“Yes?”
“What do you think?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “I stopped listening five minutes ago.”
There was a brief, outraged silence before Arden said, “I have not been talking for five minutes straight.”
“Have you not?” Jack had been drifting a hand lazily through the water. Now, he decided to let it drift lazily along Arden’s leg, curious as to how he would react.
Arden gave a tiny gasp and shifted, but didn’t draw his knees back to his chest, or even move away. When Jack looked up, it was to find him watching Jack warily.
“What I think,” Jack said, “is that I would very much like to kiss my husband.”
Arden’s eyes widened and his cheeks, flushed with warmth from the bath, flushed a deeper rose. “Oh. You’ve kissed me already, though. You want to do it again?”
“Yes.” Jack wrapped his fingers around a narrow, bony ankle, and held it. “Properly. What do you think about that?”
Arden swallowed loudly. “You f-first,” he said.
Jack lifted his brows.
“Tell me what you think about what I said first, and then you may kiss me.”
“Oh, may I?” Jack said.
Arden shuffled back a couple of inches and, after a couple of tugs and a little grunt, pointedly withdrew his ankle from Jack’s light grip. “Yes.”
“Very well. You’ll have to remind me what you said. I apologise, but I really wasn’t listening.”
Arden scowled at him, filling Jack with delight. A show of temper, however minor, was a good thing. “I said that it was probably best if I were to set up a household elsewhere, and you and Beckett can?—”
“No,” Jack said mildly.
“You didn’t let me finish. If I am out of the way, then you and Beckett can?—”
“I don’t want you out of the way. No.”
“Maybe it isn’t just about what you want. I’m sure Beckett would prefer not having to serve me any more than he’s had to, and if I bow out, then you and he can?—”
“No, Arden. You will not bow out. I will not send you away. No.”
Arden slid to the edge of the tub and looked beseechingly up into Jack’s face. “You don’t want to hurt him, do you?”
Jack lifted his hands and cupped Arden’s cheeks. “I really don’t,” he murmured.
Arden clung to his wrists. “I don’t either. You two can be happy if you let me go away.”
Jack rubbed his thumbs softly under Arden’s eyes. Unlike Beckett, who was as yet unmarked by age, he had faint lines there.
Gods, they’d known each other for so long, hadn’t they?
“I don’t want to hurtyou, either, sweetheart,” Jack said.
Arden’s fingers tightened briefly. “Then it’s decided. I shall leave Avendene.” He gave a decisive little nod. “And if I may be so bold…?”
He wasn’t going anywhere. “By all means. Be bold.”
“I’ve always thought that it would be nice to see the sea. I’d like that very much. If I may have a say in where I go, then I’d like to go to whichever of your estates is closest to the coast. I promise that I’ll take very good care of it.”
