Chapter Nine


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Orli got a beer out of the fridge, flipped the lid, and thought about what to make for dinner. He fancied a curry. And a beer. A few beers. Maybe they could go out for a curry and a few beers or maybe just the beers?

He heard the door bang as Elijah came home and he called out a greeting as he poked around in the cupboard. Tinned peas. He pulled a face at the container, who the hell had bought tinned peas?

Elijah brushed past him, going straight for the alcohol shelf. He poured himself a vodka, a large one.

"Bad day?" Orli asked.

Elijah gave a sort-of nod.

"Tinned peas and hotdogs aren’t going to help are they?" He pecked Elijah on the cheek. "Shall we go out to eat?" Orli asked hopefully. "I know a really good curry place."

"You know hundreds of good curry places," Elijah took another large swig of the neat alcohol, grimacing as he swallowed. "You eat too much stuff like that, you need some fruit and veg."

"I know," Orli beamed. "But curry tastes better."

"Oh for God’s sake," Elijah turned away, going for the vodka bottle again.

Orli put the tin down and moved closer. "It really was a shit day, wasn’t it?"

Elijah gave a half-hitched shrug of his shoulders, his back rigid with tension.

"What happened?" Orli asked softly.

There was no answer.

Orli thought for a moment. "How’d it go with your professor? Have you had trouble?"

"No," Elijah turned round, his eyes blazing. "I told you I’d handle it and I did. The fucker is so scared now that he won’t stand within five feet of a student let alone be on his own in a room with one. What? Did you think I couldn’t do it or don’t you trust me?"

"Course I trust you," Orli said cautiously. Something was up.

"Because I’m good at what I do," Elijah threw back a second glass of vodka, slamming the empty glass onto the counter. "Or had you forgotten that?"

Orli tensed, anxious that saying the wrong thing now would only make whatever it was worse. "What’s the matter? Are you okay?"

But Elijah wasn’t ready to change the subject. "I’m fucking good at what I do, like my mum said, I’m the best there is. I can get anyone. Only no one gets to see it anymore, no one knows," He looked at Orli and Orli didn’t understand the expression in his eyes. "You should know Orli, or have you forgotten?"

"I haven’t forgotten," Orli took a step back, unsure why.

Elijah pushed himself away from the counter towards Orli and Orli saw it, saw the actual second when Elijah flicked the switch and turned into another creature. Sex seemed to suddenly fill the space around them, oozing out of Elijah’s pores, racking up the temperature, and making everything feel different.

"I’ve still got it, it’s all still there," Elijah’s voice seemed different; darker, thick with sweaty, dirty sex. "I’ve still got it and I still know how to use it."

Elijah moved a pace nearer, stalking like a panther in a fluid feline motion, and Orli suddenly felt like a hunted animal.

He inched back again but Elijah kept on coming, right into Orli’s space, and suddenly there was a small hand pressing firm on his cock. Orli didn’t know when he’d got hard. "Orli," Elijah elongated the name on a breath. So rich, so intense, so…. dirty.

"What’s the matter?" Elijah ran his open mouth over the fabric of Orli’s work shirt that covered his shoulder, his breath damp through the thin material. "You’re always up for it, you always want me." He caught Orli’s bottom lip between his teeth, pulling it out before letting go and lapping at them with a satisfied smile.

"What do you want me to do?" His hand reached under Orli’s balls, pressing up, pressing hard. "Want to force me down over the table and fuck me so hard I beg you to stop? Only I don’t beg, do I Orlando? I let you go hard, I like it hard." Elijah licked around Orli’s ear, nipping at the lobe. "Is that half the fun? Seeing how far you can go with me, how far I’ll let you go, how far you’ll let yourself go?"

"Elijah," Orli tried to push him away, but his mind was fogged and his hands looked liked they were shaking.

"Orli," Elijah purred as his knee pushed between Orli’s legs. "Let yourself go, you know you want to. Everyone knows how you want me"

"Not like this!" Orli cried, appalled. He suddenly shoved at Elijah, pushing him off balance, and slipped out, moving so the table was between them. "Don’t do that to me, we made a deal a long time ago, you promised not to play me."

"Who’s playing?" Elijah looked up through long, dark lashes.

"Stop it," Orli put his hands flat on the table. "I’m your friend, I’m on your side and I’ll do whatever I can to help whenever you need me. Just don’t treat me like a piece of shit." He stared at Elijah, his eyes hard but his breathing still ragged. "Yeah, we both understand that you know which buttons to press. You can do it to me, you can do it to anyone, like you said, you’re the best there is. But if I’m trying to do the right thing for us then you have to as well. This is me Elijah, not some prick you can mess around with."

"I…" Elijah stood for a minute, mouth slightly open, a confused look on his face, and then the switch was turned off again. Slowly he morphed back into the person Orli knew. "Sorry," Elijah slumped into a chair.

Orli ran a glass of cold water, drinking some himself before putting it in front of Elijah with a clipped, ‘Here, drink it.’ He pulled out the chair opposite and sat down.

"What happened this time?" Orli asked.

Elijah shrugged. "Nothing."

"Oh bloody hell, don’t make me drag it out of you," Orli said, exasperated. "You come in here with a slapped-arse face then turn into some avenging sex angel with haemorrhoids before doing your damnedest to wind me up, and then tell me nothing happened? Let’s all guess why I don’t believe you."

"Nothing did," Elijah looked up through his lashes again, only this time it was completely different. The manipulative sex animal was gone and in its place was the slightly embarrassed, whoops-I’ve-made-a-twat-of-myself Elijah, Orli knew.

And loved.

"What?" Orli chanced a smile.

"Nothing… I… Oh bugger…" Elijah lay back in his chair, stretching his legs out and rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"Did you get shouted at for something you deserved?"

"No," Elijah huffed behind his hands.

"Woman in the canteen wouldn’t give you an extra sausage?"

"I don’t eat in there."

"Fell asleep in front of everyone during the lecture?"

"Shut up," Elijah sat forward, sighing, smiling and shaking his head all at the same time. "You are a bloody miracle, you know that?"

"I aim to please," Orli fixed a grin in place. "So what did happen?"

"Nothing, honestly," Elijah’s smile faded. "It all just gets too much sometimes, it’s all such bloody hard work."

"I’m hard work?" Orli asked.

"No, you’re the one thing that’s not," Elijah reached over and rubbed across Orli’s hand.

"So what is?"

"University. Hiding. Holding it all in. It’s like I walk out the door here in the morning and I have to hold my breath till I get back," he looked at Orli hoping for understanding. "If I’m studying here and my back aches, I stretch and scratch my belly. All right so you go cross-eyed and have to go for a wank, but so what?"

"I don’t…" Orli started to protest. But then he realised, he probably did.

"If I do it there," Elijah carried on. "They either get hard or wet and how am I meant to talk to them after that? Not that I do talk to them, I don’t want to, but it would be nice if they could stop their tongues hanging out."

"Is it really that bad?"

"It’s not bad…" Elijah screwed up his face as he tried to explain. "It’s just such an effort and it’s a strain keeping it up all day. I guess sometimes it gets too much and I want to let go."

Orli rubbed his hands together and sat up straight. "Right, so how do we do that? How do we get you to let your hair down?"

"Fuck knows," Elijah laughed.

"Well it has to involve lots of alcohol and you being disgustingly gorgeous and me being very much in charge. So, ideas?"

Elijah suddenly perked up as a plan began to form. "Let’s go to a club, somewhere no one knows us."

"Why can’t we stay in? Why do you need to go out?"

"I don’t," Elijah scratched at his chin. "I do… I… I don’t know. Can you let you hair down indoors when it’s just us? Don’t we do that anyway?"

"Yeah, I suppose so. Let’s go out, do something different."

"And let’s drink and dance and grope and…"

"You drink," Orli butted in. "I stay sober and watch your back. That way you can have as much as you like and be as provocative as you like."

"You’d do that? You’d stay sober while I got wasted."

"Oh shut up, course I fucking would," Orli dismissed him. "You can do the same for me on Saturday. I might not be ravish-worthy when I’m wrecked but I do need someone to get me home."

"All right, you’re on," Elijah’s eyes shone. "But Orli…?"

"Yeah?" Orli stood up, already looking for his wallet and keys.

"Can we take Rose and Stuart? Just in case."

"You don’t think I can stay sober?" Orli cocked an eyebrow. "Oh ye of little faith."

"It’s not that, I just thought…" Elijah blustered.

Orli grinned. "You pick a club and I’ll phone Rose."

"Orlando?" Elijah’s face had a hint of something else in it now.

"What?"

"Can we go to bed first?" his grin was bigger than Orli’s. "I’ve got a lot of stress to relieve and you’ll never last otherwise."

Orli almost, almost, almost opened his mouth to protest but, what the hell? Elijah was right. As always.




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The club was pounding.

Bodies packed wall to wall and the music seemed to bounce off every surface and reverberate against the sweat-stenched atmosphere. Rose’s eyes widened in delight.

Somehow, miraculously, she’d found them a tiny table near the dance floor and Stuart had bought the drinks. Orli was sticking strictly to coke, much to Rose’s amusement, while everyone else was on sprits. So far Elijah had worked his way through four, add to that the vodka back at the flat and… He was humming and Orli was most definitely counting.

The music changed, a faster beat, and Elijah dragged himself out of Orli’s lap. "I wanna dance, dance with me Orli-boy." Orli did as he was told, flipping Rose an aren’t-I-a-lucky-sod grin.

Rose grinned back and leant over into Stuart, just a hint of envy in her eyes.

At first Elijah plastered himself around Orli, hands tangling in his hair, hips snaking out a rhythm all his own. He licked up Orli’s neck and then let his head fall back, all the while grinding himself gently against Orli’s hip.

Then he pulled away, dancing by himself in the little space that had formed around them, looking at Orli. Dancing for Orli.

And the steely shutters of self-control that had started to come down earlier in the evening, fell completely. Elijah turned back into the personification of sex that Orli had first met. Only now Elijah belonged to him and he was going to keep him.

Protect him.

Love him.

Love, remember the love part. Not the fuck him so hard into the floor they’d both have bruises part.

Orli blew out a breath. He’d thought knowing he was susceptible was his protection and maybe he was right but, by fuck, it was hard. Elijah was everybody’s wet dream, from impossibly blue eyes to impossibly perfect lips, to impossibly fuckable body.

Five minutes ago Elijah had been wearing an innocuous old yellow t shirt. Suddenly it had turned into the most sexually stimulating, tight fitting thing Orli had ever seen. Elijah’s slomp-around-the-flat, too big, too tatty, baggy jeans had slipped down onto his hips as he danced and Orli wanted to throw him down among everybody’s feet and….

The fact that he’d done pretty much that only an hour ago didn’t seem to make any difference. And if he felt like that, what must it be like for everyone else?

Orli looked at the faces around them and suddenly understood how Elijah felt. Then he checked over to Rose and knew why she could never been Elijah’s friend in the way he had hoped.

Elijah was going to be the death of him. But what a glorious way to go.

A couple of drinks later Elijah was flying and the atmosphere in the club had ratcheted up till it felt predatory, almost dangerous. Orli kept a hold of Elijah at all times – a finger in his belt loop, a hand on his back – but even so there were other hands, other touches. Orli couldn’t let Elijah out of his sight, talk about joined at the hip, they went to the bar together, they danced together, fuck, he even took Elijah to the toilet when he needed to piss.

And it was just as well he did. By this time Elijah was swaying on his feet and loved everybody. There was more than one person offering to help him into a cubical and Orli wasn’t sure if the offers came with the option of saying no.

When Orli had needed to pee he’d parked Elijah between Rose and Stuart and ran as fast as he could. He came back, feeling a damned sight emptier, and looked at the little group around the table.

Rose was sitting up in her chair, her glasses knocked askew as she tried to suck up peanuts from her palm. Orli didn’t remember that game but she was damned good at it. He had a sudden flash of her giving Stuart a blowjob and he couldn’t help the involuntary shudder that ran down his spine.

"Oh," Rose suddenly sucked in a huge breath and Orli took a look closer. She’d edged her glasses back round and was staring intently across the table, her mouth open, a pink tint high on her cheeks, her eyes hooded but filled with a something. Something that looked like… longing. Only word for it. Her tongue swiped over her bottom lip and Orli followed her gaze to see what had caused the reaction.

Elijah was giggling, a hand supposedly in front of his mouth as the other scratched at his back. He wriggled, trying to reach higher, his whole arm twisted backwards, He giggled again, reaching over his shoulder this time to get at an itch between his shoulder blades, and a pale strip of belly appeared.

Rose caught a breath and held it as she stared. Her face pinked even more and she grabbed hold of the edge of the table to pull herself forward as her knees clenched together. "Oh," she whispered again, her ample chest heaving.

Orli moved to stand behind Elijah, wrapping his arms around his chest. "Time to go home mate?"

"Can’t," Elijah wriggled.

"If you drink anymore you’ll fall over."

"Don’t want a drink. I can’t go home ‘cos I’ve got an itch, it’s driving me mental," the last word was slurred and childlike.

"Let me scratch it." Orli inched his hand up Elijah’s t shirt, moving as Elijah instructed till he got just the right spot and Elijah…. purred in contentment. Elijah arched back into the touch, his t shirt riding up to expose even more flesh, and Orli looked round to see every face turned in their direction. He froze and, just for a moment, he hated the world.

"Come on, we’re going," Orli pulled his hand out, shoved Elijah into his jacket, dragged him to his feet and wrapped his arm around him again.

Mine.

As he shuffled them to the door he looked back at Rose and Stuart. Even they felt like the enemy right now but that was daft. "You coming?"

Rose was back to her normal self, hooking her arm through Stuart’s and cuddling up close to him, but Orli noticed she avoided looking in Elijah’s direction. They hurried to catch Orli up, pushing their way through the crowd. Just as they reached them Rose swung her mammoth bag up onto her shoulder; it caught a line of mostly empty drinks that had been left on the side and they all fell, gracefully, their contents ending up down the front of Elijah.

"Shit," Elijah and Orli said in unison.

"Oh my god, oh my god," Rose flustered, her hands flapping towards Elijah.

"What is this stuff?" Elijah tried to pull up his t shirt and sniff at it but as he leant forward the room started to swim and he gave up, leaning back onto Orli smiling. "Who gives a fuck?"

Orli took the flowery hankie that Rose held out silently and tried to wipe the worse off. They must have been fruit cocktails of some kind because it was thick, almost gloopy, in places. "You look like you’ve peed yourself or thrown up."

"And I stink," Elijah said happily as he kissed the side of Orli’s neck.

Rose wrinkled her nose in disgust. The thought pleased Orli; at least she’d stopped drooling over Elijah.

They managed to find a cab quite quickly and headed for the flat first. Orli left some money for the fare and tried to pull the now half asleep Elijah out of the car. Elijah burped and everyone went still for a moment, waiting to see if he’d throw up.

But they were lucky this time, Elijah smiled to himself, eyes shut, resting his head back on Orli’s shoulder and allowed himself to guided towards the door.

"Will you be all right?" Rose called out. "I could help you get him undressed?"

"No," Orli said curtly. But when he looked Rose was smiling softly and with real affection at him, not Elijah. "Sod off and take care of your own man," Orli smiled back.

"Oh I will," Rose said with feeling. "Just take care of yours and yourself and…I’m happy for you Orli, really happy," then she disappeared back through the cab window.

"Rose," Orli suddenly called and her head popped out again. He sat Elijah on the steps to the flat, ran over to the car, thanking her quietly and hugging her tight. He buried his face in the comforting folds of skin on her neck. She was a damned fine woman and he told her so. Rose blushed hard and smiled, before pushing him away and directing the driver onward.

Inside Orli kicked the door shut with his foot but then, after sitting Elijah on the bed, went over and locked the it. It felt good to lock out the world, for it to be just them in their flat again. Elijah might have needed the release of tonight and Orli would do it again if he wanted it, but by God it was hard. All those hands trying to touch, all those eyes wanting to see.

Orli knew it wouldn’t take much for the ferocious, vicious jealousy to come back and eat away at him. It was there, just under the surface, and it would do nothing but harm to both of them if it ever got the chance to surface.

He knew it would take all his strength of will to keep it under control. He thought it ironic, if not downright funny, that now both he and Elijah had to think about where they got really drunk.


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Ten

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