‘Ack, what other use are you, Benjamin? Oh, I’d forgotten you do that.’ He closed his eyes to the extreme pleasure of Ben’s cool hand sliding down inside his jeans and finding him. It was even better when Ben dropped gracefully to his knees and unzipped him, fishing out his sudden erection. Best of all, was when Ben took him to the back of his throat, massaging him at the same time, squeezing and releasing to the same rhythm as he slid his lips along his shaft. Aleksey buried his fingers deep into Ben’s hair, missing for a moment the length, brushing the short hairs at the sides up the wrong away, scrunching and kneading, matching Ben’s pace. He didn’t warn Ben before he came. Hard, fast, he unloaded, and it was as unexpected to him as to Ben, and he cried out, arching in pleasure as Ben took him in and down and swallowed around him, milking the exquisite pleasure for them both. He held Ben’s head tight to him for a while, just continuing the running of his fingers through the dark hair as he listened to the wind and rain outside their tiny bubble of perfection. With an inevitability he did not need to be a genius to predict, Ben rose from his position on his knees with a feral, expectant energy strumming along his body. He did not need to whisper huskily, ‘My turn,’ for Aleksey to know that he was required to submit, to turn around, to brace upon the table and that Ben would rip down jeans for access to where he desired to be. His head shot back, neck stretched as Ben penetrated him. Slick with spat semen, Ben thrust hard from the first, no quarter given. He said nothing, just gripped each side, fingers digging painfully into hipbones as he bucked into him, grunting softly with the effort, with the desire to reach a peak he’d delayed to pleasure him first.
After a while, Aleksey realised Ben was in tune with the wind that rocked across the island, each gust that rattled the roof tiles prelude to a hard, angled thrust that lifted him to his toes, forced him against the table, knocked off the charts, scattered the detritus of the sea, until he spread entirely, legs wide on the floor, arms gripping the edges of the old wood, and still Ben pummelled him.
Finally, when he thought he could be breached no more, on a final savage howl and buffeting, Ben came, high on his toes, his whole body involved in the long spilling which was like balm after a battering. It felt to Aleksey’s aching body like a tidal surge breaking apart upon the rocks and leaving in its wake an after-image behind his closed eyes of dazzling rainbows flickering through broken sunlight.
* * *
Watching Ben and the moron load the boat with all the diving gear the following morning, Aleksey was extremely glad he’d taken Tim’s suggestion and delayed the expedition, despite the feeling he now had that speed was of the essence. It was promising to be a beautiful day, a rare January illusion that spring was just around the corner and warm balmy days on the horizon. Sub-tropical was continually living up to its promise. Barely past dawn, the sun merely streaks of brilliant turquoise, crimson, and salmon pink on the eastern horizon, he could see an entirely unclouded sky above his head.
Tim was watching anxiously on the dock with him, possibly thinking that they were as qualified for this underwater endeavour as they had been for their sailing one—in other words, not at all. Aleksey noted him counting the suits and realising with extreme relief that there were only three.
That morning, Aleksey had released his dogs of war.
He was well aware that to anyone observing this moment, it would merely have looked like him slouching out to smoke a pre-dawn cigarette with the two canines skulking in his wake to piss on the tree stumps, but his foot-soldiers knew better. They were guarding Light Island. He almost hoped Eliam Colter did attempt another incursion. Harry was also staying behind. He apparently needed Billy to help him in the garden for the day. Aleksey suspected even Radulf could see through that pretence now: the King of England, well wrapped and with Snodgrass on his lap, would sit in the sun in the shelter of the greenhouse getting lots of fresh air and listening to Harry’s stories. Aleksey was now sure that in Billy’s mind Harry and William had merged, and so as their little island dweller sat spellbound, listening to one old man, he also was hearing echoes of the other telling him tales of lighthouses and shipwrecks, as his old friend had once done before darkness had come upon them both.
Finally loaded, they set off, skimming lightly across the still waters of the bay. There was slightly more chop and wind as they progressed west along the northern shore but that was only to be expected. They barely needed their jackets. Ben, who was sitting alongside him, turned sharply, seized him around the neck and kissed deeply into his hair, his eyes almost blazing with repressed excitement as he pulled back. This repeated transgression of their rules suddenly didn’t seem shocking at all. He glanced at the other two, then at Ben and felt nothing but a profound sense of companionship. His three musketeers were back as they should be, the moron at the wheel already wearing his diving mask and flippers, for some reason known only to himself, and having a heated argument with his boyfriend through the snorkel tube about how they were going to split the treasure, and Ben, alongside him, annoying him and laughing at him and giving him this life in this moment.
Finally, Squeezy pointed, and they all stood, watching the dark spear of rock grow bigger as they drew near. It was full light now, warm, calm, and the water genuinely looked enticing. They tied up and waded onto the dry part of the tiny islet, depositing all their gear. Ben went to the edge, peering down. ‘I can’t see anything.’
Aleksey ignored him and began to strip. He sensed a sudden still in the bustle around him and realised they were all staring at him—Ben more in amusement than admiration. But the moron only muttered, ‘Fuck,’ under his breath, which got him a punch in the arm from his boyfriend. Ignoring them all—he was very used to both male admiration and envy—he pulled on his suit and dive gear and made his way carefully to the edge of the little reef.
‘Do something useful and show me how to turn this air thing on, Benjamin.’ Also ignoring the look Ben gave him, satisfied he could breathe, he plunged into the ocean and headed down. He wasn’t one for delayed gratification (for as with his belief that you couldn’t have too much of a good thing, he also believed that if you wanted something you should have it now), but, nevertheless, he decided to take a circuit of Oasis Rock before searching for theNicholas. He was turning, beginning to swim out into the darker, deeper ocean when he remembered something. He hung, considering, then shot to the surface, clambering back onto the relatively dry land.
‘What the fuck?’ Ben, half into his suit, held out a hand to steady him. ‘What’s wrong? Other than you know shit about diving.’
Aleksey ripped away his mask, running his fingers through his hair. ‘No. I—forget to mention something. Nothing important.’ All three adventurers looked at him expectantly. ‘Yes, something that was brought up at the meeting on the Hoe.’ Encouraging eyebrows of rapt attention were raised. ‘Climate change. It’s an issue. With oceans.’ No comprehension was forthcoming. Fucking hell, did he have to spell it out for them? ‘It affects fish. Colder sea temperatures. Or warmer ones, I can’t remember. And polar bears.’ Fucking hell! ‘Apparently, they have seen a few extra sharks in Scilly. Nothing to worry about.’
Ben’s brows came back down at this. ‘Well, yeah, we saw a fucking huge one, didn’t we? Swimming back from Les Dents.’
‘You swam back from—?’
Aleksey cut the moron off. ‘No. That one had no teeth. These do.’ All three sets of eyebrows shot up again. He swallowed. ‘Great whites.’ As one, the other three shifted more above the waterline. It was pathetic and cowardly. ‘They can’t launch themselves onto rocks!’
‘Oh yes they bloody can!’ Squeezy pointed to the water. ‘You never seen them snatching seals off fucking beaches? Right out of the waves, up the sand, and snap!’
Aleksey had to admit to himself that he had not ever seen this, and at this very moment didn’t want to. He wasn’t entirely sure this could be true, given they were fish and presumably couldn’t breathe on land, but so much did henotknow anything about sharks, he felt on very shaky ground arguing the point, which was intolerable. He desperately wanted to step fully out of the water now but sensed that move would lose him the moral high ground exponentially. ‘Look, this is ridiculous. I have not told you before, because I do not believe it is true, and if—if—it is, then Ben can attest to just how far Les Dents is from here.’
Ben was peering into the lapping water and then glanced slightly relieved at him. ‘Bloody hell, this is like your wolves on Dartmoor theory, isn’t it? You need to find something to threaten us, even when it’s utterly—’
‘—Well, there are wolves on Dartmoor, Ben.’
All eyes turned to Dr Timothy Watson at this bizarre pronouncement. Aleksey wasn’t sure where to start. Fortunately, the moron took it upon himself to ridicule and humiliate his boyfriend for this contribution, as was his self-appointed job. Strenuously fending him off, Tim reiterated,
‘Everyone knows there are! The wolf sanctuary that closed? Come on, don’t tell me you don’t know—’
‘—On Dartmoor? You have lived with us on the moors for a decade, and this is the first time you think to tell us that we are surrounded by wolves?’ Aleksey felt himself paling. ‘You literally camped out with us one night and didn’t think that might have been the time to mention it?’
‘I only found out a little while ago—when my mum and dad had the cottage for the fortnight, remember? They met a ranger who was telling them about the sanctuary that had to close. Apparently, some of the neighbouring farmers forced him to—claimed some of the wolves had escaped, because there were some cattle mutilations. I mean, I always thought it was the panthers, but according to this ranger chap, it’s wolves.’
‘Panthers?’
‘Oh for God’s sake! Surely you know about the famous circus that closed down in Plymouth, and the owner released her big cats onto Dartmoor rather than have to put them down?’
Aleksey glanced across to Ben. Ben was staring at his friend with equal amazement. He shook himself lightly. ‘Right, professor, you’re on shark watch while we dive then.’
‘What! I can’t do that! I was going to prepare the picnic! What does that entail?’ Squeezy put him in a headlock for such a ridiculous question and gave him a bit of encouraging pummelling. Then together the three of them made their way back to the water. He could only assume that Ben and the moron viewed this situation in exactly the same way he did: they’d apparently been living surrounded by deadly predators for fifteen years and it hadn’t affected them once, so why alter a good thing now?
Diving down, the idiot on one side and Ben on the other, a sense of genuine thrill hit Aleksey. And he knew it was ridiculous to feel so, because however much gold they found, it’s worth would always be dwarfed by the vast fortune he already had. But at the same time, he knew perfectly well why the treasure of theNicholaswas different. Like anything in life, he suspected, if you worked for it you appreciated it more.
