Facade

inside the door. Then he grabbed the blanket and draped it around Nicky’s shoulders before hiking his feet up onto the couch and tucking them safely under the warm duvet.
    “Better?”
    Nicky was not shivering so badly now. He shrugged, but then a smile appeared on the young man’s face and he looked fifteen again, innocent and shy. Jonas was intrigued by how Nicky was trying to hide behind this persona he’d created for himself but succeeding less and less as time passed. Despite the disastrous first impression, Jonas found himself curiously attracted to the young man.
    “Thank you,” Nicky whispered and cleared his throat. “Don’t think this was part of your job description.” Jonas chuckled. “Well, you’d be surprised.” He bit the inside of his lip. “Pretty much anything you can think of, I’ve experienced at one point or another. Having a client try to kill himself after sex with me isn’t good for my reputation, though, let alone my ego.” Nicky sighed. “I didn’t try to kill myself.” There was annoyance in his words but not as much as Jonas was expecting.
    Jonas reached for Nicky’s injured hand and opened it, slowly removing the bloodied cloth. “Would be pretty stupid to try to kill yourself by cutting your palm.” He pushed a wide leather band higher up his own left wrist. “It’s much better to cut yourself there.” Nicky looked up from Jonas’s scarred wrist into the older man’s gray-blue eyes, not hiding his shock.

    Façade
    11
    “I was sixteen and had just come out to my parents. No need to explain to you they were not impressed.” Nicky smiled compassionately. “I never came out to my parents. They still think it’s because I’m ‘artistic’ and ‘talented’ and think this is the way I need to act because otherwise I won’t be taken seriously as a world famous fashion designer.” The sheer sarcasm in his voice wasn’t lost on Jonas. “They’d probably go ballistic if they found out that their precious son likes to take it up the arse.”
    “There’s a difference between liking that and what you made me do to you, though, isn’t there?”
    Nicky shrugged.
    “I bet you won’t be able to sit on a hard surface for a few days.” Jonas knew he was trying to draw Nicky out of his cave, out of his safe place, but what did he have to lose?
    “I like being sore like that,” Nicky eventually answered after a pregnant pause.
    “Sore like that is amazing if you’ve been fucked, slowly and thoroughly, for hours. Not after a three minute pounding.” Jonas paused too, waiting for the words to sink in. “You know you can ask for anything you want. This is your time, you’re paying for this.” Again silence. “Seriously, if you can think of it, I’ve probably done it.”
    Nicky smiled, a hint of mischief in his face, and Jonas felt a surge of excitement hit him. He tried to hide it, not wanting to frighten Nicky and make him crawl into his shell again. The young man didn’t speak, though, so Jonas continued. “Want me to make some suggestions?” Nicky didn’t answer. “Just nod yes or no.” Nicky nodded. Yes.
    “Do you want to be tied up?”
    Nicky shook his head. No.
    “Spanked?”
    No.

    12
    Zahra
    Owens
    “Want me to call Tanna in and ask her to join us?” Nicky raised an eyebrow and then gave Jonas a mock indignant look and frantically shook his head. No way!
    Jonas chuckled, enjoying this game of questions immensely.
    He wondered what else he could suggest to the young man. Nicky seemed surprisingly vanilla, not interested in the more exotic games.
    “You want to be gently stroked with an ice cube.” Nicky shivered theatrically and pulled the duvet closer around himself, smiling nevertheless. No.
    “You want a hand job? I have very talented hands.” Nicky hesitated, but then: No.
    “Blow job? I have a rather renowned mouth too, you know. I used to have a client who wanted nothing more than to fill my mouth with whipped cream and then let me blow him.” Nicky laughed out loud and Jonas’s heart jumped. But again: No.
    “You want to be made love to, not fucked. Slowly, lovingly and you want to feel like there’s no one else in the world but you and your lover.”
    Nicky’s face turned serious, but he was looking straight at Jonas. “You can’t do that. You can’t pretend to be my lover. You can’t make me feel loved.”
    Jonas wasn’t put off. There was a reason why he was still making a better living at what he did than he