Arthur clenched his jaw. “Don’t follow me.”
He was out of the office a second later, blending away instantly into the hall filled with more men exactly like him and Wesley.
Arthur didn’t wait for the valet to bring his car; he jumped in the back of the first cab he saw. “Chinatown, quick as you can,” he told the cabbie, then sat back against the seat, rubbing at his lips like he could wipe the taste of Wesley away.
It’s fine. He barely kissed you. Probably not even worth mentioning to Rory.
A little voice in Arthur’s head scoffed.So you’d be fine if no one told you another man had kissed Rory?
Near-instant desire to murder this hypothetical stranger leapt up at the thought. Arthur pushed it away, rubbing a hand over his face. It didn’t matter how small a kiss; Arthur would want to know. Maybe he and Rory had never said they were exclusive, but Arthur didn’t need to say it, not for himself. It hadn’t ever been casual for him. Arthur had wanted Rory from the moment they met, and Rory—
Rory had started an indoor tempest because he’d heard Arthur’s ex was back, and he had been right to be suspicious.
Of course Arthur needed to tell him. He couldn’t risk losing Rory because of Wesley.
And how are you going to make it work?
Arthur tightened his jaw and stared out the cab window.
Fifteen minutes later, the cab was pulling up in front of the Dragon House in Chinatown. Arthur paid the driver and stepped onto the curb. Lunch had only just begun, but through the window, all the tables looked full, and people were milling on the street outside the restaurant, waiting.
Arthur carefully threaded his way through the crowd and into the teahouse. “Excuse me, sorry, beg your pardon.” Looking over the crowd’s heads best he could, he spotted Jade coming down the hall.
“Jianwei saw your cab pull up,” she said. “You know we understood why you couldn’t come?”
“I didn’t belong there,” Arthur said, a little more heartfelt than normal. “I’d so much rather be here.”
She smiled. “Itisgood to see you,” she said, as he followed her through the door at the end of the hall. “Jianwei saw that the ships are being held.”
“For a few more hours, at most, I’d wager. The governor closed the ports, his way of appeasing the wedding guests, but the police are already thinking animal,” Arthur said, heading down the stairs.
But as soon as he turned the corner onto the landing, someone threw their arms around his ribs.
“You’re here!” Rory hurriedly stepped away, before anyone but Jade saw. He tilted his head back to look up at Arthur. “I thought you had to be at that wedding—” He bit the words off, his gaze searching Arthur’s face. “Are you okay?”
The only thing Arthur wanted in that moment was to grab onto Rory with both hands, pull him back into his arms, to run away with him somewhere far from New York, from the ghosts of Arthur’s past and the chains of Arthur’s present.
He steeled himself for the unpleasant confession instead. “We’ll catch up in a moment,” he said to Jade, who raised an eyebrow but didn’t press.
She disappeared into the library, leaving Arthur and Rory alone on the landing.
Rory hadn’t moved away, their bodies still almost close enough to touch. “You’re stiff as a statue, what’s wrong?”
Arthur made himself say it. “Wesley kissed me.”
Rory sucked in a breath.
“It was one-sided,” Arthur quickly added. “I told him off, said I wasn’t going back to London with him, and that’s the end of it, just a quick kiss, and it won’t happen again.”
Rory stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Probably seems like I’m making the elephant out of flies again, or whatever you want to call it, but I just, ah, thought you should know,” Arthur said awkwardly. “Seemed poor form to keep that a secret, even if we’ve never said we’re—well.”
The silence on the stairwell was very tense.
Arthur fidgeted. “You could say something.”
“Arthur, darling.” That wasn’t Rory finally speaking, it was Jade, her voice far too light. “Perhaps you two ought to come down here now. The sphere with Rory’s ring hit the ceiling, and now it’s hovering up there and I can’t get it down. It’s enough to make one somewhat nervous.”
