He switched on the nightstand light and eyed balefully the ceiling fan. The fucking thing had to choose this night of all nights to break down and stop working, this damn night in the middle of an unheard of London heatwave.

He might as well get up, he thought. Wander around the house and garden a bit, give the sheets and mattress time to cool down. Maybe he would get tired enough to fall sleep despite the heat... Sure, he mentally added, and maybe sweat would turn to ice...

He got up and without bothering to put on any clothes walked through rooms that felt just as stifling as his bedroom, then he went out into the garden, hoping for some relief.

No such luck.. The night was sultry and even outside the air felt thick and hot and sticky as pea soup.

It was useless.. Since the heat was not going to go away, he might as well do something that would take his mind off it. He turned on his heels and went back inside, heading for his studio.

Sean sat down in front of his laptop, clicked the connection and waited for the computer to go online. As he waited he turned off the lamp on the desk... the light seemed to add to the heat and the darkness felt cooler. It was probably just self-suggestion, but still everything helped.

He stared at the screen, moving the mouse over a series of bookmarked links.

He'd long since discovered that the quickest and easiest way to find out what Viggo was up to - at least as far as the more public aspects of his life were concerned - was to keep an eye on his fansites and on the communities devoted to Viggo-worship.These people seemed to have networked in such a way that they had antennae everywhere and had developed an uncanny capability of knowing what Viggo was doing within minutes of any public appearance he made.

He grinned to himself... He could certainly be counted among the worshippers, and quite often he'd been tempted to write a comment himself in response to some of the photos or pieces of news posted.

For all his 'shy and reclusive artist' image, Viggo managed to appear quite often on the trendy, 'in' magazines and some of the photo spreads were quite hot in Sean's opinion. Shy and reclusive artist my arse, Sean thought, if they only knew what a tart Viggo could be when he wanted attention...

He scanned quickly through several sites, finding nothing to catch his eye, then stopped transfixed as a picture of Viggo slowly loaded on the screen, inch by tantalizing inch. The post said that the picture came from a recent photo spread in a women magazine. As to the comments they verged on porn, and Sean could totally share the sentiment.

He stared at the picture, spreading his legs a little and feeling his mouth go dry with desire. He absent-mindedly licked the sweat beading his upper lip and remembered something he'd said to Viggo when they had last parted, both too busy to really know when and where their schedules would offer them a chance to meet again.

When you miss me and need me so much it becomes too hard to go on, have a picture taken of you with that sexy, starved kitten look you do so well, the one you put on when you want me to shag you senseless but don't want to come out and ask for it. Make sure the photo is published somewhere and it will come up on the Internet in the blink of an eye. That way, wherever I am, I will know know you're telling me to come to you... know you want me so much you cannot wait any longer..

Okay, the idea was rather crazy. After all he and Viggo were always talking to each other, cellphones made that easy even if Viggo, the shy reclusive artist, would always officially declare that he didn't own a cell phone and never would... A white lie, one that made Sean feel secretly amused and quite special. Viggo did have a cell phone, it was a gift he'd given him. A cell phone with only one number memorized into it, Sean's..

They both knew they missed each other, there was no need to say it though they still would, every time they talked to each other.

But the photo was something else.. a special sign.. a warning that a limit had been reached and it was becoming difficult to cope with being apart.. A similar signal had been agreed on for when Sean himself reached the limit, and he'd been very close to stepping beyond that limit quite a few times in the last couple of weeks.

Sean stared at the photo and his hand went automatically to search around the desk for his cellphone. He pressed the speed dial for Viggo's number.

Viggo's cellphone rang only a couple of times before the call was picked up. It almost looked as if the receiver had been expecting it, in spite of the time zone difference

"Yeah.." The monosyllable was drawled in Viggo's unique voice, the tone making it sound like it was an answer to a question already hanging in the air.

"Vig, it's me?"

Viggo chuckled softly, a throaty purr that sent shivers down Sean's spine and made him squirm and slide down in the chair, his thighs moving apart as if waiting for someone to step between them and rub against his crotch.

"I've just seen the photo.." Sean murmured. He didn't feel mentioning just which photo was necessary, Viggo would know what he meant.

"I was fairly sure you would, knowing the way you're always stalking me through the web.." Viggo's voice was taunting, but something in it seemed to say I love being stalked by you

"Christ, Viggo, you're too hot for your own good," Sean swore softly. "Have you any idea of how seeing that look on your face makes me feel? I know exactly what everyone who sees that pic will think and feel, and yet I know that the message there, in those half-closed eyes, in that sprawled pose is for me, for me alone.."

"Mmhhh, I might know what effects it has on you, and it might be exactly the reason why I had a photo taken with that look on my face and gave the journalist clearance to publish it," Viggo replied. "But it never hurts to get a confirmation, to talk to you and hear the need and the desire in your voice; I love the way your voice drops down and your accent thickens when you're aroused," Viggo whispered. "Where are you right now?"

"In the studio, in front of the laptop. It's a very hot night and I couldn't sleep, the ceiling fan in the bedroom broke down. I've turned off the light, it made me feel hot.."

"Mmhhh, did it?" Viggo purred. "So it's hot and dark there.. What are you wearing?"

"My skin and my sweat.."

"That's all?"

"My tattooes?" Sean tried to make it sound like a joke but his voice was too husky and breathless for him to pull it off.

"Skin, sweat and tattooes," Viggo repeated chuckling softly to himself. "A killer combination.. So.. Taste them, lick your tattooes, Sean, and tell me what they taste like.."

"Fuck Vig, you can't mean.."

"I mean it, do it"

The velvet voice held a hint of steel and Sean turned his face to his forearm and tentatively licked the skin over the elven symbol on his bicep.

"Tastes salty, the skin is hot and slick with sweat.." he murmured into the phone after a while.

"Good. Now your hand, taste your hand. I know you've been touching yourself all the while. I bet your cock is also hot and slick by now. Suck your fingers into your mouth, lick the palm of your hand.."

Sean grimaced guiltily into the darkness, eyeing the picture on the screen of the laptop as if suspecting that the Viggo there could actually see him. But the voice speaking into his ear had gone back to smooth and soft like velvet, and it was just plain impossible for Sean not to do what it asked.

Slowly he sucked each finger into his mouth, working until they were slick and felt warm and slightly swollen. Then his tongue snaked out and laved the palm of his hand, his fast, harsh breathing barely stirring the heated stillness of the night.

"Are you done?" the velvet voice asked.

"Yes.."

"Good. I'll assume you have done a proper job of it, I'll assume it's well slicked.. Now put it on your cock, work yourself, bring yourself off.. For me.."

"But.."

"No buts, and don't worry, I'll enjoy it as much as you will do.."

"You'll be doing the same.."

"Naughty.." The rebuke was soft as a caress. "It is not for you to be curious. Only I will know what I'm doing. You can try to guess, you can fantasize, you can dream.. Now do it, I've waited long enough."

Sean nodded into the darkness as his hand slid down.

Though Viggo hadn't said he should.. could.. he went slowly, stopping to rub his nipples, pinching them just hard enough for a stab of exquisite pleasure to shoot to his groin. Then the leisurely descent resumed and the fingers brushed through the hair at his crotch, damp with sweat and musky desire, and closed around the thick base of his cock.

His breath hitched and a soft gasp came through the cellphone.

"I see you got there.." Viggo drawled, his own voice thick with arousal.

Sean's only verbal response was a low moan. He curled his fist tight around the shaft, enjoying the initial friction and the way it turned into a slick glide as he spread along the length the precome leaking from the tip. He could already feel the tremors in the muscles of his thighs and the tightening in his balls from a fast approaching orgasm.

"Close," he panted into the cellphone, gripping it hard enough to risk shattering it. "Too close.."

"Then let go love, come for me, let me hear you.."

A quick stroke of his thumb behind the head was all it took to make hot come jet up, filling Sean's hand and splashing warm and sticky up his chest, and for a harsh, triumphant cry of release to be poured into the cellphone.

Collapsed against the back of the chair, Sean panted softly, feeling the blood pound in his temples. For a while he seemed incapable of producing any form of coherent speech, but after a while he could whisper haltingly into the phone.

"I didn't hear you"

"You couldn't have, I bit my lip to stay quiet when I came."

"Why?!"

"Because I want to be looking into your eyes when I do it, so get on the first flight and come here, come to me.." Seconds passed in silence, feeling like minutes. "Sean.. Talk to me, love.."

"Can't, I'm booking my flight and I'm getting the keyboard all sticky. And I love you."