Butterfly Hunter 01 (18 page)

Dave felt as if he’d found
home.

But
hell
, he’d almost
mislaid a client. He’d broken the rules, and he’d almost been badly
caught out. And Nicholas – Oh God, Nicholas –

The thought wouldn’t quite
come, but what if the man had …

Dave was a bit shaky by
the time he got down there, and he was almost grateful for
Nicholas’s firm hand grasping his forearm as Dave climbed down from
the Cruiser.

“
Are you all
right?” Nicholas asked, apparently concerned.

“
I’m fine. Are
you?”

“
Yes, it’s
been a quiet day. A wonderful day. Thank you.”

“
Good.”

Nicholas considered him
for a long moment. “For once you look paler than me! Are you sure
you’re –”

Dave cut across him
hoarsely. “I think I had to
not
want to find you.”

“
Oh.”

“
I couldn’t do
it. I couldn’t do it. It was sheer bloody luck –”

“
David,”
Nicholas said in hushed
yet fervent tones.

“
Don’t ask me
to leave you alone here again.”

“
I
won’t, I promise.
I
won’t.”

“
Yeah?” Dave
asked, wondering if it would really be that easy.

“
Yes. I’ll
come with you. I’ll stay with you.” That hand shook at his arm, and
Nicholas gently scoffed, “Just try and be rid of me. See how far
you get.”

“
I don’t want
–” he said brokenly. Unable to finish.

“
It’s all
right,” Nicholas whispered, “I know. David, I know …”

And Dave couldn’t resist
any longer. He hadn’t wanted them falling into each other’s arms
and kissing passionately and all that nonsense. He hadn’t wanted
them to make anything more of this than what it was. But he’d gone
long enough now without a kiss, he’d denied Nicholas long enough,
so somehow he signalled that he was ready, that he wanted – and
Nicholas, awake to every little nuance, kindly obliged.

They drove down to the
waterhole, and Dave cast a glance around the camp to find that it
was all, of course, in good order. He smiled at Nicholas as he
turned off the ignition, and before they climbed out of the Cruiser
he asked, “How are the butterflies?”

“
They’re fine.
They’re fabulous! There’s a few of them emerged today.”

“
I saw some
over the treetops.”

“
They’ll be
settling for the night now.”

“
Show me,”
Dave said. As he got out, one of the butterflies fluttered over and
landed on his forearm. The thing just sat there; it didn’t even
start drinking from him. Dave tried not to disturb it as he walked
around to meet Nicholas in front of the Cruiser.

Nicholas laughed. “It’s
your old friend! He’s taken quite a fancy to you …”

Dave peered down at the
thing. “How can you tell it’s the same one? Does he have particular
markings on his wings … ? Or is he bigger than the others? He was
the first to emerge, wasn’t he?”

More laughter, and
Nicholas took his other hand as they walked towards the wattle.
“No, I was just teasing. Or identifying, or something. Actually,
butterflies don’t get any larger once they’re out of the chrysalis.
They emerge full–grown.”

“
Oh.”

“
They were
good ideas, though. I like the way you think. You should be a
scientist, too.”

Dave cast him a sardonic
look.

“
You have an
enquiring mind,” Nicholas explained with light
sincerity.

Dave was saved from any
need to respond to that by the simple fact that they’d arrived. He
watched as Nicholas crouched and peered into the wattle. His own
butterfly lifted up and flew about for a moment before disappearing
somewhere in the midst of the dark gold blooms.

“
There,”
Nicholas eventually said, indicating where Dave should
look.

He bent down and leaned
his head in close to Nicholas’s. Stared hard – and saw
nothing.

“
It’s
difficult to find them, but that’s the point. They don’t want to be
preyed on.”

“
They close
their wings up flat, right?”

“
Right! And
the underside is quite a neutral shade, sort of a slightly bluish
grey. Well, you’ve seen the colouring on our friend. Maybe if you
try a different angle …”

He would have thought the
wings were still large enough to show up easily, even when folded
up tight, but apparently not. Eventually he thought he got a
glimpse – of a butterfly or a shadow, or a butterfly that
camouflaged itself as a shadow – and he reckoned that would have to
do. The twilight was drawing in.

“
I think maybe
… maybe next time you can show me properly,” Dave said.

“
All right,”
Nicholas replied, with a delighted smile, as if Dave had just asked
him out on a date or something.

“
Let’s get
those groceries unpacked!”

Nicholas chuckled,
apparently almost as happy with the practical aspects of their camp
as he was with anything butterfly–related.

They worked together well.
Once they had the food stored away, Nicholas offered to get dinner
started. Dave was grateful for the offer, as he had other tasks he
needed to do. He began by unpacking the goods on the Cruiser’s roof
rack and sorting them onto a tarpaulin. Then, some he stowed in the
back of the Cruiser – the things that needed more protection, or
simply the things that fit. The rest he began stacking away neatly
in his tent. They had still been each retiring to his own tent at
night, and Dave figured they’d both be grateful if they could still
have space of their own. But he had other plans for their sleeping
arrangements now. Once the tarpaulin was clear again, he began
working on those plans.

Nicholas had been humming
away quite contentedly to himself, but he finally came over when he
realised what Dave’s grand purpose had been. “Is that … ?” he
asked, with a wicked glint in his eye.

“
Yeah.” An
inflatable double mattress.

“
For … ?”
Nicholas warily pointed to the top of the Cruiser.

“
Yeah.” Dave
quit pumping for a moment, and considered the man very seriously.
“But only if you can promise me you won’t fall off in the middle of
the night.”

Nicholas cast a searching
glance over him from top to toe. “Well, that depends on how hard
you try to buck me off, I suppose.”

Dave snorted. “Let’s
assume that’s not an issue. Are you gonna roll off the edge in your
sleep?”

“
No …” He
sounded a bit doubtful, though. Which was honest of him, for Dave
assumed that Nicholas wanted very much for them to share a
bed.

“
It might not
be an issue, either,” Dave reassured him. “You know how the
sleeping bags unzip, so you can lay them out flat?”

“
Yes.” He’d
already got it, and that glint had turned into the first
smoulderings of a fire.

“
You can put
one on top of the other, and zip them together to make a big double
bag.”

“
Then I’m only
going to fall off the Cruiser if you do, because I’ll be sleeping
all night with my arms around you, and maybe my legs, too, so
you’ll take me with you if you go.”

Dave resumed pumping,
looking down and hoping the gathering twilight hid his face.
Because he’d been missing that. He’d been missing that simple
comfort so very much, for so very long. “It’s going to be fine,
then,” he concluded when he could be sure of his voice.

“
It’s
going to be
wonderful,”
Nicholas countered, before heading back to
finish preparing their dinner.

Dave had passed on the
messages from Charlie and Simon as they sat at the campfire with
their dinners, and Nicholas had been suitably delighted. But after
that they fell silent, both contemplating yet another step they
were about to take which felt trivial in some ways and madly
significant in others. Dave supposed that anyone else might feel
they were rushing things, but for him it felt so comfortable, so
easy. Sinking back into a happiness and a belonging that he’d
wondered if he’d ever find again.

It did occur to him that
maybe he was fooling himself, and he reminded himself occasionally
that he didn’t really
know
Nicholas yet. Although, on
the other hand, after twenty years of thinking that he had gotten
to know Denise, she still managed to turn around and do the
shockingly unimaginable. So there might be something to be said for
going with the flow, and having a holiday fling with someone who
certainly seemed decent enough to trust. With Nicholas, at least,
Dave knew ahead of time that he was going to be left behind again.
They’d have their three months, and then he’d take Nicholas back to
Brisbane airport, watch him disappear through the security gates –
maybe Nicholas would turn for one last poignant smile – and that
would be that. But at least this time there was no pretence, no
promises either spoken or implied …

Dave sighed, and put the rest of
his dinner aside.

“
Not hungry?”
asked Nicholas.

“
Not really.
It was great, though. Thank you. I like your cooking,” he offered
quite genuinely.

Nicholas eyed him for a
moment, as if doubting him. But when he finally spoke, it turned
out he’d had something completely different on his mind. “Did you
buy condoms today?”

“
What?”

“
Along with
the double mattress. I was just wondering if you’d –”

“
I heard you!”
Dave took a moment, wondering why that had thrown him so. Finally
he answered, “No, I didn’t.”

“
Ah.”
Nicholas’s gaze slid away, and then he turned his head as well, so
that it was impossible to make out his expression.

So far they’d done very
nicely without. Dave had been perfectly happy with all the myriad
ways Nicholas used his hands and his own cock to bring Dave off,
not to mention Nicholas lying over him, rubbing off against Dave’s
cock or his hip, and driving Dave quite wild with it. The simple
pleasures could be profound pleasures, too. But then Nicholas had
expressed the wish a few times to get his mouth on Dave, and who on
earth was Dave to argue against such an idea – but even the
preliminaries of Nicholas going down on him were starting to cross
the line, from what Dave understood of safe sex.

Eventually Dave said into
the silence, in uneasy tones, “Look. I have a couple of boxes of
’em here. If you want –”

If he hadn’t already come
to a halt, Nicholas’s sudden glare would have stopped him in his
tracks. “Oh, right,” Nicholas sardonically responded. “So much for
your non–fraternisation rule. I’m not your first exception at all,
am I?”

“
Yes, you
are,” Dave countered, a bit mystified. “They’re not for me, they’re
for clients. I like to be prepared, is all. With anything they
might need.”

“
Oh.” Nicholas
quickly sank again, looking sheepish. “Sorry.”

Dave shook his
head.
Don’t be.
He was a bit disappointed, to tell the truth.
He’d have thought Nicholas knew him well enough by now to have
figured that out on his own.

“
Look,” said
Nicholas after another long moment. “Really I was just asking to …
sound you out. See what you’re thinking … about what we can be
doing.”

“
You’d know
better than me.” Dave shrugged. “Whatever. Anything. I’m in your
hands.”

“
Really … ?”
Nicholas seemed flabbergasted.

“
Well, I trust
you. You know … Just not – Not going the whole hog,
yeah?”

“
Yeah,”
Nicholas echoed faintly.

“
Not
yet, anyway,” Dave found himself saying – at which even he sat up
and raised his brow in surprise. “Um, or not
ever
,” he mumbled,
probably fooling Nicholas about as well as he fooled
himself.

“
Dave …”
Nicholas breathed.

“
Yeah,
mate?”

“
Dave, I think
we’d better get the washing–up done. As soon as
possible.”

“
Sure,” he
amiably agreed, standing up and collecting his plate. “Could do
with an early night,” he added with a yawn.

“
Me, too,”
Nicholas fervently agreed. “Oh yes. Me, too.”

He felt both strange and
safe, lying there atop the Cruiser, with nothing between his skin
and the stars but the foliage above and then Nicholas shifting over
him, Nicholas’s mouth roaming all over, those plump pretty lips
dragging kisses across him, those teeth nipping and gnawing, that
tongue swathing any small hurts and then rasping across
sensitivities –
all
over, making even the most mundane places sexy,
until Dave’s whole body was just
singing
, was just
thrumming
with need.