"I just don't feel like going out tonight, Sean," Orlando insisted, for at least the third time.
"Very well," Sean said in annoyance, "then I will stay in with you."
Orlando sighed, but he had seen this coming. "Darling, that isn't fair to you. Just because I'm a bit out of sorts doesn't mean you shouldn't go on and have fun."
"And how would you propose I do that without you with me, Orlando?"
Orlando laughed off the sharp question. "Come off it, Seanie, you're always the life of the party."
"Don't sell yourself short," Sean said pointedly. He knew that nervous laugh of Orlando's, knew it well.
"I'm just not feeling well. I was going to lie down and go to bed early. Why should you sit here and do naught while I sleep it off when you can go on out? I'm not dying, sweetheart, but I won't be any fun either," Orlando rationalized. "Just go, tell them I'm sorry for not coming, drink until you're having fun, even without me, and take a cab home."
Sean just looked hard at Orlando for a long while. "You know, you are looking a little peaked. Maybe you should lie down. Come on, I'll get you all settled in for the night and then I will go out so that you won't be disturbed, at least until I come back and crawl into bed drunk. Fair enough, my precious?"
"Now you're being reasonable," Orlando said, relieved.
Sean insisted on getting him changed into a pair of a lounge pants and even tucking him in. "Feeling more comfortable?" Sean asked sweetly.
"Yeah. I'll be fine, Seanie, you'll see," Orlando said.
"Sure you will. I promise you I won't be out too long, I'll just stay long enough so no one feels offended," Sean said, kissing Orlando's forehead. "You get some rest; I'll expect to see you asleep when I'm back."
"I imagine I will be," Orlando said with a slight smile.
"Right. Good night, then." Sean took his suit jacket out of the closet and shrugged into it, reaching further back behind his and Orlando's garments to a hidden niche. His hand closed around a cold item and he slipped it into his pocket and walked out of the bedroom. "I'll turn out the lights in the lounge," Sean called, "but I'm leaving the one in the foyer."
"Fine," Orlando called back, relief coursing through him when he heard their front door bang shut. He'd been sure Sean would never leave and he only had about ten minutes before he expected his own private party to begin. He guessed he really didn't have anything to do, so he just tossed back the blanket Sean had meticulously settled over him and waited. Being found already in bed could certainly be fun too!
<hr>
The elevator doors opened and Viggo cautiously peered out into the hallway. It was empty save the garish but obviously high-end décor. It was to the left, Orlando had said, number 910. He took a deep breath as he just stood outside the apartment door for a moment, then he reached up along the lintel where Orlando said he'd leave a spare key. He felt along the length but there was nothing there. He sighed and pulled out his mobile.
The little buzzing sound coming from the pocket of his discarded trousers caught Orlando's attention and he rifled through the pile of clothes until he got to the phone. Viggo's number showed on the ID.
"Vig? What's wrong, what's happened?" Orlando asked nervously as he opened the phone to answer the call.
"Nothing, except that I can't find your key," Viggo said. "You did say it was 910, right?"
"Yeah, I left the key this afternoon... you're sure it's not there? Of course you are, what am I saying. Just a moment, I'll let you in," Orlando said, clicking the phone shut, getting out of bed and padding into the foyer.
Viggo just leaned against the door post until he heard the lock turn and the door was opened. His tongue flicked out over his lower lip as he was greeted with those glittering brown eyes and that sweet smile.
"I can't imagine where it went," Orlando said, reaching up to feel for the key himself.
"Let's not worry about that right now," Viggo drawled, wrapping his arms around Orlando's waist.
Orlando laughed and pulled Viggo back inside with him, lest anyone should see them.
Viggo turned Orlando around pressing him back against the door and taking advantage of his position to suckle at Orlando's neck.
"No marks," Orlando whispered.
Viggo fought the temptation to roll his eyes; Orlando said just that every single time. He understood why, but he couldn't understand why Orlando chose to stay in a relationship he wasn't happy with. "What if I should leave a mark here?" Viggo asked quietly, his cerulean eyes bright, pressing a hand against Orlando's naked chest over his already pounding heart.
The rasping quality of Viggo's voice always made Orlando smile, but when he pitched his tone low like that it made him go both achingly hard and tenderly soft.
"You think you haven't already?" Orlando replied, wrapping his arms around Viggo and kissed him soundly.
"Guess you don't believe in wasting time," Viggo said as their lips separated, running a hand down his lover's flank to the waistband of the flannel sleep pants.
"No, I don't," Orlando confirmed, "but in this case, I had to tell Sean I wasn't feeling up to coming with him, so I let him see me go to bed early."
"I see, and do you always wear so much to bed, Mr. Bloom?" Viggo teased, nuzzling just under Orlando's jaw line.
Orlando tilted his head back to allow Viggo better access. "No... not always, is that a problem?" he husked as Viggo's shaggy blond hair tickled his shoulder.
"I'm certainly not objecting," Viggo said, just then feeling Orlando's hips press forward. He thought it might be just as well that they were working with a limited time-frame that night, as he wasn't sure how long he was actually going to last.
"I am objecting," came a cold voice out of the darkened lounge. "Good evening, Mr. Mortensen."
Viggo stiffened. He lifted his head from his lover's neck and turned slowly to meet a pair of flashing green eyes.
Sean advanced on Viggo with a glare that would break most men in two. "I'd thought your work for us was done months ago, Mr. Mortensen. I hadn't expected to see our artist stop in to see how we are exhibiting his work."
Viggo remained silent and unwavering.
"Sean... Sean, listen to me," Orlando begged. "This isn't the way you think -"
"I might have expected such a pedestrian excuse from you," Sean sneered at Orlando. "What about you, Mortensen? You're the creative one, what sort of tale can you come up with? Either way, it's not me who listens to you, Orlando; it's you who listens to me. I thought you'd figured that out by now."
"That's not the way a good relationship works," Viggo said heatedly, finally breaking his silence.
"You'd know, then?" Sean demanded loudly. "You'd know a good relationship, would you? Tell me, is lying and sneaking a basis for a good relationship? Or is it just bloody, dirty dishonorable?"
"Dishonorable is the way you treat Orlando," Viggo said boldly, despite Orlando's whispered pleas that he not provoke Sean.
"Don't kid yourself," Sean smirked, "he loves it rough. You mean he's never begged you for a good spanking?" Sean caught the minute flicker in Viggo's eyes and exploited it. "So then, what are you going to do now that you are caught? You going to run out of here, fight me for him, or what?"
For a moment, Viggo realized that he'd never considered what he'd do in that situation. There was only one choice, though, and it was something that he felt he should have done some time ago. "Orlando, come with me?"
Orlando looked distressed as two sets of eyes, one pleading blue, the other hard green, turned to him. "Vig... I-I don't... I don't know if... "
"You told me you didn't want to stay," Viggo said gently, seeing how afraid Orlando was, "so come with me."
"Maybe he lied about that too, Mortensen," Sean said with dangerous calm. "Maybe it was all just a game to him."
Orlando shook his head but couldn't find the words to tell Viggo that he wanted to go with him, dearly wanted it, but...
"So I expect you'll just be going then," Sean said, removing his hand from his jacket pocket, revealing the Beretta in his hand.
"God... Sean, stop this," Orlando begged in terror.
Viggo, however, was now more determined than before to get Orlando out of there as fast as possible. "Orli', come with me, just come with me and we can forget all of this."
Sean's eyes were still trained on Viggo. "I thought you were leaving," he said evenly, raising the gun.
Orlando looked between the other two men and realized at once that Viggo was so stubborn that not even a semi-automatic weapon pointed at him was going to change his mind. "Sean, just leave him alone," Orlando pleaded frantically, stepping closer to him.
"Orlando, don't do this," Viggo said, growing fearful that the younger man actually did intend to stay there with his dangerous boyfriend.
"Don't Sean," Orlando said grabbing at the barrel of the pistol to get it away from Sean.
"Stop it, Orlando," Sean hissed, pulling the gun back, "you'll end up -"
The end of Sean's thought was swallowed up in the deafening sound of the weapon discharging.
Orlando collapsed to the floor, Viggo at his side almost before he hit the ground.
Sean was frozen in horror and dropped the gun as if it burnt him. In panic, Sean ran from the apartment and out of the building onto the darkened streets of London.
"You'll be all right," Viggo said to Orlando over and over, grasping his hand and stroking back his dark brown curls. "Don't worry, you'll be all right, I'm here."
Orlando shook his head as he tried to draw in a breath. It hurt so much even just to breathe. He looked up into Viggo's scared eyes and thought how ironic it was that it comforted him that the man he loved didn't really believe his own words.
Orlando forced himself to suck in a breath, he needed to tell Viggo something that he should have told him a long time ago, and he needed to be able to say it before the brightness that was blinding him took over. "Love... ," Orlando rasped, fighting for just one more breath to finish what he needed to convey.
It never came.
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