CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The next day, Nikolas woke Ben early. This wasn’t that unusual as Ben was used to being woken with some part of Nikolas’s anatomy on or in him, but this morning all he got was an elbow and then some clothes thrown at him. He was still groggy and sore from the previous night’s activities and wanted to swim to cool off and wake up, but Nikolas claimed they’d have plenty of swimming later and made him get dressed. They motored over to the beach and went to the dive shop, which was still closed, much to Nikolas’s annoyance. Ben was able to have some breakfast in the restaurant before he was dragged back to the shop and told imperiously to hire them whatever they needed.
Ben dutifully got two sets of everything, showing his certification and waiting while they checked online to see if they were registered. They were, of course. They humped the equipment back to the boat, and Ben then knew something was definitely up. Nikolas never carried anything, but he heaved the scuba unit onto his broad shoulders and set off as if he’d never had staff to fetch and carry for him most of his adult life.
They returned to the hut, and then Ben discovered the joy of teaching someone who thought he knew everything anyway. Ben only knew one way to teach someone—the way he’d been taught. The army specialised in training and did so in one very effective way. Everything began with the naming of parts. Nikolas wasn’t the least interested in what anything was called and quickly rejected most of the stuff Ben had rented as unnecessary—they didn’t apparently need watches, computers, or floats. Nik did like the knife and strapped it to the side of his calf. He gave negligible interest to Ben’s attempt to show him how the tank worked and announced they were ready.
§ § §
Ben strapped the other knife to his thigh. Nikolas’s interest suddenly switched like a honing beacon from the mass of equipment on the deck to Ben. He raked his gaze over him from head to toe and focused back on the loose black trunks that had slipped, displaying the almost zero body-fat V-line of Ben’s abs. He swallowed audibly. “You’ve just eaten, we’ll wait for a while.” He caught Ben’s arm and pulled him to the bed, straddling him. He was very hard through his swimsuit, his intention clear. Ben gave him a disbelieving look. “Tell me it wasn’t the knife. Please tell me you didn’t just get turned on by me wearing a knife.”
Nikolas trailed his fingers down the V on both sides, meeting them just at the top of Ben’s waistband. He reached down and came back with Ben’s knife in his hand. “What? This one?”
Ben licked his lips. He suddenly tried to throw Nikolas off, but he’d been just a little too obvious and slow. Nikolas leant into the hold, pinning Ben’s shoulders. “Benjamin…what do you think I’m going to do?” He grinned at his own joke. “This?” The tip of the knife ran across Ben’s nipple, so lightly he could hardly feel it and certainly not enough to mark him. Nikolas had no intention of marking his precious possession. But he was enjoying Ben squirming beneath him. Both in swimsuits, there wasn’t much Nikolas didn’t know about the effect the scrape of steel on flesh was having on his captive. Just to be sure, though, he slid a hand under the waistband and eased Ben’s cock out, just enough so the enticing head was visible, poking out from the waistband. Ben could hide nothing then. As the knife trailed across his belly, pre-cum pooled from the tiny hole to glisten on his sweat-soaked muscles. When Nikolas rested the tip of the knife right on the little opening, just grazing it around the sensitive, pink head, Ben’s eyes said one thing, but his cock betrayed his need—his greed.
Nikolas wetted the tip of the knife in the leaking fluid, eliciting a long, heartfelt groan from Ben as the cold metal touched him, and then he brought it to Ben’s mouth, making him lick it, pushing it over his lips, in and out, gently fucking his mouth with the knife. It betrayed an incredible level of trust that Ben allowed the sharp steel to penetrate him so intimately. Nikolas was pretty sure he’d never be able to do that, and suddenly all he wanted was Ben’s pleasure, not his.
He tossed the knife to one side and kissed the parted lips, tongue exploring and tasting where steel had been, and then he began to kiss down Ben’s sweaty body, licking and tasting every inch of him until he got to the place he’d been aiming for all along. He licked across Ben’s exposed cockhead, pushed his tongue into the slit, then sucked him gently like a plumb into his mouth before letting him fall wetly out. Ben groaned, lifted his hips, pulled himself fully out, grabbed Nikolas’s head and demandingly pushed him back on.
They’d not discussed the night when Nikolas had allowed himself to be restrained, or the things Ben had done to him under that restraint. But that had been the first time Ben had ever broken their agreement that if he wanted a blowjob it had to be on Nikolas’s terms, not forced, not even gently encouraged. But now, that night had proved Nikolas was not quite so mired in his past as he once was, painful memories of being forced to do this had receded, or perhaps been supplanted by the pleasure it now gave him when he worked on Ben. So when Ben held Nikolas’s blond hair and forced him deeper, held him on, lifted and rode into his mouth, Nikolas stayed with it.
Nikolas allowed Ben to use his mouth, to ride him, thinking all the time of the trust Ben continually showed in him. Even when Ben threw him onto his back, straddled his shoulders and forced himself back into his mouth from above, Nikolas let it go, relaxed into the effort and just let Ben do what he wanted. When he felt the deep release of warm cum jet into the back of his throat and heard the extreme pleasure of Ben’s orgasm, he just swallowed and tried to ignore the unconscious but painful grip Ben had on his hair. Finally, Ben released him and tipped to one side of the bed, panting. His body was running in sweat, his skin glistening, heat flushed high on his cheekbones. He turned his face to Nikolas and blinked, green eyes hugely dilated. “I think you just answered my question about the knife kink.”
Nikolas nodded then pulled at his arm. “Come. Back to the equipment.”
Ben groaned theatrically and protested, but Nikolas was adamant. He dragged Ben to the deck, adjusted him so he was decent, returned his knife to him, and then picked up one of the units. “Turn around.”
Ben helped Nikolas in turn, and then they stepped off into the water.
§ § §
Ben had assumed they’d just splash around in the shallow, warm water, so he was slightly alarmed when Nikolas fitted his snorkel and took off, swimming powerfully for the drop off. He caught up, both of them encumbered by equipment and weights, but aided by fins. They reached the point where Nikolas seemed to want to be, and Ben watched as he lined up with glances at the hillsides and the huts in the distance behind them. He tested his flashlight. Ben caught his arm and removed his snorkel. “Okay, enough. Tell me what this is about.”
Nikolas raised his eyes. “We’re seeking hidden treasure.”
“Yeah, okay, what’s the real reason?”
Nikolas frowned. “No, I’m being serious. The man that fell? He sank here. Really quickly. More quickly than he should’ve done, so I believe he had something heavy and valuable with him.”
Ben stared at him for a moment then explained pointedly, “Nikolas, he didn’t fall from a plane. He was most likely pushed out, in which case, he would’ve been weighed down to ensure he sank—with lead? Concrete?” He tapped Nikolas lightly on the head with his knuckles. “Are you remembering you’re not thinking very clearly sometimes? Hello?”
Nikolas’s frown deepened. “You can be very boring sometimes, Benjamin. Now, how do I turn this air thing on?”
Ben sighed. He was quite keen to dive down the face of the drop off anyway, so he decided to play along. Playing along with Nikolas often had serendipitous outcomes. He wasn’t entirely sure he had a competent dive companion, however. It was now pretty obvious Nikolas hadn’t been listening to a word he’d been told about equipment use. Maybe he shouldn’t have given the lesson in a swimsuit. But he was committed now. He fixed Nikolas’s air, gave him the thumbs up, insisted on one back, and then they dived.
Ben experienced an immediate stab of intense excitement as they sank through the filtered light. Nikolas turned on his back, watching the blue-black light fade. Then he rolled gracefully and continued his powerful strokes down the face of the cliff. Ben followed the retreating figure, trying to ignore growing anxiety; had he known Nikolas wanted to dive this deep, he’d have taken more trouble to ensure the idiot understood how to actually use his equipment. They reached the bottom; the sand—coarser and rockier here than in the lagoon—was spotlighted in the beam from their torches. They swam away from the cliff, sweeping the surface.
Time seemed to move more slowly down here in the depths of the drop off. Ben wished he’d brought the dive watch. He reckoned they’d been down half an hour. He was waiting for Nikolas to admit he was just embarrassed about thinking he’d hallucinated the body falling—confess it and give up on this quest. Even if they did find something, which was very unlikely given the size of the ocean floor, Ben was convinced it would merely be lead weights. It was very cold at this depth, and they hadn’t worn suits. He swam up alongside Nikolas and indicated they had to surface. Nikolas shook his head and held up five fingers. Ben nodded—five minutes more and then light, warmth, and, hopefully, something to eat. It was hard work diving in the cold.
Ben was the first to see it, something unnatural in all this nature. It was a case, the aluminium reflecting off the beam of his torch. He swam to it, flashing his light at Nikolas to get his attention. Together, they hovered over the object, and then Nikolas picked it up—or tried to. He couldn’t lift it off the ocean floor. Ben came around and pushed from beneath and it rose. Swimming hard, using their leg muscles and fins, they propelled it to the surface. They were some way now from the edge, so it was really difficult work to swim on the surface with the case. Ben pulled out his knife and cut loose Nikolas’s weights and then his own, and that made it possible to get the case back to the shallow waters of the lagoon where they let it drop to the white sand beneath them. Nikolas ripped off his mask and tipped onto his back, panting. Ben copied him, and they lay, floating, letting the sun warm them for a while. Finally, Ben slipped out of his dive unit. “I’ll go get the boat.”
§ § §
With those words Nikolas nodded, relieved as he watched Ben swim away. He’d found the diving harder than he’d expected and was quite glad to stay with the equipment. He dropped his tanks as well and dived down to see if he could open the case, but, not surprisingly, it was locked. When he surfaced, there was a loud noise near, and he turned his head, expecting to see Ben with the boat, but the sound was coming from overhead.
A small helicopter appeared, skimming over the line of surf. It was very close to the surface of the ocean, and a man was hanging out of one side with some kind of instrument in his hand. Nikolas dived back under the water and fixed his mouthpiece in place, holding onto the case to stay submerged. He could see the surface of the lagoon rippling as the helicopter came overhead. Whatever the instrument was, Nikolas had no doubt it’d found the case, for the bird stayed directly overhead for some time before moving slowly away. Fortunately for him, although the occupants of the chopper could clearly see something with their instrument, they couldn’t by sight, for the downdraft from the blades so disturbed the water it became quite opaque. When it was still once more, he surfaced cautiously. It was a few more minutes before Ben appeared with the boat. Silently and quickly, they loaded the diving equipment in, then Ben dived over and they retrieved the case together. As they were struggling to get it in the boat, Ben murmured, “I saw the damn helicopter, Nik. They were looking for this.”
“It must have a transmitter on it. We shouldn’t take it back to the hut.”
“Bloody hell! No! We’re taking it to the hotel and handing it in! Fuck knows what it is or who wants it.”
“Don’t swear at me. We can’t hand it in until we know what it is. We’ll open it first.”
They scrambled into the boat, and Nikolas headed for the steeply rising headland to one side of the lagoon. As they approached the jungle-clad cliffs they could see deep caves in the limestone. They motored into one, and the air immediately cooled around them. After a few minutes, they were losing the light from the wide mouth entrance, so Nikolas slowed the boat and pulled over on the rocky edge, tying up. They looked at each other for a moment. Ben glanced around the walls and roof towering above them slightly anxiously, perhaps remembering his comment about movie cave systems and their horrific occupants. Suddenly, Nikolas lunged theatrically at him with a mock howl. Ben jerked back with a screech; the boat tipped, and they tumbled into the water. Nikolas was still laughing as they hauled the case back to the surface and shoved it up onto the rocks.
It was fastened by a combination lock, but it didn’t stand up to their diving knives for very long. They were both shivering now, as the cave was surprisingly cold, and the warm morning sun was drawing them both back. Nikolas laid his hand on the lid. “Counterfeiting plates?”
Ben considered. “Heroin.”
“Winner takes all?”
“Yeah. Not if it’s heroin, you addict. Just open it. It’s bloody freezing in here.” Nikolas continued to be reluctant. Finally, he opened the lid. There was a transmitter lying on top of an inner case. Ben took it out and smashed it. They grinned at each other. Nikolas pulled out his knife and slit the covering. Something glinted underneath. He pursed his lips and pulled out a bar. Ben laughed, obviously pleased. “Chocolate?” Nikolas handed it to him. It was cold and hard and solid and heavy. Ben looked up. Nikolas pulled out another, then another. He did a quick count.
“Fifty.”
“Okay…This looks like gold, but it’s not, Nik, yeah? I mean…seriously, gold bars dropping from the sky?”
Nikolas picked up his knife again and scraped at one of the bars. It stayed the same colour. He shrugged. “I don’t know. It seems unlikely, even to me, and I was the one who wanted to find treasure. Even I didn’t think we’d find unmarked bars of gold.”
“What’re they worth?”
Nikolas considered. “Kilogram bars? About thirty thousand each, so not a huge amount.”
“Not a huge amount! That’s…” Nikolas waited with an amused smile as Ben tried to do the calculation. “A lot. More than a million, yeah?”
“Yes. One and a half, but gold’s very volatile at the moment. It could be more, it could be less.”
“Oh, my God.” Ben took out another bar and then another. He glanced at Nikolas. “They’ll be wanting this back, whoever they are.”
“Yes. Pity they’ll not get it, isn’t it?”
“Nik…”
“Come, unload it all and check the case for more transmitters. If this were my gold—huh, it is now—I wouldn’t rely on one.” He was right. When they unloaded the case, they found one more active transmitter in the bottom. They smashed this one as well. Rather than take the gold back with them, they reloaded the case, and Ben climbed the wall and stashed it high up on a shelf in a small hollow. Ben seemed very reluctant to leave it, but Nikolas was unconcerned. For him, it wasn’t the value of the gold, which was after all fairly small in consideration to his wealth, but what it represented, sunken treasure, adventure. He hadn’t had this much fun since—Well, he didn’t usually allow himself to think about the things in the past that had given him pleasure. One by one, he’d had to give them up, most of them because Ben had nagged him to. But then Ben provided him more fun than anything else, so he had to admit it was a good trade.
§ § §
Ben could see the contented expression on Nikolas’s face all the way back in the boat. Nikolas was usually so laconic and hid so many of his emotions that to see him happy made Ben’s heart melt on all his good intentions about the gold. He didn’t think it was possible for him to love Nikolas Mikkelsen any more, but in that moment, he sunk a little deeper and became a little more enslaved to the golden god of his existence. He leant over and ruffled Nikolas’s wet hair. Nikolas gave a rueful smile. “I won’t keep it, Ben. I don’t need it. But they’ll not get it either. You didn’t see that man’s face, or hear his scream. He knew all the way down what was happening to him.” He grinned. “We’ll donate it. Be patrons of something worthy.”
“You can’t buy your way into heaven, Nikolas.”
“No, but we can bribe the demons in hell for some respite occasionally. Now, stop thinking so much, you’re giving me another headache.”
He didn’t look as if he was suffering much from anything. He lay back in the boat as Ben drove, the wind ruffling his blond hair, the sun warming his skin, without a care in the world. In this bright, tropical light, his eyes were never the dark-chocolate brown they always were in England, but amber with flecks of gold. They were the eyes of a sleek predator pleased with how his prey behaved. Ben never tempted fate if he could help it, but he sent a small prayer of thanks up to a benevolent universe that had given him this moment with this man.