He didn’t think so. Ben knew the truth now.
He suddenly slapped Ben’s hard abs, which made a particularly satisfactory sound. ‘Swim at the cove?’
Ben didn’t let him go, just leaned back against the tree. ‘So? Does she see us like a couple now? Are you happy your little scheme worked?’
‘Yes, thank you, Benjamin. I am.’ He snorted. ‘I sometimes think she fancies you more than I do.’
Ben laughed openly. ‘There’s a thought.’ He readjusted their hold so there was some noticeable friction between their groins. Privately, Aleksey thoughtyou’ll be lucky, but only repeated his small gesture towards the cove. Ben shook his head and resumed the kissing, until, suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, he grabbed up his shorts, slapped Aleksey’s backside and shouted, ‘Last one in sorts the bed,’ and was off.
Aleksey had about as much chance of wining that race as he did flying to the cove. Which gave him an idea. He ripped off his shoes and jeans, tore through the woods, got to one of the little headlands and dived off into the deep ocean. With powerful strokes, he headed for the cove. Ben would stop to dress—he would not like the obvious disadvantage of running naked. Ben would also wonder why he wasn’t being followed and would stop to ambush him, assuminghewould be attempting to be stealthy.
When Aleksey wanted to, he could swim extremely fast. He had the build for it, all shoulders and arms and hard determination. He rounded the monkey-swing headland and saw no one on the beach. He turned onto his back, floating, very pleased with life, admiring the stars which had begun to appear in the twilight sky.
‘Hah. I win.’ Ben was standing at the edge of the water. He began to wade in.
Aleksey flipped and rose to standing. ‘How the fuck do you reckon you won? I’m standing right here.’
‘Don’t swear at me. You said swim at the cove. I said last one in. You haven’t got in yet, so I win.’
‘What do you mean I haven’t got in yet? I am actually standing here! You’re there!’
Ben frowned and indicated back towards the beach. ‘That’s the cove. This is just…water.’ He ducked under to forestall any further argument.
Aleksey reckoned he’d be punished for being entirely right for a while longer, so once more returned to floating on the glowing blue water beneath the glitter-streak of stars across the turquoise heavens, and wondered what the god he didn’t believe in thought about their relative situations. He reckoned Phillipa wouldn’t be the only one jealous of him if the Almighty were glancing down at Light Island at just this moment.
* * *
Chapter Six
They lit the fire and moved inside for the rest of the evening, got themselves comfortable with wine and a meal of whatever they could find and settled down, Aleksey’s head on the small of Ben’s back.
Shadowfax was living up to his name, casting dancing fire shadows onto the wall behind him. If he was Victorian, as Phillipa claimed, then he was possibly over two hundred years old. Aleksey wondered if the horse had also been swimming in the pond by the monastery, and snorted at his own foolishness.
Ben, lying on his belly, had bent his legs up and every so often was swinging his heels into the side of Aleksey’s head, probably just to get a rise out of him. Finally, he batted them away, and Ben pointed out reasonably enough, ‘If we had a sofa, we wouldn’t be lying on the floor.’
‘We might.’
‘If we had a table we could eat sitting up.’
‘I have never noticed you having any trouble eating in any position. Phillipa offered me any furniture I wanted from Barton.’
Ben swivelled his neck around. ‘That was generous of her.’
Aleksey scoffed.
‘Oh. You paid for it all?’ Suddenly, he twisted out from underneath entirely and straddled Aleksey’s waist.
Aleksey laughed. ‘You’ll be lucky.’
Ben smirked in reply. ‘It only takes one. Anyway, I wasn’t thinking about se—’
‘For once?’
‘I can think about other things. I was thinking we could get the billiard table.’ He appeared to hear what he’d said—the obvious connection between one thing and the other—and poked Aleksey in the ribs in case he had the audacity to point this out. ‘I was thinking how cool it would be to have it here in the study or the library!’
‘We have one at home and hardly ever use that one.’
‘Yeah, I know, but we’ve got TV, the gym and other shit there.’
