Of Dreaming Spires: Chapter 4 – The Wind Lays Waste

The Wind Lays Waste

Daniel woke disorientated for the fifth late-morning in a row. His mouth was cotton-filled and his head thumping to the rhythm of his pulse.

He’d spent the past four nights at the club, receiving increasingly less satisfying hand and blow jobs whilst getting drunk at an exponentially greater rate each night. It didn’t matter what he did; what promises he made himself, he seemed to be falling further and further into a dark spiral of alcohol fueled depression.

It really didn’t take a genius to realize what the problem was. He was lonely, and it had been a long time since he’d had to deal with feeling that way. Back in DC there had been very few days where he hadn’t spent at least some time with Jack and, even when the General was in Colorado, there had been dinners with Paul Davis and other members of Daniel’s staff.

He’d been too tired and emotionally drained to feel anything much the first few days of his sojourn here in LA. Then, meeting Spencer had given him a false sense of belonging – being around someone who he could talk to, if only for a few hours had once again staved off the loneliness.

Once he’d said goodbye to Spencer and the limo had driven off the tarmac, he was suddenly aware he knew literally no one in LA, unless you counted Padraigh and Ben.

So, he’d gone back to the club that same evening, hoping that lightning would strike twice in the same place, or at least Paul’s friends would be there. Daniel realized quickly that it was a forlorn hope when he was informed that the two men were away on business for the rest of the month. It was painfully obvious that once again he was on his own. Yes, the club was filled with beautiful men and women, any one of whom could easily be seduced into having sex with him.

But in the end – even in the glossy exclusivity of Douleur, it all felt so very shallow and seedy.

Still, each of the mornings following his desperate attempts to find surcease from his morose mood, he woke up at noon or just after, threw down a handful of Tylenol, forced himself to eat something light and watched inane TV for a few hours.

Then by 10pm, after a decadent bubble bath and the fleeting excitement of making himself look as desirable as possible, he be down in the lobby, waiting for the limo ready to do it all again.

He’d had a text from Spence the first afternoon and they’d talked on the phone for over an hour, with Spencer cautiously optimistic about Aaron’s reactions to their little charade. Daniel was loath to pull down the younger man’s mood and so he kept his own growing depression to himself.

The following day the only contact was a text to say the BAU had been called to Yellowstone to investigate a mass grave, and due to spotty cell coverage, he had only had a couple of short emails from Spence.

He groaned as he turned and felt blindly for his phone to check the time. This morning was worse than all the others, as his stomach roiled and bucked. He didn’t think he’d drunk enough the night before to have alcohol poisoning, but it certainly felt like a possibility.

“Ahhh, there you are finally, Cheri. I was about to call down for a doctor.”

The unfamiliar, accented voice had Daniel on alert and rolling over, trying to get his blurred vision to focus. At the same time his hand moved abortively to his thigh, reaching for a Beretta that hadn’t been strapped there for a couple of years.

“Who are you?” Daniel croaked, trying his best to focus.

“Oh please, mon ami, don’t panic. My name is Luc. I’m afraid you became unwell at the club last night…I thought at first you might be sick, but I have begun to wonder if it was something more sinister…Maybe drugs?”

Daniel’s senses became instantly alert as anger flooded his system.

Since the whole sarc addiction and the problems he’d had in the Goa’uld Pleasure Palace, he had been almost fanatical about anything other than over-the-counter medication, even steering clear of heavy duty painkillers at the dental surgery. When he’d thrown his back out after an ill-advised game of tennis with Paul Davis, he’d gone so far as to refuse anti-inflammatories, and had survived on Tylenol for ten agonizing days. So the idea that this stranger was making insinuations about him using…

Daniel sat up and irritated, threw the comforter almost over the other side of the bed. He was relieved to find that he was still wearing the clothes he had gone out in. That was something at least.

He reined in his temper and focused on the man…Luc?… standing across the room from him.

He was young…maybe twenty-five or so, a good four inches shorter than Daniel and much, much slimmer, with a fine boned, wiry build that made Daniel think of a swimmer or a long distance runner. His skin was dark and his eyes almond shaped, fringed with thick black lashes that spoke to Mediterranean or Middle Eastern descent. His hair was close cropped and he had a neat goatee beard. He was in fact gorgeous…

And he was in Daniel’s hotel room.

“What…what happened and how did you get in my room?”

“I came into the men’s room at La Douleur and found you slumped against the wall. I thought at first you were just very drunk, but you seemed very disorientated and I became concerned. I tried to find out who you were with, but you were not making a lot of sense.”

Daniel frowned. He had to admit he couldn’t remember a great deal of the night before. And while he had been drunk the last couple of nights, he could still remember leaving the club and coming back to the hotel. Last night was pretty clear for the first hour or so, but then it seemed to have just disappeared from his memory. It scared him that he’d been so out of control. Anything could have happened.

“So how did you know where my hotel was? An why didn’t you just call one of the Monitors to deal with me?  I’m sure I could have slept off whatever this was in one of the private rooms.”

Daniel felt disorientated, and a little paranoid. He didn’t like being so suspicious, but a voice in his head, which sounded distressingly like Jack, told him he should get some intel from this guy. After all he only had his word for what had gone down at the club.

The other man looked a little abashed. “I…I looked in your wallet and found your key card. There were several people around who I now are not the most trustworthy, and I didn’t want to just leave you there. I had no way of knowing if someone had spiked your drink, or if you had simply got a little heavy handed with something…”

“I don’t do drugs!” Daniel snapped, angry at the inference, and scared at how vulnerable he had been.

The young man held up his hands in surrender.

“Hey, hey, I never said you did. I was alarmed that was all, and I thought it was best to get you back to your hotel. I’m sorry I intruded on your privacy. It really was for the best reasons.” He shrugged. “Now I know you are OK and not going to choke on your own vomit, I will leave you to your morning. You should drink some water. If my worst fears are true, then we have no idea what it was you were slipped. Fluid will help to get it out of your system.”

He gave Daniel a sweet and slightly sorrowful smile, turned and walked towards the door.

Daniel frowned. He was appalled at himself for how badly he was treating the man. He was here, in his own room, seemingly unharmed and still in his clothes. If…what had the guy said his name was again? Oh yeah…If Luc had intended to rob or assault Daniel he could have done it while Daniel was passed out, be it there or back at the club. It wasn’t in his nature to knowingly treat someone with disrespect and this young man had done him a great favor. Despite Douleur’s stringent member policies, just a picture posted on Twitter would have been enough to bring unwanted attention.

“Hey, don’t go. I’m sorry, it’s just a bit…unsettling, you know, not knowing what happened. Why don’t you go and take a seat in the lounge area while I take a shower. Then maybe you’d let me take you to lunch…It’s the least I can do.”

Luc turned and gifted him with a blindingly white smile. “I would like that, Daniel.”

Jackson nodded and the other man hooked his thumb over his shoulder and turned to walk into the sitting room.

Daniel rubbed his hand roughly over his face for a minute or so, trying desperately to get some neurons firing again, only to jump out of his skin when a cold bottle of water was placed in his other hand.

“Shit!” he yelled, leaping to his feet and raising his hands in a classic hand-to-hand pose. Teal’c would have been so proud. Although, on second thoughts, the fact that the guy had got the jump on him when he should have already been on high alert, would have more likely got him a long lecture from Jack, a some interestingly placed bruises from the Jaffa warrior.

“I’m sorry,” Luc snorted a little, although he obviously wasn’t sorry at all.

“I thought you might like this before you go into the heat of the shower.”

Daniel nodded as he tried to will his thumping heart to slow down. “You’re not a Special Ops soldier by any chance, are you?” he asked, only half joking.

“No, I am a ballet dancer,” Luc replied, looking a little puzzled. “I wouldn’t know one end of a gun from another.”

“It’s just you move very quietly,” Daniel explained, as he twisted the cap off the bottled water.

“Ahhh, just my dance training,” the other man explained. “I have to be light on my feet.” With that, he left the room again, as silent as a ninja.

Daniel chugged down the whole bottle of water in a few swallows, almost groaning at how good it felt. He was really very dehydrated and he wondered what the drug was he’d been given, because it was obvious that was what had happened.

God, he needed a shower. He felt grubby and sweaty, and wanted to get into some clean clothes.

He rose from the bed and caught himself on the bedhead as a wave of dizziness hit. It took a couple of minutes before he felt right and able to stand up straight again.

He pulled his phone and wallet out of the pockets of his pants, and placed them on the nightstand. He was about to strip out of his clothes when he had a thought. He flipped open his wallet and was relieved to find that everything was as it should be, including a few precious photos, his black Amex, and the $200 dollars he’d taken out with him.

He remembered starting a tab behind the bar when he’d gotten to the club the first night, but knew that would be totaled up at the end of his stay to be paid all in one go. So nothing had been taken. Therefore, the purpose of drugging him was either to get him to leave the club and go somewhere else, or to make him susceptible to someone’s advances.

No matter how much he tried to recall it, his memory of the evening before was completely gone and he began to worry he’d been slipped some kind of date-rape drug like Rohypnol.

Daniel felt sick at the thought that he could’ve been abducted or raped. Luc had done him a great favor getting him out of the club and back to the hotel. They must have gotten a cab, so he reminded himself to ask Luc how much he owed him for that. He was really lucky the man had found him and seemed to have Daniel’s best interests at heart…In different circumstances it could have gone down very badly.

He knew he had a responsibility to report what had happened. The sensible thing to do would be to make Padraigh and Ben aware someone was targeting patrons of the club that way, but he knew it would be several days before they returned from their trip. He pondered who else he could contact, wondering if perhaps the scary Domme from his first night was a possibility.

As he pondered the problem, Daniel remembered the invitation card Padraigh had given him, had his cell number on the back. He dashed off a quick text, alerting the other men that he needed to speak to them. It could take them a while to get bac to him, but he felt a lot better knowing he could leave the issue in their hands, rather than a stranger.

Desperately needing to feel clean, Daniel quickly stripped off and moved into the bathroom, placing his dirty clothes in the laundry bag. He made a mental note to make a request for it to be taken to cleaned before he left for lunch, as it was getting rather full.

He caught sight of himself in the floor to ceiling mirror and curled his lip in disgust. His eyes were bloodshot and bleary, his skin blotchy and pallid and his chest littered with some really ugly love bites and finger bruises of varying ages, most of which he had no recollection of receiving.

He really had been letting himself go over the last few days, and although he was a grown-up and capable of making his own mistakes, he didn’t like feeling so out of control.

Maybe he should have a few days away from the club, catch a show or a concert; do something other than get drunk and have unsafe and sordid little fumbles in a sex club, especially now the possibility of something dangerous happening had been made so clearly obvious.

*****

Thirty minutes later a much brighter and more composed Daniel made his way into the living area of the suite, to find Luc dozing quietly on the couch. The man had obviously been watching over him for a few hours during the night and seemingly hadn’t had much sleep. That made Daniel feel even worse for being so suspicious. He walked over to the desk where his trusty coffee machine was keeping a full carafe pleasantly warm, if not piping hot. He poured a generous mug, added a little sugar and chugged it back, before downing two more. The caffeine hit helped his lingering disorientation and he finally felt much more like himself.

Walking back over to the couch, he sat down carefully, trying hard not to jostle the sleeping man. But it seemed Luc was really only dozing, as his eyes sprang open at the movement.

“Ahhh, you look much happier now, cheri,” Luc smiled softly.

“Yes, it’s amazing what a shower and coffee can do.” Daniel agreed.

His stomach took that as a cue to growl loudly.

“And I think that’s our cue for lunch,” He grinned. “What would you like? It’s on me, so whatever and wherever you fancy is fine. I’m sure the concierge can get me reservations anyplace.”

Luc smiled shyly and shrugged.

“Well, I’d guess from your accent you’re from one of the French colonies…erm…” Daniel thought carefully, mulling over the clues Luc’s accent gave him. “Morocco, I think…Agadir.”

Luc looked shocked. “Yes, my father was Berber and my mother French. But how…how did you know?”

“Languages are my job, and my passion,” Daniel smiled. “And I spent a lot of time in Egypt and Morocco on digs and doing research, so the particular cadences are familiar to me,” he explained. “I happened to see a Moroccan place called ‘Tamint’, just a few blocks from Neiman Marcus and I’d thought about trying it out. Shall I see if we can get a table there?”

Luc looked enthusiastic and nodded, “Oh, oui. I’ve heard about it, but haven’t yet been there. We…The ballet company, are in LA for a hiatus between tours, and this is only the third day since we arrived here.”

Daniel picked up the room phone and called down to the concierge, asking for reservations to be made, and arranging for a car to pick them up in front of the hotel.

“Do you want to go somewhere to change first?” Daniel asked, giving the other man a faintly flirty look.  He really was very beautiful – his glowing skin and dark eyes making him interesting and exotic. “Not that you need to, you look great.”

Luc nodded in pleased appreciation of the compliment. “I took the liberty of freshening up just before you woke, Daniel, so as long as you think my clothes are appropriate…”

“Hey, it’s just lunch, and I don’t know what the restaurant is like inside, but it didn’t look too formal from the outside.”

He pulled the door of the room closed behind him and followed Luc to the elevators. “The concierge seemed to think there would be no problem getting us a table.”

Within thirty minutes they were being shown to their seats in a beautifully decorated room. It was evocative without being a pastiche and Daniel was delighted with his choice.

The whole restaurant revolved around an open kitchen area, where food was being cooked over flaming pits. The smells were mouth-watering and made Daniel feel homesick for Abydos for a fleeting moment. That spice/sweet scent and the sizzle and crack of the wood fired cooking slid perfectly into his sense memory, leaving him moist eyed and reeling.

A hand on his elbow shook him back to Earth and he looked over to see a slightly concerned Luc smiling at him quizzically.

“Just brought back memories,” Daniel explained, vaguely. He really didn’t want to get into any conversations about the Stargate quite yet, although he was sure it would come up at some point.

After a short exchange in Berber, a delighted waiter guided them to what Daniel considered the best table in the room. It was close enough to the cooking area for them to watch their meal being prepared, but far enough away that the heat of the flames wasn’t unpleasant. There were not many empty tables, but the clever organization of the space meant it didn’t feel at all overcrowded or noisy.

They ordered drinks and made small talk about their surroundings until a large man in chef whites arrived at the table.

“Salam aleikoum. I am Adil Lahlou, head chef and co-owner of ‘Tamint’. I understand you are both familiar with food from my country, so I was wondering if you would allow me the honor of preparing my favorite dishes for you?”

Daniel was delighted. He looked over at Luc who nodded in agreement. “Sahit, Adil. Yari Laze. (Thank you, Adil, I am hungry).

The chef beamed at Daniel and Luc and then bustled off to the cooking area. Soon they watched with interest the chef at work, accompanied by the scraping of utensils and sizzling ingredients hitting the oil. Daniel’s mouth watered as the sweet, hot scent rose from the superheated pans.

“So…you said you were a dancer…ballet? Which company,” Daniel asked as they made a start on the basket of warm flatbread and flavored oils that had appeared on the table with their drinks.

“This year I’ve been with Los Angeles Ballet. I mainly dance in the corps, but I had a couple of solo spots this last tour. I’m between contracts at the moment,” Luc explained.

“We’ve been touring in Europe over the last few months, and with any luck I can join the same company to go back there after the summer break. I love London especially, since I trained at the Royal Ballet School. I love to visit with my friends whenever we are over there.”

Daniel smiled, “I have some great memories of the UK, too. I got one of my doctorates there and, actually, I’m going back to my old Oxford College to teach in a few weeks.”

Luc smiled brightly, “Oh, well if you are there when I get back to England, then maybe we could meet up…and I will buy you lunch.”

Daniel nodded in agreement. He liked this bright, beautiful young man. He was nothing like the men he had been attracted to in the past, but he reminded himself that the past was just that. He was going to make a new start, not only with his job but with his social life, too. He’d spent too long in Jack’s shadow, it was time to stretch his wings and get back out into the sun again. He snorted at his psyche waxing lyrical and only just managed to turn the rather inelegant sound into a small cough.

As the meal progressed, he found himself becoming quietly aroused by the man sitting opposite him. Every move the dancer made was elegant and poised. His conversation was intelligent and lively, and he seemed able to allow Daniel to talk as much as he wanted, which felt like a new experience after 14 years of living around Jack.  O’Neill never missed an opportunity to tell him to ‘shut up’.

The food was exquisite and the menu beautifully balanced. It seemed both an age and just a moment later that they reached the end of the meal, with both of them sipping dark, spiced coffee, redolent with rich flavors of cardamom, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper.

The discrete presence of the waiter had Luc reaching for his wallet, but Daniel waved away his offer of going Dutch.

“Lunch is the least I can do. I can’t help thinking you saved me from a potentially nasty situation last night.”

Luc shook his head and spread out his hands in negation.

“I just happened to be there and see you almost fall. I thought you were just a little drunk at first, but your eyes were very glazed and I was concerned that something else had happened. I wasn’t sure if you had taken something or had something slipped to you. I did look around for one of the club monitors, but could find no one. I decided it was a better idea for me to get you back to your hotel. At least there it was quiet and I could call for assistance if you needed it. Another friend of mine was at the club with me and he had a car nearby. He helped me get you into the back seat and then up into your room.”

Luc ruefully shook his head. “You are much heavier than you look, Daniel. I think it is all those muscles.” Luc’s eyes twinkled with suppressed humor, and overt promise.

“Oh, flattery will get you everywhere,” Daniel flirted back. “In fact, I was wondering if you wanted to come back to the hotel with me…unless you have somewhere you need to be. You’ve given me a lot of your time as it is.”

Luc reached under the table and squeezed Daniel’s thigh gently. “I would be very happy to spend more time with you, Daniel,” he purred lowly. “But I need to go to my friend’s apartment to collect some things first, so would you like me to meet you back at the hotel?”

Daniel’s cock began to swell at the drop in pitch of the other man’s voice. It was dark and sexy and his accent had thickened. He wasn’t willing to waste any time getting Luc back to the hotel and into his bed, so he shook his head. “No, that’s OK. If you have the address, we can get the car to take us there and do a round trip.”

Daniel slid his hand on top of Luc’s and squeezed them both around the long, hard muscle of his thigh. He was gratified to see Luc’s eyes darken. Yeah, they were both on the same page.

By the time they slid into the back seat of the limo the atmosphere between them was charged. As soon as the car door clicked shut Luc was straddling Daniel’s lap, kissing him hot and heavy. Part of Daniel thought it was a little too much for the back of the car, but his cock told him to shut the fuck up and enjoy it. So he did just that.

Luc was staying in a condo belonging to the Premier Danseur of the LAB. He was traveling during hiatus and had asked Luc and several of the other younger male dancers to ‘house sit’ for him, and of course they had been happy to agree.

“Living in LA is expensive, and Beverley Hills would normally be way out of my price range. So the opportunity to stay here is a real treat.”

Luc ground down against Daniel, bringing their hard cocks into very close proximity, as he made his way across Daniel’s lap and out of the car.

“I will be only a few minutes…I hope you don’t mind if I don’t invite you in, but I’m not sure what my other roommates will be doing. One of them could still be wandering around naked and hung-over, and whilst I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, I’d rather keep you to myself for now.”

Daniel couldn’t help feeling a little flattered by the younger man’s possessiveness, even though it seemed a little OTT for their short association. He simply nodded and smiled his agreement.

Luc was back in the car within 10 minutes, a small messenger bag slung across his narrow shoulders. He placed it on the long seat and climbed back up into Daniel’s lap, his movements slinky and seductive.

By the time they reached the hotel Daniel was desperate with the need to touch naked skin. He thought Luc would be gorgeous spread out on his bed and after breathlessly plying the, thankfully, straight-faced driver with a generous tip, they moved quickly into the main foyer of the hotel. The elevator ride to the suite was needfully restrained, as they were sharing the car with several other guests.

But almost as soon as the door closed behind them Luc was attached to Daniel, lip to lip, hips rolling in a heady, tantalizing motion that almost reminded Daniel of a lap-dance…not that he’d ever had one from a man before. There was one time after Jell-O wrestling when Jack and Teal’c had talked him into a strip joint, but that was a woman and the less said about it the better.

“I want you…on my bed…and naked…” Daniel panted in between the concerted assault Luc was making on his mouth and jaw.

There was something a tad desperate about the other man’s actions and Daniel wanted to slow things down. He needed this to be different from the furtive fumbles at the club, although his time with Spencer would never be include in that category.

No, that had been something completely different…precious, in fact.

Daniel used his larger frame to start moving them away from the doorway and towards the bedroom, walking Luc backwards across the suite, trying to prevent them from tripping over anything, while Luc moved frenetically against him. Daniel had to almost dump him on the bed to separate them, and it took all Daniel’s skills of evasion to dodge the younger man’s reaching fingers as he stood up and began to unbutton his shirt.

“Let’s slow this down,” Daniel said softly but firmly. “What do you want…what do you do?”

“I want you to fuck me,” Luc breathed as he frantically squirmed his way out of his jeans and yanked his t-shirt over his head.

Daniel was taken aback at the vehemence of the request. He had no problem fucking Luc; the dancer was seriously hot and obviously very willing. Supplies were no problem either. He’d helped himself to the freely available condoms and lube at the club every night he’d been there. In fact, he’d been a little embarrassed to realize that he wouldn’t have to restock for a while; he’d obviously gone around filling his pockets with abandon.

No, it was just that the guy writhing and panting on his bed was a little skewed from the witty and urbane man who had sat opposite him at lunch.

‘Stop thinking and get fucking’ his psyche yelled at him. In his few moments of wool-gathering, Luc had managed to strip completely naked and was sprawled across the comforter in a wanton display. His legs were spread, showcasing a shaved groin and a nicely shaped cock. He was average sized and cut, and all the wriggling and squirming he was doing had it bobbing and slapping against his washboard abs. There wasn’t a spare ounce of fat on the man and his muscles were deeply cut, although completely in keeping with his slight frame.

Daniel’s cock got in on the conversation and he felt his higher brain functions literally shut down. He couldn’t think of any reason not to fuck Luc…not one.

“Lube?” Luc asked, his breathing short and excited.

Daniel pulled open the nightstand drawer and grabbed a handful of packs of lube and a couple of condoms. There was no question that they would be needed, no matter how clean Daniel knew he was. Despite his descent into stupidity, he’d been aware enough to use protection at the club every night, except during his encounter with Spencer…and why that had been different he had no idea.

He shook his head…’Stop thinking, Jackson. He’s waiting’, he chided himself and set to undressing as quickly as possible.

He tossed the lube on the comforter, and turned to throw his jeans over the ottoman at the end of the bed. He looked back to find that Luc had already started prepping himself. It made for a very hot picture, and Daniel’s hand drifted to his cock as he watched the dancer’s fingers disappear roughly into his hole. He’d used plenty of lube, and the slick, wet sounds ramped up Daniel’s arousal.

Luc looked up at him through thick black lashes and gave him the most lascivious once over. “Fuck, Daniel, you’re so hot. And your cock…fuck, it’s so big. I’m not sure I can take all that, cheri.”

Daniel grinned at the obvious and quite ridiculous flattery.

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll manage,” he replied, his voice dropping a couple of registers as Luc pulled his slick, glistening fingers from his stretched ass.

The dancer gestured for Daniel to join him on the bed and then reached for a condom packet and tore it open with his teeth. Daniel knee-walked over and then lay on his side facing the younger man. His breathing sped up as Luc placed the still rolled condom in his mouth and then slunk down the sheets to put his face directly over Daniel’s groin.

Daniel couldn’t help the long, low moan as Luc placed his mouth over Daniel’s cock, and in one practiced move slid the condom over his now rock hard erection. It spoke of lots of experience that Daniel was, right then, appreciating very much. Luc pulled back off his now covered hard-on, with a long careful suck that had Daniel grabbing at the base of his cock to stave off what would have been a very embarrassing reaction.

“You gonna put that monster in me, cheri? You gonna fill me up with it…huh?”

In one smooth move Luc twisted around and was on his hands and knees, looking over at Daniel with a gaze that was blatant and obscene.

“Gonna give it to me hard and hot…stretch me and fill me…will you, bébé?”

It was odd. The man on the bed was nothing like the intelligent person he had spent lunch with. The leering, coarse speech was almost dialogue from a bad porno. If nothing else the incongruity helped Daniel back off from the edge of orgasm.

Perhaps the other guy was nervous, or maybe got off on talking like that, Daniel mused absently as his eyes drank in the warm chocolate skin in front of him. For a man who made his living with words, Daniel had never talked that much during sex.

However, as he ran his fingers gently over his straining cock, the thoughts were gone as quickly as they arrived. Daniel’s forebrain was definitely not running the show; his lizard brain was in charge.

Smoothing his hands across the dancer’s back, Daniel slid off the bed. Luc was slick with sweat already, and he was wiggling his ass at Daniel like a snake dancing to a charmer’s pipe.

“Where you going, bebe? Don’t you want my hot hole?”

Luc reached back and smacked his own ass cheek, the sharp crack making Daniel jump a little. There was something about the whole tableaux that was starting to make Daniel want to laugh, but he fought it down, not wanting to insult the man who so obviously wanted Daniel to fuck him into next week.

He stood at the end of the bed and grasped Luc’s hips; the younger man’s waist was so narrow that, when Daniel’s big hands wrapped around it, his thumbs almost met at the small of Luc’s back.  Daniel pulled back gently and Luc quickly got the idea, positioning himself with his knees at the side of the mattress, his feet overhanging a little. This put Daniel at the perfect height to give Luc the ride he so obviously wanted.

Finding the half used lube packet discarded on the comforter, Daniel squeezed out what was left over his latex covered cock and indulged himself in a couple of long, firm strokes. When he was fully hard again he rubbed the fat head of his cock over Luc’s glistening relaxed hole. Before he could line up and push in smoothly Luc reared back and impaled himself on Daniel’s cock with a loud roar.

“Yeah, yeah…gimme more, fuck me…yeah, yeah, ungh, ungh, oh yeah…ram that monster inside me…fuck me.”

The words spewed out of Luc’s mouth in one long, heavily accented, seemingly unstoppable stream of obscenity. He fucked himself on Daniel’s cock like a man possessed and Daniel felt sidelined, almost as if he was only a prop in Luc’s egocentric, one-man porno.

“Come on, come on, come on…” Luc chanted, as he looked over his shoulder and glared at Daniel. “Give it to me, baise-moi…me baiser dur,” he demanded

Daniel felt dragged along by Luc’s desperation, while at the same time he felt strangely disembodied. This was not great sex…Hell, it wasn’t even good sex. They’d only been fucking for a few minutes and Daniel was ready for it to be over. He’d had disappointing sex before, but it had never felt like this; staged and unreal.

With that in mind he gave in to Luc’s demands and began to fuck him hard, his strokes deep and almost brutal. This seemed to placate Luc a little and the younger man let his head drop down between his arms as he gave himself over to Daniel.

The words coming from his mouth were not English anymore. Daniel recognized some Berber amongst the French, along with some gutter Arabic. Luc had a really dirty mouth, but Daniel couldn’t find it arousing. He reached around to palm Luc’s cock, hoping to get the young man off quickly so that this encounter could be over.

Daniel couldn’t ever remember being thrown out of the mood so fast. Luc was moaning loudly and continuously and Daniel could feel Luc’s balls tightening where they were pressed against the base of Daniel’s cock. Placing one hand on Luc’s shoulder Daniel angled his strokes and realized he’d hit Luc’s prostate when the younger man howled and came all over Daniel’s hand. Luc collapsed bonelessly onto the bed, and Daniel only just managed to stop his full weight from falling onto the slighter man.  The pressure on Daniel’s cock was just enough to pull a reluctant orgasm from him and he gave two desultory jerks of his hips as he came.

Feeling shaken by the whole encounter, Daniel got a hand underneath him and lifted off the dancer’s back, keeping a firm hold on the base of the condom as he withdrew. He pulled it off, tossed it in the waste bin by the bed and then made his way into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind him. With a sigh, he sat down on the closed toilet seat and placed his head in his hands, planting his elbows on his knees.

He had the makings of a monster headache hanging threateningly behind his eyes, and he pressed shaking fingers into the sockets in the vain hope it would help. He was shuddering, but with exhaustion and faint revulsion, rather than aftershocks.

What had begun so promisingly had ended with total disaster as far as Daniel was concerned.

He shook his head, trying to make sense of it all.

Luc was obviously experienced, but Daniel couldn’t believe he spent more than a night or two with any lover; not with that technique. Of course, some people might find the flattery and porn soundtrack a turn on – it was just unfortunate that he wasn’t one of them. He looked over at the door. He knew he had to go back into the room again, but he hoped it wouldn’t get too awkward if Luc decided he wanted more, because Daniel most definitely did not.

Daniel relieved himself, washed his hands and gave his groin a quick wipe down, before making his way back into the cool, dimly lit room. To his relief, Luc’s breathing was slow and even, and he’d obviously fallen straight to sleep.

Daniel didn’t really want to join him there, but it was still the middle of the afternoon, and too bright in the lounge room to sleep on the couch. The dark coolness of the bedroom would at least help to stave off his migraine.

He slipped on a fine cotton robe strangely unwilling to be naked next to the dancer, and padded over to the bed. He lay down next to the slumbering man and closed his eyes, letting himself drift, whilst wondering why his first proper fuck since Rodney left for Atlantis had turned out to be such a disappointing failure.

Sex with McKay had always been hot, fulfilling and most of all a great deal of fun. The astrophysicist had been an inventive and surprisingly tender lover. Daniel had worried about Rodney when he left for Pegasus, and still missed him deeply.

They had been very honest with each other when they’d started sleeping together. Rodney knew Daniel was in love with Jack, and had proceeded to make known his thoughts on the subject as only McKay could. Daniel wondered how different things might have been if he’d actually listened to his brilliant friend.

After Atlantis got back in contact with Earth, in long, detailed and highly encrypted emails to each other, Rodney had shared the ‘mirror’ of that passion, in the form of one light Colonel John Sheppard.

And now, according to Dean, McKay’s crush was no longer unrequited. Daniel was pleased for his friend’s happiness, but couldn’t help feeling the bitter sting of Jack’s rejection all the more for it.

As sleep took him, his last thought was whether he’d ever get to see that beautiful city and its guardians again.

*****

Daniel woke to find his incipient headache had been headed off by the impromptu nap. He had no idea how long he’d been asleep or what had woken him, but as he rolled his head to look for Luc he realized the dancer was no longer in his bed. At first he thought he might have left – perhaps embarrassed by their less than stellar fuck. But then Daniel noticed Luc’s clothes were still strewn around the room, and that his small messenger bag was lying discarded at the end of the bed.

Daniel rose up onto his elbows and noticing the bathroom door was slightly ajar, but there was no sound of the shower running. He was about to lie back down when he noticed his wallet flipped open at the bottom of the bed. As he’d thrown it on the bedside table when they’d got back, and his two precious photographs from inside were discarded in a haphazard pile beside it, it was obvious his ‘guest’ had been riffling through it.

He reached over, snagged it between two fingers and peered inside.

Both the $500 he’d put in there before they’d left for lunch and his Amex were gone.

He frowned, quickly putting the pieces together, but not liking where the evidence was taking him.

Quietly, he got off the bed and moved to the bathroom door, pushing gently on it to open it a little wider.

Luc was leaning over the counter, a rolled bill in his right hand, his left index finger holding a nostril closed as he snorted one of the neat lines of coke he’d separated off with Daniel’s black Amex, which was balanced on the edge of the marble washbowl. There was a bundle of bills at Luc’s elbow, and it didn’t take much deductive reasoning for Daniel to realize he was looking at the contents of his wallet.

Daniel felt his stomach go tight with anger.

“Oh no, that’s not fucking happening.”

His voice reflected the icy block that had taken up residence in his gut. Luc turned his head, his over-bright eyes looking back at Daniel with a studied insolence that just made Jackson’s anger burn more fiercely. With a move he’d learned at Jack’s side, Daniel stepped into Luc’s space, grabbed his fine boned wrist, and bent it around his back.

The young man gave a little cry of distress, followed by a long string of gutter Arabic. He glared at Daniel. “What the fuck…”

Daniel ignored him for a moment, using his greater bulk and height to hold the dancer in place, while he used his free hand to turn on the faucet and sweep the remaining lines of coke into the sink with the edge of the credit card.

“Bâtard, connard, trou du cul!” Luc spat. “What did you do that for? Do you know how much that cost…?”

Daniel didn’t bother answering.  Using his years of Master Teal’cs hand to hand training to his advantage, Daniel manhandled Luc out of the bathroom and pushed him towards the bed.

“Get dressed and get out.”

Daniel’s dark tone would have frightened a System Lord, but it seemed Luc was either too stupid, or more likely too high to see how dangerous Daniel was in that moment.

“What the fuck is wrong with you. It was just a little blow. I’ll share, bebé, if that’s what you want.”

Luc looked longingly back towards the bathroom and Daniel followed his gaze to a baggie on the countertop, still half-full of cocaine, which was partially hidden under the wad of bills.

Then it all made sense. He’d been well and truly played.

“You drugged me at the club.”

“Well, you didn’t notice me the first two days, so I thought I’d give you a little helping hand.” Luc gave a nonchalant little shrug. “But you almost passed out on me. Big guy like you, it should have only made you a little happy, not falling down.”

Daniel didn’t bother to explain his weird and often atypical drug reactions. He wasn’t going to see this bastard again so it really didn’t matter.

“And now you’re taking drugs in my bathroom and stealing my money.”

Luc gave him a withering look and started to get dressed, his movements frenetic and ataxic.

“What you bothered about anyway, cheri. You got yourself my hot little ass. The last whore you took to bed got a $20,000 watch. And all I find in your billfold is $500, fils du pute! I think the least you can do is take me shopping before you throw my pretty little ass out.”

Daniel felt his face blanch. ‘No, no, no’, he thought desperately, ‘Please don’t let Spencer be involved in this’. “You should have told me how much you charge…tu es un putain…I don’t fuck whores.”

Daniel was gratified that his voice remained steady as he poured vitriol on the younger man.

“How did you know about the watch?” he demanded

Luc gave him a flirty grin, the one that had been seductive over lunch but now just looked like a parody. “One of the bellhops here…how do you think I knew who to look out for? You’ve got the money, so a few presents for my services…” he gave an insolent shrug.  “…it should not be too much to ask, eh?”

Daniel felt a flood of relief that Spencer had not been part of the scam, and that he wasn’t totally gullible. Only that fact saved Luc from the fist Daniel had tightly clenched against his thigh.

He smiled but there was no humor in it. “Oh, no, bébé…I don’t pay for bad sex with skanky rent boys…”

Suddenly the real truth of Luc’s situation struck Daniel like a thunderbolt.

“…Or failed ballet dancers who make their money as lap dancers and whores.”

He saw Luc flinch and knew he had hit a raw nerve. In a couple of steps he’d moved back to the bed where he pulled his phone out of his pants pocket and turned towards the other man. “Get the fuck out, and don’t bother going back to the club.”

Daniel lifted his cell and snapped a photo of the man’s shocked face. “I don’t know and don’t care if your name is really Luc, but I’ll make sure the monitors have a copy of that and you can be damn sure you won’t be getting back in there again.”

“I have friends of my own, cheri. They are not very nice men who will make you regret how you have treated me.” Luc growled through gritted teeth.

Daniel laughed hollowly, his gaze as cold as ice. “Oh, little boy, why don’t you just leave. I’ve been threatened better, and way more convincingly than that, by beings all over this Universe and beyond. And I’m. Still. Here.”

Not wanting to spend any more time and energy on the entire cluster fuck, Daniel picked up Luc’s bag and pressed it forcefully into the younger mans chest. Then Daniel spun him around and pushed him towards the door.

“Bye…I wish I could say I had fun, but I’d be lying. Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on your way out!” Daniel knew he was channeling Jack, but he couldn’t help himself. He cringed as he imagined what the General’s response to the whole debacle would have been.

Moments later the door was shut forcefully and an oppressive silence fell over the suite.

Daniel looked down and found his hands shaking. He jammed them under his armpits to try to stop the motion from telegraphing to the rest of his body, because he knew once he started he wouldn’t be able to stop. He gritted his teeth and went into the bathroom. With angry motions, he turned on the faucet in the sink to full force and waited until steam was billowing. Then he up-ended the bag of coke under the stream of water and watched as it swilled down the drain. He wrapped the empty baggie in toilet paper and flushed it down the pan. He then proceeded to wipe down every surface of the bathroom, including his credit card, with one of the hotel facecloths and the mouthwash from his toiletry kit. He thoroughly washed out the cloth using the spicy foaming bath oil and then pushed it deep into the waste can.

Leaving the bathroom, he picked up the wad of cash and made a mental note to spend it as soon as possible. He couldn’t afford to get pulled at the airport by sniffer dogs, especially on his way to the UK. The rolled bill Luc had been using to snort with he dropped into an ashtray on the console table and set light to it with the matchbook provided for guests. He watched it burn, feeling angry and paranoid, and then angry for feeling paranoid. As the bill turned to ash, he changed his mind about the remaining money and systematically burned it all, making sure to open the French doors first. The last thing he needed was to set off the fire alarms.

Returning to the bathroom, he dialed the shower temperature as high as it would go and proceeded to have a short but very thorough shower.

Once he felt Luc’s presence had been eradicated from the room and his body, he moved over to the coffee machine. The familiar routine of setting it up to perc, soothed the trembling in his hands and he took several deep breaths to help the process along.

When just over a cupful of coffee had dripped into the carafe, Daniel poured it out into his mug, chose a ridiculously large and indulgent bar of Swiss chocolate from the fridge unit, and slumped onto the couch trying not to dwell on just how badly he’d fucked up since that morning. Jack would be laughing or yelling right now (Daniel couldn’t decide which was more likely) and telling him he was too trusting; that he should have known better. But Daniel didn’t want to be so jaded. He didn’t want to belong to Jack O’Neill’s School of Paranoia and Distrust.

At least Spencer hadn’t been a mistake. He couldn’t believe how relieved he was that the profiler hadn’t betrayed him. It made no sense, but he had an inkling Spence would figure greatly in his life from here on out.

Daniel knew he had a couple of calls to make; to the club and the hotel management, but he decided they could wait for another hour or so. He placed a couple of squares of chocolate on his tongue and then drank his coffee around it. He sighed as the melting, rich sweetness hit his taste buds and leaned his head against the back of the couch.

He looked up at the ceiling as if it held the answers to the questions of the Universe. He felt hollowed out and old. The whole point of this trip had been to get away, meet new people, and have fun.

“Are you having fun yet, Jackson?” he asked the room, sarcastically. “What the fuck are you still doing here anyway?”

He definitely hadn’t enjoyed the last few days, so why was he hanging around in a city he didn’t even really like. He felt like he was waiting, but what was he waiting for?

The revelation was like a physical blow as it hit him. He pitched forward with a moan of despair, his arms wrapped tightly around his stomach.

Jack.

Jack always came for him. He’d always known that however dire the situation seemed, Jack would arrive, all guns blazing and rescue him. And now, when he needed him most; when he was alone and hurting…

Jack wasn’t coming.

As the realization hit, the road forward showed itself with amazing and immediate clarity.

It was time to leave.

Daniel put down his coffee cup, working hard to keep his hands steady, as he pulled his phone from the pocket of his robe. He scrolled through the contacts list and put through a call.

“Davis.”

“Paul, it’s Daniel…Don’t say anything, just listen, I’m coming back to DC… I need to know where the General will be in the next 48 hours…”