by Ruby Moone
Charnley smiled and went take Jo’s hand. He bowed over it. “My dear Mrs. Crawford. I am so desperately sorry to have embroiled you in this dreadful situation.”
“It is of no consequence.” Her voice was shaky, but she held Charnley’s gaze.
* * * *
It was well beyond midnight by the time the whole mess was cleared up. David had to admit he was impressed by the way Charnley took charge, arranged for a small army of people to come and discreetly remove Standish’s body, and set about cleaning his dining room. Jeremy was tucked away in the kitchen with Jo, but it was a while before he was able to go and speak to them both.
Charnley and Kingston left, and David headed to the servant’s hall where he found Jo in clean clothes, scrapes and bruises attended to, making tea. She looked more like herself.
“Do you need me to call the physician?” David said to her. “You took an awful beating.”
“Not at all. Just scuffed my face really. It will heal.”
“We owe you everything. How can I repay what you did?” David said, accepting a plate with cake, putting it alongside the teapot.
“You owe me nothing. I almost got you all killed. Thank God your brother has a calm head.”
David nodded as though only now realising how calm Charnley had been, and then got to his feet. He stood before Jo and took her hand. He raised it to his lips and kissed it gently. “Thank you.”
He turned to Jeremy. He hardly dared look at him. As if all the things that he did in his life weren’t enough, his lover had just watched him kill a man. He dragged his head up to meet his gaze.
“I think I’m going to retire,” Jo said, and stood. David smiled at her and turned to face his lover.
* * * *
Jeremy’s heart hurt for him. He looked unutterably weary, and as though the weight of the world rested on his shoulders.
“You should retire, too,” David said after a moment. His smile was small and didn’t reach his eyes, and Jeremy’s heart sank as he could feel him sliding away from him. Shutting himself off in that way he did when he thought he had shown too much of himself. Jeremy’s heart beat faster and his throat hurt.
“Will you join me?” he said.
David’s smile was sad. “Do you really want me to?” he said. “After what I did tonight?”
The words echoed in Jeremy’s head. After what you did. He sighed and reached out to run his thumb over David’s cheek. “What you did was got rid of a man who threatened not only all of us, but the whole country.” Jeremy shrugged. “Why would I object to that?”
“It’s not the first time I’ve killed a man.”
“I’m sure it’s not. You’ve had a hard life.” It was true.
David closed his eyes and shook his head. “Jeremy…”
Jeremy dropped a soft kiss on his lips, making him flinch. “When are you going to realise there is nothing you can do that would make me stop loving you.”
David blinked but said nothing.
“Give me a moment, then come to my room.”
David frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but Jeremy put a finger over them. “Shh. My room.”
* * * *
Jeremy raced up the stairs to his room, where he carefully unfolded the violet gown and laid it on the bed. The water in the bowl was warm, thanks to Jo, and he sent her a silent message of thanks. He undressed and washed carefully, slid into the gown, and pinned his hair back. He pinched his cheeks and then sat on the bed in what he hoped was an alluring manner. Decided it looked silly so stood by the bedpost, one hand on it and the other on his hip. He fidgeted, and then felt ridiculous. He could hear footsteps. He panicked a little, wondering if David would even want him like this, but he seemed to like it before, so Jeremy just sat in the chair by the fire, held his knees together, and folded his hands on his lap. The candlelight in the room cast him in a warm glow along with the blaze from the hearth. He held his breath as the door opened.
David stood in the door for a moment, eyes wide, then he swallowed and closed the door. Jeremy looked at his strong back and waited for him to turn around. It was a moment or two before he did. When he turned, a muscle ticked along his jaw, and his eyes were darker than Jeremy had ever seen them. He stood up as David prowled closer, firelight flickering over his face. Jeremy shivered when David reached out and cupped his cheek, his eyes fluttering closed and his body hard as marble. David moved slowly, slowly, and then angled his head and touched his lips to Jeremy’s in the softest kiss that was barely a touch.
“Beautiful,” he whispered. “So beautiful.”
Jeremy shook all over. He was so aroused he feared he might spill at the smallest touch. The feel of the silk against his naked skin, the scent of David, the touch of his lips…
“So are you,” Jeremy whispered against his mouth.
David stroked strong fingers through Jeremy’s hair and then held his head and kissed his temple. “I want you.” His voice held a tremor, as did the hands that held him. David pushed him back so that he could look at him. His gaze took in the gown, and he swallowed.
“Do you like it?”
David nodded and swallowed again. Jeremy felt a surge of naked delight. “It fastens at the front,” he whispered.
David’s gaze locked with his for a moment, and then dropped to where Jeremy fingered the silk. He undid the loose ties of the gown slowly and as seductively as he could until his chest was bared. David’s cheeks were flushed, and his eyes riveted on the revealed flesh and the hard planes of his chest.
He kept on but stopped just by his navel, displaying the soft hair beneath that disappeared into the fabric.
David took a step forward, hesitated, then dropped to his knees. Jeremy gasped when David took hold of the material and gently eased it open to reveal his rigid cock. Jeremy was panting, waiting. David stared, looked up at him, and in one move, swallowed him down.
Jeremy moaned and held tight to David’s shoulders as he worshipped him. There was no other way to describe it. With his mouth, with his hands that roamed gently over his legs, his buttocks, and with the soft sounds that came from him. Jeremy’s eyes closed, and his mouth opened in a soft, silent moan as he luxuriated in the sensation, but then he pushed at David’s shoulders. He didn’t want this to be over yet.
David pulled back and looked up at him. His chest was rising and falling rapidly, eyes almost black. He looked like a supplicant. A fallen angel begging for forgiveness. He swallowed, and reached forward, gently unlacing the gown until it fell open completely, exposing him completely, and Jeremy felt beautiful. Powerful. Adored.
“Come,” Jeremy whispered, holding out a hand. David got to his feet, holding Jeremy’s hand and following him to the bed. Jeremy lifted the material and climbed onto the bed. He looked back over his shoulder, and the knelt with his back to David, spread the material beside him, and leaned forward to hold onto the bed stead. He looked back over his shoulder.
David was standing by the bedside staring at him. “Like that?” he whispered.
Jeremy nodded. He wanted to feel David behind him, in him, overwhelming him.
David paused to take a vial of oil from the bedside and then started to undress. He took off his cravat and shirt but paused with his hands on the buttons of his falls and climbed onto the bed.
Jeremy’s heart beat even faster. “Yes,” he whispered. “Leave them on. Let me feel…” He felt David lift the material of the gown gently up, revealing his thighs then his buttocks. He looked behind to see him carefully fold the material and tuck it out of the way, then run a hand over his skin. Jeremy shivered at the touch and moaned as David squeezed his rear, parting him gently and running his thumbs down his crease. He reached to the side and picked up the vial, and then trickled oil down the path his thumbs had taken and poured a handful and massaged his own cock. Jeremy had to look forward, focus on his hands, focus on anything but the sight of David preparing to fuck him so carefully.
David placed a kiss on the small of
Jeremy’s back, making his skin shiver, then slid his fingers lower, lower, until he was pushing against his entrance. Jeremy pushed back, and was rewarded with David’s long, strong finger sliding into him, plunging into him and then another, until he found the place inside which made him throw his head back and howl, gripping the bed head with everything he had.
“Now, please now,” he begged, but David just moved his fingers stretching him, opening him. “Please,” he whispered, “I need you now.”
In an instant, the fingers were replaced but the blunt head of David’s cock pressing into him. Jeremy squeezed his eyes tight shut and pushed back, holding his breath until he was seated inside, and the burn faded away to be replaced by exquisite pleasure, and then David began to move. Jeremy cried out. Positioned like this, he couldn’t move, couldn’t touch David, hold him, he was completely at his mercy and as David’s thrust grew harder, longer, and the feel of hard fingers gripping his hips, holding him in place, made pleasure and peace roll over him as his crisis neared.
David’s thrusts grew shorter, sharper, and then he let go with one hand, leaned over him, and reached around so that he could take Jeremy’s cock in his hand.
“Come for me, Violet Eyes,” he whispered, his voice ragged, and Jeremy’s world exploded. He was barely aware of David’s hoarse shouts and desperate thrusts as pleasure tore through him, robbing him of breath. They collapsed onto the bed together, David heavy as he lay on him, still joined. They lay, hearts thundering, and Jeremy reached out and found David’s hand. He took it and squeezed it.
“Love you,” he whispered.
David pulled his hand back, and gently withdrew. He got off the bed.
Jeremy buried his face in the pillow and didn’t move. He couldn’t look at him. This time, would he stay? He waited, and the longer he waited the harder it was to hold back tears. The door closed.
Chapter 26
By mid-morning, David sat in the study wearing only his breeches holding a glass filled with brandy. The fire was warm, but he was cold all over. He took a sip of his drink, Jeremy’s words echoing through his soul. How on earth he could claim to love him, God alone knew. He poked around his feelings, shying away from sentimental nonsense, and was forced to admit Jeremy was important. Very important. For the first time in his life, he could see a different path for himself and it was, frankly, terrifying. All the rules he had imposed on himself were not just broken, they had been shattered beyond all recognition. It was as if the rules had simply been stolen from him by a man with violet eyes and hard welcoming arms. He wasn’t sure what that left him with. Where it left him.
A tap on the door preceded Jo Crawford entering, neat in her uniform. She frowned. “You are undressed.”
“Indeed.” David raised his glass in salute at her astute observation.
“Charnley would like to speak with you. Should I put him in the parlour whilst you dress?”
“Show him in. Let us not stand on ceremony. He is, after all, family.” David put the glass down and stood. “Go on, show him in.”
Jo gave rolled her eyes and then departed. David stood by the fire, waiting. After a few moments, Jo returned with Charnley and a dressing gown. She handed it to him as she introduced his guest.
Charnley raised an eyebrow at his state of undress but forbore from comment.
“What can I do for you, brother dear?” he said, and dropped the robe onto the chair.
Charnley gave him a small smile. “I came to check that you and Naylor were not too badly affected by the events of yesterday.” He tilted his head on one side. “And to tell you that Naylor will be pardoned by tomorrow morning.”
David’s eyes closed of their own accord the relief that surged over him was so profound. “You have my thanks.”
“As you have mine for ridding me of a serious problem.”
Silence stretched between them.
“I meant what I said,” Charnley said. His grey green eyes were serious, his demeanour earnest.
“And what was that?”
“I want us to be brothers, I want you to work with me…”
“If you want us to be brothers why have you avoided acknowledging me my entire life?”
Charnley sighed. “And expose you as a bastard? Using an assumed name? Infiltrating the ranks of London’s finest? Hardly an act of brotherly loyalty. Surely even you can see that?”
David had to agree he had a point which irrationally, made him annoyed…
Charnley raised his eyebrows. “What?”
“Well, I’ve spent a long time hating you for your failure to acknowledge me.”
Charnley frowned. “David. If that is what you want, then I will happily acknowledge you. You’d hardly be the first man in town to be born out of wedlock.”
David felt odd inside. Unfamiliar emotions gripped him, and he had no idea what to do with them. Exactly the same way he felt about Jeremy.
He swallowed. “Wouldn’t want you ruining my carefully constructed character, would I?”
“There is no reason we can’t be friends in the eyes of the world, but brothers in private, is there?”
David looked at the floor. The years of misery and abuse? They were hardly Charnley’s fault. He pulled a face and shrugged.
Charnley shifted. “David, I need to tell you about our father.”
“I’m not interested. He wasn’t interested in me.”
“He wasn’t interested in me either.”
David frowned and waited.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you, but our father was not a good man. He was…” Charnley paused and a tremor ran through him. “Not a good man.” He nodded a few times. “Did you have anything to do with him?”
David shook his head. “My mother had a small house and a pension that I thought he paid for, but it was your mother. When she died all that stopped. We were thrown off the estate and my mother…” He hesitated. “My mother died soon after.”
“And you were on your own?”
David shrugged.
“Did you ever try to see him?”
“Damned right I did. I wanted him to acknowledge me, acknowledge my mother. What he had done.”
“I imagine that didn’t have the outcome you hoped for.”
David had the feeling Charnley had been on the receiving end of his father’s cruelty as well. “It did not. He almost killed me.”
“What did you do?”
David looked at his brother and took a decision. “I survived. Just. I grew up, learned how to thieve and I stole from him and established myself.”
Charnley raised his eyebrows with a slight smile.
“I stole what I considered to be mine by right and set myself up. I hate the aristocracy, its hypocrisy and greed founded on the suffering of others, so I made a life out of alleviating them of the burden of ownership and then investing the proceeds wisely. I made my fortune, and I make no apology for it. In doing so, I’ve been able to help people along the way who need it.”
Charnley nodded. “And you made sure your friends were well cared for?”
David stiffened. “And?”
“And nothing. I have nothing but admiration for your fortitude, skill, and determination. You are loyal to those you feel deserve your loyalty, and anyone else is a target should they fail to live up to your standards.”
“You know far too much about me.”
“What do you know about me?”
David shrugged. “Eton, Oxford, military, government agent. Not wed, plenty of money…” He smiled at Charnley and raised an eyebrow. “No idea you were a molly though.”
“Thank the Lord for some privacy.”
They were quiet for a moment, each lost in thought. Charnley was the one to speak first. “I’m serious about you working with me. There is a significant threat from the continent, and from seditious activists in our own country. There is a lot of work to do.”
“I’m doing nothing about the seditionists. I support them and all they stand for along
with the abolitionists. I’d see the aristocracy hang tomorrow.” He opened his mouth to continue but decided against confiding the exact extent of his financial support to his causes for the time being. As it was, Charnley looked faintly horrified.
“What, and have a revolution here?”
David shrugged. “As I say. Not prepared to get involved with anything like that. Happy to thwart the French attempting to invade us, though. Whilst I might have sympathy with the notion that there should be a fairer way to live, I’ve no stomach for the French coming over to tell us how to do it. They’ve made a bloody mess of it anyway.”
“Fair enough. We have a deal?”
Charnley looked ridiculously hopeful. David sighed and nodded and then rolled his eyes at Charnley’s huge smile. He came over and clapped David on the shoulder. “Good man. Good man.”
David shrugged him off and tried to ignore the feeling of warmth.
* * * *
Jeremy made his way to the kitchen in search of Jo. He found her sat by the range in the big rocking chair, nursing a cup of tea.
“How are you feeling today?” Jeremy asked.
She looked up and gave him a tired smile. “I’m fine. Just a little shaken. How are you?”
Jeremy sank to the floor and sat on the rag rug by her feet. “I don’t know.” He hugged his knees, “Do you know where he is?”
Jo reached out and stroked his head. “He’s in the study talking to Charnley.”
Jeremy was surprised by that. “How long has he been here?”
Jo shrugged. “Half an hour or so? Did you two kiss and make up?”
Jeremy leaned against her leg. “We kissed, but I don’t think we made up. He walked out.”
They both sat in silence for a moment.
“I told him I loved him.”
Jo made a tsk sound and shook her head. “Fastest way to make that man run is to thank him or tell him you care about him.”
Jeremy looked up at her and had the feeling his smile was sad. “You could have mentioned that before and given a chap half a chance.”