Like a Lover (17 page)

Jez
stopped, holding Josh’s gaze as Josh thought about what he’d said.

“I don’t
know…. Maybe you’re right?”

“I
am
right.” Jez grinned. “Seriously. If
you like him as much as you say, you’d be mad to pass him up. If you can’t deal
with him being your sugar daddy, then get a loan, get a different job. Find a
compromise. There has to be a way.”

The seed of
the idea was planted in Josh’s mind, and it germinated, spreading out hopeful
shoots. “Yeah,” he said. Then with more determination, “Yeah. Okay. I’m going
to look at my finances and see what I can work out.” He got up from the sofa.
“Thanks, Jez.”

Jez held
his hand out for Josh to high-five it. “You’re welcome. I owed you one.”

Josh
chuckled. “Yeah, you did. I got your head out of your arse about Mac, so now
you’re returning the favour.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Rupert
slumped on his sofa, feeling as flat as a burst balloon. He couldn’t settle to
anything, he had no appetite, and he didn’t know what to do with himself. It
was almost bedtime now, but he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep. All he could
think about was Josh and what might be going through his head right now. He
wasn’t sure whether Josh really meant it when he said he’d think about it, or
if it was his way of letting Rupert down gently. He glared at his phone where
it lay on the coffee table and willed it to ring or chime with a text message.

Just then,
the buzz of the doorbell made him start. He couldn’t think of anyone apart from
Josh who would turn up this late at night unannounced, but he tried not to get
excited as he went to the intercom.

“Hello?”

“Rupert,
it’s me.” Josh’s breathless voice made Rupert’s heart surge. His hopes rose
steadily as Josh added, “Can I come up? I need to talk to you.”

Josh was
still out of breath when Rupert opened the door to him, and his dark hair was
stuck to his temples with sweat.

“Sorry. I
ran all the way here.”

“Let me get
you a drink,” Rupert said.

“No. That
can wait.” Josh took Rupert’s hands in both of his and squeezed them so tight
it hurt. “You haven’t changed your mind, right? You still want us to be
together… a real relationship?”

Rupert
nodded.

“And are
you sure it’s okay for me to move in here, and it won’t be too soon for us to
live together?” The words spilled out as though Josh couldn’t say them quickly
enough. “I mean… I’ve paid up till the end of August for my place, but I can
move in after that.”

“God, yes,”
Rupert pulled Josh closer. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, but
we’re doing it a little differently to how you planned it.” Josh’s face turned
serious. “Your offer was amazing, and I appreciate it, really. But I need to
keep some independence, so I’ve come up with my own plan. I’ll move in here,
and as you don’t have a mortgage, I won’t pay you rent. But I
will
contribute towards bills and living
costs and stuff. I don’t want to sponge off you.”

“You
wouldn’t be—”

“It would
feel that way to me,” Josh said firmly. “So it’s non-negotiable. And I’m gonna
get a loan for my final year fees. I have some savings to cover part of it, but
I’m borrowing the money to pay for the rest. Then I’ll find a new job to help
with bills and food. There’s part-time jobs going in the supermarket where Jez
works. It won’t pay much, but it’ll be enough.” He paused for breath and then
added, “So, that’s it. That’s my final offer. I’ll move in. We can live
together… be together. But you have to let me pay my way.”

Josh’s gaze
was fixed on Rupert’s. His expression was intense, almost wary, as though he
was expecting Rupert to refuse him.

“Okay,”
Rupert said.

They stared
at each other a moment longer. Josh’s lips quirked, and then slowly spread into
a wide, beautiful smile. Rupert felt an answering smile stretch across his
face.

“Okay,” Josh
repeated. “Well, I’m glad that’s settled.”

Rupert’s
happiness welled up and overflowed into laughter. He pulled Josh into his arms
and buried his face in Josh’s neck. The warm, perfect scent of him reached down
and curled around Rupert’s chest, tightening in a band around his lungs. Rupert
swallowed against the sudden lump in his throat, and his eyes prickled. The
laughter turned into a shaky sigh.

“Hey.” Josh
turned his face, nuzzling against Rupert’s stubbled jaw. “You’re supposed to be
happy.” But his voice was a little choked too.

“I
am
happy, you idiot,” Rupert said
gruffly. “I was just so fucking scared you’d say no. So please allow me a
moment here.”

He slid his
hands down Josh’s back, tugging him closer, then slipped his hands into Josh’s
back pockets, feeling for his arse. But the fingertips of one hand met folded
paper.

“Oh, yeah,”
Josh said. “That’s for you.”

“What is
it?” Rupert pulled whatever it was out of Josh’s pocket and held it between
them so he could see. It was a wad of ten-pound notes, fresh from a cash
machine by the look of it.

Josh
grinned. “It’s the two hundred quid I owe you.”

Rupert
frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Well… the
first night, when you picked me up in the bar—”

“I think
you’ll find it was
you
who picked
me
up,” Rupert said.

“Whatever.
Anyway. That’s not the point. The point is I lied to you… about having a hotel
room to pay for. Philip had already paid me in advance, so I didn’t need your
money that night.”

Rupert
bristled at the mention of Philip’s name. “I don’t care. I don’t want it back.”
He tried to press the notes into Josh’s hand. “Keep it.”

“No,” Josh
said sharply. “It’s yours. Please, Rupert. Take it. I wish I could pay you back
for all the other times you paid me, but that’s not possible. But for our first
night, I can.”

Josh’s eyes
were pleading, but the determined set of his jaw told Rupert it wasn’t a battle
he was going to win. It was important to Josh that Rupert let him pay him back.

“Okay.”
Rupert put the cash in his own pocket.

Josh
rewarded him with a smile. “I love you.”

Rupert
kissed the words from his lips as a fierce surge of love and possession rippled
through him. “I love you too,” he muttered between kisses. “So much.” He was
already backing Josh towards the bedroom, tugging at his clothes, trying to get
to his skin. “Now let me take you to bed and show you.”

“Yes
please.”

EPILOGUE

Three months later

“But
Rupert, we don’t have time for this. We should be clearing up and getting
ready, the party starts in a couple of… ohhh. ” Josh’s protests trailed away
into a moan as Rupert dropped to his knees and parted Josh’s cheeks to lick
over his hole. “Okay, okay, I was wrong. There’s always time for this.
Fuck
.”

Josh
gripped the kitchen surface tightly, his sweatpants bunched around his ankles.
He briefly wondered if the tiled floor was hurting Rupert’s knees before he
forgot about everything apart from the hot wet slide of Rupert’s tongue.

“Fuck me,
Rupert, please. I want your cock,” he eventually gasped. The rim job was
amazing, but he wanted more. He wanted deeper, harder,
everything
.

“No lube in
here.” Rupert’s voice was muffled in the crack of Josh’s arse. “Want me to suck
you off instead?”

“No. I want
you in me.” Josh’s voice was a high-pitched whine of frustration. Why was the
bloody bedroom so far away? Why didn’t they keep lube in the kitchen, for
fuck’s sake? His eyes lit on a bottle of fancy olive oil that Rupert liked to
use in salad dressings. He grabbed it and passed it back, nearly hitting Rupert
on the head with it. “Use this,” he said.

“Are you
sure it will work? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“There’s
probably still lube up there from this morning anyway. It’ll be fine. Fucking
do it Rupert, now, or I swear to God—”

His words
cut off abruptly as Rupert’s fingers smeared the oil over his hole, and then
Rupert was on his feet, the blunt head of his cock rubbing and pressing,
teasing with just the tip until Josh pushed back on it, forcing Rupert to fuck
him like he needed.

They’d been
fucking bare for the past week since they’d both got a second round of negative
tests, and Josh didn’t think he’d ever get tired of the feeling of Rupert
sliding into him—or vice versa—intimate skin to intimate skin, with
no barrier between them. It wasn’t only the physical sensation that did it for
Josh, it was what it represented: exclusivity, possession, trust.

Rupert
pulled Josh’s hips back so that he could wrap his hand around Josh’s cock and
stroke as he fucked him. Rupert’s fingers were slippery with oil, and they felt
so good, Josh could hardly stand it. He put his head on his arms, closed his
eyes, and let Rupert take him, pushing him inexorably up and up towards a peak
of blinding pleasure. When Josh came, gasping and shuddering through his
climax, he felt Rupert come too, cock pulsing deep where they were joined.

His legs as
wobbly as a newborn foal’s, Josh was glad of the kitchen surface holding him up
as he gradually floated back to reality. “Jesus,” he mumbled. “That was
amazing.” Then he started to laugh.

“What?”
Rupert asked as he carefully eased himself free in a trickle of oil and come.

“Better add
mopping the kitchen floor to our to-do list before people start to arrive.”
Josh’s come was streaked white on the slate tiles by his feet. “Oh, and I got
some on the cupboard door too.”

Rupert
chuckled and leaned low over Josh, warm breath tickling his ear as he pressed a
kiss to his cheek. “I’ve got it. You go and have the first shower.”

“Happy
housewarming,” Jez greeted Josh with a huge hug, releasing him with a pat on
the back.

Josh hugged
Mac too and then took the pack of beer he was holding out. “Thanks, I’ll put
these in the fridge.”

“Wow, this
place is amazing.” Jez looked around in wonder. “Bit of a step up from our
dump, huh?”

“Our place
wasn’t so bad,” Josh said.

“Yeah, but
it’s nothing like this.” Jez made a beeline for the doors to the balcony. “And
look at the view. Oh, hi, Rupert.”

Josh
watched as Rupert hugged Jez and greeted Mac the same way. Rupert had met them
a few times now, but he still didn’t know Josh’s friends well. That was the
point of this evening, a bit of “cross-pollination of their friendship groups”
as Rupert had called it. They hadn’t invited loads of people—the flat
wasn’t big enough for a huge party—but they’d asked their closer friends:
Jez and Mac, Dani and her boyfriend, Georgina and her new bloke, plus a few
other colleagues of Rupert’s and some friends from Josh’s course. About twenty
people in all.

They’d
asked people to bring a bottle, and had bought a ton of food. It was very
civilised, definitely a step up from a student party. Josh reckoned he could
get used to this.

Later in
the evening, Josh was out on the roof garden talking to Georgina. It was dark
and the clear September skies brought the first chill of autumn with them. Josh
had just noticed he was starting to feel cold, when a strong arm slid around
his chest and the warmth of a familiar body pressed up behind him. Josh
snuggled back gratefully. Rupert kissed Josh’s cheek. “Sorry to interrupt,
Georgina. You’ve been out here for ages. I came to see if you needed anything?
Another drink?”

Georgina
chuckled, raising her glass of wine and nodding at the full glass of orange
juice in Josh’s hand. “You’re so transparent, Rupert. Just admit you couldn’t
stay away from Josh any longer.”

“Guilty as charged.”
Rupert tightened his arm around Josh.

Josh
couldn’t stop the smile that tugged at his lips, giving in and letting it
spread.

Georgina
was grinning at both of them. “You two are so adorable together,” she said.
“And I’m getting chilly out here, so I’m going to join the others back inside.
I’ll see you later.” As she walked away, she paused and called back over her
shoulder, “No shagging on the balcony. If you’re not inside in ten minutes, I’m
sending out a search party.”

Josh
turned, sliding his arms around Rupert’s waist and leaning in to brush their
lips together. “We haven’t christened the roof garden yet.”

Since Josh
had moved in a couple of weeks ago, they’d managed to have sex in every room
and on nearly every possible surface.

Rupert
chuckled. “Nope. But I don’t think now’s the time.”

“Yeah.
There’s no rush. We’ll get to that another day.”

Rupert
kissed Josh again, a slow, sweet press of lips. Josh closed his eyes and kissed
him back. In his imagination their future stretched out ahead of them, endless
days and nights together. Josh had never imagined having this sort of happiness
until it happened to him. He shivered, properly cold now despite Rupert’s arms
around him.

He drew
away reluctantly. “Maybe next summer. I reckon it’s a bit nippy for al fresco
sex now.”

“Want to go
back in and join the party?” Rupert asked.

The sounds
of their friends talking and laughing spilled out through the doors. Josh’s
heart swelled at the sound of it. Their lives were entwining, and it felt good.

“Sure.” He
slipped his hand into Rupert’s and smiled at the warm tangle of their fingers.
“Let’s go.”