Chapter Thirty-Six
Diwa left the Greenhills house at eight in the morning and came back at six.
Colin knew the pattern by now. Two days of it, and the rhythm of his alpha at work had established itself: the early alarm, the shower running while Colin was still half-asleep, then the kiss pressed to the top of his head that Diwa thought was too soft to wake him.
The meetings involved a lot of tastefully suited men and women who arrived in chauffeured cars. Colin watched them from the veranda the first morning, their pressed linens and silk blouses immaculate, not a bead of sweat among them, and felt personally victimised by the climate all over again.
He knew what the meetings were about. Diwa hadn’t given him a briefing, but Colin had ears and a functioning brain. His alpha was making amends. The kind that cost money and required careful business manoeuvring.
In the meantime, the de la Vegas kept Colin occupied, whisking him away to sights close to Manila. No one mentioned Orthos. They just kept him company, folding him into family gatherings without ceremony.
Diwa came through the bedroom door at half six on the second evening looking like someone had run him through a wringer and ironed him flat afterwards. His shirt was still tucked in but his eyes were glazed over.
Colin pulled Diwa’s shirt over his head.
His alpha’s skin was warm and faintly damp.
He led Diwa back onto the bed. Diwa went, his hands finding Colin’s hips out of habit as Colin straddled his lap, settling his weight across Diwa’s thighs.
Colin could feel him hardening already, his cock thickening against Colin’s arse through the thin cotton of Diwa’s trousers, and Colin rolled his hips once, slow, pressing down into it.
Diwa’s hands tightened. “Colin —”
“Shh.” Colin tugged his alpha’s trousers open one-handed, his mouth working at the nape of Diwa’s neck, and took him in hand properly. “Let me.”
Colin reached back between his own thighs, found himself slick, and took Diwa inside him in one long downward press that emptied the breath out of them both.
Colin let his weight carry him down until he was seated flush against Diwa’s pelvis, his thighs on either side of Diwa’s waist. He sat there, his hands braced on Diwa’s chest, and felt his body adjust around the thickness of his alpha while Diwa’s pulse hammered away under his palms.
Then he began to move with a deep, grinding roll of his hips that kept Diwa buried to the root while they pressed together as close as two bodies could get. They lay chest to chest, his mouth against Diwa’s jaw. His hands slid up to cup the back of Diwa’s neck.
Diwa’s eyes were open and soft. His hands had moved from Colin’s hips to the small of his back, pulling Colin tight against him, and his breathing had gone shallow and ragged against Colin’s mouth. Diwa’s glazed look from earlier was gone; his alpha was now fully in the moment with him.
The wet sound of Colin’s slick filled the dark room with every movement. When Diwa’s hips tried to push up, Colin pressed him down with his weight and held him there.
“Stay still,” Colin said, against his mouth. “Let me take care of you.” Diwa obeyed him. His fingers dug into the muscle of Colin’s lower back.
Colin tightened around his alpha and felt Diwa’s knot starting to swell at the base, thick and insistent.
Instead of pulling off the way he sometimes did, Colin sank deeper, taking the swell of it inside him and clenching down hard as Diwa came with his face pressed into the crook of Colin’s neck and both arms locked around his back.
Colin held him through it. The alpha’s knot pulsed inside him, tying them together in the dark, and he kept his mouth against Diwa’s temple. Diwa’s breathing slowed, and his arms loosened around Colin, but didn’t let go.
“Better?” Colin asked.
Diwa’s laugh was muffled against his collarbone. “Yeah.”
Colin kissed his hair, settled more comfortably into his lap with the knot still holding them locked together, and reached for the water on the nightstand. He drank half of it and held the bottle to Diwa’s mouth until Diwa drank the rest.
“Tomorrow,” Colin said, screwing the cap back on. “You’re eating breakfast before you leave. I don’t care what time your meetings start.”
“Mm.”
“I mean it, Diwa.”
“Mm.”
The bottle went back on the nightstand. Colin pressed his forehead against his alpha’s and waited for the knot to release.
? ? ?
He came back to himself slowly. Diwa’s weight settled against his side, the alpha’s mouth working its way down his cheek to the hinge below his ear. Light pushed in past the edges of the curtains.
Diwa’s lips moved up to his temple. “Do you trust me, Colin?”
Colin opened one eye to look at Diwa. “Are you gonna ask about the rimming thing again?”
Diwa laughed against his hairline. “No, Colin. I’m not asking about the rimming thing.”
“Good. Because that’s not going to happen. I’m not a prude, but no.”
“Noted. Now, I just need you to get dressed so I can take you somewhere nice. I’ve had your things packed. All you need to do is brush your teeth, change, and come with me.”
The bed was beautifully soft and Diwa comfortingly warm and heavy against his back. The idea of standing up, finding shoes, and being taken somewhere outside this beautiful cocoon of a room felt like an actively hostile outcome. So he shut both eyes against Diwa’s suggestion.
“Colin.”
“Mm.”
“Colin, please.”
“What time is it?”
“Quarter to six.”
Colin made a sound from somewhere deep in his soul. It was not a happy sound. Diwa’s hand slid up his spine and back down. “Colin.” Diwa kissed the curve of his shoulder. “I promise you’ll like the surprise.”
“You said that about the light therapy lamp.”
Diwa’s mouth curved against his skin. “This is ten thousand times better than the lamp.”
Colin levered himself onto one elbow with an audible grunt. The sheet slid off his bare shoulders. Diwa was already sitting up beside him, dressed in pale linen, his hair damp from a shower.
“How long have you been up?”
“A while. Now get into the bathroom. I’ve put your toothbrush out and I’ve laid out coffee in the sitting room for when you’re ready. We need to leave in twenty minutes.”
Colin swung his legs off the bed and sat with his head in his hands. Diwa kissed the top of his head as he passed, and went to prepare for their departure.
? ? ?
Amanpulo, it turned out, was significantly better than the sun lamp.
Colin established this within seconds of stepping off the boat from the seaplane terminal, with its endless expanse of white sand, and surrounding waters so clear it looked digitally rendered.
He stood there with his bag on his shoulder and his shoes in his hand, speechless. Diwa watched him and smiled.
Now he was in a sun lounger with a coconut in his hand, the top hacked off by one of the staff with a machete as though this were a perfectly ordinary thing that happened. The coconut water was cold and faintly sweet and nothing at all like what came out of the tins from Tesco.
“Take a photo,” he commanded. “For my boys.”
Diwa looked up from his own lounger. His sunglasses were on his head, his shirt open. “Put on a shirt first. Your shoulders are really red, Colin.”
“Take the photo, Diwa.”
“Stephen’s going to be furious that I let you get this sunburned.”
“I’m not sunburned. I’m fine!” Colin held the coconut up, angling himself towards the water. “Now take the photo.”
Diwa took the photo.
Colin reviewed it carefully and then sent it to Stephen and Lysander.
He settled back into the lounger with the coconut. The sun sat on his shoulders, and the water moved in small bright shifts at the edge of the beach. Colin had never in his life simply sat somewhere with nothing to do. There’d always been a job to run off to, or a bill to sort out.
The coconut water was nearly gone. He tipped the last of it back.
Diwa’s hand settled on his shoulder. He pressed down briefly with his finger and then lifted it off. Colin watched the skin where he’d pressed down blanch and then flood red again. He’d think about that in a minute. He just needed more coconut water first.