Fic: Masquerade, Chapter 8/12 (CSI Miami, Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko)
Title: Masquerade, Chapter 8/12
Pairing: Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
CSI Miami Main List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
“Living room.” Ryan stated as he let Eric into the apartment. He closed the door and guided him onto the couch.
Eric got comfortable and looked up, but Ryan seemed to be busy going through a stack of DVD cases.
“Are we gonna watch a movie?
“Well…” Ryan picked one of the discs. “A picture says more than a thousand words.”
He snapped the TV on and inserted the disc to the player.
Eric’s eyes went wide. It took a while before his brain kicked back into action. He had seen enough footage from security cameras to recognise the film for what it was. The footage was from the VIP room of the club. The camera was obviously placed somewhere near the ceiling, looking down at the bed and the two men on it. One in white mask, one in black.
“Wolfe…” He stammered, trying to get his mouth to operate normally. “What the hell?”
“I got that from Hallington. He owns the club.”
“You’ve seen the whole thing? When did you get that?”
“He called me after I had taken you home and asked if I wanted a copy. All footage is destroyed the next day if they don’t have any disturbances or something like that. The cameras are just for safety.”
“How do you know?” The pieces were beginning to come together. “You’ve been there.”
“Couple times. I didn’t actually do anything, but… Yeah, I’ve been there.” He pulled something from the back pocket of his jeans and handed it over to Eric. “I didn’t do anything there till last Saturday.”
Eric looked at the black fabric in his hand. It was a black satin mask.
“He invited some friends from the PD to the opening night and we all got one as a gift.” Ryan explained. “And we get in for free.”
“You… you… Why did he ask you?”
“What?”
“You said he asked if you wanted a copy, why you?”
“You still haven’t figured it out?” Ryan sighed. “Follow the evidence.”
Eric’s mind raced while his eyes went from Ryan to the mask, to the couple copulating on the screen and back again. Finally the pieces made sense.
“That was you. At the club.”
“Yeah.”
“You… we… Why?”
“Well, it wasn’t supposed to go that far. I saw the add when you left from the locker-room.”
“So why did you follow me there?”
“Curiosity. When I got there I wasn’t even going to talk to you, I wasn`t sure if you’d recognise me.”
“I didn’t.” Eric run his fingers across the surface of the mask. “I didn’t. And you did a lot more than just talk.”
“Yeah, it was kind of a… I don’t know. It was just supposed to be fun. Mess with you head a bit when you couldn’t recognise me. I wasn’t going to ask you there again, it just came out of my mouth.”
“And you asked your buddy to organise it.” Eric added. He was still clutching the mask in his hand. “Why? Did you just wanna play me for a fool?”
“No.” Ryan sat down on the couch next to him. “I had no idea you would call me to drive you home. I thought we would just have some fun and that would be it.”
“You left me that note!”
“That was…” Ryan blushed and nailed his eyes to the floor. “Another thing I did on an impulse. I always do stupid things on an impulse.”
“Hey, I’m the reigning chairman of that club.” Eric stated. He wanted to be angry and outraged, but the scene playing on the TV screen was making it very hard. “You really weren’t gonna do anything?”
“No.”
“Why did you leave me that note?”
“I wanted to do that again.” Ryan admitted. “It was damn good and I wanted to do it again. Honest enough for you?”
“Yeah… I almost went to the club last night.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Neither did you.”
“I thought… after that first kiss… when I drove you home…” Ryan took a deep breath. “It wasn’t funny anymore.”
“What if I had gone there last night?”
“I called Chad and I asked him to give you a message if you showed up.”
“What kinda message?”
“A short one: Last time was awesome, but this is it. Don’t try to find me.”
“You were just gonna leave me in the dark.”
“If you had gone there, yeah. I thought that… if you rather go there, then… then that’s just how it is.”
“You thought I’d dump you to get laid.” Eric uttered, he didn’t notice how his hands were stretching the sating between them, pulling it tight. “What was it? Some kinda test?”
“No, I was going to show up when I left that note.” Ryan assured. “But then my plans kinda changed.”
“So…” Eric lowered his eyes to glare at the black mask. “What’s your plan now?”
“I was hoping to go on the way we’ve been going.”
“Unbelievable…”
“No, I-”
“I mean that!” Eric pointed to the screen behind Ryan’s back. “My demure no-sex-yet dating companion of four days is the same person as my one-off wild roll-in-the-hay maskman. That takes some time to get used to!”
“Remember what you said about your raunchy sexcapades? At the beach?”
“No…”
“You said you can do mushy and classy too.” Ryan reminded carefully. “You know what I’m like most of the time, and now you can add the sex side to that. Now you should know both of those sides of me.”
“A nagging nitpicker and an insatiable, inventive sex-fiend?” Eric couldn’t help laughing. “That’s a weird combination. Good thing I like weird.”
“It’s not that weird compared to a mushy-slash-classy man-whore, who couldn’t recognise his co-worker in a mask.”
“If you can bend yourself like that…” Eric gestured at the screen. ”… inventive is an understatement.”
“Take a good look at that tape, because you’ll never see it again.”
“Why not?!” Eric exclaimed. “It’s like watching porn in three D.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“Like when you’re fooling around and a mirror or something is right there and you just gotta take a look… it’s the same thing. And that whole prissy no-sex thing you got going on was hot too.”
“I’m not that strict on that.” Ryan chuckled and blushed. “But I didn’t want to do anything till I knew what you decided.”
“About going back to the club?”
“Yeah. You didn’t tell me… Why did you go back today?”
“I didn’t know if the guy was waiting for me last night, I wanted to explain.”
“Well, I’m listening. What did you want to tell me?”
“That I wouldn’t be going back to that place again.”
A wide smile appeared on Ryan’s face and Eric responded with a practically identical expression.
“We could go back there together sometime.” Ryan suggested. He walked closer to Eric and sat down unceremoniously on the man’s lap. “Have some fun in the VIP room and then come back here…”
“Seriously?”
“As long as you don’t want to do it all the time.”
“My inner porn star loves to come out and play, but I kinda like playing one-on-one.”
“Now?”
Ryan got on his own feet again and pulled Eric up from the couch by the collar of his shirt.
“Wednesday was yesterday, and now we got all day to explore some new and interesting... sides.”
"How many more do you have?"
"Count them yourself."
Chapter 9/12 (NC-17)