There was only one way Nick could have been serving Bennett.
“You had him spy on me?” Richard asked with distaste.
“He didn’t have to spy. Nick was as close to you as any man could be. He sent occasional coded letters that he dictated to your unsuspecting cast and then returned to me via my network. I still have the one written by your hand. He told me only the contents of your purse and the state of your health.”
There was a knock on the door, and it opened a crack. Nick peered through. He looked guilty.
“I told you to leave London,” Richard growled, trying to maintain calm. It was difficult because he was so angry with the lad.
Nick entered, head down, and shut the door behind him. “You told me to get as far away as I could,” he mumbled.
“And you could only manage two miles?”
“I have no one else.”
“If you treat everyone as badly as you have me, then I’m not surprised.”
Bennett ignored Richard and asked gently, “Nick, do you have any gambling debts?”
“No.”
“Does anyone know of your former relationship with Richard?”
“The whole of London knows I was his apprentice, and they all say I’ve been in his bed, though they’ve no proof. That’s all.”
“And your dealings with me?”
“I’ve never mentioned your name. I swear it on my life.”
“Good. You may go.”
Nick left, looking relieved. He didn’t look back.
“It seems you were the target, after all,” Bennett said, turning back to Richard. “Nick claims he has told no one, and I believe him. My men would have told me if there were pernicious rumors about us.”
It didn’t seem possible. “I’ve nothing to give them. Nick had a pound off me yesterday, and that was all the money I was sitting on. If we were anywhere but London, I couldn’t have given him that.”
After a moment’s thought, Bennett said, “You’ve money in the costumes. Perhaps only a few of the better gowns would cover it.”
“I won’t raid the company to pay a stupid boy’s debt.”
“You won’t have to. I told you, I will pay.”
Bennett pressed a panel on the wall, and it came loose. Inside was a hollow space with a small chest and what appeared to be a dozen empty purses next to it. He didn’t remove the box, simply opened it and began to fill one of the bags. Looking at its contents, Richard guessed the chest was probably too heavy to move.
This wasn’t the only hidden chest in the house, but it was one he knew well, and that was probably why Bennett had led him to it. Looking around the room, Richard noted nothing else had changed since he was last there two years before.
“Here.” Bennett handed him the purse and then turned back to lock the chest and replace the panel. “Thirty pounds. And five extra for you.”
Richard needed the money but knew he couldn’t accept it. “Thirty is already a lifetime’s earnings for many men. I can’t take more from you.”
“The rest is a gift. I’ll not see you go cold or hungry.”
Richard weighed the purse in his hand. “I’m not that poor,” he murmured, but his small savings were gone, and it would take time to build them back up, especially with a second apprentice he’d promised to pay twice the going rate. That was what Nick got, and William ought to have the same. William was offering the same terms, after all.
“The money will ensure you remain so,” Bennett said gently.
“I can’t take it. Let me have my pride.”
He handed back the purse, but Bennett immediately returned it.
“You will not meet a single man in the street who wouldn’t snatch that out of my hand. Take it. Pride is for the wealthy and the stupid. You are neither of those things.”
Richard tied the purse to his belt and didn’t argue. “Thank you.”
They stared at each other. This was the moment Richard had been anticipating and dreading the most.
During their time apart, he had imagined being in Bennett’s bedchamber on many occasions. He had long ago resolved not to return, but each time, a better reason than the last brought him back. Now their business was concluded, all he had to do was thank Bennett and leave. He could not.
“I see you’re wearing my ring,” Bennett said, breaking the silence.
Richard looked down at it. “I didn’t know what else to do with it.” When he looked back up, he noticed Bennett rubbing the space on his finger where it had once lived. “I should go. Thank you for your help.”
“Wait,” Bennett said, although Richard hadn’t moved. “Let me hold you again, just once more. It has been such a long time I have forgotten what it’s like.”
An embrace wasn’t unfair, not after Bennett had been so generous. Richard stepped into the warmth of his arms, knowing not to trust him but letting himself enjoy the moment.
“I’ve missed you,” Bennett confessed, voice hushed, as though he was ashamed of the idea.
“It has been too long. It’s good to see you again,” Richard replied, letting the words he ought to hold in slip away from him. He didn’t like Bennett, but he’d missed him terribly.
Bennett held him a little tighter. “You don’t have to say it just because I gave you the money.”
“I’m not. Your kindness this evening to both me and Nick has earned you the truth. I missed you too.”
Bennett chuckled, his hard body moving enticingly against Richard’s. “That was worth every penny.”
Richard pulled away. He should have known better than to speak freely in front of Bennett. He did know better, but being the idiot he was, he had done it anyway. “I didn’t say it for the money,” he growled.
Bennett caught his hand and held it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest I could buy the sentiment. Not from you. I bought your honesty.”
“As you said, I can’t afford pride now,” Richard muttered, snatching his hand back.
“Then have mine. I am proud of what you have become.”
That was untrue. “Good night,” Richard said, moving toward the door.
Bennett let him go, seating himself on the bed. As Richard opened the door, Bennett asked, “May I kiss you good-bye?”
“No.”
“I understand,” Bennett said, a touch of disappointment in his voice. “Good night.”
In the hallway, Richard shut the door and leaned back against it. He should be happy. Perhaps he would have been if Bennett hadn’t crassly suggested he could buy his affection, but the chuckle mocked him, and the idea that his emotion was based on a bag of coins cheapened him. Given their history, he could not stand to hear it.
Bennett should have just asked for a fuck as payment. He’d never scrupled about buying it before—not that he’d ever directly done so from Richard. Bennett could have his arse for a farthing if he wanted it, and only then if he insisted on paying. He always took care of it.
Bennett had been Richard’s first, and in fifteen years, none had bettered him. That was half the reason Richard returned to him time and again. The rest was because he loved Bennett almost as much as he hated him.
And that was the reason he couldn’t move now, the reason he was leaning against the bedroom door instead of hurrying away and congratulating himself on a purse of coins obtained at the expense of Bennett’s pride. He must have been wounded by Richard’s refusal to kiss him.
Good.
But all Richard could think of was the happiness on Bennett’s face at finding him in the library, the softness in his voice when he’d admitted to missing him, and the gentleness of his arms clasped around his body.
Perhaps this time….
No, that was Richard’s heart talking, and his head knew he’d heard it all before. Richard would not trust him again. He’d revealed his weakness to Bennett the day they met, and it had been used against him too often when Bennett had needed his help. As Richard matured, Bennett worked harder to obtain his good favor, but
he’d managed it each time.
Not now.
Richard told himself that, even as he felt his resolve crumbling. He had three choices. One, he could return to William and swear off him for good. That wasn’t going to happen. Two, he could return to William, give up his arse to the lad, and rut all night. That shouldn’t be allowed to happen, not if he ever wanted Geoffrey to speak to him again. Three, he could stay with Bennett.
When he’d walked away from William the previous night, he had wished for Bennett to distract him from his lust for the lad. Now he was there, outside Bennett’s bedroom. Surely that was a sign?
He turned around and opened the door.
Bennett still sat on the bed, head in his hands. “What is it?” he asked wearily before he looked up. Their eyes met, and Bennett’s expression turned to delight. “Richard? I thought you’d gone.”
Richard hurried to the bed and pulled him up into his arms. He kissed Bennett fiercely and felt Bennett’s upper body relax against his chest while farther down his cock stiffened.
“Have me, please,” Richard begged through the kisses. “It has been so long since I let a man take me, and that is all I want right now.”
Bennett seemed surprised. “You never let Nick?” He pulled his lips away from Richard’s and searched his face. He obviously assumed Richard was lying, but right then Richard didn’t care.
“With him, it was all hands and mouths, and the occasional fuck when I fancied his arse. I used him sparingly. Now please, enough talk. I need you inside me.”
They kissed again. Bennett swiftly unfastened Richard’s doublet and pushed it from his shoulders. It hit the floor a moment later, quickly followed by the rest of their clothes.
Richard shoved his lover onto the bed and climbed on top of him. “Where’s the oil?” he growled.
Bennett grinned at him. “Where do you think?”
Richard remembered. He reached under the bed, feeling around for it. His fingers brushed the soft carpet, then stroked over a pair of silk slippers and a smoothly varnished box until finally he found a small bottle, which he brought up onto the bed. Pressing it into Bennett’s hands, he whispered, “Don’t tease me or make me wait. I’ve had enough of that these past few days, and I just want to come off.”
Bennett kissed him before pushing him down onto his stomach and pulling his arse up into the air. Bennett’s tongue, warm and wet, slid across his hole. He gasped at the sensation, clawing at the sheets beneath him before he snatched up a pillow and clung to it. There was one more lick, then another, and another. Soon the tongue was joined by well-oiled fingers, and Richard could take no more.
“Please,” he begged. “Your prick—I must have it.”
Bennett chuckled again, but Richard took no offense.
“Hurry,” Richard urged. “Two years’ wait is long enough.”
“Roll over,” Bennett said.
Richard turned onto his back.
Bennett looked down at him, cock hard and leaking with desire. “You will have it,” he promised, “but I will not be able to hold back long when I’m inside you.”
Bennett’s sculpted chest rose and fell fast now, and Richard let his eyes linger on it. The hard muscles were still dusted with dark hairs, long after his head had succumbed to silver. He had the body of a man in his prime.
“How often I have dreamed of you like this,” Bennett said, gaze traveling over Richard’s body. “Now you are here, I can’t make it last.”
He snatched up the oil and drizzled it over his cock. After that, everything was a blur as Bennett fell upon him, forcing a kiss onto his lips. Richard felt his lover’s prick rubbing against his own, and then it was gone again and Bennett was pushing back Richard’s legs and pressing inside.
There was an intense burn, just for a moment, as his body stretched to accommodate Bennett’s impressive cock. Then it touched him in a place he had no name for, a place that felt like the very center of his being. He closed his eyes and moaned at the joy of it, the spark of pleasure igniting his whole body.
When he opened them, Bennett’s face was inches from his, staring into his eyes. His hips were moving steadily now, thrusts long and deep. Richard pulled him closer for a kiss, and Bennett’s movement changed, short, quick stabs that met their target with speed, maintaining an intensity that would drive any man over the edge.
Richard tried to hold back, but he could not. Two days in close quarters with William had left him aching for release, and he was more than ready for it. “That’s it,” he grunted, letting go, and he felt Bennett flood him with seed a moment later, sending one final, blissful shudder through him, just as it was supposed to be over.
Bennett collapsed on top of him, spent. Richard kissed him passionately, a last nod to their coupling, and then nudged him off his body and onto the bed.
“Thank you,” he said. He had planned to be up and dressing moments after they were done, but it was all he could do not to throw a possessive arm around Bennett and fall asleep.
“Thank you?” Bennett asked with a low chuckle, still short of breath. “Have I done you a service?”
“One I sorely needed. You truly were missed.”
Bennett turned his head and looked at him, eyes still full of desire. “Stay tonight,” he panted, “and in the morning, you may have my arse. You’re not the only one who has missed that.”
The last time Richard agreed to stay the night, he had lived in the house for eight months before he caught Bennett with one associate and two bawds in their bed. He looked back upon the time they’d spent together then as the best and the worst of his life, but he would not go through it again.
“I can’t. My apprentice will worry,” he said, grateful for William for the first time since he’d arrived at Bennett’s home. Richard had tried not to think of him while he lay beneath his oldest lover, but now, uninvited, William returned to his thoughts.
Bennett left the bed and fetched a rag to clean himself.
“You like him, don’t you, this new boy?” he asked as he wiped away the evidence of their intimacy.
There was a question. “I do,” Richard confessed to himself as much as to Bennett. “In truth, I like him much more than I should a man I have known two days. He keeps nothing of his feelings to himself. A tender heart and a handsome face are a potent combination.”
“There are plenty of handsome faces. I realized far too late that the heart is the key.”
Was that an admission?
Richard tucked the moment away in his breast along with all the other little gestures and acknowledgments he’d received that evening.
Finished with the cloth, Bennett tossed it over to him and picked up his discarded clothes.
“How old?”
“Twenty.”
“A twenty-year-old apprentice! Well, I suppose I set the precedent when I formed the acting troupe. It’s an attractive age, though, isn’t it? The charm of youth with the body of a man.”
Richard found William charming, but it wasn’t his youth he liked. “You know I always preferred older men.”
Pulling on his hose, Bennett grinned at him. For once, Richard thought Bennett had earned the right to be a smug bastard about it.
“I know very well what you like, but you’ve made exceptions before.”
Richard could only think of one. “You introduced me to Nick. He had expectations, and I was lonely. That was born of need more than a desire for a young lover.”
“I hope the new apprentice serves you better than he did.”
That wouldn’t be hard. Nick was skilled, but Richard had always wanted more than that in bed. “He was trying to serve me when that brute who came for the money interrupted us.”
Bennett’s eyes widened, and his smile grew broader still. “Really? You didn’t hurry back to him?”
“I promised Geoffrey I wouldn’t touch him, and I’ve already gone back on my word. I don’t want to make things any worse.”
“But I’m sure your young ap
prentice has other ideas.”
“Lots. And you’ve seen him. He is almost impossible to say no to.”
Bennett looked down at him fondly. “He’s lovely, but I’ve known lovelier, and here you are with me now, instead of at the Spurre sharing his bed.”
“Yes.”
“I’m at your call every night if you want me,” Bennett promised. His voice was gentle, but his face still carried a wolfish grin.
“I might.” Richard hoped he sounded casual to Bennett’s well-trained ear. He knew already that he would be at the bedroom door come nightfall tomorrow, cursing himself for his weakness and hating Bennett even more. If only Bennett could simply love him or let him go… but none of that would matter when they were in bed again and Richard was moving inside his lover, saving up every signal that seemed to give away what was in Bennett’s silent heart.
No one would hurt but him, and Richard could take it when the time came for Bennett to let him down. Even now, he knew he would pay for this later. He always did. Nevertheless, after two years apart, a little heartbreak seemed a small price for a few weeks, maybe even months, of paradise. If he kept his head clear, refused to trust Bennett’s words and simply enjoyed them, he might protect himself.
Fully dressed now, Bennett returned to the bed and kissed him again. It was the delicate, gentle kiss Richard should have given William onstage.
William. William will hurt.
Richard pulled away, feeling afresh the burn on his cheek. “I’m famished,” he said. “Fetch me something sweet.”
Bennett stole another kiss and left without a word.
Flopping back onto the bed, Richard let out a heavy groan. He hadn’t asked William for his heart. It couldn’t be helped if his was already occupied. Why did he care how William felt anyway? He barely knew him—that was what Bennett would say. But Richard wasn’t Bennett, and he hoped he never would be.
Bennett returned, carrying a plate of sweetmeats. “Marchpane,” he said. “It always used to be your favorite. Or have your tastes changed over the last two years?”
The First Act Page 9