Title: Caravaggio’s Painting / Taking up the Trail Author: klatschmohn and Ashlyn K. Toliver E-Mail: KTR525@yahoo.com Rating: NC-17 Characters: Sean B./Viggo M., Orlando B. Warning: BDSM, Violence Disclaimer: All fiction! Summary: Orlando thinks the wrong man has Viggo – but in love and war all means are allowed, aren’t they? Chapter 1: Taking up the Trail It had been so long since I saw him. Viggo. He was still as sexy…Still as gorgeous. Still able to take my breath away with those eyes and that smile. Some time ago I’d overheard a couple of women dish cattily that with all the money Viggo has now, (obviously not knowing that whatever money Viggo made more than likely had been spent on his horses and his publishing company) one would think he could afford to have something done about the crookedness of his teeth, but I happened to like the imperfections. It made him real, accessible. He wouldn’t have been my Viggo without that smile. I still thought of him as mine – at one point he could have been mine. He should have been mine. I snuck up slowly behind him, my eyes full of mischief. With a finger to my lips, I warned the young reporter not to do or say anything that might alert him to my presence. With the element of surprise in my corner, I launched myself towards him, wrapping my arms tightly around him like steel bands. I may look fragile, but as they say, looks are deceiving. I will always be slight, but my body is quite well-built. Eagerly I covered the older man’s whiskery cheeks with passionate and insistent kisses, seeking that mouth that I’d so longed to taste again. That mouth I’d been dreaming of for so long. Viggo, recovering from my assault, slowly yet gently pulled himself away from me and I could read everything he felt in his eyes. Nothing had changed. He stroked my hair softly, like one would do a cherished pet, and it was all I could do not to fall at his knees and curl up like a contented feline. He smiled awkwardly as he did so and I was torn between overwhelming desire and insane jealousy. I knew my antics would wind up as tabloid fodder, but I just didn’t care. I was Orlando Bloom and I could do no wrong. If I felt like kissing my former co-star, then who had the right to tell me no? Besides, he was my Viggo. “Man, have I missed you,” I said and it was true. Kate tried her best, but she just wasn’t him. I didn’t even love her, and I think she knew that. “I’m glad to see you too,” he replied softly and his eyes were kind, but I didn’t have to ask. That detested name, haunting me like a specter, coming between me and the man who should have been mine. I was the one who truly deserved him. Viggo was with him still. Sean. Sean fucking-I-wish-him-into-the-deepest-circle-of-hell Bean. The man who broke Viggo’s tender heart in a million pieces because he could. I remembered it so well, I remembered the trip they took together alone, best friends off on a jaunt across the wilderness of New Zealand. I remembered drinking a lot, sleeping with anyone who wanted me, doing idiotic and dangerous things like jumping out of planes – anything to get my mind off of the jealousy that was eating away at me like water eats away at stone. I didn’t want them to fall in love. I didn’t want Viggo to see anyone but me. I wanted to be his sun, his moon, his whole fucking constellation. And then they returned and afterwards Sean left without a word, leaving the most beautiful man in the world to me a shattered and fractured shell. Oh, I hated Sean Bean with everything I had. But he was gone and I was still here and Viggo needed me. I cared for him, cooked and cleaned for him – things I would never do for anyone else I did for Viggo and was happy just to be around him, though he still mourned for the bastard who tore his heart out. Bean hated planes. If I had the power, I would have made his return trip to London the most turbulent-filled one he’d ever been on. I might have even caused it to crash… It had taken nearly two weeks but I’d finally dragged the sordid details out of Viggo. I listened sympathetically as Viggo told me what had happened during their trip. Sean and Viggo had slept with each other. Bile welled up in my throat as staccato images of Sean kissing Viggo, Sean touching Viggo, Viggo kissing Sean, Viggo touching Sean rose in my mind …Viggo and Sean inside of each other…the images tortured me, laughed at me, mocked my desire. They had slept together several times during their trip, and then fought. I snorted. How fucking typical. Sean Bean was the classic straight man who couldn’t accept that sometimes desire manifested itself in interesting ways. Then again, it wasn’t as if Sean was any great shakes as a husband, if three divorces was any indication. Viggo wanted to reconcile but Sean rejected him. Sean Bean had taken what I had waited for, wanted, dreamed of, for so long and then thrown it all away without so much as a backward glance. Then my hope grew. Sean didn’t want Viggo, but I did – and I was right here. So I waited patiently, nursed Viggo’s spirit – dragged his butt out of the house into the company of the hobbits and with some of the other elves, though I was careful to keep him out of Craig’s line-of-sight. Seems I wasn’t the only one who lusted after our ‘King’. For the most part it worked, but there were nights I know he cried for Sean. Those nights I was there, I covered my ears, or if he was talking to me, pretended to listen as he spoke so lovingly of Sean’s green eyes and his golden hair with the highlights. I saw the smile of reminiscence light up his face and it was all I could do not to scream at him. Then the bastard returned like the promised son of Gondor he played. Just showed up on Viggo’s doorstep like a prodigal son and it was as if I no longer existed. Viggo immediately fell for him again, as if those weeks of separation and heartbreak had never happened. No one – and I meant – no one ever treated me like that. I tried to warn him – that Sean had let him down once, and more likely than not he would do so again. But Viggo was hopelessly in love and wouldn’t listen to me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And now they were here, still a pair. Everyone was full of praise at Boromir’s death scene and it just made me gag. Anytime someone started waxing poetic at how touching that part of the movie was, my eyes glazed over. The dirty buggers weren’t acting at all. Of course they managed to convince the audience when Sean looks at Viggo full of love and devotion and whispers: “My king” – Sean wanted nothing more than to surrender to him… And yes it seemed real, when Viggo leans over Sean all teary-eyed with emotion, tenderly stroking his face – I know he wanted desperately to feel Sean’s body beneath him. Oh yes, Viggo/Aragorn threw himself into the fight with that enormously ugly orc to protect Sean/Boromir and he looks so believable – and why not – Even in real life Viggo would be willing to risk himself for Sean. How the hell can that be called acting? There’s only one moment that, if you know what to look for, proves that neither of them were acting – when he has to force himself to kiss Sean’s forehead instead of his mouth. It’s only a split-second, blink and you’ll miss it – but at the last Viggo catches himself and moves his lips upward. Peter said that he kept that in to demonstrate the depth of Aragorn’s love for his comrade, but I knew better. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And here they were in front of me in a corner of the hotel’s restaurant and I was filled with so much jealousy, like poisoned arrows striking my heart. It was like this black void eating away at my soul, watching them together. Viggo stroked Sean’s cheek with such tenderness and possession, cradling it like something precious. It should have been me that he looked at that way, not Sean. Yes, I hated Sean, but I had always been aware of how sexy the man is too – all golden skin and hair and those damn green eyes and that little thing he does with his upper lip. I hated Sean and I wanted him too… I watched as Sean’s lips bestowed a heated kiss on Viggo’s open palm. My breath caught in my throat, feeling the shivery electricity of the gesture from my vantage point. I watched as they stood up and walked out of the restaurant… And I knew that I shouldn’t follow, that what I felt was about to happen I didn’t want to see with my own eyes, but I couldn’t help it. So I followed them anyway, careful to stay as far back without losing sight of them. The stairs led to a dead end beneath the first floor, a little space under the stairs with no door connecting to it. That was where Viggo and Sean withdrew. I crouched down, able to see everything through little gaps in the banister. I heard Viggo’s soft purring voice with its rich and low timbre. His voice had the power to make me come undone every time he spoke, and now was pitched low, a lover’s voice – satin against my skin. Sean pulled Viggo to him in a greedy kiss…a kiss that made every other kiss I’ve seen or experienced seem fake. It was a kiss that screamed ownership, lust…desire. That should have been me kissing Viggo that way – not Sean. “Bend over.” I heard Viggo’s harsh sexy hiss and instantly I became hard, the little hairs on my skin prickling. My palms itched, and I put them on the railing of the banister, kept them from where I knew they wanted to be. Panting…muffled protests… Beneath me, two more levels below in a dead end stairway, Viggo and Sean wrestled in a silent fight. It was a strange sight, these two men in their fine suits, but now with bare chests - half cultivated, elegant celebrities, half untamed savages. One of them was going to be fucked. I didn’t know who… But one of them should have been me. “Don’t tell me you don’t want it, Sean…” There was this breathless teasing heat in Viggo’s voice. “You know you do…I can feel how hard you are for me…how badly you want me to fuck you…” A snarl and growl, more rustling of clothes, then suddenly Sean was yanked round, his back against Viggo as one hand took hold of his hips, the other clamped his neck in a vice grip, and Sean’s pants were nearly torn to shreds. I wondered how the bastard was going to explain that? It didn’t seem to bother him as his hands were against the wall, his ass shamelessly presented to Viggo as if daring the other man to do what he promised. “…Look at you, Sean…you’re nothing but a whore for my cock…” He spanked him hard across his naked buttocks. “I should discipline you…Unfortunately, there’s no time for that so I guess I’ll just have to do this…” With the word this I saw Viggo sheath himself up to the hilt in Sean’s eager body, at the same time pressing his throat harder to cut off the air supply and stifle Sean’s hungry cries. My eyes nearly fell out, and I nearly fell over the banister, watching these two gorgeous men drive each other towards oblivion, skin to skin, olive brown on light gold. God, how I wanted them, not just Viggo, but Sean too. I wanted Sean especially, to punish him for being the man Viggo chose instead of me. I wanted to fuck Sean hard and make him scream…until he tasted me in his mouth… …I wanted to be in Sean’s place right now, my ass in Viggo’s firm grasp, a slut for whatever he wanted… …I wanted to be in Viggo’s place, feeling Sean’s body shuddering from the force of each thrust… I nearly forgot to breathe, my heart almost forgot to beat, my brain ceased to think – there was only one part of my body that made itself known to any consciousness I may have still had. Viggo’s quick and deep thrusts suddenly slowed down to a more even rhythm, but the muscles of his ass tensed even more. To see these muscles working, skin flexing above his perfectly shaped buttocks was driving me insane with lust. I knew Viggo was close – I could taste it in the very air around me. I held my breath, my knuckles white against the rails that I gripped so tightly they should have shattered from the force. …and then with an almost primal growl, Viggo spilled himself deep into Sean’s ass, sighing deeply as the sounds of raw, pure pleasure and lust filled the secret space. I saw Viggo quickly reach for Sean’s cock, and at the mere contact, Sean’s whimpers finally turned to moans and he came almost immediately all over Viggo’s hand. Sean nearly collapsed and Viggo let him slide down to the floor, stretching his hand out before him in a silent order, sighing in pleasure again as he watched Sean, prostrated before him, on his knees, cleaning his hand with his tongue. Who knew that the ‘little bit of rough’ could be such a submissive? Sean stood up and they kissed, Sean feeding his come to Viggo. I closed my eyes, burning, unable to take much more, but knowing this was my punishment for having been a voyeur to such a moment. I also didn’t know whom I hated the more. “Next time you’ll be on your knees, Mortensen,” I heard Sean murmur huskily. “I’ll fuck your mouth until you can barely breathe and then come in your face. And if you don’t beg properly to give me satisfaction I won’t let you come. You will beg for it, Viggo.” I saw them lock eyes and it was like two raging fires, one deep blue and the other a smoky green. They were dueling with their eyes, challenging the other for dominance, staring the other down. Then suddenly Viggo kissed Sean on the top of his nose: “Any time, love...anything you want…” They both laughed softly as they begun to collect themselves, the tension melted into amusement. I stretched my legs, rose quietly from where I’d been, needing to be as far away from them as possible. I don’t know how I’d bear it now in their company, knowing that I’d smell them on each other. “God I love you so much, Sean…” “Love you too, you bastard…” Those words were like poison to my ears. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two hours later and I was just not in the mood for this. I went back to my hotel room and took care of my raging hard-on, closing my eyes and mind to everything but the need for release. I tried not to re-live the images of Sean and Viggo in the hotel stairwell, to no avail – the memories were too vivid. When I finally came, I fell to my knees, breathing heavily, eyes shut tight against the tears that wanted to fall. By the time I made it back to the restaurant, I had decided that somehow, someway, I was going to have Viggo for my own and if I had to step on Sean to accomplish that goal, so much the better. After all, I still owed him for not staying away. But as the evening wore on, it seemed that the gods were once again planning on smiling upon their chosen son. The first thing I noticed was that Sean and Viggo were sitting apart from each other, probably due to Sean’s ridiculous desire for discretion. Obviously Sean Bean had never learned that rules were for suckers. That’s something I used to hear Lija always say when he was about to get into trouble. Things really started getting interesting when Liv arrived. Viggo’s thumbs lifted her chin as his fingers touched the delicate points behind her ears, tenderly and possessively. Viggo’s very tactile in all of his kissing scenes, including the one with Boromir. And he kissed her softly. I let my eyes flicker towards Sean and – what had we here? For an instant I saw Sean’s features contort with jealousy, before he took a deep breath and regained control of himself. Well now, wasn’t that just interesting… A little later, Viggo’s fooling around with Dom and Billy, mock cuddling and wrestling, with all the prerequisite obscene gestures and foul mouthed comments that would probably make the front page of some scandal sheet. All in fun, of course. At least for the three of them. Obviously a lot less for Sean. I watched his reaction – watched him shifting in his chair uncomfortably, like Boromir at the council of Rivendell. Like someone who wants to do or say something, but has no choice but to remain still. Like a jealous and possessive lover… I couldn’t help it, but I was grinning now. The evening was proving to be full of surprises, and the best one yet was knowing that Sean was completely powerless to stop me from taking what I wanted now, especially in public. So I waited, sipping on my drink until Billy and Dom had hastened off to greet other friends. Then I made my move. I knew exactly what I was doing, the way I walked made people stop in mid- conversation as if I was some type of royalty (and in a way, I was). I chose my clothes with care, ensuring that the jeans I wore hugged my body in the right places, revealing the slimness of my hips. My mesh t-shirt stretched over my lean muscles. I could feel invisible hands wanting to touch me…but there was only one set of hands – real ones – that would ever be allowed the privilege. I walked over to Viggo, smiling hugely as I sat down beside him and casually placed one arm around his shoulder. All the while, as I was telling Viggo everything that had happened to me since the filming in New Zealand wrapped up, I slowly pulled him closer to me. Viggo didn´t seem to mind, after all he’d never been reserved when it comes to public displays of affection. I leaned my short-cropped head against Viggo’s shoulder, and as I did so, I stole a glance at Sean beneath lowered lashes. It was all I could do to keep the gloating look off my face. Oh yes, Sean’s green eyes were burning with suppressed rage, his whole body was tense. He was almost completely unable to pay attention to his rather attractive female neighbour sitting beside him, so distracted by me and Viggo. He watched us cautiously. But not for long. Sean stood up brusquely, walking a few steps towards the outdoor terrace. He fixed Viggo with an angry and demanding look. I could see that Viggo was confused. Meanwhile Sean just glared at him, the skin above his cheekbone flexing. Patting me on the shoulder, Viggo rose and said, “Excuse me just for a moment, Orli,” He sighed and set to follow Sean outside. Unlike earlier, this time eavesdropping will be worth it I heard Sean’s heavy accent first, some curses and names – Liv, Billy, Dom and Orlando – no surprise he’d mention me… There was a short silence between them, then came Viggo’s calm, soft voice, “Sean, we’ve been through all this before. He’s just a friend.” “He wants you, Vig. He lusts for you. I know it even if you don’t.” “The same as Liv, Dom and Billy do?” Viggo laughed sarcastically. “To hear you tell it, everyone from the damn movie is lusting after me right? Sean, please…” “Then tell me why there isn’t anyone in the cast who can’t be seen in a photo kissing you?” snaps Sean. I saw Viggo’s eyes go dark. “Because the one person whom I want to kiss me, won’t…” Ha, I thought to myself. Take that. “You know why I don’t…” “Of course I do,” I could hear the Viggo’s anger in his voice. “Wouldn’t fit your image as ‘a little bit of rough’, now would it? But I wouldn’t mind if you did…” I heard Sean’s deep intake of breath, as if he’d been struck. “And if I fucked someone else, that wouldn’t matter to you, either?” Sean asked bitterly. “Sean...” “Would it be all the same to you, Viggo?” Sean’s voice was edgy, clipped. This was getting better and better. “Listen to me, damn you.” The authority contained in Viggo’s voice reminded me of just why he made an incredible Aragorn. It silenced Sean totally. “I know we’re together, even if you don’t believe I do. I trust when you say no one will ever mean as much to you as I do. And because I believe in and trust our relationship, I’m not jealous. Frankly, I wouldn’t freak out just because you might have of a little something on the side.” My eyebrows went way up at that. Well, now… “And somehow you expect the same thing of me,” Sean questioned, obviously outraged. “That I wouldn’t mind if you had someone else?” “No, I don’t. But I do expect a little trust. Come here, Sean…” Viggo lowered his voice, tenderly. Obviously they were kissing again, because after some moments that seemed far too long to me, Sean’s voice sounded almost breathless. “I’m sorry, Vig… I…it’s just, sometimes…” “It’s okay, Sean. Your jealousy is kind of flattering...sometimes. But you can’t change who I am. I’ve always been someone who likes to touch people. You knew that when we met. Just believe it when I say I belong to you and you alone, okay?” Bullshit, I thought, and it was all too clear to me now. Now I knew exactly what I needed to do to get what I wanted… 13