Chapter 5 #2
Scott nodded. “I did when I was inside, but I haven’t since.”
“That’s a shame…”
Thomas found his voice again. “It is. He was really good.”
Scott ducked his head when he felt a blush building in his cheeks.
Carly squeezed Scott’s shoulder, then moved away. “We’ll make enough food for both of you.”
The chefs continued preparing meals as if they weren’t there, and Thomas joined Scott at the table.
“A month…” Thomas growled.
“You’ve spent three years in a cell with me.”
Thomas’s nostrils flared. “Yes, but I had no choice.”
“I can find somewhere else –”
“No. Stay here. On the first floor.”
Scott’s stomach sank. He’d sleep on the first floor, away from Thomas. Why did that feel like a slap to the face?
“When you’re finished, I can show you the pool.”
Scott raised his eyebrows. “You have a pool?”
“I’m loaded. I obviously have a swimming pool…”
Thomas had a swimming pool, a sauna, a Jacuzzi, a tennis court and a gym.
There was only one room he hadn’t let Scott see, and he called it his personal room and warned Scott that he had to control the curious cat inside him and not try to enter the room.
The plaque on the door read ‘KEEP OUT’, but there was no lock on the door.
Scott teased him, asking whether a tiger was in there, but Thomas only glared and told him that if he went into that room without Thomas’s permission, he’d throw Scott out onto the street.
The curious cat inside Scott had widened his eyes and pricked up his ears, but he shooed it away. Thomas was letting him stay for a month. He wouldn’t break his trust.
Whatever mystery lay beyond the locked door would stay a mystery.
The last part of the tour was a stroll around the gardens.
Neither of them spoke. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence; it was a peaceful one.
They’d spent lockdowns in their cell together, and falling into content silences with someone was something Scott had only experienced with Thomas.
If a client was quiet, that was bad, and if Scott didn’t feel like making the effort to talk to someone who’d spent money to be with him, that was even worse.
Silence in his line of work wasn’t a good thing, but he wasn’t at work.
He hadn’t been paid for.
He was just him.
Rarely could he just be him.
They sat down on the same bench as the day before and listened to the fountain. Scott closed his eyes, stretched out his neck, lifted his chin and sighed at the sun on his face.
For three years, it hadn’t touched his skin.
The minuscule window in their cell didn’t let enough in, and their yard was permanently in shadow.
There had been no grass, or flowers, or birds or insects, only cold stone.
Scott never would’ve described himself as an outdoors person, but then he’d spent three years in prison, and he was grateful for the fresh air in his lungs every day he was free.
“I need money,” Scott murmured.
Thomas sucked in a breath. Scott reopened his eyes and looked at him. Thomas had gone tense, all apart from his nostrils, which flared.
“How much money?”
“￡100,000.”
“Christ,” Thomas snapped, turning away.
“I owe it to someone,” Scott said, not mentioning that someone was a psychopath in a smart suit intent on hurting him. “I’m going to pay back every penny. I’m going to work off my debt.”
“I told you,” Thomas hissed. “You don’t bring anyone here.”
“And I won’t.”
Thomas’s hand tightened to a fist on his thigh. “Don’t…”
“Don’t what?”
“Ask me for it.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
Thomas relaxed. He turned back to Scott, studying him like he was an interesting specimen he couldn’t work out.
Scott snorted. “It hadn’t even crossed my mind.”
And it hadn’t. It was Scott’s mess, and he was going to fix it; Thomas’s wealth had no impact on what he needed to do.
“You’re going to be working while you’re here?” Thomas asked. He no longer had his hand in a fist but picked at the knee of his black jeans, going for nonchalant but failing.
Scott nodded. “If that’s…okay?”
“All I ask is –”
“Don’t bring anyone back here. I heard you the first two times.”
Thomas shook his head. “That goes without saying, but if someone books you for an evening and a morning after, let me know. I’ll give you my number. Text me if you’re not going to be home at night.”
“Home?”
Thomas blinked. “Back. I meant to say back, and if…if you need help. If something goes wrong. Call me.”
Scott was momentarily speechless, then he nodded. “I…I was actually thinking of trying something different.”
Thomas gave him a questioning look.
“I want to press pause on my escorting career and branch out into…video, or photography… See if I like it more.”
“You want to make pornography?” Thomas asked with a frown.
“Yes.”
They were silent again, but this time it was uncomfortable. Scott had been thinking about how to earn money quickly without putting himself at risk.
He’d be suspicious of every client, including his regulars, and the more he was out in public, the more likely that Warren would find him.
Amateur pornography seemed an obvious step to take.
He didn’t have to leave the mansion, and no one would know where the videos were being filmed. It was easy enough to set up an account and get started, and in his head, he’d be making tens of thousands within a few days.
“I read an article a few weeks ago about a guy who makes fifty grand a week, jerking off on camera…and I thought I could do that. It can’t be a hard transition, can it? Escort to cam guy?”
Thomas stared at him. Scott waited for some kind of reaction, but there wasn’t one.
“How do you feel about me making videos in my bedroom?”
Thomas shuddered. “I’m only three years older than you. Thanks for making me feel like I’m a perverted grandad, and it’s not your bedroom; it’s the room I’ve given you to stay in for a month.”
“How do you feel about it?”
Thomas shrugged. “I feel… I feel like it must be a lot safer than escorting.”
Scott widened his eyes in surprise. “Yes. I guess.”
“Is that what you were talking about with Carly earlier?”
“No.” Scott laughed. “That was…that was about something else.”
“I hope you’re not expecting me to…get involved.”
“Of course not. I know you find me repulsive. I know your idea of great sex involves devices that vibrate, twitch and spin in circles. You told me when we were inside.”
Thomas nodded.
“And I can transfer some money, you know, for rent,” Scott added to sweeten the deal.
“First, you make me feel like a grandad and now a pimp.”
Scott laughed softly.
“I don’t want your money, Scott.” Thomas glanced back at the mansion. “I don’t need it…and if you ask me, right now, for ￡100,000, I’ll give it to you.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
Scott frowned. “You’d judge me, though, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You’d think I was a shit friend, only coming here for your money.”
Thomas nodded. “Yes. I’d think that. And we were never friends. So why would it matter what I’d think?”
“We were cellmates.” Scott bit his lip. “Good cellmates.”
Thomas didn’t agree or disagree.
“Thank you for the offer of ￡100,000, but I’m going to have to decline.”
Thomas smiled at him, a big, beautiful smile, but then he ruined it by slipping his forked tongue out.
“Gross,” Scott said, wrinkling his nose.
Thomas laughed. “Yes, Scott. I grant my permission for you to make amateur pornography in my house to earn 100K.”
Scott nudged Thomas with his elbow. “You’re the best ex-cellmate anyone could ask for.”