A Loving Lust
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Chapter 3
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this!” The dark-haired bassist grumbled. He looked around him in disbelief and turned back to glare at Daniel.“What’s the big deal, Lee? Come on, you said you would help me out…” Daniel responded, giving him an earnest look that did nothing to mask an inner amusement at Lee’s reaction.
Lee Novak. Former bassist to Savage Garden and now bassist-for-hire. Also a first class womanizer, although those particular talents would be quite useless here.
“Well why couldn’t you have asked Karl instead…a fucking gay club…” Lee continued semi-irately, smoothing his dark hair back even as he saw a group of women eyeing them. The two of them were dressed rather casually but in a smooth style…it was still a club after all.
“Daniel, there are women here.”
The blonde guitarist rolled his eyes and grinned, knowingly, before reminding Lee, “You don’t have to male to be gay. And I did ask Karl, but he couldn’t make it.”
Lee ignored his remark, still looking over at the women, and notified him in an offhand way, “I’m gonna be a good mate and get us some drinks…and then maybe some friends. Do whatever the hell it is you’re here to do, but if you end up gay, I’m not responsible.”
Daniel snickered, and replied in an exasperated way, “I told you, I just want to know what Darren’s into. Maybe if I understand this side of him better, our friendship will get stronger—”
He was cut off with an uncaring, “Yeah yeah, then your music will be better. Right, whatever, I got it. I’ll be back in a few. Don’t get molested.”
Daniel smiled slightly as he watched Lee head for the bar. He really was a good friend, and he genuinely cared despite his apathetic attitude. Jostled slightly by some people trying to get to the dance floor, Daniel moved off a bit more to the shadows of the club.
The place was a bit crowded, but that was good for masking. It wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing if Daniel Jones of Savage Garden were recognized. And even worse if Darren were here and were to see him. But this club, although not quite seedy, didn’t really seem like the upper class type place Darren would go to.
He’d done his best, with Michelle’s help, to dress for camouflage. Michelle had become a good friend since they’d worked out all the issues they had broken up over. Sometimes he even contemplated trying to have a relationship with her again, but she was happy finding her inner self these days.
She’d done a good job making him over, although he wished she hadn’t insisted on the eyeliner. Daniel caught a glimpse of himself in one of the reflective wall panels and cringed at the pretty-boy, goth look she’d given him that in earlier days would have gotten him beaten to a pulp by his brothers. Hell what was he saying?? It would get him beaten to a pulp now. Lee had been smart and refused, citing that Daniel was the one that was really going in undercover and he was just going as the straight friend.
Not that Daniel was pretending to be gay. If anyone approached him, he would be honest with him. To be completely truthful, he didn’t really know what he was trying to do here. In the end, it was just to satisfy a curiosity. He rarely delved much further into his feelings than that.
Just then, Lee returned with a couple Coronas, then nodded to the women still glancing at them from time to time. “You want to come with?”
Daniel smiled wryly and shook his head, “Not right now, but thanks…for the drink too. You go on. Enjoy yourself.”
Lee shrugged, and smirked mischievously, “Alright, suit yourself. More for me. Cheers, mate. Hope you find what you’re looking for.” With that, he made a casual beeline for the girls.
Looking around again casually, Daniel started seeing more than just throngs of people. He saw couples…gay, lesbian, straight. Just happy pairs having a dance and a few drinks. Friends enjoying themselves.
Of course there were a few couples taking advantage of the loud music, busy crowd and the darkness, but half the time even if he squinted he couldn’t really tell if they were two men or two women or even a man and a woman.
He cocked his head curiously, and realized that straight women did come here after all. Glancing back at Lee and his group of victims, he wondered if it wasn’t to get away from the men trying to pick them up in normal bars.
Daniel grinned, his teeth flashing in the dark and his face lighting up in his usual sunbeam…those poor women wouldn’t know what hit them. Suddenly, in the shadows near him, he heard a whispered epithet.
Frowning slightly, he peered closer, “Hello? Sorry?” He heard a deep soft laugh in response, and then the shadows shifted as a rather tall bloke unraveled himself from them.
Even in the dim lighting, he was…striking. Daniel couldn’t help but stare. The man was a good 3 inches taller than him, and had an imposing masculine frame. Despite that, he was still a bit on the lean side, giving him the look of a large predatory cat. His thick golden hair was just past his shoulders, but layered so much it looked a bit wild. He had a small bead earring in his left ear, which somehow accented his maleness.
But his face… His mouth was well-defined and his lips were not too thin, nor too full. They twisted into a knowing smirk, even as Daniel stared at them, and the image was simultaneously fascinating and infuriating. His cheekbones were high, his nose quite effeminate. Actually his whole face was smooth and part-female, part-feline.
His eyelashes were like gold dust framing eyes that seemed to glint silver….no…they were perhaps grey…or blue… Daniel couldn’t tell.
“Shite…are you for real?” The words were blurted out as if Daniel couldn’t stop them.
~*~*~*~*~ The man cocked his head in amusement and replied in a voice so deep, it vibrated through him. “I was just thinking the same thing a few seconds ago…”
He paused and looked down at Daniel’s mouth, before murmuring, “…about you.”
Daniel started as he realized their faces were but inches apart. In his mesmerized state, he’d moved closer and closer to the stranger to get a better look. He felt a bit like a meal trying to escape the lion as he took a few steps back.
“Uhh…hey listen…I didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression—” he explained a bit hesitantly, smiling apologetically. He gave an appealing shrug, but his eyes held a friendly shine.
The man wasn’t even fazed, he smiled in return, slow and understanding, “No harm done. Still…I had yet to meet a straight man as beautiful as you in a place like this. It’s a pity.”
Daniel gave a startled laugh at the plainspoken compliment, and ran his fingers through his hair in a slightly bewildered movement, before asking curiously, “Well…what do you mean by that? Uh, besides the obvious…Oh, I’m sorry, hang on. My name’s Daniel J—ames…” He mentally kicked himself for that lame sudden change.
The stranger raised an amused brow, then responded smoothly, reaching out his hand, “Nikolai Kollibri. Pleasure.”
Daniel shook it after only a slight hesitation, his smile widening when he realized he wasn’t about to be ‘molested’ as Lee had put it. He came to the conclusion that he was being rather skittish and stupid, and decided to relax. Perhaps this was what he was looking for, someone to talk to who would know things first hand.
“As for what I meant,” Nikolai continued, releasing the guitarist’s hand and gestured towards a small alcove where he’d been ‘hiding’, “Most straight men that show up in places like this are usually desperate in one form or another.”
Daniel, who had been following him into the seated area, stopped for a second as he realized what Nikolai meant.
“You mean—? Straight men will—?” Daniel supposed his naivete was showing, but he didn’t particularly care. He wanted to learn, after all.
Nikolai laughed again, that deep laugh that made Daniel get a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. He chalked it up to unease at the conversation.
“Yes they will. Loneliness can be hell for certain people. Have a seat…Daniel.”
After shaking off yet another bout of unease at the way Nikolai said his name, Daniel sat down on one of the plush velvet couches across a small coffee table from him. They were alone in the partially hidden alcove, most likely because it was small and away from the music.
The ceiling was slanted at a 45 degree angle and it as well as the entire far wall were glass window panes. The area was illuminated only by the moonlight and by a few dim candles in the corners. Daniel knew what this area was most likely used for.
Searching for a less complex topic, he leaned back against the couch in his usual posture (or lack thereof) and noted, “Your last name…where is it from?”
Nikolai casually picked up his drink from the table where he’d apparently left it and responded, “It’s Russian. It means Hummingbird.”
Daniel’s kohl-framed eyes widened, and he leaned forward again, “Russian? But your accent is perfectly Aussie…”
The blonde man shrugged, his expression exuding gentleness, “I suppose I am the cliché of a man that is many things.” A slight amused glint in his eye made Daniel wonder if he was being laughed at.
“Well you’re anything but a hummingbird,” he grumbled, then decided he needed a smoke and badly. Pulling out his pack, he offered one to Nikolai, who acquiesced his head in polite refusal.
“So…can I call you Nik? Or Niko?” Daniel searched through his pockets for a lighter, the cigarette hanging tantalizingly close to falling from his mouth. He was starting to feel a bit more relaxed and more like himself.
“You could…but then you’d have to pay the price.” It was said so matter-of-factly, that at first Daniel didn’t realize the implication. He looked up with a raised brow when he did.
“Ah…Nikolai it is. I suppose you’re wondering why I’m here if not out of desperation.”
“Not particularly.” Nikolai suddenly leaned forward across the table and caught the cigarette just as it fell. Daniel started a bit at the speed with which he had moved. Nikolai smiled again, the slow smile that was beginning to annoy Daniel a bit. His brow furrowed, he went to snatch the fag back, but Nikolai moved away.
Daniel gave him a curious and slightly miffed look, and watched as the blonde man raised the cigarette to his lips and lazily pulled out a lighter. Lighting it, he inhaled deeply, his eyes closed with a sheer enjoyment that made Daniel’s mouth go dry. Ah, a fellow smoker. He forced himself out of his reverie and remembered his irritation. He wanted his cigarette back damnit!
Nikolai took the cigarette from his mouth and leaned back across the table. Before Daniel could react, it was placed gently between his lips. As soon as Daniel’s mouth gripped it, Nikolai drew away again and casually leaned back against the couch.
“I thought you didn’t want one?” The guitarist grumbled, begrudgingly taking a few puffs, despite the paranoia that he could feel Nikolai’s lips on the cigarette.
“I’m really trying to quit…but I couldn’t resist a taste.”
He jerked his head up at the vague innuendo. Nikolai had a dark, smoldering but familiar look to his eyes that took Daniel a few seconds to place.
When he did, his current intense and searching expression was instantly replaced with amusement. Daniel laughed, and looked around the alcove, then looked back at Nikolai knowingly.
“You don’t care that I’m straight, do you…” It wasn’t a question.
~*~*~*~*~ “How did you guess…” Again not quite a question, but said in a languid tone.
Daniel raised a brow and shrugged casually, “Oh I don’t know…maybe it’s just the look in your eyes…the kind that would make me worry if looks could burn off clothes.”
Nikolai froze for a second, his incandescent eyes unblinking for a moment, before he blinked and laughed in return, “Amazing. It takes quite a lot to surprise me. Well done. And you’re completely right. You could say…I don’t care that you’re not here out of desperation…but I’d like to try and make you that desperate.”
Daniel gave him a disbelieving look, which Nikolai responded to with a cool, challenging one of his own. Then they both subsided into laughter.
“You’re a predator, mate,” Daniel said between chuckles, his eyes shining a bit with reluctant admiration, “Mum warned me about blokes like you.”
Nikolai responded with a low growl and a lascivious leer, and in a completely fake, camp voice retorted, “Takes one to know one, mate.”
Daniel collapsed with further laughter and after a few seconds still barely managed to counter, “Well it’s a good thing you’re not a woman, then, or else we wouldn’t be sure who was being hunted!”
“Mmm…I think I like you as the prey, thanks.” Nikolai murmured right into his ear.
Daniel jumped up from the couch and whirled around, his eyes wide and the laughter gone. While he’d been helpless with mirth, Nikolai had come around and in behind the couch he was sitting on, then leaned down and startled the daylights out of him.
Suddenly at unease again, Daniel watched warily as the blonde man slowly stood up straight and made his way around the couch. He was starting to feel a bit genuinely hunted.
“Christ, I better not take my eyes off you for even a second, then,” he joked with a somewhat strained laugh, licking his lips with a bit of nervousness.
“That would be an honour,” Nikolai replied with a twist to his mouth, though Daniel had a feeling he wasn’t joking. He closed in on the guitarist, who had nowhere to back to once he was up against the coffee table.
Nikolai leaned forward slightly and with a gentle hand, cupped the side of Daniel’s face. With just his thumb, he smoothed out the eyeliner underneath one of Daniel’s eyes, making him flinch.
“Daniel…what are you doing here…with a strange man…letting him touch you like this…” He emphasized the chiding question by brushing the same thumb across Daniel’s slightly open mouth, again causing him to flinch, “When you’re strong enough to stop him…to once and for all let him know you’re not into that…”
Instead of reacting violently, as Nikolai was suggesting, Daniel slowly reached up and grasped his arm, pulling it away from his face. His pupils had dilated slightly and his face was impassive. The shields had come up. Breathing carefully, Daniel lowered his head and stared at, or rather through, Nikolai’s chest. They stood only centimeters apart, and there was a strange magnetism between them.
“Daniel—?” Nikolai questioned with a slight hint of worry but more with a tone that betrayed great yearning.
“I’m here because I needed to know.” Daniel spoke in an almost expressionless voice and still refused to look Nikolai in the eyes. “I have a friend who’s…well he’s bisexual I guess. He shuts me out of his world…this world. I wanted to see it, so maybe I can understand him. Simple as that.”
There was a small silence, before Nikolai responded in a husky voice, “Beautiful and so caring. Such a friend he will never have again. But what do you need from me?”
Daniel finally looked up, a wry smile on his face. He shrugged but his eyes shone with warmth even as he gently rejected the other man, “Well I don’t think it’s what you’d like. But to be honest I don’t really know.”
Nikolai’s face drifted down closer, his eyes murky with pronounced passion, and with his mouth practically against Daniel’s, he breathed, “Perhaps you don’t know what I’d like…”
~*~*~*~*~ Darren dropped the glass he was holding. In a heartbeat’s instant, the sound in the club was gone. The people around him, gone. Leonie, who stood next to him by the bar, scolded him for not holding on to it properly and went to order him another one. It didn’t matter, he didn’t care.
The darkness of the club became even darker, and the light from the moon was the only thing he could see. Because it shone almost like a spotlight, illuminating two men in one of the club’s hidden alcoves. He wouldn’t have even noticed them, had it not been for that blasted moon.
He watched with a sense of disembodied shock, an almost impassive fascination on his face, as one man leaned down with obvious intimate inclinations. His eyes widened when the other man at the last second lifted a warding hand up against the first man’s chest. The movement however, put the second man off balance, and his leg pressed sharply against the coffee table behind him.
Darren’s body jerked in a motion to try and help when he saw the man lose his balance and begin falling backwards. He sucked in a breath when the first man in a movement as quick as a cat’s, leaned over and caught the second man. With one hand cupping the second man’s head and the other pressed against the flat of his back, the first man pulled the second back up against his chest.
The tableau was filled with such yearning and emotion, Darren was forced to look away. Not Daniel. Not his Daniel. Not after all this time. It wasn’t possible. It just wasn’t. He would have known.
Suddenly all the sound and movement around him came rushing back so fast it hurt his senses. He heard Leonie say something, and looked up to see her concerned face.
“Darren! What’s the matter?? What is it??”
He then realized he was crying.
“God, this is stupid! I…I’m just not feeling well, Leo…maybe I should head ho—back to Daniel’s…” Darren excused, wiping the moisture from his face.
Leonie nodded in quick agreement, “Of course, baby. Listen, I’ll go call for a driver, you’re in no condition to drive. Stay put, I’ll be right back!”
He nodded numbly, though he barely heard her, even as all the possibilities explaining what he’d seen rushed through his head.
Maybe Daniel had come looking for him, and that other man had been forcing himself on him. Maybe they had been arguing and…
Darren suddenly lifted his head with a thought. Maybe that wasn’t even Daniel! He quickly turned to look again, and felt like he’d been hit with a ton of bricks much worse than before.
~*~*~*~*~ Daniel pushed Nikolai away after a stunned moment of being held against the taller man’s chest. His senses were clamoring with alarm and something else he didn’t want to delve further into.
Of course, it was flattering that even with men, he held a certain attraction, but this was too much. Even though Nikolai’s kiss had been on the corner of his mouth, it was just too much.
He muttered, “I’m sorry, Nikolai…” And made to leave the alcove. Just as he re-entered the main club area, he felt a hand grab his upper arm and halfway spin him around.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Daniel…Jones,” Nikolai gave him a regretful and apologetic look, his smile a bit sad, “But worth it all.” Daniel’s eyes widened with alarm, until he saw what Nikolai held in his other hand.
It was his wallet.
He took it back slowly. It had most likely fallen out of his back pocket when he’d almost crashed down on the table. He gave Nikolai a searching look, to which the taller man assured him, “Your secret’s safe with me….even if you are not.”
Daniel reached over and gently knocked Nikolai’s chin with his fist in a mock-punch.
“Once and for all…I’m not into that.” With a grin, he turned on his heel and left.
~*~*~*~*~ Darren couldn’t hear what was said. But his eyes were riveted. When the men had left the alcove, the lighting in the main club area had hit them like mystic rays. His heartbeat seemed to deafen everything. Daniel, dressed in shiny knit and leather, his hair frosted and slightly wavy, his eyes lined with kohl. He had a wild look in his eyes when he first left that alcove.
Then when the other man, a golden haired hawkish fellow with a strangely gentle face, had stopped him, there had been a moment it seemed where everything had frozen in place. Darren had of course wanted desperately to believe perhaps his other theory of unwanted advances had been correct…but the way Daniel smiled before leaving intimated otherwise.
Unable to watch further, he stumbled towards the exit, the drinks he’d consumed that night churning in his stomach. Leonie met him by the doors and without even a glance behind him, Darren was gone.
~*~*~*~*~ Daniel headed back towards Lee and the girls in a firm stride. Lee spotted him from across the room and excused himself quickly. He met Daniel by the front door, with a concerned look on his face.
“How ya goin’, Danny? What happened? You disappeared for a while!”
“There was a guy…it’s a long story, Lee…I just wanna get out of here…” Daniel gave him a contented smile. “Sorry to crash in on your show, I can just grab a taxi.”
“No way, mate, you’re not leaving me here!” Lee rebuked automatically, “Just give me a second.” He headed back over to the women and charmingly smiled.
“Sorry ladies, me mate and I are off to prowl the town. It was a pleasure meeting you all.” With a wink, he returned to Daniel’s side and started to walk out of the joint, chatting pleasantly to him.
One of the girls sighed, “That is so sweet, what a nice guy being such a good friend and coming here.”
Another retorted, “He may think he’s here because he just cares about his friend…but I don’t know any straight guy that would give up a group of women for his mate!”
A third girl inserted cheekily just as Lee and Daniel disappeared from sight, “I bet they’d look fantastic in bed together!” At which point, they all laughed.
Suddenly a voice interrupted them, “Now, now, ladies, I fear one of them is quite straight.”
The first girl looked up and smirked at Nikolai, “Were you corrupting the newcomers again, Nikolai?” He just gave a mysterious smile and shrugged.
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