‘Well, I’ve made one. And I’m telling you now. And you can like it or lump it.’
‘I believe the expression is like it orthumpit.’
He could hear Ben frowning. ‘No it’s not. It’s lump it.’
‘Lump isn’t a verb. You can’t lump anything, can you?’
‘A what?’ Before he could make a suitable response to this, Ben poked him in the ribs. ‘Joke. I’m good at verbs. I do a lot of them. So, like orlump, it’s done—I’ve invited Jennifer and Reginald down to the island for Christmas with us.’
‘What! No!’ Even he could hear the whiny, thwarted ten-year-old in his voice, so schooled his tone to add, ‘She’ll find fault witheverything.’ Now he sounded six. And sulky.
He rolled over, dislodging Ben, who immediately straddled him, preventing him leaving the bed. ‘It’sChristmas, Nik. Molly is their only grandchild. They’ll be on their own otherwise. They adore her, you know they do.’
‘I didn’t see them making much effort to be there for her birthday. Can’t they find another cruise or something? I’ll pay for it.’
‘Stop being a baby. It’s my decision. And I’ve…’ He trailed off and smirked, then poked him painfully in the ribs.Again. ‘No, I’ll make you wait for that surprise.’
‘I don’t like surprises.’
‘Learn to like them.’ Ben slid further down his legs and began to play with him. ‘So…are you up for another round?’
‘I wasn’t up for the last one, in case you didn’t notice.’
Ben laughed and brought their cocks together in his powerful hand, working them against each other. Aleksey sucked in his breath at the sensation, then propped himself up on his elbows so he could watch. Was there a sight more erotic than male fingers working your cock? And if he did say so himself (he chose this man, after all), Ben’s were particularly fine specimens of these appendages. It didn’t take long, and they came together, which was extremely satisfying, milky fluid mixing and mingling and becoming one. Finally, Ben admitted he was done, and they showered together, water as hot as they could stand it, until the entire wet room became full of obscuring steam so that as they kissed and ran soapy hands over each other’s skin they navigated by touch alone.
When they were dressed, Ben lit the fire and brought them both a selection of excellent snacks, along with a couple of bottles of wine. The family was going to be out until it got dark so they could see the lights. Ben had organised it for him. For them. And even if it had only been set up so he could break the news thathehad to put up with Jennifer for Christmas, it was absolutely perfect—a crisp winter’s afternoon, a log fire, unstinting red wine (for once), all the food he liked eating, and Ben. Life didn’t get much better than this.
Around a mouthful of cheese and crackers, Ben mumbled, ‘I’m going to give Sarah away.’
‘To whom?’
‘She asked me, so I said yes. I thought she’d want Martin to do it.’
‘You’ll look better in the photographs.’
‘God, you are such a cynic. Martin is officiating!’
‘I agree.’
‘It means doing the service.’
‘Thank you, Benjamin, I didn’t know that. Sometimes having conversations with you explains the ones I’m forced to endure with your daughter.’
‘What film do you want?’
‘One where someone gets murdered at Christmas? Can you imagine it—in Guillemot—waking up to find Jennifer dead under the tree…?’
Ben turned his head very slowly and asked distinctly, ‘Have you actually heard the expression tempting fate?’
‘Ack. Put a zombie movie on. It would be just my luck I’d murder her and she’d come back to life.’
Ben absentmindedly clicked a few buttons then declared quickly, ‘I think Molly made the whole thing up yesterday—that man.’ Aleksey didn’t counter this as quickly as he normally would have given his odd conversation with her during the picnic. Into this silence, Ben continued, ‘I think she does it for attention. I think…I think I used to do the same thing when I was her age. That’s why my stepfather didn’t like me very much. I was jealous of him taking my mother’s attention away from me.’ He gave him a quick glance to check he was listening, which he most definitely was, and added, ‘I’ve always been given a lot of attention. You know, because I’m…’ He lowered his eyes, seemingly embarrassed, his ridiculously long eyelashes starkly visible against his skin. ‘I kinda took it for granted but really resented it when it wasn’t there.’ He’d actually run out of breath, so took a very long drink of wine, burying his face a little in the glass. Whenhestill didn’t reply, Ben looked up and muttered a little warily, ‘What? You’re thinking. I don’t like it when you’re thinking.’
‘Oh, no. I was just surprised—you might be right. We’d only been going for a couple of minutes today, and I asked Em about college, but the wily one immediately demanded I speak to her instead.’ He drummed his fingers on his glass. ‘I fought my brother constantly for attention, as you know.’
‘I need to do something about it. Do I?’
Aleksey snorted and stroked his cheek. ‘I’m not sure she’s doing it consciously—actually lying. She seems to believe the things she says.’ He was tempted to tell Ben the story of the singing that day, but didn’t think it would help his contention that Molly’s oddities were merely imaginary. That one was hard to explain away.
