Chapter 10
Ten
Rami: I need you to do something.
Skye: Anything.
Rami: I need you to tell your friends that the channel is mine and ask them not to subscribe. I like the idea of you watching, but I think I need them to not watch. Do you think they’ll agree?
Skye: Yes. Absolutely. But are you sure you want them to know?
Rami: If you trust them, I trust them. It’s been bothering me.
Skye: Then I’ll handle it now. I miss you.
Rami: It’s weird, but I miss you too.
“Having a bad ear day, so I’m walking in!” Skye called as he pushed Avan’s front door open. Avan was one of the few people who didn’t mind Skye walking into his cottage without knocking. Mostly because he didn’t usually stay there, so it wasn’t really home for him.
Most of the guys had also given Skye carte blanche to walk into their cottages if the doors were closed since he couldn’t hear them calling for him to come in. And luckily, there was nothing odd happening in Avan’s living room.
At least, not in his view.
King was in Avan’s massive, fluffy recliner, reading a book, his glasses perched on the end of his nose. Avan and Hen were on the sofa, feet in each other’s laps, and the scent of orange oil in the air told Skye they were exchanging massages.
Skye was hoping Avan didn’t have company, but he supposed his request applied to all the Sins at this point. He just didn’t know how many of them were aware of Rami’s video, but his job was to tell them all who he was and trust that they’d agree to his request.
“Hey, babe,” Hen said. “Want a foot rub?”
Skye shook his head and walked over, dropping down to sit on the edge of the coffee table. “I can’t stay. I just, uh…I have a favor.”
“Sounds serious. But you know I’ll do anything you ask,” Hen said. King cleared his throat loudly, and Hen rolled his eyes. “Within reason.”
Skye shot King a middle finger for even implying that any of the guys would touch Hen the way he touched him. “I’m sure whatever we say here is going to spread around like wildfire, but it’s important that we try to keep this all within the Tower walls.”
King covered his laugh with his hand, and Hen’s eyes squinted. “Honey, you know how gossip is in this place.”
Skye eyed Avan. “Mhm. I do. But I also trust all of you when it’s this important. Anyway, so this is about…” He trailed off, not quite sure how to bring this up.
Hen frowned. “What’s going on?”
Skye took a deep breath, then said, “I don’t know if Avan showed everyone here that FanCore channel with, ah…that one guy?—”
“Mm, I know who you’re talking about,” Hen singsonged. “Two-dicked D’arcy.”
Skye frowned, not sure he caught those words right. “D’arcy?”
“I like alliteration,” Hen said.
Skye scoffed and turned back to Avan. “I’m assuming you showed everyone, then. Do you, ah…do you subscribe to his channel?”
Avan pulled one foot away from Hen and sat up a little straighter, staring at him with a frown. “Why?”
“It…there’s…I have a complication.”
Avan blinked at him. “I don’t subscribe. One of my clients is obsessed with him, and he was telling me about it. I like interesting things, but it’s not my jam.”
That settled something in Skye he wasn’t expecting to be riled up. He turned to Hen. “You two?”
“King was disinterested, and you know me. There’s enough to play voyeur with here. I don’t need to pay extra.”
“Can we keep it that way?” Skye asked.
Avan’s gaze was sharp. “It’s him, isn’t it?”
Skye’s cheeks flushed, but he understood why Rami had asked him to do this. If he got close enough to do things like jumping in the hot tub or taking his shirt off during a hot summer day in the courtyard, someone else would recognize the tattoo, and he knew Rami didn’t want to have another moment full of fear and anxiety the way he had when Skye recognized it.
This was the only way to control how the Sins found out. And the only way to ensure they wouldn’t tell anyone else.
“He wasn’t going to tell me right away, but when we were fooling around, I saw his tattoo,” Skye admitted. “He texted me this morning and asked me to tell you all that it’s him, and if you’re subscribers, could you not be anymore.”
Hen looked confused, and then his eyes brightened. “Wait? That hot-as-fuck man you had on your arm? The one with the smile that could put the literal sun to shame?”
Skye couldn’t help a small laugh. “Yeah.”
“Damn,” Hen said, whistling. “Impressive. I get why his channel has six-figure subscribers.”
Skye winced a little. “Yeah, but he’s not like us. His relationship to his sex work is different, and he really, really doesn’t want anyone to know his face. Especially with his family. He hasn’t talked to me about them much, but I think they’re pretty religious, and he’s close to them. This whole thing could ruin him.”
Avan’s face softened. “Hey, I get that. Trust me. And I wouldn’t say a word.”
Skye rubbed the back of his neck. “Who else did you show the video to?”
“Just you three,” Avan said. “And I didn’t even really tell Hen or King. They walked up after you left, and the video was still on my phone.”
So that was something. He didn’t think the other guys would go looking even if they were curious, and it was nice to know that maybe a few of his brothers wouldn’t know what his boyfriend’s dicks looked like.
“Hey, babe,” Hen said, reaching for his knee. “You know our lips are sealed, right? No one around here will ever put him at risk. And if you want me to handle this—like a company memo—I will. You know I can be discreet and threatening when I need to be.”
“Of course I know,” Skye said with a slight laugh. “And thank you. I might just take you up on that. This is a lot for him. Me knowing was almost too much, and I really…shit. I really like him.”
There was a sudden large, powerful hand on his shoulder, and Skye looked up at King, who was hovering over him. “No one will fuck with him, Skye. If they do, send them my fuckin’ way. You know I’m always itching to knock sense into anyone stepping out of line.”
Skye grinned and gently leaned into King’s space. He wasn’t the most touchy-feely guy with anyone apart from Hen, but he was getting better at it now that he’d fallen in love. His edges had dulled since Hen had been working on him for the last couple of years, and Skye didn’t mind at all.
“So, you and this guy?—”
“Rami,” Skye said, trying to pronounce it right.
King nodded. “You two official yet?”
“Uh, not exactly. I don’t want to jinx it,” Skye said quickly before King could say anything else. “It’s new. Very new.”
“But you brought him here,” Hen pointed out. “That’s kind of big, isn’t it?”
Skye’s cheeks darkened. “Yeah. But he wanted to come over, and I wasn’t going to tell him no. I’d like to introduce him around too, but I think we’ll have to take that even slower. Maybe one person at a time.”
“Well, he knows me,” Avan said. “He recognized me from that one leak we had a few years back.”
King grunted a few curse words under his breath that Skye couldn’t quite make out, but he didn’t need to. The tone was plenty for him to understand he was still pissed. “If I ever get my hands on the fucker who tried to expose us?—”
“Enough,” Hen chastised. “No one needs to get worked up.” He turned to Skye. “Consider the situation handled. I’m y’all’s manager, after all. Let me manage it, okay?” He stretched his arms over his head, then reached for King. “Come on, baby. I’m all limber and relaxed. Let’s go take a nap.”
Skye was a thousand percent sure that a nap wasn’t an actual nap, but he appreciated Hen being discreet. Skye preferred a separation from all the sex stuff when he wasn’t on the clock. He leaned forward, kissing Hen’s cheek, then gave King’s arm a squeeze before taking the now empty spot on the couch and looking over at Avan.
Neither of them said a word until the front door opened and shut.
“So,” Avan said. “Is it going to be official?”
Skye passed a hand down his face. He didn’t know how to answer that. His gut told him yes. His gut told him that this was his forever person, and if he was careful and didn’t fuck it up entirely, he might actually have that happily ever after he’d been craving for so damn long.
But without actually having Rami speak or sign those words to him, they didn’t feel like his to repeat. And he felt like he’d betrayed Rami’s trust enough for one day.
“I’ll keep you posted,” he finally answered when Avan nudged him.
Avan nodded. “For what it’s worth, I think he’ll fit in here well.”
Skye couldn’t disagree. They were all misfits in some way—all different but all fitting together like a puzzle that would never look like anyone else’s. It was why Skye was happy here. It was why he knew that even after he retired, these people would always, always be his family.
“Wipe that look off your face. I can’t stand it,” Avan complained.
Skye burst into laughter. ‘Sorry,’ he signed, his fist rubbing a circle around his chest. “Just don’t hate me as much as you hate everyone else for it.”
Avan scoffed, but he leaned over and shifted so he could drop his head to Skye’s shoulder. “As long as you don’t leave me behind. Pathetic and single.”
“You’ll never be pathetic,” Skye told him, resting his cheek on Avan’s hair. “And you know I’d never leave you behind.”
Avan’s silence spoke volumes. He had been left before—by family who moved away and hadn’t ever looked back. By his husband who was taken before his time. By friends who couldn’t handle Avan’s grief.
He knew Avan had never quite recovered from all of it, and he knew abandonment was his best friend’s worst fear. But Skye wouldn’t ever let anything—not even the love of his life—come between him and these people.
He didn’t think he’d have to worry about that with Rami though. The real trick would be convincing Rami that he fit in with all of them. That this could be his safe space too. But he had time for that later. He was in no rush.
He was going to take this slow and careful. For once in his life, he was going to do something right.
It was 7:00 p.m. The sun was just setting, and the sky was hazy with the fading dusk. Out of his bedroom window, Skye could make out a collection of the brighter stars through the canopy of trees that covered the Tower property.
There was also fog rolling in. He could smell it on the breeze and see it creeping like vining tendrils through the branches that were closer to the ground. It was his favorite kind of time, and if circumstances were different, he’d have taken his hearing aids off and gone for a long walk through the mist.
But tonight, he had other plans.
Climbing off his bed, he shut his blinds, then walked to his front and back doors to make sure they were locked. It was the property equivalent of putting a sock on the door handle, and that thought was a little embarrassing, but he was too wound up to actually care.
His laptop was waiting for him, his account freshly active, and he was currently in the queue waiting for the live to start. For Rami’s live to start.
For DuoOphis to log in. He had no idea what the name meant, but somehow, he knew it was fitting for Rami.
On a whim, he picked up his phone and sent off a text, breaking his rule that he wasn’t going to bother Rami right before a live.
Skye: I’m here. I’m watching.
Rami: I’m about to sign on. You’re ManofExcess, aren’t you?
Skye: Not very clever, am I?
Rami: I like it. I like that you’re watching me. It makes me feel safe.
Skye hadn’t expected that. He’d expected Rami to feel exposed or too seen or maybe that his space was being encroached upon. He hadn’t ever considered his presence to be something like a ballast to another person. He knew his friends loved him, but he wasn’t ever the one they went to when they needed peace or grounding.
His whole body went warm as he settled against his pillows and pulled his laptop onto his thighs. He was naked, his cock half-hard, but he had no idea how his body was going to react to this. He wanted to see it again, of course. He wanted to watch what Rami did—watch how he pleasured himself.
Watch him be obedient to the highest bidder.
The screen flashed, then went black. Then, after a single breath, the camera came to life. It was dim, like it had been the first time Skye had seen it. This time, though, he recognized the bedroom. He knew how long the piece of art behind the frame had been hanging there. He knew the feel of the comforter, even if he hadn’t been invited to lie on it yet.
And he knew what was above that gorgeous, smooth, perfectly sculpted torso that sat down on the edge of the bed. He knew the feel of those two cocks, which weren’t hard yet but were starting to plump. He knew those fingertips and how they were smooth except when he came across bits of dried clay and calluses from working with his hands.
He knew the taste of that ink on Rami’s hip, and the curve of his neck, and the lush push-pull of his kisses.
God, he was hard. He was trembling with need. He wanted to reach through the screen and pull Rami close, but he knew he couldn’t.
A GIFT.
The words appeared on the screen, and then Rami’s delicate hands lifted something so the camera could see it. It was a cock sleeve—opaque purple, the texture like jelly. Rami twisted and turned it in his hands.
WINNING BIDDER: CARL627.
The chat window on the side of the screen exploded as Rami touched the tip of his right cock with the sleeve. In the upper-right corner, the donation amounts began to climb.
NEXT WINNING BIDDER GETS TO CHOOSE A TOY FOR MY ASS.
Skye’s entire body erupted into white-hot flames. Fuck. Fuck. The donations climbed higher. Four figures now. He had money. He had so much fucking money it was absurd. He could do this—except…was he allowed?
His gaze became transfixed on Rami, who poured lube into the sleeve, then fit it over his smaller cock. He began to fuck his hips into it, taking the other in his free hand. The rhythm was off-balance, the left taking it faster than the right.
Rami didn’t say a word, but Skye could imagine his breath, his tiny grunts, his stuttered moans he was trying to hold back. Skye knew what he sounded like when he was holding on and when he let go. When he was uninhibited, unencumbered by the weight of strangers watching him.
He moved to the donation box, and he typed in more money than he knew Rami would be happy with, but he had to do this. He had to stake his claim. He was playing by the rules, after all. And he wouldn’t fight if Rami changed them after this, but he wanted to be part of it this time.
He couldn’t help it.
The bidding ground to a halt. Rami’s hands slowed, then stopped. Skye could see the line of tension in him. He’d seen. He knew .
Then his arms sped up again, his hips fucking forward, into the sleeve, into the circle of his hand. “Ah,” Rami cried. “Ah, ah, please ,” he whisper-gasped. Skye couldn’t hear the words, but his auto-captions picked them up, laying them there, bare for the world to see.
The chat went wild again, everyone screaming in all caps that it was the first time they’d ever heard his raw voice. Skye had given that to him. He was sure of it. The donations remained the same: he was the winner.
Rami’s body arched, the snakes on his hips stretching, elongating. Skye saw him shudder and knew he was moaning, biting back his cries. And then, he was coming.
HOLY FUCK THAT WAS SO FAST.
MORE. IT CAN’T BE OVER YET.
I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW HOT THIS WAS.
I BET HE’S GOING TO FUCK THE BIDDER.
WHO EVEN IS THIS GUY?
On and on the chat went, and Skye was trying not to panic because although he was still achingly hard, his head was clearer, and he knew this might have crossed the line. He might have sabotaged his chance at happiness again because he was a mess, and with Rami, he couldn’t let go of the feeling of utter and desperate possession.
His trembling hands reached for his phone.
Skye: I’m sorry.
There was no answer, of course. Rami sat there, his chest heaving as he recovered from his orgasm. Then he leaned forward to type. A moment went by, and then the donation box reset to zero. Was he canceling them all?
WINNER: MAN OF EXCESS. CHECK YOUR INBOX FOR ADDRESS AND INSTRUCTIONS.
NEW BID: TELL ME HOW TO COME. FORTY-FIVE SECONDS.
For a moment, Skye had no idea what that meant, but then the donation box began to blow up again. A hundred, five hundred, fifteen hundred—three thousand. He attempted to click on the box, but it was greyed out for him. Rami had banned him, but when he grabbed his phone and opened his bank account app, he saw the money had already transferred.
So maybe he hadn’t broken everything. Maybe that was Rami setting a boundary the best he could while in the middle of his live. Skye could accept it. He would accept it. He would do anything Rami asked so long as he could have this moment, so long as he got to be the one who decided for Rami next.
Even if he was never able to do it again.
The winning bidder had Rami edging himself for five minutes on the clock. Skye came hard when it was over, crying into a pillow as he spilled all over himself. It had been a gorgeous thing to watch his lover fall apart. And it was infuriating because Skye wanted to be the one who brought him to orgasm.
His words.
His hands.
His toys.
His money.
He had no right to feel that way. No right to be so possessive and demanding. But it was what it was. He couldn’t deny it. When the screen went black again, Skye sat, almost afraid to move as he waited for his phone to blow up. A minute passed, then two, then five.
His heart sank to his feet when there was no response to his text.
Fuck. Fuck—he couldn’t let this happen. He couldn’t let this one good thing slip away because of his moment of weakness.
He was still sticky with his own come and a little wild-looking, but he reached for his phone in a last vain attempt to get Rami to answer him when suddenly, his laptop flashed with an alert. Skye’s eyes widened when he realized the FanCore site was sending him a message request from DuoOphis.
He could feel his heart beating in his ears as he accepted the call. Fuck—no, it was a video request.
His fingers felt weak as he quickly clicked on the button to start up his camera, and a beat later, Rami’s face was there.
“Hey.” The auto-captions began to scroll. “I don’t normally video chat the winning bidder.”
Skye swallowed heavily, then hooked a finger over his ear and shook his head. ‘No hearing aids. I have captions if you want to voice.’
Rami quickly raised his hands in reply. ‘You won.’
Skye bit his lip. ‘Sorry.’
Rami’s gaze was more intense than usual. ‘Are you sorry?’
Unable to help a laugh, Skye shrugged, and he said aloud, “I know I’m supposed to be, but no. I couldn’t help it. I thought about some stranger sending you another toy—one that’s going in your ass—and I snapped. It’s probably not a good idea if I watch your lives.”
Rami was still and silent for a long time. Then he signed, ‘I wanted you to win. But I don’t want you to spend that much money on me.’
Skye leaned toward the screen and gripped it on both sides. His voice felt thick against the back of his tongue. “I’m rich. I’m very rich. And maybe this makes what we have complicated, but the money I spent doesn’t matter to me. You matter to me. Being able to be part of this matters to me.”
Rami’s gaze darted to the side, hovering there for a long, long beat. “Once per live. You can only bid once per live.”
Skye’s eyes drank up the captions like they were a feast and he was a starving man. “Can I bid on anything?”
Rami looked at him sharply, then lifted his fist and signed, ‘Yes.’
Anything. He could bid on anything.
“What will you have on offer?”
Rami’s mouth twitched into a half smile. ‘Wait and see. Don’t be in a hurry next time. And don’t spend so much on a toy.’
Skye felt elation and something else—something a little dark and very powerful—settle in his chest right on top of his sternum. He rubbed it with the heel of his hand as he thought about the way Rami was looking at him right then.
A tease.
A challenge.
Fuck, he was falling in love.
“Were you thinking of me when you came?”
Rami’s smile widened. ‘Yes. The way you touched me. The way you kiss.’
‘I want to see you soon,’ Skye signed back.
‘Friday,’ Rami said. ‘I need to work on my sculptures, and I don’t want to be distracted.’ He signed slowly enough for Skye to follow because it was obviously very important to him.
Skye held up a finger as he grabbed his phone and scrolled through his appointments. He had a late evening on Thursday, but Friday, he was free. Saturday and Sunday, he was booked. “The perfect day,” he said aloud as he looked up. That was just forty-eight hours from now.
He hated it, but he could wait that long to kiss Rami if he had to.
“Thank you for tonight,” Skye said.
Rami looked down, thick eyelashes fanning outward before he glanced up again. ‘Thank you,’ he signed with both hands. ‘I miss you.’
Skye sighed and wished he could reach through the computer screen and touch him. He’d wished that several times tonight, but this feeling was different. He didn’t want to fuck him. He didn’t want to tease him and torment him and make him beg for it. He just wanted to hold him.
It was the strangest juxtaposition, but something about it felt…right.
‘See you soon,’ he signed.
Rami nodded, then blew him a kiss and turned off the call before Skye could respond to him. He fought the urge to take a selfie with the three-fingered sign of words neither of them were ready for. Instead, he sent a single text before lying back down and turning off the light.
He got a buzzing reply not too long after, and it was with those words he allowed himself to relax back into his pillows and sleep.
Skye: Tonight meant everything. I hope you know whatever I’m free to give of myself is yours, sweetheart.
Rami: Yes. And whatever you want of me, take it. I’ll never hold back.