Elements of Retrofit (9 page)

I started at his feet, running my hands up his legs, touching every part of him. I wanted his whole body to feel this, to react. When I got to his thighs, he spread them wide and pumped his cock with a groan.

I grabbed the lube and flipped the lid, smearing cool liquid over my fingers then leaned up and kissed the head of his cock, running my tongue over the slit. He fisted my hair and groaned as I took all of him into my mouth, and while he was distracted with my tongue working over his dick, I rubbed his hole.

He moaned.

And when I swallowed around him, I pressed one finger inside him. And he groaned. The more I worked him with my mouth, the more I stretched him, getting him ready for me. When he was begging me, I turned my fingers, hooking them to the front until I found his gland.

He bucked his hips off the bed, fisted the sheets beside him and threw his head back in a silent scream as he came.

Fuck, it was beautiful.

I pulled my fingers out and he squirmed and writhed through his orgasm, and I ripped open a foil wrapper and rolled on a condom. I pushed Cooper’s legs up and open, and pressed my cock against his ready ass.

I leaned over him and kissed his lips before slowly pushing inside him. His eyes widened and he gasped, making me stop. “Are you okay?” I asked quickly.

“Yes.” He nodded, and gasped again. “More.”

And with every inch I pressed into him, he gasped and pushed his head back into the pillow. I kissed along his strained neck, and he lifted his legs higher and held me tighter. “Fuck, Tom,” he groaned. “Oh, fuck.”

Only when I was buried inside him did I start to really move, rolling my hips into him. I held his face and kissed him. “I won’t last long,” I told him. “You feel too good.”

Cooper slid his hand between us, taking his cock in his hand, pumping himself in time with my thrusts. “I need to come again.”

Oh, fuck.

I leant back to give him room, so I could watch him, so I could see where we were joined. Fuck. It was too much. “Fuck, Cooper, come again for me.”

He groaned again and lifted his hips.

So I leaned over him again, thrusting harder, and I whispered into his ear. “I want to feel you come when I’m inside you.”

And that did it.

He flexed against me, and he convulsed as his cum splashed on my chest. But his ass clenched around me and I thrust hard one last time before I came. I was so lost in the sensation, so lost in the bliss, so lost in him.

When my senses came back to me, Cooper’s arms were wrapped around me, his thighs still at my sides and he was kissing my shoulder and my neck. “That was amazing,” he whispered.

I chuckled into his neck, still too boneless to move. “You’re amazing,” I told him.

I could feel him smile into my neck. “While I really don’t want to move, we need to shower.”

I slowly pulled out of him, rolling us to our sides. But when he shivered from the cold, I pulled him into the shower.

I poured shampoo into my hand and lathered it into his hair to wash the lube out.

“What time is the meeting tomorrow?” he asked.

“Ten a.m.,” I answered. “Lean your head back,” I told him and washed the soap from his hair. “There you go.”

“Is it all out?”

“Yep, you have lube-free hair.”

He laughed, and when we were out of the shower and dried off, he climbed back into bed, naked. He patted the bed beside him so, as naked as him, I joined him and we fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms.

I woke up spooning Cooper. Actually, I woke up to Cooper wiggling his ass against my hardening cock.

When he knew I was awake, he took my hand and rolled onto his stomach, pulling me on top of him, over him.

“Are you sore?” I asked gruffly into the back of his neck.

He shook his head. “Mm-mm, no.” Then he spread his legs and raised his ass. “Want you.”

“Jesus,” I said with a groan. “Are you sure?”

“Please.”

Fuck. Reaching over, I grabbed the supplies off the bedside table. I sheathed myself first, then slicked him with lube. He writhed as I prepped him and lifted his ass higher. “Tom, please, baby, please.”

I pressed against him, inside him, and sank all the way in one long push. He groaned like I’d never heard him before. He was vocal, not a quiet lover, not a shy lover. If he wanted it, he asked for it, or he just took it.

I kissed the back of his neck as I thrust into his ass and he slid his hand underneath him. I leaned up on my knees and pulled his ass up so I could fill him, and so he could pleasure himself.

It wasn’t long before he came with a sharp cry, making me follow soon after.

We collapsed onto the sticky bed, sated and chuckling. “Good morning,” he said with a laugh.

I kissed his shoulder. “Good morning.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t sleep naked,” he said.

“Or maybe we should.”

He squeezed his dick and groaned. “Jesus, I could almost go again.”

I rolled off him. “God, you’ll be the death of me.”

He laughed, rolled off the bed and slapped my ass. “Up with you, Mr Elkin. We have a great deal to get done today.”

* * * *

The meeting with Tamosaka was long. But considering the sizeable account and the fact we’d just spent twenty-one hours flying to meet with him, it was imperative we were productive.

I’d met with him before. We’d worked on his last build together. He wanted the best for his Fourth Avenue address, and he’d got the best when he asked for me. This was a different project, his second home, but no less important to him.

He ran businesses in Japan, Australia and America and he had two days spare whilst in Sydney, so that was where I fit in. We discussed plans and conceptual designs all day, then I’d go back and draft them up that night and show them to him the next day. He’d either approve them or hire someone else.

I spent the day with him in his George Street office, while Cooper sat in the corner quietly taking notes. It was how Takosama did business. He dealt with one man, the man in charge, and only him.

It wasn’t strictly how I preferred to do business, but Cooper didn’t seem to mind. He said he understood the cultural differences and seemed happy to be in the background writing madly as we talked. He didn’t eat with us and when Takosama was called out for an important phone call, I asked Cooper if he was okay.

“Sure,” he said with a smile, then went back to writing.

When the meeting was over, Cooper quietly packed away his notepad and pen and stood quietly waiting. When Mr Takosama addressed him, Cooper bowed his head politely and then he did something no one was expecting.

He spoke in Japanese.

I was floored, and Takosama was very pleased. He gave me an honest smile, shook my hand again, and we left. As we climbed into a cab to go back to the hotel, I still couldn’t believe it. “What the hell did you say to him?”

“Nothing much,” he said with smile. “I simply told him it was an honour to sit in with him.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me you knew Japanese?”

“I don’t really,” he said. “I studied cultural etiquette at college.”

I shook my head. “You’re a surprise at every turn.”

He grinned at that, then he pulled out his notepad. “I have a lot of notes.”

“I have a pretty good idea of what he’s after.”

Cooper nodded. “I know. You were incredible in there today.”

That night, for the next few hours, I drew up some concepts for the job while Cooper worked on the specifications. I had to admit, we worked well as a team. But by the time we were done and jet lag had well and truly kicked in, we fell into bed and slept.

The meeting with Takosama the next day took ten minutes. He looked over the plans, studying each one carefully, read through the spec sheets Cooper had done and then he smiled. He shook my hand, then Cooper’s and by ten fifteen that morning, we’d won the contract.

Which gave us two full days off.

Cooper was still buzzed about the Takosama job and his excitement was palpable. We got in some sightseeing, though he was more interested in the buildings than in things like the Harbour Bridge or Bondi Beach.

He marvelled at the Sydney Opera House. He sat on the steps and just shook his head in wonder. Dragging him from the modern icon, I took him into the oldest part of Sydney, where the buildings were made of sandstone.

Watching him as he took in the history and the designs of each building I showed him was priceless. He commented on the British colonial influences which led to discussion on England and he said he’d never been.

“Oh, London is beautiful,” I told him. “I’ll take you one day and show you some of the most incredible places. And Paris and Prague. The history in those cities is mind-blowing.”

His whole face lit up. “Really? You’d take me and show me?”

I would. I was starting to think I’d take him anywhere, show him anything, to see him smile like that. I nodded. “Yes.”

He just beamed, and for the rest of the afternoon, he seemed content to just be with me, enjoying the quiet peacefulness between us. But then as it got later, and as I was thinking of bed, he shook his head.

“Enough old fuddy-duddy stuff for one day,” he said. “Now it’s my turn.”

“Your turn for what?”

He grinned. “Get dressed, old man. We’re going out.”

Chapter Ten

“A nightclub?” I repeated. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” he answered, pulling on a tight-fitting tee. I was going to argue the point, but then he said, “We can’t go out together back home. I can’t dance with you, I can’t be seen with you because of work. But we can here.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

As we got in the cab and Cooper gave directions, I asked him how he knew where to go. “I asked the doorman,” he said, as though it should have been obvious. Then he added, “The one who checked you out every time you walked past.”

“Checked me out?”

Cooper laughed at me. “You should get your eyes tested.”

“My eyes are just fine,” I said indignantly.

He took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Half the men we walk past look at you, and you have no idea.”

We pulled up at wherever Cooper had given directions to, and got out onto the busy sidewalk. It was late and cold, but there were people walking to and from venues up and down the street. Cooper pulled my hand and led me straight into one club, and the first thing I noticed was that they were mostly all men.

We showed our ID, the security guy took a double look at mine, but we walked in and headed towards the bar. Cooper pulled me in close, and I griped in his ear. “The guy at the door had to look twice at my ID.”

He leaned in close so I could hear him over the music. “Because you look so good for your age.”

I rolled my eyes and looked around the crowded room. I was easily the eldest man there by about ten years. “They probably think you’re here with your father.”

Cooper grabbed my face and kissed me, right there in a crowded bar, for anyone to see. “Now they don’t think I’m here with my father,” he said. He leaned over the bar, ordered two drinks and looked at me. “Now drop the age thing. We’re here to dance, okay?”

And that was what we did. We danced.

He led the way, of course. I’d expected nothing less. But he wasted no time in putting his hands on me, pulling me in close and making us sway. He kissed my neck and my lips, but it was easy to tell he was lost in the music.

The room was too crowded and the music was too loud, but his eyes were closed, his lips were curled in a small smile as he moved, and I didn’t care about anything else. He was beautiful to watch.

I ran my hands over his back, over his ass, and as I ran my hands up his sides, he lifted his arms above his head and swayed. He never opened his eyes, he never stopped smiling. But he danced, and I pulled him tighter against me and his arms came down around me.

I don’t know how long we danced for. I didn’t fucking care. If he wanted to dance—if that was what twenty-two year olds wanted to do—then I’d gladly do it with him.

We got back to the hotel at some ungodly hour, he pulled me onto the bed and instead of having sex, I sixty-nined him.

We woke up late, spent a lazy day shopping and taking in the foreign city. He was right. It was nice to be able to just be with him. We were free to just walk around, to be ourselves, without fear of being spotted by someone we worked with. And in New York we couldn’t do that. Granted it was a much bigger city, but there were eyes watching everywhere there, and someone would be bound to see us together and question why.

By mid-afternoon we were back in bed, both of us sated and breathing heavily. He was threading his fingers through the hair on my chest. “Maybe we should get some sleep,” I suggested. “We need to check out of here at four in the morning.”

Cooper shook his head and pulled himself on top of me, sucking my nipple into his mouth. “No, you can sleep on the plane. I’m not done with you yet.”

* * * *

Walking back through the airport terminal in New York for me was bittersweet. I loved coming home, but I also didn’t want my time in Sydney to end. Cooper sighed. “Wish we had four more days.”

“Me too,” I replied honestly.

“What happens from here?” he asked quietly. It was rare to see him so unsure.

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Well, my internship is up in four weeks…”

I wasn’t sure what he was alluding to. Whether it was that he’d no longer be an employee, or whether he assumed I’d make him a full-time employee, I wasn’t sure. “Things will be different, yes.”

He nodded slowly. “Good different, or bad different?”

“That depends on a lot of things that aren’t necessarily within my control,” I answered, knowing he’d understand I was referring to work. “But I’m hoping for the former of the two.”

He smiled. “That’s good to know.”

“Cooper, please understand, I’m not the one who decides if interns stay or go,” I told him. “Sometimes none of them do. Sometimes all the interns get is the experience they can take with them.”