The Rainbow Clause

by Beth Bolden

  ’Working’ quickly segued into dangling his feet in the water and listening to one of his favorite weekly podcasts as he worked on his tan. The good news was that nobody was around to see him play hooky and ignore his inbox.

  He was in a perfect zone of water, sun, and sports commentary when he heard footsteps behind him. Assuming it was Colin, he merely rolled his head lazily and said, “Oh good, you’re home. You can rub some sunscreen on the back of my neck. It’s feeling a little crispy.”

  “Uh,” came the female voice behind him, which got Nick up in a hurry, water droplets sprinkling over his bare chest.

  The girl standing on Colin’s terrace was mid-twenties, and looked shocked to see Nick sitting in Colin’s pool. Nick would’ve guessed that the girl, definitely cute, was a friend or more, but then he’d personally heard Colin’s recitation of his practically non-existent love life the night before, and he’d not mentioned any women currently on that list.

  Therefore, this had to be the personal assistant that he paid but didn’t let do her job.

  “Hi, I’m Nick Wheeler,” he said, extending a hand. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

  She shook his hand and then shoved her sunglasses onto the top of her head. Her eyes narrowed. “You weren’t expecting anyone? How do I even know you’re supposed to be here?”

  Nick couldn’t believe it; Colin hadn’t even told his PA that he was coming to stay with him. He began to wonder if she even knew he was on the cusp of coming out.

  “I’m the journalist doing the feature on Colin for Five Points.” Nick didn’t think he should mention the subject matter, just in case she didn’t know. Which, if that was true, he and Colin were going to have a really serious chat. He had to start telling people.

  “Oh,” she said flatly. “Then why aren’t you with Colin?”

  Nick didn’t particularly feel like confessing the truth. But then she must already have had a clue they were friendly because of the way he’d greeted her when he’d thought she was Colin. How many football players in the NFL rubbed sunscreen on reporters’ necks?

  “Because I had work to do,” Nick said.

  She tossed her hair. “Yeah, really looks like you were working.”

  It was almost fair, because he had been sitting in the pool. Still. Nick was beginning to understand why Colin rarely used his PA and preferred to do things for himself. She seemed to act like she had some sort of claim over him.

  “Sort of how like Colin buys his own groceries, I’d imagine,” Nick retorted dryly. The PA didn’t know she didn’t want to get into a verbal war with him, but she’d soon find out.

  Her eyes shot venomous sparks his direction, and she went stomping back inside the house, which was all Nick had really been after – to get her out of his hair.

  Regardless, he wasn’t particularly looking forward to discussing this encounter with Colin tonight.

  Five minutes later, his mind still wouldn’t shut up about the whole thing, which pretty much blew his whole peace and relaxation thing out the window. He got up and went inside the house. The PA was leaning over the kitchen counter, typing on a laptop.

  She looked up when he walked in. He ignored her and went to the fridge for a bottle of water.

  “I looked you up,” she said, the faintest hint of guilt laced through her voice.

  He leaned back against the opposite counter. “And?”

  She shot him a stony glare, and shrugged. “You are who you say you are. I’m just surprised that Colin didn’t tell me you were coming.”

  Nick wondered what she’d say if she discovered he’d already been here for a week. Probably nothing good. So he didn’t, because he’d already dug a deep enough hole for himself to climb out of.

  He adopted a commiserating expression. “It must be frustrating that he won’t share. Especially with someone who’s supposed to be helping him.”

  Nick wasn’t considered a crack interview reporter for nothing. Her face crumpled and he saw all the discontent and uselessness she hid behind the bitchy attitude. “He’ll only let me keep his schedule. And sometimes deal with email. Basically, he uses me to keep the world out.”

  That sounded very much like the Colin who Nick had discovered since coming to Florida.

  “And you want to do more,” he said.

  “Of course I want to do more! I was hired to do more,” she shot back with exasperation. “And I’ve told him that, but he just gets that blank look on his face and gives me an answer that doesn’t really mean anything.”

  The cardboard cutout strikes again.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Nick said, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do. He’d come to Florida to interview Colin, and somehow in the last week, their lives were becoming increasingly intertwined. And the part that alarmed him the most was that he wasn’t really alarmed at all.

  “Would you really?” She looked genuinely relieved. “Mark has been trying to talk to him about me, but he never gets anywhere. But then I’m not sure he really trusts Mark or takes much of what he says seriously.”

  Nick wasn’t sure Colin trusted Mark, either. He had a reputation as a shark, and Nick had a feeling that Colin had his hands full making sure that Mark didn’t go off the rails.

  “I’ll see what I can do...” he paused, realizing that even though Colin had told him his PA’s name, he’d completely forgotten it. Which was unlike him. Probably Colin had said it shirtless and he’d been too busy trying to keep the drool off his chin.

  “Lindsay,” she supplied with a small smile. “And I’m sorry about earlier. I should know better than to think Colin would tell me he’d have a reporter over.”

  “Ah, well,” Nick said before he could really stop himself, “we’re friends, too. So maybe that’s why he didn’t mention it.”

  “Friends. Right.” Lindsay didn’t seem convinced at all, and Nick realized that if she hadn’t suspected Colin wasn’t straight before now, she definitely did now.

  Whoops.

  After Lindsay left, Nick returned to the pool and to make up for his complete lack of productivity, swam a couple dozen leisurely laps and told himself it was exercise. He was just finishing up when Colin walked out onto the terrace.

  He swam to the edge of the pool and slicked his hair back. “Hey, you’re back.”

  Colin smiled, the sun reflecting off his aviator sunglasses. “Yeah. Sorry it took so long. I ended up reviewing some film with the receivers and Teddy.”

  “Not a problem. I was lazy today.”

  “I have days like those,” Colin said, which Nick doubted very much, if his off-season schedule was always like this.

  Nick lifted himself out of the water, and knew that Colin was watching him as he walked over and grabbed his towel, quickly drying off. He knew he was attractive, but not as attractive as Colin made him feel.

  Colin looked at him like he never wanted to look anywhere else, and Nick would be lying if he said he didn’t really, deeply enjoy it.

  “I stopped by the store on my way home and grabbed some steaks,” Colin said, plopping down on one of the loungers. “I figured it might be nice to stay in, and maybe catch a few more episodes of Gossip Girl.

  Nick’s fingers on the towel froze as he rubbed his hair. “Sounds great.” He was proud of how casual that sounded and not at all like, oh yes, please, let’s make out on your couch while pretending to watch Gossip Girl.

  Nick dragged his nearly-sunburned ass back upstairs and showered. After, he had a lengthy debate in front of his suitcase about what he should wear. Should he slip jeans on or should he essentially acknowledge what they’d probably be doing and just wear a pair of loose sweatpants?

  Who he was kidding?

  He put the sweatpants on and tried not to blush when he came downstairs and saw that Colin had changed into a very similar pair.

  Okay, so they both had sex on the brain. Of course, Nick thought that was sort of inevitable when there was a man in front of him who looked like tha
t and had already professed an interest in fooling around. That was like asking the sky not to be blue.

  “I’m gonna grill the steaks,” Colin said, stealing a handful of not-very-subtle glances at Nick’s choice of attire.

  Nick followed him out to the grill, determined that it wouldn’t get weird. He wasn’t going to let it. He let his hand settle on the curve of Colin’s waist as he stood at the grill. “Lindsay came by today,” he said, combining the new touch with the routine observation.

  “Oh god, I forgot she usually comes on Tuesdays,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry about,” Nick insisted. “Though she was a little taken aback to see me here. I guess she didn’t know I was coming.”

  Colin flushed and turned away, shifting the steaks around with a pair of tongs. “She didn’t need to know.”

  “I think she might have liked to. She wants to help. There’s more she could do. There’s more she wants to do.” Nick paused, letting his thumb slip under the hem of Colin’s loose t-shirt and brush the skin above the waistband of his sweatpants. “Of course, I’m just a reporter. Alternatively, you can keep everything the same and tell me to go to hell.”

  Colin set the tongs down with a decisive click and turned to face him. He was still blushing but there was determination there, too. “I’ll think about it. I know I haven’t been very fair to Lindsay. I let myself get carried away with the privacy thing. There’s probably a lot more balanced solution. And...you’re more than just a reporter, you know that.”

  “Do I?” Nick waggled his eyebrows and grinned.

  “You do,” Colin insisted, and leaned down to kiss him. It was more than the hesitant kiss from the night before, certain and sure in ways that kiss hadn’t been. It set Nick’s blood racing and his fingers sliding up Colin’s back.

  Colin broke the kiss and rested his forehead for a moment against Nick’s. “I wanted to do that since I walked in the door, and you were in my pool, looking like you belonged there,” he confessed in a murmur.

  Nick didn’t answer; instead, he reached up and grabbed Colin’s collar and pulled him down again, kissing him thoroughly and completely as an answer.

  The steaks came out a little burned. Nick finally had to walk away to get the TV set up, because they were never going to eat dinner with Colin reaching for him every ten seconds. Normally Nick might not have complained, but all he’d eaten today was a few pieces of leftover pizza and he was starving.

  They sat at the couch, steak and corn and a handful of beers between them as the next episode played. “This Nate guy is no good for Blair,” Colin observed, his forehead wrinkling, “but I’m not sure Chuck is any better.”

  “They’re both assholes,” Nick pointed out, relaxed and full as he gestured at the TV. “But I think Chuck loves her. She’s just a convenience to Nate, and she’s worth more than that.”

  “Blair terrifies me,” Colin confessed, very seriously.

  Nick tried to stifle a giggle and failed.

  “What? She’s terrifyingly competent at being...well, whatever she is. A high school girl, I guess. Though I didn’t know any high school girls like her.”

  Nick shot Colin a look he knew was incredibly fond. He should’ve made even a token attempt at censorship, but he was still feeling warm and fuzzy from Colin’s looking like you belonged there and he didn’t feel like fighting it. “She’s the Queen B, O’Connor.”

  Colin sighed with exasperation. “I’ve never been happier to be from Alaska. We don’t have those there.”

  By the time the next episode started playing, they’d moved from distinctly upright positions to Nick’s head half-leaning on Colin’s broad shoulder. By mid-episode, they were full-on cuddling. Nick wanted to kiss him again, but also didn’t want to make the first move. The choice needed to be Colin’s. This had the potential to be a lot more than a few long kisses like while he’d been cooking the steaks, and Colin needed to be okay with that before anything else happened.

  Colin’s arm slid around his shoulders and when Nick glanced up at him, he was staring intently, not at Blair and Chuck on the screen, but at Nick’s face. “You’re gorgeous,” he said softly and Nick tried, unsuccessfully, to tamp down the ballooning infatuation he was feeling. It had been growing since that first interview, and right now it was at an increasingly terrifying rate.

  Colin leaned down and kissed him, their lips moving together soft and sure, more at ease since they’d begun to learn each other. As one kiss moved into another, they grew hotter and deeper, Nick’s hands shifting to reach behind Colin’s head, fingers tangling in his hair. Colin pulled Nick over further and further with each kiss, until a few minutes in, he just wrapped his arms around him and dragged him fully onto his lap.

  “Colin,” Nick gasped as he straddled him. Colin was flushed, his breathing coming in shallow pants, and Nick could absolutely feel how hard he was, poking right into his thigh. It was a struggle not to bear down and rub his own hard dick against Colin’s. But Colin needed to know what they were edging towards; the last thing Nick wanted was to end up in a place where Colin wasn’t comfortable with the outcome.

  Colin answered the unspoken question by bucking his hips up and meeting Nick’s halfway. They both groaned, and Nick grasped Colin’s head more firmly, angling it exactly like he wanted before diving in again, his tongue brushing against Colin’s as they kissed.

  Every sweep of Colin’s hands under Nick’s shirt left his nerves tingling, and Nick knew he probably had wet through his sweatpants with pre-cum. He pulled back, and tried not to get distracted by how incredibly kissable Colin’s mouth looked right now, lips red and swollen. “What do you want?” he managed to ask, praying that they at least wanted the same thing, which was hopefully no clothes and some form of orgasm. Nick wasn’t feeling particularly picky at this point.

  Colin’s hand moved downwards and Nick gasped, high and breathy, as his fingers delved under the waistband of his pants and trailed over his hard cock. It twitched as Colin continued to explore, cradling the length of it in one big hand. “This,” he said, his voice sounding a little more awestruck than Nick could understand. “Can I?”

  Nick couldn’t imagine a world in which he’d say no, so he nodded and helped Colin push down his sweatpants past his knees. He settled back in Colin’s lap and felt his brain melt as Colin licked his hand slow and sure and reached down again to touch his dick.

  “Tell me what you like,” Colin said, his voice gravelly and thick. His thumb swept over the head of Nick’s cock and his back bowed with the sudden jolt of pleasure.

  “That,” Nick barely got out, then fell forward, pressing his lips recklessly to Colin’s, trusting everything he was doing. “Definitely that.”

  Nick felt his body overloading on pleasure as Colin continued to work his dick with slow, steady pulls, his hand a perfect pressure around him, Colin’s tongue stroking against his own.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Nick panted into Colin’s mouth, the pressure building higher and sweeter. “I’m gonna--“

  “Yeah, baby, come,” Colin said, in that deep, incredibly sexual rasp, and Nick was gone, unable to hold off a moment longer once Colin had told him to.

  His knees were unsteady as he sank down into Colin’s arms, fuzzy and sated, as Colin whipped his shirt off and wiped his hand. Apparently, all it took for everything to refocus was for all that skin to be displayed, because Nick was suddenly very interested in returning the favor. As soon as possible.

  He wiggled out of Colin’s grasp and when his knees hit the ground, Colin let out a deep groan. His head fell back and Nick pulled his sweatpants off. Colin’s cock was beautiful, Nick thought in a daze. Thick and long and so hard, the tip beading with pre-cum.

  It looked delicious, and Nick had dreamed about tasting this cock for over a year now. He leaned forward and curled his tongue around the head, sucking it into his mouth.

  Colin’s body reacted like it had been electrocuted, jerking, his hands mashing into
the piles of pillows, knuckles white against the dark navy blue fabric.

  Nick let a little more dick slide into his mouth, loving the heaviness on his tongue, the way it filled him up completely. He normally enjoyed blowjobs, but this, giving Colin his very first, felt like a privilege.

  His hand curled around the base and he took Colin as deep as he dared, stroking off everything he couldn’t fit into his mouth, using his tongue to hit all the hot spots, trying to make it as good as he could for Colin.

  Colin’s thighs flexed under his other hand. Nick felt his cock twitch in his mouth and knew he was close. He pulled off, glancing up at Colin. Colin’s eyes were all pupil, his mouth slack and his expression dazed with pleasure. Nick twisted his hand, letting the excess spit smooth the way, and leaned forward to suck on the head. That was all he needed, Colin’s body spasmed and his cock pumped cum into Nick’s waiting mouth. Swallowing as best he could, Nick let Colin’s cock slide slowly out of his mouth, prolonging his orgasm as long as possible.

  Colin trembled as he came down. Nick wiped his mouth and didn’t move back to the couch, just kneeled and waited for Colin to come back to himself.

  When Colin’s eyes opened and his gaze drifted down, it was worth it. There was something in his expression that Nick hadn’t ever seen directed his way. Like he was something special to be treated gingerly and carefully.

  “Wow,” Colin said unsteadily, reaching down to grasp Nick’s arm, and to pull him up to the couch.

  Nick wouldn’t have blamed Colin for not kissing him, but he didn’t hesitate at all. He leaned over and kissed Nick deeply and thoroughly, the kiss the equivalent of the look in his eyes.

  They settled back on the couch, Nick’s hands gravitating to Colin’s skin. “Should we rewind?” he asked drowsily.

  Colin made a scoffing noise. “I gotta find out if Blair invites Chuck to her birthday party.”

  “I thought she terrified you,” he said, reaching for the remote.

  “She does,” Colin insisted with indignation. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want her to fall in love.”

  “You’re a grade A sap, O’Connor,” Nick said.