by Lee Rowan
“I can always survive on half-pay if peace breaks out. And there’s all that money from our adventure last year.”
“You could come and stay here with me if peace breaks out. Wherever you might be, please… contact me through Kit.”
“I couldn’t—”
“Not charity, Will. For my own happiness. You would offer me the same. You just did, with far less to spare.”
“But—”
“Too sleepy, Will. Talk later.”
BUT THEY never did; not on that subject. They awoke sometime in the morning, made slow, sweet love, and fell back asleep. By early afternoon, hunger drove them into the next room, where they found a cold dinner awaiting them, along with a note that Kit had been called away on business and would be gone for a day or two. While they ate, someone visited the bedroom silently and changed the linens. The whole day went by like a marvelous dream. Food appeared as if brought by a genie from a fable, their clothes were left neatly in the study, washed and pressed, though they never bothered to put them back on. There was a timeless quality to the long tropical day, sleeping and waking together, holding one another, all the things they had never had time or place or safety to attempt.
All but one.
They slept snuggled together like spoons, naked beneath a tent of mosquito netting. Marshall woke suddenly, his heart pounding, from a dream in which Davy had been shot and taken away, and he couldn’t find him. He couldn’t find Davy, who was lost and wounded, dying all alone. But the dark was peaceful, and he was safe, and Davy was sprawled across him, his breath warm and even.
The night breeze was pleasant, but just a little cool. He tried to ease away enough to drag the sheet up without waking his lover, but to no avail.
“Will?”
“Just pulling up the covers, Davy. Go back to sleep.”
“Mmm.” Davy settled against him, stretching his body like an affectionate cat, as though trying to rub against every exposed inch of flesh. “You’re really here. Thought I might’ve dreamt it all.”
“I feel the same. Keep pinching myself.”
“Need help?” Davy’s hands were suddenly busy, reaching back to pull Will closer. His bare behind wriggled enticingly against Will’s cock.
“Good God, you’re turning into a satyr!”
“Missed you,” Davy said simply, tilting his head back to catch Will’s mouth.
“Davy….”
“Mmm?”
“You’ve let me… take you.” He reached around and found Davy beginning to harden once again. “But you’ve never… I was just wondering if you would like—”
Davy was suddenly, utterly still. “No.”
Will kissed the back of his neck, caressing his shoulders, smiling at the shivers that evoked. Much to be said for short hair. “I don’t know quite what to do, but it feels so good when you let me… and I’d like to know how it feels—”
“No.” Davy rolled to face him, invisible in the dark but tense now and breathing fast. “No, Will. The first time would hurt. No matter how careful I was, I would hurt you. I cannot do that.”
It was Will’s turn to freeze. “Have I been hurting you, then? I didn’t—you didn’t seem—”
“No!” Warm hands cupped his face. “No, you’ve always been… wonderful. And I’ve had—at first, it’s—Will, I can’t. I cannot.” He took Will’s hand again, as though words failed him, and moved it down to his softened cock. “I—just thinking about it, you see? I—I’m sorry.”
His distress wrung Will’s heart. “It’s all right, Davy. Truly. I only thought…. It doesn’t matter.” He gathered his lover close again and began doing everything he knew Davy enjoyed.
Kissing, licking, he worked his way down to a nipple and gave it his thorough and undivided attention until Davy was writhing and gasping helplessly. Then he moved to the other, and downward again, until he knelt between Davy’s upraised knees and swallowed him whole. Strange that Davy would allow this and not the other, but it made little difference, really. As long as he could give pleasure…. He sucked and stroked and reached around to touch just there—and Davy was crying aloud, hips thrusting up and up.
When he finished, Davy was very quiet for a moment. Then he murmured, “Will, the salve’s on the nightstand. Would return the favor now, but… can’t keep my eyes open.”
He sounded so sleepy and helpless that Will could only laugh. “That’s all right. You just wait until morning!” He wiped Davy off with a corner of the sheet, then wiped himself and pulled the sheet over them both. Odd. He should by rights be hard as a rock, but all he felt was a kind of tenderness. What a strange prohibition Davy had set on himself! But it didn’t matter. For the little time that remained of his leave, they were together, that was what mattered. And he was damned sleepy himself. Felt like he’d swum for miles….
He was asleep almost before Davy’s head settled on his shoulder.
“KIT HAD to go out to the sugar fields,” Davy called, wheeling a small table in from the other room. Covered dishes on it suggested something interesting for breakfast. “He will be back tonight.”
“I hope we are not putting him out of his own home.” Will untangled himself from the sheet and sat up, swinging his legs over to perch on the edge of the bed. Their host had been conspicuously absent, inviting them to dinner only once since that first night.
Davy laughed. “In a house this size? We aren’t that loud, Will!”
“Lord, I should hope not!” St. John’s kindness was still astonishing; Will had never before had the experience of someone else seeing so completely to his comfort. Luxury, rather. He knew he did not deserve it, but Davy did. Davy deserved every happiness, and Will had made a deliberate effort to stop feeling overindulged and enjoy himself for Davy’s sake.
“What’s worrying you?” Davy lunged across the bed and caught him from behind, wrestling him down onto the mattress. “It’s rolls and sausages this morning,” he said with a nip at Will’s ear. “Unless you’d care for seconds, before we eat?”
“I wasn’t concerned with breakfast.” Will threw a leg over Davy’s, pinning him on one side while he cast about for a plausible topic. “It’s that forfeit. The longer you delay in naming it, the worse I expect it to be. I cannot believe that in four days you were unable to produce a single outrageous request.”
“Outrageous—?” Davy’s eyes lit. “Oh, from the bath! I’d nearly forgotten!”
“Or have you run out of wild excess?” Will suggested hopefully. They had, after all, been as imaginative and energetic as Davy’s convalescence would permit.
“Not nearly,” Davy assured him. “A valiant attempt, Will, but I do have a few ideas.” He ran his fingers through Will’s disordered hair. “I have it. A picnic.”
“A picnic?” Will echoed, leaning down to suck lightly on Davy’s lower lip. “That doesn’t sound outrageous.”
“It is not. But what I have in mind is something more than a picnic.”
“Mmm?” He stretched out and pulled Davy closer, but his lover was suddenly a bundle of energy. With a brief kiss, he slid away and threw on a dressing gown, then disappeared down the hall.
“Faster to find him than to ring,” he explained upon his return. “Where are your trousers?”
“What?”
“There’s a tropical paradise outside, yet we’ve spent nearly all your leave right here within these four walls.” Davy rummaged in a trunk and thrust a bundle of clothing at Will.
He caught the clothing, and Davy, and pulled him down once more. “I have no complaints. Never in my life have I slept in a finer bed. We can spend all our time right here, if you like.”
David lay still for a moment, studying him. “I wouldn’t mind. But this is a beautiful island, Will. I’ve found a place that I would like to share with you. A place that I would like to remember with you in it. Do you understand?”
“I think so. As I remember you in a certain carpenter’s walk.” It had been foolish to take the risk in truth
and not just as a part of the Captain’s charade, but Will knew he would never regret their having taken that hasty joy in one another. After the Valiant sailed into ambush and Davy was shot, it seemed their last embrace would be forever stained with his blood. And that final encounter had been with Marshall every time he had occasion to go down the walk, the happiness of the memory overshadowed by loneliness and grief.
Warm fingers smoothed the frown from his forehead. “Like that, I suppose. But without the wretched mess after.” Davy shifted his weight just enough to make his position quite stimulating. “There is a beautiful glade, Will. I want to take you there.”
“Certainly.”
“And….” His blue eyes sparked with a devilish gleam. “I want you to take me there.” His expression left no doubt of his meaning.
“Davy—you can’t! Outdoors?” Will’s voice rose to a squeak. “We couldn’t possibly—what if someone were to see—?”
“No one will see us,” Davy said. “And it was a fair wager….”
He felt as though Davy had just suggested they stroll through Kingston in the nude. “Yes.”
“Don’t worry so. You have my word, no one will see. If we leave very soon—” He pushed off and regained the floor, tossing the clothing back toward Will.
It was not his uniform, just a pair of loose slops and a plain shirt. “Davy, what is this?”
“You are off-duty, Mr. Marshall. These will be much more comfortable. A pair of straw hats and no one will recognize us. No one is likely to see us at all, much less see us doing anything… outrageous.”
Marshall was quite certain no one would see them doing anything outrageous, because he knew that he would die of mortification before he could manage any such thing in the open out-of-doors. But a wager was a wager, and Davy had won—and Davy had given his word. And just how did he intend to keep it?
Curiosity got him into the clothing and down the stairs.
THE INESTIMABLE Jacobs had arranged for a donkey cart, and Davy assumed the driver’s position with an air of competence that suggested this was not his first encounter with the beast. As they drove out from beneath the porte cochère into the blazing sunlight, Will realized how much coolness came from the trees surrounding the mansion.
“Hotter than I expected,” he said.
“Yes, that should help insure our privacy. The mad Canadian goes driving around when sensible people are taking their siesta.”
“I think that England depends on all her subjects being slightly mad.”
“Only slightly?” But they were back in the shade soon enough, under trees Will could not name, catching glimpses of the brightly colored birds that looked like airborne flowers. Their track turned off the main road, and wound around through low hills until he could no longer see the sun or guess their position. After an hour or more, he spied a small stream running alongside the road, its water catching and reflecting glints of sunlight.
“Nearly there.” Davy’s voice was quiet in the summery stillness. He rested a hand on Marshall’s thigh. “You’ll like it, Will.”
“I begin to see why you were not worried about privacy,” Will said. “Is there no one out here at all?”
“I saw two boys, once. And a few people when there’s a holiday. But this is part of Kit’s estate, and off the usual path. Besides, there are many other places almost as fine, and much easier to reach.”
The road took another turn, and they were in Paradise. The track they were on ended beside a shelf of rock at the water’s edge, the only sign of human trespass being a small fenced enclosure. They had reached the source of the stream, a steep embankment where water cascaded down an irregular stairway of jagged rocks to form a deep, clear pool surrounded by tropical greenery. Near the foot of the falls, the rocks receded and the water fell nearly straight for perhaps eight or ten feet. A fine mist rose from that, and the sun above the clearing was at just the right angle to form a rainbow in the suspended droplets of water. The beauty of it, the color and scent and the unending whisper of the water, was beyond anything Will had ever experienced.
“My God,” he said after a moment of astonished silence.
Davy nodded; his hand rested on Will’s, fingers intertwining. “I wanted to share this with you, but I didn’t expect we’d get the rainbow as well. A good omen, don’t you think?”
The only talisman Marshall needed was sitting beside him. He wanted to say he did not believe in omens, but Davy looked so pleased that he only nodded. “Do you want to have a swim?”
“Yes. It’s a bit cool, but you won’t notice for long. Would you unpack while I see to Bruno?”
He realized Bruno was the donkey when Davy climbed down and unhitched the beast, putting him in the pen where he could reach water and crop the long luxuriant grass. Unpacking was the work of a moment—lifting out the basket of food, a couple of thick Turkish towels, and a heavy quilt.
“Would you like a swim first, or something to eat?” Davy asked at his elbow. He took the quilt, old and faded, and spread it out on the rock ledge.
“Whatever you prefer.” They had wolfed down the breakfast rolls while Jacobs was arranging transportation, and he was not really hungry just yet, still anticipating Davy’s “outrageous request.” But it did not seem quite so outrageous in this enchanted setting. “I think—”
His words and thoughts were rudely interrupted as Davy gave him a hard shove in the back, propelling him off the ledge. He spun in midfall and snagged Davy’s arm, and they splashed noisily into the pool together.
Will surfaced, sputtering, and blew the water out of his nose. It was cool, true enough, but pleasant on this sultry day, nothing like the icy water of the open sea.
Laughing like an idiot, Davy bobbed up beside him.
“Why in hell—”
“You were starting to think again, Will. I was afraid we’d never—”
Will clapped a hand on his head and dunked him, and things degenerated into a free-for-all. He had the longer reach, but Davy was unscrupulous; when Will pinned both his arms, Davy resorted to kissing, and he had to release him before they both drowned.
“I think you’re getting your strength back,” Will said, treading water. “As well as your regrettable taste in pranks. You might’ve waited until I removed my clothes!”
“They’ll dry soon enough.” Davy shed his trousers with a quick wriggle and tossed them up on the shore. His shirt quickly followed. “Do you require assistance, Mr. Marshall?”
“No!”
His prohibition was ineffective; as soon as he’d untied the drawstring that held the slops in place, Davy dove down smoothly as a dolphin and yanked them off, creating a serious distraction by pausing halfway up for a nibble. That warm mouth in the cool water took Will’s mind completely off swimming, and when Davy started blowing bubbles around his cock, he went under with a startled “Damn!”
He wrestled the trousers away from his lover and pitched them clear of the water, then took off his shirt. “Davy, for heaven’s sake, I’m not a fish!”
“I thought I had a pilchard, down there.” Davy floated closer, reaching down. “There. No, it’s a little bigger than that!”
He would’ve pushed the searching fingers away, but it felt too good, and for a little while, the water seemed to hold them suspended, just their faces above the surface. Davy was cool and slippery, except for the heat of their kiss, but as the embrace grew more intense, they sank back into the water. It was Davy who finally broke contact and went up for air.
“—isn’t quite working,” he was saying when Will shook the water out of his ears. “Though it is pleasant.”
“Mm.” Will caught him again, drawing him near enough to allow their bodies to slide together. “Exceedingly pleasant. But impractical.” He glanced at the quilt on the rock ledge. He wanted Davy here and now, not back at the house. But it was so open, and however isolated, they could not be certain they would not be seen….
“Let me show you something,” Davy said
. He swam back to where their clothing lay, rummaging around in his trouser pockets until he found a drawstring bag that he slung around his neck. “I promised you that no one would see….”
He swam toward the waterfall, threw a bright smile over his shoulder, and dove beneath the sparkling surface. Will waited for him to resurface, then waited a moment longer before splashing over to where Davy had disappeared. The water was clear enough to see through, but there was nothing to see but rocks and minnows.
“Davy? Davy!”
“Here!”
He glanced up in time to see Davy framed in the falling water for an instant before he disappeared behind the glittering curtain. Will swam up cautiously, then put a hand into the torrent.
Davy caught his hand and drew him into the falls. His feet found the outcrop of a ledge as their bodies came together. With the water streaming down on them both, he could barely breathe as Davy’s cool lips met his. After an intoxicating moment, he pushed forward, carrying them both out of and behind the cataract.
“Look at it, Will! Have you ever seen anything so astonishing?”
He shook his head slowly, speechless with wonder. He could not have imagined anything more marvelous than the pool outside, but this was a place of almost unearthly beauty. The sun outside shone directly through the water, creating an ever-changing pattern of light on the walls of the domed cavern. The ground sloped up quickly, leaving them waist-deep in the water after only a few steps.
“How ever did you find it?”
“Kit showed me. The doctor recommended swimming for exercise, but I wasn’t allowed out alone, at first.”
“I should think not.” Will looked at him, standing there with the water lapping just above his knees. The scar was barely visible in this uncertain light, camouflaged by dancing sunlight. In any event, Davy no longer seemed the least bit self-conscious about it. He was simply waiting, naked and beautiful.
Emotion overwhelmed Will. “Davy, how—”