Chapter Seven
Chris Martin was seated next to his father, the Governor of California and purported next nominee to be the Democratic Party candidate for President.
On the Governor's left were Rabbi Willy Nedelmeyer, the Speaker of the California Assembly; to his left were Imam Avrahm bin-Dahar, leader of the largest congregation of Muslims in Northern California, as well as the President of the Mormon temple in Oakland, Richard McKay. To the right of Chris was Terry Nichols, the chapter president of HRC in Sacramento.
After prayers by the Rabbi, the Imam, and the Mormon temple president, and short remarks by Terry Nichols as well as the Governor, Chris was asked to say a few words by his father. This was not scripted; Chris was as surprised as everyone in the audience. Little did he know that the event was being shown live on a local-access TV station; in any event, he was fully aware of the potential gravity of his remarks.
"I am of course deeply regretful for any pain which I may have caused my father, my family, and my friends," Chris began. "I also wish to thank each of you for being here this morning and participating in this event; I think it is important that we note that there are a wide array of individuals here who represent many pathways in life, who represent many points of view, and many religions, and even some who represent no religion but who are true and faithful to their personal convictions. Thank you for your lives of honor and courage and example to all of us."
Chris continued: "I am young enough that I have still a great deal to learn, but the past several weeks have taught me much. The first thing I have learned, or rather, of which I have been reminded, is that family and friends and the relationships they have with me are sacred. I have tarnished those ties, and for that I ask for your forgiveness."
Chris continued "I also have learned that honor is easily lost. If anyone here is of the opinion that I have damaged the honorable life of public service of my father, then I hope you can recognize that my life is my own and my father's honor is not at stake: he is a great man and has always tried to do the right thing."
"Last, we frequently hear in conversations words of advice such as `be yourself'; while that may be true in a general sense, please allow me to say that in being yourself, you must also pay homage to those who have given you a chance to find yourself and who have prepared the way for you to be yourself, and you can do that by being true to the values you have been taught. I think that is the purpose of this breakfast and these prayers that have been offered here this morning. Thank you."
Chris sat down, and there was a moment of stunned silence, followed by thunderous applause, led by Governor Martin, who was standing and crying and clapping. All of the religious leaders offered handshakes to Chris and the Governor; the Sacramento Bee reporter and her photographer, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle reporter and photographer did not miss a single opportunity to record this historic event.
Raj and Stuart were standing at the back wall of the Sheraton banquet room, watching the process: Raj squeezed Stuart's hand and whispered "I think you pulled it off, Love."
Stuart kissed Raj on the cheek; they both moved toward the exit to shake hands with the hundred or so guests, especially their close friends and family.
Chris and his father were the first to leave, for security reasons; Chris whispered to Stuart "I owe you". The Governor winked at Stuart and told Raj "Take the rest of the day off."
"Yeah, right" Raj muttered to Stuart. He knew they would have a ton of work following the prayer breakfast, not least of which would be phone calls and e-mails and text messages and Twitter posts to respond to and keep the positive energy flowing.
Terry Nichols and the Rabbi and the Imam and the temple president all expressed their thanks to Raj and Stuart, and promised to `stay in touch', although Stuart wished they not do so.
The first phone call Stuart received was from the chair of the DNC: the national committee in Washington, DC requested a video conference with the Governor as soon as possible. Stuart promised to pass along her request to Raj, as well as to the Governor. The second was on his personal cell-phone, from Elsbeth Martin, the Governor's wife.
"Thank you for that Prayer Breakfast" she began. "What you created today was truly genius."
"Thank you, Mrs. Martin, I had a lot of help, especially from my husband, Raj."
"Yes, I am aware, and I have already called him to thank him. And to make sure you are aware of how much I appreciate what you did, and what you do on a daily basis, I want you two to take advantage of our little bungalow in Palm Springs. Just let me know when you want to run down there and it will be ready for you. And for what it is worth, whatever the Governor is paying you, it is not half enough." And with that cheerful note, she rang off.
Stuart was still glowing after a day full of congratulations as he looked forward to the weekend and tonight's dinner with close friends. Raj called him at 4PM to remind him to try to get out of the office early to go home and get things ready for the caterers and their dinner guests.
As they walked the block from the capitol offices to their condo, Stuart remarked to Raj "You know, days like today almost make this job worth all of the effort."
"We need to talk about that," Raj replied, "but later. Some other time. Tonight, we have just friends and family to look after, and relax, have fun, get drunk, and so forth..."
Stuart said with a smile "And so forth?"
"Yes. Plan on it." Raj giggled.
Dinner was another staggering success: the caterers had created a magnificent spread for them, together with a half-dozen wait staff dressed in tuxedo vests and black slacks and bow ties. Champagne, oysters Rockefeller, crab puffs, grilled chicken thighs with chimichurri sauce, walnut-pesto-rice pilaf, and grilled asparagus, followed by tangerine cream pie and coffee.
Stuart had great fun just relaxing and getting to know Paul Campbell and David Branson, as well as Peter's nephew Sam Stephenson and his husband Mickey Clarke. Raj had great fun just watching his husband relax, perhaps for the first time in a month.
Raj was deeply involved in a conversation with Ross G. James, their old friend from Malibu; the two were huddled in a corner of the great room nearest the balcony with the view of the capitol and its golden dome. He looked animated, excited, and happy, when Stuart caught his eye and they air-kissed toward each other.
Mario and Peter were the first to leave, together with Paul Campbell and David Branson; David had to get ready to leave for a trip to South America on Sunday. Sam and Mickey followed them, and finally Joaquin pried Ross away from Raj and they exited into the cool spring night.
It was late at night, but still early enough for Raj and Stuart on a Friday night to make love; it had been a hectic and stressful week, and now that they were at home and alone, neither of them wanted anything except to be in each other's arms. They held each other warmly, slowly getting out of the casual clothes they had worn for the dinner party, slowly caressing each other.
Just a little drunk from all of the champagne, the kisses were long and warm and tender, the cocks were stiff and hot and the assholes were quickly invaded by eager fingers.
Both Raj and Stuart had learned each other's sexual roadmap; tonight Raj threw himself onto the bed on his back and opened his legs, pulling apart his ass cheeks with both hands, and Stuart quickly followed the silent invitation and lubed that sweet spot with the Swiss Navy lube from the lamp table beside the bed and plunged his cock into Raj.
It was a long and delicious fuck: Stuart came sooner than Raj liked, but quickly disengaged from his lover and rolled over and pushed Stuart onto his hands and knees and lubed his hole with more Swiss Navy.
By the time Raj was about to cum, Stuart was moaning loudly, more than usual. They came together, Stuart for the second time, and Raj planting enough cum into his lover's hole to float the entire Swiss Navy. It was a porn-director's dreamscape.
Wearing only bathrobes the next morning while enjoying orange juice at the bar in the kitchen, Stuart glanced at Raj and reluctantly answered his cell phone. After just a moment, he replied "Oh, OK, let me ask Raj. Just a minute and I will call you back."
"What's up Love?"
"That was Chris Martin. He wants to take us to brunch to thank us for the help."
"OK, I guess. But I need a shower first. I am still covered in cum."
"You don't want me to lick it off of you?"
"Oh God no, eeeww, gross..." Raj had a raging hangover from the champagne of the night before; he hardly ever drank alcohol, being Hindu, and last night was about 1,000% more alcohol than normal for him.
After they showered together, the California-power-couple were soon on the street to meet Chris Martin at the Sheraton.
"I would like to thank you for your amazing support and I want to apologize for my fuck-ups." Chris looked truly chagrined.
"OK, you are forgiven, although I don't think it is necessary, but we need to apologize to you as well; you could have blown open our secret rendezvous in Tahoe but you did not and we thank you for that. I am curious, what are you going to be doing now that you are world famous?" Stuart was actually interested in Chris' life.
"Haha. Not funny, but I guess I deserved that. Actually, I want your advice about that."
Raj and Stuart looked at each other, rather than toward Chris. "Politics?" Raj asked.
"Hell no, that's Dad's gig, I want nothing to do with it. Actually after this morning, I have been thinking about therapy."
Stuart said "We don't think you need therapy, you are pretty solid."
"No, I meant, I was thinking about becoming a therapist. You know, to help gay guys, teenagers especially, like me, who need to find a way to deal with the world. I have heard that there are still people who have their gay kids committed to conversion therapy, if you can believe that shit."
Raj replied, "Yes, I think there is a place near here that is known as Evergreen Academy. It is one of those places that advertises on right-wing talk radio."
"Piece of dog shit" Chris snarled.
"Anyway, please let us help you in any way that we can; whatever you need, we can either find a solution for you or we have tons of friends throughout the state who are very well connected." Stuart was serious as he grabbed Chris's hands and held them for a moment. The kid looked like he was going to cry again.
As they made their way back to the condo, Stuart reminded Raj that he wanted to discuss `the job and so forth', a conversation that they had begun the day before. Raj looked like he had been gut-punched. He sighed.
Stuart asked "What's wrong Babe; am I in trouble?"
"No, not at all. Far from it. You keep me out of trouble most of the time, which is great, and I grow to love you more every day. Do you know how much I admire you?"
Stuart was stunned. This was the second time in just under two hours that he was speechless.
Raj smiled, because it was extremely rare for Stuart to not have any response. He kissed Stuart on the cheek, and took his hand, and they continued home in silence.
When they were relaxing on the sofa staring out of the tall glass French doors toward the capitol building in the waning sun, Raj finally found his footing.
"What I wanted to discuss with you is the future. Not us, well, that's not true, yes, us, of course, but the job. I do not want to go to Washington, DC."
"Oh.... My.... God."
Stuart was staring at Raj, with concern, humor, confusion, and anxiety.
"Do you have a plan in mind?"
"No. Except escaping the state capitol and getting back to our friends in southern California and spending a lot more time on the beach."
"Do you want to quit this job right now, or wait until the next election?"
"I think it would be unfair to leave the Governor right now; I can wait until the next election, but just plan on carrying me across the threshold of our honeymoon suite at the St Regis in Santa Monica not one minute longer than that."
"You know, for an emigrant, a guy who had to learn American cultural idioms the hard way, you are pretty smart." Stuart was laughing.
Raj jumped onto Stuart's lap, and began covering his face with slobbery kisses, rubbing his chest, his thighs, his crotch, and nibbling his ears. Stuart continued laughing, and they rolled together onto the floor, kissing and fondling each other, both now hard inside their lounge pants. Within minutes, they were naked and the love-making began.
Raj took control, which was not the usual pattern; he swallowed Stuart's massive farm-boy cock, slurping up and down, enjoying the moans and twitches that he had elicited from his husband. Stuart was bucking upward into Raj's mouth, loving the cock-sucking he was receiving, nearing a climax but wanting it to go on forever.
He quickly rolled over causing Raj to fall on his side; Stuart pushed Raj down on his chest and began assaulting his ass hole with his tongue, diving deep into the dark crevasse and providing enough lubrication to allow him to plunge his cock inside his lover.
Raj rolled over again, stopping Stuart's forward motion; he pushed Stuart down on the floor onto his back, and knelt over him and slammed his ass down onto the white throbbing cock that he longed for; Raj gasped as it entered his ass in one swift motion, nearly blinding him.
They were noisy fuckers: Raj always moaned loudly when Stuart was fucking him, and Stuart always shouted when he was nearing a climax. They had never been aware of the neighbor's feelings about their noise, but tonight they might actually set a new record for mayhem.
Stuart came in minutes, faster than normal; he wanted Raj to return the favor and begged to be fucked. Stuart was on his hands and knees while his cock was still dripping with the cum he had deposited inside Raj and was loudly enjoying the ass ripping he was getting. Raj was plunging into Stuart's ass with long strokes, all the way inside and then all the way back out again, the Cobra making loud popping sounds at each turn.
Raj was always silent when he came; tonight he shouted as he was cumming, slapping Stuart's ass, grabbing his hips and holding him tightly as he deposited every drop in his hole. They collapsed together onto the carpet; holding each other as they lapsed into a nap. It was a half hour or so when they were awakened by the sound of Raj's cell phone.