Page 44 of The Question of Us
We were all hyped. We were all nervous. It could be our last opportunity to get Lee on his own. The pressure was on.Finewasn’t going to cut it. But what could we do?
The hamster wheel in my brain was stuck on a loop going over and over the night before. The way Nick and I seemed to fitso well together. The way we’d made love—I refused to call it sex because it was so much more than that, at least for me.
As I drove back along the quiet country road, I mused on the fact that it had been Nick’s first time with anyone since Davis, and my first time with anyone who truly mattered. So yeah, it had been a lot more than sex on both sides. The thought was both daunting and exhilarating.
At least my concern about invoking the ghost of Davis in our bed had been unfounded. Nick had beenwithme the entire time. I’d never doubted it for a second. His eyes constantly watched me. His body attuned. His handing over control, most of all. Wanting me to top him like maybe that wasn’t something he and Davis had done that often. A question for a later time. A part of me wondered if he’d asked that of me simply because itwasdifferent. Regardless, it was the best fucking sex of my life. Then again, it was sex with Nick, and maybe that said it all.
I let loose a troubled sigh and caught Nick’s eye. “I’m sorry. Guess I’m a bit jumpy.”
He returned a warm, knowing smile. “Yeah, me too.”
I glanced in the rearview mirror. “That goes for you too. Sorry I snapped.”
Gazza waved it off. “I’ve been handling your pissy grump for years. I’ll survive.”
Nick snorted and his hand squeezed my thigh, so close to my balls that my cock couldn’t help but take notice. A fact he was no doubt aware of. I shot him a warning glance and added an eye roll for good measure. He grinned and squeezed me again, making me wriggle in my seat.
“Oh. My. God. Please stop,” Gazza grumbled. “And while we’re on the subject, motels aren’t renowned for their soundproof walls, in case you’ve forgotten.”
I swallowed a smile. “Ah . . . sorry?”
“Hell no. We arenotsorry.” Nick turned to eyeball Gazza. “You’re only jealous.”
“What if I am?” Gazza admitted. “Doesn’t mean I want to hear you two boning each other in the next room. At your age, I thought I might have to call an ambulance.”
“Why, you little shit.” Nick threw a balled-up paper bag from our early morning deli trip, Gazza’s way.
Gazza batted it aside. “If you need to restock those little blue pills you rely on, I’m sure we have time.”
Nick caught my eye, winked, and answered, “An excellent idea,” at the same time as I answered, “Yep. Thanks for the reminder.”
Which shut Gazza up as intended.
The second drive-by provided little more in the way of information as the property sat a good two hundred metres back from the road and was well screened on both sides by a densely planted garden, leaving only the front of the house exposed.
A late-model Porsche in racing yellow was parked out front, along with a dark blue or green Range Rover. Off to the side was a double-cab black Toyota Hilux covered in dust, its tray stacked with hay bales or maybe straw. It was hard to tell at that distance.
The house itself oozed all the charm of the Georgian era’s love affair with symmetry and balance, even though the construction couldn’t have been more than a decade or so old. Rectangular in shape, the red-brick frontage featured a central decorative portico flanked by two pairs of classically styled columns, all in cream-coloured stone. Twelve large, evenly spaced, multi-paned windows boasted lintels fashioned in yet more cream stone, along with two roof dormers added to the Georgian style, and the overall effect was pleasing to the eye.
Knowing who lived there, I wanted to hate it on sight, but there was no denying the man had good taste, or at least hisarchitect did. Still, the thought of Lee wandering that interior in fear of its arsehole owner curdled my blood and made me want to drive our rental right through the middle of that fancy front door.
As we completed our drive past the house, Nick craned his head to stare at something behind us. “There’s a horse trailer coming up some kind of service road about a hundred and fifty metres or so this side of the house. It must lead to the stables and business side. There’s certainly nothing like that up here by the road, but I can’t see anything more because of the hill.”
I glanced in my rear-vision mirror but couldn’t make anything out. “Lee did say his brother was staying in accommodation above the stables. It has to be a good-sized building, right? And with all the heavy transport to and from, it makes sense it would have its own access. The driveway to the house looks too flash for farm traffic.”
Nick nodded. “Let’s get out of here before someone sees us. We can grab a coffee and something to eat at this auction place.”
“I second that.” Gazza looked the happiest I’d seen him all morning.
I shot both of them a look. “We only had breakfast an hour ago.”
Nick eyed me with a sly smile on his face. “A boy needs to keep his strength up.”
I snorted, then yelped when Gazza whacked me on the head with a rolled-up magazine before doing the same to Nick.
“Last warning,” he growled.
Nick zipped his lips, cast me an amused glance, and whispered, “The kids are mutinying.”
