Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:26:49 -0600
From: Katya_Dee <concertoind@gmail.com>
Subject: The Dreamtrap - chapter 1

****

This is a story of fiction, all resemblances (dead or alive) are eerily
coincidental. Everything in the story is owned by myself beloved. Contains
descriptive sexual scenes between males, if you are not supposed to read it
then don't.

This is a sequel to Debts </nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/debts/>; this story picks
up exactly where Debts left off. I didn't do much (if any) explanations
from the previous story, so if you never read Debts, this might be
confusing at some places. Other than that, enjoy! Feel free to e-mail me.

****

- I -


            It was late Thursday morning, and Raven was bored out of his
skull. Fridays through Mondays weren't too bad; in fact, they were pretty
damn good. Julian's weekends started on Fridays, so boredom was naturally
out of the question. On Mondays, Raven would usually catch up on his sleep
and heal somewhat if the weekends got out of hand (which was the case quite
often). However, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays would turn into slow
crawling eons of hell itself. There were only that many books he could read
(and he wasn't much into reading to begin with), and he could only handle
several hours of staring into computer or TV screen, which left most of the
day filled with nothing but empty waste of time.

   He looked at the clock and sighed; it was only 11:30 in the morning, and
he already got his TV fix for the day. He sat by the open window, smoking
lazily, and remembering that old saying, which went something like, `Idle
mind is evil's playground.' He sighed deeply and flicked his cigarette out
of the window, solemnly agreeing with that saying. He briefly considered
phoning Julian and telling him to meet him somewhere for lunch, but then he
remembered the blond telling him last night that he had some business lunch
deal to attend today. That made him sigh even deeper.

   Usually, whenever he felt this bored or restless, he would simply go out
and pull a random job, trying to make it as challenging and entertaining as
he possibly could. Now, however, that was out of the question – after what
almost turned into a major fiasco several months ago, Julian was beyond
paranoid whenever Raven would as much as mention something about random
jobs.He would start ranting about researching, planning, and some other
things that immediately took entertainment out of the entire ordeal.

   Finally, Raven decided to go out and get some coffee and fresh air. While
he was getting dressed, he regretted the fact that this morning, the blond
left for work without waking Raven up, which was usually the case. They
didn't fall asleep until almost four in the morning last night, so when
Raven woke up a couple of hours or so ago, he realized that he didn't even
hear the alarm go off, which didn't surprise him much – he was exhausted
last night, to say the least.

   Then, when he was almost out of house, he had an idea forming in his
mind, and a slow smile stretched his mouth apart. He thought for a second,
trying to remember which restaurant the blond was supposed to go to for his
business lunch today. Then he recalled the name `Blue Oyster' and grinned to
himself. The afternoon just became much more tolerable.

   He left the house after nodding a half-hearted `Good morning' to the
butler, who would treat Raven with so much cautiousness as if the
dark-haired man was a walking and talking bomb waiting to go off, ever since
Julian agreed to hire him back a couple of weeks ago.

   Raven made it to the restaurant at noon sharp, parked his car on the side
of the road, and wrapped himself into familiar and comforting invisibility
after glancing around and making sure that nobody paid any attention to him.
He walked inside completely unseen by the stern-looking matradee, and looked
around, searching for the blond. He saw him almost immediately; there he
was, sitting by the large table next to the window, talking to three serious
looking men.

   Raven silently made his way to the table, wondering how far he wanted to
push the limits of testing Julian's self-control. Far, he decided almost
immediately and threw a quick glance around. Nobody was paying attention to
this particular table, it seemed, and he looked down for a few seconds. The
tablecloth wasn't too long, which was a great thing, and there was plenty of
room under the table. Raven looked at Julian who was saying something about
some merger, nodded to himself, and carefully sneaked underneath the table.

   He didn't want to startle the blond – that would ruin the fun –
therefore, he carefully ran his fingers up the pant leg in front of him,
which was enough to catch blond's attention. Julian blinked at the sensation
and looked down. Raven threw off invisibility for a second or so to let the
blond see him, and immediately disappeared out of sight the minute he caught
disbelieving look of lilac eyes.

   "What about the smaller branches?" one of the men asked, and Julian
shifted his gaze towards him.

   "This merger would affect every single one of them," he said evenly, and
Raven's fingers smoothly slid up towards the zipper of his pants. "Several
smaller branches will become one significant part of the big picture."

   The tablecloth was just long enough to hide Raven's invisible activity,
and Julian picked up his coffee cup with both hands and brought it to his
lips, drowning his somewhat short exhale in whatever was left of his
espresso.

   "There is a chance of some smaller businesses resisting the idea," the
other man said, and Raven slowly ran his tongue along blond's entire length,
which sprung to attention with envious speed and ease.

   "Yes," Julian said as evenly as before. "I am aware of possible
repercussions. However, those could be avoided with relative ease..."

   Raven delivered several more long, slow licks before wrapping his mouth
around the entire, fully hard by now, length.

   "...might cause instability," someone said, and Julian cleared his
throat.

   "Not if the problem is taken care of right away," he said in somewhat
strained voice, thrusting his hips slightly forward under the table.
"The..." he cleared his throat again, casually lowering one arm and tangling
his fingers in Raven's hair. "The root of the problem, that is," he said and
picked up his coffee cup once again.

   "Let me focus on the financial aspect for a minute if you don't mind," a
different voice said.

   "Go ahead," Julian's fingers tightened their grip on Raven's hair when
the brunet decided to push his testing limits a bit further by involving one
of his hands and performing a quick tongue twirl at the same time, which
made blond's hips jerk harder underneath the tablecloth.

   "...the fiscal year..." the other man kept saying meanwhile.

   "The changes would be quite noticeable," Julian said slowly, and Raven
admired his self-control. "Some wouldn't come to attention right away,
but..." The blond drowned a silent moan in his almost empty by now coffee
cup. "...they would be impressive in a long run," he finished, doing his
best to keep his breathing even.

   Raven grinned to himself and picked up speed drastically, bringing his
other hand up as well.

   "Oh..." Julian straightened up when the tempo change caught him by
surprise. "I didn't realize I was out of coffee," he said when his
companions looked at him questioningly, his hips rocking steadily underneath
the table. He cursed silently, perfectly aware of the fact that it was only
a question of time before his strange fidgeting would become noticeable.

   He bit the inside of his cheek when Raven swallowed hard twice in a row,
making his throat contract with sweet, torturous tightness. Then the tempo
increased yet again, making the blond swear up a silent, desperate storm. He
was debating whether to keep himself under control thus prolonging the
entire ordeal for God knows how long (Raven seemed to be determined not to
back off until his mission was accomplished) or to let himself go while
praying that he would be able to keep his composure, when suddenly, there
was a shrill ringing of someone's phone. Usually, a thing like this would
irritate Julian immensely – you do *not *keep your gadgets in full-volume
condition while trying to discuss a business matter. Now, however, he was
more than thankful for that annoying shrill ringing.

   "I apologize..." one of the men muttered while feverishly trying to reach
for shrieking gadget. It was obvious that he had no idea the phone was even
in his pocket, let alone not in a silent mode.

   "Take your time," Julian said rather tightly for several reasons and
forcefully yanked on Raven's hair, pulling him off himself. "I would welcome
a brief pause anyway..." He made sure his pants were zipped before getting
up. "We will resume the discussion in ten minutes," he said mildly, moving
his empty coffee cup towards the edge of the table, which was a clear
indication for a refill.

   He walked towards the bathroom without glancing back, perfectly aware
that Raven was following him closely even though he could not see him. When
he got into the bathroom, he scanned it quickly with his eyes, making sure
it was empty, and then he closed the door and threw one of the magic streams
around the doorknob, forcing it to stay locked.

   "You are going to be..." he started saying in a low voice, and Raven
threw off the invisibility while grinning almost evilly.

   "Your self-control is impressive," he said, and the blond muttered
something and pushed him against the marble counter. "This is a public
bathroom..." Raven noted in unsteady voice while Julian was yanking his
pants down his hips.

   "Not for the next ten minutes it's not," Julian muttered and turned the
brunet around, pushing him onto the counter without even pretending to be
gentle. "Now, I have to return there shortly, therefore, I don't have time
for preparations of any sort, and you are going to finish what you
started..." He let his own pants to slide down to his ankles.

   Raven looked into the mirror, meeting Julian's eyes. He was about to say
something but the blond didn't wait for him to even open his mouth, entering
him with one precise, hard thrust. Raven let out a low, muffled moan,
digging his fingernails into cold marble, squeezing his eyes shut, and
Julian froze for several seconds, letting him adjust somewhat. Raven took a
deep breath and opened his eyes.

   "I thought you were on a time frame..." he muttered with a crooked smile,
looking at the blond in the mirror, and Julian correctly interpreted it as
an invitation to move.

   "You might want to be quiet," was all he said before slamming into the
slender hips in front of him with immediate allegro, skipping the entire
accelerando phase.

   `Quiet' was easier said than done, Raven thought hazily when those quick,
hard thrusts found their sparkling destination almost instantly. Watching
the blond in the mirror didn't help a single bit – Julian was biting his lip
mercilessly, trying to swallow his own moans the best he could, and it
turned Raven on even more. That and watching both of them in the mirror was
doing the trick as well. They locked their gazes on each other in the smooth
reflecting glass, moving in a perfectly synchronized, quickening tempo, and
Raven's throat was losing the `quiet' battle pathetically.

   Julian panted something that Raven didn't even bother to decipher, and
pressed his left palm against the smaller man's mouth, muffling his moans
somewhat successfully. Right now, Julian wasn't even thinking of making this
last long for obvious reasons; therefore, he picked up the tempo even more,
making Raven lock his teeth on one of the knuckles that were pressing
against his mouth. Brunet's hips followed the maddening tempo eagerly, his
restricted moans filling Julian's palm with delightful heaviness, and the
blond made a hell of an effort to tear his gaze away from the mirror and
throw a quick glance at his watch.

   "Shit..." he muttered when he realized that it's been almost ten minutes
since he left his table. He hated the fact that he had to go back there, and
soon. He looked in the mirror once again, running his eyes towards Raven's
hips, and what he saw, made his mouth twitch in a shaky smile. He kept the
same breathless tempo going for several more minutes before reaching for
Raven's pulsating, begging for attention need.

   "Yes...!" Raven growled into blond's palm when he felt and saw that,
pumping his hips into the furious fist violently. He grabbed onto the
counter even harder without looking away from their reflections. "Oh, God,
yes... More!"

   Julian tightened his grasp and made his hand to move even faster. He felt
Raven pulsate and swell in his fingers, and he locked his teeth on his lower
lip hard even before the brunet groaned, "Oh, oh, yeah...!" into his palm,
knowing only too well that he would follow the suit almost immediately,
which he did. Raven bit onto Julian's hand hard, trying to lock all those
sounds in his throat, but succeeding at that only partially, when the
furious release made his hips jerk even harder, forcing him to spill all
over the marble counter.

   Julian hissed something unintelligible and buried his face in Raven's
hair, muffling his own moans when he climaxed as hard as his mate did
several seconds ago.

   "Mmm," he said several minutes later, when they stopped spasming. "This
made the meeting much more interesting..."

   Raven let out weak laughter.

   "This also made my day a hell of a lot less boring," he said in a low
voice, and Julian raised his head.

   "That's why you showed up here," he muttered without even trying to make
this sound like a question. "Because you were bored..."

   "Extremely bored," Raven nodded with a small smile, and the blond sighed
and straightened up, making Raven wince at the unpleasant emptiness.

   "I will need to figure out how to keep you occupied then," Julian said
evenly after quickly cleaning up and getting dressed. "Not that I am
complaining..."

   Raven laughed softly and cleaned the counter, throwing the paper towels
into the wastebasket when he finished.

   "Missed some," Julian said absent-mindedly while running his fingers
through his hair. "Right there," he nodded at the mirror when Raven gave him
a questioning look.

   "Huh," Raven said thoughtfully and wiped the mirror.

   "Yes," Julian agreed in his usual manner. "Somewhat impressive distance.
Well, I have to get back to my lunch..." He looked at the brunet as if
contemplating something. "You were bitching about the painting in the study
for the last month or so," he said finally, and his hand dove into his
pocket.

   "It doesn't go well with the rest of the house," Raven shrugged at that.
"Plus, it's ugly, admit it."

   "It's abstract," Julian nodded and pulled out his wallet.

   "It's ugly," Raven said firmly. "It's a painting of a freaking purple
circle, which is not even shaped properly..."

   "Here," the blond sighed and handed him a credit card. "Go raid some
antique stores, find a painting that goes well with the rest of the house."

   Raven narrowed his eyes and looked at the card.

   "What if you hate it?" he asked in a low voice, and Julian shrugged.

   "I won't," he promised with a slight nod.

   "What if I end up wasting a crapload of money on a fake?" Raven asked in
the same low voice, and this time, the blond snorted.

   "Please," he muttered. "When it comes to authenticity, you are better
than any certified expert! You might not give a flying shit about art or
whatnot, but when it comes to distinguishing between a fake and original, my
money would be on you...! And believe me when I say it," he added a second
later. "You know you originals from fakes!"

   "Occupational hazard," Raven grinned and took the card.

   "If someone gives you any crap about the card..." Julian started saying,
but Raven interrupted him.

   "They won't," he nodded, adding the card to his wallet. "Everyone knows
me by now."

   That was true; it didn't matter that Raven wasn't *that *famous to begin
with. Whenever it came to Julian, people would somehow know that Raven was
his mate even though they only announced it some several lousy weeks ago. It
was as if there was some sort of a magical update when the matter was about
Salamander. Sometimes, Raven wondered whether the `magical' part was true.
After all, Julian *did*control magic streams.

   "But I'll call you if there is a problem," the brunet nodded
melancholically after shoving his wallet into the back pocket of his pants.
He glanced at his watch and sighed. "I suppose you'd better go back there
before people start wondering if coffee caused some digestion problems for
you..."

   "Right," Julian hemmed and watched Raven wrap himself into the shroud of
nothingness. "By the way," he said before taking off the stream, which was
still wrapped around that doorknob. "This morning was the last time I didn't
wake you up before I left, just so you know..."

   "Sure," Raven shrugged lightly even though he was aware of the fact that
the blond didn't see him. "It's nowhere close to a guarantee that I won't do
it again though... And the next time..." he let out low, dark laughter. "I
just might let you simply use the bathroom, instead of following you there.
I just might wait for you wherever you left me... Just a thought," he
shrugged again, after seeing Julian's expression. "I am curious how composed
you can possibly be," he said pleasantly, and laughed again at the quiet,
unintelligible string of obscenities. "If you think you'll come back home
early tonight, let me know," he sighed. "God knows how long it'll take me to
find something that doesn't make me gag..."

   "I will," Julian muttered while checking himself in the mirror one last
time. "Although, I don't think I would be able to... I am late as it is, and
there are quite a few things I need to take care of today..."

   He released the magic stream and opened the door after he was satisfied
with the last self-inspection.

   "I will see you at home," he muttered before exiting the bathroom.

   He made his way back to the table, noting his freshly refilled coffee
cup, and sat down, reaching for the creamer.

   "Shall we continue?" he asked after mixing some of it with his espresso,
and let out a tiny smile when he felt lips running lightly over the back of
his neck. "As I was saying..."


****

A  little of shameless self-advertising: you can find all my stories,
including The Dreamtrap here<http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3895328>