Chapter 15 #2
“Susan has young signets. Her and her mate will be aggressive.”
“Thanks for the concern.” Scott smiled. “But they’re only birds.”
“Only birds,” Tim scoffed. “The female will break your arms, and the male will break your legs, and while you’re lying there helpless, the signets will chow down on a different kind of ball.”
“How aggressive are these things?” Scott asked Thomas.
Tim replied for him. “Highly.”
“Come on,” Thomas said. “Let’s get this over with…”
Scott hadn’t spent much time around the wildlife pond.
Mainly because Tim had made him fearful of the bionic swan and its mate that lived there. Scott wouldn’t have described it as a pond; he’d have picked the words ‘small lake’.
The other ponds were clear with huge koi and goldfish, but Susan’s waters were a murky brown.
Thomas didn’t speak as he led the way. He held brambles aside, waiting for Scott to have hold of them before letting go, which either meant he didn’t completely hate Scott, or he wanted Susan to do every inch of damage to him.
“How do you know where the nest is?”
“She always nests in the same spot, year after year,” Thomas replied, stomping on a patch of stinging nettles so they could pass.
“How long has she been here?”
“About six years now. Her mate joined her after a year.”
“He doesn’t mind her bionic beak?”
Thomas snorted. “I don’t think he does.” He stopped and dropped to a crouch. Scott did the same, and Thomas pointed ahead at a small clearing.
There was a pile of branches and twigs.
“Listen,” Thomas whispered.
Scott heard the wind rushing through the reeds, the squeak of tree branch rubbing on tree branch and the thump of his nervous heart.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Thomas replied. “They must be out on the water.” He gave Scott an encouraging push. “Go.”
“What do you mean, go?”
“You’re slimmer than me, nimbler on your feet.”
“Bullshit.”
Thomas shrugged. “Get my eyeball back, Scott.”
“Fuck,” Scott mumbled, before creeping forward to check the nest. He knelt in front of it, trying to see through the stack of sticks.
“Anything?” Thomas asked.
“Nah, I can’t see it.”
“Are you sure it’s not there?”
Scott froze at the hiss coming from the reeds.
“Oh shit,” Thomas mumbled.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
Another hiss joined the first.
“I’m out,” Thomas called before jumping to his feet and running in the opposite direction.
Scott took off after him just as two pissed-off swans flew at him.
Thomas didn’t care about the brambles scratching Scott’s arms during his escape; he let them go, smacking into Scott as he tried to shield his face.
The further they got, the clearer the route became until Scott easily caught up with Thomas and tried to pass him.
“Oh no you don’t,” Thomas growled, grabbing the back of Scott’s T-shirt.
It ripped, so he grabbed a belt loop in Scott’s jeans instead.
“Bastard,” Scott shouted.
“If I’m going down, you’re going down with me.”
Scott turned to tell Thomas to let go and tripped, crashing to the dirt and taking Thomas with him. A huge shadow passed over head.
“Jesus,” Thomas yelled, pulling Scott on top of his chest.
The swam circled round, then flew back to the lake.
“You’re supposed to put yourself in front of me,” Scott said. “Not use me as a shield.”
“I stand by my choice.”
Scott’s eyes crinkled as he stared down at Thomas.
“What’s that look for?” Thomas asked.
Scott hugged him.
“Urgh.” Thomas screwed up his face. “Get off me.”
“But I’m so comfortable.” He snuggled the side of his face into Thomas’s chest, exhaling a soft breath. “You’re so warm and cuddly, like a bear.”
“Scott. Remove your body from mine.”
Scott sighed. “Or what?”
Thomas slipped his hands up the back of Scott’s T-shirt and dug his fingers in with enough pressure to make Scott shiver.
Scott gasped, arching his back.
“Or…I’ll use these fingers on someone else.”
Scott felt breathless all of a sudden. “Two sexual threats in one day. It’s like being back in Brixton.”
“And instead of a snarky Scott like in Brixton, they’ve been received by a nervous, curious one.”
Scott lifted his head to look at Thomas. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
Thomas leaned in, and Scott moved his face away, stretching his neck. “What are you –”
Thomas licked Scott’s throat with his forked tongue, then whispered by his ear, “You taste so good...”
Scott widened his eyes and struggled to get back to his feet. Thomas released him, his one remaining snake eye never leaving Scott as he scrambled to get away.
“What the hell was that?” Scott gasped, touching his throat.
“That was me proving a point. Brixton Scott would’ve been disgusted, but your pupils have blown sky wide.”
“Bullshit.”
Tim strolled into view.
“Did you find it?”
Scott frowned. “Find what?”
Thomas got to his feet. “Yes, Scott found his sexual curiosity; he just doesn’t know what to do with it.”
Tim rubbed his brow. “I meant the eyeball.”
Scott blocked Thomas’s presence out. “No, it wasn’t there. I’ll check the fountain again.”
“No need.” Tim reached into his trouser pocket and pulled it out. He threw it at Thomas, who caught it one-handed. “Looks like I had it all along…”
Scott slow-blinked at him.
“Meddling old man,” Thomas muttered, looking down at his eye.
Tim shrugged. “Probably needs a wash.”
Thomas glared at Tim. “No shit.”
“You okay over there?” Tim asked. “Scott, you’re looking pale again.”
“He’s fine,” Thomas answered. “Now, as fun as this was, I need to get back to editing. I would say I’ll see you later, Scott, but I imagine you’re going to avoid me for the rest of the day…”
That was one hundred per cent Scott’s plan.
Thomas strolled away, leaving Scott with Tim.
Tim waited until Thomas was out of earshot before patting Scott on the shoulder. “Nice work.”
Scott didn’t reply.
“Want to get the net and do the ponds for me?”
“Yes,” Scott blurted. “That sounds like a good idea.”
Thomas glared at Scott across the table, bringing a blush to his cheeks.
“What is it?” Scott asked.
“Oh nothing,” Thomas replied before taking a sip of wine. “I’m surprised you wanted dinner with me after earlier.”
“Nothing happened earlier.”
Thomas flexed his brow.
Scott sighed. “How was the balloon edit?”
Thomas’s slow grin was unnerving to say the least. “Good. Your popper was happy with the end product; he said the death glares at the camera added to the thrill.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Scott whispered. “How much have we made?”
“Around ￡12,000.”
Scott dropped into his chair. “Is…is that it?”
The cocky smile that had been lighting up Thomas’s face all evening disappeared.
Two weeks had passed. He only had two weeks left. That was the arrangement he’d made with Warren, and he didn’t want to know what would happen if he couldn’t come up with the money in time.
Warren would track him down.
“Scott,” Thomas said firmly, touching his hand.
Scott blinked in quick succession. “Erm. You know what, I’m not hungry right now…” He pushed his bowl away and left the kitchen.
He ended up in his bedroom, staring up at the ceiling where his mind played tricks on him and he could see an unhappy face pinned to the plaster.
Thomas hovered in the doorway. “There’s a lot of profiles, a lot of competition from all around the world. ￡12,000 is good for two weeks’ work.”
“It’s not enough,” Scott whispered.
Thomas sighed as he came into the room. He perched on the edge of the bed.
“What if I had an idea of how to make more money…”
“I’d say no, I’m not selling my kidney.”
Thomas chuckled. “Earlier when I said I’d make you come –”
“You mean your first sexual threat?”
“You got all flustered, and again when I licked you.”
Scott wiped his neck despite it having happened hours ago. “That was disgusting, by the way.”
“You’re sexually curious,” Thomas concluded. “Yesterday you even mentioned trying my flavour ice cream.”
Scott said nothing.
“I think I can help you with that…curiosity.”
“That doesn’t help my money situation.”
“Of course it does. Step into my world. On camera, the real, genuine article.”
“Sex toys and control…”
Thomas nodded. “We could be magic together.”
Scott blinked. “Together?”
“Subscribers will want to see a monster like me with a man like you.”
“You’re not a monster.”
Thomas gestured to himself. “I’m insulted that you don’t think so.
I like the idea of people seeing me do that to you.
” He smirked. “And sure, I’ll get negative comments about my appearance, about my weight, but I’ve had worse.
There’s nothing that can be said to me that’ll get through my thick skin. ”
Scott looked away.
“Give up control to me.”
Scott’s stomach fizzled. He looked at Thomas and asked softly, “What would you do to me?”
Thomas’s lips parted, and his forked tongue peeked out. It ran over his bottom lip, then disappeared into his mouth. “I’d make you come over and over, and that’s a promise.”
“How?”
Thomas’s gaze whipped up and down Scott’s body before he settled his stare on Scott’s crotch.
“I think I’d milk your cock first…”
Scott’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Run that by me again.”
Thomas smirked. “I’d use a machine on your pretty cock and watch you squirm.”
“We don’t even have a milking machine.”
Thomas looked at him for a long time.
“You’re kidding me…”
“I told you, less vanilla, more –”
“Sex toys and control,” Scott murmured. “You have one of these…machines?”
Thomas nodded. “I do.”
“And you really think this will get us more subscribers?”
“I do.”
Scott bit his lip. “Okay… Then let’s do it. I’m the ice cream, remember?”
“This ice cream is going to be sucked and sucked until it’s just a cone… It’s not for everyone.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“And you’ve got to be okay with giving up control to me. You’ve got to trust me.”
“Thomas…you’re the only person I trust.”
Thomas blinked. Then glared, craning his neck, moving more and more into Scott’s personal space.
“What?” Scott asked.
“I’m waiting for the moment you burst out laughing and tell me it was a joke.”
Scott shrugged. “You’ll be waiting a long time then…”
Thomas sighed. “I need to trust you too, Scott, trust that you’ll tell me if it’s too much, if it’s not your thing. If you don’t like how it feels. We’ll need a safe word too.”
“We don’t need a –”
“Yes. We do.” Thomas looked away. “And you need to practise first, with the camera off, see what it feels like, and then you can decide whether you want me to film you.”
“What are we waiting for –”
“Tomorrow,” Thomas said firmly. “We start tomorrow.”