‘It’s kinda…proper courting—before getting married? I don’t know. Only I can’t see Sarah being casual about anything.’
‘No, there I would agree.’
‘So we might lose her completely. Then what?’
‘What are you trying to say, Ben? Stop hoping I’ll say it so I’ll be the bad guy in this fantasy relationship you have in your head where you are merely a martyr to my manipulative wiles.’ He was stroking Ben’s calf with his bare toe, so he knew his words would be taken in the spirit they were intended.
They were. Ben reached over and flicked his ear, but said no more. It was fairly obvious what the solution ought to be if Sarah left them, but actually admitting out loud neither of them wanted this would put them in a very bad light. Aleksey studied Ben’s legs for while, watching his foot slowly traversing up and down the muscled, tanned calf. Suddenly he rose and embraced Ben from behind, wrapping his arms around his neck. Ben put one hand up to caress his forearm. He kissed Ben’s unshaven cheek. ‘I have an idea.’
‘Oh, God. Go on.’
Aleksey laughed, and began placing light bites around his ear. ‘If Sarah leaves us, I’ll build another cottage in the grounds, a miniature one, and the baby tyrant can live there on her own. She thinks she knows everything about everything already, as you would have to admit.’
Ben snorted. ‘Every room would be bright pink and full of unicorns. And there’d be so many stuffed toys she wouldn’t be able to get in.’
‘It’s what they did with princesses in the past. And princes, I suppose. When they were born they were sent away to another residence with their own entire household staff.’
Ben twisted his neck around to give him a sceptical look. ‘Babies? On their own?’
‘Yes, their own establishments.’
Ben grinned. ‘If Mol Mol had staff she could boss them around instead of you.’
‘Yes, I have noticed she resembles her father more and more in that regard.’
‘I don’t boss you around; I don’t have to—I’ve got you exactly where I want you by just being me.’
Aleksey laughed. It was far too true to refute. ‘I wish this boat had autopilot.’
Ben weighed this up for a moment, glanced around the vast empty seascape they were traversing and murmured, ‘I can do two things at once. I’m good like that.’
Aleksey stopped his slow tongue exploration of Ben’s neck. Ben ground his hips back a little, just in case he hadn’t got the message.
It happened fairly quickly after that—a fumble with buttons; shorts hitting the deck; hurried preparation; delicious entry. Maybe it was just relief the argument was over. Maybe it was the sense of total transgression, naked from the waist down, one pale backside thumping into another on a vast sea of glittering blue, but they both came extremely quickly, Ben with a cry of pleasure, and Aleksey with a hiss of deep satisfaction.
Even the inevitable stickiness didn’t bother them. Ben stripped fully and dived off the side for a swim, and when he levered himself back into the boat, they swapped. By the time the island came into sight, they were both decent, and very pleased with themselves, which was fortunate, for there was a familiar dinghy tied up to the dock.
Ben saw Snodgrass first, as the little dog apparently didn’t have the manners to not leave his boat until invited, and was consequently sniffing around some of the flowers and tree trunks with great interest, perhaps reacquainting himself with the smells of his two canine companions and hoping to see them again. Possibly reminding himself sorrowfully that after their great shared ocean adventure, he had missed out on the opportunity to recover in a luxurious Elizabethan castle whilst pretending to be an essential service dog. The little white scrap was flitting in and out of the autumn colours, but when he spotted their boat approaching, ran back for some moral support from his human.
Harry stood politely in the bottom of his tiny boat, where it appeared he’d been mending a sail, and waited for them to motor gently into the boathouse. Only when they emerged was he on the dock, apparently having decided that this was even politer than staying in the dinghy.
Ben appeared extremely pleased to see him, as he had not had a chance to thank the old man for his part in rescuing Molly the previous month, and so went up to him, smiling and shaking his hand.
Harry glanced over as he was chatting with Ben, clearly looking for guidance as to what he could and couldn’t say, so Aleksey came forwards and welcomed him, too. Harry, studying his scar, commented approvingly, ‘A time to kill, son, and a time to heal.’
Aleksey nodded, to what he wasn’t entirely sure, and then, with a breath for courage, turned to Ben and announced as casually as he could muster, ‘Harry agreed to a trial period as caretaker here on the island. To see if it would suit him.’
Before Ben could respond, Harry murmured, ‘I believe it’s the other way around, but you may be right.’
Ben was frowning, glancing between the two of them. Then he put out his hand once more. ‘Welcome on board.’ He grinned and added, ‘Sir.’
Aleksey felt a weight shift from his shoulders. Sure, Ben didn’t yet know the particular reason why he wanted to give this old man back his life, but surely that would only increase his enthusiasm for the scheme? Ben was the moron’s friend, after all, not him. He didn’t even like the cretin…
They wandered the same route they’d taken only a month or so before, Aleksey bleeding and dazed, Ben bewildered and frantic, and Harry, well, Harry much as he always was it seemed to Aleksey. But then, as he knew only too well, if you’d been dead for a number of years, you took a different perspective on many things.
The woods were looking particularly spectacular in their autumnal colours, yet were, being only early September, still carpeted by flowers. Harry seemed to be a mine of information on many of the species that grew in such abundance, a knowledge which boded well in Aleksey’s opinion for the main aim of bringing him to this place.
As Harry strolled along, Snodgrass at his heels, Ben fell back so they were walking side by side. Aleksey glanced across just at the moment Ben did the same. He wondered if Ben was still throbbing slightly from taking him inside. It was hard to be angry with a man who you’d just entirely surrendered yourself to, he supposed. Hoped.
