IRRESISTIBLE DESIRE - CHAPTER THREE

The sound of his cell phone ringing jerked Nick from his sleep, causing him to fall out of bed and onto the floor with an audible 'thump.' Mumbling a few choice words, he stood up and make his way towards the ringing sound coming from on top of his dresser. Grabbing the phone he collapsed back on his bed and opened it.

"Stokes."

"Is that how you answer your phone?" A female voice asked, curiosity and amusement evident in the tone.

"Abbey?" He sat up straight on the bed.

"Nick," was the simple reply.

"How did you get my number?" he asked, truly confused now.

"Greg."

"Greg gave you my number?" he inquired, wondering why Greg would just give out his phone number to someone Nick didn't even know.

"No. I stole it from his phone. He was sleeping."

"Oh. Where is he now?" he asked as he glanced at the clock.

"Work."

"But his shift doesn't start until ten. It's only six."

"I know. But he got a phone call from work. Some guy named…uh…yucky…or something…"

"Ecklie," he corrected, chuckling.

"Right. He called Greg and asked him to come in so he did. Anyways, that's not why I called."

"Why did you call?"

'Because you didn't call me. We need to talk."

"About what?"

"Greg. You like him."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you do. Now, you have the night off, right?"

"Right..." he confirmed, tentatively

"Okay. What I want you to do is to get up, take a shower, get dressed...you know, jeans, t-shirt, the works and then come pick me up. We're going out."

"Out? Out where?"

"To a club."

"Why?"

"Because I want to go out dancing and Greg's at work so I'm making you come with me."

"Oh no, I don't think so," he protested.

"Well, I think so. Now I'll be ready in an hour. I'll see you then." And with that the line clicked dead.

An hour later after much deliberate thought, he picked Abbey up and they headed towards the strip. The club Abbey had chosen had a long line of people outside of it with bouncers guarding the door, and anytime they opened the door to let people in, loud dance music blared out into the street causing the people in line to dance.

Judging by the length of the line, Nick thought that they would be standing in line for a long while before being let in. That however didn't happen because instead of heading towards the end of the line, Abbey just sauntered past everyone, straight up to the door and into the arms of one of the bouncers.

"Abbey? Haven't seen you in while. How have you been doing? Where's Greg?" The bouncer, whose name turned out to be Paul, asked as he put her down after spinning her around.

"I've been doing good. Just came out tonight to party. Greg's at work, so I brought Nick," she replied, grabbing hold of Nick's arm and dragging him forward.

"Nice to meet you, Nick," Paul said, shaking Nick's hand as he looked him over.

"Nice to meet you, too."

"Well, I got to get back to work, so you guys can go on in." He opened the door and shooed them inside.

Upon entering they headed straight towards the bar and grabbed a couple of beers. After finishing of their first bottles, Abbey dragged him to the dance floor and after several attempts to sneek away, she grabbed him by the hips and pulled him flush up against her.

"Now, don't you try that again. We've got to talk."

"About what?" he managed to get out around his suddenly dry lips.

"Greg."

"Greg?" he asked, confused.

"Yes. You like him. As something more than a friend. Don't deny it. Now I want to know why you haven't done anything about it yet."

He sighed and thought about trying to explain it to her. His wanting to be happy and the crushing fear of his parent being disappointed in him if and when they found out.

Noticing the conflict of emotions across his face, she led him back through the crowd to the rear of the club, down a back hallway and into a private room composed of a couch and a few chairs, a mini-bar and a bed. She sat down next to him on the bed and waited for him to explain.

"I've known for a long time that I liked men as well as women. Most of my adult life has been spent trying to perfect this image that I was a ladies man to keep people from asking questions. I figured that If I let people think that I basically had a revolving door on my bedroom than no one would find out and word wouldn't get back to my parents. All my life certain things have been expected from me by them. I was to go to law school and become a lawyer. Marry an upstanding woman of society and have children born to respect me. I was to never to question this. When I first became aware that I found myself attracted to men, I tried everything within my power to keep anyone from finding out. Especially my parents. I have already done so much to disappoint them and I feel that if they were to find this out as well it would be the final nail in the coffin. They would disown me. And as much as would love to be with Greg, I just can't. I can't risk it."

"You've got to risk it, Nick. Love is worth risking for. Love is worth anything. You've got to try. You deserve it to be happy and love who you want," she said.

"I know. I know... I just can't. I'm sorry." He looked up at her with tears in his eyes and it broke her heart. Pulling him into a comforting embrace and held him as he cried. When his tears had stopped, he pulled back and looked at her. Then he leaned forward and placed his lips on hers in a short but intense kiss.

"Nick..." she started but was cut off by him kissing her again. "Nick, we shouldn't do this."

"Please?" he asked quietly,

She looked deep into his eyes and saw the pain there. The pain of having to hide yourself from the world and never truly being happy.

She nodded.

A/N - I know this seems weird but I promise you it'll still be a Nick/Greg story.