Pokerface - 4. Heads Up

Pale skin, complimented with a sun-kissed tan. Nice ass curves, a smooth young twink strapped down to the bed in a jock strap and nothing else. His brown hair wild and jagged, falling rebelliously around his neck as he tested the strength of the bonds securing him to the mattress. He was arrogant. He was sure he could take whatever Seth threw at him. But Seth wasn't interested in hearing his words. Only the primal noises elicited from him. So the man in charge locked a gag into the young man's mouth to silence the cockiness from him and bit down on the slim shoulder there, marking him. He tasted blood and realised he was too rough. That was a shame. He liked to push the limits and achieve euphoria with his submissive, but he did not wish to actually cause injury. When he went to apologise, Chip only sneered at him. Always mocking. Always playing games. Seth would not have that, though. He would have the boy learn his damn place, and he grabbed the boy by the hair and went to sink into his hot, wet asshole.

Seth was panting when he suddenly woke up, disappointed that he missed out on the best part of the dream! It always happened that way. But his body was vibrating, and a thin layer of sweat coated him head to toe, his long black hair wet as it clung to his chest and belly. He was in afterglow! His cock was still pumping cum onto his golden ab muscles and glueing the sheets to him. A wet dream?? Seth had not experienced a wet dream since he was twelve and hadn't yet worked out how to milk himself dry! But what a dream, though. He was still high on the ecstasy of the situation. He closed his eyes to try and relive the dream, Chip tied down to the bed and challenging Seth to do his worst, vulnerable and sexy as fuck, but the memories gradually became fainter as he left the world of fantasy behind and woke up properly. With sudden curiosity, he wet his finger in the puddle by his shallow belly button and ran it along his tongue, wondering what Chip might have been tasting had things not gone sour the night before. It was equal parts sweet and bitter. Not unpleasant, but perhaps he could fit some more fruit into his diet. When Seth realised what he'd just done, he was almost appalled.

Chip more or less told me to go fuck myself, and I'm still here obsessing like a middle school girl. Get a hold of yourself. You're an esteemed member of the Poker community, and you need to act like it.

He stripped the sheets and folded them before he put them neatly into the hamper. The maids will have a lot to gossip about after this, he thought with a grin. He enjoyed the hot shower afterwards, taking his time to massage coconut body wash into his skin and to shampoo and condition his hair. His cock grew once again when he thought of Chip showering. A rich boy not, but a common boy with an opportunity to break into the scene. Hmmm. Where had Seth heard this story before? Only twenty-three years ago when he lived it for himself. When Natalie Payne, the Bluff Baroness, took all his money at a table in Las Vegas after he bet hard on an ace high flush only to lose to a tens over threes full house. She took a liking to him, comparing him to her favourite grandson, and she bought him back in to the game so the two of them could continue talking as they played cards.

Remarkable, he thought as he turned off the taps and began to wring out his hair. She was playing with tens of thousands of dollars to be social, yet he was playing to have a meal in his belly. He never knew if she intentionally let him win the big pot and many thousands of dollars or if he managed to beat her. Natalie had a bona fide poker face. She invented false tells and indicators of stress to make her opponents stumble. Still, he went home with far more money than he arrived with, and she became his mentor, later a maternal figurehead. Chip might be as good at cards as he likes to think he is. A lack of experience, though, was going to bite him, and Seth didn't want to imagine what the implied consequences of a loss might mean for him. His friends, spoiled, entitled little pricks, fronted his entry on the understanding that they were going to make a profit from him. Making it past the first round meant winning two hundred and fifty thousand - two and a half times the entry fee. Making it to the finals meant a prize of two and a half million dollars. Winning the tournament, though, twenty-five million.

There really was nothing like being at sea on a luxury ship, he thought happily as he sipped from a glass of ice water and took in the view, dressed in only his boxer shorts. Clouds masked the full power of the sun above, but it did little to obstruct the beauty of the mid-Atlantic. A shame he could not bring his sister with him. Clara was never any good with travelling on a boat. She would go white and green and vomit over the side. When they were children living in Starke, Florida, they would often visit their uncle Quentin in Ponte Vedra beach and go for a spin on his fishing vessel. Seth loved those special weekends! Sailing out to sea on the dingy old boat was like Christmas! Quentin taught him how to steer - even if Seth only drove in circles, but his father Eiji demanded he must be the one to teach his son how to fish. Eiji was terrible at fishing, and Seth was intuitive enough to know that, but sharing that experience with his dad was special anyway. Eventually, Karen stopped joining the boys on her brother's boat to stay on the beach with Clara, who refused to go out with her father and brother after a time, and it became a boys' only affair. Quentin was what Seth missed most when they relocated to Japan. Quentin and the boat.

He noticed that while he'd been on the balcony admiring the view, a piece of paper had been slid under his door. With a goofy grin, he picked it up to recognise Chip's signature handwriting.

I'm sorry about last night. Have breakfast with me in the blue buffet xo

At first, Seth was relieved and even happy to receive such an invitation. He'd grown fond of this young man quite quickly, and he was hoping the feeling was mutual. There was a mischievous and playful aspect to Chip on top of the charming southern drawl, undeniable intellect and enjoyable wit. Seth thought a lot about the two men he had his eye on as he dressed in a casual shirt and shorts ensemble. Glenn was too desperate and shallow to be attractive in the long term. He'd lose his face and body eventually, then what good was he? How long before he forgot he was angry and came back for another hard fuck? Probably today - maybe tomorrow, if he was especially ticked off. He was an airhead. A horny, fit and submissive airhead, sure, but it would never be more than just sex between them.

The blue buffet was absolutely gorgeous. Seth couldn't help but smile as he looked out the long window on the side of the ship that overlooked the ocean, the sky and the recreational decks below. The floor was a beautiful marble of many different shades of blue, as were the backs of the chairs. A massive skylight in the roof showed the cloudy cerulean sky, and Seth was happy where he was. Being a little over seven thirty in the morning, a lot of people were getting up and looking for their morning meal from one of the many restaurants and buffets. Seth intended to explore them all throughout the cruise, but he liked this one already.

"Mr Nakamura!"

Seth turned his head to see Chip, looking smart in his tawdry clothes and geeky glasses, and his heart dropped. He wasn't alone. He wasn't even with his friends - fuzzyhead Lester and fuckhead Donny. He was sitting with Winston and Glenn McIntosh, and the sight chilled Seth's blood. What is he doing? This was a long way to go to embarrass someone. This was... juvenile!

"Young Seth," Winston, decrepit old mutt with more hair on his neck than on his head, greeted him coolly, his hand around his trophy husband's hip. "Are you joining us for breakfast this morning? You look like you didn't sleep very well."

"Come and sit," Glenn invited him, hiding a smirk on his lovely heart-shaped face. He wore a tight-fitting tank top over his fit, chiselled body, and it almost made Seth's mouth water. "We could make it a foursome."

"No, thank you," Seth, embarrassed, spoke stiffly and backed away. "Mr McIntosh is quite correct, I fear. I did sleep poorly. I think I'll return to bed and order something to my room instead."

When Winston and Glenn thought nothing more of that and returned to their view of the beautiful ocean outside, Seth shot Chip a look of disgust. The young fellow's smirk faded, as though he expected a different outcome, but Seth was a grown man, and he didn't need to play childish games. He turned on his heel and stormed off, finding another breakfast buffet on another deck in the ship. He mixed some greek yoghurt, muesli, blueberries and chopped banana. It was a concoction he grew fond of as a child when he would make breakfast for himself and Clara before they went to school. As he ate alone, just the way he liked it, he wondered what Chip was playing at. Whatever. He's a child. When a young woman asked him if she could sit at the table with him, he angrily told her to move along.

As he'd grown to expect, Chip was lurking in the corridor when Seth did return to his room, thinking he might take a dip in the pool and swim some laps. Those sharp green eyes watched him, but Seth did not let the boy bait him into engaging with him. No. He walked right past him and shut the door to his cabin. Almost immediately, he heard the boy knocking.

"Seth, come on."

Seth decided maybe he would give his frenemy the chance to explain himself, but he took his time getting into his bathing trunks first, making sure to forego a shirt so that Chip could see what he was missing out on. Last night, Chip admitted he was interested in getting physical. Well, it wasn't going to happen unless the boy understood which of them called the shots, and it wasn't some cocky little hipster twink playing at the big boy's table. Chip knocked again, and this time Seth did open the door. He pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, and, with his arms folded, waited for Chip to begin. It took a little while. The youngster was still figuring out the power dynamics between them, it seemed. Thinking he was the man in charge.

"Look, you inferred I was a prostitute," Chip finally started, leaning guiltily against the doorway. "You hurt my feelings."

"So, what? You thought you'd get back at me, is that it? What are you doing, Chip? Did you want to humiliate me? Was that you getting back at me for making a bad joke - one I apologised for, by the way? Or blackmail? Are you trying to intimidate me? You're gonna tell Winston I've been slipping it in his hubby and he'll have someone throw me overboard? What?"

"No! No, none of that!" Chip looked especially cute when he was flustered. He put his hands up to his mouth. "It wasn't like that. I was only trying to show you what a real prostitute looks like. That guy Glenn that's been making some trips to your room. He's pretty as a peach."

As much as Seth found Chip's southern accent charming, he wasn't sold. "What's your point?"

"If you want to fuck a rentboy, then fuck Glenn," Chip told him quietly, stepping forward. "I'm not a prostitute."

But he was, Seth realised. He was definitely a prostitute at one point. That's why he's sensitive and defensive. Perhaps that's what he had to do to survive.

"No, you're not. But if you want to keep going with... whatever this is," Seth used his hand to point at himself, then Chip, then back again. "Then don't ever bring the daddy bear and his honey pot into it again."

Chip sealed the deal in a surprising way - he leaned close and kissed Seth on the mouth with those pretty pink lips. Seth didn't mind - he was surprised, but who would object to a cute little thing like Chip? It was brief, but Seth blushed a little bit.

"So we're going to the pool? I'll get changed," Chip informed him, and Seth's eyes widened.

"I don't remember inviting you," he retorted, hiding his glee at the idea of seeing this boy mostly naked again.

"Would you prefer if I didn't come?"

"Well, no-- but what about your friends? I don't think they like me very much."

"Lester's cool, but Donny thinks someone should teach you a lesson," Chip raised an eyebrow above his thick-rimmed glasses. "They were playing roulette until the sun came up. They won't miss me until at least midday."

"Then I guess it's a date," Seth shrugged nonchalantly, but he was feeling giddy with excitement.

Thanks for reading! ❤️ Most of my stuff is so angsty, so it's nice to write something lighter!