Page 46 of Not Your Golden Boy

Nikky couldn’t do anything but lie there and grin at his lover as he winked, then walked out of the room. He caught his breath as his gaze zeroed in on Harry’s pronounced erection, then his perfect ass as he walked out to the hall.

Nikky let out a sigh and closed his eyes, throwing an arm over his face. What had he been upset about again? Was the world a scary place? It didn’t feel like it at all as he lay there in Harry’s bed, cum drying on his stomach, his whole body still vibrating with the orgasm and his neck tingling with⁠—

“Shit,” he hissed, slapping a hand to his neck. Had Harry given him a hickey? How was he supposed to cover that up when he went to the studio to record that day or when he was out in public. It was way too warm to wear a turtleneck.

His thoughts were still swirling when Harry returned a few minutes later, a towel around his waist and his hair wet.

“Did you give me a hickey?” he asked as he got out of bed and moved toward the door.

Harry grinned wickedly. “Maybe,” he said, eyes shining with lust and possessiveness.

A shiver passed through Nikky. No one had ever looked at him like that before, like he belonged to them.

He liked it.

Even though he was smiling with the warm, pulsating thought that Harry had left a claiming mark on him, he complained, “How am I supposed to go out in public and deal with Albion and everything at the studio with—” he paused as he glanced in the mirror over Harry’s bureau, then sighed when he saw the big, red splotch on his neck, “—with this in plain view?”

Harry stepped closer to him and pulled Nikky into a loose embrace. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said. When Nikky eyed him dubiously, he went on with, “It’s Friday. Give yourself a long weekend. Call in sick. The world isn’t going to end because you miss one day of recording. Especially if you’re still narrowing down the songs that will go on the album.”

Nikky listened to all Harry’s reasons to play hooky, more butterflies flapping into his gut with each new excuse. Every instinct he’d honed since childhood warned him disaster would strike if he put a single foot wrong and did anything that didn’t live up to other people’s expectations.

For a change, and it was a massive change for him, he ignored them all.

“Okay,” he said, resting a hand on Harry’s chest. A wave of lust raced through him. Maybe if he stayed home today, he would get a chance to return the favor Harry had done him that morning. A vision of him on his knees for Harry, slowly sucking his cock while the man played with his hair, had his cock jumping, despite the orgasm he’d had not half an hour before.

Harry chuckled, then shifted to lightly smack Nikky’s bare ass. “Ah, to be young again,” he said with a smirk, then kissed Nikky quickly. “Go take a shower, then join me for breakfast.”

Nikky grinned bashfully then headed out to the hall and across to the bathroom. It felt so wicked and so good to obey Harry’s orders. Never in a million years would he have thought he was kinky in any way, but the longer he spent in London, the more he realized there was a whole list of things he didn’t know about himself. Who knew what other weird-ass things he would uncover about what he really wanted in life if he stayed with Harry?

If Harry wanted him to stick around.

Old, raw fears welled up in him as he turned on the shower and stepped in to scrub away the evidence of his good morning. Did Harry want him? Would he want to keep him, or would it be just another disappointment as he was sent back to the home until someone else⁠—

“Stop,” he sighed, then stuck his face under the spray and scrubbed like he could erase those old, vulnerable emotions. He wasn’t a kid desperate for parents anymore. Harry wasn’t a father figure by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, Harry was the man who was teaching him that his life was his own to define and control.

He could be his own caregiver. He could make his own decisions and take care of himself.

By the time he joined Harry for breakfast, Nikky had talked himself into feeling like a grown, responsible adult. He arrived in the kitchen in time to help Harry set the table and finish with the toast. The two of them moved around each other and worked together like they were a real couple.

It was everything Nikky had ever wanted, and he fully intended to hold onto it as long as possible.

“So, are you going to call Albion and tell him you’re not going to the studio today?” Harry prompted him as they finished up their eggs and sausage.

Heat flushed across Nikky’s face, and he swallowed his tea awkwardly. Once he finished coughing, he said, “Yeah, I guess I should do that.”

He went to fetch his phone from where he’d left it in the main room. A text from Charlotte was waiting for him, but it just said the two of them had a lot to discuss and he should call her as soon as he was free.

Nikky glanced into the kitchen, where he could hear and just barely see Harry moving around, cleaning up. He stared at his phone again for a few seconds before tapping to call Charlotte. Maybe it was the coward’s way out, but he could tell Charlotte he wasn’t going to the studio today and she could tell Albion for him.

“Nikky,” Charlotte answered, sounding surprised, but also awake, which was a relief. “There you are.”

“Hey, Charlotte,” he said, pacing in Harry’s living room to disperse the panic that shot through him, knowing he was about to disappoint someone. “I got your text. I also wanted to call to let you know I’m…I’m not going into the studio today. I’m taking a day off.”

He froze in the middle of his pacing, waiting for the sky to fall.

“That’s fine,” Charlotte said, almost dismissively. “Listen, I’ve had a call from Glen. He tried to get in touch with you, but you didn’t answer your phone.”

Nikky blinked at the speed with which Charlotte had moved on from what he thought was a major transgression on his part. “Um, okay?”