by Lily Harlem
“These are our cousins.” Burta gestured to the children, who ranged from about five to ten years old. “Their parents died four years ago. They live with us now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Leo said. “And you are very kind to take them in.”
“They would starve or be eaten by beasts if we did not.” Burta shrugged. “And family is family, no matter what. We feed and protect them as best we can, though it is not always quite enough.”
“Would they like chocolate?” Leo held out the large bar.
Burta’s eyes went so wide he could see the whites all around her dark irises. “Oh, thanks to the gods.” She crossed her chest in prayer then tapped her forehead. “I have never seen such a size.”
Leo grinned. “I’m sure there will be enough for everyone to have a piece.”
“Yes, but we must put it high, so that they do not run away with it.” She nodded at the kids. “They can be monkeys like that.”
Leo also looked at the children who were staring, unblinking at the chocolate. One of them actually looked as if he might drool. He then glanced up and saw a ledge between the wall and the roof. “I’ll put it here for now then, until after dinner.” He slotted it into the space, safely about six feet up.
“Yes,” Burta said. She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Thank you, and thank you for being our guest. We are honored to have you here, Doctor Leo.”
“It is an honor to be invited.”
“Would you like soup?” Malik asked, passing him a cup.
“Er, yes, thanks.” He took the small cup of steaming broth and smiled at Malik’s parents, who were staring up at him with inquisitive expressions.
“Please sit,” said the mother. “Burta has been cooking and cleaning all day ready for your arrival.”
“And the beads she wears now,” her husband added, “they are for fertility and fortune.”
“Hey…” Burta scowled and pushed her hair back over her shoulders. “He does not need to know that.”
Leo studied the many red, green and yellow beads that she’d slid on to the very tips of her hair, so that the ends were a jangling mass of wood that knocked together as she moved her head. They almost sung, their clatter was so light and delicate.
“It looks very pretty.” Leo sat where Malik indicated.
“Thank you,” Burta said with a broad smile and sitting on a cushion opposite him. She crossed her legs and fluttered her eyelashes as though both embarrassed and thrilled at the compliment.
The broth was salty and had a herby flavor. Leo found it a bit harsh on his taste buds but drank it anyway, not wanting to offend. When the goat stew was served—which had been cooking in a fire pit outside—he was pleasantly surprised. The meat was tender and the sauce rich. There was also a hefty dose of kale and root vegetables mixed in with it. None were vegetables that he recognized, but each one tasty and filling.
When the meal was over, the children, who had sat quietly and obediently, crowded around Burta and asked for the chocolate.
Burta studied Leo. “Is that okay with you, Doctor Leo?”
He laughed. “Of course. I brought it for them, but I think I will leave you to it. My bed is calling. I’m very tired and with a full stomach”—he rubbed his belly—“of delicious food, I’m going to bed a very satisfied guest.”
He glanced at Malik. He’d like to be satisfied in other ways. But that wasn’t going to happen.
Malik set his bowl aside and stood. “I will walk back with you.”
Leo opened his mouth to protest but then shut it again. He wanted Malik to walk back with him. He liked strolling through the darkness next to Malik with the stars above and the moonlight illuminating the way.
“Thank you. I would hate to get lost in this maze of huts.”
“Once you have been a few times, you will learn the way.” Malik brushed the front of his trousers, rubbing his thighs to remove any crumbs from the flatbread his mother had handed around.
Leo turned to his hosts and thanked them profusely. In London he would have kissed the mother and shaken hands with the father, but that wasn’t the way here, so he’d been told, so he nodded and smiled and stepped away, promising to bring more chocolate if he had any sent from the capital.
“Goodbye, Doctor Leo,” Burta called, straining her neck to see around the children, who were climbing all over her.
“Goodnight, and thank you again,” Leo said. Now at the entrance, he pulled back the tatty hessian screen and stepped into the cool night air.
Malik was right behind him. “It is this way.”
“Oh, is it?” Leo shook his head. “Good job you’re coming with me, I’d have gone wrong from the first step. I thought it was that direction.” He pointed at the opposite path.
“You would not like it that way if you are not a warrior. In that direction there are snakes and lions and hippo waiting to savage you.”
“What?” Leo couldn’t keep the edge of panic from his voice. He knew they were out there but he hoped they weren’t that close.
Malik laughed, a lovely deep rumbling sound. “I am joking with you. Well, almost. There are snakes and wildebeest that way, and the odd lion further out.”
Leo dropped into line, walking with Malik. “It was the snakes and lions that were worrying me.”
“No, it is the hippo that you should be scared of. They are the most bad-tempered creatures in Africa. And if you get in their way, on their path, you better watch out.” He shuddered. “I’ve had a couple of close calls. I am very wary of them. They seem unafraid and untouched by the spear.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. I would rather meet a lion.”
Leo looked at him, at his strong, defined profile as he marched ahead. He could imagine Malik out on the plains, coming face to face with a lion and standing his ground. Naked but for a loincloth, Tarzan-like, spear in hand and teeth bared. He’d growl, tease the beast, jabbing his weapon into the air then either fighting it or chasing it away.
A shudder attacked Leo’s spine. It was a seriously sexy image. His skin felt alive, hot with the thought of seeing Malik like that. In fact, no, more than hot, his skin, his back, it was burning, stinging. There was something biting him.
“Ah, fuck,” he said, wriggling his shoulders. The pain intensified. It was as if a string of electric shocks were traveling over his flesh. “Ow, shit, there’s something stinging me.”
“What?” Malik spun around. “Where?”
Leo hopped from one foot to the other. “My back, my T-shirt. Shit.” He grimaced and clawed at his top.
Next thing he knew Malik grabbed his T-shirt. He peeled it over his head then flung it to the ground.
But despite the fresh air circulating his body, the pain didn’t let up. It got worse, growing, intensifying, building in temperature.
Leo hissed in a breath, pressed his shoulder blades together, wriggled, writhed. He felt hot. Sweat popped on his temple. “What the hell is it?” he demanded.
“A hornet! You got a hornet in your clothes.”
“Fuck. It’s hurts like a bastard.”
“It is gone, I saw it fly away.”
“Shit, it’s getting worse, this pain.” Leo could hardly even think straight.
“Yeah, it will. Come on. Let’s cool it down.” Malik wrapped his arm around Leo’s waist and propelled him forward.
Within minutes they were standing outside the clinical room. Leo’s back was a furnace, and his right buttock too. The bugger had stung him there, below his waistband.
“Here,” he said, passing Malik the keys from his pocket.
Malik unlocked the door, rushed Leo inside and shut it again. With sharp, efficient movements, he opened the drug cupboard.
“I need one of these.” Leo grabbed a box of chlorphenamrine. He popped a tablet from the foil and swallowed it down. Antihistamine would help with the reaction and the itching, but it couldn’t start working soon enough.
“Like this.” Malik pla
ced his hands on Leo’s shoulders and turned him to face the whitewashed wall. “More.” He gripped Leo’s wrists and spread his arms high and wide. “You have another sting beneath your arm. I need to cool your whole back.”
There was something about the dominant way Malik handled him, maneuvered him, that had Leo’s heart beating fast for another reason. He pressed his cheek against the cool wall and willed his cock not to fill. “How…how many stings are there?”
“About six,” Malik said, turning on the tap. “I think.”
Leo shut his eyes and stayed still, sacrificial like. He pressed his groin to the bricks and hoped he wouldn’t go to full hardness.
“Keep very still,” Malik whispered close to his ear. “This will be cold but it will help.”
“Ahh…” Leo gasped, gritting his teeth.
Malik had placed a large, cold wet towel over the length of his back.
As the chill spread over the painful bites, numbing them, Leo let out a sigh.
“Better?” Malik asked, his voice hushed and soothing.
“Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much.”
Malik’s hands were on his back, rubbing and smoothing the towel, as though helping it spread its coldness. His touch was firm yet gentle. Leo could feel each one of his strong fingers gliding over his body, from his waist to his armpits, the length of his spine and the base of his neck that was oh, so sensitive to caresses.
He bit his bottom lip. Blood was rushing to his groin now. Any chance of not getting fully hard had gone.
“How is it feeling?” Malik asked.
“Better, but…” Leo squirmed as a nipping sensation caught on his left arse cheek.
“What? What is it?”
“I think the little bastard got me on the buttock, too.”
“Let me see.”
“Well, no I…”
Leo gasped then froze as Malik’s hands slid around his waist and sought the button on his shorts. He could hear the other man breathing, long, slow inhalations right by his ear and exhalations that drifted down his neck.
Malik’s nimble fingers made short work of Leo’s shorts.
Leo prayed he wouldn’t skim his knuckles over his cock and discover his mounting arousal. It was shocking to be so infused with lust when he was being treated for hornet stings but he couldn’t help it. Flattened to the wall with Malik tending him was just too much of a wet dream, and now, now his shorts had gathered around his ankles. Thank goodness he’d worn boxers—at least he still had some barrier, though not much.
“This side?” Malik asked, pulling the waistband of Leo’s boxers so he could see down and examine his buttocks
Leo clenched his bum cheeks. He screwed his eyes tighter, his cock throbbed, his arse stung. “Yes,” he said quietly. “That one.”
“Mmm, I can see it. Nasty.” Malik tugged the towel so a wet corner landed over the lowest sting, instantly taking the heat away.
Leo’s heart was trip-trapping. He curled his hands into fists and locked his knees. Malik stood close, so close, crowding him yet calming him with his gentle movements.
“I will wet this again,” Malik removed the towel.
“Okay. Thank you,” Leo said, surrendering to his treatment. He concentrated on the pulse in his cock. It was thudding, trapped between his belly and the brickwork.
Malik was back, so was the towel. This time it covered a large section of his arse. Again, Malik smoothed it over his skin. Finally, each sting was reducing in heat and becoming more bearable.
Leo held his breath.
Malik skimmed his hand over Leo’s buttocks, pressing the towel along the crack of his cheeks. It was almost like he was exploring Leo’s shape and contours. Familiarizing himself with the curve of his body and the lower dips of his back.
As he moved his attention up to his shoulders again, Leo let out a breath. Desire tugged at his belly, arousal seared through his veins. He’d happily bend over and be fucked senseless right now but he knew that wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t. Malik wasn’t gay, and Leo wasn’t about to admit to being gay.
Oh, but this was the stuff of fantasies. He shifted, barely holding in a groan as his cock received some of the stimulation it craved. His cheek bunched on the brickwork and he spread his fingers out, star-like, forcing his palms onto the coolness.
“I think this is done now,” Malik said, his voice penetrating Leo’s lusty thoughts.
“Yes. It feels much better.”
“Good.” Malik lifted the towel away.
Hurriedly, Leo pulled back from the wall. He half-turned and stooped, scrabbling for his shorts, desperate to pull them up. He needed to cover the raging hard-on that was tenting his boxers.
But when he opened his eyes, he saw that trying to disguise his arousal was futile. Malik had also stooped, but faster. He’d squatted before Leo, gripped the material of his shorts and tugged it to his knees. His face was now mere inches from Leo’s hard cock, the top of which was trying to peek above his underwear.
For a moment Leo just stared at Malik’s expression. His eyes were wide and his mouth slightly parted as he looked at the outline of Leo’s erection. Surprise and shock seemed to play with his features. It also appeared he couldn’t turn away from his discovery.
“Fuck, sorry, I mean, thanks,” Leo said, coming out of his trance. Mortification swarmed through him as he grabbed his shorts and dragged them up. He spun away to face the wall again, struggled for a moment to do up the button, then shoved his hand through his hair. How the fuck was he going to explain that?
A draft hit his damp back and he glanced over his shoulder.
The clinical room was empty. Malik had gone. He’d left the door open
Leo stepped into the corridor and saw Malik’s shadow slipping from the entrance and melting into the dark night.
Chapter Eight
Leo had a restless sleep, not just because of the discomfort of the stings but because of his unquenched desire and absolute embarrassment. He also kept spinning what if’s around in his thoughts. What if Malik took great offense to Leo getting hard under his touch? Perhaps he would go to the village elders and tell them—goodness knew what would happen. Leo was living in a very different culture and homosexuality wasn’t accepted the way it was back home. His mind wandered down routes from being sent back to Nairobi, to being stoned in the village square.
Eventually, knowing sleep had escaped him, he got up early, showered and took more antihistamine. He then went to the ward and started his rounds before breakfast, much to Sister Afua’s surprise and delight.
He’d just finished checking on a man with a lacerated foot that had become infected when Malik walked onto the ward.
“Doctor Leo,” he said, his voice stern and his brow furrowed. “I have found you a new patient, on the way here.”
“Oh, okay.” Leo straightened and took off his examination gloves. He couldn’t read Malik’s expression other than his mood seemed dark. “Where is he or she?”
“He. In the operating room.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Malik nodded once and turned.
A wave of nausea washed through Leo. Damn, he’d ruined their fledgling friendship— or at least his greedy fucking cock had. Why did he have no bloody control over it? It was adolescent, pathetic. But he just couldn’t help it. When Malik was around, his libido went into overdrive. He’d have to wank again later, get some of the sexual tension out of his system. Maybe then he’d have a bit more of a chance of reining himself in.
Leo wandered into the operating room and found a young man sitting on the bed. He was holding his arm and, despite the darkness of his skin, Leo could tell he was shocked. He wore only a pair of tatty shorts and his feet were bare and dusty. He had several piercings, through his ears and nose.
“What is the problem?” Leo asked, smiling and trying to project calm competence.
“He fell, on his way to check his traps. He is a warrior from the Oshi Valley—a small c
ommunity that on occasion we mix with or share kill with. His English is very poor. He came here, fifteen miles, for help.”
“Can you translate?”
“Yes, though it is obvious he’s hurt his arm.”
“His wrist, by the looks of it.” Leo stepped up to the bed and gently took the man’s arm in his hands.
The man stared wide-eyed at Leo.
Leo wondered if he’d ever seen a white man or heard English before. “Can you ask him if he’s hurt anywhere else?”
Malik spoke rapidly in a sing-song language.
Leo watched his lips, captivated by the way his mouth moved around the unfamiliar vowels. He was even sexier, more exotic than ever when he returned to his native tongue.
Leo pulled in a breath. He couldn’t go down that chain of thought. It was futile.
“No,” Malik said after the patient had responded. “He hurt only his wrist when he tripped over a rock, avoiding a snake. He landed on his arm.”
“Yes, I can see.” Leo studied the shape of the bones. Ordinarily an X-ray would be the first thing to do, but they didn’t have the luxury of a half million pound machine. Luckily though, it was an easy break to spot.
“Have you seen this dinner-fork deformity before?” he asked Malik.
“What do you mean?” Malik frowned.
“This, the shape of the top side of the wrist, see how it goes up then down, in a hump?”
“Yes.” Malik nodded and swiped his tongue over his bottom lip.
Leo glanced away. He didn’t need to see that delicate sheen covering Malik’s bottom lip. “It is a classic sign of a broken wrist,” he went on, “and even without an X-Ray, we can diagnose.” He gently felt over the hand and pressed just below the patient’s thumb. “Can you ask him if this is tender?”
Malik spoke again in his African language.
“He says it is.”
Leo looked at the patient who winced and nodded. “You see here,” Leo said to Malik. “This little dent in the hand, below the thumb tendon.”
“Yes, Doctor Leo.”
Ah, so he was back to Doctor Leo. Did that mean they weren’t friends anymore? He guessed it did.