Butterfly Hunter 01 (19 page)

“
Please,” he said at last when he didn’t think he could take
– he didn’t think he even
wanted
the pleasure continuing.
And he never used the S–word unless he had to, but he wasn’t so
proud that he wouldn’t beg. “Please …”

Nicholas lifted up from
where he’d been grazing up the inside of Dave’s thighs. Nicholas
lifted to kneel up tall, and he looked down upon Dave a bit
remotely, as if measuring him, as if assessing. As if Nicholas
could keep doing this all night, he wasn’t even properly started
yet.

Dave lay there spread
before him, heavy with heat, boneless with pleasure, shamelessly
open. He hadn’t known there was a nakedness that went far beyond
being naked. He’d never quite lost himself like this. “Please, mate
…”

At last Nicholas nodded,
as if what he saw was satisfactory. He reached for the condoms, and
carefully, deftly, rolled one down onto Dave’s cock. Dave groaned
as even the brief brushes of businesslike fingers threatened to
undo him. But Nicholas said, “Not yet,” so Dave tried to hold on,
or at least tried not to strive for the end. He wasn’t sure
whether, if he relaxed and let things happen, it would simply then
unfurl within him without any further provocation at all, or if
that would postpone it beyond any kind of reason.

“
Not yet,”
Nicholas said again, admonishing him this time, warning him – which
was fair enough, for Nicholas bent down again, and then he was
taking Dave’s cockhead into his mouth, and gently suckling on it,
and Dave was groaning and crying out some kind of gibberish that
was mostly vowels, and he hoped Nicholas took that naked
nonsensical noise as a fitting tribute to just how awesome a lover
he was.

Just when Dave thought he
couldn’t bear it anymore if he couldn’t
come,
damn it, Nicholas
pulled away again. When Dave almost, well,
whimpered
a plea and lifted
a heavy hand to reach up for him, Nicholas murmured, “Stay still.
It’s all right. Just wait a moment.” And he seemed to be doing
something with the lube that Dave had bought with the condoms,
which sent Dave’s thoughts spiralling off into fear and need and he
had to chant to himself to make himself keep still,
I trust him,
I trust him,
I
trust him
.

As Nicholas bent down over
him again, he caressed one hand around Dave’s waist, and then his
forearm followed, sliding in underneath, forcing Dave to arch up
the small of his back, and he whimpered again, there was no other
word for it, and he had no pride left at all – he whimpered to feel
the arch and the way his thighs opened for Nicholas, the way his
cock and balls yearned towards the man –

And that mouth was on him
again, suckling not as gently now – so gorgeous so gorgeous – that
tongue doing clever swirly things – and it was all intended to
distract him of course from Nicholas’s other hand which was delving
fingertips down down along that ridge behind his balls, and Dave
was just
all
of him so sensitised that of course that felt
good, too, so good, and he groaned in surrender, knowing what was
happening to him, and not really even wanting to stop it. He
groaned as those fingertips ran down further still, and were
sliding across the most sensitive skin of all, each dipping in
against the pressure, just the finger–pad, there was no question of
more – but of course that’s what he wanted, he wanted more. As one
of those finger–pads returned to rub against him, Dave grunted an
assent, an incitement, arching up further, and –

Nicholas intensified his
efforts; Nicholas
hummed
around him. Dave cried out
wildly – and suddenly he was coming, he was coming, and it was
fucking
marvellous
, and that finger slid
into him, it was just that easy, one of Nicholas’s long pale
fingers slid into him like that’s where it belonged, and it felt
odd but awesome, and the pleasure rolled through him again, heavy
and intense, and a third time, and then at last he sank down again,
babbling something grateful in the wake of it.

Gently, oh so very gently,
Nicholas disengaged his finger, withdrew his arm from under Dave’s
back. Lifted up to deal with the condom. And then he folded back
down again, crouched over Dave, his arms bracketing him, and his
face pressed against Dave’s soft and tender cock.

At last as the pleasure
ebbed away and the world returned around him, the night air, the
foliage, the stars – at last Dave sighed his poignant
satisfaction.

Nicholas lifted his head,
and grinned wickedly up at Dave. “Good, huh?” he said, knowing the
answer.

“
Yeah, wasn’t
bad,” Dave agreed.

Nicholas chuckled – or,
rather, gurgled in appreciation.

And Dave couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t do the wry Aussie humour. He was going to have his
citizenship revoked, but it had to be said: “It was so bloody good
… It was fuckin’ fantastic!”

“
I’m glad,”
Nicholas said.

And the man still hadn’t
moved to take his own pleasure, but was instead letting Dave wallow
in his … Well, fair was fair. Dave sighed again, satisfied, and
resigned to the worst. “And you?” Dave prompted.

“
Mmm
…”

“
Your turn
now.”

“
Yes.”
Nicholas slowly lifted a little, and shifted up, sort of stalking
up Dave on his hands and knees. Watching him with hunger and need
and just a hint of cool remoteness.

“
If you want
–” Dave said. They both knew what he was offering.

“
Hush,”
Nicholas said, admonishing him again. “There,” he continued,
shifting his weight over onto one side. “Put your legs
together.”

“
Bit late for
that,” he joshed, even as he obeyed.

Nicholas rumbled an
agreement, a laugh, but he was beginning to focus within himself
now; he was beginning to lose himself, too. The man moved back over
Dave, his legs straddling him – and then he lifted up for a moment,
arranged himself – and pushed down, his cock sliding hard and hot
between Dave’s thighs.

They both groaned in
reaction, and then Nicholas settled himself, lying close over Dave.
He began a slow but unrelenting rhythm, working himself off, Dave’s
hands settling on the narrow curves of his rear, feeling them flex
as Nicholas rocked and shifted up and back, up and back. And to be
honest Dave was too raw for this now. Nicholas was pressed so close
to him that Dave’s cock and balls were rubbed up and down in an
action mirroring Nicholas’s – and he could see that would work so
nicely if he were still up for it. Well, maybe next time. For now
it was the kind of exquisite that was almost painful.

But he bore it, because he
sensed Nicholas wouldn’t take long at all, and anyway the man
deserved something in return for his generosity and his
self–restraint. He could be having Dave now, and they both knew
it.

Instead he was groaning
again as the end approached, and he was letting his head fall to
gnaw at Dave’s nipples, each in turn, and beyond his mess of dark
hair, Dave could see his shoulders and back wrought up and tense –
until at last with a guttural cry Nicholas came, and wet warmth
spread between Dave’s thighs, easing Nicholas’s way.

“
Good?” Dave
asked in a whisper, long afterwards, with Nicholas still lying hot
and heavy upon him.

“
Oh, mate …”
was the only faint reply.

Dave thought he was in for a
great comic episode the next afternoon.

Nicholas had spent the
morning happily observing and recording the butterflies as more and
more of them emerged from their cocoons, their wings folded and
damp, but slowly drying and spreading out into magnificence. The
creatures were such an awesome bright beautiful blue and such a
rich velvety black that it almost felt impossible they were
natural; it felt more as if they’d been created, and the designer
had gone just a little bit over the top. Once they could move, they
settled on the dark gold wattle blooms, and sipped away at the
nectar. It was pretty awesome.

Dave spent most of the morning
watching Nicholas, who seemed as if he were in his idea of heaven.
The only times Dave managed to tear his gaze away were when he went
to make tea, or Nicholas had a task that Dave could help with.

After lunch, Nicholas
reappeared from his tent rather self–consciously carrying a
butterfly net. The kind with the long pole and the white cone of
netting that Dave had thought belonged in the past along with Enid
Blyton books and safari suits.

“
You’re
kidding me,” Dave said.

“
Um … no, I’m
afraid not.”

And Nicholas, after one
last pink–cheeked glance, went off stalking his quarry. It was all
very amusing watching this gawky gorgeous guy pit himself against
the grace and guile of the butterflies. Dave got a good few
chuckles out of that, despite Nicholas’s increasingly pithy
requests that he be quiet.

But eventually, with a swoop and
a surprisingly efficient twist of his wrists, Nicholas caught
one.

And that’s when Dave
finally realised what the man was doing. What the purpose of all
this was.

Nicholas was very
carefully placing the net over an open jar on the ground, and
gently encouraging the butterfly down into it. When this was
finally done, he screwed the lid on firmly, and lifted it to watch
with a cool eye as the creature fluttered about for a while,
settled onto the white cloth bunched at the bottom – and then rose
in a panic that was all too brief.

The thing was dead.

It lay there with folded
wings the colour of shadows, hiding the only beauty it was left
with. Nicholas reached in with those long pale fingers, picked it
up by the body, and transferred it into a semi–transparent
envelope. He was gentle now, but there was no pity in him. No
regret.

Dave watched, kind of
horrified. Though he couldn’t really work out why. He’d known this
would be part of the deal, even if he hadn’t really thought about
it. He’d known that Nicholas, during all those long days back in
Brisbane, must have been examining hundreds of such specimens. And
Dave wasn’t a hypocrite. He ate meat, and loved it. He’d killed
fish and animals – not many, but enough – and prepared, cooked and
eaten them. He waged a perennial war on the pests that threatened
to invade his home back in Brisbane. And yet there was something
about this …

Maybe it was the simple
contrast. Not so long ago, Nicholas had been standing amidst a
storm of butterflies, his arms out in welcome, in celebration, in
love – and his happy smile just
beaming
like it could light up
the whole world. Like a sexy St Francis, in a black shirt and blue
jeans. And now he was systematically killing them.

Not all of them, of course.
Probably only a handful of samples, for himself, for the museum and
university in Brisbane, and perhaps for somewhere equivalent back
in England.

Nicholas shot him a
defensive glare as he came back with another one in his net.
“Death comes equally to us
all,”
he muttered.

It sounded like a quote –
but whether it was or not, Dave could find no reply.

His own reactions puzzled
him, but it made some things clearer still. Dave actually had to
make an effort to give himself over to Nicholas’s seeking hands
that night. He really had to push himself past a wayward sense of
reluctance. It was ridiculous. And yet that’s what made it clear to
him what was happening here.

He was giving himself over
to Nicholas, he was letting the other man take charge. And he’d
been happy to let Denise take the lead in all kinds of ways, but
he’d seen that as equality and fair’s fair. This … this was
something more.

This was trusting someone
else enough that he didn’t need to be Dave anymore; he didn’t even
need to be one half of Denny–and–Davey. Instead, he became nothing
that didn’t belong to Nicholas Goring – even if it was only within
these very limited circumstances, within this sleeping bag for an
hour or two and no more. And he got such a fucking
charge
from
it.

Nicholas began his attempt
to win Dave over with gentle kisses, just pressing those lips
against Dave’s mouth and cheeks and forehead and chin with no
expectation of response. His penitent hands stroked Dave’s hair,
and then his throat. Nicholas lay close against him, overlapping
him, one leg bent so that Nicholas’s thigh angled across both of
Dave’s, holding him there. And it didn’t take much to keep him
there, accepting these soothing caresses, even at the beginning. By
the time Nicholas’s free hand had stroked its way down to rest over
Dave’s heart as if feeling the beat of it against his palm – well,
by then Dave had surrendered, and he was Nicholas’s
again.

“
I won’t hurt
you,” Nicholas whispered, when it was clear that he could have his
way again.

“
Yeah, you
will,” Dave responded evenly, “but I don’t care.”

And Nicholas bent his head
to claim Dave’s mouth in a full–blooded kiss, and gathered him up
close in his arms. A hand began slowly caressing down his backbone,
languorously pursuing its goal, knowing it wouldn’t be
denied.