The Adonis of Weho (2 page)

The mug to his lips, sipping it, he brought it back to the desk he was working at and placed it down on a coaster as the condensation dripped.

Wiping his fingers on his legs, Reese reread where he was in the novel, and went back to churning out stories to titillate and make men hard. That’s what he did best. Give gay men chubbies.

~

Adonis paced in his room of carved marble and frescos. He didn’t want a wife. Two weeks? In just two weeks he was supposed to hunt someone down?

Furious, he left his room to find his father. Zeus would solve this mess. He had to ask him.

Seeing the big man being fed fruit by his attendants, who were usually young women, Adonis approached him slowly, clearing his throat. With at least one hundred half mortal-half god step-siblings out there, Adonis knew he didn’t rate very highly with anyone.

“Uh hum?” Adonis could see his dad already flirting with yet another young thing. He wondered if one of these women were underage; would the mortals on earth ban their story too?

“Um. Dad?”

Zeus finally appeared to notice him standing there. Adonis waited politely with his hands behind his back. One thing Adonis knew, don’t mess with the Big Guy.

“What?” As usual, Zeus was impatient with anything that kept him from sex with the ladies.

“Yeah, uh…” Adonis walked closer, trying not to look at the young feminine things that were giving him the ‘let’s hump like animals’ leer. “Mom said I have to get married in two weeks.”

“So?” Zeus was fed another morsel of sweet mango.

“I…uh…don’t want to get married.”

“Why not? You’ve been lingering around alone long enough. Go impregnate a mortal. Do something constructive.”

“Yeah, about that.” Adonis was about to confide something to his father, but dreaded it.

“You’re still here?” Zeus looked up at him.

“Dad…” Adonis opened his arms for understanding. “I don’t want to get married. Really don’t want to.”

“I’m not going to argue with your mother.”

“Well, she’s not really
my
mother. She’s my step-mom, or aunt, depending—”

“Adonis!”

When he heard Hera screech his name, Adonis cringed and closed his eyes.

Zeus even shivered visibly. No doubt he was remembering when Hera bound him in chains from the sky.

Adonis

thought

of

the

interpretation

of

mortal

sadomasochistic bondage and wondered if they would ban that story as well. “Yes, Mother?” He couldn’t hide his annoyance.

“Why are you still here? I ordered you to find a wife.”

“I was trying to negotiate.”

“There is no negotiating. Don’t anger me.”

“Anger you?” Adonis pointed to his chest. “You expect me to go and…” He winced. “Just go and find a woman to make a kid with? Yeck!”

Zeus stood, his cape unfolding to his knees and walked away.

“Dad! Come on! You’re not going to leave me with her crazy ideas!” Adonis reached out towards him but was ignored.

“Great.” He bit his lip and peeked over his shoulder. Hera did not look pleased. She looked downright furious.

“
What
?” he whined. “I like being single. Don’t force me into slave labor.”

“Oh? You want me to do to you what I did to Hercules?”

“No!” Adonis held up his hand. “No way. How that dude managed to survive all that crap is beyond me.”

Hera sauntered around him, as if thinking of her next torture device.

“Mom…don’t look at me that way.” Adonis spun around in paranoia.

“Because you defied my command, I am going to make it even harder.”

“Swell!” He threw up his hands in disbelief. “I don’t even like women!” The minute he said it, he knew it was foolish to tempt her wrath. “I mean. I do like them.”

“Not only do you have two weeks to get married, but.” She laughed wickedly. “You will be saddled with these.”

Adonis felt something strange on his back. He pivoted around and kept catching a glimpse of white. “What did you do to me?”

“Since you are behaving like a coward, I have given you chicken wings. Now go fly away before I give you a beak and a tail and make you lay eggs.”

Adonis spread his wings. “You have to be kidding me! You think I’m husband material to a mortal now?”

She raised her hand and Adonis expected more hail stones and thunder. He shook his head, “Whatever,” and walked away.

~

Reese couldn’t type another word. His neck and back were killing him. He saved his work and shut down the computer. It was nearing seven but the sun was still shining on this long summer night. Reese stepped out onto the balcony again and had a look. The pool was active with gorgeous young men and women. The condo complex was a haven for young professionals, and not very suited for family life. There weren’t many schools close by and most of the units were tiny studio apartments or even worse, ‘efficiency’ units. He was lucky to have a two bedroom unit. They were scarce and cost twice what the one-bedrooms did.

Reese reentered the condo and changed into his black Speedo, thinking of sex. But he was always thinking about sex. When you wrote erotica, it was on the brain.

He slipped his shorts back on, grabbed his keys and a towel, and headed to the courtyard pool. Using the master key to get inside the fenced area, Reese could smell barbequed food and spotted the source of the smoke on a patio. All of the lounges were occupied, but that was typical. Some residents actually tried to claim the chairs by putting their towels on them early in the morning. It never worked. Inevitably the towels ended up being tossed spitefully in the pool.

He spotted a hottie and moseyed on over. “Hey.” They met glances.

“Hey.” The young blond stud acknowledged him with a smile.

“Mind if I drop my towel here?”
Mind if I sit on your face?

“No dude. Be my guest.” The young man in his sunglasses, had his mobile phone in his hand; texting, one of the new

‘summer surfers’—LA surfers of the web, not the Pacific. Reese dropped his towel next to the young guy’s chair and stared right at him as he peeled his shorts down his legs. The young man held up his phone and appeared to be taking a picture. “Nice.”

Reese chuckled. “I’m Reese.” He reached out his hand.

“Harper,” he replied as he took it.

“Nice to meet you.” After the shake, Reese used his thumbs to adjust the waistband of his swimsuit, deliberately lowering it just enough to give Harper the idea. The idea he wanted sex. Harper was riveted to the act.

Reese smiled and walked to the edge of the pool, giving him a view of his flipside. Since there was a no jumping or diving rule, Reese sat on the ledge and then hopped in, dunking under the water to cool off. It was still at least ninety degrees outside, judging by the thermometer which was posted on the pool house. He wetted down and then stood still, admiring the masculine eye candy and avoiding the engaging looks from the women. Unable to avoid her approach, Reese watched a woman make her way over to him from the opposite end of the pool. Reese wondered why since he had always thought it was obvious he was gay. She stood right in front of him and said, “My brother is only seventeen.”

“So?” He wondered what it had to do with him.

She gestured to something behind him.

Reese turned to look and suddenly realized. “Oh. Harper is seventeen?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.” He nodded, actually appreciating the warning.

“Happens a lot to him. He’s a man magnet. Me?” She shrugged. “Not so much.”

There was something about her he immediately liked. “I’m Reese.” He raised his hand out of the water.

“Cybil.” She shook it.

“Nice to meet you, Cybil.” He noticed her look behind him and spun around. Harper approached, sitting on the ledge.

“What did you tell him, Cybil?” Harper appeared upset.

“That you’re underage. Get over it.” Cybil splashed him. It made Reese laugh. “You guys both live here in the complex?”

“Yes. We just moved in.” Cybil shaded her eyes from the glare.

Reese thought she was very pretty with a womanly figure, not an anorexic stick. Though he wasn’t attracted to women, he could admire them. And Cybil seemed very voluptuous to him. Unlucky for her, in LA if you weren’t a size zero with bones showing in your back, you were considered ‘fat’.

“Why did you tell him how old I was?” Harper was obviously stuck on that point, and most likely horny.

“Because you’re jailbait. Will you shut up?” She splashed him again.

“I’ll be eighteen in six months.” He cupped water in his palm and dripped it down Reese’s shoulder.

“Call me then.” Reese grinned at him.

“How old are you?”

“Thirty. Way too old for you.”

“Thirty’s not old.” Harper ran his hand along Reese’s arm, making him shiver.

Reese looked at Cybil. “You have your hands full, I see.”

“You have no idea.” She hauled herself up to sit beside her brother, kicking her feet gently. “And he’s constantly on Greg’s List looking for men to share ‘four-twenty’.” She held up her fingers in quotes.

Reese chuckled, wondering why Cybil was watching her brother and he was not with their parents, but it wasn’t his business.

“You smoke, Reese?” Harper asked.

“Sometimes.”

“Well. We can at least smoke together sometime.”

Cybil whacked him. “Give up!”

“I’ll think about it.” Reese smiled and swam away wondering what was available—and legal—at the other end of the pool.

~

“Dad!” Adonis hunted him down. He pushed back the gold trimmed curtains of Zeus’ private room and spotted his father getting a massage by two women.

Zeus opened his eyes tiredly.

“Look what she did to me!” Adonis spun around. “She’s out of her mind!” Hearing his father laugh made Adonis furious.

“How will I attract a mortal with wings on my back? Help me out here.”

“You are irritating me.”

“I know. I’ll keep irritating you until you do something.”

Adonis crossed his arms over his bare chest. “I wasn’t bugging anyone. I was minding my own business when she started this crap.”

He heard Zeus groan and then he turned to look at his halfmortal son. Giving his hand a slight wave in Adonis’ direction, Zeus then closed his eyes and rested his face on the bed again, enjoying his rub down.

Adonis looked at his back. The wings were still there. “Dad!”

“I made them invisible to humans unless you want to show them off. Now go away.”

Adonis thought about it. “Really? They can’t see them?”

A loud exhale and a glare of fury was his reply.

“Okay!” Adonis held up his hand and walked away. “And you wonder why I don’t want to get married. Sheesh.” Head down, he scuffed his sandals to his quarters to pack a few necessities. He stood before his mirror and got a good look at the wings. They were enormous and the tips nearly touched the ground. He tried to make them flap. A great wind was stirred by them as he did and he began to levitate off the ground. “I can fly with these things?” He flapped them again and watched the action in the mirror. “Huh. Will these impress mortals?” Adonis folded them tightly to himself and sighed.

Chapter 2

Reese managed to claim a lounge chair after several people left the pool area. It was getting late and the scent of charred food was everywhere, making his stomach growl. He wasn’t too keen on cooking and liked to order food in, or eat out. But eating out alone wasn’t an option. He hadn’t given up on finding a ‘date’

for the evening yet. Plenty of men lingered and though most were either with women or men, Reese wasn’t one to throw in the towel easily.

Lying flat on his back, his sunglasses on his face as the sun dipped behind his lofty high-rise condo complex, Reese felt a brush against his leg and peered up. Harper had sat down on the foot of the lounge chair, smiling at him.

Reese checked for Cybil. “You on your own?”

“I am. Cybil got hungry.” Harper scooted back so his bottom was against Reese’s lower leg.

“Jailbait.” He held his fingers in cross.

“You know that’s crap.”

“I know it’s the law.”

“I’ve been with older guys before.”

“Before? Before your sister could warn them?”

Harper looked defeated. “So you don’t even want to smoke a joint with me?”

“It usually just makes me want to sleep.” Reese ran his hand over his chest, feeling the sun’s heat radiating off his skin.

“Makes me horny.”

“Everything makes a seventeen year old horny.” He raised his sunglasses to the top of his head and caught Harper staring at his groin. “How long have you and Cybil lived in this complex?”

“A few days.”

Reese nodded. “You’re still in high school?”

“No. Out for the summer now. But in the fall I’ll go to tech school. I graduated early.”

“Really? Are you smart?”

As if he didn’t want to admit it, Harper shrugged.

“It’s cool to be smart, Harper.”

Harper smiled at him. “Then yeah. Because I was smart.”

“What are you training for?” Reese reached to the back of the lounge and ratcheted the upper half upright, so he could talk to Harper more easily. He straddled his legs and placed his feet on the cement.

Harper also straddled the chair, facing Reese.

Reese glanced at the bulge in Harper’s bathing suit as it showed an erect cock.

“Computers. What else? I’m going to work in Silicon Valley.”