Chapter 7
Seven
Skye was nervous. How was he nervous? Why was he nervous? He already knew what was and wasn’t on the table. He knew what Rami was comfortable with, and he knew that Rami wouldn’t hesitate to stop him if he went somewhere Rami wasn’t ready to go, and he also had a feeling Rami would be very vocal about what Skye was doing right.
So maybe it wasn’t that at all. Maybe it was the fact that he was taking someone home for the first time since he’d moved onto the Tower grounds. He’d never had anyone except the other Sins and their partners cross the threshold of his space. He’d never felt safe enough.
He wasn’t as bad as Mauro and Avan, who kept apartments off the grounds to keep their work and personal life even more separate than it already was, but he’d never crossed the line. He’d never let anyone see him as Gluttony who wasn’t paying for it.
He had no plans to pull that cloak on with Rami, unless he asked for it, but this was toeing the line.
Pulling up into his parking space, he glanced around, but the grounds were quiet. He knew that Flint and Jet were probably working as they had clients who often requested daytime appointments, but everyone else was likely either sleeping off their long nights or off grounds, running errands.
He knew that Stone and August were scouting out new studios for August to work in, and he also knew that Stone was hunting for a vacation beachside cottage that he insisted all the Sins were free to use, though Skye suspected it would become Stone and August’s forever home in the end. The thought made him a little sad but also grateful that the two had found each other.
Skye didn’t mind his job, but it wasn’t a forever thing. And it had nothing to do with the fact that people didn’t want to fuck a saggy old man. He just, at some point, wanted to live his life entirely for himself.
“Are you changing your mind?” Rami asked, shattering the quiet of the car.
Skye turned to look at him. “Not at all. Why do you ask?”
“We’ve been sitting in silence for two minutes and forty seconds. That’s kind of a long time.”
Laughing, Skye bowed his head and shook it. “Sorry. Um. This is kind of a first for me.”
“Bringing someone home?”
“Yeah. I’m glad it’s you, but I think I’m more nervous than I thought I’d be. My house is really normal, but it’s right here.” He gestured toward the back wall of the cathedral. “I’m afraid you’ll realize who I am and what I do and decide it’s not for you.”
“I already made up my mind,” Rami said like it was matter-of-fact. And hell, maybe it was for him. Maybe he wasn’t like Skye, constantly second- and third-guessing every choice he made.
He took a fortifying breath, then got out of the car and came around, offering his hands to Rami. He could feel parts of his palms where he was most calloused from his work, and he stroked his fingers along Rami’s hands as he stepped closer.
“May I kiss you out here?”
Rami nodded, ducking his head a little shyly, but he still leaned in, and Skye’s lips met his own. They parted, kissing him deeper than he had in the car—not too much, but a promise of what could come if Rami wanted it.
Skye could feel the rumbling vibration of Rami’s soft moan, and he had to force himself to pull back before he tumbled Rami against the car and rutted against him until he came. His cock was painfully hard behind his zipper, but he had no idea what Rami was going to be comfortable with, and he would be damned if he pushed him on anything.
“Mm. Nice,” Skye told him, breaking the kiss with a flurry of small pecks.
Rami laughed softly and gripped Skye tightly by the hips. “I really like the way you kiss.”
Skye felt flushed and even a little flustered, which was absurd, considering he did this for a living. He’d spent years learning to perfect seduction of all types of people—from easy to the most stubborn he’d ever met. And he’d been subjected to every single type of pickup line, fuck, and tease known to man. Or, at the very least, close to it.
So he had no idea why a simple kiss left him weak at the knees.
But here he was, and he wanted to bask in it.
Dragging his hands down to Rami’s, he took them both and squeezed before letting go of the right one so he could punch in his door lock code. Skye had always been a very tidy person, so he wasn’t worried about looking messy when the door swung open, and he led the way inside.
“Do you have someone clean for you?” Rami asked as Skye led him into the living room. “Oh. This place is smaller than I expected.”
Skye held back a burst of laughter. “Is it? And no. I take care of everything myself.”
“Even with your hours?”
Skye turned and looked at him with a quirked brow. “Rami, do you know how expensive one night with me is?”
Rami’s cheeks darkened, and he shook his head. “A lot, I assume.”
“A lot,” Skye said. “I’m not saying that to brag or anything, I promise. Stone set the base price, and then we’re allowed to add to it based on the additional needs the client requires. I’m not that busy because the cost of booking here is prohibitively expensive for most people. I have plenty of time to get down on my hands and knees and scrub my floor.”
Rami cocked his head to the side. “If you make so much money, why is it small?”
Skye did laugh this time. He yanked Rami closer and kissed his knuckles. God, he was so sweet. “Because these cottages used to be where the nuns slept, and Stone wanted to turn them into a sanctuary for us.”
“Nuns,” Rami parroted with a frown, and then his brows flew up. “Oh. Nuns . Like—” He waved his hand over his head, Skye assumed in mimic of a habit. “They have that…that hijab thing, but it’s kind of stiff and big?”
“Yeah,” Skye answered, still grinning. He tugged Rami toward the front window, which overlooked the courtyard. “When Stone bought this place, he thought about tearing this all down and building a living complex, but the guys he’d already hired then really liked the idea of transforming these into little cottages. And I like it here. I don’t need a lot of space.”
“Oh. No. Me either,” Rami said, shaking his head quickly. “My grandfather’s house is too big.”
“The one you’re in now?”
“Mm,” Rami answered with a nod. He pulled his hand free of Skye’s and began to stim, tapping the tips of his fingers together, swaying back and forth just slightly. “It’s a lot of work, so I…two of the rooms…can help it.” Rami’s swaying made it hard for Skye to catch all the words of his sentence, but he could fill in the blanks easily enough.
“I’ve always been a simple guy. A lot of our clients think we all have these big, tragic, complicated backstories. I don’t talk about my personal life with them too much, but the few people I’ve trusted enough seemed a little disappointed that I came from middle-class parents who had college degrees and nine-to-fives.”
‘Nine-five?’ Rami signed, looking confused. He swayed a little harder.
Skye wanted to put his arms around Rami’s waist and sway with him, but he wasn’t sure how he’d react, so he kept a few inches between them. “Yeah. Office jobs, you know? My dad was a chemical engineer who worked for a paper plant. My mom taught English at the community college. We had a nice home, two cars, the most popular toy every year for Christmas. It was…normal.”
Rami stopped swaying and turned to face Skye. He braced himself for Rami to ask why. Why did he choose this life? Why did he choose this job? “What’s Christmas like?”
Skye blinked, not sure if he heard him right. ‘Repeat?’
“What’s Christmas like? I’ve never had one. I grew up in a neighborhood where most of the people there were like us. Muslim,” he added like he wasn’t sure if Skye was following. “I mean, I know Christmas. I know Santa and presents and…ham?”
Skye laughed again. “My parents liked a brisket over ham, but yeah, that kind of sums it up. You also have extended family and awkward conversations with people who you haven’t seen all year.”
“Oh. I know what that’s like. We have holidays too,” Rami clarified.
Skye smiled. “Shared cultural experience, then, huh?”
Rami snorted and rolled his eyes. “Probably. I think we have a lot of shared experience.” Rami reached out and touched the side of his jaw. “What’s the difference between doing this as a Sin and just being an escort?”
“The clients,” Skye told him honestly. He took Rami’s hand again and pulled him down to the sofa. He propped his feet up on the table as Rami sat almost all the way backward so he could continue looking out the window, his knees under him, chest pressed against the back cushion. “They come in with expectations. Being Gluttony, they tend to want a lot of indulgence. Or they want to be indulged. They want it slow and heavy. They want it to feel like our time together is an actual eternity and it’s going to go on forever and ever.”
Rami turned his face, laying his cheek against the cushion as he looked at Skye. “Do you like it?”
“Sometimes. And sometimes I just play a part.”
“Mm.” Rami closed his eyes as he nodded. “It’s hard sometimes, isn’t it? To split yourself in two like that? One part belongs to people, one part belongs to you. And…and it feels…a lot.”
Skye’s head was spinning. Rami had hit the nail right on the head, but how? His job as an artist surely didn’t put him in the position to understand so profoundly. But maybe it was something else. His family, his religion, his past?
He ached to ask, but instead, he reached out and brushed a curl back from Rami’s temple that had come loose from his hair tie. “You’re very beautiful.”
Rami opened his eyes again. “I was hoping you would think I was beautiful. A lot of people do, but it doesn’t always make me feel good. You do though. You make me feel very good.”
“Yeah?”
Rami nodded and licked his lips. Straightening, he looked down at Skye’s lap, where it was obvious now that he was turned on. “I want to have an orgasm with you.”
Skye wondered how long it would be before Rami’s blunt honesty would stop being so startling . He loved it, and a small part of him hoped it was never. He hoped he could have this for all the years he had left and that Rami would always make his heart jump just a little.
“We can do that. Tell me what you want to do with me.”
Rami bit his lip. “Kissing.”
“Easy,” Skye said with a grin.
“Rubbing,” Rami went on. “Over the clothes. Just over the clothes for now.” There was something on his face, something he was holding back.
Skye shifted closer. “Hey, sweetheart. Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
Rami quickly shook his head. “No. I…I mean, yes. I want to, but not yet.”
Skye bit his lip as he looked down at Rami’s crotch. He was hard. He had a very, very impressive bulge. “I can be patient for you.”
There was a long beat of silence and stillness, and then suddenly, Rami was grabbing at him, falling backward and pulling Skye on top of him. Their kisses turned desperate, frantic, Rami’s hands searching Skye like he didn’t know where to land.
Skye felt like devouring him, the feeling in his chest intense and almost painful, and he had to break away, gasping for air as he regained some semblance of control. “I want you.”
Rami nodded.
“I really, really want you.”
There was a look of regret—something almost like heartbreak—in Rami’s eyes, and Skye immediately knew where he’d gone wrong.
“Not like that, darling,” Skye said softly, reaching up to cup his cheek. “I don’t want more than what you can give me. I just…I don’t have the words to explain this feeling I get when I touch you. It’s never happened to me before with anyone.”
Rami stared for a long time. He swallowed heavily, his jaw working, but no sounds came out.
“Do you need a moment?”
Rami dislodged one of his hands and tapped his lips, shaking his head.
“Can’t speak?”
Rami nodded.
“Do you need to stop?”
Rami’s head shook so hard his eyes wobbled a little when he stopped, and Skye grinned down at him.
“Okay. Well, you can sign if you need to, but if you can’t do that either, just tap my thigh twice if you need me to stop, okay?”
Rami’s eyes widened, but after a second, he nodded, a little less hectic this time.
“And I’d like to touch your skin. Not here,” Skye said, running his hand over the front of Rami’s tented jeans. “But maybe here?” He pressed the tips of his fingers over Rami’s hip, just above his waistline.
Rami swallowed heavily again, then nodded and reached down, carefully rucking up his shirt. Skye watched the slow drag of the fabric, the revelation of his skin—rich brown, smooth, a little hairy by his stomach, and his mouth watered.
He surged in to kiss Rami again, but this time, he trailed his lips downward, over his throat, dragging over the shirt still covering most of his chest, and then to his exposed stomach. Rami groaned loudly, his hips thrusting upward as Skye’s hands worked to get to his body.
He didn’t go too low, but he hooked his fingers in the waistband of his jeans to taste the cut of his hip as best he could. His skin was warm and salty, rough yet soft. Skye’s own cock began to throb, and he rocked himself gently against Rami’s leg as he scraped Rami’s hip with his teeth.
He moved from the right side to the left, tugging down there, feeling half-drunk on Rami’s moans. His fingers pulled a little harder, and then he saw the edges of ink on his skin.
“Tattoo?”
He looked up in time to see Rami nod his fist. ‘Yes.’
“May I see it?”
Rami hesitated, then shrugged and shifted to the side. His fingers tugged on the button of his jeans, though he left the zipper up, but it was just enough space to pull it down and expose the image there.
A snake. No. Several snakes.
No. Not several snakes. A very famous Gorgon.
Skye’s heart began to beat hard in his chest when the face of Medusa appeared because he recognized that exact tattoo. A lean, muscular body appeared behind his eyelids the second he closed them. Strong, thin fingers on both hands gripping two cocks.
In the video Avan had shown him, the Medusa’s head danced with the way the man’s hips rocked. His cocks—one slightly smaller than the other—were thick and throbbing. Skye hadn’t waited around to see the conclusion, but that didn’t matter. He’d seen enough.
His head was spinning as he sat back, and he realized the shock of it had triggered a vertigo spell.
“Fuck,” he gasped. It felt like someone had knocked his feet out from under him. His hand flailed, grabbing for the cushion as he lay backward, then flung the crook of his arm over his eyes.
“S-skye,” Rami stammered, his words thick.
“Vertigo.” He took several deep breaths. “Sorry. I need to take my hearing aids out, but I won’t be able to look at you for a minute.”
Rami’s tender fingers brushed through Skye’s hair. They were careful as they plucked the molds from his ear canals, and the sudden absence of sound overwhelmed him. His head spun harder for a beat, and then slowly—breath by breath—his eyes began to still, and the world stopped hurtling around him.
Skye felt Rami’s fingers slip under his and form into a closed fist. An S . His name?
“I’m okay,” Skye said. His voice felt thick in the back of his throat, and he always struggled when he couldn’t hear himself.
Was he speaking too loud? Too soft? Tongue too heavy?
Rami didn’t seem to care either way. He just held him until Skye felt brave enough to open his eyes. Everything was settled again—except the raging hurricane of realization in his chest. There was a chance that he’d got it wrong. That Rami was not the man from the video.
But he immediately remembered Avan’s words from that morning before he’d gone on his run. “His whole thing is he’s a virgin.”
Shit. The coincidences were too strong, and as much as Skye thought he should leave it alone, he knew he had to ask.
He sat up slowly, making sure everything was going to stay still, and then he looked at Rami, who was staring at him with wide eyes.
‘Did I do something?’ Rami asked.
Skye started to shake his head, but he wasn’t sure if that was a lie or not. Rami hadn’t done anything. Not directly. It was Skye’s own wonky head that reacted the way it did. And he did not begrudge Rami his secret. Skye had been planning on keeping his own for a little while, and it was only the fact that Rami had recognized Avan that his cover was blown.
But he was a little hurt Rami hadn’t trusted him. Was that fair? Maybe. Maybe not. They’d been on two dates and had been talking for two weeks. It wasn’t a lifetime, and neither of them had made each other promises.
But the fact remained that Skye felt something deep and profound, and he was starting to doubt now whether or not Rami felt the same way.
‘What’s wrong?’ Rami asked.
Skye knew it was probably all over his face. He took a breath and then reached for Rami’s hip. His fingers brushed over the part of the tattoo that was still exposed. ‘Do you have a FANCORE?’ He spelled the last word.
Rami startled and pulled back. His gaze flickered down to where Skye was still touching him, and then his eyes went wide with the realization. His hand slapped over his tattoo, and his mouth opened and shut. Skye wasn’t sure if he was speaking or not, but if he was, it was too low for his better ear to pick up.
“I’m not judging,” Skye said aloud. “But…there was this video of a man who has two?—”
Rami stood up before Skye could finish his sentence. He stared around wildly, panicked, and then before Skye could say another word, he bolted for the door.