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While Dave's life seemed sedate, Joe's had become a fast track. Having access to all the money he needed to finance his projects had removed the time he used to spend looking for financing. The partnership he'd set up with Lloyd was off the ground. They had purchased a parcel of prime land, Joe had designed four layouts for models and Lloyd was raising the frames already. The business tower that Joe had started before he met Dave was nearing completion months sooner than originally planned, thanks to being able to front the money himself. Most of the office space had been leased. The landscaping was finished. And the prime project involving the roof and the two top floors of the building was almost finished.

He stood and stretched, then walked over to the floor to ceiling window and stared out. His new office was on the third floor from the top of the building, which made it the top floor of office space. The view was toward the University and the Tower where he and Dave lived. He liked the idea that Dave just might be looking back from the Eyrie. "Maybe I should get a strong telescope. Then I could see Dave when I want to," he said to Johnny who sat in one of the big comfortable leather club chairs on the far side of the room.

"Couldn't that be construed as spying?" Johnny asked.

I never thought of it like that. I'm not about to spy on him. I guess I'll just have to imagine what he is doing."

Johnny chuckled. "Hey, Big Bro, you know he's just sitting home pining for you."

"Cut it out." Joe sighed, sat back down at his desk and contemplated the near disaster of Dave's tour of the building a few weeks before. He'd forgotten that his foreman, Tom Duncan, didn't know about the grand restaurant on the top floor and the café on the roof being a surprise for Dave, and since he'd been involved in a business matter and couldn't get away; he'd asked Tom to take Dave and Jean, Dave's mother, on the tour. Joe had talked to Dave about every other aspect of the building, except the restaurant. When Dave had seen the grandiose dining palace he had been hurt that Joe had never said a word about it.

Since Dave had already seen the large uncompleted rooms, that left only the names of the café and restaurant to be the big surprise for Dave's birthday. Still, seeing the whole thing lit up and full of beautiful people was sure to delight him. Joe was eager for their birthday to arrive.

To Dave it looked like Gio had basically abandoned Gio Gio's to an Italian friend and had taken his protege with him. They were never in the restaurant. And Silvano made excuses for Dave missing them every time he stopped in. That Gio would just abandon the little place would have rankled with Dave if he hadn't already known of the existence of the new place on top of Joe's new building. Dave assumed that Gio would be in charge of the restaurant and have his new chef, Ted, as his assistant. He had no idea what an immense task Gio had taken on. Seeing the finished product would be exciting... no surprise... but still exciting, none the less. Dave decided to just let Joe have his surprise.

Joe had called to let Dave know he was taking off early. Dave was waiting with a tall glass of Scotch and water over ice when Joe exited the elevator. Joe grinned at him, took the glass and set it on a table next to the door, then took Dave into his arms and buried his face in the crook of his neck. Dave in turn held him tightly and kissed him on the only place he could reach - his ear.

"You love doing that, don't you?" Joe said.

"Yeah, you feel so good. I'm never going to let you go."

"I mean the ear thing. You love catching me when I need to pee and kissing me on the ear. You want me to lose control, don't you?"

"I made you wet your pants?" Dave innocently asked.

"No. I've better control than that." Joe still hadn't moved his head.

"What are you talking about then?" Dave asked.

"My ear is connected directly to my cock."

Dave chuckled. "Every place on your body is connected directly to your cock."

"Nuh uh," Joe protested. "My nose isn't."

"Let's see. I've never tried that." Dave let go of him, took his head in both hands, pulled his face down, wrapped his lips around Joe's nose and tickled the tip of it with his tongue. He was looking directly into Joe's eyes as he did it. Joe's eyes closed and his knees buckled.

Dave grabbed him, and Joe wrapped his arms back around him. Dave chuckled again. "I found another place that is connected to your big gorgeous cock. Who'd a known it?"

"It's you, Dave... your touch. I have no resistance to you."

Dave grinned at him. "Good, that's the way I like it. But then you know that I'm the same when it comes to your touch. I love you, Joe."

Joe bent and swept Dave up into his arms. "No more than I love you," he said.

Dave grabbed him around the neck. "You know this makes me feel rather foolish, you big butch construction worker."

"You'll miss me doing it when I get too old to lift you."

"I'm sure that's many many years away."

"Speaking of such things, don't make any plans for our birthday. I've already got it covered," Joe said, heading for the bedroom.

"Okay. Are you going to tell me what the plans are?"

"It's a surprise."

"Not even a little hint."

"Nuh uh."

"Not even a little teeny one?"

"Nope."

"Humph, you're no fun."

"Don't you think this is fun?" Joe asked as he bounced Dave in his arms.

"Put me down."

"Are you going to pout?"

"I don't pout. I get even."

"Oh, ho ho, I look forward to that."

Joe knelt beside the bed and placed Dave gently on it. He stretched up and kissed him. Dave rose into the kiss. After a bit, he pulled back. With his lips just a millimeter from Joe's, he said, "You left your drink on the table in the foyer."

"You're all the drink I need," he said. He stood up and headed for the bathroom. Dave lay back listening to Joe relieve his bladder. He basked in the intimacy of it. Joe came back into the room and spread himself over Dave and involved them in a breath stealing kiss.

After a few minutes he rolled off. Dave rolled with him so they were still chest to chest. "Since you left so early this morning, we missed our workout."

"Didn't you do yours by yourself?" Joe asked.

"Nope, I waited for you."

"So, you want to do it now?"

"Let's."

"Anytime I get to see you in just a jockey strap with sweat dripping down your chest, I'm willing."

Dave grinned, rolled off the bed and started stripping. Joe propped himself on an elbow and watched. Dave took his time, posing and making sure that Joe got a full show. When he was down to just his socks he informed Joe it was his turn.

Dave leaned his bare butt against the dresser and watched. He chuckled as Joe bent to pull his pants off and then stood up with his cock sticking out of the slit in his boxers. Joe looked at it, then up at Dave. "He's eager to see you." He stepped in front of Dave and swung his hips back and forth so his rampant cock slapped Dave's equally hard mesh-covered pole.

Dave grabbed his butt cheeks and pulled Joe up against himself. He slid his hands into the waist band of Joe's boxers and slipped them down his hips. He then nudged Joe to step back as he knelt in front of him rubbing his nose through the blonde pubic hair and into the crease next to his thigh. He snuffled his scrotum and licked his way up Joe's cock, engulfing it when he got to the top. Joe sucked in a breath and slowly let it out, thoroughly enjoying his lover's ministrations.

The second week of October was turning out to be a little more than hectic for the Paolini women who were efficiently panicking as the big day drew closer. They had been planning for months, getting ready. The back yard was looking beautiful, the lawn was still green. Fall flowers filled the beds around it. Back in April, a bower had been built at the back of the yard especially for this occasion. Texas Ivy had been planted around it and had grown up to cover it perfectly. Now, with cool nights coming on, the leaves were beginning to turn yellow and red.

The tuxedos for the four men had been fitted and were ready. The champagne was sitting in the basement waiting for the occasion. The Party Planners, a company that Miki had suggested they hire, had assured them that the cream colored roses would be arriving a couple of days before needed for decorating the back yard. They'd told Angie and her daughters to just relax, everything was under control.

Miki and Eve had always been close. Miki was already in high school when Eve was born and every minute away from school had been spent playing with her little baby sister. Their closeness had endured thru the years. Angie was thankful; she had friends with daughters who fought all the time.

Miki sat back in her chair and sighed. "If anything goes wrong at this point, I think I'll just slit my throat."

Her mother smiled as she sipped her tea and said, "Not much can go wrong. The only thing we don't have control over is the people involved. We can only pray that everyone behaves."

"Well, with all the police as guests and all the security that Dave and Joe have hired, what kind of trouble could we have?" Eve asked.

"Who else but Johnny would invite the police force to attend his wedding 'en force'?" Miki said.

"He's obviously still popular with them. The chief, I heard, put out a notice that anyone that wanted to attend had to sign up, so the ones that aren't attending could cover for them. He had to ask for volunteers to fill in because so many of them wanted to come." Eve giggled. "Only my big brother."

"It's hard to believe that less than a year ago he was still trying to convince himself that he was straight," Angie said, then turning to her youngest daughter, she asked, "Do you remember the night that Joe brought Dave to dinner the first time?"

"Oh yes, Johnny was so uptight, and then Joe had to tell on him."

"What had Johnny done?" Miki asked.

"It wasn't what Johnny had done, it was what Dave had done," Angie injected. "Poor Johnny was just the innocent victim."

"What happened?" Miki demanded.

Eve looked at her mom who nodded for her to go ahead and tell her sister what had happened when Johnny went into the bookstore to meet his older brother's new lover. Miki laughed until she had to catch her breath at the idea of Dave kissing Johnny while thinking he was Joe. "Oh my poor little brother, not only has he had to try all his life to measure up to Joe, but he has to look like his twin, too. Poor guy."

"Sue told me that Paul told her that Johnny was really having a hard time dealing with himself after that. And then he met Tim two weeks later and that really turned his life upside down," Angie said. "Well, it's such a blessing that he found what he was looking for. Tim is such a sweet guy. Your dad and I thought that Johnny was going to go through every girl in town before he got his act together."

"Did you and Dad ever suspect that Johnny was gay?" Miki asked.

"I didn't have the least idea, but Dad did. He asked me once soon after Johnny graduated from college and joined the police force if I thought Johnny was like Joe. I just pshawed the idea and forgot about it until Joe brought Dave home. Johnny's reaction to the incident with Dave made me start wondering.

"I never suspected a thing with either Joe or Johnny. They were both big athletes in high school and college. They were popular with the girls. When Joe told me he was gay, I was distraught. I wouldn't believe him. I'm so thankful that his dad was so accepting and helpful to him. You know he was only sixteen. He was so young to be having to deal with such things."

"Mom, how did Joe manage it in high school?" Eve asked. "Kids are so vicious."

"He didn't tell anyone except your dad and me until he went off to college. He dated just as he always had. You'd have thought he was perfectly normal."

Miki eyed her mother over her cup of tea. "So you think of your sons as being abnormal?

"No! There nothing abnormal about being gay. It's just a variation of sexual orientation. God knows I would much rather they be homosexuals than pedophiles or something worse."

Miki mentally shuddered wondering if her mother might think that being gay was comparable to being a child molester. "How do you feel about Johnny, Mom? Truthfully."

Angie studied the contents of her cup for several moments before answering. "At first I was heart sick. My first thought was that I would never have any of his children to play grandmother to. But after really thinking about it, I decided that as long as he's found someone that makes him happy, that's all that matters. When I think about what his life would have been like if he'd married one of his bimbos. I'm so glad he found Tim."

"Can you imagine, Mom, having Deirdre Wilson as a daughter-in-law?" Eve asked.

"Heaven forbid. What a nightmare of a thought." Angie exclaimed.

"Who is she?" Miki asked.

"You haven't met the police chief's daughter?" Angie shook her head. "I can't think of a nice thing to say about the woman except she is beautiful."

Joe dragged himself into the Eyrie after another torturous day of dealing with prospective tenants for his new building. He tore off his clothes as soon as he got into the bedroom. Ambling into the big bathroom, he eyed the shower and then looked at the big tub. He hadn't had a good relaxing soak in a long time.

When he got the temperature right, he sat on the edge of the tub watching the water rushing out of the faucet. He picked up a bottle of foaming soap and smelled it. The relaxing scent of lavender filled his nose. He poured a generous amount into the roiling water and watched it foam into billowing mounds of bubbles. He stepped into the tub and sank down into the welcoming wet heat. Sighing contentedly, he wished that Dave was home to share this with him. He mounded the puffs of bubbles over his chest, closed his eyes and relaxed.

Dave had spent the afternoon at a board meeting of the Way Mansion Museum Foundation. He hadn't been aware of all the details and problems that could arise from converting the old mansion into a museum that would be open to the public. Crowd control had been the issue today. Secure storage had been taken care of. The basement of the building had been turned into an environmentally controlled vault. All of the paintings that were not on display and all of the furniture that had been removed to make room for spectator movement were stored there.

Little or no difference of opinion had come up on that issue. However, today every board member seemed to have their own agenda for how to control the masses moving through the mansion and its magnificent grounds. Dave, as the chairman, had finally stepped in and told them that whatever it took, there would be no concrete walkways through the grounds. There would be no kind of fences either. If necessary, he would provide more funds for guards, guides and docents. That had basically solved the problem and most everyone was satisfied.

As Dave stepped out of the elevator into the foyer of the Eyrie, he paused. "Joe's home," he said aloud. There was no sound or physical evidence, but he instinctively knew and went searching for him. He walked into the bedroom and grinned when he saw Joe's clothes laying in a pile on the floor. His grin quickly faded when he realized that Joe normally never would do that, he was always neat in taking care of his clothes. He figured Joe must really be stressed out to just drop his clothes on the floor and leave them. Dave picked them up and laid them out on the bed as Joe would usually do. And then he quickly stripped his own clothes off.

The shower wasn't running so he figured that Joe was just getting ready to get into it. Not seeing him as he stepped into the bathroom, he paused and cautiously, quietly called, "Joe?"

Joe pushed himself upright, the bubbles wreathing his face. Smiling a welcome to his lover, he said, "Come join me, Babe."

Dave grinned with relief and laughed at the sight. Without hesitating he walked over to the big tub and stepped in. Joe, with a hand on each of his cheeks, guided Dave's butt down to rest between his legs. Dave lay back and slid down to rest his head on Joe's furry blonde chest. He turned his head to receive a kiss. "How did you know I needed this?" he sighed contentedly.

"You had a board meeting today. You always come in stressed."

""How did your day go?"

"Stressed."

"So you did this as much for yourself as well as me?"

"I'd be lying if I denied it."

"Tell me about your day."

"You know, I love every aspect of raising a building like this except for filling it with tenants."

"Have you ever thought of hiring a staff to do that?"

"You don't understand. They all want and need special layouts. That takes an architect."

"Is it something that takes your special talent?"

"Of course not. Any competent draftsman could do it."

"So why do you waste your time doing it?"

Joe was quiet.

"Babe?" Dave said.

"I've always felt it was part of my responsibility. It's my baby."

"Since fall classes started and with you nursing that building, you have no time to relax. I miss our times like this."

"I know, but I'm only teaching two classes this year."

Dave turned in Joe's arms and sat back on his heels. "I was listening to two men that are on the board at the museum. They're both big business men. They were discussing a company that finds qualified people to fill positions in their companies. It's called Harrelson Head Hunters. Why don't you check them out? Let them find the people to help you."

Joe pulled Dave up to lie on his chest. He touched his lips to Dave's. "I knew there was some reason I married you besides your money," he murmured.

"That wouldn't be funny if either of us had known what lay in store for us."

"I thought I had married a lowly bookstore owner. I was more than happy with that." Joe caressed Dave's back. Dave lay there contented. "Have you ever done it in a bathtub?" Joe asked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"With you lying in this position, you have an urgent visitor at your back door."

"Tell that visitor to come back as soon as we get out, dried off and on the bed," Dave murmured and wiggled contentedly. He gasped when he got prodded and then looked surprised.

"I think it's too late. You've already let him in," Joe said. Dave just sighed with total contentment.

Later, as they cuddled in bed, Joe asked, "You know that new Chef that Gio hired."

Dave thought for a moment. "You mean Silvano? Yes, I stopped in and introduced myself to him the other day when I took Sue to lunch. He's an excellent--- ah--- cook." He'd almost said replacement, but caught himself.

"No, not him. Ted. Big redheaded Irishman."

"Oh." He paused. "Oh, Teddy Edwards. Yes, I met him when he moved in with Pete and Jason, but I thought he was working with Silvano."

"Nope, he's running the new restaurant on top of my new office building. You do remember that there's a big restaurant on top of the building don't you?"

"Of course I do."

"Well, as you've probably figured out, Gio is the executive chef."

"Yeah."

"Well, he hired this young fellow right off the street to work at Gio Gio's and then later discovered he is a chef, trained at Cordon Bleu in Paris."

"You're kidding me,"

"Nope. Anyway, I think that they have become domestic partners."

"Jason told me Ted had moved out, but I guess he forgot to tell me where he moved. So, he moved in with Gio."

"Yeah, as his lover. But Gio hasn't said a word about it."

"What makes you think this?"

"Oh man, you ought to see the moony-eyed looks they give each other. It's amusing to watch. They think they are being so cool hiding it from the kitchen staff. It's obvious from watching the staff that they are very aware of the romance, from all the knowing looks behind their backs."

Dave chuckled. They lay in silent comfort in each other's embrace for several moments until Dave's stomach decided to make the point that it needed to be fed.

"I think we need to get up and feed that beast," Joe murmured.

"Yeah, it's hungry for some good Italian cooking and your mother hasn't had time to be dropping off anything for us to eat."

"Let's go to Gio Gio's. I haven't had a chance to try Silvano's cooking."

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