Smoke and Mirrors

by
Melody Clarke

Part Thirteen

Pulsations quickened into wild tremor as muscle sucked muscle and Vinnie anchored Frank's violently thrashing body down to suck further, to suck to the root, back against the pit of his throat.

"Vinnie," Frank screamed, bucking up one last time toward the sweet suckling of Vinnie's mouth.

And Frank pumped a torrent into the depths ofVince's throat.

They could hear the- hum of the water again.

Arms reached quietly out for bodies.

Beneath Frank's shaking and spent body, he felt the still-burning wealth of a young erection. He brnshed a dreamy band across it to promise they weren't finished.

Frank reached across to snag his robe. From a pocket, he claimed a tube.

"What are you doin', Frank?" Vinnie whispered, kissingg his shoulder, his throat.

"Just let me call the shots now, big guy," he said gently, "now plant your adorable ass on that stair."

Vinnie caught Frank's mouth in a fast wet kiss before complying. "Why don't I plant my adorable ass on you instead?"

"That comes later," Frank said softly, flashing Vince a dreaming smile as he filled his hand with Aloe Vera gel.

And Frank closed a creamy palm around Vinnie's penis, lathering it to slippery perfection, root to glans.

"Frank!" Vince gasped, seized by sudden pk>asure, as searing as unexpected. He fought for a healthy breath. "Baby, don't get me wrong, I love it...but what in hell are you doing?"

"Simple;' he said, and with a free hand clutched Vince's face to merge their wet mouths together. "I kinda want you to fuck me, Vince. You Mind?"

Vinnie's sapphire eyes flamed bright and wild. "Mind? Oh, no, , don't mind too much, Frank. always happy to oblige." His arms cast out to encompass Frank and clutch their bodies together, to burn his kiss against Frank's face. "Do I wanna fuck you? What are you kiddin'?
Do you wanna breathe and eat and live another year? What in hell happened to Straight and narrow Frank McPike?"

Frank touched his face. "I gotta notion that when it comes to you, Vince, I'm anything."

"Then why don't you sit on my lap, Frank," Vinnie said, sliding further back on the stair, "and prove it."

"Vinnie," Frank murmured, not stopping to think, just straddling the younger man's legs.
He lowered slowly until he felt a hard young dick nudge wantonly at the cleft of his ass. The very idea scared the hell out of him. But Vinnie had been right...the fear just made his blood burn hotter when combined with lust...with the love... He was shaking, breath was screaming through his lungs, at what this was...at what this meant for him..for both of them.

But he just wanted to be whatever it took to bind him forever with Vince.

"You sure, Frank?" Vinnie asked, his dry voice shimmering with lust.

"Oh, yeah," he whispered.

"If it hurts, just-"

"Just do it," Frank groaned.

And two creamy fingers poked up first to slicken the way, and Frank felt a hot glans prod upward to fil him first. And then strong hands gripped him, and pulled him relentlessly downward to impale him, to filt his ass with Vinnie's burning cock.

He hadn't expected to feel anything...anything at all...and when a warm and sweet sensation began to swell inside him, it wrenched his breath away...and as Vinnie gently rolled his hips upward, to thrust his cock tenderly and rhythmically and lovingly deep into Frank's ass, massaging, filling him with pumping pleasure.

He wallowed back to absorb each lunge, humping downward to urge him to plunge faster, harder.

Hungry arms climbed upward around him, grasping him firmly against each thrust. "You sweet man," Vince moaned out hard, hot winded words, "you beautiful man."

As Vinnie's soft words teased, as Vinnie's hard cock pounded pleasure through him, the young man trapped beneath him convulsed wildly, plunging blindly, groaning with a warm tide ofagony and elation.

His arms consumed Frank wholly. "I love you," Vinnie groaned, and shot a hot flood of life deep inside him.

The arms still claimed him, kept him. The tortured breathing slowed and softened, and the fine young fire beneath him smoldered gently.

Tenderly, Frank moved up to separate them a moment, then he tumed around to merge himself between Vinnie's legs.

Part Fourteen

Blue eyes gazed back at him with wonder.

"Whoever made up the phrase making love," Vinnie whispered. "I think that was what they had in mind."

"I know, Vince," Frank whispered softly, leaning his head against Vince's chest. "I know."

From somewhere in the house, a bell rang. A doorbell. Both hearts sunk simultaneously.

"Whoever the hell that is," Frank groaned, "had better have made peace with his maker."

Vinnie smiled, nipping then flirting his tongue along Frank's throat. He delicately pressed a kiss.
"Only one person at Revelation has this kinda timing," Vince said, and climbed with reluctant steps out of the water. He reached for the robes, handing one to the man who had pursued him from the hot tub. He locked the other man's mouth in a fast, moist kiss. "We'll get rid of him fast, I promise."

Frank sent him his sweetest bull-dog glare, reaching up for a handful of moist silk-hair. "You better."

"Oh, I will." His fingers drew a line around Frank's lips. "You got any tiny idea what you do to me?"

Frank's tongue slipped through his lips to entice the browsing finger. "That's not half what I'm gonna do to you."

The words hit Vinnie hard, swallowing them thickly. He was about to make an explicit suggestion when the doorbell chimed again.

"Put your fuckin' robe on before I forget myself," Vinnie said, pecking at his mouth.

"Oh, don't worry, Vince, I'll remind you," Vinnie forced himself to the wall to slap a button like this was jai lai and he was out to finish the game. "Jordan," he said to the intercom, "your timing really, really sucks."
"Well, now, that does sound promising. I'm fretfully sorry, Vincent," a familiar southern drawl assaulted Frank's Senses, "I can come back around later?"

"No, it's okay." Vinnie tossed a checking glance back at Frank in his robe as he crawled deep into a comer of the sofa pit. Come on in."

At the sound of footsteps, Frank remembered his words with the man only hours (days?) ago, what he had suggested to him. And now, Frank knew, Jordan would know...and McPike blushed all the way down to his toes.

He felt that Brother Love smile slither over him, like a snake along the choice rots of a new-found victim. And then the snake slid through the open end of the circle. Vinnie, behind Frank, was delivering his lover something dark and steaming in a cup.

Jordan Earl cast an iridescent smile as he perched himself across from Frank.

Frank just stared into his coffee.

"Well, well, Agent McPike," Jordan Earl said, "haven't you a smile for me this fine and splendid morning? 1 trust you enjoyed your Seduisant."

Frank made himself nod, forced himself to grant a coniliatory glance to their visitor. "Yeah.
right. Thanks."

"Just a little southern hospitality."

Finally Frank looked at him directly, "Is that right? And are the callalilies in bloom, too?"

"Dear, dear Frank." Earl said, chuckling as he nestled back into the sofa, "you are such a card, And it seems to me you don't sound like a straight man anymore, my boy. Have we been possessed by a sudden and unexpected sense of humor?"

"Up until recently. Very recently."
Jordan laughed again sharply, clearly. He slowly shook his head. "Fear not, Frank. I shall not dally long. But I very much enjoyed our meeting yesterday. I dare say my feelings go unrequited, but I grew very partial to you. And I just wanted to make certain you were, shall we say, satisfied? Not that I wasn't confident that Vincent would see to that."

Vinnie bumped a coffee cup against Earl's shoulder. "Back off,Jordan."

"Oh, now, Vincent, that does bode well. You sound positively territorial." He tasted his coffee. "Very well then,. straight to the point, damn the fine and ancient southern art of conversation. Yankees one, Cowboys Zip."

Frank reached back for his glasses, then tenderly slipped them on to regard the face across from his. "How come I got a feeling the bases are loaded?"

He smiled as if savoring the thought. "Dear Frank, the bases are always loaded," he said, sipping his coffee, then setting it aside. "Basically, I come to you as the agent of your emancipation. I am here to set the both of you free."

Part Fifteen

"As a bird. Vincent, you are absolved of all responsibilities to remain. The two of you are free to leave, if you like and when you like."

Vince scaled the sofa, staring warily at Jordan all the while he slowly lowered himself beside Frank. His arm moved by instinct around his lover.

"Two weeks ago," Vinnie said, "you made a grandstand play for me to stay. And now you're tellin' me the whole time I could've gone home?"

"It wasn't time then, Vince. It is now. I appealed to your honor in asking that you stay to provide the right...environment, so to speak And I so sinisterly predicted Frank would wish to stay so that he would doggedly insist that you both go. I played both your own natures against the house, you might say, and that seemed to spark the correct ....balance?"

''Spill it, Earl," Frank said evenly, "all of it."

Jordan flashed a toothsome grin. "I should be happy to do so, Frank." he said, gesturing expansively. "You see, a certain individual..a certain friend and particeps criminis of yours... divined wherefore art Vincent through somewhat nefarious channels. He found our young man had been detained for questions by a CIA-backed militia. And he contacted me to fish him out." Jordan's grin broadened.  "Your prime benefactor, I may tell you now, is none other than Mr. Paul Wilson Beckstead of the OCB."

Vinnie's mouth dropped open. "Beckstead?"

"Indeed. He who is by day a bureaucrat and by night a secret member of Washington DC's covert gay community." He pressed a finger to his lips, and winked. "We move in similar circles. Comradely networking, you know."

Frank and. Vinnie could only stare at each other, whispering in unison, "Beckstead?"

"Yes, Yell, but shush, now, both of you, that's our little secret. At any rate, Paul saw with discerning eyes Frank pining pitifully away in your wake, Vincent, and then remembered your own dreamy-eyed bedside vigil. He put two and two together, and then decided to put you two together and see what happened. Canny little detective, he," "Here;' Earl said, continuing with a gesture to the room, "without structure, without old, bygone statutes to bind you back, voila a gravity all your own. And it does seem like you two gravitated quite nicely, if I may say so myself."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Vinnie said, shaking his head to clear it, "you mean to tell me that all this time you were working for the Bureau?"

He nodded. "One element of it."

"Just how many elements do you work for?"

"Oh, I work for them all, or they work for me, however you wish to see it. CIA, FBI, KGB, NSA, ONI, etcetera, Through me, we all work for each other really, I know all their fatal flaws, their littIe weaknesses, I am the point of diminishing returns." He smiled. "Ergo, you might say, I call the shots."

Frank was gaping now. "Just exactly how many countries are you involved with?"

Brother Love tossed back a loud and merry laugh. "How many countries? Dear me, Francis McPike, I'm surprised at you, hadn't you noticed? There is only one. All the rest is merely smoke and mirrors." He reached across to gently pinch each chin. ''This is what is real. I advise you not forget that."

He settled back to polish off his coffee. "Now, lastly, there is the little matter of where you go from here. Feel free to stay, if it pleases you. I can find you suitably interesting work in our little outreach."

"You troll cocaine, Earl," Frank said stiffly.

"No, not I. The Company. They use my channels like public access. It funds their little wars that Congress won't... for we must find common enemies or else our brothers might consjder us expendable, you know the story. But I also bring enlightenment to the villagers. I clothe and feed the poor, and I build schools and shelter for their children."

"Didja drive the money lenders from the temple, too?"

"Oh, Frank," Earl sighed, dapping a hand to his heart. "Aye, there is the rub. Beside the fact I fear that you nor Vince could possibly repose in ethical comfort with our little outreach, if you stayed I am afraid I would fall desperately in love with you."

"Jordan," Vinnie said, as a warning, "I know, I know, he's taken," he sighed. "Very well, I open the floor to you, dear friends. Paul invites you back to work, if you like. Either way. he understands. If you prefer I can channel you into the DEA, or the KGB or the CIA or one of their front-line Generals, Electric or Dynamks. I can even set you up with your own fast food franchise."

"After this, I just wanna go home," Vince said, sending a tender smile to Frank.. His gaze did not stray. "We can talk about it and let you know later, Jordan."

"Much later," Frank said.

"My cue to leave, I expect," he said, standing. 'Take your time, gentlemen. The southern comforts of home are yours so long as you will have them." He vaulted over the sofa and capered across the room to the door. "Oh, and Frank."

With more than a little trepidation, he looked back.

In time to see Brother Love throw him a kiss.

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen," Earl said," the saddest are it might have been."

He then doffed the hat he'd forsaken on the hall tree and jauntily walked out of the house.

Part Sixteen

Vinnie fought to tuck away a smile. " I think maybe he likes you. Frank."

"I think maybe he likes anything that breathes."

The smile won. "I think maybe I might be jealous."

"Oh, stop. You'll make me ill. Jordan Earl is the distillation of everything I loathe in our culture."

"Oh, he's not so bad" The smile grew a little. "He went to Woodstock." Frank's eyes got big and dark with offense.

"Noway." "That's what he told me."

"Don't believe it. Old Max's farm wasn't big enough to hold everyone who claims they went to Woodstock. You know the one who wrote 'by the time [ got to Woodstock'? She wasn't even at Woodstock. It's like the Mayflower, Vince, to haul all the purported progeny of pilgrims you would need the Seventh Fleet."

"Cara mia Frankie, give it a rest. Jesus," Vince chuckled, pulling Frank into his arms to muss his hair. "So. I think we should head home in the morning. Whadda you wanna do, Marty!"

"You got a ask?" Frank tapped an Italian knee. "What do you wanna do about the Bureau?"

"I think we save it for later, we think about it when we're ready. And we do what we feel comfortable with."

"Whatever you want, big guy." The hand on the knee caressed with reassurances. ''So, what about Paul Beckstead?"

"What about him?" Vinnie shrugged. "He meant well, I guess. It's not like it's the same old organ-grinder snappin' the leash." He planted a kiss in Frank's hair. "Anyway, I think I hocked all of my iIlusions to dupe the bernice police."

Frank tumed to look softly into his lost young gaze, to run a gentle hand along his face. "How come you didn't tell me Brother Love bargained you out?"

"I told you I owed him, Frank. I'll tell you the rest. Eventually. But I didn't wanna remember that then, and I don't wanna think about it now. Right now the only history I have is an hour old." Vinnie nipped at Frank's throat. "And I'm out to make some more."

Frank pulled back for the moment, to once more claim his attention. "One more thing. Droll though he may be, hear the guru out, 'cause he speaketh from experience. I don't know what happened, Vince, I won't try to press you, I'm here when you're ready to talk. And you go ahead and lose your illusions. if you want - we are not stardust, we are not golden, end of story. But dreams and ideals, that's the good stuff. You keep those. You got it?''

The pout aspired to be a smile. His eyes were shining softly. "If you say so, Frank."

"Wait, be still my heart. Presto, it's that easy now? I just issue an order and you do it without bitching?"

Vince grinned, thell reached out to apprehend it beloved pair of round wire-glasses.
"In your dreams, McPike."

The End