Now Starring

The socialising was soon brought to an end when Phil came in and we all gathered around the long table to read the scripts for the new episode for the first time. David took a seat opposite me, pulled his glasses out of his pocket and opened the script. Seeing him again made my heart race, but for his part he barely acknowledged me.

Read throughs are not usually the most exciting thing, it's just a time to get used to the plot, your character's lines, etc. Since my character had only a couple of pages of lines, I had to fight to stay awake in the closed, warm room, during most of it.

About an hour into the read, I felt something rubbing against my leg, which snapped me back to attention. Both the person to my left and the person to my right were busy scribbling notes on their script so I began to wonder if I had just imagined the whole thing, when it happened again. This time it was quite clearly deliberate as it worked its way up to my lap. I casually stole a glance down and saw a stocking clad foot teasing my crotch.

I looked up, everyone around me was concentrating on their scripts and reading their lines, but clearly this foot belonged to someone, then I looked at David, he glanced at me over his glasses, winked and then the foot disappeared.

When we broke for lunch, I made sure to get to the commissary just ahead of the crowd, got my lunch and sat down at an empty table, waiting for David to join me. A few minutes later he did, he unpacked the contents of his tray without a word, and took a spoonful of soup before looking at me, "You never answered my question," he teased, "did you miss me?"

"You know I did," I replied, "I am really confused, first you cut me off cold, then you play footsy with me at the read through. I don't get you."

He opened up the sandwich on his plate and started peeling the layers back and examining the contents. After removing a limp tomato and some marginal lettuce he reassembled it and put it down, "I had to have time to think," he finally answered.

"About what?"

"About all of it. You, me. My life outside of that little nest we created at the hotel," he took a bite of the sandwich, pulled a face and dropped in back on the plate, grimacing as he swallowed, "now that is just disgusting."

"No wonder you're so thin," I was still hurt and, to be honest, angry with him, for his abandonment of me before, but his antics made me laugh, "just eat something without gutting it first."

He smiled back, "here, you try it," he held the plate up offering the sandwich to me.

"No thanks," I dropped the smile, "we seriously need to talk, away from here, someplace private. I need to know what you want from me, from us, and if you're going to flake out on me again."

He arched his left eyebrow quizzically at my words but said nothing; instead he played with the soup awhile, getting spoonful, and then letting it slowly drip out back into the bowl. He finally pushed the tray away, "OK, when?"

"Can you make it after the read through? We'll go someplace private."

"Sure, we can go back to my flat," he agreed, then finished off his tea, stood up and took his tray to the bins.

When we got back to the read through Phil motioned for David to sit next to him and I took a seat at the far end of the table. A couple of times David seemed to lose his place in the readings, and by the time we were dismissed he looked flushed and jumpy.

On the cab ride to his flat David seemed to be in his own world, he stared out the window in complete silence and kept it up until we arrived at his place.

"What's wrong?" I finally asked.

"Phil," he sighed, "the entire time I was next to him he was either feeling me up or pinching my ass. He called me after we got back from location and offered to advance my career, in exchange..."

"In exchange for what?"

"If I slept with him," he shrugged.

"What did you tell him?" I tried keeping my voice level, fighting the anger, "You aren't seriously considering it?" but David said nothing, just continued to stare into space, I stood up taking his hands in mine, "please tell me you aren't really giving that any thought?"

"Not for myself," his eyes met mine, and I noticed for the first time, how exhausted he looked, "but when I hesitated on his offer, he said that if I didn't, he could make your career disappear.'

"Don't give it another thought," I countered, "he knows he can't touch your popularity, hell I can't go five blocks without seeing your face on a poster or shop window display, so he resorts to this. He's a sad old queen, David; he really has no power over anyone, especially not you."

"How can you be so sure?" he asked, his voice low.

"Trust me, I just am." I lied, hopefully convincingly. I made a mental note to have a little chat with Phil in the coming days.

My words seemed to sink in and I could see David relax with relief, it was obvious this had been playing with his mind for a while.

He stood up, heading towards the kitchen, "Can I get you anything?"

"I'll have whatever you're having," I took the opportunity of him being out of the room to take in the flat. The place was clean, and neat but had the appearance of a hotel room. Very little art, no personal knick-knacks, or photos, "how long have you lived here?" I called out.

He came back into the room with two glasses of amber liquid in his hands, "about six months." He handed me one of the glasses, and sat next to me on the sofa.

"A bit sparse," I commented, and sniffed the glass; identifying it as some sort of whisky I took a sip.

He looked around, "I'm rarely here except to sleep, so I haven't gotten around to doing anything with it. Maybe you can give me some pointers?"

"Of course it comes with the sexuality, all gay men are fabulous decorators," I laughed doing my best simper.

"That's not what I meant," David protested.

"So," I started, changing the subject, "about us."

"Is there an us?" he countered.

"I would like there to be."

He took a drink, "I love you John. But I'm not sure it's going to work out. You claim Phil has no power over you but when he told you that it had to end between us, you listened to him."

"I was thinking of you! Not me."

"And I appreciate that," he took another sip, "then there's the whole relationship thing, you have Vartan, I have Sonja..."

"Vartan and I broke up," I said, "he left me for his personal trainer." I left off, that I threw him out after a massive fight about David; I didn't think he needed to hear that part.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," he replied. "OK so in a perfect world, what do you see as our future?"

"Hearts, flowers, unicorns and a life time together."

He finished his drink, "if you're not going to take this seriously..."

"OK, sorry that was facetious," I apologised, "I don't know David. I would love for us to live happily ever after, but I'm realistic. I'm your first man, this could just be a phase for you, but I am willing to give you all the time in the world."

He was silent for a moment. He played with the empty glass in his hands, twirling it on his knee, and then he went back into the kitchen, refilled it and sat back down next to me. He took a sip and put the glass on the coffee table in front of us. Then he put his arms around my waist and his head on my chest, and closed his eyes for a moment.

"I can hear your heart," he almost whispered, "it's beating very fast."

I said nothing and just held him closer, and then he trailed his fingers down my chest touching me lightly, "now it's beating even faster."

He sat up and moved to where he was straddling me, his dark eyes gazing deep into mine. Then a smiled played across his face, and grabbed my hair in his hands, pulling me to him, and gave me a long, lingering kiss. After a moment he let me go, "Are you coming onto me?" I joked, after catching my breath.

"If you can't tell then, I'm doing it wrong." He un-tucked my shirt, and loosened my belt, and bent his head to my neck, kissing the ever-faster pulse there.

I reached under his shirt, and ran my hands over his back. Suddenly I stopped, alarmed by the way his bones seemed to stick out under his skin. I lifted his shirt over his head and gasped at the sight of his ribs very prominently displayed. "Oh David!" I exclaimed.

He followed my gaze, then got off me, and stood up. "I've been under a lot of pressure lately," he explained, "you sure know how to kill a mood." He picked his shirt up from the floor and slipped it back on.

I walked over to him, "I'm sorry but you are skinny enough normally, and I am just concerned. Have you seen a doctor?"

He picked up the drink from the coffee table, sipped it and looked at me, "after the hotel, yes, I have to admit I got tested. But I'm fine, I swear. I just tend to get over stressed and forget to eat. If I promise to gorge myself later can we drop this and get back to where we were?"

"Only if you promise," I countered.

"Scout's honour," he grinned, and took my hand, leading me into his bedroom.

I sat on the edge of the bed, and looked around, the room was neat but sparse; no clues as to his personality or tastes were in evidence, he sat next to me on the bed, "now where were we?"

I answered him by gently pushing him back on the bed and kissing him deeply, my tongue playing over his, my hands wandering over his body. After a moment he broke contact, "I would really like to make love to you," he breathed, "are you up for that?"

That set me back a moment, to be honest I am usually a top. There have only been a few times where that was not the case, and I really didn't enjoy them, more to the point, none of them were as big as David. I knew in the back of my mind this was a test, if I said no, it could be the end of things. He saw my hesitation but said nothing, giving me time to answer, "I would like that," I finally replied, hoping I really would.

"I promise to make it worth your while," he grinned, and unzipped my jeans freeing me, he took me into his hands and when he got me hard he slid down, taking me into his mouth.

This time he seemed a bit more confident but it was still pretty obvious he wasn't experienced, but he was willing to experiment. At one point he let go of me then blew his breath on just the head, the warm air drying it momentarily before he drew me back in. Even though I was awash in sensation the events to follow kept playing in my mind, I hoped I wouldn't let myself, and more importantly David down.

He reared back and yanked my jeans down to my knees, reached into his bedside table and pulled out some lube, and greased up his longest fingers and bent his head down again. As he took little nips at the root of my cock he moved his hand underneath me, inserting his fingers into my ass, moving them in and out as his tongue swirled in the same rhythm across my head. I willed myself to relax and in a short time came into his mouth.

David sat back, wiping his free hand across his lips, and then removed his fingers from me, "how do you want to do this?" he asked, his voice husky with desire.

"Give me a moment," I asked and got off the bed, going into the bathroom. I turned the taps on, and looked at myself in the mirror. "What the hell's wrong with you?" I asked the reflection, but the man in the mirror didn't answer me. I splashed water on my face and came back into the bedroom.

David was still fully dressed, "are you sure you're up to this?" he asked.

My answer was to get undressed quickly and encourage him to do the same, trying to block out the voices and go with the sensations I knew were to come. After some more kissing and fondling I was ready, without a word I got on my hands and knees in front of him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him reach for the lube again, and then he moved into position behind me. He didn't enter me straight away, instead he teased my ass with his fingers, at the same time cupped my balls in his other hand gently massaging them, while tickling my cock. My desire was building so fast; I reached for his cock, and holding it fast, backed myself onto him.

He stopped me after only a few inches were in, "cheater," he laughed, whispering into my ear before biting the lobe gently. With that he finished his entry.

I could feel the pulse of his cock as it beat in my ass, but he held himself still for a few minutes, kissing my back, when he pulled almost all the way out and rushed back in in almost the same movement I could barely hold back a moan from both the pleasure and pain of his size stretching me out.

For his part, aside from the way his breath came in hot bursts on my back, he was silent. After a few minutes I had to see his eyes, so I rotated on his cock, until I was on my back, never once losing contact and held his face in my hands, tilting his head down. He bent to kiss me, slipping his arms under my shoulders, his rhythm never faltering.

When I moved my hands down to my cock, he gently removed them and instead bent in such a way that he was able to both fuck me and take me into his mouth at the same time. I marvelled at his flexibility as I came so hard I saw stars beneath my closed eyelids. He increased his pace, then his whole body went rigid, he reared back and came into me in warm spurts.

Afterwards, I was drenched in sweat and so was he, neither of us had enough breath to speak for a few minutes. David was the first one to break the silence, "did I make it worth your while?" he asked.

I was still breathless so I settled for a nod.

He propped himself up on his elbow, and smiled down at me, "good." He lightly blew on my chest cooling the heat, and put his head on my shoulder.

I think I fell asleep because when I woke up David was nowhere to be seen, and the room was dark. I had a moment of disorientation, but then remembered where I was. I put my clothes on and walked out into the main room of the flat. David was sitting on one of the chairs, his long legs draped over the arm on one side and his back against the other arm, reading a book. When he saw me he put the book down, "Welcome back," he smiled.

I sat on the arm of the chair behind his head, "now how about maintaining your end of the bargain?"

He tilted his head back to look at me, "what's that?"

"Let me take you to dinner, you need to eat, even if just to keep your strength up." I smiled down at him.

"I'm not hungry," he started, then catching the frown on my face, stopped himself. Then with a sigh, "OK where do you want to go?"

"You said you would gorge yourself, which I think would be quite a turn on, so where could you achieve this?"

At the restaurant I watched David pick apart his pasta dish, moving the noodles to one side and the veggies to another, without a morsel going into his mouth. He did finish a glass of red wine before I lost patience with him, "David, you have to eat the food it doesn't absorb into your blood stream via the fork."

He glared at me but dutifully put a fork full into his mouth. I didn't lower my gaze until he had cleaned his plate, "is that better?" he asked.

"Yes, much," I poured him another glass of wine, I leaned in and quietly joked "I don't see how you keep from passing out when you get an erection."

At first he looked at me like I had grown antlers, then he started to laugh, "you are a treasure."

That night alone in my bed the only light in the room coming from a streetlight I wondered if I was really good for David. In the short time we knew either other I seemed to heap a lot of pressure on his thin shoulders, and I wasn't sure he was equipped to handle it.

As I fell asleep I did something I hadn't done in ages, I said a prayer asking whatever powers who would be listening to keep him safe and that I could make him happy.