A/N: Yes, thought I'd throw in a sort of cliffhanger here, just to drive everybody crazy:P Thanks for all the reviews, folks; they helped me to work on this story despite the dregs of the apathy I'm still feeling. And if you want to know what Jazz is going to say next, let me know...-DL
Chapter 6
Jazz gasped in pure outrage. “A month?! You want me to go without sex for a month just to get with you?! Just how good do you think you are, anyway?”
Xavier’s lips lifted in a rather wicked smile. “Really good,” he replied silkily.
Jazz felt the muscles in his stomach contract, but at the same he lifted his chin defiantly. “Whatever,” he sneered. “No one’s THAT good! And I’m sorry, I’ve never been desperate enough to get with ANYONE to give in to ultimatums. So you can take your offer and shove it!”
Xavier shrugged. “Fine. If that’s what you want, Jazz. Listen, I’m going to go take a shower and get dressed. Why don’t you go back to my office, and we’ll go over your sketches when I’m finished?”
Jazz blinked, thrown by his cool, professional manner. He’d expected a much different reaction to his outrage. Seeing his expression, Xavier shook his head slightly. “Jazz, I’ve made it clear what has to happen for us to sleep together. If you’re not willing to do it, then that’s that. We’ll still continue to work together, but that’s it.”
He scowled petulantly. He’d wanted Xavier to be much more unhappy that he wasn’t willing to be celibate for a month. He wanted the man to suffer! It wasn’t fair that he could be so cool about the whole thing! “Fine,” he snarled darkly.
Xavier’s lips twitched. “I’ll just go and shower now,” he remarked, before he strolled out of the bathroom with a casual wave of his hand in Jazz’s direction.
Jazz growled to himself, folding his arms over his chest. That was it! He’d show that insufferable bastard that he didn’t care in the least, either! He’d go and find lots of gorgeous, sexy guys to take his mind off of Xavier Paretiss, and they’d have tons of great sex, and he’d never once think about that horrible(if incredibly sexy) son-of-a-bitch ever again…
Jazz lay panting, listening to the snoring breaths of the guy who’d just rolled over and gone to sleep beside him. That had been…incredible! Some of the best sex he’d had in awhile! Just one problem…it hadn’t started out that great, and had only gone mind-blowing when he’d closed his eyes and started fantasizing about a certain sexy bastard in his head…
That’s right. Only when he’d started thinking about Xavier’s half-naked body and the darkly animal gleam in his eyes in the bathroom had he been able to really get into it. He’d had his eyes closed the entire time, and fantasies about Xavier plowing him into the mattress had not only gotten him through but had given him an amazing sexual experience. He groaned, draping his arm over his eyes. This was bad. Really bad. Because it had been almost a week since Xavier had given him that ultimatum in the bathroom, and every day it became harder for Jazz to get off without fantasizing about Xavier. The men he picked up were interchangeable bodies; he wasn’t even sure of this one’s name.
What was he going to do? What if it got worse? It didn’t help that he was still working closely with the object of his fantasies every day; seeing Xavier, even in a business suit, always made his heartbeat kick up and his breathing come short. Even Xavier’s professional but distantly friendly attitude wasn’t helping. Because he couldn’t forget Xavier’s voice saying darkly that he was “Really good,” and every time he thought about those words he got so horny that it literally took his breath away…
Jazz rolled over on his side and moodily stared at the clock on the bedside table. He didn’t feel like he was ‘showing Xavier’ anything, because the man didn’t seem to care that he was continuing his normal promiscuous ways. It frustrated and infuriated him, that he couldn’t seem to make a dent in the man’s calm manner. Made Jazz want to punch him in the face. Not that that would have any effect on a former MMA fighter; Jazz didn’t work out much, and his arms were kind of weak. Xavier probably wouldn’t even blink. Asshole.
He scowled, closing his eyes determinedly. He was going to go to sleep, and tomorrow he was going to try again. He’d pick up a guy so hot that he’d set Jazz on fire, and he’d stop fantasizing about a certain ugly bastard in the sack. Yes, that’s what was going to happen. He’d make it happen…
Jazz moaned lowly, holding on to the man driving into him. Yes, this was good! He wasn’t thinking about Xavier! And the sex was great! He was free! Take that, Xavier Paretiss!
He was going to come. Jazz cried out, arching his back, as the man on top of him pounded him into the mattress. He’d picked the right man to help him forget. Maybe he’d keep on sleeping with this one…
Here it came…yes…yes… He opened his mouth, and called out a name loudly and in ecstasy: “Xavier!” he wailed, “Oh, God, yes!!”
He froze, his eyes going wide. The man atop him stilled, lifting his head. He frowned. “My name is Ben,” he husked.
“I’m sorry,” Jazz groaned.
The man rolled off of him, withdrawing from Jazz’s body. He sat up, frowning. “Man, that is a buzz kill,” he muttered. “Calling out another guy’s name when we’re doing it. Who’s this Xavier?”
Jazz sighed, scrubbing at his face with his hands. “Just this guy who turned me down,” he said wearily.
A disbelieving laugh. “You’re calling out the name of a guy you haven’t even slept with?” Ben said incredulously.
“Yeah. I don’t know why,” Jazz said miserably.
Silence. Then Ben remarked: “Maybe you should think about why,” he said tartly. “Before you have sex with anybody else. Because let me tell you, dude, that was a major turn-off.”
“I’m sorry,” Jazz said again, lowering his hands.
Ben waved a hand at him, but he also got up and began to collect his clothes from the floor of Jazz’s bedroom. “Don’t sweat it,” he said.
“Can’t you stay?” Jazz said hopelessly.
Ben sighed. “No. I’m not willing to play second fiddle to somebody else, even with a one-night-stand. I’ll just go,” he finished dressing and left, and Jazz lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling as his front door closed.
Oh, God. This was worse than the fantasizing! Calling out Xavier’s name during sex…some guys might not mind, but he shrewdly guessed that many of them would react just like Ben had. And what if he kept doing it? His love life would go to hell. “Fuck,” he muttered half under his breath. This just kept getting worse and worse. What should he do now?
Xavier looked up when Jazz entered his office the next morning. He eyed the black scowl on Jazz’s beautiful face thoughtfully. “Looks like somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” he noted.
Jazz threw himself down in the leather chair and turned his black stare on Xavier. “I hate you,” he said succinctly.
Xavier lifted a thick black eyebrow. “Do you? Why?” he asked with interest.
Jazz gave him a petulant scowl. “None of your business,” he said rudely.
“I’d think it actually would be, if you hate me,” he pointed out calmly.
Jazz snarled at him. “You suck,” he snapped.
Xavier’s lips twitched slightly. “Do I?”
He folded his arms mutinously across his chest. “Yeah,” he said, refraining from sticking his tongue out at Xavier only with an effort.
“Why do I suck? Can I at least know that?” Xavier asked him, folding his hands together in front of him on his desktop.
Jazz growled. “Well, if you must know, you’re ruining my love life!” he said rather shrilly.
“How am I doing that?” Xavier asked him curiously, cocking his head to the side.
Jazz jumped to his feet and began to pace around the office in agitation. “Because I can’t stop fantasizing about you!” he nearly wailed, pulling at his silvery locks with his fingers. “Even when I’m with other guys! And last night, I called out your name when I was with this really hot guy, and he left because of that!”
“Ah,” Xavier said thoughtfully behind him.
He whirled around, pointing a trembling finger at Xavier, “Whatever you did to me, make it stop!” he cried.
“I didn’t do anything to you, Jazz,” Xavier told him.
“Yes, you did! You put a spell on me or something!” Jazz said in agitation, starting to pace again.
“Much as it would be nice to know that I have magical powers, I’m afraid that it isn’t true.” Xavier said dryly.
Jazz felt tears come to his eyes. “What am I going to do?” he asked miserably of the air, his shoulders hunching.
“Jazz, come here,” this command made him turn toward Xavier,. And he saw that the other man had pushed his chair put from his desk and was holding out his hand. He hesitated, but at last he walked over to Xavier.
To his surprise, Xavier took his hand and pulled him relentlessly forward. Jazz found himself sitting on the man’s lap like a kid sitting on Santa’s at Christmas. When he would have protested this indignanty, Xavier stopped him by pulling his head down and putting his mouth over Jazz’s.
It wasn’t a deep or long kiss, but it still left his head whirling by the time that Xavier lifted his head. “Jazz,” he said softly. “I’m going to tell you something. The reason I won’t sleep with promiscuous men is because back when I was still an MMA fighter, I had a boyfriend. His name was Danny Ramirez, and he was a fighter too. I was crazy about him. We had to keep our relationship secret at the time, because being gay and an MMA fighter…the two don’t really mix all that well, not in people’s minds. So we dated on the sly, and I was thinking that when we retired we’d live together, and maybe get married in a state where it was legal. I was totally serious about us. Turns out, though, that Danny wasn’t. He just thought of me as another one of the guys he had sex with. And it was a long line, let me tell you. I found out when this guy at a bar one night saw me with Danny, and asked if I’d slept with him, too. When I asked him what he meant by ’too’, he told me that he knew of at least a dozen gay guys who’d gotten with Danny in the last few months. Seems his fame as an MMA fighter was getting him more tail than a champion at the Westminster Dog Show.”
He paused, his mouth a grim line. “I was devastated, Jazz,” he went on quietly after a moment. “When I confronted Danny, he just shrugged it off. He said that we’d had a good time, but that was it. He wasn’t interested in settling down with just one guy. And he said that he supposed he should have told me about his catting around, but he didn’t want me to be upset. I punched him so hard I broke two bones in my hand,” he added tiredly. “And I threw him out. But ever since then, I’ve had trust issues where men are concerned. So being attracted to someone like you, someone so promiscuous…I’ve tried hard to keep my distance from you. Because I don’t want to be hurt again. That’ s why I wanted you to be celibate for a month, too. Because I don’t trust anybody anymore.”
“Oh,” Jazz breathed in understanding. He sighed, a long exhalation of breath. “You’re not the only one who doesn’t trust anybody, Xavier…”
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Chapter 6
Jazz gasped in pure outrage. “A month?! You want me to go without sex for a month just to get with you?! Just how good do you think you are, anyway?”
Xavier’s lips lifted in a rather wicked smile. “Really good,” he replied silkily.
Jazz felt the muscles in his stomach contract, but at the same he lifted his chin defiantly. “Whatever,” he sneered. “No one’s THAT good! And I’m sorry, I’ve never been desperate enough to get with ANYONE to give in to ultimatums. So you can take your offer and shove it!”
Xavier shrugged. “Fine. If that’s what you want, Jazz. Listen, I’m going to go take a shower and get dressed. Why don’t you go back to my office, and we’ll go over your sketches when I’m finished?”
Jazz blinked, thrown by his cool, professional manner. He’d expected a much different reaction to his outrage. Seeing his expression, Xavier shook his head slightly. “Jazz, I’ve made it clear what has to happen for us to sleep together. If you’re not willing to do it, then that’s that. We’ll still continue to work together, but that’s it.”
He scowled petulantly. He’d wanted Xavier to be much more unhappy that he wasn’t willing to be celibate for a month. He wanted the man to suffer! It wasn’t fair that he could be so cool about the whole thing! “Fine,” he snarled darkly.
Xavier’s lips twitched. “I’ll just go and shower now,” he remarked, before he strolled out of the bathroom with a casual wave of his hand in Jazz’s direction.
Jazz growled to himself, folding his arms over his chest. That was it! He’d show that insufferable bastard that he didn’t care in the least, either! He’d go and find lots of gorgeous, sexy guys to take his mind off of Xavier Paretiss, and they’d have tons of great sex, and he’d never once think about that horrible(if incredibly sexy) son-of-a-bitch ever again…
Jazz lay panting, listening to the snoring breaths of the guy who’d just rolled over and gone to sleep beside him. That had been…incredible! Some of the best sex he’d had in awhile! Just one problem…it hadn’t started out that great, and had only gone mind-blowing when he’d closed his eyes and started fantasizing about a certain sexy bastard in his head…
That’s right. Only when he’d started thinking about Xavier’s half-naked body and the darkly animal gleam in his eyes in the bathroom had he been able to really get into it. He’d had his eyes closed the entire time, and fantasies about Xavier plowing him into the mattress had not only gotten him through but had given him an amazing sexual experience. He groaned, draping his arm over his eyes. This was bad. Really bad. Because it had been almost a week since Xavier had given him that ultimatum in the bathroom, and every day it became harder for Jazz to get off without fantasizing about Xavier. The men he picked up were interchangeable bodies; he wasn’t even sure of this one’s name.
What was he going to do? What if it got worse? It didn’t help that he was still working closely with the object of his fantasies every day; seeing Xavier, even in a business suit, always made his heartbeat kick up and his breathing come short. Even Xavier’s professional but distantly friendly attitude wasn’t helping. Because he couldn’t forget Xavier’s voice saying darkly that he was “Really good,” and every time he thought about those words he got so horny that it literally took his breath away…
Jazz rolled over on his side and moodily stared at the clock on the bedside table. He didn’t feel like he was ‘showing Xavier’ anything, because the man didn’t seem to care that he was continuing his normal promiscuous ways. It frustrated and infuriated him, that he couldn’t seem to make a dent in the man’s calm manner. Made Jazz want to punch him in the face. Not that that would have any effect on a former MMA fighter; Jazz didn’t work out much, and his arms were kind of weak. Xavier probably wouldn’t even blink. Asshole.
He scowled, closing his eyes determinedly. He was going to go to sleep, and tomorrow he was going to try again. He’d pick up a guy so hot that he’d set Jazz on fire, and he’d stop fantasizing about a certain ugly bastard in the sack. Yes, that’s what was going to happen. He’d make it happen…
Jazz moaned lowly, holding on to the man driving into him. Yes, this was good! He wasn’t thinking about Xavier! And the sex was great! He was free! Take that, Xavier Paretiss!
He was going to come. Jazz cried out, arching his back, as the man on top of him pounded him into the mattress. He’d picked the right man to help him forget. Maybe he’d keep on sleeping with this one…
Here it came…yes…yes… He opened his mouth, and called out a name loudly and in ecstasy: “Xavier!” he wailed, “Oh, God, yes!!”
He froze, his eyes going wide. The man atop him stilled, lifting his head. He frowned. “My name is Ben,” he husked.
“I’m sorry,” Jazz groaned.
The man rolled off of him, withdrawing from Jazz’s body. He sat up, frowning. “Man, that is a buzz kill,” he muttered. “Calling out another guy’s name when we’re doing it. Who’s this Xavier?”
Jazz sighed, scrubbing at his face with his hands. “Just this guy who turned me down,” he said wearily.
A disbelieving laugh. “You’re calling out the name of a guy you haven’t even slept with?” Ben said incredulously.
“Yeah. I don’t know why,” Jazz said miserably.
Silence. Then Ben remarked: “Maybe you should think about why,” he said tartly. “Before you have sex with anybody else. Because let me tell you, dude, that was a major turn-off.”
“I’m sorry,” Jazz said again, lowering his hands.
Ben waved a hand at him, but he also got up and began to collect his clothes from the floor of Jazz’s bedroom. “Don’t sweat it,” he said.
“Can’t you stay?” Jazz said hopelessly.
Ben sighed. “No. I’m not willing to play second fiddle to somebody else, even with a one-night-stand. I’ll just go,” he finished dressing and left, and Jazz lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling as his front door closed.
Oh, God. This was worse than the fantasizing! Calling out Xavier’s name during sex…some guys might not mind, but he shrewdly guessed that many of them would react just like Ben had. And what if he kept doing it? His love life would go to hell. “Fuck,” he muttered half under his breath. This just kept getting worse and worse. What should he do now?
Xavier looked up when Jazz entered his office the next morning. He eyed the black scowl on Jazz’s beautiful face thoughtfully. “Looks like somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” he noted.
Jazz threw himself down in the leather chair and turned his black stare on Xavier. “I hate you,” he said succinctly.
Xavier lifted a thick black eyebrow. “Do you? Why?” he asked with interest.
Jazz gave him a petulant scowl. “None of your business,” he said rudely.
“I’d think it actually would be, if you hate me,” he pointed out calmly.
Jazz snarled at him. “You suck,” he snapped.
Xavier’s lips twitched slightly. “Do I?”
He folded his arms mutinously across his chest. “Yeah,” he said, refraining from sticking his tongue out at Xavier only with an effort.
“Why do I suck? Can I at least know that?” Xavier asked him, folding his hands together in front of him on his desktop.
Jazz growled. “Well, if you must know, you’re ruining my love life!” he said rather shrilly.
“How am I doing that?” Xavier asked him curiously, cocking his head to the side.
Jazz jumped to his feet and began to pace around the office in agitation. “Because I can’t stop fantasizing about you!” he nearly wailed, pulling at his silvery locks with his fingers. “Even when I’m with other guys! And last night, I called out your name when I was with this really hot guy, and he left because of that!”
“Ah,” Xavier said thoughtfully behind him.
He whirled around, pointing a trembling finger at Xavier, “Whatever you did to me, make it stop!” he cried.
“I didn’t do anything to you, Jazz,” Xavier told him.
“Yes, you did! You put a spell on me or something!” Jazz said in agitation, starting to pace again.
“Much as it would be nice to know that I have magical powers, I’m afraid that it isn’t true.” Xavier said dryly.
Jazz felt tears come to his eyes. “What am I going to do?” he asked miserably of the air, his shoulders hunching.
“Jazz, come here,” this command made him turn toward Xavier,. And he saw that the other man had pushed his chair put from his desk and was holding out his hand. He hesitated, but at last he walked over to Xavier.
To his surprise, Xavier took his hand and pulled him relentlessly forward. Jazz found himself sitting on the man’s lap like a kid sitting on Santa’s at Christmas. When he would have protested this indignanty, Xavier stopped him by pulling his head down and putting his mouth over Jazz’s.
It wasn’t a deep or long kiss, but it still left his head whirling by the time that Xavier lifted his head. “Jazz,” he said softly. “I’m going to tell you something. The reason I won’t sleep with promiscuous men is because back when I was still an MMA fighter, I had a boyfriend. His name was Danny Ramirez, and he was a fighter too. I was crazy about him. We had to keep our relationship secret at the time, because being gay and an MMA fighter…the two don’t really mix all that well, not in people’s minds. So we dated on the sly, and I was thinking that when we retired we’d live together, and maybe get married in a state where it was legal. I was totally serious about us. Turns out, though, that Danny wasn’t. He just thought of me as another one of the guys he had sex with. And it was a long line, let me tell you. I found out when this guy at a bar one night saw me with Danny, and asked if I’d slept with him, too. When I asked him what he meant by ’too’, he told me that he knew of at least a dozen gay guys who’d gotten with Danny in the last few months. Seems his fame as an MMA fighter was getting him more tail than a champion at the Westminster Dog Show.”
He paused, his mouth a grim line. “I was devastated, Jazz,” he went on quietly after a moment. “When I confronted Danny, he just shrugged it off. He said that we’d had a good time, but that was it. He wasn’t interested in settling down with just one guy. And he said that he supposed he should have told me about his catting around, but he didn’t want me to be upset. I punched him so hard I broke two bones in my hand,” he added tiredly. “And I threw him out. But ever since then, I’ve had trust issues where men are concerned. So being attracted to someone like you, someone so promiscuous…I’ve tried hard to keep my distance from you. Because I don’t want to be hurt again. That’ s why I wanted you to be celibate for a month, too. Because I don’t trust anybody anymore.”
“Oh,” Jazz breathed in understanding. He sighed, a long exhalation of breath. “You’re not the only one who doesn’t trust anybody, Xavier…”
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