Page 13 of The Butler

“Twenty-two,” I blurted.

“Well ok. See? Look at us bonding,” he said, letting his pants drop to the floor before stepping out of them. His legs were muscled in all the right places. Smooth and tan, with just a bit of noticeable hair below each kneecap. I picked his slacks off of the floor and made my way up slowly, admiring his body on the way.

“I chose the gym shorts that are lined, Linc. I hope that’s ok. When I work out, I prefer them that way.”

He turned to the bed, grabbed them, and held the Nike shorts in front of him, examining the stretchy trunk-lined part. “I like these,” he said. “I guess I won’t need underwear.” He pulled his tight boxer briefs off and handed them to me. They were warm. They’d just been cradling his cock. I wanted to smell them. My eyes dropped to his junk. I knew I shouldn’t linger there, but I couldn’t help myself. Unfortunately for him, it’d be a long appraisal due to the amount of real estate I needed to survey. He was hung thick and long. His pubes were well groomed and low-hanging balls pulled his cock to the left slightly. It took all my strength to not ask if I could blow him. My own cock was swelling so I finally looked away.

“Will that be all, Linc?” I asked. The need to remove myself from his suite overcame my desire to stay. I moved to the side of the bed and adjusted one of the pillows as an excuse to get a glimpse of his backside, but by the time I stepped around him, he’d pulled the shorts on. The picture of him and his lover was directly to my right, and he noticed me glancing at it. He swiftly joined me and placed the frame face down on the nightstand. We stared at one another, but no words were exchanged.

“Thanks, Dek. I’m off to the gym,” he said. “I’ll be showering for dinner at five-thirty. Please have my toiletries unpacked.”

“I took the liberty of doing that earlier.”

“Look at you. Resourceful as well as . . . so… so . . . . ” He hesitated from completing the sentence. He blushed and reached for his tank top, the final piece of clothing to spoil my view.

“Enjoy your workout and I’ll see you then,” I said, wishing he’d completed his sentence. I wanted to know, besides being resourceful, what else was I?

CHAPTER TWELVE: Lincoln

Why I’d so quickly come around the bed to hide the picture of Troy and me had me confused. Why did I care what he thought about my failed relationship and a betrayal I knew that he knew of? I was well aware of life on a yacht. Everyone knew everyone else’s business. It may have been a huge boat, but yachties were all the same, they talked… a lot. There were no secrets on board. Knowing what the owner had going on in his personal life was a topic that was discussed, embellished, and then retold a dozen times, each telling more sordid than the last. All for the amusement of the crew. They knew Troy had left me for Hollywood’s hottest stud. It would be hard for me to not stay locked in my room.

The image of the happy couple in the photo was from a year ago and was taken on the forward deck during a cruise to Costa Rica. I was still madly in love with Troy, but I’d sensed the fissures in our relationship beginning to expose themselves. His desire for me was fading and the excuses for skipping sex were adding up. My ego suffered and I was devastated. The thought of actually popping the question had entered my mind, so the change in him hurt. There were videos playing in my brain of us as a family. Maybe even a child or two. He’d said he wanted those things when we first started dating. Something had changed, orsomeonehad caught his gaze.

* * *

The flirting began immediately after the first time we’d invited Brock to join us on holiday. That particular cruise was to Costa Rica and there were many of Hollywood’s heaviest-hitting gays on board. Actors, directors, and producers. All the monied gays and their ridiculously hot boyfriends of the moment. Of course, I was also one of those wealthy older men, so belittling their five-minute romances was hardly my place. The difference for me was that I longed for something long term. A storybook romance with a happy ever after was what I craved. I thought Troy was that for me.

Looking back, the sparks that flew the moment Brock came on board and Troy was introduced to him, were clearly visible. I smiled at them from a distance, but warning signs were ringing loud and clear. After a day or so on the boat, the two of them used any excuse to touch each other. A simple high five would turn into a quick embrace. The embraces would turn into roaming hands, and so on and so on. When I spotted Brock’s oversized palm squeezing my guy’s ass was the first time I worried their closeness may be a serious problem. Usually while on board our sex was wild and enthusiastic. Troy was very flexible and had the endurance of a marathon runner, with the moves of a gymnast, and I could barely keep up. However, after meeting Brock, he could barelykeep it up.He was losing interest, while I held on for dear life.

Once we were back in Malibu all the red flags were present and I continued to turn the other cheek. Whereas I should have put my foot down, I made excuses instead and bought his lies as little fibs. I kept busy with work and ignoring the signs while the two of them did who knows what.Small white lies were ok, right?Troy’s cell phone was left upside down in case a text came in.“I have a headache,”he’d said. Or“I’m meeting a buddy in the city.”All the usualwake the fuck up, he’s cheating on you, dipshit, clues that I willingly ignored.

It was while sailing around Catalina Island as part of my fortieth birthday celebration that they made their move. The flirtatious behavior became more outrageous with lap sitting and cuddling under blankets. The entire thing being pawned off as buddies being silly. As the older partner, I assumed it was my place to show maturity and laugh it off. Many of my guest’s eyebrows were raised over the behavior they witnessed between the two. “Keep an eye on that,” Bob told me one evening. “Don’t let them embarrass you in front of your guests like that, Linc. It’s gross,” he added.

I confronted Brock on deck one afternoon while Troy was showering. We were seated alone and enjoying a beer. “I’d appreciate you keeping your hands off my property, Brock.” He acted shocked and like he had no idea what I was implicating him in. “He belongs to me,” I reminded him.

“Does Troy know you view him as property?” he asked. “Perhaps he sees himself as more of an explorer, Linc.”

I laughed, but anger flared my nostrils. “Exploring what? Your cock?”

“Of course not,” he insisted. “I have enough action. I don’t need yourcurrentboy.”

“He is more than my current boy,” I snarled, gripping my can of beer so hard that it crinkled.

“Does he see it that way?” he dared.

I stood and went to him as he relaxed on a deck lounger, I leaned over him and hissed. “Gather your belongings. My copter will escort you back to LAX.”

As it turned out, he did get his shit together and added an additional package to his exit, my boyfriend.“I’m done, Linc. I don’t belong to anyone, plus I’m bored,”Troy had said on the helipad. That was my parting gift; a kiss-off and a middle finger from the window of my copter as the mechanical bird lifted the two of them to their beginning.

* * *

I stared at the ceiling in between reps on the bench press. My back was sticking to the vinyl covering and every muscle in my chest and shoulders shuddered in exhaustion. I missed the feeling of being in love, and honestly, I missed Troy. The universe had always treated me well and I chose to trust the outcome of that relationship. A lifetime of positive thinking had worked well for me so far, so I knew there had to be a reason for the loss.

One of my fondest memories was the day I met Troy and the way my heart skipped a beat. When you have the means to buy anything, go anywhere, or fulfill every wish you could ever imagine, human interaction was the only thing you couldn’t conquer. You could buy it perhaps, but to have something real with another human, that’s an entirely different price.

The day that Tad, my assistant at my production company, brought Troy into my office and I shook his hand, holding it longer than normal, I had a feeling pass between us that had never happened before. The magnets of desire were pulling me to him, and I was completely lost in him from the beginning.

“Never again,” I muttered, sitting up from the recline workout bench. There was a problem with that lie. I’d felt exactly the same way earlier when I was introduced to my new butler, Deklyn Dalton.

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