Bad Boy Billionaires #1 - The Ivy League Rake(25)

Through all this, Ricky the married guy had been Elroy's only stress relief. He continued to meet Ricky once or twice a week for what had turned into nothing more than fast sex that left him satisfied enough not to go looking for more until the next time he saw Ricky. The man was addictive; Elroy couldn't get enough of him. Elroy wanted to stop but couldn't seem to find a way to say no. He'd reached a point where he would plan to tell Ricky he didn't want to see him again, and then Ricky would throw him down, turn him over, and he'd forget everything he'd wanted to say. Elroy gave himself until New Year's to break it off for good. He knew deep down he had no emotional feelings for Ricky, and he wasn't fond of the control Ricky seemed to have over him.

When Kyle asked, "Would you like to come home with me for the holidays?" a few days before Christmas, Elroy's coffee went up his nose.

Elroy was in bed watching a video, planning the plausible excuse he would give his relatives for why he wouldn't be joining them that year for Christmas. He sent Kyle a glance and said, "You're joking."

"I'm serious," Kyle said. "I know you don't want to go home and spend Christmas with your family, and to be honest I don't want to go home alone."

"We could fly to Paris," Elroy said. "Or spend the holidays in New York."

For the first time in a long time, Kyle laughed. "I can't. I would love to, but not this year. I promised my mom I'd be home. She's old-fashioned about Christmas."

"They won't mind you bringing me along?" Elroy said. Now he definitely had the mother pegged as the controlling type. "I thought you said they weren't thrilled about you being gay."

"I'm not bringing you there as my lover or boyfriend," Kyle said. "Get that through your head. I'm bringing you there as my friend, my roommate. We won't be sleeping in the same bed."

Elroy thought for a moment. As he saw it he had three choices. He could turn Kyle down and spend Christmas alone-he'd been thinking about going to New York alone. He could turn Kyle down and spend Christmas with his dreadful, greedy, bloodsucking relatives and listen to their bourgeois stories of suburbia, from soccer to PTA meetings. Or he could spend Christmas with Kyle's homophobic family in the backwoods of fucking Vermont in the middle of nowhere, sleeping alone on a cot with synthetic sheets. Although the latter wasn't exactly what Elroy considered a good time, it was better than nothing and he would be with Kyle.




 

 

So Elroy smiled and said, "I'd love to spend Christmas with you and your family. We'll go shopping and we'll buy gifts for all of them. I still have to get something for you." Actually, with his mom and dad gone, Elroy didn't have anyone to buy Christmas gifts for.

"The adults don't exchange gifts in my family," Kyle said. "We think it's a waste of money. So no gifts, especially not for me."

What a fun bunch of people they were. Elroy frowned and said, "Does that mean I'm not getting a gift from you?" He liked presents, buying them and getting them.

"That's right. You're not getting a gift from me and I'm not expecting one from you, so please don't buy me one. My family thinks it's a waste of time and that Christmas has become too commercial."

"I see," said Elroy. "I'll go along with that this Christmas. No gifts. But if we're still friends next Christmas, I am buying you a Christmas present, and I'll be expecting one from you in return. And I don't give a flying fuck what your family thinks, so get that clear right now. All this goody-goody shit about not giving Christmas presents, and Christmas being too commercial, never sat well with me. I'm not the homespun type who likes homemade gifts from the heart, either. I want something nice, from a store, wrapped well." Though he wasn't sure he'd ever be Kyle's lover, he figured he'd get this out in the open sooner rather than later in case they did wind up together. Elroy was not going to take on the quirky fucked-up traditions of some other family. He would make his own traditions and Kyle would have to understand this.

Kyle smiled this time. "I can live with that. My family is a little extreme. But just this one Christmas, we don't exchange gifts. I just think it's too soon."

"Well, I can live with that, too." He didn't like it. But he didn't want to push him too far.

"Excellent. I'll tell them we'll be there on Christmas Eve."

"I'm surprised you're so happy," Elroy said. "I didn't think you wanted to spend Christmas with me."

"Don't flatter yourself," Kyle said. "You have a car and I don't want to take the bus to Vermont, is all."

Elroy felt a sharp sting in his gut. For a moment, his heart sank. Kyle had never said anything cruel to him before. He'd yelled at him; he'd corrected him, but he'd never been outright mean. Then Kyle glanced over at him and smiled. He didn't say a word. He just smiled and went back to reading his book.

Chapter Nineteen

"This is where you live?" Elroy asked. They'd been driving for what seemed an eternity. They'd pulled off a small narrow country road and turned onto a dirt road lined with tall trees. Elroy had to navigate the Porsche with care; there was snow on the ground and unexpected patches of ice. It was evident the road had been plowed, but not treated with chemicals. 

"Welcome to Little Flower," Kyle said. "It's the smallest town in Vermont. It's not even on the map."

Elroy glanced around. There were nothing but tall trees and a dirt road that didn't seem to end. "Your family must own a lot of property."

"I actually own all six hundred acres," Kyle said. "When my dad was killed, he wanted to keep it in the family and he left it to me. My great-grandfather was a logger and he was the original owner. When my mom remarried Oscar, he moved in with his son and now they all live here."

"That's very generous of you," Elroy said. "I would have sold it and taken the money."

"It's my mom," Kyle said. "And Oscar is harmless in a primitive way. Besides, who do you know who wants six hundred worthless acres in the middle of nowhere? You haven't lived until you've been to Little Flower during mud season."

Elroy swerved to miss a patch of ice and laughed. "You have a point."

"And it's home," Kyle said. "I might build a home here myself someday."

"Who else lives here?" Elroy asked. "You said 'now they all live here.'" Though he didn't say this aloud, Elroy couldn't imagine anyone wanting to live back there. It had to be the most dismal place he'd ever been. And he'd seen the insides of more than one sleazy hotel room.

"Oscar's son, Jeremy. And Jeremy's wife and two kids also live here."

Elroy smiled. "Jeremy's the one who fucked you all through high school. I can't wait to meet him." Thanks to that idiot, Kyle didn't trust anyone. And Elroy was paying the price.

Kyle rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, that's Jeremy. But that ended a long time ago and I'd appreciate it if you kept that to yourself. No one else knows about it. I told you that in confidence."

"Of course I'll keep it to myself," Elroy said. "I'm cool with that shit."

The road widened and Kyle sent him an uncertain glance. They entered a clearing and Elroy saw a small white house with black shutters in the distance. It was one of those 1970s ranch-style affairs, with a bay window in front, a low-slung roof, and a black eagle decoration on the storm door. There were a few of those offensive inflatable Christmas decorations in the front yard: a large Santa and a snowman with a carrot for a nose. The windows were trimmed with multi-colored blinking lights and there was a plastic wreath on the front door with a squashed red bow that looked as if it had seen more than one Christmas. If the house hadn't been this far out in the woods it would have looked like a million other ranch-style homes throughout lower-end suburban Boston decorated with tacky discount store Christmas junk. Elroy had never actually been to a place like this and he'd always wondered how poor people lived.

Kyle told him to park next to a black pick-up truck with a sign that read, "Huberly & Sons Constructon."

"I thought you said Oscar only had the one son, Jeremy," Elroy said. "The sign on the truck says 'Sons,' not 'Son.'"

"Oscar had the sign made when he thought I was going to join the construction business," Kyle said. "He still thinks I will. That's the older truck. They must have taken Jeremy's truck to work today."

Kyle's mom met them at the front door. She welcomed them into the house and hugged Kyle in a stiff way. She shook Elroy's hand and said, "It's nice to meet you." She didn't offer him a hug.




 

 

Elroy squared his back and said, "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Huberly. Your son has told me so many wonderful things about you." Elroy looked her up and down while he spoke, the same way he evaluated everyone the first time he met them. He could see she'd been an attractive woman at one time. Though she'd filled out over the years, she still had a nice figure and medium-length brown hair the same color as Kyle's. She wore jeans and a simple white blouse; no jewelry but a gold wedding band. Elroy saw traces of makeup, but nothing more than some foundation and a hint of lip gloss. Kyle and his mom were not identical, but Elroy noticed the family resemblance immediately.

"Call me Patty," she said. "We're not formal around here." Then she looked Elroy up and down as if she were evaluating him now. And he knew with that one statement he would have to be careful with her. He'd run across her kind before. She was the sweet quiet type who didn't wear a lot of makeup and pretended to be simple while she plotted and calculated her next move. Oh, he so wished he'd slept with Kyle at least once. That would have given him an edge with which she wouldn't have been able to compete. He'd never met a mother yet who could compete with him.