‘Where would you have looked? I’m very stealthy.’
Ben chuckled as his hand roamed pleasantly around. ‘Here?’
‘Hiding in there would be anatomically impossible.’
‘Yeah, I’m not sure I want to know your actual history where that part’s concerned.You are the only man I’ve ever wanted to give my body to.’
‘Your daughter has the same uncanny ability to remember any conversation, conducted however long ago that suits her agenda. And what I said still holds true. You focused on thewantedpart of what I told you, but you should have given more consideration to my use of the wordgive. I occasionally loaned my body out a few times more than I implied, this is true—but I always charged a very high premium from those who took up that offer. I never gave it freely and willingly until I did so with you. It’s entirely yours, Ben.’
‘Hmm. Nope—good try, but you’re still coming with me today.’
Aleksey laughed delightedly. Was this part and parcel of the giving? That someone knew you better than you knew yourself? He supposed it was.
‘I’ll come, but I’ll—’
‘—skulk off to the bookshop again to get some sympathy from your girl—?’
‘—skip the lunch.’
‘To do what?’
‘Well, yes, I was going to see if Mor—’
‘—seriously? Your obsession with that woman is going to stop being funny soon.’
‘That’s not funny now. That hurts.’
‘Good.’
‘Are you jealous, Benjamin?’
Ben added another finger to his probing of voids. ‘You used to ask me that all the time once.’
‘Because you always were?’
‘You wish. As if anyone else would put up with you.’
His breath caught on the extreme stretch. ‘I have not noticed billionaires ever being unable to attract partners, however annoying they try to be.’
‘Yeah, well. I stuck around even when I reckoned you were a bit hard up—but the annoying part I’ll grant you.’
‘You thought I was…hard up? Seriously?’ He arched, his eyes closed, as the stretching turned to stroking repetitively and maddeningly in and out.
‘A bit skint, yeah. All that shabby furniture at Barton? I used to turn down most of the stuff you bought me, remember? I was worrying what it cost you.’
‘Huh. I always imagined that was because I’d pitched my gifts just right—to irritate you excessively. Always things a little bit…what is that word in English? Oh, yes, that’s it—gay. Oh, God, don’t…please…’
Ben succeeded for the next half an hour to prove that receiving and giving things which were, by anyone’s definition, a bit gay didn’t bother him one bit now. That part of a relationship with another man had never been something Ben had objected to, even as he disdained the pink shirts or cologne… It was a paradox that Aleksey had no intention of solving.
Why probe paradise to see how it was constructed?
He’d always known truth was highly overrated.
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Three
Armed with Christmas money, the three youngest of the party to St Mary’s were disappointed to discover that small island settlements didn’t, apparently, put commercialism over religion. All the shops were shut. All, that is, except the bookshop, which for some reason didn’t surprise Aleksey at all. He’d not got the impression that Morwenna Eames put much stock in a God who could lose a baby on a hillside in Cornwall, given He allegedly took such care of each and every sparrow.
