CHAPTER 28

epilogue 2 – ajay

4 more months later

I knew he was out there in the crowd somewhere, my Nicky, come to watch me perform in my concert band. It was the first time Nick had made it to one of my performances and I was more nervous than I usually was at these types of events. I didn't really know why since he was quite literally my biggest supporter, like the most biased one-man cheerleader in existence. It was just one of the thousands of reasons I loved that man so very, very much, his one-eyed support for me.

Dane was beside me, wearing a black tux like me, tuning his guitar and already in the zone like I should probably be doing. But my eyes were scanning the beautiful art deco concert hall with its lofty curved roof, the endless rows of seats and the little mezzanine level where I had bought a ticket for Nick.

The conductor had already arrived on the podium as my eyes finally found his, the most beautiful face in the concert hall as those sparkling blue eyes looked down at me, radiating with pride. He'd tied his long hair back for the night too and I don't know why but that did something to me deep inside my gut. Even though I knew I'd enjoy pulling his hair tie out and running my hands through his long locks later tonight just as much.

The conductor raised her baton for our attention and I shifted my eyes away from my boyfriend, ready to play my heart out for him. And the other hundreds of patrons of the arts who had paid a decent price for a ticket to tonight's performance too of course.

The music started and I lost myself to the sound and the moment, muscle memory and hours of practice getting me right into the zone and making this whole thing shine. My happy place, here with a guitar on a stage. One of my happy places anyway. Nick being the other.

He found me in the lobby afterwards, his eyes shining and a big smile on his face as he drew me in and planted a not-so-chaste kiss on my lips. I'd gotten used to the way Nick liked to kiss me and touch me in public now, almost like I'd opened the floodgates that night we had kissed out in that alley beside Paddy's last summer. The summer where it all started.

"You were incredible," he said into my ear. "Couldn't take my eyes off you."

"Thank you," I returned, unable to stop my flush at his words of praise. I was getting better at accepting his praise. I kind of had to considering how much Nick constantly showered me with praise and told me how amazing I was.

"Ajay, great performance tonight," I heard in my periphery and I spun around to see my guitar teacher at my side. Drew Beatty was one of the most highly sought after guitar teachers in the entire city and I had been super lucky that he had chosen me as one of his students. Yeah, I'd had to audition for that privilege, something Dane chided me about constantly.

"Thank you, Drew," I returned, seeing his eyes take in Nick and the way he was holding me to his side. "This is Nick, my boyfriend," I added. I never got sick of saying those words, introducing people to Nick as mine. It made me feel a warm glow and a sense of rightness like I'd never felt about anyone else before.

"Drew Beatty," Drew said, holding out his hand to shake Nick's. "Your boy did a fine job up there tonight."

"I know he did," Nick returned, the pride clear in his eyes.

"So, the studio called me today," Drew continued, eyes back on me. "Congrats by the way. I didn't even know you could sing. Would have told them otherwise and taken the credit."

I huffed a quick laugh, ignoring Nick's gaze as he shot a curious look my way. "Thanks. It was all very unexpected and kind of strange how it all happened," I returned.

"You'll have to tell me about it on Monday," Drew replied. "I can see the Vice Chancellor in the corner and I need to grab her before she bolts."

"Speak to you then."

"Nice to meet you, Nick," Drew added as he turned and hurried off in the direction of the Vice Chancellor.

"Um, hello. What's this about singing at the studio?" Nick asked, blue gaze pinning me to the spot.

"You don't miss a thing do you?"

"Not where you're concerned, baby," he returned. "So? You gonna tell me?"

"Do you think we can wait until we get home?" I asked, stifling a yawn. "It's a long story and I'm kind of beat."

"Okay but don't think I've forgotten this conversation," Nick returned. He dropped his arm from where he was holding me to take my hand and we made our way towards the exit, stopping to hug Dane and Dee and some of my other uni friends before we slipped out the door.

"Home?" I asked, sharing a knowing smile with Nick.

"Yes. Home," he grinned back at me. I would never get sick of saying that word or the fact I got to take this amazing man home with me every single night.

It had been just under three months since we'd moved into our apartment in Bondi together and it had been incredible. A small part of me had worried that it wouldn't be as smooth sailing as it had, in fact, turned out to be. Nick and I had never spent much time living in the real world with each other, just holidays and weekends and summer breaks. Not time doing domestic chores and cooking and cleaning and doing the shopping and the laundry. Having a normal schedule where he went off to work on a building site each morning and I went to uni or to work at the studio.

But it had turned out that the fun we always had in the bedroom had just as easily translated into real life too. I loved living with Nick. Every last boring, domestic bit of it. And all the other extremely good, sexy bits of it too like the way he woke me up just this morning with slow and easy morning sex. Even just the cuddling together on the sofa at night, the touch of his hand or a morning where we could both hit the waves for a surf.

Nick stowed my guitar in the back of his Jeep and we drove through the slow Sydney traffic towards home, my hand entwined with his where it rested on my thigh. It was not exactly the South Coast up here. The air was different and there were people everywhere, always a constant stream of humanity. The waves were busy too, Nick and I always vying with other surfers to get the drop on every wave.

But it was one step closer to the ocean and another step closer to being back on Nick's South Coast where we both wanted to end up together. I dreamed of it actually, of finishing my degree and moving back down there with Nick, finding a house together, one near the beach so we could surf every morning.

I'd been working as a session guitarist at one of the leading recording studios in Sydney for the past few months. Drew Beatty had put in a good word for me which was how I got the gig and I loved it. Every last minute of it. I loved it so much that I knew it was what I wanted to do eventually – open my own recording studio down on the South Coast and play session guitar. Maybe even make it into a retreat so that musicians and artists could write and record on location, in our own little idyllic piece of the coast.

Nick and I had even started jotting down designs and ideas and he had offered to build it all for us too. That was the dream at least. One day.

Nick placed my guitar on its special stand that he had built for me right near the front entryway as I stepped in behind him. The lights were out and I left them that way, my eyes drawn to the waves that were just visible in the light of the moon and the many streetlights that lit up this place each night. There was something mesmerising about seeing the ocean like this, straight out of our living room window.

I felt Nick's presence behind me, like a warm hug as his mouth pressed kisses to my neck. I dropped my head to the side, giving him better access as he sucked my skin and I shivered. His hands moved to my hips, pulling me back against him so that I could feel the press of him everywhere.

"I'm so proud of you, my talented little guitarist," he murmured, lips back to grazing my neck.

"Mmm," was all I could muster, his hands slipping under my coat.

"So, time to tell me? About the singing?" Nick prompted. I hid a smile, knowing there was no chance he would not remember our earlier conversation.

"It was all a bit of a blur actually," I started, having a little difficulty concentrating with what his hands and mouth were doing to me. "You know I've been recording with that famous singer whose name I am contractually bound to never reveal?"

"Yes. I know all about the fancy secret singer."

"Well, she couldn't make the session this afternoon but the studio had everyone there ready to go so they decided to start laying down the music. We were having a bit of trouble with the timing so Alfie asked me to sing the track. So I was singing the song and it was all being recorded when Jeff Jones walked in. He's the head of the record label, you know."

"I know who Jeff Jones is," Nick huffed as though I'd called him a simpleton. Jeff Jones was famous in the music world. He was known as a big name maker and had an ear for talent that was famous in the biz.

"So anyway, apparently the story goes that he was kind of blown away by my singing for whatever reason and started asking the guys in the booth who I was and who had signed me up. The studio guys were all like, he's just the session guitarist, and Jeff Jones blew up at them and demanded they sign me up pronto before anyone else got me."

"What, baby?" Nick asked, spinning me around to face him, wonder in his eyes.

"Yeah. So I've got a contract waiting in my inbox for me to sign to sing for the studio," I told him. "Probably it will just be backing vocals or whatever but that's fine. You know I've never considered myself a singer."

"That's because you suffer from a rare and debilitating case of personal blindness. And deafness for that matter," Nick returned, hands on my cheeks. "You are so incredible, Ajay. You just have no idea how good you are. Of course they signed you as soon as they heard you sing. I've been telling you for over a year how perfect you are."

"Well, you also told me to audition for Australian Idol," I laughed.

"I was serious about that," Nick returned. And he looked it too, more serious than I'd ever seen him as he gazed back at me. "Now will you finally believe me about how incredible you are? Clearly it's not just me and my admittedly enormous bias talking."

"Maybe," I chuffed, dropping my head onto his shoulder as we talked about my least favourite topic of all – me.

"Hmm, I can see you might need a little more persuading about how amazing and talented you are," Nick hummed, instantly switching on the charm.

"Yeah?" I tried to hold back my smile as he nodded seriously, his hands at my neck as he untied my bowtie.

"Yeah. I think maybe I'm going to have to get down on my knees to try hard to convince you how incredible you are," he continued, hands moving to undo each of my shirt buttons until he pushed my shirt and suit jacket off my shoulders. "Mmm," he hummed, a single finger dragging down my pec to my nipple which he circled slowly until I gasped.

I was rewarded by a wicked smile as Nick stepped closer, free hand palming my dick over my pants as he walked me backwards until my ass hit the sideboard, the open window just to our left.

"Do you believe me yet?" he asked, head cocked to the side with that predatory stillness as the finger trailing my pec dropped lower, straight to my belt.

"I might need a little more convincing," I rasped. He smirked, wasting no time undoing my buckle and then my pants button and zipper, sliding everything down my legs until I was completely exposed for him. He looked down at my hard dick, licking his bottom lip as he dropped to his knees in front of me.

"Do you believe me yet, Ajay? Do you believe how wonderful and amazing and beautiful and talented you are?" he asked, warm breath skating across my tip as I tried to chase his lips. He wasn't having a bar of me, holding my thighs in place as he looked up at me, waiting for his answer.

I sighed, knowing he needed me to say it as much as he wanted to hear it. "Yeah, I believe you, Nicky," I told him, throwing as much sincerity as I could into my words. "But only because of you. Because you take the time to tell me every day, to always make sure I know how valued I am. How loved I am."

"Good. Because you're mine, baby. Every last inch of you. Every last drop of you. It's all mine. And I take my responsibility very seriously, the one to champion you and push you and keep you going and doing your amazing, beautiful things. I'm going to make sure you know how amazing you are and how absolutely loved you are every single day for the rest of your life."

"I very much look forward to it, Nicky. You and me and the rest of our lives."

"Good. Let's start with now then, shall we?" he returned, sending me that wicked glint as he bent his head forward and let me know in every possible way exactly how he felt about me. I knew because it was the same way I felt for him. A forever kind of love. Him and me, me and him.

My Nicky, who I met in the waves last fateful summer and etched himself forever in my heart.

THE END