Rough Attraction (24 page)

He eyed the
Bodegas Dios Baco, an Imperial Amontillado Jerez
then the bottle of
Remi Martin
. He rubbed his fingers together considering his objectives for the night, “Let’s start with the Jerez first.”

The bartender nodded, filled a tall stemmed tulip, wine glass halfway, and set in front of him. As Maxum took a moment to savor the aromatic plume of the sherry, he glanced over at Trenton to acknowledge him.

“Played it smart and left Simeon at home for a change, huh?” Trenton came up, reaching out to greet Maxum, shaking his hand. He waved him to the end of the bar to join him and Diesel where they sat. Also with them was the always present, Katianna Dumas, who was both his Slave in their lifestyle but also his beloved lover, presently sitting
on
the bar, while Trenton resumed his position between her legs and leaned on the bar’s edge.

Maxum was rather surprised at the jest; aside that Trenton had been rather socially concave since the attempted kidnapping of Katianna, Trenton was never a big jokester either. However, he knew Trenton’s brothers were pushing him to resume his iconic position in the community so Maxum dismissed it as just a fool hearty, albeit poor attempt to start up light conversation, and he dropped into one of the bar seats next to him. “No. Simeon and I have gone separate ways now.”

“Good.” Was all Trenton said as he tipped a shot of his preferred platinum tequila back then followed it with a dab of hot sauce that had been mischievously distributed on Katianna’s fingers, then took the lime she held up for him.

Maxum felt rather contrite by the comment for all of a split second. Unsure how to take it as he watched Trenton feed a glass of wine to his little female. Such a strange and unique relationship they had. Yet it showed that between them as well as in their faces, they were happy. Then realized himself,
it was good
. Simeon had not been the right partner for him for some time and it seemed everyone, but him saw it. There was no need for remorse, or offense for that matter.

“So, now what?” Trenton asked waving the bartender for another round of drinks, then pulled Katianna over for a kiss before releasing her, his eyes floating down her body to the thighs outlined by the soft fabric of her evening gown that clung to them. He brought a hand up and stroked over one of her legs, devilish thoughts reflected in his eyes, clearly entertaining himself silently. Since Maxum couldn’t come up with an answer, the man’s misbehaving thoughts went on until the bartender returned with their drinks and Trenton passed them around, holding his up for a toast. “To new beginnings.”

Maxum hesitated, he hadn’t meant to but the words just fell short of a meaning for him right now. Was this a new beginning? Or was there a grey area one had to suffer through before a new start came. He had a great business that made a lot of people wealthy, he had a home that recited his taste perfectly, he had a garage of cars— all his favorites.

“—but does it have a white picket fence?”

No, it did not. Maxum dropped his eyes staring at the drink in his hands, he could feel them looking at him, even if they weren’t judging him. He looked at the reflecting images on the surface of what was most likely tequila that had been handed to him. White picket fences were things you added to the home after working everything out, so how would he ever have that now?

“You know just because you gave up on someone doesn’t mean you didn’t care. It just means you realized that they didn’t.”

Maxum’s head snapped up to the woman and was met with a teary smile. Her face so warm it touched and held him, and quiet suddenly what she said sank in. weight— so much weight lifted off of him just then like vapors and a small huff of a chuckle came out. She was right— so very right. This wasn’t his fault. “To new beginnings.”

He downed the shot glass and set it on the bar taking up his glass of Jerez once more.
A new beginning
, but his thoughts fell upon the new beginning he had already blundered and perhaps that one was his fault.

“Maybe a vacation to the resort, Paris already has a single’s mingle on the books for May. Get out Maxum. Meet some new guys.” Diesel commented setting his empty shot glass down on the bar and stroked over Kit’s thigh teasingly as he pulled back.

“I already did.” He saw the surprised look on Trenton’s face, “Meet someone, I mean.” He nodded thinking about how quickly he could possible finish off the bottle of Jerez. “He was everything a man could fantasize about. Heady, full-on, open-throttle octane. He was kinda my wake up call. But, I hit the snooze button too many times and pretty much blew it.” He fell silent, swallowing down a long draw of his drink. Behind his eyes, he saw his and Darko’s lovemaking in his mind; burning impressions that would forever have him search for Darko in a man for the rest of his life. “I tried calling him so we could talk, but he wasn’t taking my calls. I must have called at least ten times.”

“Only ten times?” Diesel smirked.

Maxum grimaced, “I seem to have picked up an unfavorable habit of throwing my phones in a manner that is terminal for them.”

Diesel let out a chuckle, and shook his head.

“It’s not funny.”

“Actually it is.” Trenton answered to the response, the fascinated smile hovering just under the surface of his face.

“Glad to have been some amusement then.”

“Don’t get me wrong my friend.” Trenton set his tequila shot down to focus on Maxum. “We’ve known each other for a long time. We’re here because you helped us maximize our spending funds. But, you— you’re one of the most potently self-sufficient business men I have ever worked with. A member of the fortune 500 and you have more money than myself and my brothers combined. I have never known you to waver about any decision.”

“That’s business, this is about emotions. Something I have no batting practice with. For all the worth Simeon had, our relationship had the emotional oomph of a dried out brick of clay. This man sends me on my ear with a simple brush of his hand and the burning desire in his eyes. He was an affair, how could I see anything but compulsive hazards there?”

“Maybe instead you failed to see the growth potential in a new concept. One you haven’t tried before. The highest gains are made in a playing field of high-risk margins. You taught us that.” Diesel chimed in hoping to make an analogy his friend would grasp. He understood when a man had already set the definition, how hard it is to break out of it. So perhaps this way, he could give the man a push. It was worth the try. Someone had the man’s heartstrings, and was dragging him out to sea, because neither was making the final connection. That was something Diesel knew himself. Though he knew exactly where Paris was and what he was doing, the distance between them was painful. A separation he planned to fix soon.

“I’ve grown very reserved over the years.” Maxum refuted with his poor excuse for his position.

Trenton turned in his seat, looking more directly at him, but gave a softer expression than one would ever expect out of a man who held the title of Dominus within the high end BDSM community. “No, just gun shy at a new starting line.”

Maxum sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a huff. He turned back to the bar and waved the bartender to bring a refill and watched as his glass was topped off from the bottle of Jerez. His thoughts wandered about as he held the glass up, just letting the dark nutty tones of the sherry, touched with seawater and white plum, seep into him a moment before drinking it down; far faster than one usually did with a Jerez that cost $75.00 a bottle. Then again, Trenton was right, he could afford it, and seventy-five bucks was nothing to him. Trenton knew him well enough to understand his tastes, not only for the high dollar brands, but knew he had a taste for the dark and uncommon flavors like the bottle of
Daniel Bouju Cognac
his gaze just spotted behind the bar and he was half hankering the idea to bottom it out before the night was over.

He dropped the glass down to the bar and turned glancing at the man. Outside of knowing his tastes, he couldn’t say they’d ever grown close, but he knew he could always trust in Trenton to speak a truth or nothing at all. Trenton didn’t beat around the bush or mince words, and he certainly seemed to have a global perspective on people. Though, that seemed rather irrelevant at this point now. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter any, now. I’ve fucked this one up and threw the race before I gave the track a trial run.”

If Trenton’s expression were any hint, Maxum would have said the man didn’t share his ideas of defeat. Farther, damned if the Dominus didn’t look like he already knew to whom Maxum was all bent out of shape over. He had this oddly amused
cat that caught the canary
look. Maxum shook off the notion. They might be in a small circle of social affairs, but Maxum dismissed it as an unlikely possibility. Trenton couldn’t possibly know his affair had been with Darko Laszkovi.
Could he?

“Come on.” Diesel brushed away from the bar with a nod towards the crowd, “Time to mingle and work up the contributions.”

Maxum gave a reluctant nod, but not so much as Trenton’s was that it had him chuckling to himself, well that and the look Diesel was giving him like he would wrangle him out there if he had to. Likewise, well, you had to know Diesel Gentry to understand he was the kind of man who would do exactly that.

Trenton downed another shot, then lifted his little Slave from the bar, placing her on her feet to walk in front of him. His hand slipped under the long wavy trusses of light brown hair, claiming the back of her neck where it stayed for nearly the remainder of the night; a posture that told everyone—
mine
. Not that anyone had to be told. Anyone who knew who Trenton Leos also knew his life style and who the petite woman was in his life.

He had to admire them. They lived out a relationship the world didn’t understand and scrutiny came before witnessed understanding, yet it marred nothing between them. Trenton never held back how he lived or what he felt for Katianna. Something Maxum too had relished in his life. Being gay in the business world wasn’t always a welcomed candidate to do business with, but he stood by on both aspects of his life. Made men rich and was never secretive that a man slept in his bed.

—Or rather, he had wanted one there. Just one. Sadly, his understanding of
who
the one could be may have come too late.

Socializing at parties was always the sentient nightmare of Maxum’s job. He hated walking through them alone. It was the touching— that was the part he disliked the most. The singles-hunters always reaching out to touch him as if doing so would make him want to be with them. Aside from that, he could wander a crowd as if it were never there. However, going it alone he felt more vulnerable as if he wore a neon sign that screamed—
I’m single come touch and take a chance
. He loathed word getting out that he was now an available bachelor, just on that one thing alone. Luckily, Trenton and Diesel weren’t the type to announce it, not here and so far the touchy-feely encounters had been sporadically few. Save the red head that always grabbed his arm and pulled him to her, to mark his cheek with her richly, red lipstick. That particular
cougar
did so whether Simeon was on his arm or not.
She just didn’t care
. She was also one of his long time clients, apparently very good at her game of gold digging. So, he endured the one offense, but had never allowed her to cross the line beyond that.

The four of them waltzed through, stopping for small talk with a number of elitist, friends,  celebs that lived in the area, social club members, even a few reps from the governors’ team came to support the event in place of the Governor himself. On top of the presence of many of New York’s finest were a few globetrotters along with prized possessions, no doubt purchased by means of Trenton’s Elysian Fields Slave auction.
It was always the adoration in the submissive’s eyes that gave them away.

“Excuse me, I see someone I need to say hello to.” Diesel patted Maxum on the back and disappeared into the crowd. Maxum not interested in fairing the crowd alone stuck with Trenton and fell into a more relaxed and friendly conversation with Dane Masters and his beautiful brother, Vince Masters, tucked guardedly under his arm.

However, if Maxum’s emotions weren’t already out to sea in
that
conversation, the stormy waters had just become worse when he heard the familiar voice of none other than Simeon Correl,  just on the other side of one of the buffet tables. “If you’ll excuse me.” He nodded his apologies then quickly ducked away before Sim could spot him.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

Darko had just sequestered Sognac off to get drinks, while he could use another to settle the turmoil roiling in his gut all night; it was more just to have a moment’s reprieve from the man.

“So what is he?” Diesel asked with some inclining of teasing him. “Flavor of the night?”

Darko scrubbed over his chin a moment. It was almost laughable, if only he had been in the mood to laugh. He and Diesel talked often enough, Deez knew the man he brought wasn’t his type. “More like a spontaneous emotionally driven defiance and last minute bad planning filler.” Darko managed a light chuckle while his eyes drifted out across the crowd. He’d been doing it all night, looking— searching for a face that wasn’t there. It only made his nerves curl a few more times. At this rate, he would be able to launch a small jet across the salt flats test field for all the energy pinging in him.
Where the fuck is Sognac with my beer
? He wondered, now looking for the least likely man he wanted at his side.

“Oh Darko, I don’t know if you two have ever met—”

Darko turned returning his attention to Diesel and the person he was about to be introduced only to come face to face with—

“Maxum St. Laurents. Maxum this is a my friend Darko Laszkovi.”

If the earth had come to a screeching halt at that moment, Darko would surely have been thrown right off and into outer space for all the lack of anchoring, he felt just then.