Chapter 5
Five
Sinking into the hot tub, Skye tipped his head back and sighed. His muscles were on fire. He’d just come off the third to last appointment with a very athletic client. The man was an MMA fighter—amateur, but he was strong as hell. The only problem was he wanted to be the one manhandled. In Skye’s way, of course. It was slow—agonizingly slow—and maybe even a little gentle. But it was long, drawn out, and took all of Skye’s strength to reach the end of the night.
His biceps were still twitching every couple of minutes, and he made himself a mental note to book a massage because he couldn’t afford to be out of commission for too long. He’d already missed enough work from his fall, and he was determined to make this year better.
“So.”
With the bubbles off, Skye could hear Jet just fine. He didn’t open his eyes, but he felt the water surge when Jet slid into the warm water. The Tower now had a communal hot tub, which was big enough to seat eight, but Jet, Skye, and Flint were the three who used it regularly. There was a no sex in the water rule, and since Flint only ever messed around with his boyfriends at their house, and Taylor had an aversion to what he called “stewing in his own juices,” they were the three least likely to be tempted to break it.
“So,” Jet said again. “Can you hear me?”
“I can hear you. I’m just waiting for you to say something else,” Skye grumbled.
Jet laughed and began to shift his feet through the water until he found Skye’s legs. He wrapped his ankles around Skye’s—a sort of blind man’s eye contact. “Heard you got lucky.”
Skye groaned. It had been two weeks since he’d seen Rami and two weeks of pointed silence from the Sins. He had just been waiting for someone to crack and bring him up.
“Y’all are worse than old ladies at a knitting circle.”
“We’re not, trust me,” Jet said. “I actually joined a knitting club, and the shit they say…” He trailed off and whistled. “But yes, you can’t go out on a date with a hot guy and expect that to stay a secret.”
Skye finally opened his eyes and looked at his friend. Jet was lounged back against the molded seat, his head resting on a bath cushion, eyes closed. “How long did Avan wait before telling everyone?”
“Ten seconds?” Jet grinned. “Maybe twenty.” He sat up a little, and his eyes opened, gaze fixed out on the horizon he couldn’t see. “He didn’t seem to think it was a big deal, but I know better.”
Jet did know better. Skye and Avan did a lot together. Their childhoods were similar, and he was one of the few Sins who didn’t hate running with a passion. But Jet had been Skye’s closest confidant for a long, long time. Jet had trained him. Jet had taught him that a life in the Tower could be more freeing than the one he was leading before.
Jet taught him that he didn’t need some tragic past full of anguish to be okay with making money with his body. He was allowed to just…like it. To embrace it. To let it be a part of him. Jet taught him there was no shame in loving himself or in the art of indulgence.
Gluttony and Sloth were closely related, after all. They often shared clients who found what they were looking for in both of them.
It had been easy to open up to Jet. Sometimes he found it hilarious that the deaf man and the blind man were best friends, but it worked for them. Jet understood his struggle in ways few of the other Sins did.
“He’s nice,” Skye eventually said. He couldn’t help his smile as he thought about the kiss. It had been slow and careful, then deep and needy. Rami’s hands had been warm and searching once he’d found the courage to touch, and when Skye kissed him good night at his door, Rami hadn’t let go for a long, long time.
“I’m gonna need more than that, bud,” Jet prodded.
Skye sighed and rolled his shoulders back before hunching low in the water. Down, down, until the warmth touched his chin. His hearing became more muffled, but he kept his hearing aids from getting wet while also almost immersing himself completely.
“Look, if you don’t want to talk about it?—”
“I’m scared to jinx it,” Skye admitted, watching Jet’s face carefully. He was one of the easier ones to read. “He was…unexpected. If I would have fallen on my face like that in front of anyone else, they would have gotten weird. But he didn’t make it a thing. He got a first aid kit and then just…talked to me. Like we’d known each other forever.”
“Maybe because he knows who we are,” Jet said. His face was a little stiff when he said it. His hands searched through the water, so Skye met him halfway and let their fingers tangle together. “Did you ask him about that? Avan said he found us on a Discord server.”
“He did. It was during the big leak,” Skye told him. “He didn’t go into detail, but I think because he didn’t really care.”
“That’s…different.”
“Taylor didn’t care,” Skye pointed out, feeling suddenly defensive.
Jet sighed and yanked Skye until he floated away from the bench and closer to him. “I’m not judging you or him, but it’s rare. August makes sense. He was Stone’s client. And Hen, well…”
Hen was all of theirs before he became King’s. He’d been with them since the beginning.
“I get it,” Skye said, still a little sour.
“I want you to find someone like Taylor,” Jet told him, pulling him close so he could keep his voice pitched quietly. “I want someone who might not be part of this life but accepts it as part of you without reservation.”
Skye knew Taylor had some reservations at the start. But they’d been quickly dashed because he’d fallen head over heels with Jet, and in the end, it didn’t matter. Not everyone would be okay with that, but apart from the fact that Rami was a virgin and planned to stay that way for a while, he seemed to enjoy the fact that Skye was a Sin.
“Does it help that he asked me almost no questions about what I do?”
Jet bit his lip. “Maybe. That’s…I don’t know. Weird? Most people are curious. Unless he—oh. Is he in the industry?”
“No,” Skye said immediately, then froze. He wasn’t…right? He was an artist. He lived in his grandfather’s old house, which explained why he could afford it, but there were questions Skye hadn’t gotten answered. Like why he was holding on to his virginity. He’d said it wasn’t religion, but he also said he hadn’t wanted to tell him.
“Skye?” Jet asked.
“I think I realized Rami and I need to get to know each other a little more before I can keep answering questions,” he confessed.
Jet laughed and yanked him against his chest, wrapping his arms around him. It felt nice to be embraced that way. It didn’t happen as often anymore. Most of Jet’s free hours were spent on Taylor, which was exactly the way it should be. But Skye was feeling the pressing physical distance between them growing.
At some point, Jet would retire. He would quit the Tower, and he and Taylor would move on. They’d probably stay close, but he knew that just like Stone’s upcoming retirement, he’d have plans to do anything other than be on the property.
“Take your time,” Jet said after a long beat. He settled Skye against his side and held him the way Skye needed to be held right then. “Let it be a slow burn. I mean, you are good at that.”
“Not as good as you are,” Skye said with a laugh, leaning the back of his head against Jet’s massive shoulder. “But yeah. Rami doesn’t want to rush things.” He hesitated, but he decided if there was anyone he could spill his guts to, it was one of the Sins. “He’s a virgin.”
“Oh. Like August.”
“Not like August,” Skye said quickly. “Though they’re kind of similar in a lot of ways. Rami’s an artist, and he’s a little socially…”
“Awkward?”
“Blunt,” Skye said. “He’s Autistic, and I think that might be why he just says whatever he’s thinking. He’s not like me, where I worry myself practically mute.”
Jet sighed and stroked fingers through Skye’s hair. “How did he make you feel?”
“Good. Happy,” Skye told him. “Comfortable. Like I could say anything in the world and my words would be kept safe.”
“You need more of that in your life,” Jet murmured.
“He wants to take it slow. He doesn’t want to have sex for a while.” Or ever? He also realized they hadn’t established a timeline. “I’m going to ask him on another date soon.”
Jet hummed and squeezed him tighter. “Where?”
“No idea,” Skye confessed. “I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow and hoping to get clearance to drive again so I don’t have to ask Avan to cart us everywhere like a damn chauffeur.”
“You’re going to deprive us of firsthand gossip?” Jet asked, his tone offended.
Skye laughed and pushed away from him. “You’ll get plenty, and you know it. But, um…I want this, you know? For myself? Just for a little while.”
Jet’s face sobered, and he reached for Skye again. “Come back here. I need cuddles, and Taylor has a migraine.”
Skye settled against him again and let out a happy sigh. “Does that make me wildly selfish?”
“Wildly? No. Normal levels of selfish, which you’re allowed to be. You do know that, right? That you’re allowed to be selfish?”
He did know. Of course he knew. Skye was hardly the most moral guy of the group. He had a bad temper and didn’t care much for strangers. He wasn’t ever going to be the first person to smile at someone in a grocery store line, and he only held the door open for people so he didn’t get dirty looks after he let it slam shut.
But he didn’t always feel right about focusing on himself. He knew it was likely because of his job. He spent so much time being paid to ensure that one person’s needs were being met far above his own that sometimes it bled into his life.
That was a hard line to draw in the sand, he realized. Especially because unlike the others, he hadn’t dated in so, so long. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to have a life outside of the Tower walls.
“You’re quiet again,” Jet said.
Skye took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning his head to the side to look at the stars through a gap in the tree line. “Sorry. I was just thinking about how easy it is to forget that I’m a whole person outside of work.”
Jet’s arms tightened around him. “I know how you feel.”
Of course he did. All the Sins did. Even the ones who’d fallen in love sometimes forgot they were allowed to take time for themselves. That was probably the hardest part about the job. At least, for Skye, it was.
“How do you and Taylor do it when it gets all muddled for you?”
Jet hummed softly, stroking a touch up and down the top of Skye’s arm. “When I get lost, sometimes he has to come find me. But he’s been really good at navigating those moments. He’s also learned when to back off. When a client is too much, he used to get a little pushy and insert himself into my space. I think he thought that he could replace them with himself—with someone I loved. That was our biggest growing pain.”
Skye didn’t think that would be his issue with Rami—assuming it would get that far. He was jumping way ahead, considering they hadn’t had a second date yet.
“I just need to remind myself that this isn’t a race. I don’t need to catch up with all of you.”
Jet tipped his face down, smiling. “Is that what you’ve been thinking?”
“No. Not…not really. Well, maybe a little,” he amended. “But the truth is, I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone. I was on a run, and the next thing I knew, I was upside down in his front yard, and there he was.”
Jet laughed. “That’s how it seems to go. I was bored and decided to walk the mall, and the next thing I knew, I was posing as Daredevil for some kid I’d never met. I didn’t expect love to come on the heels of that little trip.”
“But here you are,” Skye said softly.
Jet leaned down and kissed his temple. “Whatever this ends up being, you’re going to be okay. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. Trust me,” Skye said, “I’m not worried about that. I’m happy here. But it would be nice if it turned into something. Even if that something isn’t a happily ever after.”
But he was lying. The words were acrid on the edges of his tongue. He really liked Rami. It felt special. He was feeling almost possessive, and he knew that if things fell apart after they really got started, he’d be entirely and completely crushed.
“So you met a guy,” Skye said to Hen, leaning over his desk.
Hen raised a brow at him, his head tilting, making the glitter on his eyelids sparkle in the light. “I met a guy?”
“Hypothetically,” Skye said. “Say you met some guy. A really hot guy?—”
“I have a guy,” Hen said.
Skye groaned. “Work with me here.”
Hen’s eyes widened, and then he laughed. “Sorry, honey. Go on. I met a guy.”
“A very hot guy,” Skye clarified again. “He’s not like most people you’ve been on dates with. You tried dinner once, but you ended up making out in the park instead because neither one of you wants to just sit at a table and eat.”
Hen was fighting off a huge grin. Skye could see it in the way his lips were twitching. “Go on.”
“Movies are out because if you wear your hearing aids, it hurts, but if you don’t, you can’t understand the dialogue, and none of the theaters around here have open-caption showings.”
“Yes, my hearing aids,” Hen said, rolling his eyes.
Skye ignored him. “You thought about an art museum, but that seems too on the nose because he’s an artist, and you don’t want him to think you’ve reduced his wants and likes down to his job.”
Hen collapsed forward on his desk. “Baby, you are too fucking cute, and you are overthinking this.”
Skye scrubbed his hands down his face with a loud groan. “I know . I need help. I don’t know what to do.”
“Have you two talked about this date?”
Skye shook his head miserably and lifted his hand to sign, ‘No.’
“Honey…”
“My schedule’s been packed, and he’s been a little unresponsive over text unless it’s three in the morning, and you know I’m not a night person.”
Hen gave him a look full of pity. “Yeah.”
“And also…I know this sounds cheesy as fuck, but I want to surprise him.”
Biting his lip, Hen tapped his bright purple nail on his chin, then straightened. “The aquatic rescue center.”
Skye was more than familiar. It was Avan’s favorite place to unwind. The place ran like a pseudo-aquarium in order to raise funds for their coral reef rehab efforts—something Avan was really, really into. He’d dragged the guys out there more than once.
And it wasn’t a bad idea. The place was decorated by local artists and had tons of sea life sculptures and interactive exhibits. The only person who hadn’t enjoyed it was Jet because the place didn’t have any accessible tours for him.
“If he’s an artist, he’s probably a really visual guy, right?” Hen asked.
Skye couldn’t answer that honestly, but he felt like it was a safe bet. “Yeah. He also doesn’t like places that are really loud and chaotic, so if we go on a weekday…”
“That could be very romantic.”
“You think a midafternoon weekday date could be romantic?” Skye asked.
“Honey, I think anything is romantic if the two of you are interested in each other. Or, well, if I’m interested in someone. What’s my boyfriend’s name, by the way?”
Skye rolled his eyes and laughed. “Rami. And sorry for being a doofus. I’m just nervous, I guess. This is a first for me.” Okay, not his first, but his first in a long, long while.
Hen stood up and walked around the desk, stopping in front of Skye. He was shorter than him, but he rose onto his toes and cradled Skye’s face between his hands. “Take a deep breath, and every time you start to freak out or feel any kind of doubt, remember that you deserve to be happy.”
“Hen—”
“No. You and the other guys went out of your way to make sure that I was allowed to be myself. That I have always been allowed to be myself. You made this a safe space for me, and I will be damned if I don’t return the favor.”
Skye’s insides went soft. “Okay.”
Hen grinned and leaned in, kissing his cheek. “Now, go away, or I’m gonna give you work to do.”
Skye held up his hands in surrender, then turned on his heel and hurried out of the lobby, making his way back toward his cottage. Halfway there, he took out his hearing aids and stood still while his equilibrium adjusted to the sudden dullness in sound. He still struggled with feeling off-balance since his left ear was now profoundly deaf, but after a beat, everything righted itself.
It was nice, sinking into a silence that was starting to feel as natural as hearing once had. It allowed him space to breathe at the end of a long day. Like taking off a pair of shoes that were half a size too small.
He made it to his fence when he heard a muffled shout, and he turned to see Stone leaning against his gate. Stone said something else, but Skye quickly shook his head and pointed to his ears.
‘Sorry,’ Stone signed. ‘You okay?’
‘I’m great,’ Skye signed back. ‘Going inside for a nap.’
‘Come over for dinner Wednesday,’ Stone said—on his hands, it looked like more of a demand than an invite, and it was a crapshoot with Stone because he could very well be insisting.
Not that Skye wanted to tell him no, except he was going to. ‘Sorry, I have a date.’
‘D A T E?’ Stone spelled for clarification.
‘Yes.’
His eyes went bright. ‘Tell me?—’
‘Sorry, talk later,’ Skye signed hurriedly, then turned his back to shut him out. He went inside before his friend could chase him down, locking the door behind him, though Stone would never just let himself in. He’d only ever done that once to Jet, and he was quickly reminded that they had their private homes for a reason.
Nerves hit Skye the moment he was alone though, and he collapsed face-first on his couch. He rubbed his nose against the fabric, then turned his head to the side and wriggled until he could dig his phone out of his pocket.
His finger hovered over Rami’s name—text or call? Text or call?
Skye: Any chance you’re free for a FaceTime?
Rami: Right now?
Skye: Yes.
His phone immediately buzzed in his hand, and he answered. Rami began to speak immediately, but Skye’s better ear was too exhausted to process the sounds, so he held up his hands and shook his head.
‘No hearing aids.’
Rami quickly lifted his hand. ‘Sorry. Hi.’
Skye smiled widely, basking in the sight of the man he’d wanted to see for two weeks now. God, why hadn’t he thought of this before when he was missing him? ‘Hi. I have a quick question.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Are you free for a date on Thursday?’
‘With me?’
Skye couldn’t help a laugh. ‘Yes, with you. Only you. A friend of mine gave me an idea.’
Rami’s head cocked to the side. ‘Tell me.’
‘Aquarium,’ Skye spelled out. ‘Aquatic Rehab Center,’ he added, his fingers a little stiff through the letters.
Rami’s brows flew up. ‘Yes!’
‘You sure?’
Rami’s head nodded so hard Skye wondered if his neck hurt. His enthusiasm was catching though. ‘What time will your friend pick me up?’
He grinned. ‘I think I can drive.’
Rami’s brows furrowed. ‘How?’
‘I see my doctor tomorrow to get clearance. If he says yes, I’ll pop by the DMV and get my restriction removed. Then I can pick you up.’
Rami’s hand began to dance, and Skye followed it, thinking for a second he was signing, and then he realized he was stimming. Rami’s cheeks darkened. ‘Sorry. I do that when I get excited.’
‘No sorry. I can’t wait to see you.’
‘Can we kiss?’
Skye barked out a laugh. ‘Yes, please. As much as you want.’
‘A lot,’ Rami said seriously.
Skye felt warm from head to toe. ‘Then it’s a date with a lot of kissing.’
Rami bit his lip, then asked, ‘What if you can’t drive?’
‘Then I’ll still be there, just with an extra person to help us get back and forth.’
Rami looked torn, but after a long moment of stillness, he nodded. ‘Okay. See you soon.’ The call immediately cut, and Skye was left a little stunned, upside down, and full of a sudden need to get his hands on the other man.
He hadn’t been lying at all. The next few days were going to crawl by, but he was pretty damn sure his patience would be rewarded with strong hands and the softest lips.