The casual nickname sent shivers down his spine. He raised his eyes, landing on her lips, which he wanted wrapped around his dick.

  “Evan. I want you to top me. The whole fucking week, if that’s how it goes. But I want you to know something, too. You listening?”

  He licked his own lips, fighting the rising tide of arousal, blood pounding all over his body. “I’m listening.”

  “Even if I was fucking all your holes, I’d know I was fucking a man.”

  He stopped breathing and looked at her eyes.

  “I just want to get that clear right up front. You’re a man now. You were a man then. And who’s on top doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to that. Okay?”

  “I…” He floundered, feeling suddenly smaller and more exposed.

  “I just had to say it out loud, so you knew where I was coming from, so there wasn’t any question.”

  He’d thought about it. He’d processed it with Cait. How vulnerable it felt to see Lucy, to even imagine being in the same room with her. She was the last person he’d had sex with before transitioning. She was the first person he’d had sex with after deciding to transition. It was scary as hell to wonder who she saw now, looking at him.

  But he didn’t want to give in to the fear. Not when she was fucking herself with her fingers and watching his face avidly, as if she thought she might have said the wrong thing.

  “Stop touching yourself.” It wasn’t thank you for saying that or I was worried about it. But it brought back the sharklike grin.

  “You gonna make me, baby?”

  He had on a packer, but he’d need his nice, thick strap-on for this job. “Are we really having sex right now, in the middle of the day, when anyone could walk downstairs at any moment?”

  “They won’t, though. I as good as clubbed you over the head and carried you back to your cave.” She spread her legs and made a show of disobeying orders. “So. This is the best time to fuck. What do you say, Evan?”

  “I say if you don’t get your hand out of your pants, I’m gonna spank you.”

  Lucy smiled and kept doing what she was doing. “Mmm. Baby, I can’t wait.”

  Holy shit. It had been hot before, three years ago, when he’d just been Lucy’s vacation fling, her holiday from being in charge of her boys. But now? With her deliberately teasing him, deliberately provoking him?

  Evan palmed his packer over his jeans. “Even thinking about spanking you makes me hard.”

  “Good thing. Now why don’t we see if you got what it takes to top Mistress Lucy, huh, pet?”

  He wouldn’t stand for that.

  It was a good thing they’d all but advertised; Lucy was anything but quiet. And the spanking went on for a damn long time.

  Chapter Three

  Evan had set his alarm so he could try to get some work done before the entire house was up the next morning. He was pretty sure Jase didn’t want him to work, but he also knew that he was nervous, and working would help.

  He didn’t expect to encounter Eddie in the kitchen making coffee.

  Lucy had come down to his bedroom again after dinner for another…bout of something that was like sex and also like sports. She’d gone up to her room sometime in the middle of the night, kissing him lightly and teasing that he could get up for a run in the morning with Nick, that she wouldn’t mind seeing him sweaty and panting again.

  Damn her for making him blush, even in the dark.

  Still, he hadn’t expected to see one of her guys in the kitchen first thing, and he wasn’t exactly sure how to navigate it. Intellectually it seemed like a totally normal thing, but Evan couldn’t quite get over his curiosity. Plus, he’d had three years to wonder about this man, about Leo, and now here they were.

  “Good morning,” Eddie murmured with a smile. “How do you take your coffee?”

  “Oh. Um. Black, I guess?” Even bit his tongue against the reflexive questioning syllable. “Black. Definitely.”

  Another soft smile, another glance in his direction that didn’t meet his eyes. Eddie handed over a mug. He had three others in progress, which resolved a minute later with a succession of bangs downstairs.

  The boss’s voice…and someone else’s. A scuffle on the stairs. Eddie’s smile widened and he picked up two of the other mugs and turned as Jason and Nick emerged.

  “You are a fucking godsend, kid.” Jason grabbed the black coffee, which Evan figured Eddie had probably added sugar to. “Christ, Nick.”

  “You forgot about the sand.” Nick kissed Eddie’s cheek. “Thanks. Is there enough for his highness’s?”

  “Just enough. And I’ve already got the basket ready for the next pot.”

  “I’m getting Hugh a pod machine for next year. Unlimited coffee, and it never burns!”

  A look of mingled disgust and resignation crossed Eddie’s face. Evan bit down on his tongue, this time to hide a smile.

  Nick laughed and grabbed Eddie around the neck. “You object to my plan?”

  “Not…as such.”

  “Fine, Eddie. You don’t want a pod machine, I won’t get a pod machine.” Nick heaved a sigh and released Eddie. “I guess I’ll make coffee for those who refuse to make it for themselves.”

  Eddie shook his head, which didn’t exactly help answer Evan’s questions. Who would refuse to get coffee? And why would Nick be getting it?

  “I will never fucking get you two,” Jason said, watching Nick prepare another cup of coffee. “Plus, Eddie, here, actually likes getting people coffee. Why not let him do it? Or is that some kind of Bernie rule?”

  “Your personal notions of service leave something to be desired, Jase.” Nick picked up both his coffee and the other cup, and nodded to all of them. “See you in a bit.”

  Jason was still shaking his head. He nudged Eddie. “You get that shit?”

  “That Nick complains about doing things he deeply wants to do? Yeah. I think so.”

  “Huh. Okay. That’s true, I guess.”

  Evan sipped his coffee, trying to puzzle it all out. Nick had gone downstairs with the coffees, so clearly he was giving it to Bernie, who was the only other person down there. But that wasn’t so weird. If Cait were here, he’d totally bring her coffee. But Jason obviously thought it was weird.

  His bafflement must have been obvious. Jason nudged him, jocularly, and gestured to Eddie. “You wanna explain that shit to the newbie, or should I?”

  Eddie shrugged. “Nick makes Bernie’s coffee every morning.”

  “And that’s…weird?”

  Jason exhaled loudly. “It’s really not that simple.”

  With an enigmatic half-smile, Eddie said, “It really is.” He set the pot to brewing and picked up the last mug he’d prepared. “I need two cups out of the fresh pot before you go back for seconds.”

  “Ha, yeah, all right, kid. You got some kind of internal timer or something that tells you when it’s done?”

  Eddie shrugged. “I’ll listen for it.” He went over to the living room and sat down, grabbing a book off the table.

  Jason nudged again. “Hey, meant to tell you, the ramp looks pro as shit. You did most of that, huh?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Evan took the cue to walk outside, where the weather was brisk in a California kind of way. “I mean, we decided not to do handrails, because it’s so low, but I thought we still needed something, so I did some research—”

  “You don’t have to tell me every fuckin’ detail of the build, Ev. I trust you or I wouldn’t have given you the job.”

  Evan shrugged. “Well, I was the obvious one who could pick up and move across the country for a few months.”

  “The hell?” Jason shot him a very the boss look. “Are you shitting me right now? You think you were a choice of convenience?”

  “Uh. Yeah?” Dammit. He had to stop answering questions like he was asking. He’d been really good about that shit in the last few years, but being here was making him do it all the time.

  “You’re a damn fool.” Jason knelt down, coffee carefully balanced, and inspected the corner of the ramp. At the highest part the rise was only three inches, mostly to get over the threshold. But since the path from the driveway was all awkward corners, they’d extended the beginning of the ramp. He’d laid in one-by-fours on the edges, which wouldn’t stop anyone from going over, but should provide a visual for where the ends were. “This is good work. You stained it before assembling?”

  “Seemed like the thing to do out here. I actually stained everything in the house, because it was the only way I could get anything to fucking dry out.”

  “Yeah, I hear that.”

  “It doesn’t smell like it?”

  “Nope.”

  “Do you think we should have painted?”

  Jason shrugged. “Probably. But I can take care of that next year when I’m here, if it starts to fall apart.”

  “Okay.” Evan watched his boss’s inspection with roughly a thousand questions bouncing around in his head. “So…this is the family, huh?”

  “Yup. What do you think?”

  “Uh…”

  “Yeah, that’s about it.” Jason shot a smirk at him. “Nice to see Mistress Lucy again, there, boy?”

  “Bite me.”

  “What, and steal Lucy’s thunder? Or maybe it’s you on your knees for her. Ha.”

  Not that Jason meant anything, and not that being on his knees would have been a bad thing, but Evan still felt the need to clarify. “It’s really not.”

  “Yeah, I can’t see the Mistress caring much who’s on their knees as long as she’s getting laid.” Jason stood up, stretching. “I like seeing you relax a little bit, Ev. No shit, sometimes I think you take things way too fucking seriously. Too bad your girl couldn’t come out, though.”

  “She’s gotta work.”

  “Like I said: too bad. Anyway, this is good work. We’ll go over the plans for inside before I leave, okay?”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Sure thing. I’m, uh, gonna go downstairs. And fuck with Nick. So to speak.” He waggled his eyebrows and withdrew into the house.

  Evan stayed outside for a while longer, even though his coffee was cold. What would Cait say about all this, about the boss’s family? About this beach house, right on the water, where only rich white people could possibly live? He’d looked up comps in the area, and Jason’s friends, who owned the place, had to be fucking wealthy, at least upper middle class, even by Boston standards. It was hard to imagine.

  He checked the time. She’d be at work, but he opened a voice message and cupped his hand around the microphone, hoping to keep the wind from overpowering his words. “Hey, babe. Just wanted to say hi. And I miss you. And you should fucking see this place, it’s amazing.” He paused, anticipating her highest priority question. “And yeah, I fucked Lucy, and yeah, it was hot as shit. Can’t wait to tell you about it later. Love, me.”

  Message sent. He felt a little bit closer to Cait, staring out at the water, and wishing she was there to appreciate it with him.

  * * *

  He spent most of the day trying to unobtrusively keep working. When Jason caught on, he told him to “fucking quit it already”.

  “Look, Ev, no one wants to know how the hot dog’s made, right? The client wants to come back in a few weeks and see the work done, that’s it.”

  “On the contrary. If I’m the client, I’m very much interested in how the hot dog is made.”

  Of the people at the beach house, Evan explicitly liked the boss, Lucy, Eddie, Nick, and Will. He thought he liked Leo, Bernie, and this guy, Hugh. And he somewhat distrusted Truman, because he looked too much like Evan’s dad. Which was a dumb reason to not trust a guy Jason obviously really liked, but he couldn’t help it. Truman was older, and quiet a lot of the time in a way that might mean he was waiting to go in for the kill. Evan couldn’t tell yet, and didn’t really want to find out.

  But the guy right now, making the boss sigh dramatically? Yeah. Evan thought he definitely liked Hugh.

  “Yes, you’re the fuckin’ client, and no, we’re not teaching a class.”

  Hugh offered a smile to Evan. “I assume you find Jason a fair, somewhat uncompromising employer. And that you understand his affection takes the form of derision.”

  “Uh…” Because there wasn’t any answer to that Jason wasn’t gonna kick his ass for.

  “Oh, don’t bother answering. In any case, I’m fascinated by the process. So you decided to go with the sun room plan?”

  “Jesus, Small Fry, we’ve only been over this roughly seventeen times. Yeah, I don’t want to chop up your dining room. That would kill the light coming in to this level. The bitch is losing the fireplace, but I can’t find a way around that without playing merry hell with the design, which since the whole point is accessibility, makes no sense.”

  “Truman’s picked out a very nice gas powered fireplace, in any event.”

  “Truman’s picked out a fuckin’ heater with a little bit of tacky fake flame, but whatever. And given me a big goddamn headache trying to get a guy in here to run the gas line from the stove to the new wall. Christ. The shit people around here put up with.” Jason raised his chin toward the front door. “You like your ramp?”

  “I understand Will sent a picture to Ally, and got back a number of smiling faces and exclamation points.” The guy smiled, again, at Evan. “Your handiwork, I heard. Thank you. I’m really excited to be able to have my brother-in-law out next year.”

  Jason snorted. “Shit. I still can’t believe Ally’s married. Here, I never thought I’d see the day. I mean literally.”

  “Didn’t we all? Anyway, Jason, tell me more about your plans.”

  “We’ve gone over them ad nauseam, you ass.”

  Yeah, definitely not the boss’s usual way with clients.

  “I meant in person,” Hugh said sweetly. In a way that was clearly not.

  “We went over them at your house!”

  “But not here. Tell me more about the plans. Feel free to demonstrate the space using…measuring tapes, or whatever it is you use.”

  Jason muttered darkly to himself and stomped over to the door by the fireplace that led to the little sun room they were expanding into a larger bedroom.

  Evan didn’t follow. But he did grin at Hugh.

  “I probably shouldn’t torture him in front of you, but…well, I enjoy it. See you later, Evan.”

  “Bye.”

  Shortly after that, Lucy dragged him up the ladder to the attic, where her men were conspicuously absent. Evan took her with his fingers up against the wall, then pushed her to her knees on the rug. And Lucy laughed up at him before taking his cock all the way in to the hilt.

  Oh my fucking god was his last coherent thought as he shuddered above her.

  It was fast, and Lucy wasted no time herding him back downstairs, flushed and sweating.

  Will and Eddie were in the kitchen, and both of them laughed.

  “I’ve had my appetizer,” Lucy said, trailing fingers over Eddie’s shaved head. “When is my dinner?”

  “Go wash your hands and you can help, Mistress.”

  Evan, immediately aware that he should probably wash his hands, blushed.

  Will laughed again. “Oh god, don’t let Lucy think she can get to you or she’ll never stop!”

  “I know exactly who I can get to, thanks, Willie. Anyway, minions, cook my dinner!” She breezed out to the deck (without washing up, Evan couldn’t help but notice).

  “You want to help?” Eddie asked.

  He kind of wanted to go downstairs and write Cait a long email about how much he missed her. But he shrugged. “I’ll, uh, be right back.”

  “I love a man who understands good hygiene,” Will said, probably to Eddie, who punched him. “What? It’s true!”

  Evan settled for a text message. I’m blushing so much here it’s ridiculous. God. Make it stop.

  He’d only been cutting tomatoes for a minute when she texted back. Guess it’d be totally unprofessional for me to text your boss and ask him to record a video of you blushing? Miss you. Hearts.

  Thank god for text messaging, and cell phones, and air travel. Six months was a really fucking long time, and it had only been two so far. Maybe he’d get a strong enough signal in the next few days to video call her, which would be amazing.

  He settled in to making food for the whole house, which was surprisingly fun. There was something about these people. Even though he was definitely on the outside, he still felt sort of…accepted. And even though everyone knew he was trans, he still felt like they totally saw him as a guy. Maybe not even a trans guy. Maybe just…a guy. Like the rest of them.

  It was strange, and he couldn’t rely on it, but in the moments it felt true, he sucked in that sensation like sunlight in winter.

  Chapter Four

  Before the house had been full of people, Evan had gone on walks whenever the tides enabled him to do so. The house had a sharp back-and-forth path down the back hillside, leading to a gate he’d kept climbing over because he couldn’t find the key (until Jason had texted him, Oh, by the way, the fucking gate key’s hanging in the mudroom closet downstairs, hope you haven’t been hiking all the way down the street since you got there).

  He hadn’t been. But he also didn’t admit to hopping the gate. You probably weren’t supposed to climb stuff at client’s houses, but this was a pretty weird situation all the way around. He’d never, like, lived in a client’s house before. Or had a client that was Jason’s bestie from college.

  Speaking of whom. This morning, when he went down to the beach, Truman was sitting at the bottom on a bench.

  Evan controlled his instinctive recoil and said, “Good morning.”

  “Oh, good morning. Sorry, am I taking your place? I’m never up this early, but today for some reason I am, so I thought I’d come out and get some air.”

 

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