“Mm.I don't know how I can be horny after all that travel,but...yes.Please.”
“Want to show me how the shower works?”
Lauriegrinned, thoroughly distracted.“You demon.Wait till you see it.It's bigger than our living room at home, and the water comes atyou from all sides.Come on.”
Sashaallowed himself to be towed by the hand into a vast marblebathroom.He gave half an ear to Laurie's happy explanation of itsvirtues, automatically stripping down out of his travel-soiledclothes.The bathroom had a balcony too, and a high arched windowfrom which he could see down into another green space, this one setout around a vivid blue pool.A dark-haired young man was pacinground the edge of it, trailing a net through the water.He worecut-off shorts and little else, and as if his nakedness hadsuddenly sensed Sasha's, he paused in his work and lookedup.
Sashalifted a hand.He didn't know why, except that it seemed polite, agreeting on enemy ground between two lost comrades.The thought andthe gesture were done before he knew it, and he turned away inconfusion.“That's some nice pool they've got next door.Thinkthey'll take the hint if I go round asking for a cup ofsugar?”
Lauriejoined him at the window.He pushed back a strand of wisteria andlooked out.“The pool's ours, you idiot.”Then he stiffened.“Who'sthat kid?”
“I don't know.He's just picking leaves out of the water—maybehe works here.”
“I didn't ask for him.”
“Laurie, for God's sake.What's all this with gates, and...”Sasha wriggled his way between Laurie and the window, hitched uphis thighs to embrace him, drew his head down to block the view.“And background-vetted staff?You used to leave your front door onthe latch when you lived in a bedsit in East Hill.”
Laurielooked at him, eyes the colour of thunderclouds in the shade.Hecupped Sasha's face like a chalice.“Maybe I had less to defendback then.Maybe I didn't appreciate it.”
“Well, thank you, but don't take it out on the poor pool boy.He looks about sixteen, and he sure as hell hasn't got anywhere tohide a gun.”
Lauriekissed him.Sasha pushed up into the kiss, wrapped his arms tightround Laurie's neck and allowed himself to be picked up bodily andswung around into the shower.The jets were already pounding: hegave a yelp of startled laughter as they caught him from both sidesand then above, then grabbed Laurie's wrist and hauled him inbehind him fully dressed.This was the key—to live in the momentwith his lover, to accept events as they came.His life wasunfolding beyond his control, but that was true for everyone,wasn't it?And there was a certain red-hot joy in giving in.Hepushed Laurie up against one brightly tiled wall.For a moment heheld him there, lost in his beauty—God, you could chuck a bucket ofwater over Laurie and he would just look like a sea god, black hairslicking and tumbling, eyes taking on an ocean light.His shirt andjeans were clinging to him, soaked denim picking out the shape ofhis erection.
“Undress me, then.”
“What if I like you as you are?”
“Please, Sash.Strip me down.”
Andsuddenly it couldn't happen fast enough, not for either of them.Laurie gave a moan of desperation and grabbed for the buckle of hisbelt.Sasha knocked his hands away and did the job for him, draggedthe wet leather out of its loops and threw it aside.Roughly heunfastened buttons and zip and hauled the heavy fabric downLaurie's thighs.Together they made a clumsy job of peeling thejeans off over his bare feet.Passion overrode Sasha's normalinstincts to preserve what was good and he ripped Laurie's shirtopen, sending buttons flying, making him laugh in alarm.“God!Sash!”
“Problem?”Sasha demanded fiercely.
“No.None.I wish you'd tear my skin off the sameway.”
“Maybe I will.”Sasha backed him up against the wall.Lightlyhe bit the side of his neck, ducked down and ran teeth and tongueacross his taut nipples.“Why?What's got under it?”
“I don't know.But it bloody burns.It feels toosmall.”
Oh, my love.Sasha swallowed thewords.He didn’t think Laurie wanted tenderness now.He wantedrelease from whatever the hell it was that had driven him halfwayround the world—restlessness, blind ambition, the desire to createa better life for Sasha, who would have lived with him in the grimEast Hill bedsit forever.Sasha knelt.He wrapped his hands roundthe quivering muscles of Laurie's arse and gripped tight.WhenLaurie bucked and cried out, he captured his jutting cock betweenhis lips: held it for a second, threatening a tease or a bite, thendived down.He drove his fingers deep, for once not kindly—for oncehard enough to bruise, as if he would tear him apart like ripefruit, part him from his skin right here.
Laurie gave a choked howl.Even now Sasha listened, pullingapart the threads of the sound.Yes—more need in it than pain.Would he have stopped, otherwise?Yes, he swore to himself, suckingLaurie's shaft over the root of his tongue.Yes, even though Sashamight want to pin him, peel him, find out by brute force what wasgrowing inside that too-small skin and so learn how to keep it whenit burst free...
He sobbed, glad his throat was stopped and silenced.He wouldtrust.Relying on the pounding jets for lube, he pushed furtherinto Laurie's core.He let the water blind him, gave up all effortsto breathe as he found his lover's prostate and worked it, bringingLaurie's cock to full throbbing length.I'm hurting you, he realised in afragmented blood-crimson flash.Hurting,and you're bearing down to get more, making sounds I've never heardfrom you, and these things are turning me on so hard I have to comeor die, right now.He dropped a hand,grabbed awkwardly at his own shaft and jolted to climax just asLaurie did.You're changing.So am I.God,just let me keep up with you, turn like the moon to yoursun...
Lauriedisengaged.He fell to his knees on the water-slicked floor andtook Sasha into his arms.He held him in the pounding jets,shielding him, rocking him while he coughed and caught his breath.“Sweetheart,” he rasped, lifting Sasha's chin.“Are you all right?That was...rough, for us.”
“Rougher than you liked?”
“Did it look that way?I just wish...I'd have made it good foryou too, if—”
“If I'd waited?I couldn't.I couldn't, Loz.”
“My gypsy name again.”Laurie smiled, and shivered in the heat.The water thundered down on both of them, washing away their sweatand dust and every trace of their spilled seed, as if these thingshad never been.
***
Mr Brett expects a great deal from you.Well, Laurie had bought a hell of a lot on credit, with justthe promise of his talent and his time.He stood in the dusty roadand surveyed his advance purchase.It was quite something.The sunwas rising over the San Marco gated village, one of the best andmost secure in West Los Angeles.The little oasis of hacienda-stylehouses was cupped like sweet water in a small, shallow canyon, farenough from the main road that the whisper of tyres on tarmacbarely disturbed the whirring of the cicadas.
