The Rainbow Clause

by Beth Bolden

  Wiping his mouth, Colin stretched out beside Nick and pulled him close against him. “Already, best vacation ever. Hands down,” he murmured into Nick’s shoulder.

  “I would like to propose never leaving this bed again,” Nick sighed.

  “I’ll make it happen.”

  Once, it might have felt like a silly joke to Nick, careless words exchanged back and forth in the glowing aftermath of some very good sex. But he could hear the ring of truth in Colin’s words, and suddenly, he terribly wanted to know what Colin had told Teddy.

  Wanted to know so that he wouldn’t have to be the one to say it first. Knew he wasn’t alone in these thoughts, but still wanted the reassurance of Colin’s feelings.

  Nick was still trying to figure out how to ask when he fell asleep.

  Colin’s house, bright and open and overlooking the ocean, was nothing compared to the view that greeted the two of them the next morning.

  “Wow,” Colin breathed out, the sheet shifting down his torso as he propped himself up with an elbow. “What a view.”

  Even though the ocean and sky and sand were hazy with the golden light of the rising sun, Nick still had trouble taking his eyes off the man next to him.

  “Yeah,” Nick said, still staring at Colin. “Fucking fabulous view.”

  Colin glanced over and flushed. He rolled over and slid out of bed, bare feet padding on the tile floor as he headed towards the bathroom. “When you look at me that way,” he said, his voice carrying back into the bedroom, “it’s easy to believe I really look as good as you say.”

  “You should believe it,” Nick said as Colin returned to bed. Nick knew he needed to use the bathroom, too, at least to brush away his surely horrible morning breath so he could kiss this beautiful man next to him.

  Just one problem. Nick glanced at the tile floor with dismay. “Is that as cold as it looks?”

  Colin shot him a playful smile and gave him a little shove to the edge of the bed. “Your turn to find out,” he said, and Nick gave a half-hearted smile, expecting to freeze his balls off as he tiptoed to the bathroom. Instead, he found the floor to be shockingly warm against his bare feet.

  “Teddy, that rich bastard,” Nick exclaimed as he walked to the bathroom. “Heated floors.”

  Nick brushed his teeth and took a piss, returning to bed with warm feet and cold hands, which he proceeded to place right on Colin’s ribcage. But Colin didn’t flinch, only tugged Nick closer, until their limbs were tangled together. Nick shifted up a fraction and hesitated, their eyes locked together and their lips only an inch apart.

  “You keep talking about me,” Colin murmured dreamily, his hand smoothing down a wayward tuft of Nick’s hair. “But you’re gorgeous. I stare at you all the damn time.”

  It was hard not to notice and impossible not to feel smug that Colin O’Connor spent at least half his waking hours staring at his ass.

  A large hand slid around his hip and cupped that ass – but not with the sort of tacky possession that sometimes gave Nick a bad taste in his mouth, but with reverence and a playful affection that made his heart ache.

  “I know you notice,” Colin continued, the edge of his lips quirking into a smile. “You’re too nice to call me out on it.”

  “What, and make you stop?” Nick asked.

  Colin chuckled, slow and low in the back his throat, just rough enough to send shivers down Nick’s spine. Sometimes it was easy to forget Colin was still technically a virgin because he could be painfully sexy. And part of the mystery of that, Nick thought, was that Colin wasn’t really trying. He just was.

  Colin’s way of just being was pushing around Nick’s good intentions like they weighed nothing.

  “You like it?” Colin asked back.

  What Nick desperately wanted to say was that he didn’t just like it, but the other L word was looming dangerously in his mind, and so instead of answering with words, he leaned in the last half an inch and pressed his lips to Colin’s.

  They made out for long, slow minutes, their lips catching together again and again, tongues lazily stroking into each other’s mouths, hands wandering and caressing every inch of bare skin.

  Colin let out a low, uncontrolled moan as Nick’s hand trailed up his inner thigh, creeping towards his already hard cock. It twitched, clearly wanting the attention it hadn’t been receiving. “I want you,” Colin said, breathless and intent.

  “How do you want me?” Nick asked.

  Nick watched as he took a steadying breath, fighting the flush that came to his cheeks. “Do you... um…would it be okay?”

  “Yes,” Nick interrupted, because he knew what Colin was asking, and the answer was always going to be yes if it was Colin asking.

  “Would you like to do it, or should I?” Nick asked, reaching over Colin’s torso and grabbing the lube they’d used the night before.

  “Uhhh,” Colin stammered again. Someone else might get impatient with Colin’s hesitation, but Nick found he enjoyed it; it was a reminder that he was the only one who’d ever made Colin flush so red.

  Nick flicked open the lid and wet two fingers. “How about I show you?”

  Colin’s face was puce, but the hungry look in his eyes was pushing Nick closer and closer to the precipice of losing control. It prickled all across his skin as he shifted backwards, to his knees, and reached up, slowly pushing a finger into his hole.

  He let gravity take over, pushing in and sinking down, relaxing more muscles as he felt the familiar stretch.

  “Let me see,” Colin begged, his eyes wide and blown, only a tiny ring of blue around his pupils. Nick moved, and tried to remember the compliments Colin had said about him as he opened himself up to Colin’s gaze.

  “God,” Colin exhaled in a low growl. “You are so fucking hot, I can barely stand it.”

  That was all the motivation Nick needed to push a second finger alongside the first, and Colin swore.

  “You’re fucking incredible,” Colin continued, awe dripping from his words.

  Nick was nearly adjusted to the stretch when he felt Colin’s hand grasp his hip and then another cautious but intent touch where his fingers were buried in his body. Arousal was burning through him, his cock leaking steadily onto the sheets, but the idea of Colin touching him rocketed through him like a tsunami.

  Colin carefully pushed in his finger alongside Nick’s two. “Is this okay?” he asked, sounding even more turned on than Nick felt, which was insane because they’d barely touched each other yet.

  “More...more...” Nick stammered as Colin’s finger pushed his and he accidentally bumped his prostate, sending electricity through his veins. “More than okay.”

  “Good.” Colin made a satisfied humming noise as his finger settled all the way into Nick’s body, and Nick nearly cried with how good it felt, and how hot it made him for Colin to be watching and helping.

  “Need you,” Nick said, and he felt Colin’s finger drag alongside his own as he pulled out.

  “Right here,” Colin said smugly, and Nick looked over his shoulder to see Colin laid out like the best present he’d ever received, cock hard and red, Colin’s hand smoothing lube over it, shiny and wet.

  “Fuck,” Nick said, his fingers slipping out of him as he tried to get his legs to work, to carry him over to where he needed to be, more than he needed oxygen or water or even his morning coffee.

  His knees were unsteady as he climbed over Colin, hands braced on his bare chest. He shook even more as he lined up Colin’s cock and started to sink down slowly onto it.

  Colin’s eyes rolled backwards and he arched up, mouth open in a soundless yell as Nick bottomed out. His fists clenched at the bunched up sheets, knuckles white and mouth a determined line of control as Nick shifted around, adjusting to the length inside of him.

  It was almost too much to see all of this beautiful man, undone by pleasure, as he felt the answering surge begin to crest through him. Nick closed his eyes and tried to regain his self-control before this end
ed sooner than it really began.

  “You good?” he croaked out, his fingers digging into Colin’s abs.

  “You feel...” Colin couldn’t even say the words, he was too far gone.

  “Don’t come,” Nick ordered, more to himself than to Colin – or maybe to both of them. Because once he started to move, it felt like every tiny shift of his hips had Colin’s dick, long and hard, brushing right against his prostate. It felt so good he never wanted it to end, and at the same time, it was too good to last.

  Colin’s hands clamped around his hips, fingers digging into the flesh, and they both moaned as he experimentally flexed his hips, pumping up into Nick as he was moving downwards.

  It took a few thrusts to get the rhythm right, but once they did, it was a hard, steady, wild ride to the end, Colin moaning a nonstop litany of how tight and hot Nick was around him. The physical pleasure was almost enough to tip Nick over the edge, but when Colin started babbling, that was all Nick needed to push him right over.

  He grasped his cock once, then he was gone, pleasure exploding along his nerves, a white hot supernova sparking over him.

  Colin pumped once and then twice and then bellowed long and loud, burying his face into Nick’s shoulder, his teeth probably leaving marks that wouldn’t fade for a while.

  Nick collapsed onto Colin’s chest and they lay there for several long minutes, before Colin gently moved him to the bed, getting up to get a damp washcloth.

  Colin might have been a virgin, but he was a considerate one. Then he settled back next to Nick, and pulled his head back to his chest. Nick made a contented sound and snuggled in closer.

  “I hurt you,” Colin said softly, his fingers tracing the red oval his teeth had made in the heat of the moment, his voice concerned but tinged with a hint of awe. Like he couldn’t believe he had done it, and that Nick had let him.

  The truth was, Nick would have let him do that and a lot more. But the care and the gentleness was nice too, something he’d never enjoyed before. “I’ll heal,” he said, stretching his legs out on the bed, trying to find a dry spot. “The sheets are gross. We should get up. Aren’t you starving?”

  “I was going to bring you breakfast in bed,” Colin confessed. “But then you distracted me.”

  Nick quirked an eyebrow. “It seemed a fairly mutual distraction to me.”

  Colin was quiet for a long moment. “It’s still hard for me to believe that.”

  Nick’s hand, slowly stroking Colin’s side, hesitated. He wondered what he could say that might convince Colin how incredible he was – as a football player, a friend, a lover. He was wrapped up in a loyal, kind package, with the added benefit of being hot enough to make men weep. But Colin had heard all those things before, and they’d clearly not resonated.

  “Do you want me to tell you what I’m going to write in the article?” Nick tried to keep his tone casual, but it was tough with the L word clanging around in his head, demanding to be heard. Demanding to be said.

  Colin shrugged, the sort of expression on his face one that Nick had deciphered weeks ago. It meant he desperately wanted to know, but also didn’t want to hold anyone to an obligation.

  Nick was perfectly happy to be held to all sorts of obligations.

  “Well, a lot of things, really. But the gist of it is that you’ve been subjected to the sort of past that would’ve changed anybody else. Bitterness, egotism, resentment, callousness, jealousy – it would have been so easy to embody those. Nobody could have blamed you. But unlike almost every professional athlete I’ve ever encountered, you care more about what you can do for people than what they think of you. And that’s extraordinary.”

  Nick felt as Colin grew tenser and tenser as he continued to speak. When he finally finished, Colin didn’t say anything right away.

  When he did speak, it wasn’t what Nick had expected to hear. “All of that and nothing about my Sports Illustrated cover,” Colin said wryly.

  Nick buried the pulse of hurt he felt. He told himself that some people didn’t know how to accept compliments. He almost believed it. Almost. Maybe if he hadn’t been so tied up personally, he could have.

  “Well, you’re fucking hot, too,” Nick said flippantly, burying the last bit of hurt away. He slid a hand down Colin’s abs, tracing each groove with a fingertip. “And I definitely plan to appreciate every last inch.”

  And instead of climbing out of bed and eating breakfast, they stayed in for another hour, finally leaving the temptation of the fluffy covers and each other to eat mangos and pineapples over the sink, juice dripping down their chins.

  “This is a perfect day,” Nick pronounced from his lounger. It was late afternoon and the sun was shining mercilessly on the beach, except for the patch of shade where Nick had dragged his chair earlier in the day.

  “You’re just saying that because you literally went from the bed to that lounger,” Colin retorted without heat. “I had to leave to find sustenance.”

  “Your idea,” Nick pointed out. “I’d have been happy enough to subsist on fruit and champagne. Oh, and sex.” He didn’t have to glance over at where Colin was sitting to know he was blushing.

  “Well, I didn’t manage breakfast in bed, so I figured pizza on the beach was a good alternative.”

  “I’m definitely not complaining.”

  “The opposite, actually,” Colin said, his tone full of amusement and affection. Nick wanted to soak up every bit like the sun and store it away for the inevitable rainy day.

  “I’m just saying it was perfect,” Nick said, “but tomorrow we should maybe do something less...sedentary.”

  “We could take the boat out. Teddy emailed me a list of fishing guides he uses.”

  “Ugh. Fishing.”

  “Isn’t that what athletes do in the Keys? Go deep sea fishing?”

  Nick sat up in the lounger, and slipped his sunglasses onto his head, shooting Colin a very frank stare. “I don’t care what the fuck athletes do, neither of us has any interest in fishing, unless you have a secret kink you’re not telling me about.”

  Colin flushed again. And Nick was almost certain it wasn’t a sunburn because he’d rubbed in the sunscreen himself, at regular intervals. It had been his best entertainment of the day. At least since they’d managed to leave the bed behind.

  “So that’s a no go on the fishing,” Colin said ruefully.

  “Feel free to tell me to go to hell, but maybe you should worry less about what everyone else wants and do what you want. Be upfront about it.”

  “I’ll take it under advisement.”

  Nick hoped he would. Colin could get hung up on his idea of what he ’should’ be doing, probably because he spent his waking hours desperately wishing to flaunt the rules. The residual guilt over this rule-breaking seemed to lead to an attempt to toe the line the rest of the time.

  The thing was, Nick wasn’t certain Colin would be truly free until he could let go of the guilt and tell the world to fuck off.

  “But the boat, though, that’s a good idea. Let’s do that. Beer and sandwiches and lots of loud, obnoxious music. Maybe Pitbull.”

  Colin laughed, which was all Nick had been trying to accomplish. “I thought we weren’t trying to be cliché.”

  Nick settled back into his lounger. “I like Pitbull,” he insisted, and Colin laughed harder.

  It was really a perfect day.

  Despite plans to leave earlier, they didn’t drag themselves out of bed until nearly noon the next day. Colin bemoaned his muscle tone because he hadn’t done a single physical activity in two days. Nick raised his eyebrow and didn’t have to open his mouth to remind Colin that they’d done plenty of physical activity in the last two days.

  Just not jogging or weight lifting.

  “I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy what we’ve been doing more than a twenty mile jog,” Colin said earnestly as they were laying on the deck of the boat, the sun drying their trunks after their last dip in the ocean. “I just want you to know t
hat.”

  Nick chuckled. “If you preferred the twenty mile jog, I’d have been really concerned for your mental stability.”

  “Right, well, I don’t want to lose anything you’ve come to appreciate, either,” Colin retorted.

  Nick was ninety-five percent comfortable, a state of relaxation that was difficult to achieve, and he groaned as he hefted himself up. He wanted to smack whomever had given Colin O’Connor the idea that he wasn’t good enough the way he was – six pack abs or not.

  “You sound annoyed,” Colin said, and there was a thread of alarm in his voice.

  Nick scrubbed a hand over his eyes and opened them despite not having any idea where his sunglasses had disappeared to and the flaming ball of fire that was currently directly above them. “I’m annoyed,” he confirmed. “But not with you.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  The worst part of this was that it was clear that Colin really didn’t.

  “Believe me, I love the way you look. I’ve made that plenty clear over the last few weeks, especially the last forty-eight hours. Many times,” he said with emphasis. “But that isn’t why I’m here with you right now.”

  Colin still looked befuddled. “Was it Jemma?” Nick demanded, his annoyance growing. “Was it her that made you feel like this?” Because if it was, they were going to have words when he got back to LA.

  “Jemma?”

  Nick groaned and fell back to the cushion. “Did she,” he enunciated carefully, “ever make you feel like you weren’t good enough to be with? Not hot enough? Not accomplished enough? Or was that someone else? That kid from high school maybe?”

  Colin’s voice was even more careful than Nick’s had been – if that was even possible. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to say. You’re here because you were assigned to be here. As for me feeling the way I do, of course it wasn’t Jemma or that kid from high school.”

  Nick opened one eye and glared in Colin’s general direction. He thought that maybe this was their first fight ever, and he wasn’t even sure why that was happening. Because Colin had expressed concern that if he lost his gorgeous abs, that Nick wouldn’t be around anymore? That was just plain fucking offensive, and the more Nick stewed on it, the more it bothered him.