Lust Or Love

Chapter 9: Valuable

He'd dreaded the reaction the moment he'd told his brother that he had the rest of the day off, but would be the main attraction the next day. Angel hadn't responded for a long time, long enough for him to drive all the way home and fall asleep after a proper shower. When he woke up, it was to the sound of his doorbell being rung frantically. Groaning, he pulled himself out of bed and clumsily pulled on a robe. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" not very fast, though, since he felt like he'd been hit by a semi. Swinging the door open apparently wasn't fast enough for Angel, who pushed his way into the apartment loaded down with bags. Arackniss stared after his brother, too tired now to tell him off for the rude action, before turning his attention to Chardenay, who was still standing outside. "Come on in." He sighed, motioning toward the living room and watching the blond calmly walk inside. By the time he followed the men inside, Angel had already begun emptying the bags onto his coffee table and sorting it out in a weird way.

"Alright, so you had a porn shoot today. Tell us everything that happened." His brother demanded as he stood and beelined for Arackniss' kitchen to search for glasses. He thought about the shoot, and specifically about the footage he'd watched with Valentino and wanted to cringe.

"Nothing much." He lied. Angel stopped in his tracks and looked him over quickly before sharing a look with Char. God, he wished they would stop doing that!

"Nothing?" His brother repeated skeptically.

"Yeah, nothing." He lied again. Looking at the two, however, he could tell the fib wasn't working on them.

"Arackniss," Chardenay said his name calmly, as though he were breaking bad news to someone. "We can see them." He tilted his head in confusion.

"See what?"

"The marks." Angel set the glasses he'd retrieved on the table and opened the bottle of alcohol he'd brought with him to start pouring it. "You know, the lovely little rope burns all over you? Not to mention, I know what I was supposed to shoot today, and I know who it was with. Remember, you're just taking over my things, things I've known about for a while." The other spider handed Char a glass before holding one out to Arackniss. Hesitantly, he took the drink and carefully sat down. His whole body was still sore, but what ached the most were his legs, arms and ass. "So, what all happened? How many takes did you do?" His brother relaxed in the chair he'd taken and gave him an expectant look. A glance beside him on the couch showed he didn't have a friend in this, as Char was giving him a similar, albeit nicer, look. Quickly gulping down as much of the drink as he could, he let the burn travel down his throat and ease before saying anything.

"Well... um... we only did one take." He looked around the room at anything and everything that wasn't the two men with him.

"Only one? Seriously?" Char asked and he nodded slowly.

"Only one because you... did well? Or because you thoroughly bombed it?" Angel crossed his lower arms while tapping a finger on the arm of the chair.

"I did not "bomb it", thank you." Arackniss sneered. "For your information, Valentino even complimented me on it." He took another drink and crossed his own arms as Angel sized him up.

"What did he say exactly?" His brother asked and he thought for a moment.

"He said that our talent was clearly genetic, which I took as a compliment." He looked between the two and saw Char smirk.

"Of course it's a fucking compliment, Al. He compared you to me." Angel huffed. Rolling his eyes, he looked down at the snacks spread out on the table and snatched up some of the pretzels. He was only just now realizing how absolutely starving he was. "So, are you gonna go back to what you were doing tomorrow, or did he tell you that you're doing something else? Another porno maybe?" The way Angel wiggled his fingers in excitement probably should have worried him, but he still didn't have the energy for such things. He shook his head.