100%; text-align: center;" align="center"> Chapter One: by Sue Brown

"Darius! Get up, you lazy git!"

Darius groaned, flailing out to catch the duvet that had been cruelly wrenched away from his nice, warm body.

"Go ‘way. Tired," he grumbled, burying his face in the pillow to try to claim some warmth, as Luca was still holding the duvet hostage.

"Perhaps you should go to bed at a fucking reasonable hour then."

"Wassa time?"

"Five o’clock. We have to leave soon."

Darius rolled over onto his back with a groan. He cracked one eye open to find the bedside light on and Luca, already dressed, standing over him with his sternest Daddy look on his face. Darius squinted up at Luca. "You’ve got to be kidding me. I only got to bed two hours ago. You put me to bed."

"That’s your problem. You can go to bed before fucking midnight tonight," Luca said, sounding determined.

"Why’re you even making me get up? You normally sneak out to the gym without waking me."

"Because I’ve had enough. You do nothing all day and then go out all night. If you can’t find a job you can make yourself useful at the gym."

Darius could not believe what he was hearing. The gym? Luca had to be kidding. "I’ve got a degree in business, not P.E."

"Neither would be any good at the moment. You’ll be cleaning the toilets."

Face down in the pillow, Darius blinked. The toilets? Luca expected him to get out of bed and clean the filthy, stinking toilets? "No thanks."

"Maybe you haven’t heard me clearly. This isn’t a choice. Get up and have a shower. You smell, and I’m not having the clients complaining."

Luca sounded so serious that Darius actually sat up and paid attention. "What the hell is this about, Lu?"

Luca just frowned at him. "I’ll tell you on the way. Now take a shower." He threw some clothes at Darius and walked out of the bedroom.

Darius stared after him.

"Now!" Luca yelled.

Darius scrambled out of bed and ran towards the en suite bathroom. It was only when he looked at the clothes that he realised they were the uniform polo shirt and black tracksuit bottoms of The Arches. Oh, fucking no. He was not going to wear these...these rags. Darius flung them on the floor and stamped on them for good measure, but as he huffed Darius caught a whiff of himself and pulled a face. Luca was right about one thing—he did stink. The rancid smell of cigs and Steve’s beer clung to his skin. Darius wasn’t going to admit that Luca’s sudden show of dominance was turning him on, but it had been a while since Daddy had come out to play. Perhaps he could persuade Luca into the shower with him...

"Hurry up," Luca bellowed.

Perhaps not.

He washed quickly, hissing as he smoothed shower gel over his half- hard cock and balls.

"Get out now or I’m going to be late." Luca flung open the shower door and shoved a towel at Darius.

"You could always go without me," Darius snapped.

"Nice try. Get dressed."

Darius took a deep breath, because smacking Luca in the face was not a good idea. "You could dress me," he said, with his best flirtatious look.

"Huh. Get dressed." Luca left him in the bathroom.

Punching Luca seemed like a really good idea.

Darius looked at the uniform, his lip curling in disgust. Then he shrugged and pulled the polo shirt over his head. From the look on Luca’s face, it would be better not to test his patience by not wearing the uniform. He could always change later.

What he didn’t expect was the expression in Luca’s eyes when he came out of the bedroom. Darius caught his breath as he saw the heat and desire. For wearing a tatty old polo shirt and tracksuit bottoms?

"You look good," Luca breathed. He actually licked his lips as he deliberately looked Darius up and down, very slowly.

Darius rolled his eyes. "Be serious."

Luca nodded and licked his lips again. "You’re wearing my uniform. You look edible."

Darius decided it was some sort of alpha male thing. He was branded in Luca’s eyes as his. Darius’ cock didn’t have any problems with the issue. It perked up quite happily at Luca’s obvious lust.

Sadly, Darius didn’t have a chance to act on Luca’s reaction before he was hauled out of the house and pushed towards the car. It was still raining and Darius waited until they were in the car before he got pissy.

"So why the hell are you dragging me out to clean the toilets when you have staff to do that?"

Luca coughed. He indicated and turned a corner before he spoke.

"I miss you," he said simply.

Darius bit down on his lip, blown away by Luca’s simple declaration, but still too pissed off to respond.

When Darius didn’t reply, Luca sighed. "I haven’t seen you in weeks. I’m out all day and you’re out all night. I miss my boyfriend. I was talking about it to Gabe and Matt at the gym—"

"You were what?" Darius interrupted.

Luca didn’t seem to hear Darius’ dangerous tone. "Matt said if you were bored and not getting any attention, I should offer you a job at the gym until you found something better. That way, we get to see each other every day and you can do something other than sitting on your arse."

"So you discussed me with whom?"

Luca should have got the message. Darius only spoke the Queen’s English when he was really, really pissed off.

"Gabe and Matt. They’re clients at the gym. Poor guys have listened to me complain about my love life—or lack of it—on a regular basis." Luca scrubbed his hand over his face. "I wasn’t sure about if you wanted to work there, with your degree. And it’s only some crappy job cleaning the traps at the gym. But you’re bored and this’ll give you something to do."

"So you told two complete strangers that I was bored and they told you to offer me a job cleaning the bogs?" Darius’ voice rose at the end of the sentence, he was so angry.

"Er, yeah. Something like that," Luca said, glancing over at him.

Darius ground his teeth. He hadn’t spent the last three years slaving over his degree, and getting a first, to clean toilets! He may look like a fucking twink, but he was a damned clever twink.

"So what do you think?" Luca asked, sounding uncertain.

"I don’t know what to think."

Darius knew what he thought, but at six o’clock in the morning he couldn’t make a sentence that didn’t start with fuck and end with off. "You really think I wanted to be dragged out of bed after a couple of hours sleep to be told I’m going to the gym to clean toilets? Did you think about asking me first of all?"

"You’d have said no," Luca said.

"Too right I’d have said no. It’s a crazy idea."

"You think that I want you to do menial work like this? I want to see you working in some high powered office, babe. But it’s been months and you’re bored out of your brains."

Luca pulled into the car park of The Arches, and drove to the far end for the space that was reserved for him. He parked and turned to look at his boyfriend. Darius stared coolly back at him.

"I know you’re angry with me for springing it on you like this, but you’d have refused. Just for today. We spend the day together and you earn some money. How about it?"

Darius was on the point of telling Luca where he could shove his offer when his boyfriend said, " I’m not driving back so fucking live with it." And Darius’ dick popped up again. Traitorous bastard.

"Just today," he muttered, then got out of the car, and grumpily followed Luca to the back door.

Two members of staff were waiting, looking annoyed at having to stand in the rain.

Luca apologised and opened up as quickly as he could, telling Darius the men were waiting so they could work out before work.

Darius didn’t care. It was a stupid time of day to be up. He didn’t normally rise before eleven.

He hung about, feeling useless, as Luca and the staff got the gym ready for the day until Luca told him to go and put the coffee on. In the early days of their relationship, Darius would come down to The Arches with Luca to make him coffee and breakfast before he went off to college. Darius bit his lip as he remembered those times. It had been fun then. Not now.

He offered drinks to Luca, Ric and Jimmy, and the other staff members, then took his to sit in a corner of the reception area, and sipped his coffee until Luca had time to talk to him. After only two hours’ sleep, Darius was still feeling exhausted, and he appreciated the way the caffeine worked through his system.

From the moment the doors had opened, there was a steady stream of Muscle Marys coming through. It wasn’t long before Luca asked him to go and get some more towels, and fill up the toilet rolls in the stalls, and fill the soap dispensers, and stock the vending machines with more energy drinks, and...and...and...

The next time Darius had a chance to look at the clock, he was shocked to discover it was ten o’clock.

Luca pushed a package into his hands. "Here you are, babe. You earned this."

Darius unwrapped it to discover a greasy bacon roll. Normally he would turn his nose up at something like that but he was hungry. He’d been up for hours with no breakfast and he was starving. Luca thrust a cup of coffee at him before sitting down behind the reception counter and demolishing his own roll.

They ate in silence, then Luca said, "Thank you."

Darius looked up. Luca was giving him that soft, loving look that made Darius’ toes curl.

"S’okay," he said. "What do you want me to do next?"

Luca looked embarrassed. "The toilets need cleaning."

"Don’t you have someone to do that?"

"She comes in the evening, but it’s up to us to keep the area clean during the day. It’s not that bad."

Darius gave him a disbelieving look, born of years of experience with men’s bathrooms.

He sighed loudly. "I’m not going to get out of this, am I?"

Luca shook his head. "Nope. And while you’re at it, you can do the shower stalls."

"You owe me," Darius growled, and threw the sandwich wrapper into the bin.

* * * *

Darius scrubbed the toilets and the showers, along with the tiny room that counted as the staff area before Luca could ask. He noticed, despite Luca assuring him he employed a cleaner, that some areas looked quite grubby. He pushed the mop into the corners, tutting over the dirt he found. Darius had been accused of being OCD about cleanliness in the house, and Luca was normally the same, so he was surprised to find how dirty the gym actually was.

Darius decided to clean through the place without being asked. He did the jobs that Luca and the other members of staff asked him to do, but in between he polished, scrubbed and hoovered until the gym shone. Luca didn’t say anything but Darius caught his boyfriend looking at him with that same proud expression that made Darius want to roll over and have his belly rubbed by Luca’s big paw.

Midway through the afternoon, he walked into the gym with a pile of towels. The two young lads, Ric and Jimmy, were talking in the corner. They looked up as Darius came in, and Darius could see the hostility in their expressions.

"Luca asked me to give you these, " he said.

"Got you working, has he?" Ric sneered. "Realised you were taking him for a ride and finally doing something about it."

Ric was about Darius’ age, with bad skin and an even worse attitude. Darius knew Luca only kept him on because he was the son of a school friend.

Jimmy, on the other hand, was a decent bloke who genuinely liked his job at the gym. He was in his late twenties, with no ambition except to settle down and maybe adopt a kid. He hadn’t met anyone as yet but he never gave up hope. Luca had invited him around to the house occasionally. He’d always been friendly to Darius, and Darius was not sure where the new attitude was coming from.

There were many things Darius could have said to Ric and Jimmy— all of them rude. He decided to play it cool and smile instead. He leant forward, a trick he had picked up from Luca. The two men automatically leant even closer.

"Luca suggested it was about time I learnt the ropes as I’m his new business partner." He saw the blood drain from the faces of the two men.

"Wh...what?" Jimmy stuttered.

Darius pasted on his brightest smile. "Didn’t he tell you? I’m now co-owner of The Arches, and I’ll be handling all the staff."

"He didn’t tell us," Ric said, accusingly.

"I know. He thought it would be best for me to get to know you and the club first. See how you work. But don’t worry, Ric. I’ve got your number already." He stared hard at them both then walked away.

Now he had to go and explain to his boyfriend that he’d promoted himself from cleaner to co-owner before the staff did. He just hoped Luca would see the funny side.