Page 27 of Not Your Golden Boy

“Excuse me?” Harry blinked at her.

“A sex tape,” Maggie said, enunciating the words as if Harry hadn’t heard them. “That has always worked to bring famous reputations down a few pegs.”

“And they’re always very entertaining to watch,” Laura agreed, taking the suggestion far too seriously.

“You think I should make a…sex tape?” Nikky asked, his voice gone hoarse.

“It would offend a great many people,” Maggie said with a shrug. “People are such prudes. And considering that it would be a gay sex tape, they would be even more up in arms.”

“He can’t go making a sex tape,” Harry said, smirking as if the idea were absurd.

“Plenty of people do, you know,” Laura informed him. “Maggie and I made more than a few back in the day.”

“We made one just a few years ago,” Maggie confirmed with a nod. “There’s nothing more salacious than a geriatric lesbian sex tape.”

“It would have been perfect for destroying our pristine image,” Laura agreed. “Except that our image has never been particularly pristine. It would work for you, though.” She smiled sweetly at Nikky.

“We have all the equipment, if you’d like to borrow it,” Maggie said.

“Would you look at the time,” Harry said, a little too loud, grabbing his plate and standing. “It’s getting late and Nikky needs to be at the recording studio in less than an hour.”

Nikky jolted out of what appeared to be deep thought and glanced around, looking for a clock. He ended up checking the watch he wore, then letting out a tense, “Shit.” He grabbed his plate and stood, carrying it into the kitchen so quickly he nearly rammed into Harry on the way.

“Easy there,” Harry said, reaching out to steady him. “You’ve got time. And Albion can’t do anything until you arrive anyhow. Musicians are always late.”

“Not me,” Nikky mumbled, pushing past Harry into the kitchen. “I’m never late. I never do anything wrong. Maybe that’s the problem.”

Harry glanced over his shoulder at Nikky, then continued out to the dining table to fetch Maggie’s and Laura’s plates.

“We haven’t offended him, have we?” Laura whispered.

“No, no, I doubt it,” Harry said, then smiled. “You two couldn’t offend a fly.”

Maggie laughed. “We’ve offended half the world and would scandalize the other half, only we haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

“I’m sure you will in time,” Harry told her with a lopsided grin before taking their plates into the kitchen.

Nikky had busied himself at the counter, gathering up dishes and bits of food that hadn’t been eaten. His expression was guarded and tight, but Harry had a feeling he knew what his young friend was thinking anyhow.

Those thoughts were going to get both of them into a lot of trouble, he was sure.

nine

​. . .​

Asex tape. Technically a digital recording made with a cell phone, but the end product would be the same. The idea wouldn’t budge from Nikky’s head. Not as he helped Harry clean up after breakfast, not as he said goodbye to Maggie and Laura, who were apparently his new best friends and self-appointed mentors, and not as he gathered up his things to head out to the studio for the day.

“I’ll walk you to work,” Harry said once Nikky was almost out the door.

Nikky tensed as Harry reached past him for his jacket, hanging on a hook right next to where he stood. The gesture brought Harry so close to him that he could smell the man’s morning-fresh scent and feel the heat of his strong, firm body. The part of Nikky that wanted to be so, so bad that Harry would call him a good boy, the part that had enjoyed every second of the club the night before, shuddered within him.

The part of him that wanted to make a sex tape with Harry throbbed.

“You don’t have to come,” he said instead of throwing himself at Harry and climbing the older and wiser man like he was a greased pole. “I can find my way through London on my own.”

Harry shrugged, so cool and casual that Nikky melted even more for him. “It’s not that far. And it’s not like I have anything else to do with my life at the moment.”

The comment prickled through Nikky, bringing with it a rush of pity that felt completely out of place with how much he idolized and wanted Harry. He’d missed something about Harry’s personality in the time they’d spent together so far. They’d both been so focused on what Nikky had going on in his life that Nikky hadn’t stopped to consider what might be going on in Harry’s.