“Heart attack.Too many years of getting apoplectic with rageover foreigners, queers, and other vermin.I think the pair of usshoved him over the edge.”
Sashasnorted with laughter.It wasn’t a good idea, and he reachedgratefully for the handkerchief Laurie produced for him.“For God’ssake.John Kucharski told me that Clara was safe.That there’d beensome huge family misunderstanding.Was that something to do withyour father?”
“I’ll tell you all about it soon, but his death solved it.Yes.”
“Thank God.”Sasha reached out a hand.He touched hisfingertips to Laurie’s cheekbone, his brow, as if seeing him wasn’tenough.
Notenough for Laurie either.There was a corpse in the room, andLaurie had no doubt that at least one Interpol agent was burning upthe road in their direction.If the world had been ending, though,he couldn’t have kept his hands from Sasha’s face, his mouth fromfalling softly on the swollen one lifting to find it.The tang ofsalt hit him first, then, in a rush, the taste he hadn’t even knownhe’d registered, let alone missed.Sasha.He’d been starvingwithout it.He pushed his fingers into Sasha’s hair, feeling hisgesture returned as they both measured the distance and the timethey’d been apart.“This is beautiful,” Sasha gasped, pulling backfrom the kiss.“Longer.Enough to bury my hands in.”
“Yes.I’ve been in the eighteenth century.And you… This isshorter, like velvet…”
“Mm.Bloke in the squat with me had a set of clippers.Fiftypence for a grade one.”
Lauriebroke into shocked laughter.Sasha silenced him, warm mouth hungry,drawing him forward until the edge of the sofa stopped them.“Sash,not here,” Laurie whispered.“Get up.Let’s go into the bedroom,away from…”
Hedidn’t need to finish.Sasha cast a glance back at Luca, thenscrambled up into Laurie’s arms with frantic haste.“We don’t havetime, do we?”he murmured, clinging to Laurie.“They’ll be heresoon—Kucharski or…”
“I don’t know.But come on, love.Please.”
No needto ask Sasha twice.He put an arm round Laurie’s waist and led himthrough into the bedroom, whose tiny confines were ablaze withmorning light.They fell onto the bed together, Laurie banging hishead off the wall and barely noticing, though Sasha did, gaspingand reaching out to stroke his skull.“I’m all right,” Laurieassured him, hauling him on top.“You, though—evenskinnier…”
“You can talk.”Sasha’s hands ran hard down his ribs, then hiship bones.“What’ve you been doing?”
“Missing you.Dancing.”
Sashalooked up from the task of unbuttoning Laurie’s jeans, a puzzledsmile quirking.“Dancing?Hamlet dances?”
“Nn-nn.Not that gloomy bugger.Fourteenth chorus boy inLes Misérablesdoes,though.”
“Chorus?”Sasha sat up long enough for Laurie to help himstruggle out of his parka.“What are you doing thatfor?”
“Money,” Laurie said succinctly—the one clear word he could getout before Sasha plunged back down, driving the air from his lungs.He smiled.He’d encountered this pair of charity-shop combattrousers before, knew how to deal with their complicatedfastenings.There youare…
Sashagroaned against his neck as the zip gave, and thrust down hard,shivering with passion.“God.Sorry.”
“What the hell for?”
“Pouncing on you.I planned… I dreamed, every night, how I’d doit when I found you again, how I’d have you or let you have me, soslow, so sweet…”
Lauriepushed his hands under the fabric of Sasha’s briefs.He seized hisbackside tight, thrusting up at him, beginning their rhythm.“Reckon we’ve got ten minutes max, love.So pounceaway.”
“Oh, Laurie—so hungry for you, so hot…”
Itdidn’t take ten minutes.It barely took two.Laurie’s mind flaredwith the images Sasha had painted—their first reunited fuck, alonein the soft-thudding heart of the world, sweet and slow.This wasneither.This was the rough coupling without which both would die.Sparing a hand, Laurie clenched it in the nape of Sasha’s T-shirt,dragging him down tight, locking him into a kiss.Laurie’s cockrammed painfully against Sasha’s thigh, and he shoved his hips upin brief, violent synchrony to meet him.Sasha unleashed a rawshout and came, bruising Laurie’s ribs where he was holding him.Something tangled in Laurie—a need too intense to cope with itssatisfaction, an emotional air lock—and he wailed, struggling onthe brink.But Sasha, even done and beyond done, did not let himgo.Would never let him go—stayed in place, soaked and panting,till Laurie’s block evaporated, releasing him to shudderingclimax.
Timepassed in the sunny room.How much, Laurie couldn’t tell—he markedit only in the slow return to normal of his own breathing andSasha’s.Sasha’s head was pillowed on his shoulder.He’d taken oneof Laurie’s hands and spread the fingers, looking into his palm asif seeking answers there.At length he said, an odd note ofapprehension in his voice, “So now your father’s gone, are you…LordLaurence of somewhere?Heir to his millions and ruler of all yousurvey?”
Lauriesmiled.He cleared his throat and found he could speak.“I candisclaim my peerage.But if you mean what I’m surveying right now,yes.Rent’s paid here till the end of the month.Other than that,nothing’s changed.His will’s with the lawyers at the moment, butI’m pretty sure he left the lot to Clara.”
Sashakissed his palm.Laurie had to wonder at the man who would suddenlygive him such a look of relief—of exhilaration, almost—at theprospect of a life of poverty.“I don’t know what you’re grinningabout,” Laurie said, stroking back Sasha’s hair.“I’ll never makeany money, you know.We’ll be eating Hassan’s discount soup for therest of our days.”
For the rest of our days.Well, hehad said it.He could have wished they were on a beach somewhere,or at a nice restaurant, or anywhere really without a fresh corpsein the next room, but it was said.He watched Sasha hearing it andunderstanding.Sasha said softly, “I’m glad, love.I could neverhave given you anything, could I, if—”
“If I’d been Lord Laurence of somewhere.”
“That’s right.And I want to, Laurie.For the rest…” He pausedand suddenly blushed up to his hairline beneath his weary pallor.“God.Howbut guli.How…what’s the English word?”Laurie, who seldom knew himat a loss for one, waited with interest to discover what had givenhim pause.“Yes,” he finished after a second, still blushing, withan air of satisfaction.“Howcorny, ves’tacha.But yes.For therest of our days.”
Lauriepressed his mouth to Sasha’s.Now in their aftermath, he could doit without bruising them both, and their kiss became a slow, almostshy rediscovery.The room chilled around them.He should have gotup and shut the window.He should have shut the bedroom door toseal out the smell of blood.He closed his eyes and interlaced hisfingers with Sasha’s and let the sunlit time drift on.
