by Mia Terry
Jai only laughed in the backseat. “Say no now big guy but wait until I get you alone.”
Everyone in the car joined in Jai’s laughter. There was no doubting his powers of persuasion when it came to Luke. Even Luke himself cracked a wry smile. Well, he’d enjoy the seduction undoubtedly, even if it would end up with him as the proud, partial owner of a small herd of alpacas.
“It was a great setup there and a fantastic house,” said Jai.
“It was nice,” said Ollie absently. “Farming must be going well.”
“I’m reasonably sure it is more than the farming,” Jai said. “We have a lot of farmers in our town and no one has art or houses like that paid for by the farm.”
Ollie hadn’t even clocked much of the quality of the house, other than registering that it was pretty.
“For someone’s whose job entails finances you really have no idea about money. It’s the very rich boy thing of course,” Jai said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Ollie knew he was privileged, but he put so much energy into not being an asshole about it, so Jai’s words stung.
“Hey, I can name the inflationary rate for the last ten years off the top of my head,” Ollie said, in his own defense.
“None of that means you know how most people actually live,” said Jai, and even as annoyed as Ollie was, he could see Jai had really attempted to gentle his tone. “I’m a privileged boy so I get it. But I also live in the real world. My patients are real, and Luke and I live off our wages and they aren’t bad wages, but sometimes I even buy no-name groceries,” Jai smiled again to soften his words. “No judgment Ollie, but you have to know that the world you’ve spent your life in isn’t exactly connected to the way most people live theirs.”
It was funny, but it was rare anyone around him ever mentioned the extreme wealth that made up Ollie’s background. His friends might always expect him to pay the bill, but they would never articulate why they were coming to him with their hand out. Jai had never, and would never take anything from him, so Ollie took a deep breath and absorbed his words.
“Fair call,” said Ollie, after a pause. The tension in the four-wheeler immediately deflated with the good-natured tone in his words. “Let's face it. After the place I grew up in, everything looks dinky to me.”
“Which is why he asked for the guest bathroom when he came to visit our new apartment,” Kris said to Billy.
“Fuck you,” Ollie replied, laughing now. “I know you had a guest bathroom in the waterfront house you grew up in.”
“But sadly not in the one-bedroom apartment I now live in,” Kris said and stuck out his tongue when Ollie turned around.
“Whatever,” Ollie replied. “It was a perfectly lovely two-bedroom apartment, until you turned one of your bedrooms into a walk-in closet.”
“Babe, he has you there,” said Billy, sounding very amused.
Ollie was glad to see Billy looking so relaxed. One reason he never wanted to push forward his wealth was that he knew Billy’s family circumstances were so very different. Though to be fair, Billy had been out on Ollie’s parent’s yacht more than once, so it wasn’t like Ollie’s background was a secret.
“So, I’m a rich dick,” Ollie said. “What else is new?”
“Not a rich dick at all,” said Jai, and Ollie was oddly moved by the sincerity behind his words. “But you are fucking terrible at valuing property.”
Chapter 10
Rhys shifted his weight awkwardly on his legs before he knocked on Ollie’s door. He wasn’t usually this nervous about dinner—and let’s face it, probably sex—with a man, but something about Ollie knocked him off balance. He knew his nervousness was partly because neither of them had defined their relationship. What was the point in them having that talk? Ollie was leaving Byron at the end of the week. He was more likely leaving the country before long. So, this was a casual fling by its very timing.
However, when Ollie opened the door, Rhys didn’t feel casual.
The man looked good. He had looked adorable at the farm with his pink cheeks and ruffled hair, stooping beside Ollie’s mother just to hear her speak. Tonight, he looked slicker and sleeker, more like the too-handsome-to-be-real captain of industry Rhys had first met. Rhys might have even felt a little overwhelmed by him if Ollie’s smile hadn’t suddenly widened, looking a little heady in his pleasure at Rhys’s presence.
“Perfect timing,” Ollie said, wedging open the door to let Rhys come through. “The kitchen texted me and they’ll be dropping in our pizza’s in five minutes.”
Well, at least the man really was planning on feeding him, before sex. However, when Ollie rubbed the back of his neck as he lightly kissed him hello, Rhys couldn’t help but wish they had more than five minutes before a scheduled interruption.
“How did you keep the hordes at bay tonight?” Rhys asked. “Or are they going to pop through the door?”
Ollie laughed as he settled himself on the sofa next to Rhys, “Nah. We’re safe tonight. I suggested to Kris and Jai that they have naked alone time with pizzas and their boyfriends, and that should be the last I’ll be seeing of them until late tomorrow morning.”
Rhys couldn’t help his wide smile as he imagined Kris’s enthusiasm at Ollie’s suggestion. “That should definitely work.”
“Last time I saw them, they were rock-paper-scissoring for who got the pool area, so don’t walk out there if you don’t want to see the live show,” said Ollie, wryly.
“There was a time where I’d have wanted to see that. However, tonight I think I’d prefer anything I get to see in this cabin”.
Rhys thrilled at the casual way Ollie stretched out his hand and stroked his hip just over the waistband of the jeans in an almost shockingly intimate move.
“Yeah, I have to agree,” Ollie said gently. “I’m only interested in what I will see and feel here in the room.”
Their gazes held and, for a long minute, there was only silence between them until they could hear a knock on the door.
“I’ll grab it,” Ollie said, getting up. He left Rhys missing that warm hand on his hip. He enjoyed listening to Ollie interact with Mark who was delivering the pizzas tonight. Ollie had such a warm charm with everyone he dealt with, and Rhys especially liked how Ollie could do that and still save his flirtations for Rhys only.
So, when Ollie came back into the lounge area, Rhys had a wide smile. “That pizza smells delicious,” he said, though the wattage of his smile didn’t really have much to do with the food.
The warmth of Ollie’s returning smile told him Rhys’s happiness wasn’t just his own. “Can we be uncivilized and eat from the pizza boxes if I bring you a fabulously limited-edition craft beer?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Rhys replied, taking one of the pizza boxes from Ollie’s hands.
Ollie was in the kitchen pulling the beers out of the fridge when he called to Rhys, “I know from the restaurant that you aren’t vegan or vegetarian, and I know from bed that you aren’t averse to dick, so I thought the meat lovers would be okay”.
Rhys could only laugh and the words, “cute babe,” slipped out of his mouth. It was probably a little soon for terms of endearment, but from the smile stretching Ollie’s mouth as he handed over a bottle of beer it didn’t look like the man minded.
“Are you exhausted from your farming duties today?” Ollie asked, after a few minutes of relative silence as the two men enthusiastically ate their rather delicious pizzas.
Rhys had to swallow his huge mouthful before answering. “A little. For such a sweet woman my mother is a hard taskmaster.” He knew his smile took away from his words of complaint. Ollie had probably seen today what a mommy’s boy he was. “Digging up all that ginger is the worst for your back, and I try to work at double-pace so she doesn’t do too much of it herself.”
“That’s sweet,” Ollie said, and his smile seemed genuine. “You looked good working today, and the hat looked bloody sexy as hell.”
“Ma
ybe I should have brought it over as a prop and we could have played evil landholder and the innocent farmworker.”
He didn’t expect Ollie to laughingly shake his head. “As fun as that sounds like it could be, I think my family are a little too rich for that to be a game I could play without being a little icky.”
“Well, you’d look equally good in the hat, so I don’t know why you thought I’d let you play the wicked landlord.” Rhys was glad he made Ollie laugh so hard. He was also interested because Ollie had admitted out loud to him he came from a rather wealthy family. It wasn’t like Rhys couldn’t have made a good guess at it. He wasn’t so unsophisticated that he couldn’t sense a privileged background a mile away when meeting Ollie. Ollie didn’t wear his privilege as a badge of honor or something to lord over everyone else, but it was apparent in the way he moved through life so confidently and how he never even looked at the price of anything.
Rhys could see Ollie looking at him sideways after that revelation, as if looking for a reaction. So, Rhys went with a flat-out honest question to satisfy his own curiosity. In many ways he didn’t care, but it seemed so important to Ollie that he address it properly. “Exactly how rich is your family?”
Ollie laughed at Rhys’s bluntness, as he figured he would. “You know not many people have the balls to ask me flat out. They ask me other questions that they think are discreet, but I can totally tell are specially designed to figure out a total net worth. I can’t give an exact figure as I doubt my father even knows one, but let's just say I went to one of Sydney’s most exclusive private schools and conventional wisdom would say that my dad was the richest father of all the kids enrolled.”
“So super-rich then. Why the hell are you going to the bloody Gulf if you probably don’t need the money from the job,” Rhys asked.
It wasn’t his business, but he cared enough about Ollie’s previously stated unhappiness to ask the question. Even if that might ruin his chances of getting into the man’s bed tonight.
When Ollie almost flinched at his words, Rhys realized exactly how pissed off Ollie was to be making this decision. That was what Rhys didn’t understand. Why the hell would anyone, but especially someone like Ollie, let himself be talked into a corner on a decision like this one?
“It’s the rich boy thing that makes just quitting my job so impossible,” was Ollie’s tense reply.
Rhys outwaited him with silence to see if he could get any more information. Both his curiosity and his affection for Ollie meant he needed more knowledge.
“I’m not interested in going into the family business, and my job as a merchant banker is something that makes my father proud,” Ollie continued. “I could have a comfortable life without working, but my work isn’t a hobby. People think that it is just me marking time, and me quitting just as my career demands something from me would confirm it,”
“I can see that,” Rhys said, with all sincerity. “But can’t your boss, or if your boss doesn’t care about you, your father, see what they are asking of you, for you to move to the Gulf States.”
The sadness in Ollie’s eyes was startling, Rhys had known he was worried about this, what he hadn’t understood was how hurt he was by it.
“My boss is far more interested in my last name than my personal standards. My dad, don’t get me wrong the man loves me, but he believes as an influential Westerner I’d be exempt from the gay crackdown, and by not going I’d be letting my sexuality get in the way of my career. He’s a rich guy, and all he’s ever wanted for me is not letting my sexuality make me lesser.”
Rhys couldn’t hold his tongue anymore. “Saying you won’t take part in a society that treats people unjustly doesn’t make you lesser. I don’t know how you can’t see that.”
“I can fucking see that. It’s just that no one else seems to,” Ollie bit back angrily.
“Have you actually talked to many gay men about it?” Rhys asked. “Because I bet your friends who are here with you might give you some good counsel. The thing is, I don’t think you want to talk to them about it because I think you know what they might advise you to do.”
Rhys couldn’t imagine that men like the firebrand Jai or Kris would advise Ollie to put his career above living in a country that was moving backward on queer human rights.
Rhys could see Ollie wavering, so he continued. “Hey, I might live my life from a different perspective, but I gave up a career when it no longer worked for me and a lot of people thought I was crazy for doing it.”
Ollie’s expression only changed slightly, but Rhys could see he wasn’t exactly going to disagree about the diagnosis of mad.
Rhys shrugged. “It just didn’t work for me anymore. I know that it is the kind of glamorous career you are supposed to hang on to by the tips of your fingernails for as long as humanly possible, but that actually isn’t me. I made great money, got laid when I wanted to and signed more than a few autographs. I was more a top fifty than a top ten surfer, but I could have stayed on the circuit until I got too old. I missed my parents and my community though, so I left. Giving up the dream isn’t too bad. I’ve got a great house, my own waves, about three hundred surfing hoodies, and way too many boards. And I got to see you stand up on your first wave.”
Watching Ollie smile, even through his stress, made Rhys decide the time for heavy conversation was over. Ollie needed time to think about his choices and Rhys wasn’t one to go around in circles.
Anyway, moving over and straddling Ollie and watching those worried eyes quickly dilate with arousal was simultaneously sexy and a lovely boost to Rhys’s ego. The hardness of Ollie’s dick against his own also felt breath-catchingly good.
The audible way they both inhaled testified to the fact Rhys wasn’t the only one feeling this way. However, when Ollie’s lips descended onto Rhys’s own, it was with a gentleness that felt unashamedly tender.
“As comfortable as this couch is…I think what we’re about to do...deserves a bed,” Ollie said, pausing every few words to kiss Rhys again.
The stubborn part of Rhys felt like disagreeing, as did the part of him which didn’t want to separate their bodies long enough to move to the other room, but he’d had fantasies about that large King sized bed since he’d first toured the place, and the idea of Ollie in it with him was enough to get him on his feet long enough to shepherd Ollie inside.
He’d remembered the size of the bed correctly, and its sensuous lushness, but the scale of the mirrored wardrobes had him smirking to himself. Yeah, he was going to enjoy this show and commit every second of it to memory.
Ollie’s thoughts must have been similar if the smile on his face was anything to go by. All the worries of the previous conversation seemed to have disappeared, burned away in his focus on Rhys.
Ollie’s voice when he spoke was gravelly. “Clothes off,” he ordered.
Ollie’s movements mirrored his own as they both stripped off all their clothes. Rhys’s cock slapped his stomach as he released it and dripped with excitement as if thanking him for the freedom from his too-tight jeans. Rhys looked at Ollie standing before him and enjoyed the reminder of how beautiful Ollie was. He looked like a dream with his beautifully built body, blond hair and movie-star-adjacent features. But tonight, it wasn’t a blankly handsome man who looked back at him. There was real emotion in his eyes, emotion Rhys responded to by reaching out and softly running his hand along the side of his jaw. Ollie smiled gently before turning his head and nipping at Rhys’s thumb.
“Can I fuck you tonight,” Ollie asked, a tinge of hesitancy in his voice for the first time since they entered the bedroom.
“Definitely,” Rhys replied, his cock hardening further at the thought. He appreciated the question. Rhys was verse, but picky, and too many men thought that sticking their fingers in his ass was the same thing as actually talking about sex beforehand.
With that green light, Ollie had lost any sign of hesitancy. He was moving behind him and had placed both of the Rhys’s hands on the mirr
ored wall. He started positioning Rhys’s legs with such a serious look on his face that Rhys couldn’t help saying, “Just remember if you pound me, you’ll have to be the one to lick my ass and make it better.”
Ollie smiled as his gaze met Rhys’s in the mirror. “Definitely something I can promise us both.”
As if to underscore his words, his mouth went down to Rhys’s shoulder and his teeth scraped over the muscle. Rhys’s hands flexed against the cold, mirrored surface. It was some type of torture to have this amazingly attractive man play with his body and not be able to respond with touch. Though watching the sheer concentration with which Ollie was regarding his body was definitely a memory that was going straight to the wank bank.
The real visual treat though came when Ollie got to his knees behind him. The image that it created was so compelling Rhys had to force his breath right down to the bottom of his lungs. Having a man whose looks and bearing were so prince-of-the-universe kneel for you and use his mouth to search out the pleasure spots on your legs and thighs, was some sort of karmic reward. That illusion wasn’t even hurt when Ollie gave him a lopsided smile and said, “For such a sex friendly accommodation you think they could have thought about the floor coverings. The bloody floorboards hurt my knees so you totally can’t laugh when I get you to help me up.”
Rhys smiled right back at him. “I won’t even remind you this is what happens when you aren’t twenty anymore.”
“Fuck you,” said Ollie, getting to his feet with only a slight wobble, barely using Rhys’s hip to steady himself, despite his earlier words.
“Promises, promises,” Rhys jokingly taunted him back.
His punishment—or reward—came swiftly as Ollie reached out and twisted his nipple. That pull of pain went straight to his dick, and Rhys bit down sharply on his own bottom lip just to stop the groan of pleasure threatening to unman him.
