Butterfly Hunter 01 (20 page)

Later, much later, Dave
was finally allowed to come, held pressed close to Nicholas with
his hips rocking helplessly between sensations, both of them
otherwise still, and Nicholas murmuring, “That’s it … Yes, that’s
it …” Rocking between the rough graze of his sensitive cock against
virile dark hair and the rub of Nicholas’s spent cock, the roll of
his balls against Dave’s thigh – and one of those long pale fingers
deep inside him, not moving, but only letting him feel the slide of
it as he rocked up and back, up and back. It was like nothing he’d
ever imagined for himself, but Dave didn’t mind the possession.
Already, it felt sweet.

It was astonishing how
many hours in the day Nicholas could devote to his butterflies:
watching them, recording them, writing up his notes longhand in a
journal. Nicholas had initially planned to type up his notes on his
laptop, but of course that required power
– and while they would put the generator on for a short
while when necessary, it created too ugly a noise for their haven.
While Nicholas was so happily engaged, Dave tended to the camp, and
cooked for them both, or spent an hour or two reading. And the rest
of the time – especially once twilight fell, and the butterflies
settled for the night – was theirs to share.

“
Pleasure can be learned,” Nicholas asserted once, before
rasping his tongue across a place it had no business being,
following this with soothing little licks that tickled at first.
When Dave laughed, and tried to squirm away, Nicholas had hushed
him, and firmed his hold on Dave’s hips. “Be still, relax. Pay
attention.
Learn
this.”

“
Nicholas –”
he protested. “You can’t –”

But the man just bent his
head and continued, and eventually the tickles became uneasy
shivers and then provocative shudders, before at last it became too
much, this sensation whatever it was, it was too much, and he
groaned distraught and Nicholas took pity on him, wrapping palm and
long pale fingers around Dave’s cock, knowing just how to bring him
off now, all the while lapping at him, lapping at him, until Dave
shook to an exhausted halt, his nipples hard and all his nethers
tender.

One afternoon, Dave saw
that Nicholas was watching something particularly intently, and
filming it with his video camera. Whatever it was was on the
ground, and continued for a while. At least long enough for Dave’s
interest to be piqued, and for him to wander over there.

“
Don’t
say anything
inappropriate,” Nicholas advised. “I’m filming this for
posterity.”

Two of the butterflies
were flat on the ground with their wings spread, overlapping each
other but facing in opposite directions. There was much fluttering
and bumping about, almost as if they were trying to take off in
this unlikely configuration. “What are they doing?” Dave asked –
and he realised the truth even as he lamely suggested,
“Wrestling?”

Nicholas chortled, and
replied in hallowed tones, “They’re mating!”

Dave had to laugh. “There
you go again with your butterfly porn.”

“
Yes. It’s a
beautiful thing.”

“
I’m sure it
is.” Dave considered the logistics. “Their tails … ?” It was all
going on underneath the spread wings, but he couldn’t think how
else it would work.

“
Yes. Their
genitalia are in the last few segments of their abdomens – what you
think of as their tails. And they … engage back to
back.”

Soon it was over, and
after … disengaging, the butterflies gathered themselves, and
eventually flew lazily off back to the wattle. Nicholas followed
them with his camera, but once they’d settled he turned it off and
came back to where Dave still stood.

“
Well,” said
Dave.

Nicholas was favouring him with
a lascivious grin. Dave never had been able to resist that one.

In between, there was time
enough to talk. They’d while away hours around the campfire, or
sitting on the Cruiser’s bonnet, or lying atop the roof watching
the stars wheel about the sky. If they were together, then Nicholas
almost invariably had his arms around Dave, or at least a hand
resting upon him, as if he just couldn’t get enough.

“
It’s just as
well you have a thing for the hired help,” Dave commented at some
stage. “An earl would hardly deign to notice me
otherwise.”

“
I’m not an
earl,” Nicholas argued, “and what do you mean? You’re a friend, not
the help.”

Dave felt a smile bloom in
response to that, but he kept it to himself. “Your first was the
chauffeur, your latest is me … Like a bit of working–class rough,
do ya?”

“
Idiot,”
Nicholas said, kissing and nibbling at the tender skin just beyond
Dave’s ear. They were curled up together on the Cruiser’s bonnet
and windscreen, and the night air was soft upon them. “I have a
thing for gorgeous hunky men. Can’t blame a fellow for
that.”

“
Of course
not, sir. You just have your way with me, sir, and then discard me,
that’s all right.”

“
Oh shut up!”
Nicholas cried with a laugh. “I thought you Australians didn’t
believe in class.”

Dave shrugged a little.
“Not as much, maybe. It’s a pretty egalitarian place. There’s still
rich and poor, though.”

Nicholas finally sat back
a little – not far enough to let go of Dave, but to consider him.
“Why do you even care? I’m
not
an earl, and never will be.
I’m the youngest son of an earl. Which hardly means anything at
all.”

“
It means
you’ve got the money to come over here for three months chasing
butterflies.”

That earned him a scoffing
laugh. “The family’s money came from my grandmother: a commoner in
the grocery business. Our fortunes had sunk pretty low before she
came along.”

“
She’s a
grocer?”

“
Well. In a
rather large way.”

“
Oh.” Dave
reflected on that for a while, and Nicholas returned to nuzzling
him. There was so much he didn’t know about Nicholas, and probably
half the things he thought he knew were wrong. Dave turned away a
little and settled in more comfortably, hoping for a long story.
“Tell me about your chauffeur,” he prompted.

“
Mmm … Don’t
know that there’s much more to say.”

“
Did you and
he … you know … do stuff?”

“
Oh
yes,” was the ironic response. “It was
that
romantic.”

“
Come on …
What aren’t you telling me?”

Nicholas sighed, and
settled in behind Dave, his mouth against Dave’s nape. “I’ve kept
the secret all these years. Why should I tell you? The man’s still
associated with our family. And he married later; he has a family
of his own. I’m not going to embarrass him now.”

“
So, you did,
huh?”

“
Idiot … Well,
don’t let your imagination run away with you. There might have been
a kiss or two. It all seems so innocent now. So harmless. But it
felt delightfully wicked at the time. And I really wouldn’t want to
embarrass him, David. He was only being kind, and maybe he’s
forgotten all about it. This has to stay between us, all right?
Please.”

“
Of course,”
he stoutly agreed.

Then Nicholas asked, “So …
tell me about Denise, then. When did that start?”

Dave huffed a laugh. “The
very first day of school. I was five years old. Totally out of my
depth. And she took pity on me. Took my hand, and led me about all
day. She made me … She made me smile when all I wanted to do was
cry. She was brave enough to face dragons, you know?”

Nicholas was still and
hushed. Though when he finally spoke, it was only to lightly say,
“Do you even have dragons in Australia?”

“
Bunyips,”
Dave insisted. “She’d have faced a bedevilment of bunyips for
me.”

And Nicholas quietly
commented, “You really have been in love with her your whole
life.”

“
Yeah, it was
just … Well, I never questioned it. She was always there. I assumed
that … when she was ready to get married, she’d ask me. Or – not
married. I figured that when she was ready to have kids and do that
whole shebang, she’d let me know.” He thought about that for a
moment, and then added, “Which she did, I guess. Except it wasn’t
gonna be with me.”

Nicholas’s arms tightened
around him, and they wriggled in a bit closer still until the fit
between them was perfect. The stars wheeled overhead until at last
the sense of loss was overtaken by the sense of
belonging.

“
David,”
Nicholas whispered, with his lips and his breath damp and warm
against Dave’s skin.

“
Mmm?”

“
Will you let
me …”

“
What?” he
asked mildly, though he figured he knew. Of course this was where
they’d been heading all this time.

“
Will you let
me fuck you? I want to – so badly.”

He guffawed under his
breath. “Not if you’re gonna do it badly, no.”

“
Don’t tease.
I want to have you. I’m pretty sure you want that, too.”

He let the minutes drift
past. Eventually he said, “I’m game to try, all right? But not out
here.”

“
I’ll be
careful,” Nicholas assured him. “And anyway, it won’t hurt as much
as you think it will.”

“
No, well …
that’s not what I’m worried about. Or only a bit.”

“
What
, then? I mean, why not out
here?”

“
Because
–”

“
Where
better? This is
our
place. We’re safe here.”

“
But if
something goes wrong –”

Nicholas shifted up on an
elbow so he could look at him properly. “Like what?”

“
I don’t
know.”

“
I
do. I know what I’m doing,
David.”

“
I’m
sure you do!” He wondered how many lovers Nicholas had had over the
years. Obviously they would outnumber Dave’s tally by
far
. None
of which was the point.

“
What’s the
point, then?”

“
I just –
Look. I don’t have a backup plan for this one.”

And apparently this made
sense to Nicholas, or at least he was used to Dave by now, and all
the care he took about their travelling, their camps, their safety.
The fail–safes and backups and redundancies.

“
All right,”
Nicholas agreed, leaning in to press a kiss to Dave’s temple. “Next
time we’re in town?” he asked hopefully.

“
Yes,” said
Dave. “Next time we’re in town. We’ll go to Charleville. We’ll get
a proper bed for the night.”

Nicholas sighed with
satisfaction. And for now they made do happily enough with bold
hands and mouthy kisses.

They reached Charleville early
in the afternoon. And their first task, Nicholas insisted, was to
secure a room for the night. Or, more to the point, a bed.

Dave refused to be a
coward about this, but oh God he really had to screw his courage to
the sticking place. He fronted up at his usual hotel. Marge was at
the reception desk, for which he didn’t know whether to be thankful
or not.

“
G’day, Dave,”
she greeted him in her usual laid–back friendly tones. “Hello,
love,” she added to Nicholas who was quite naturally there at
Dave’s side.

“
G’day,
Marge,” Dave responded, and Nicholas said, “Hello.”

“
Two singles?”
she asked, though it wasn’t really a question. She was already
scanning down that night’s register, and had picked out the rooms
before Dave managed to force out a reply.

“
Actually. One
double, thanks, Marge.”

She looked up with a
carefully schooled face that didn’t quite manage to hide her
surprise. A glance flickered over both of them, before she evenly
replied, “Of course.” And she bent her head to run a finger down
the register again.

Dave felt like dying would
probably be an easier option than dealing with this embarrassment.
But to be fair to Marge, she was probably more surprised that Dave
the one–woman man was interested in anyone other than Denise; that
Dave the scrupulously professional guide was sleeping with a
client. She probably didn’t really give a toss about Dave suddenly
deciding he batted for the other team. She might actually, Dave
told himself, find it hardest to forgive him for taking up with a
Pom.

“
Here we are,
love,” Marge eventually said, handing a key over, and taking the
opportunity to pat Dave’s forearm with kind reassurance.
“Twenty–three on the first floor. It’s an en suite. Usual rates for
you, Dave, but it’s our best room.”

Right. Well, if his face
hadn’t been as red as a waratah before, it certainly was now.
“Thanks,” he managed to say – or squeak. He cleared his throat, and
managed a rather more manly, “Thanks, Marge.”