to put up with this?"

Theo looked reprovingly at Jack, but the light in his eyes was good-humored. "Now, boys, it's all in fun."

Jack's smile gained a wicked edge. "I wouldn't ask anything I'd never answer, myself. Forfeit?"

"I won't dignify that lurid question with any sort of response," Lewis said. "But good sport that I am, I'll play along and forfeit."

Theo looked relieved. "Song, joke, or kiss?"

Lewis' smile turned as wicked as Jack's, with a sour edge Sutton didn't like. "A song, I think. Quite the popular one." He drew back his shoulders and sang in a pleasant bass. "'Smile the while you kiss me sad adieu. When the clouds roll by, I'll come to you. Then the skies will seem more blue--'"

Theo interrupted with hurried applause. "Wasn't that lovely? Shall we have one of the ladies next? Amelia?" He said it almost pleadingly.

"It appears the days of the patriotic sing are over," Lewis said. "Think I'll go dance, instead, and leave you to your gutter games."

Sutton was glad Theo had put an end to it. No song in the world could hurt the heart like that one. It would have cast a lingering gloom over the evening for everyone. Still, he wanted to feel sorry for Lewis. He could never have answered Jack's question, himself, without dying of mortification. If only Lewis hadn't seemed so intent on unsettling Jack--

But Jack wasn't unsettled, judging by his bright grin as he coerced Amelia onto her feet. Further, it was clear he had inspired the others to new heights of mischief when Amelia quickly ended up with a forfeit as well. She thought for a moment and came up with a riddle. "Why is a woman's heart like the moon? Because it changes constantly and always has a man in it."

"Always?" At Theo's sly smile, Amelia went scarlet. The champagne bottle came around the circle and Theo filled his glass and Sutton's. "Jack, since you've got us all behaving so deplorably, I think it's your turn."

A chorus of agreement rose. Jack obligingly hopped to his feet. "Go ahead. Do your worst."

"Have you ever been arrested for indecency?" Theo asked. Judging by his dry tone and the anticipation in everyone's face, Sutton guessed most of them already knew the answer. But Jack offered it without hesitation.

"Three times." He paused. "You did mean this past year?"

That set everyone off so spiritedly, dancers out on the floor looked to see what the commotion was about. Miles nudged Sutton with an elbow. "He'll make it all the way around. You just wait."

Jack answered every question fired at him as promptly as the first. The questions began to come at a slower pace, each more artfully designed than the last.

"If you had an hour left to live," Miles asked, "what would you do with it?"

The question spurred several of the women to clap their hands over their ears. Theo groaned. "Oh, my dear, you'll have the SSV after all of us in a minute."

"The SSV?" Sutton whispered to Miles.

Miles blinked in surprise. "Society for the Suppression of Vice."

Sutton laughed, feeling a little light-headed--dreamily light-headed and happy. He'd had too much champagne, a fact that didn't particularly disturb him at the moment, though he knew it would later. Jack's sly grin softened and Sutton sensed that the answer everyone awaited in delicious horror would not be the one Jack gave.

"If I had an hour left, I'd spend it with Harry, Ox, and Esther. And an expensive bottle of whiskey."

In the midst of appreciative laughter, Sutton asked the final question. "How would you spend the last dollar in your pocket?"

Jack's grin stretched from ear to ear. "A bottle of bootleg whiskey?"

Sutton shook his head. "Forfeit."

Jack looked ready to argue. Then he laughed. "Oh, hell, I guess you know better. It'd all go to vacuum tubes. One of them, anyway," he added with a rueful grimace.

"Bravo, Sutton," Theo said. "All right, Jack, my boy. Song, joke, or kiss?"

"A pity Lewis left," Miles murmured and Jack shook a fist at him in mock threat.

Theo's eyes sparkled. "As the host of this glorious shindig, I shall have to choose a suitable partner for Jack."

Jack feigned chagrin. "Is it too late to tell a joke?"

"You'll have to ask Sutton," Theo said, "after you've kissed him."

- Fifteen -

Jack's expression of surprise lasted only an instant before a wicked leer took its place. As he sauntered over, Sutton's heart seemed to quicken to 2/2 time. He didn't know if Jack felt the same attraction, the one coursing with sudden heat through his blood. He wanted to think so--but Jack seemed to play to the crowd as he dropped onto Sutton's lap and, draping both arms around his shoulders, drew closer for a kiss. Jack's breath warm in his face reminded him to breathe and he did so, audibly. But at the last second, Jack brushed his forehead with a brotherly buss and everyone exclaimed in good-natured protest.

Jack was unrepentant. "That's how they kiss in Kansas," he said and turned laughing eyes back to Sutton. "Tell 'em, Mabel."

Deciding to correct that misapprehension, Sutton took him by the lapels and kissed him. He could feel Jack's initial shock in the lack of response. Then Jack kissed back, sparking something neither of them could blame on the champagne. His momentum dropped them backward to the pillows, Jack still kissing him as if he never wanted to stop, and Sutton didn't mind in the least if it went on forever. He ignored the whoops and whistles from their audience and Jack did too, until Theo stuck his nose in. "Would you gentlemen care for the key to my apartment?"

Jack broke from the kiss, meeting Sutton's gaze for barely an instant before turning to smirk at Theo. "Satisfied?"

Theo looked only more amused. "Just what I was about to ask you."

Disentangling themselves, they sat up and Jack made a show of straightening Sutton's coat and tie before rising to swagger back to his spot. Sutton avoided all the laughing faces and wondered if he'd gone too far. No one else seemed to think so or care, so he tried not to care, either. But he couldn't bring himself to look Jack's way until the game had broken up and the others had returned to dancing. By then, Jack had vanished in the crowd and before Sutton could look for him, Theo pounced to ask without pretense this time if he would play the piano again.

_{- - -}

It was after midnight when Sutton wandered to the edge of the roof for a little fresh air and a sumptuous view. A welcome breeze blew in his face along the shadowed walk behind the palms. He found Jack leaning on the parapet, his features in unusually quiet repose as he took in the view. Unbidden came the thought that Jack was terribly handsome and rather dear, besides.

Jack looked around at his approach and smiled easily. "You ready to go home?"

"No, I just wanted to--well, I hope I didn't embarrass you earlier. In the game," he added, at Jack's puzzled look.

"Oh, that?" Jack laughed. "Nothing to worry about. Unless Topeka law says we're engaged."

"Not even promised. In our case, anyway." He felt foolish. The kiss had been part of a silly game. He shouldn't have brought it up.

"Champagne?" Jack picked up the bottle on the ledge and filled his empty glass.

"No, thank you. I think I'm done with that or I'll be sick."

Jack downed the glassful. "You've been to fancier parties than this. Your folks must throw some real hummers."

"Yes, just--decidedly different." He shuddered to imagine what his parents would think of the goings-on at Theo's.

"No kissing? Or dancing?"

"Dancing, of course. But of the proper sort."

Jack rolled his eyes. "A party's no place to be proper. Your folks don't know you dance with boys?"

"I never have," Sutton said, then realized Jack meant more than dancing.

"You always blush that easily?" Jack grabbed his hands and whirled him around in an unsteady circle.

"Jack, for heaven's sake." But he couldn't keep from laughing.