Page 119 of Thief Taker

“This?” Kit leaned back to look at him, crooked a curious eyebrow. His hair was ravaged, the firelight flickering in his eyes, lips glistening and thoroughly kissed. Dazzling.

Elias breathed past his rising desire and reached for the buttons on Kit’s waistcoat. “I mean, whatever it is we’re doing that’s more than a tumble in the dark.”

“Oh,” Kit said softly. “You mean falling in love…”

Elias caught his breath at the words, spoken so boldly; at the risk and seduction of them. “Love’s dangerous,” he said, even as Kit’s waistcoat fell open and Elias slid a hand beneath his shirt, running his fingertips over the tattoo and the smooth muscles of his chest. “Could send us to the gallows, if we give ourselves away.”

Kit made a soft noise in the back of his throat, pressed into Elias’s hip. “I don’t care,” he said. “I’d die for this, Elias. I’d die for you.”

“Bloody fool.” But Elias smiled, mirroring the roll of Kit’s hips. The sensation where they touched was… “Jesus, Kit.”

“Mmm,” he agreed. And then he was caressing the side of Elias’s neck with hot, open-mouthed kisses, and his hands were tugging the tails of his shirt free. “Take it off,” he murmured. “Take everything off.”

Then there came a scramble of fumbling fingers working at buttons, of coats and waistcoats hitting the floor, of boots being kicked away, and somehow, they managed it all without breaking the kiss.

But Kit hissed when Elias finally pulled his shirt up over his head, and Elias’s heart stopped. A dressing bound Kit’s arm. “Jesus,” he said, softly, and reached out to touch the bandage.

“It’s not bad,” Kit said. “Don’t worry.”

“I hurt you.” The thought stole his breath. “I could have killed you. Christ, it was just a wild shot in the dark!”

“It’s nothing,” Kit said, touching Elias’s face with his other hand. “We were lucky that night, both of us. I believe it’s a sign.”

“A sign of what?”

“That this—us—is ordained. Hallowed.” He kissed Elias softly on the lips, moving him towards the room’s narrow bed. “Christ, you have no idea how much I’ve longed for you.”

“Of course, I bloody do,” Elias said. “I know exactly how much. More, probably.”

The bed was right there, but Elias hesitated when it touched the back of his legs. Kit stopped too, maybe noticing Elias’s hesitation, because—damn it—this was more than just a tupping. This was a promise, the start of a dangerous path they’d walk together, holding each other’s lives in their hands.

Kit took Elias gently by the shoulders, stilling them both. For a moment there was silence, just the hiss and crackle of the catching fire within, the muted sounds of the city without. And their breathing. Elias could hardly believe it was real. To be transported from despair to delirious delight in a matter of minutes had set his head spinning.

Perhaps Kit felt the same because he was gazing at Elias intently, wonderingly. “I trust you,” he said after a moment, looking Elias straight in the eye. “Do you—can you—trust me?”

It was a weighted question between them, with many layers beneath those few words. Even so, the answer was simple. “I can,” Elias said. “I do.”

Kit gave a little shudder—Elias could feel it through the palm he’d pressed to the centre of his chest—and something bright kindled in his eyes. He said, “Then be with me, Elias,” and kissed him, a tender brush of lips that jolted Elias to the core. “Be with me,” Kit said again as he pushed Elias gently onto the bed. “Be with me always…”

“Of course I will,” Elias said as their bodies came together and he touched his lips to Kit’s. “Always.”

Epilogue

Mayfair, London – 5 thMay 1784

“I’ll wait here,” Elias said, leaning back against the railings opposite the house on Curzon Street.

It had been a fine spring day, the sun strong, but the air chilly. The sort of day that filled a man with vigour and optimism, and yet when Kit raised his eyes to the house before him, he felt a cloud cross the sun. “I won’t be long,” he said, though he wasn’t moving at all.

Setting a hand on his shoulder, Elias said, “You’ll take as long as you need, and I’ll be here when you’re done.”

Kit smiled at him, at a face now so familiar and so beloved that he couldn’t imagine his life without it. He sighed. “I should have come sooner.”

“You’re here now,” Elias said. “That’s soon enough.” He nodded towards the house. “Now go on, before Tobin spies you and comes out to investigate.”

Taking a bracing breath, Kit crossed the road and climbed the steps to the house.

The visit wasn’t something he’d planned, exactly. But waking this morning beside Elias in the bright spring sunlight, watching him sleep with one arm thrown over his eyes and his hair in magnificent disorder, something had finally settled in Kit’s chest. Something that had been restless for months. Perhaps years. And with that settling had come the knowledge that there were things still to be done, words still to be said, before he could fully live his new life.