The Brotherhood - The Salt Of The Earth Part 1

THE BROTHERHOOD.

THE SALT OF THE ... EARTH?

Willa Okati.

Dedication.

To the ladies I "jaw" with!

Chapter One.

"Mmm. I like that story. Want to tell me another one?" Alex leaned forward, brus.h.i.+ng Liam's hand with his own. Really, he was shameless. Still, he couldn't help himself. Flirting came as naturally to him as breathing; it made a great cover-up for his nervousness, and it beat having the vapors any day. He might be young and he might be hung; he might even know he was all that and a bag of chips ... but even queens got stage fright.

Yeah, covering up had become second nature. Alex hardly ever stopped to think about stopping to think anymore. Hence his brash, s.e.xually laced playtime with Liam. Unfortunately, Alex didn't think Liam would ever take him up on the unspoken offers he'd made and continued to make. On the other hand, if Liamdid , Alex wouldn't mind. He was a firm believer in trying anything -- or anybody -- at least once.Maybe twice, if it or they were nice or nicely naughty.

"Go along with you and your games," Liam scolded, dipping into the bowl on the bar for a pretzel stick encrusted with thick salt crystals. "By the way, these are good, very good. Have you tried any of the snacks, or do you fear that they will ruin your figure?"

Alex selected a piece of popcorn, yellow with what looked like real b.u.t.ter drizzled over it. Carefully balancing the snack between two fingers, he lightly licked the kernel with the tip of his tongue. "Mmm, good." He took another taste, half-closing his eyes in ecstasy, then pushed the popcorn between his lips and allowed it to rest there.Delicious . Rolling his eyes with pleasure, he let the tidbit dissolve, then swallowed before flipping his hair saucily over one shoulder. "There's just something about slippery, slick things that glide over your tongue ..."

Liam regarded him indulgently. "You are, as they say, a piece of work, Alex."

Alex fluttered his eyelids. "You bet I am. As for getting fat, I never worry about my weight. Who can fret about that when there are so many things to taste test? All the food in the world and all the men ..."

He glanced up sultrily through his eyelashes. "Everything's got its own special flavor; what kind are you, Liam?"

"Candied violets," Liam said seriously. As Alex chuckled, he added, "Wait until you are forty. Then, voila! You will be bald and fat. You cannot be the das.h.i.+ng young lothario forever, Alex."

"Oh, but why not?" Alex formed his lips into a pout. "It's so much fun. If it doesn't last, fine, but I'm going to enjoy my life while the sun s.h.i.+nes. Isn't that the way you'd put it?" He gave Liam a saucy wink.

"Go on. You weren't done yet. I want to hear another story. That last one about the man who wished to be twelve inches long was the best one yet."

Liam shook his head, looking amused. "And what makes you think you will get another tale out of me?"

"Um, I have you wound around my little finger?" Alex delicately took a pretzel stick and teased the other man's lower lip with the brown stalk. As Liam's mouth opened, he poked the snack in like he would a cigarette. "I'll even feed you if you entertain me."

"Bah. As if there is any lack of fun and games all around us. We are in Amour Magique, you know.

There are dozens of Romeos for your Juliet, dancing and drinking and celebrating, yet you stay by my side like a withered branch planted in the mud." Liam gave Alex's shoulder a light push. "Stop hiding in plain sight. Go, have fun! You need not spend your time with me."

"But, Liam, Iwant to spend time with you."

"Flatterer. Shameless flirt. In times past, if you were a woman you would have been quite the wench.

Oh, but to have known you in those days long past! You would have lured any man with a pretty face to your side for a kiss. You toy with me, oh, yes, yet I know this is only fun and games to you. Go and play elsewhere."

"And you'd know about these olden times how, exactly?"

Liam tapped a finger on the side of his nose. "I study history."

"I'm sure you do. I can just see you sitting home at nights watching theLearning Channel , taking noteson the latest archaeological dig. Or, hmm, wait ... that's someone else completely. MaybeHarrison . Dry old stick. I know you, Liam." Alex leaned in, placing one smallish hand on the other man's upper thigh.

"If you're not meeting with the Brotherhood, you're off having the time of a dozen lives. Maybe even before the Brotherhood meetings." He leaned in, delicately inhaling the scent of Liam's autumn-colored curls. "I know what s.e.x smells like."

"Here, now, you are not a dog and I am not a toy. Stop sniffing me. And you are deliberately working at my nerves. Cease your games."

"Why should I, when I'm enjoying myself so much? Besides, maybe Iam trying to get a 'rise' out of you." Alex's hand slipped further up Liam's leg. Almost to ground zero. "What do you say, mister? Want to find some place close and cozy and go for a ride?"

Liam rolled his eyes as he pushed Alex's hand away. "Ridiculous child. This is all a pastime to you, is it not? Much of life is a mere entertainment for one of your sort. I have brought you all here tonight to find pleasure with others, not to waste your time drinking with me."

"Why, that's exactly what's wrong here. No drinks!" Alex took his hand away without any hard feelings -- or anything else hard for that matter.d.a.m.n! -- and flagged down the busy server attending to the small, crowded bar where they sat. "I'll have a seabreeze. And you, Liam?"

"Water."

"Oh, come on."

"Very well." Liam addressed the bartender. "A beer. Whatever you have on tap will do. Not American, though, if you please. Something European. Perhaps British. Warm. If that is available."

"Awfully picky for a guy who just wanted water. Would it have had to be Perrier, seltzer, lightly grape-flavored, and hand-selected from a fresh tub of ice?" Alex teased as he picked up another piece of popcorn and bounced it off Liam's nose. Liam briefly went cross-eyed, then plucked out a pretzel stick from the snack bowl and stuck it directly into Alex's hair.

"There. Are you satisfied?" Liam chuckled as Alex fished out the offending snack.

"Liam, darling, you should know better than to tangle with a gay man's hair."

"Do hush. I barely mussed you."

Alex peered across at the mirror over the back of the bar. He scowled and turned back on Liam. "You did so; I am definitely mussed now. One strand is pointing in the wrong direction. Do you know how long it takes to get the right kind of bed head?"

"I imagine all it takes is a nap, and then running a few puffs of mousse through one's hair."

"Easy for you to say, you with your curls." Alex reached out to tweak a lock of Liam's hair. "Mmm, silky. Very s.e.xy. I'd love to sift my fingers through this while we're both somewhere a little more private.

Maybe with a few less clothes ..." He slid his tongue across his lips. "Are you sure you're not interested in a little company? You could take me around Amour Magique, show me the sights ..."

"That you must do on your own." Liam pulled back with an air of finality. "Amour Magique will be as anopen book to you, Alex. Some of the other Brothers need my help tonight. You do not."

"Mm-hmm. That would explain why, while you and I have been sitting here all this time, I've also seen you with Bree, David, and Allen?" Alex took his seabreeze and pointed the gla.s.s at Liam. "Stories, stories, everything's a story. You've told me about men who loved not wisely, but too well; men who made stupid wishes; men who made the kind of history that no one takes seriously, but should. You were telling me all kinds of tales. What's yours?"

Liam raised one eyebrow. "You miss very little, Alex. Perhaps you see too much for your own good."

"Curiosity is my downfall." Alex plucked a cherry out of his drink and rolled the ripe fruit across his lower lip, tickling the dark red treat lightly with his tongue. Curiosity ... yeah. Liam had a way of inspiring men to wonder about him.

Alex, now, he'd had his suspicions about Liam for a while, having been raised on the lore of things way beyond imagination since the time he was knee-high to a gra.s.shopper. He didn't mind believing in the strange and unusual -- and Liam qualified as both. First, Liam wasn't one of the Brothers, and then,poof , there he was. Everyone else seemed to believe the small man had always been one of the group, but Alex knew different ... and held it close to his own chest.

From the way Liam winked at him when Alex kept quiet from time to time, especially when it came to "sharing" -- and the Brothers talked about their pasts -- Alex had a feeling that Liam knew that Alex knew, and it didn't bother Liam one bit. Alex figured he himself had his Irish grandmother and his Appalachian father to thank for an ... open mind when it came to people like Liam.

Then again, Liam was kind of in a cla.s.s of his own. So was this place. Absolutely unreal, unless you didn't blind yourself to the truth. Far bigger on the inside than on the outside, filled with people that he'd only ever heard about in fairy tales or dreamed of on colorful nights, Amour Magique was an amazing mystery to be solved. The club was impossible, and its patrons improbable, but they existed. Alex figured he could either believe in the unbelievable and have a good time, or collapse into a nervous breakdown.

His choice.

And when it came down to the heart of the matter, Alex liked to have fun.

Alex persisted. "So, are you going to explain what you paid to get us in here?"

"I will not. Some things are my business, and mine alone, but I will say that the price of these tickets was most expensive, Alex. Must I push you off this bar stool? Is it necessary that I force you to explore the club in greater depth?" Liam twirled the blue pendant at his neck; it shone with an almost hypnotic light.

He added quietly, so quietly that Alex almost didn't hear, "Yes, you have no idea what I gave up to allow you and the other Brothers a night here."

"What, you promised away your firstborn?"

"Alex ..." Liam said in an exasperated drawl.

"All right, lover, all right." Alex slid off his bar stool and put his seabreeze down on the counter. With practiced movements, he smoothed the lines of his tailored b.u.t.ton-down s.h.i.+rt and his neat cargo pants that he knew showed the shapely curve of his a.s.s off to its best advantage. Jeans might have been a better choice, but he'd known most of the Brothers would be dressed casually. It always paid to stand out. Always. Unless you were Collin, in that strange orange s.h.i.+rt Liam had coaxed him into wearing.

Hmm. Maybe Liam had done that on purpose so he'd be able to keep an eye on the man who put the "up" and "tight" into "uptight." Interesting.

"You are pretty as a princess," Liam said patiently. "Now, will you go, or do I need to plant a foot in your behind?"

Alex picked up his drink and took a sip, savoring the sweet fruit juice and the bite of high-quality vodka.

"Honestly. I'm on my way. Such a rush."

"There is never any time to waste when one is in search of true love, or even a night's lover," Liam replied. "Idle away no more minutes with me here. Go and find someone more to your taste. Someone young and br.i.m.m.i.n.g with s.e.xuality. Warm up the sheets and drink a toast to your benefactor when you have champagne afterward."

"Mmm, champagne." Alex bent before Liam could stop him and pressed a kiss to the small man's temple. "I'm betting I'll probably end up with a good ol' bottle of beer myself. But you're sweet to think of me. Anddo think of me while I'm gone, won't you? Otherwise, I'll fall into a decline because you don't love me anymore, which is what I'll believe if you're paying attention to someone else."

Liam snorted. "My heart belongs to you, Alex, or at least a part of that organ bears your name. This, I swear."

"Then I'll just have to be satisfied with the little things in life." Alex heaved an overly dramatic sigh. "You know, it's still not too late, Liam."

"Go."

Chuckling, Alex sauntered away. He carried his beverage with him, fairly sure that the staff at Amour Magique could sort out their own gla.s.sware when the night was through. He figured he'd just drop the container off at another bar when he was done with the tart, sweet goodness of his fine ... c.o.c.ktail. Or done with some c.o.c.ks and tails. No one would notice a little bitty gla.s.s traveling from here to there.

Not when there were so many other things to look at.

Amour Magique was definitely an ... interesting dance club. Alex had never been inside the place before, but he'd heard things. Enough tales that they'd made him curious about what lay inside.

And he never, ever denied his curiosity, so here he was.

I should have been born a cat, he thought as he slinked through the crush of men surrounding the various bars. He mostly skirted the main dance floor, although he did pause every now and then to sip his seabreeze and watch the men dancing with one another. The size of the crowd would have surprised him if he hadn't known any better.

Just then, Alex caught sight of Christian, who was surrounded by a circle of horned men, and lifted his drink. Yeah, there might indeed be a good-sized number of gay men inCharleston , but not all of the dancers were from these parts. Thosehorns weren't fake. Anyone who knew even the littlest bit about makeup, or was paying attention, could tell a pasty from the real deal. Frankly, Alex didn't have any idea what they were beyond a wild guess at "fauns," or where they'd come from or how, but they weredefinitely not local. Was Scotty just waiting behind the scenes to beam them back up once the music switched off for the night? Them and the rest of the clubbers who, from the looks and actions of them, were more than just a little on the bizarre and not-quite-so-human side?

He supposed a part of him should have been goggle-eyed and in a panic over the beasts among the men, but what the h.e.l.l? He'd seen stranger things in his day. Besides, he'd been raised on folktales. More, he believed his own eyes and he didn't have a problem with anything he saw.Maybe because I'm not surprised by anything. I'm open to Amour Magique, so Amour Magique is open to me. I'd say that's a fair trade .

More things on heaven and earth, he thought, taking another sweet sip of his c.o.c.ktail. I wonder who's human, and who isn't? I'm pretty sure Liam is something special. Although I doubt there's anyone else here like him. People underestimate him, but Liam is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

It's such a shame he refused to have a little fun. All work, work, work. Alex tilted his head at the sight of yet another Liam hurrying after Christian as the young man departed in a huge hurry. He took a quick glance backward, confirming a sighting of "his" Liam where he'd left the little man.How does he do that? If I thought he'd give a straight answer, so to speak, I'd ask him. Oh, well. Time to get my freak on .

Slinking along, letting his hips lead him, Alex made his way past the dancers to a dimly lit hallway, which then led past some more bars, and then around a corner. "What should I spy with my little eye?" he murmured. "Liam, stop me if I'm going to get into trouble." He waited a beat. Nothing happened. "Good enough."

Alex took the occasional sip from his gla.s.s as he wandered along, letting the c.o.c.ktail heat his belly. The corridor looked fairly innocent, and no one yelled at him to stop when he turned the corner.

Alex lifted his drink in a silent toast and grinned to himself.Now this is going to be fun. And, ooh, pretty pictures . He paused to examine a graphic fresco decorating an otherwise bland beige wall.Very nice. Kama Sutra, isn't it? Oh, yes, I'm going to have a great time. This club is all about s.e.x, and I am built for s.e.x .

Of course, he'd had his problems in the past. His recent, but very much former, job as a male escort had gotten him into enough hot water that he'd had to make a quick backpedal into a new position as valet for a previous client, with Simon as Alex's lawyer. Where Simon went, the Brotherhood followed. Well, no harm done. Alex had a pretty good time with the guys, even if they weren't exactly the type he'd normally hang out with. Not if he had a choice, that is. Sure, he liked the Brothers just fine, but when it came to his social life, Alex tended to prefer a little more ... excitement. He'd just had a dry spell lately.

But there had been rain right around the corner. Which Liam had delivered.

Alex idly continued on his way, turning left or right on a whim whenever he came to a fork in the hallway.

The club seemed to go on forever. Not a surprise, really; the size of the building on the outside couldn't have possibly held the dance floor alone, not to mention all the bars he'd already seen.

It was a mystery. Ooh, yeah, he loved a good stumper.

One turning led him to a dull and dirty corridor with, to his surprise, a bar in the center -- behind solidwood and gla.s.s doors. The name over the doors read "Last Chance." Inside, Alex could see a red-haired man standing on a stool, waving his arms. Out of curiosity, Alex tried to enter.

He heard a beep. "This isn't the place for you," a sullen voice said over some kind of intercom. "You don't belong here."

Well!No one told Alex "no."

"Come on," he wheedled, trying a door again. Locked. "Just a little drink? That redhead looks yummy enough to eat with my fingers."

"He isn't yours."

Hmph. "Who does he belong to, then?"

"Not you." The voice hissed and crackled, as if the speaker were on a c.r.a.ppy intercom. "Keep moving.

Go to the end of the hallway, take a left, and then another left. You ought to like what you find there."

"You're sure I can't come inside?" Alex caressed the doork.n.o.b -- then jerked back, swearing. A blue crackle of static electricity had arced across the smooth metal. "Well! No need to get violent. I'm on my way. See? This is me, going."

He heard a grumble, and then a click as the speaker cut him off. Alex raised his middle finger at the doors, took a healthy gulp of his seabreeze, which was nearly gone, and meandered on. He had half a mind not to listen to anything that grouchy old coot had to say but, oh, his curiosity ...

Alex reached the end of the hallway, took a left, and then another sharp left. He couldn't have stopped himself if he'd wanted to.