RockStarPeach

Title: Arrangement

Characters/Pairings: Giles/Lindsey, Lindsey/Spike, Giles/Wes, Giles/others, other slight pairings

Rating: Adult

Summary: Giles is a ridiculously unfaithful wealthy older man, keeping Lindsey around for pleasure and company, but when someone else catches Lindsey’s eye, he realises he wants more out of a relationship. Giles has sex with just about everyone. Spike tries to. Wes gets in over his head.


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Previous Chapters here

Chapter 12

When Lindsey had left the apartment and was standing out on the street, in the middle of the night, alone and broke with nowhere to go, it really started to sink in just exactly how much he had been depending on Rupert.

He had nothing that Rupert didn’t buy for him, and therefore decide to keep when he kicked him out, but a few pieces of clothing that were stuffed into a suitcase that hadn’t even been his before a few minutes ago. He supposed he was going to have to call Charles, to ask if he could stay with him for a while until he got sorted out, and figured out what he was planning on doing next.

At least until he could get Rupert to see reason and take him back.

He hadn’t brought his cell phone with him when he’d gone out that day, as he remembered after he’d patted down his pants pocket and felt nothing but his wallet. Shit. Well, he did still have his wallet at least, but there was a good chance that Rupert had cancelled all his cards already, so he probably couldn’t get himself a hotel room for the night, couldn’t even buy himself anything to eat if he got hungry. He was well and truly screwed.

He sighed and started walking. There was a payphone a little ways down the road, and he could call Charles from there, not that he wanted to have to explain to his friend what had happened. Tell him that he’d been kicked out, at half past one in the fucking morning, while some random new guy warmed up what used to be his side of Rupert’s bed, let Rupert use his body the way Lindsey did, lay naked under him and moaned as Rupert pleasured them both…

Fuck!!! He hated himself for fucking up this badly and he hated Rupert for being such an ass about it, and he hated Wesley (yeah, he knew who he was, he’d seen him before, and had mistakenly thought he was an alright guy) for taking what was Goddamn his!

It helped somewhat that he didn’t think Rupert actually felt anything for Wesley, besides the basic, fleeting affection that he felt for most people. Rupert had begun to mean a whole lot more to Lindsey than he was comfortable with, and he wasn’t stupid enough to think that Rupert would ever return his affections, but knowing that he meant more than some person that Rupert stuck his dick into and never called again had been something.

He was just about at the phone on the corner when he heard a ringing coming from his suitcase. Huh. It looked like Rupert had packed his cell phone for him. He really should have thought of that first. He stopped walking and closed his eyes against the fantasy that it was Rupert calling, to ask him to come home, to say that he and Wesley had been a mistake, and Lindsey was the one he really wanted.

He reached into the front pocket of the case, grabbing his phone out and looking at the call display. Spike. That was odd, considering he didn’t even have the blond’s phone number. He must have programmed his own number into the phone at some point, probably back on that night when Lindsey had gone to his place, or possibly even last night. Lindsey had lost track of his pants at some point, and Spike had essentially had free reign over the apartment after Lindsey had locked himself in his room.

He ignored the call, hitting the ‘end’ button to stop the ringing. Spike had caused him enough trouble, and he just didn’t have the energy to deal with any more at the moment. What he needed was Rupert. He needed his home, his nice things, his servants, and most importantly, someone to fall asleep with, someone to kiss him goodnight and smile at him in the morning.

But he had nothing. Nothing, except… he frowned as he stuffed the phone back into the side pocket of his suitcase, fingers brushing against what felt like paper. He grabbed hold of it and pulled it out, eyes going wide as he realised that what he held in his hand was a giant wad of cash.

He flipped through it quickly, but not too quickly to count that he had over two thousand dollars. Two thousand dollars that Rupert must have put there for him, knowing that he’d be broke and alone with nowhere to go. Well, fuck him! He wasn’t going to go all soft and start thinking how great he was, just because he’d been considerate enough to make she he wouldn’t be spending the night on a park bench like some hobo after Rupert had found a new whore and kicked Lindsey out on his ass!

Still, it was kind of a nice thing to do…

He shook his head and cursed himself for even entertaining the notion that Rupert wasn’t the world’s biggest asshole, and kept on to the payphone. But when he got there, he didn’t call Charles. He called a taxi to take him to a hotel. As long as he didn’t stay somewhere really nice, he could afford to stay there a while, if he needed to.

There was a part of him that didn’t want to take Rupert’s money, not under these circumstances, but there was a larger part that was too ashamed to call his friend, and a mostly quiet part that felt he was owed it. Like severance. Up until now, he’d been a really great whore.

***

Even later that night, sometime around three in the morning, Lindsey’s phone rang again. He didn’t even let himself think that it might be Rupert, knowing his lover… ex-lover, and fuck it hurt to even think that… wouldn’t bother calling. In his mind, hell in the well laid out rules of their arrangement, Lindsey had fucked up, and Rupert had nothing else to say on the matter.

He considered ignoring the phone, really knew that he should have, because without even looking at the name and number on the display, he knew who was on the other end. Maybe that was why he answered it. He was feeling like shit, and he needed to hear from someone that could make him feel better, like he was wanted, worth something, even if most of what that person said was bullshit.

“Hey,” he mumbled into the phone, laying back on the hotel room bed, staring at the ceiling. His need for validation was winning out over anything else.

“Well hey there, sexy,” Spike’s smooth voice came down the line. “Thought you might be trying to ignore me, after last night.”

“I am,” Lindsey said, trying his best to make his tone sound bored, because that was better than heartbroken. “But I figured if I didn’t answer you’d just keep calling.”

“You could just have turned your phone off,” Spike pointed out, not falling for it. Lindsey was playing hard to get, sure, he could see that, but he wasn’t blowing Spike off completely.

Lindsey sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He wanted to talk to Spike, on some level. Wanted him to tell him how great he was, how much he liked him, how hot the other night had been, because Rupert sure as hell wasn’t going to be telling him those kinds of things anymore. But now that he’d answered his phone, he was starting to feel guilty again, the smooth voice a reminder of the intimacy they’d shared. “What do you want?”

Spike could tell something was off in Lindsey’s voice and stopping his hand’s movement over his crotch, narrowing his eyes and sitting up straighter on his couch-slash-bed. “Everything alright, pet?” he asked, with genuine concern.

“No, Spike,” Lindsey sighed. “Everything is not alright.”

“What’s up?” He knew Lindsey had seemed a little tense that morning when he’d said goodbye, and he really meant what he had promised himself the night before. He wasn’t going to pursue Lindsey any further. The guy was obviously hung up on Rupert, even if Spike thought he was an idiot for it, and he didn’t want to cause any more trouble.

That didn’t mean he didn’t want to talk to him anymore, didn’t want to flirt a little, to play, because even though they didn’t exactly get along, he sort of thought Lindsey was alright. A bit. A very little bit.

“Didn’t wake old Rupes up with the cell phone, did I pet? Cause I happen to know the `bloke can sleep through a lot more than that.”

“Oh, fuck, Spike,” Lindsey complained. “Do you really need to do that? Yeah, you guys fucked. A lot. I get it.”

“Sorry, Lindsey,” Spike said, sounding like he actually meant it. “Was only kidding around. What’s wrong?”

Lindsey swallowed and took a deep breath, preparing to tell Spike what had happened. He didn’t know why he was bothering. It wasn’t like Spike would care, it wasn’t as if they were good buddies who told each other their problems. They’d fucked around a few times. That was it. And it was Spike’s fault he was in this mess in the first place.

“He found out,” Lindsey said, actually surprising himself that he hadn’t just hung up the phone.

Spike didn’t bother asking what Lindsey was talking about. He knew, and if he tried to play dumb it would just piss Lindsey off even more than he clearly already was. “I’m sorry.” And really, he was. He hadn’t realised the depth of Lindsey’s feelings for Rupert when he’d first started this. Lindsey probably hadn’t either. “What’d he do?”

“You’re sorry?” Lindsey asked, incredulous. “You fuckin’… never mind.” He had been about to blame Spike for everything, and really, a whole hell of a lot of it was his fault, but Lindsey could have stopped him. Every time. He hadn’t. “He kicked me out.”

“He what?!” Spike asked, not really believing it. How the hell could Rupert actually kick Lindsey out for doing something that the older man did all the damn time? “That arse!”

Lindsey let out a small chuckle at Spike’s reaction. It was sort of amusing that Spike hadn’t actually thought there would be any consequences. Lindsey had learned about consequences. A few times. “Yeah,” Lindsey agreed. “But I knew he would, which is why I didn’t…”

“Look, you want me to come over? Not for… but just so’s you’re not alone. I know you must be feelin’ like complete shite.”

Lindsey was tempted to say ‘yes’, because Spike was right, he was feeling awful. He hated being alone, and the fact that he knew Rupert wasn’t, that he had someone in bed with him, ready to do everything that Lindsey had ever done, hurt. A lot. Fuck, he missed the son of a bitch, and he’d only been gone a couple of hours.

He knew they’d always played the game that they didn’t really care about each other, and he hadn’t been stupid enough to think that what they shared was even close to love, but he’d thought there had been something. But knowing that he’d been replaced so quickly, that Rupert had packed his bag and pointed at the door the second he’d come home, without even flinching, made him think that Rupert had never cared about him at all.

He hoped that wasn’t true, was pretty sure it wasn’t, but he wasn’t thinking clearly at the moment. Hadn’t been in weeks.

“Yeah, well, thanks for your concern,” Lindsey snapped instead, voice full of sarcasm. “But inviting you over was the reason I lost everything in the first place.”

“Fine,” Spike sighed, trying not to take it personally. He knew Lindsey just lashing out. “But Lindsey… I really am sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”

“Whatever. Just leave me alone,” Lindsey told him, and hung up the phone.

Great. Now he felt bad for being such a shit to Spike, as well as everything going on with Rupert. He’d gotten himself into this, not anybody else. He knew he shouldn’t have gone anywhere near Spike, because as attractive and charismatic and damn near irresistible as the blond was, nobody’s ass was worth losing his big screen television and his good down pillow and his chef cooking his favourite meals and a warm body to curl up to at the end of each day.

Nothing was worth losing Rupert over. Fuck, he’d really fucked up.

***

The next morning, Wesley woke up alone after a fitful sleep. He wasn’t certain but he didn’t think that Rupert had come to bed at all after Lindsey had left. And now he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. He hadn’t realised when he’d agreed to start something up with Rupert that he hadn’t ended things with Lindsey yet, and now he felt like a bit of an arse. Both for behaving so embarrassingly virginal with Rupert last night, and for being such a first class jerk to Lindsey.

He should probably leave, and let Rupert and Lindsey work out whatever they were going through.

He wouldn’t, though. Rupert was an intelligent man, fully capable of making his own decisions, and just because Wesley felt bad for Lindsey, the way he’d found out that things were over, and honestly wished that things could have been easier for him, didn’t mean that Wesley was going to give up his chance with Rupert.

He’d wanted it for quite a while.

He got out of bed and wandered into the ensuite bathroom, where he had the world’s quickest shower, before dressing in his clothes from the previous day and went out into the main area of the apartment.

Rupert was sitting at the breakfast table, coffee, juice, toast and fruit laid out before him, and he smiled at Wesley as he stepped out from the hallway, motioning for Wesley to join him.

“I don’t know what you like for breakfast, darling. Sorry,” he said, pouring a glass of juice for his new lover and pushing the plate of toast toward him so that he could take what he liked. “If you tell me, I’ll make sure Simon, he’s our chef, has it ready for you when you get up from now on. Which can be whenever you like, by the way,” he told Wesley, grinning.

Wesley took a sip of his juice and picked up a piece of toast, not bothering to slather it with the honey that was on the table, like he normally would have. He didn’t think his stomach could take much at the moment.

“Thank you,” Wesley said, somewhat uncertainly, and nibbling at his toast. It seemed odd for him to put in his standing breakfast order, like he was staying in some sort high-end hotel, and suspecting what he had to do for that privilege felt even odder.

“I just…” he said, considering bringing up his concerns, but ultimately decided against it. He’d figure it out as he went along, and if he couldn’t handle it, he could always leave. “Thank you.”

“Wesley,” Rupert started, trying to seem disarming. He knew Wesley was upset about the other night, and he could hardly blame him. This wasn’t exactly the way he’d wanted to start out a new relationship, with hostility and anger. “I don’t want to talk about what happened last night, about… Lindsey. But I am sorry for what happened. All of it.” Sorry for practically forcing you to let me fuck you and then getting off on making you cry, he didn’t need to say. “I treated you inappropriately, and I apologise.”

“That’s… that’s okay,” Wesley told him, even though it wasn’t. “I’m here because I want to be. If I have a problem with something, I’ll let you know.”

Rupert smiled at him, placing a hand on Wesley’s knee under the table. It was cute that he thought that. “Things will be better from now on, darling. I promise.”

***

Rupert left the house shortly after breakfast that morning, feeling more guilty than he wanted to admit over how he’d treated Wesley. He wasn’t in the mood to spend the day sitting around, thinking about his problems. He wasn’t in the mood to have problems. He had too much money for that.

So, he went out, spending most of the day in Ethan’s office, smoking cigars, and making everyone else who worked at his company nervous, because Rupert was never there unless something big was going on.

“You’re an idiot,” Ethan had told him, as they ate the stakes his secretary had brought in for them for lunch. “That boy was phenomenal.”

“Yes, he’s certainly pretty,” Rupert agreed grudgingly, hating Ethan for pointing out how great Lindsey was. “But he’s also insolent, defiant, and repeatedly ignored the rules I’d put forward. This was the last straw, Ethan. Besides,” he added, unable to repress a smile as he thought about Wesley. “You should see who I’ve got now. This new boy is really quite something.”

“Hmm. Yes, I’m sure. Just as long as you stay away from my nephew, I don’t particularly care who you use to get off.”

“Ethan, that wasn’t…”

“Relax, my dear. I know he started it. The boy does get around. Still, he’s my family. And I’d thank you to keep your hands off him, in future.”

“Of course,” Rupert smiled, bowing his head slightly. He had no intention of going near Liam, ever again, but it would probably ingratiate him further with his old friend if he acted like it was on his say so. “I’d imagine that all my interest for the next rather long while is spoken for.”

“Right. Your new boy,” Ethan said, pushing his empty plate away and dabbing his mouth with his napkin. “Because you’re completely finished with Lindsey.”

“Completely,” Rupert agreed, even though it was harder to say than he thought it would be.

“So…” Ethan said, getting up to pour them each a glass of scotch from his shelf. “You wouldn’t mind if I tried him out?”

Rupert nearly choked on his drink, coughing into his hand before looking at Ethan incredulously. “Ethan, you… you told me that he was much too young for you.” Rupert preferred his men on the younger side, but Ethan had always liked them a little older.

“He was,” Ethan said, seductively, and looked Rupert up and down. Rupert was much more Ethan’s style than any of his little toys had been. They’d had sex before, a few times. Okay, dozens of times. They went back at least twenty years, after all. “But he’s older now than he was when you first started seeing him.” Rupert frowned at that, and thought for a moment. Lindsey really was. He hadn’t actually thought about how long they’d been together before now. “Besides, you’ve told me such wonderful things over the years, I can’t help but be curious.”

“Stay away from him,” Rupert warned, slamming his glass down on Ethan’s desk and just about cracking it under the force of his grip.

Ethan laughed and kicked back in his chair, crossing his legs. “You don’t have anything to worry about, Rupert. At least not from me. But I suggest you think about your reaction to what I just said.”

Ethan wasn’t blind. He knew that Lindsey was just about in love with Rupert, and he knew that Rupert wouldn’t find anyone better for him than Lindsey. The boy near worshiped him, would do anything to make him happy, and all Rupert would have to do, to live the rest of his life in complete contentment, would be to make a few adjustments, to not be so bloody selfish all the damn time.

It wasn’t as if he really cared, though. It would just be nice to not have Rupert hanging around, pretending nothing was bothering him when clearly it was.

“Yes, thank you for your advice. Still, I think I’ll be happy without him. You’d agree with me if you’d ever met Wesley.” He didn’t entirely believe his own words, but he did think Wesley was a damn good catch.

“I’m sure you’re right,” Ethan said, smiling condescendingly at him. “And seeing as you’re here, and both of us have the afternoon free… care to fuck?”

TBC