Nicol swallowed. “Perhaps.”
Lindsay smiled. “I’m not an imbecile, you know. I’ve as much to lose as you—maybe even more. And it’s not as though I’m going to be in Edinburgh much longer.”
Nicol watched him silently, his gaze tracking over Lindsay’s face, as though searching for some clue as to his sincerity.
“If it were solely up to me,” Lindsay continued, “I’d say, let’s take a little pleasure in one another’s company while I’m here. But you needn’t worry, you know. I won’t force myself on you.”
Nicol swallowed hard—Lindsay saw the nervous bob of his throat—then he whispered, “What sort of pleasure?”
In that moment, Lindsay’s blood seemed to slow in his veins, pulsing heavily. He had expected Nicol to back away when Lindsay made it clear that the decision rested with him. But he had not, and now he was staring at Lindsay with an expression that was both fearful and hungry.
Lindsay hesitated, then carefully he said, “I could suck you again. Did you like that?”
Nicol let out a tiny helpless moan that made Lindsay’s cock weep with wanting.
“What I want—” Nicol began, then halted.
“Yes?” Lindsay prompted.
“What I want is to”—he closed his eyes again, hiding from Lindsay as he admitted his desire—“is to lie with you. In bed, without our clothes, like—” He broke off.
“Yes,” Lindsay whispered. “Yes, we can do that.” And now his chest was aching again.
He had a terrible feeling he was going to sorely regret meeting Drew Nicol one day.
Chapter Thirteen
The bedchamber wassmall and cold. There was no fire in the grate, no rug on the bare wooden floorboards. The bed linens were clean, but plain. Even the jug and ewer that sat on the nightstand were a plain brown, no decoration at all.
All in all, it was a strangely cheerless room.
Nicol had brought a single candle with them. He set it down on the nightstand, where it guttered briefly then rallied, doing its best to push back against the room’s shadows. When he looked up at Lindsay again, his expression was unsure.
“Shall we undress?” Lindsay let one side of his mouth quirk up and added, “I should very much like to see you without your clothes.”
Nicol flushed but he lifted his hands to begin unbuttoning his waistcoat. Lindsay should have liked to do the undressing for him, but he knew, somehow, that Nicol would not allow that. So instead, he busied himself with his own clothes, unpeeling and unwinding all the shining, sumptuous layers and tossing them aside, one by one.
