“Not necessarily, no. But it’s not something you can force. And it’s definitely not something you can fake.”
“I’m not looking to fake it.” Was he starting to feel defensive? He knew what he’d done with James, how it had made him feel. That wasn’t faked. “Maybe it’s just polite. I want something from you, so you call the shots.” He gathered up his own coffee. “Or I’ve been in the service sector for too long.”
“Service? Ah, chauffeur. Of course.” Nick leaned forwards. “How does that make you feel? Why that job?”
“You sound like a shrink.”
“That’s because I’m very nearly one.” Nick flashed him a grin. “How does it make you feel?”
“I . . . like it? It’s a decent job. Good perks.”
“Why did you choose it?”
“My uncle owns a business, and in this economy, doing anything else . . . ah, it fits in with my studies and leaves me time to do what I really want to do.”
“Which is? Apart from topping bankers?”
“I write.”
Nick lifted an eyebrow. “Write what?”
“Stories. I’m doing a creative fiction MA. Studying at Birkbeck, actually.”
“Hmm.” Nick kept scrutinising him. “What is it that turns you on? Any idea why?”
“I . . .” Knowing Nick was (very nearly) a shrink didn’t help at all. So he was being categorised, tested, and at the end of that, he’d either pass or fail. Not exactly what he’d expected when he’d come here. Maybe Frank had hooked him up with the wrong guy, but then, this was the rentboy that James had wanted. And hadn’t James been more relaxed and happy than usual the morning after Nick? So it wouldn’t be wrong to be a bit more like Nick. Or even a hell of a lot like him.
Cal folded his hands on the table beside his coffee. “I like to top. I like to be in control. I like to blow a guy’s mind, give him . . . you know, something he won’t forget. Something he really wants. Anything I can, really. But I’m still calling the shots.”
Nick regarded him thoughtfully. Then he nodded, and picked up his coffee. “All right. Well, I suppose the next question is how am I going to teach you?”
“Is this another test?” Cal inclined his head. “Is deferring to you another black mark against my potential as a Dom?”
Nick laughed and shook his head. “No. To be honest, this is a little new to me. If I recall, your, uh, employer is a bit of a handful.”
A pang of jealousy hit Cal below the ribs, but he didn’t let it show. He casually sipped his coffee. “Is he, now?”
“Quite.” Nick traced the curve of his mug’s handle with his thumb. “So I suppose I can teach you at the same time we’re both teaching him to—”
“Oh, no.” Cal shook his head. “Not with him.”
“Not with—” Nick looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Then who?”
Cal chewed his lip. “Fuck. I hadn’t even thought about that part.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Damn it. Now I think I might have wasted your time.”
“Why can’t we use him?” Nick asked.
Cal blew out a breath. “Because he doesn’t know I’m doing this.”
Nick’s eyebrows rose, alarm filling his expression.
“We have a, a thing going, but we haven’t got into, um, this aspect of it.”
“I see.” Nick straightened a bit, drew back.
“I just want to see if I can actually do this before I broach the subject with him,” Cal said. “See if I really do have the chops for it.”
“But you don’t want to put it on the table and potentially get his hopes up.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
Nick nodded slowly. “All right. I can accept that.”
“But we still have the dilemma of needing someone to, uh, work with.”
Nick grinned. “Oh, I think I know who we can use.”
Nick and Cal left the coffee shop and took a taxi back to Holland Park. On the way up the walk to a beautiful—and definitely not cheap—house, Cal wondered just how much Nick had made working for Market Garden. Places like this usually required a down payment of a severed limb and a firstborn.
Before they’d reached the front door, it opened. On the other side was an absolutely gorgeous man, taller and broader than Nick with beautiful dark skin. The two of them exchanged a quick kiss in the foyer, and then Nick turned to Cal.
“Spencer, this is my new protégé, Cal.” He grinned. “Cal, this is Spencer. My partner.”
“Very nice to meet you.” Spencer extended his hand.
“Likewise,” Cal said as he shook it. “And this is a beautiful place, by the way.”
Spencer smiled warmly. “Thanks. We’re rather fond of it.”
God, but they looked happy together. There was just something about some couples that made them glow when they were together, and as big as the contrast was between tall, dark, soft-spoken Spencer and pale, blunt Nick, they fit. They fit perfectly. Cal had never had that and didn’t know if anything similar was in store for him, but he hoped there was.