Chapter Text
There are crescent shaped marks on the back of Geno’s shoulders.
Deep and red and unforgiving and Sid sits back against the headboard and worries at his bottom lip as he stares at them.
Geno is sitting at the foot of the bed, still naked from the waist up as he leans down to pull his socks back on.
Sid’s usually more careful about things like this.
He doesn’t leave marks unless they’ve asked for it. Unless it’s been discussed.
But he couldn’t seem to help himself when Geno pushed into him, when he dragged his lips along Sid’s neck, or when they arched against each other. Geno didn’t seem to mind when Sid clawed at his skin, didn’t tell him to stop as he dug his nails in to ride out his orgasm. Geno only squeezed his eyes shut, dropped his sweaty forehead onto Sid’s and shook apart in Sid's arms.
The sex isn’t usually like that, not with any of his other clients. He never loses control like that. He has to get himself back in order.
Geno straightens up suddenly and in one fluid movement pulls on his thin undershirt, covering the marks.
Sid blinks as Geno stands up and when he turns around and pulls on his dress shirt he tips his head to the side and sticks his bottom lip out.
“So serious after sex,” Geno says, “make me think I don’t do a good job.”
Sid opens his mouth and then snaps it shut. Then, after a moment he says “I read the article about you in Forbes.”
Geno’s eyebrows knit together, briefly, as he parses out the words then he smiles and nods as he begins to button his shirt.
“I tell you that was coming out,” he asks and Sid shakes his head.
“It was kind of hard to miss with your face on the cover. I had no idea you were that important.”
Geno laughs as he straightens out his collar. “Not that important,” he says and Sid laughs right back.
“You’re part of the thirty five wealthiest under thirty five in the world. That’s a big deal.”
Geno shrugs. “In four years I won’t be on list anymore.”
“Then you’ll be part of the forty under forty.”
Geno shrugs again. “Maybe,” he says but Sid knows it’s a definite.
He read the article. He knows Geno is a true self made billionaire. He has more money than Sid can even comprehend from dabbling in everything from tech to fashion to cars to sports teams. It’s like he can’t seem to settle down and pick one thing to focus his energy on so he parcels it out instead into a dozen different things.
“Surprise you not already know,” Geno says. “You don’t google me?”
Sid shakes his head. That’s a rule of his. One that’s set in stone. He only wants to know what his clients want him to know and nothing more. He doesn’t need to know what they do for a living or how much they make. If they go home to a wife and kids after they get done bending him over the edge of the sink in the bathroom. Sid doesn’t even need to know their names. As long as they set the right amount of money on the dresser Sid doesn’t care what their backstories are.
But Sid had broken his own rule when he spotted Geno’s face staring back at him on the front cover of the magazine as he waited in line for shitty coffee at the bodega. He couldn’t stop himself from picking it up and flipping it open and reading the entire article before the line even moved.
“I sound okay in it,” Geno asks as he looks around on the floor. He’s missing his tie and only his right cuff link is on his shirt. “English sounds better in writing, get to edit but-.”
“You sounded great,” Sid reassures and Geno flashes him a huge lopsided smile.
He sounded more than great. Brilliant and generous, donating a large percentage of his earnings to different charities, everything from underprivileged children to the humane society to saving the whales.
Geno is so young and he has more money than Sid would ever know what to do with but he’s handling it all so well.
Except for his penchant for hiring prostitutes.
“Ah,” Geno says as he bends down. He comes up with his tie and loops it around his neck.
“I liked the pictures,” Sid says and Geno’s smile gets impossibly wider.
“Which one you like the most?”
“The one with you in the couch,” Sid says and Geno leaves the tie loose as he climbs back onto the bed. “In that tux,” Sid continues as Geno settles himself over Sid’s lap and kisses the side of Sid’s neck. Sid curls his fingers in toward his palm to keep himself from touching Geno but he does tip his head to the side to give him more room. “Your legs looked a mile long,” he says as Geno huffs a laugh against his skin.
“Think maybe I wear it for you next time,” Geno says as he nips at the thin skin over Sid’s pulse. “Keep it on whole time. You like that?”
Sid digs his fingernails into his palms. Geno didn’t pay for this but Sid knows that if he touches him back he won’t stop and Sid doesn’t work for free.
“Usually with that kind of thing I’m the one dressing up,” Sid says and Geno pulls back, something dark flickering across his face for a moment before it clears and he glances at his watch.
“Have to go. How much for goodnight kiss?”
Sid shrugs. “It’s on the house,” he says and Geno gently cups Sid’s face in his hands and lightly presses their lips together.
It’s achingly gentle. It’s a kiss from Sid’s past, from a love he had and then lost and never went looking for again. It’s one that should end with them barely breaking apart, breathing the same air as they say “I love you,” and then kiss once more for good measure.
Sid digs his blunt nails into the meat of his palm hard enough to break the skin.
When Geno pulls back the only thing he does is give Sid another soft smile before he’s unfolding his legs and climbing back off the bed.
“I see you again,” he asks and Sid falls back against the pillow and wills his heart to slow down.
“It’s up to you,” he says and tries not to blush under Geno’s gaze when it rakes over Sid’s bare skin.
“Yes,” Geno says. “See you again.” He digs into his wallet and pulls out a twenty. He leaves it with the others on the dresser and says “for kiss,” and Sid’s not about to turn down a little extra cash. “If you find other cufflink you keep for me, okay? Favorite pair and I can’t find.”
“Okay, I’ll look for it.”
Geno nods and frowns down at the floor before he looks back up. “Be good,” he says, “see you soon.”
“You have my number. Whenever you want.”
Geno presses a kiss to his own fingertips then holds his hand out toward Sid before he opens the hotel room door and steps out into the hall.
Sid takes a deep breath as the door shuts behind him and sinks further into the mattress. He unfolds his fingers and checks the damage, little half moon shapes that match the ones on Geno’s shoulders are embedded in his palms. He rubs his fingers over them to ease the pain then gives up and splays his arms and legs across the king sized mattress.
His hand bumps against something and it takes a moment to fish it out between the tangle of sheets. It’s Geno’s cufflink. Sterling silver with dark gemstones in the middle.
Sid holds it in his palm, feeling the heft of it and knows that it’s expensive. It would be easy to lie to Geno. Tell him that he looked but he couldn’t find it. Geno would believe him.
Sid could pawn it and pay his rent for the next six months, maybe more.
He should do that.
He should put himself first. There’s no one else looking out for him.
Instead, he closes his fingers around the metal and climbs out of bed, stopping to grab his jeans on the way to the bathroom.
He wraps the cufflink in a piece of toilet paper then sets it carefully on the sink as he shimmies back into his jeans then he tucks the paper into his front pocket for safe keeping.
He’ll give it back to Geno when he sees him.