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Marcus feinted left, but he was too tired and still too full of alcohol. Thomas tackled him and they rolled over the grass, throwing elbows. Somewhere along the way, Marcus was laughing and Thomas forgot to be annoyed, suddenly just pleased to see his Master laughing, roughhousing as if they were teenagers. Thomas rocked back on his heels, shoving him away. Marcus sat up on his elbows, giving him an indulgent expression. "You're pretty good to have around, pet. I could get used to it. "
"Don't expect me to clean up your apartment ever again. This is a one-shot deal. "
"That's why I have a maid service. Call them on my Rolodex. They'll put it all back together and we'll stay in bed, until dinner. They're used to working around me. " Thomas shook his head. "J. Martin. Marcus, he's like - "
"You'll be as good as him. You're on your way now. " Marcus said it bluntly, watched the deep flush of pleasure rise in Thomas' cheeks. "And he is a complete slob, a bohemian of the worst sort. Lauren has to make him wear shoes most days. You two will get along just fine. "
"And he's. . . like me. "
Marcus easily picked up the direction of his thoughts. "Josh is a sexual submissive, like you, only he prefers women. One woman. Lauren. She's extraordinary, and if I ever tried to lay a finger on him without permission, she'd break all ten of them. " Reaching out abruptly, he caught Thomas' arm and pulled him to him, tumbling them over in the grass and suddenly having enough strength to pin Thomas under him. "The same thing I'd do to anyone who touches you. "
He traced Thomas' bottom lip with his thumb, his eyes getting smoky and intent.
"We're going to let the maid service do the apartment. I've got better things for you to do with your energy. "
"Insatiable monster. "
"You bet your fine ass. "
"Your fine ass," Thomas corrected, a moment before his mouth was seized, his breath taken so he couldn't tease his Master further.
Chapter Twenty
Marcus made fun of him when Thomas struggled over what shirt to wear, and eventually borrowed one of Marcus'. But then, as if Thomas weren't nervous enough, Marcus had to be on the phone when the doorbell rang.
As he moved to the door, he admonished himself firmly. "I will not act like a starstruck idiot. "
How Josh Martin's photograph stayed out of the papers was a testament to just how good Marcus was at simultaneously protecting and marketing artists. Even so, the fact that he was such a good friend and yet Thomas had never known much about him, like the most horrendous parts of Marcus' life, bothered him.
But that kind of secrecy was over. Marcus and he had talked a lot in the past twenty-four hours, enough that Thomas was able to push the feeling aside as he came face-to-face with one of the men who had inspired his own work. Thomas had pictured J. Martin a lot of ways, but he found Marcus' description accurate.
In his early thirties, with brown and black hair streaked with blond, Josh was tall, about Thomas' height. His gray eyes shifted restlessly. He was dressed casually in jeans and a snug dark T-shirt, revealing Celtic design tattoos around his wrists. Wire-rimmed glasses increased the stunning intensity of his gaze, but it also made him more boyish and sensually appealing at once.
The woman who had her hand threaded through the crook of his elbow had blue eyes like crystals and straight blonde hair that moved like rippling lake water over her shoulders. A pediatric specialist and surgeon, Thomas remembered Marcus saying, and he could see her resilient character in the firmness of her delicate chin, the decisive slope of cheekbone, giving a hint of the type of Mistress she was as well as the type of physician.
Thomas realized with some amusement they were studying him as thoroughly as he was studying them.
"I told you he was beautiful. Just as I remembered. " Lauren spoke first.
When Thomas raised a puzzled brow, she prodded his memory. "At the club May I Have This Dance? a few years back. I was the Mistress in the balcony. "
"She's got a way of breaking the ice, doesn't she? 'Yes, last time I saw you, you were being stripped naked in front of a bunch of strangers, myself included. ' Kind of makes it hard to be formal, not that we were going to pretend to do that. " Josh extended his hand. "Let me guess. He's on an important overseas call to underscore how terribly important he is, and remind us that, as the artists, we are completely replaceable and expendable. "
Thomas grinned despite himself. "You must be the expendable and replaceable J.
Martin. "
"Josh. You must be my replacement, if everything Marcus has told me about you is true. "
He'd pulled off the casual first comment well, Thomas thought, but that one completely flummoxed him. Fortunately, Lauren came to his rescue.
"You're exactly as I remember you, except a little thinner and more serious-looking.
Is Marcus making you look after that ulcer?" She brushed Thomas' cheek in a kiss, laying her hand on his forearm as she did so, a light but confident grip. "We'd have been here sooner," she continued, "but the whole year has been about the European tour. Keep in mind there are advantages to being a starving unknown. If Marcus makes you a success you might as well manacle yourself to your studio. "
"I'm in favor of anything that involves Thomas and chains. " Thomas turned to find Marcus had joined them. He gave a wicked grin, then stepped forward to embrace Josh and Lauren at the same time, one in each arm, his face brightening.
While he didn't put it past Marcus to pull such a calculated stunt as Josh had just described, in this instance Thomas knew he'd actually been on another call with his brother, finalizing the burial arrangements. For that reason he was glad for the timing of Josh and Lauren's arrival, their presence obviously having the ability to chase some of the stress lines from around Marcus' mouth.
