Desire: The Morning After The Night Before
Jon woke with a start - sitting upright in bed. Sweat dripped down his face and he was breathing hard. He threw the sheets off, wrapped his arms around his body and looked around with a frown.
He didn't recognise the ro.... Desire. A shudder ran through him as he remembered what had happened the previous night. He sighed and ran his hands over his face; it hadn't been a dream then. It had been real. Which meant Tico and.... He exhaled heavily and forced himself to change his train of thought.
He slipped out of the bed and flipped the light switch. The light that flooded the room chased away some of the demons lurking but Jon couldn't help but feel... stripped in a way. Catching a glimpse of himself in one of the full-length mirrors, he grimaced; there was a cut above one of his eyes and it was turning into one hell of a black eye. How was he going to explain that one away? He sighed again as he stared at the bruises covering his body - no wonder he ached. That guy had really not liked being told no.
Jon squeezed his eyes shut, wincing as he aggravated the cut above his eyebrow. He grabbed his clothing from the chair and dressed quickly, pulling his leather mask over his eyes before opening the door and venturing out into the club.
Desire was quiet. Quieter than Jon had ever known it to be as he walked down the corridors to the main rooms. In fact, there was no one else there, but, Jon realised, it was probably closed. At least he assumed it was closed during the day; he'd never known it to be open during the daytime.
"You can take the mask off if you want, Jon. There's no one here but me."
Jon jumped at Tico's softly spoken words and spun on the spot to face him. Tico was sitting at one of the tables with two mugs of hot coffee while he read the morning's paper.
"T... Tico... uh... hi... I didn't see you there."
Tico smiled and gestured to the chair opposite him. "You wanna sit down before you fall down?"
Jon sat down without saying a word, refusing to look at his band-mate as he peeled the black leather from his face. His fingers curled around the coffee mug Tico handed to him, and he gratefully took a sip. He sighed and looked up at Tico.
"What's going on here, Tico?"
"Coffee."
Jon laughed dryly and met Tico's eyes. "I mean here, this place..."
"I think you know what here is, Jon. It's Desire and I own it."
"I... You.... Oh...." Jon trailed off and stared into his coffee again, taking another sip.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here, Jon?"
"Drinking coffee, just like you said."
Tico slammed his hand down on the table making Jon jump. "Don't be a fucking smart ass."
"Fine." Jon placed his mug back on the table, pushed his chair back and stood up, starting to walk away.
Tico sighed. "Sit down, Jon." Jon didn't acknowledge him, just kept walking away. "Jon, please..." There was still no response from the singer and Tico took a deep breath in through his nose, the tone of his voice changing as he spoke again. "I said, Sit Down!"
Jon froze and swallowed hard before turning and making his way back to table. He sat down, frowning at the amused expression on Tico's face. Realising what he'd done Jon shook his head and stood up again, tugging at his hair. "No... No... This is not happening. I am not doing this. No. I'm not your sub, damnit Tico!" He turned and walked towards the door.
"So, you're just gonna walk out the front door of a BDSM club in full daylight after all the trouble you go through in order to keep your identity a secret? " Tico raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair as he watched Jon stumble to a standstill.
"Shit!" Jon leaned against the wall, his back to Tico. He looked up with a frustrated sigh and sat back down at the table again.
"What were you doing here last night?"
Jon shrugged. "Same as I usually do."
"You... You've been here before?" Jon laughed at the stunned expression on Tico's face. "How long have you been doing this?"
"Uh... Couple years I guess, on and off."
Tico frowned. "I haven't... I've never seen you here."
"I've only just started coming here. "
"Oh." Tico took another gulp of his coffee, pulling a face when he realised it was cold. He pushed his mug away and tipped his head to one side, searching Jon's face.
"What?" Jon smiled; it seemed he wasn't the only confused and bewildered here. "You... you own Desire?"
"Yeah. I was fed up with seeing and hearing about things like last night happening." He shrugged. "So I opened this place so it could be run the way I wanted it to be." Jon nodded and ran his finger over the cut above his eye. Tico frowned. "Something happened to you, didn't it?" He asked softly.
"Just the once," came Jon's answer, barely above a whisper. "Some shit decided he wanted to fuck me." He shrugged. "There was no one there to stop him."
"Shit." Tico placed a hand on Jon's arm. "I'm sorry, Jon."
Jon pulled back and wrapped his arms around himself. He shrugged. "Not your fault. Didn't happen here. "
"No, but... What happened?" Jon shook his head and looked away. Tico nodded in understanding. "Ok, I won't push it, I'm just gonna assume the bastard got away with it." Jon met Tico's eyes and nodded. Tico ground his teeth together and swore under his breath, hands curling to fists. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Tico reached out and ran his finger over the cut on Jon's eye, apologising when the singer flinched. "What you gonna tell the others about this?"
Jon shrugged. "Dunno. Tell them I was mugged or something, I'll think of something. " 'I always do', hung unspoken in the air between them.
Tico nodded. "They don't know about... this?" He gestured at Jon.
"Do they know about you?"
"Good point." Tico conceded. "How do you manage to keep it a secret?" He asked curiously.
"I hide my identity as well as I can. I don't let anyone see my face or my tattoo's or anything they could identify me with."
"That works?"
Jon shrugged. "I guess it must. I've never seen "My night of gay kinky sex with Jon Bon Jovi" as a headline in any tabloids.
Tico laughed despite himself and Jon smiled in return. "And you're ok with that?" Tico turned serious again. "You're happy doing this with strangers, knowing any one of them could expose you at any time?"
Jon scowled and shook his head. "No, of course not. I hate it Tico, but..." He sighed and shrugged. "I don't exactly have much of a choice."
"Yes you do."