Happy with his cool and casual appearance, Reece wandered into the kitchen, pulled open the fridge and grabbed two cans of Coke. He paused and looked at the other contents—Champagne, posh pâté, strawberries, smoked salmon and a cooked corn-fed chicken that looked golden and succulent. His taste buds tingled and his mouth watered. Quickly, he shut the door and turned before he was tempted to pop a strawberry into his mouth, try the tub of
foie gras
or munch on a drumstick.
He headed to the back door. It was open—to let a breeze through the house Mrs. Henley-Smythe had said. Not that there was any breeze today. The air was still and lazy as though the sun had taken the energy out of it the way it had everything else.
Stepping onto the decking, Reece blinked in the glare.
Cade was still mowing, going away from him. The drone of the engine was louder down here than it had been up in the bedroom.
Reece bided his time, waiting and enjoying ogling Cade’s arse as he walked along. When Cade turned, the mower pointing his way, Reece held up one of the cans.
“Want a drink?” he called.
“Yeah, cheers.” Cade continued on his journey, straight and steady. The mower created yet another pale green streak as he came toward Reece.
When he reached the decking, Cade flicked a switch and the engine died. A heavy silence filled the garden and Reece’s ears buzzed for a moment. He watched as Cade rubbed his palms down his thighs and shifted a damp lock of hair from his temple.
Reece held out a can. “Reece,” he said, “the decorator.”
Cade took it and pressed the chilled surface to his forehead. “Cade, the gardener.” He grinned, flashing white teeth. His right incisor wasn’t quite flush, and he had dimples that just didn’t belong on such a masculine face.
Reece popped the ring pull on his drink and tensed his abs. He wished he had a nice tan like Cade but he worked indoors and the only time he had color was when he had his annual two weeks on a foreign beach with his mates. Still, he worked out, and it was a decent belly.
Cade tugged on his bottom lip as he opened his drink.
Reece cursed those sunglasses. It was impossible to tell if Cade was checking him out or not. The surface of the lenses were mirrored and he had no way of telling.
“So, you been working here long?” Reece asked.
“Yeah, a few years now.”
“It looks amazing.” Reece gestured to one of the full flowerbeds. “The garden, that is.”
“Thanks. I take pride in my work.”
“I can tell.” Reece took a few big gulps of his drink. “You like Mrs. Henley-Smythe?”
“Rita? Yeah, she’s cool.” He shrugged. “Friendly.”
“Yeah, I thought so. Not that I know her. I’ve just started on the bedroom this week. She wanted it switched from buttercream to magnolia.”
“Is there a difference?”
“Not really, it’s hard to see what I’ve done and what I haven’t.” He laughed.
“Mmm. I suppose.” Cade tipped his can to his mouth and drank deeply.
Reece studied the long tendons in his neck and the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. The stubble on his jaw etched downward, all the way to the base of his throat, he could imagine stroking the scratchy hair and pressing his cheek against it.
“So what does her old man do?” Reece asked to stop himself from having more lusty thoughts about Cade’s stubble. “They’re obviously not strapped for cash—not with this fancy place and those cars on the drive.”
Cade shrugged and set his drink on a nearby wooden table. He then sat at one of the chairs and crossed his left ankle over his right knee. “Something to do with the movie industry.”
“Movies?” Reece asked, his curiosity piqued. “What, like a director or something?”
“I suppose so.”
“Are there studios around here?”
Cade took off his sunglasses, tipped his head and studied Reece. “You gonna sit? You must be knackered going up and down ladders all day long.”
A bubble of excitement popped in Reece’s stomach. Cade had asked him to sit with him. Surely that was a good sign. What’s more, Cade’s gaze had definitely lingered on his abs, Reece was sure of it. He’d bet his last paintbrush on it.
“Yeah, I suppose. I’m due a break.”
Cade gave a slow nod. “Too damn hot to work right through today. I do sometimes, if the weather’s grim. Happy to get it done and go home to the warm and dry. But on a day like this, in the summer, it’s a nice place to hang out.”
“You’re not kidding. It’s bloody gorgeous. Wish I had a pad like this.”
“I pretend it’s mine sometimes, you know, if she’s out.” He paused and a grin tugged at the right side of his mouth. “Like today.”
Reece glanced around. The shrubs and wall surrounding the garden made it totally private and there was only one way around to the back of the house—he knew that because he’d brought his decorating equipment that way—and there was a lock on the gate.
“So what do you do?” Reece asked. “When you pretend it’s yours?”
Cade shrugged. “Go for a swim, use the hot tub, grab myself a beer and just generally lounge about.”
“Really?” Reece wasn’t sure if he’d have the nerve. He was always very careful and respectful of clients’ homes. He felt privileged that he’d been trusted to be in them unsupervised.
“Yeah, why the hell not? If I’ve done the lawn and pruned the beds, there’s no harm in it.”
Reece didn’t answer, instead, he finished off the last of his drink and set the empty can on the table, next to a pot of pansies. He had to admit the thought of sinking into the pool was very inviting. He could see it sparkling and shimmering on the surface and the sun glinted off a white diving board that stood at one end.
He turned to Cade.
Cade was studying him closely.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” Cade said, twisting his mouth into a smile.
“Fuck. I’m so damn hot the pool is pretty fucking tempting.”
“Ah, I knew once the idea was there you wouldn’t be able to resist.” Cade bent forward and began to unlace his boots.
“What are you doing?” Reece asked.
“Going for a swim.” He tipped his head to the side and looked at Reece, squinting a little as he did so. “Gonna join me?”
Chapter Two
Reece faltered for a moment. He looked at the pool again then at Cade, who was yanking off his boots. He wore woolen socks, black with ridges on them, and he discarded them to the side.
“So you just go in and swim, do you?” Reece asked, glancing at the house.
“Yeah.” Cade stood and popped open the top button on his jeans. “And don’t worry. She won’t be back for hours and hours—not once she’s out with her cronies. And when she is back, she’ll be pissed from all those gin and tonics.” He let his gaze slide down Reece’s body, head to toes and back up again. “It’ll give us plenty of time to get out and dressed again.”
Dressed
again
? Did Cade skinny-dip in Mrs. Henley-Smythe’s pool? Reece felt a tug in his cock. The look in Cade’s eyes was unmistakable. He was interested. He liked what he saw.
If Reece hadn’t been trying to act cool, he’d have punched the air. The hot guy before him did indeed bat for the same team he did. Perhaps all teams, but what did it matter if he swung both ways? Right now he, Reece, was here.
Cade shoved his jeans down and kicked them off. He laid them roughly over the back of the chair he’d been sitting on then headed toward the pool. As he went, he pushed at his boxers and revealed his tight arse that was a shade paler than the rest of his skin. He kept on walking as the boxers slid down his legs then he stepped out of his underwear without pausing. He left the boxers bunched on the lawn, dead center in one of the pale green stripes he’d created.
Reece felt his jaw slacken. Fuck, the guy was brazen. He just went for it.
“Gotta go in naked,” Cade called, “otherwise you’ll have wet boxers beneath your jeans, making a damp patch and giving the game away.”
“Yeah, makes sense,” Reece replied. Fuck, he was getting harder by the minute. The sight of the abandoned boxers and Cade’s long, muscular body was enough to have his balls aching and his arsehole clenching.
“Come on,” Cade shouted, even though he couldn’t see that Reece had made no move to join him. “All work and no play makes Reece a dull boy.”
“What about the lawn? You haven’t finished.”
“Fuck it. I’ll do it later.” He reached the pool and dove in, creating a white burst of water that splashed upwards and made waves across the surface.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Reece said, quickly slipping the straps of his overalls off then scooting down the trousers. Beneath he wore red boxers, fake Calvin Kleins from the market, but he had no intention of removing them—not yet—not until he was safely by the pool.
God, was he really going to do this?
Unlike Cade, Reece carried his clothes across the lawn and set them on a lounger. If there was a sudden urgency to get dressed, if Mrs. Henley-Smythe did appear, he didn’t want to be caught in the buff.
“It’s great. Get in,” Cade called, before turning and propelling himself in a fast crawl to the opposite end of the pool.
Reece made the most of the fact that Cade was facing the other way, tugged off his boxers then slipped into the water. The chill stole his breath for a moment and thankfully also took the heat from his hard-on. He sank beneath the surface, soaking his hair and letting the water rush into his ears. He pushed off and swam for several seconds to the far side.
When he bobbed up, he came face to face with Cade.
“What do you think?” Cade asked, pushing his dark hair back from his forehead.
“I…er… Yeah, it’s good. I was hot.”
He grinned. “Me too. Come on, race you.” He struck out again, back the way Reece had just come.
Reece followed, his competitive streak urging him on. He was a good swimmer, always had been. On the school team at one point before he’d decided school wasn’t for him and he’d dropped out.
He caught up with Cade and they touched the edge of the pool at exactly the same time.
Cade laughed a little breathlessly. “A swimming decorator, eh?”
“And a swimming gardener.”
Cade laughed some more.
“Sounds like a movie,” Reece said, joining in the mirth.
“Yeah, a porn movie,” Cade said with a wink. He stopped laughing and looked serious. “You watch porn?”
Reece was a little surprised by the question but he tried not to show it. “Don’t all blokes?”
“I dunno.” Cade turned, so his back was against the pool wall, and hooked his elbows on the tiles to support himself. His chest rose out of the water and Reece could see that the hair under his arms was as black as that on his head and sternum. “But I know I do and now I know you do.”
Reece shrugged and pushed backwards through the water, enjoying the feel of it swooshing around his cock and balls.
“So what porn do you like best?” Cade asked.
“It’s been a while since I had the chance.”
“What do you mean? It’s everywhere, all over the net.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I’ve been busy.”
“What, with your boyfriend?” Cade licked his lips and twitched his eyebrows.
“I haven’t got a boyfriend.” Reece slipped his hand through his hair to stop the ends dripping onto his face. This conversation really wasn’t going the way he’d thought it would.
“Why not?”
“Maybe I have a girlfriend.”
“But you don’t, do you?”
Reece laughed, going for casual. “Nah, pussy isn’t for me.”
“Hah, I knew it.”
Cade dropped his right arm into the water and appeared to touch his cock, though Reece couldn’t be sure.
“So why no boyfriend, Reece?”
“We split a while back.”
“So all the more reason to watch porn. You know…get some relief.”
Now Reece knew damn well that Cade was touching himself, his shoulder was twitching to a familiar beat and rhythm, one Reece knew only too well.
“What is this, twenty questions?” Reece asked, falling backwards into the water and kicking his legs beneath the surface.
“If you want it to be.”
“Maybe I’ll ask you a question,” Reece said.
“Go for it.”
For a moment Reece’s mind went blank as he stared up at the sky then he decided to ask the obvious. “Are you wanking?”
“Indeed I am.”
“Do you always do that in Mrs. Henley-Smythe’s pool?” Reece twisted his head so he could see Cade again.
“Only when there’s a cute bloke in here with me.” He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “Fuck, you should try it sometime—wanking that is, in a pool.”
“I wank plenty,” Reece said. “But usually when I’m alone.”
“And not to porn.”
“No, not to porn.”
“To what then?”
Reece dropped further back, until his feet came off the ground, then he tipped up, so he was floating and staring up again at the azure sky. “Just daydreams, fantasies in my head. You know, about hot men I come across in my work.”
“Like me?”
“Yeah, like you.”
Reece shifted his pelvis and his stiff cock breached the surface of the water, pointed upwards, becoming laced by the heat of the sun. He imagined it to be like a fat spear, his cock, rising thick and proud into the air.
“Nice,” Cade murmured.
“So, where is this hot tub?” Reece asked, drifting his hands so that he moved away from Cade but his cock stayed on show.
He liked Cade, a lot, but there was something unnervingly confident about him. Fascinating, but still, a bit out there.
“It’s in the corner.” Cade nodded to a fancy looking pine shelter with a pointed roof. “In that thing.”
“And you’ve been in it?”
“Yeah, it’s good. I’ll show you in a minute.”
Reece continued to drift on his back. He’d been expecting a long, hot, boring day with nothing but magnolia to stare at, but this—an unexpected dip and some sexy, curious company—was a real treat.
Suddenly he felt something touch his shoulder.
He startled a little and let his feet find the floor of the pool.
“Hey, sorry,” Cade said, slipping his hand from Reece’s shoulder to the side of his neck. “Didn’t mean to make you jump.”