“I think,” he said, feeling the blush rising again on his cheeks. “That it would be better if I followed your lead for a bit. I’m not entirely sure how best to proceed from here.”
Dominick nodded, dropping another of his sweet, world-ending kisses lightly against Alfie’s lips. “Happily.”
He then began arranging Alfie to his satisfaction, pulling the blankets off the bed entirely and propping a pillow under Alfie’s hips before digging through the sheets with a curse, looking for the abandoned bottle of oil. He came up with a triumphant cry, bottle in hand, before spreading Alfie’s bent legs a little further and situating himself between them.
Alfie turned away, feeling horribly exposed. He could feel the burn of his embarrassment from the tips of his ears to the center of his chest. A light but insistent touch pressed against his chin, turning him back to face Dominick.
“Hey now, none of that,” Dominick said. His eyes were dark with passion, the clear blue a narrow ring around the wide black of his pupils. But there was still concern there, and something else that made Alfie’s heart beat even louder. “It’s just us. Just me.”
Alfie exhaled, not realising how tense he had become until he felt his body relax. It was Dominick. His Nick. The one person he had trusted and loved before he even knew the meaning of those words. The one he wanted so badly he ached at night, and all he had to do was trust him just a little bit more. He nodded, but instead of the pressure against his entrance he had been expecting, Dominick swept him up in another kiss, and then another and another, until Alfie felt dazed.
When the touch he’d been expecting finally came, it wasn’t the immediate push he’d feared, but a light brush, Dominick tracing well-oiled fingers gently around his entrance, resting in the center just long enough to steal what little air remained in Alfie’s lungs before slowly circling the edge again until Alfie feared he would go mad.
“Look at you,” Dominick whispered, his voice carrying a note of reverence. “You’re so beautiful like this, Alfie. So gorgeous.”
Alfie panted, and looked pleadingly up at Dominick, begging without words.
“So beautiful.” Dominick whispered again as his finger finally breached Alfie and pressed inside.
“Oh,” was all he could say, the word drawn out as Dominick withdrew his finger and pressed in again and again. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.”
The feeling was like nothing he had known before. The difference between doing this to himself and having Dominick do it to him was indescribable. Discomfort tingled along the edges, but mostly all he knew was such a sense of fullness and completion that it was as if until this very minute, he’d been walking around his entire life half-whole and never realised it until now.
“Nick…”
“Hush, my love. I know, I know. One more now.”
The discomfort rose momentarily as on the next pass, Dominick slid a second finger in alongside the first. The stretch was more, a slight sting of pain accompanying it as Dominick stretched and prepared his passage, fingers curling and pressing.
On the next stroke, Dominick’s fingers tapped the spot inside him that had Alfie arching off the bed with a howl.
“Ah, there it is,” Dominick said smugly.
He pulled back and pressed his fingers in again, this time with force. When he hit the spot, Alfie dug his nails into Dominick’s shoulders. He snapped, pulling Dominick down into a kiss that was more teeth than lips, biting and crying out as Dominick thrust repeatedly, each time hitting the spot that had choking pleasure ricocheting throughout his body.
He barely noticed when two fingers became three so lost he was, a creature mad with pleasure, trying to pull his lover into him and tear him apart at the same time. Dominick’s thrusts were relentless. Alfie thought he would die there in the bed, his heart beating faster and faster until it beat right out of his chest. It was even worse when Dominick leaned back, gently pulling his fingers from him. The loss was unbearable, and Alfie yanked at him, trying to get him back where he belonged.
Dominick laughed and something thicker, blunter, rested against Alfie’s entrance. “So greedy. Is this what you want then?”
His words should have felt crude, debasing, but there was no malice in them, and no shame in Alfie when he moaned, eyelids fluttering in anticipation. “Yes. Please, Nick. I need you.”
No sooner had the words left his lips than Dominick was pushing in with a loud groan.
Alfie clung to him, locking his arms around Dominick’s neck and his legs around his waist. He held on for dear life as Dominick filled him, pressing his slick cock deeper and deeper until Alfie thought he would never end. Finally, he reached as far as he could go and stayed there. Through the swirl of pain and pleasure that wracked Alfie’s body, he could feel Dominick trembling, fine quivers running through him as he fought to stay still. Alfie breathed deeply and tried to adjust. The moment he felt the pain begin to recede and the pleasure take over, he kicked Dominick in the side.
The effect was as immediate as if he had spurred a racehorse. Dominick flew into action, snapping his hips and driving into Alfie wildly, thrust after powerful thrust. Alfie bucked his hips, his body taking over from his mind and reacting on instinct, trying to meet the assault head on and draw the greatest pleasure from it. Dominick growled. Alfie had no time to realise how tightly his lover had been holding on to his control until it was gone.
He grabbed Alfie’s waist in a bruising grip and pulled him onto his cock. Alfie cried out, the new angle causing Dominick to hit that spot inside of him with every thrust. He writhed and panted, overwhelmed but still needing more. He could almost taste his climax; he was so close, but it was just out of reach. He sobbed and grabbed Dominick’s arse with both hands, feeling the strong muscles flex as he drove into him.
He blinked away his tears of pleasure and looked up at his lover. Dominick was fierce, magnificent and all his. Alfie clenched down and Dominick gasped, teeth white and sharp as he grinned ferally.
Alfie grinned in return and did it again.
Dominick leaned back, pulling Alfie half into his lap and took Alfie’s prick in hand. The touch was the missing piece he needed. Dominick had barely wrapped his fingers around him before Alfie was coming. His vision darkened around the edges as he flew out of his body. He was distantly aware of the hot splash of his own spend against his stomach and chest but was too lost in pleasure. Blindly, he reached out and felt Dominick take his hand, sucking two of Alfie’s fingers into his mouth, drawing a moan from Alfie’s lips and another surge of spend from his cock.
Alfie floated softly back to earth, becoming aware of himself in tingling degrees. Dominick tilted him gently back onto the sheets and slowed his thrusts but didn’t stop, each one indolent and deep, setting off aftershocks throughout his body. He released Alfie’s cock when the touch became just a shade too much, but kept Alfie’s fingers in his mouth, nipping and sucking as he thrust.
“Nick,” Alfie groaned. He tried to move, to bring Dominick to climax, but found he could do little more than lie there and take it.
He could speak at least, he realised foggily, and tried again. “Nick, so good. So good for me. Please. Faster, you’re almost there.”
Dominick pulled Alfie’s fingers from his mouth with a groan and bent down, nearly bending Alfie in half as he buried his face in his neck. The ring on his necklace pressed a hard circle between their chests, warmed by both their bodies. Alfie reached up weakly, and twined spit slick fingers through his hair once more, pulling him impossibly closer.
“That’s it, Nick. I want to feel you come in me. Please. There’s been no one else, just you. Feels so good in me. I’m all yours.”
With one last brutal thrust, Dominick came, biting down on Alfie’s shoulder with a muffled shout. Alfie felt the hot rush deep inside him as Dominick climaxed. Alfie held him as tightly as he could, wanting to keep him there forever. He made the moment last as long as possible, whispering filthy encouragements in Dominick’s ear, but eventually Do
minick sagged against him, completely spent.
Just when his weight was becoming too much to bear, he kissed Alfie’s shoulder and gently pulled out.
“Sorry, sorry,” he repeated as Alfie hissed.
The discomfort was forgotten as Alfie watched him stumble from the bed on satisfyingly shaky legs, and wet the cloth by the pitcher before returning to Alfie and cleaning him all over. That task done, he collapsed back onto the bed beside him and let Alfie draw the covers over them both.
They smiled at each other giddily, the fire having burned down a little, but still bright enough to catch each other’s grins.
“Well?” Dominick finally asked.
“Well, what?”
“Well, what did you think?” His face grew serious. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Alfie stretched. He felt sore and well-used, with a deep throb that promised deeper aches on the morrow, but mostly he felt overwhelmingly good. He found Dominick’s hand under the blankets and placed it on his hip where Dominick had grabbed him so tightly before. He watched Dominick's eyes darken as he remembered and felt his fingers twitch against Alfie’s skin as if he couldn’t help himself.
“Not too much,” Alfie smiled.
“And the rest of it? It’s not… not everyone likes it, but you seemed to?”
Alfie had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. He considered his words carefully. “Well, I don’t know.”
“You don’t? I’m sorry, I thought—”
“I suppose I don’t have anything to compare it to.” Alfie interrupted. “I can hardly say how that rated if I’ve only had one experience. That would not be scientifically sound at all. No, I think further testing is required. Extensive, rigorous testing. In every manner we can think of and as frequently as possible, I should expect.”
Dominick stared at him, incredulous.
Alfie nodded to himself. “Yes, I firmly believe—”
His yelp turned into a laugh as Dominick used the hand on his hip to pull him firmly against his side. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
Alfie snorted.
“I suppose science can wait until morning,” he said magnanimously, arranging himself with his head pillowed on Dominick’s chest, his arm draped across his middle and Dominick’s hand still resting low on his hip.
“Mmm,” hummed Dominick, already half asleep.
Alfie waited until he felt Dominick’s breathing change, the chest beneath him rising and falling in the deep breaths of slumber, before he leaned up and pressed the lightest of kisses against his cheek.
“I love you,” he whispered, before letting feelings of security and home sink him into a deep sleep.
Chapter 23
Dominick blinked awake with the morning sun and a bone-deep feeling of contentment. Outside the window, he could hear birds chirping in the square, the clop of hooves as horses pulled carriages down the cobblestoned streets, and a thousand other sounds blurring together to form the chorus of a city waking up to the promise of a sunny day. Although it could be hailing brimstone and locusts for all he cared, the source of his serenity was not the weather, but rather the lump of stolen blankets that was currently drooling on his shoulder.
He gave a halfhearted tug at the nearest corner of blanket, but was rewarded only with an indistinct muttering and Alfie cocooning himself more tightly. Apparently some things never changed. Dominick laughed softly and rather than wait around with only the lightest of sheets to preserve his modesty until Alfie awoke—although that was a fine idea for another time—he extricated himself, and with a last kiss to the top of an ear peeking out of the nest, went to his bedroom to change and prepare for the day.
The spare bedroom. Not his.
It was too fine a morning for thoughts like that however, and he was nearly whistling by the time he made it down to the kitchen.
“I take it the patient has recovered then?” Mrs. Hirkins asked, swatting his hand away from a bowl of fresh berries and cream.
“Completely. Although I’m sure one more day in bed wouldn’t do him any harm.” Not that he intended to let Alfie sleep for any of those hours, but she didn’t need to know that.
“I’m sure,” she agreed briskly. “Just as well. Better than most he is, and finding a new employer at my age would be a trial.”
Dominick glanced down at the breakfast try laden down with not only bangers and eggs, but also the aforementioned berries and cream. And toast. And kippers. And bacon. And the fresh sticky buns she was just now pulling from the oven. A wiser man than he knew when to keep his bone box shut however, so he bit back any reply and waited for her to squeeze the teapot into the last bit of space on the tray, before he carefully lifted it and headed towards the door.
Pausing just long enough to tuck the newspaper and early mail Mrs. Hirkins had left on the hall table under his arm, Dominick continued up the stairs past the dining room. It took some maneuvering to get up the extra two flights, and even more to open the door to Alfie’s bedroom, but he managed without spilling a single drop of tea. He must have made enough noise to rouse his sleeping lover though, as he entered the room just in time to see Alfie emerge from his bundle of blankets, blinking and soft with sleep. His auburn curls, normally so violently bullied into order, now crowned his head in a wild riot of colour and confusion.
He looked completely dishevelled. Dominick’s cock throbbed and he wondered how quickly he could change that look to debauched.
He hesitated in the middle of the room. On the one hand, Alfie must be starving after so long without a proper meal, and it would be a shame to let this one grow cold. On the other hand…
“You brought me breakfast in bed?” Alfie smiled at him, sitting up fully. One of the blankets that had been wrapped so tightly around him slipped down, revealing a pale shoulder rubbed red by Dominick’s stubble, and shadowed here and there with the bruises from his teeth.
Right.
Dominick set the tray down on the nearest table with a clank and advanced on the bed. Breakfast could wait until later. Much later.
✽✽✽
Much later, he dropped back against the pillows, sweaty and sated. Alfie hummed contentedly as he burrowed against Dominick’s chest, composing them both for his greatest comfort. How lucky Dominick was, to have found him again. To be able to hold him like this in the quiet of the morning as the world came to waking around them and a new day, unseasonably bright and filled with promise, began.
Alfie’s humming transformed into a tune while they lay together, something from a music hall, light but forgettable. He ran his fingers through Dominick’s chest hair as if he was petting some great beast. Dominick snorted. If he was a beast, then he was one that had been thoroughly tamed.
Alfie’s hand passed over the ring on its cord without comment. Maybe he didn’t care, or maybe it was enough for him that Dominick had promised to tell him about it at some point. Either way, it was something Dominick would have to deal with sooner rather than later. He’d had time to think during the long day he’d sat beside Alfie’s bed as he slept, watching his chest for every breath and praying the doctor had been correct when he said that Alfie had gotten enough of the poison out of his system before it could do any real harm. Dominick knew he was not the smartest man, but he liked to think that his mind ground slow but fine, and he had come up with several possibilities as to how his ring could have ended up in St. John’s study. All of them would involve going back to Spitalfields to do some investigating and probably some headbreaking.
He sighed. Dragging himself from a warm bed and naked Alfie to face the mud and stink of the rookery sounded like a torment sent from hell, and a stupid idea to boot. Still, the sooner he confirmed his suspicions and handled any unpleasantness, the sooner he could return to Alfie’s side. A tamed and loyal beast indeed.
Alfie groaned in protest as he tried to gently disentangle himself.
“You’re making this more difficult than it already is,” Dominick chuckled. Alfie only c
lutched at him tighter.
“If you don’t let me up, then I can’t fetch you those sweet rolls Mrs. Hirkins baked.”
He could almost see the wheels turning in Alfie’s mind as he pondered this predicament.
“You’re a cruel man to make me choose,” Alfie sighed, loosening his hold.
“That I am. Cruel. Coarse. Savage. Depraved…”
“Mmm.”
“And you, love, are insatiable.” Dominick laughed and dropped a quick kiss on Alfie’s lips, his face upturned for just such a purpose. He then removed himself from further temptation and fetched the tray, grabbing some bacon and toast and wrapping them in a napkin to take along before hunting down his clothing. Alfie tore into his breakfast the moment the tray hit his lap, heading straight for the sticky buns as Dominick knew he would.
“I have some things need doing today, but I’ll be back by supper. Can you keep yourself out of trouble for a few hours?”
Alfie rolled his eyes and didn’t deign to respond, his mouth probably too stuffed with pastry to do so anyway. He began to flick through the mail on his tray pointedly.
“The doctor left you some medicine,” Dominick continued, holding one shoe in his hand but unable to find its partner. “Said to let him know when you were up and about and to wait to take it until after supper. So stay out of that too. Oy, you don’t see my—”
Alfie cried out and Dominick spun around to see his eyes wide with horror. In his trembling hands he held the newspaper up for Dominick to see. From across the room, most of it was too small to read, but the headline sent ice running through his veins.
BURGLARY AND MURDER!!!
Chapter 24
...The body, found early yesterday morning in an alley off of Drury Lane, has been identified as that of a Mr. Reginald St. John, late of Red Lion Square and cousin to The Rt Hon Alfred Pennington the Earl of Crawford.
Servants at Mr. St. John’s home report that he had not been seen for the last two days, never returning home the evening before the body was found. Most shocking however, the same night Mr. St. John was last seen, his home was the subject of a most brazen and outrageous burglary. The impudent thieves were chased from the house in the dead of night, but despite the courageous actions of Mr. St. John’s valet and several footmen, none of the reported team of four to six criminals has yet been apprehended. It can only be assumed that this audacious crime and the heinous murder of Mr. St. John are connected.
His Lordship's Secret Page 20