I waited until we'd almost reached Miami's airport, but I couldn't leave it here. "What's wrong, Zack? You've been pouty for days. You know I need this break."
"Yes, I know. And I can't go, I know that. Once your scenes are in the can, my editing work begins," Zack responded. But he wasn't looking at me. It was as if he couldn't look at me. He just had withdrawn into his corner of the limo seat. I scooted across to his corner and wrapped one hand around his neck and drew his lips to mine. My other hand went to his basket, and I traced the length of him through his worn jeans.
He returned my kiss hungrily, as if there was no tomorrow, and then he abruptly closed it down and turned his head away, his face pointed to the palm trees lining the approach to the terminal beyond the smoked glass of the Lincoln's windows.
"Zack."
"Go. Go with the wind, Dane Dixon," he muttered. But it came out choked. I wasn't amused. The line was from one of my least-favorite movie gigs, although it had been a crowd pleaser. And neither he nor I were fond of that name. And I knew then that something was seriously wrong. He only used my movie name—made fun of my work like this—when he was mad, or moody, or sad.
"It's only for a week, Zack. I need this change. The schedule's just too hectic. Just a week and I'll be back."
"Yes, yes, of course you will be," he answered in a small, distant voice. "And I hope you find it, whatever it is."
I didn't want to leave it there, but we had arrived at the terminal, and the passenger door was open. I took Zack's hand, trying to draw him across the seat and out of the limo with me so we wouldn't leave it there. But he resisted, refusing to be drawn from his corner, and I could tell from the murmurs and exclamations from the curb that I had been seen and recognized.
And if there were cameras, I knew I couldn't draw Zack out of the car with me.
A hell of a place to leave it. And how did he know I wasn't planning on coming back to him?
* * *
I recognized what the driver the studio had sent to pick me up at the Acapulco airport had in mind the moment I caught sight of him when the first-class passengers were escorted off the plane. He was looking for faces only until he recognized mine and then his eyes went straight to my basket. It was a typical reaction; everyone who knew my movies wanted to have some sort of assurance that it was true. Well, he was a good-looking, sturdy muscle man, so I decided he might just get the tumble he was hoping for.
"This way, Mr. Dixon," he said almost reverently. "If you'll pick your bags out, I'll retrieve them. The limo is just outside the door to baggage claim. They didn't tell me where to take you, though."
"The Acapulco Las Palmes," I answered as we walked along the corridor. He wasn't Mexican. More Jamaican, I thought. Really nice build; bulging shoulder muscles; filled out the well-pressed black chauffeur's uniform really nicely.
"Of course," he answered, and he flashed me an all-white-teeth-parting-puffy-chocolate-lips smile that lit up the terminal. The Las Palmes was, of course, the premier gay hotel on the beach. If he'd ever wondered how much I was acting in my movies, this gave him some assurances.
"Clubs?" I asked as we neared the baggage claim carousels. "Appropriate clubs? They said my driver would have some brochures."
"Yes, sir. That must be the bundle of brochures they put in the back seat of the limo before I took off. And I'm at your disposal full time, sir. Whenever you are ready to go back out this evening, just ring the front desk."
We had reached the baggage claim just as the bell for the arrival of the luggage sounded and the carousel began to gin up.
"Thanks, umm—"
"Jomo. They all call me Jomo, sir."
"Thanks, Jomo," I said and gave him my best impression of a grateful smile. I turned toward the carousel to identify my bags, but I felt a tug on my arm, and I turned back to see that familiar look in Jomo's face.
"And when I said I'm at your disposal, sir, I meant I'm at your full disposal."
"Umm, thanks. That's very nice to hear, Jomo," I said. And it was, in fact, very good to hear. "Oh, there. That's one of mine coming down the chute now."
* * *
Jomo must have called ahead to the Las Palmes as we approached it, because the front staffers were at full attention when the limo pulled up to the front entrance. I hadn't really paid any attention, as my mind was engrossed in the brochures I had found on the car seat advertising the gay clubs in the city. I knew I wanted to let loose, to do the town without the bevy of handlers I had to endure in L.A. and Miami, but I couldn't quite decide where to start. I don't know why, but there always seemed to be something out there, something more than where I was at any given moment, that I was striving for.
But we were at the hotel now; I'd have to decide on the clubs to hit later. The door to the limo was opening and several grinning faces were staring in at me. None of them dwelled on my face, though. I could see all of the eyes snap to my crotch as I unfolded myself and stepped out onto the pavement. Well, this was what I got paid for. And I made damn sure my tailor knew that too. So, I gave them an eyeful.
Dozens of hands vied to carry my luggage into the hotel. I did like faces, though. And a variety of builds, but always something solid and well-muscled about them. From long practice, I made an instantaneous decision in favor of a small- but well-built young Hispanic with an angelic face and striking dark eyes above well-cut cheek bones. He had hung back, a little shy, but I got the impression that this was a pose he had learned to project to make himself distinctive. Slight, with a boyish figure, but when I looked at him and motioned to my luggage, he showed that he was strong as an ox.
I left Jomo looking hopeful with assurances that I'd need his services later and that I'd be calling him around 10 p.m., probably after a bath and shower and some supper, and I followed the tight-assed room boy to the bank of elevators.
The elevator went all the way to the top floor, while the room boy looked up at me with those bedroom eyes of his.
In the room, he opened and tested and pointed out everything he could think of, floating around the room, giving me his full "look at me" performance. When he couldn't think of anything else to demonstrate, he went to the door and turned back to me.
"Anything else you need, sir? Anything, anything at all that you want?"
And he was talking to my basket.
I walked over to him, a fair amount of cash visible in my hand.
When he reached out to get it, he looked up into my eyes again with "that" look.
"Yes, perhaps just one more thing," I said.
He smiled. He had put his hand in the one I was holding the money in, but neither one of us broke our grip. Then, with his other hand, he pushed the door to the corridor closed behind him and sank to his knees in front of me.
He unzipped me, and I thought he was going to swoon at what he found. But that didn't prevent from trying to swallow it whole.
He was gurgling and whimpering as he was bent over the foot of the bed and I was crouched closely behind him and stroking deeper and deeper into his channel. I had offered him an out when he had gotten the true measure of me, but, although he stuttered in reply, he insisted he was game and that he wanted to take it all. He had spread his legs wide when I first entered him, and he had cried out at the thickness and deepness of the invasion, but, once sheathed, I pushed his thighs in with mine and reveled in his tightness.
I rarely got partners of his size, and it was exhilarating to control a man in a boy's body, to overpower him so totally and to see such small, pert cheeks and a rosebud of a hole swallow what I had to drive inside him.
Yes, quite enjoyable. Very nice. But then, far from completion, my mind began to wander. He was panting and groaning and writhing under me, without a doubt getting the fuck of his life. Crying out that he was undone, crying out for more, for conquering of never-before reached depths, so beside himself that he was forgetting his well-learned English and was gurgling off into beleaguered, sputtering Spanish punctuated with sharp cries of the overfilled and fully transported.