“Are you sure?” Darius’s mouth tightened.
“Yes.” Andrew answered quietly but with utter determination. “We can share.” He looked away, in case the landlord was more perceptive than he appeared and caught the expression of naked longing Andrew surely must be displaying.
Darius said no more but followed Andrew upstairs.
Now he was glad they had the best bedchamber.
When he rang the bell, a maid hurried up with cans of hot water.
Andrew took off his coat and shook it, handing it to the maid. “Have this brushed off and made reasonable by the morning, if you please. I’m not expecting miracles.”
The maid dumped the hot water by the washstand, bobbed a curtsy, and took the coat, turning expectantly to Darius.
He shook his head. “My man will see to it.”
“You’ve brought your man?”
Darius’s lips turned up in a half smile. “No, but he would not appreciate anyone else touching my coats. He takes more pride in them than I do.” After turning the coat inside out, exposing the silk lining, he tossed the garment over a chair.
The maid left. Darius courteously opened the door for her and then closed it and leaned against it, folding his arms. “There’s only one bed.” His voice softened, became more intimate.
“Yes.” Unusually for him, Andrew didn’t know what to say. He fumbled for words. “It’s a big bed.”
“Andrew, tell me, or I’ll go and sleep in the tap room.”
The thought of Darius leaving him forced Andrew into action. Stepping forward, he set his hands either side of Darius’s body, not quite touching him, pressing his palms against the rough planked door.
He rested his forehead against Darius’s. “I nearly died tonight. I didn’t think of my daughter, God help me, but of you. How I hadn’t had the courage to take the step we both want. How much I…care for you.” He went on, trying to articulate what he was feeling. “Only then did I fully understand what I was throwing away. I can’t do it anymore, Darius. I can’t keep you at a distance.”
Darius spoke quietly, his breath heating Andrew’s skin. “You have to mean this.” His arms were still folded, forcing a barrier between them. “And if you do, I will not leave. This is not a one-night affair. Understand that.”
“Yes.” Andrew wet his lips, watched how Darius’s gaze went immediately to them. “I do not know what I will do or how I will live, but even if we don’t repeat this evening, I am always with you.”
If they lived together, they would hurt too many people. But surely Andrew could allow himself something of his own every now and again?
“That will do. For tonight at least.”
Slowly, Darius unfolded his arms and straightened. They were of a height, Darius perhaps a shade taller. Nothing to signify. His eyes were so blue, his gaze meeting and clashing with Andrew’s.
Without taking his eyes away from Andrew’s face, Darius reached down and cupped the bulge in Andrew’s breeches where his erection was trying to burst through the stitches. “You want me.”
Andrew moaned and ground his cock into Darius’s hand. “Yes. More than I can say.”
“You don’t have to say. That bed looks particularly inviting.”
“So does the floor.” Andrew didn’t care where they ended up, as long as they were together.
Darius’s smile broadened, his eyes gleamed. “Then kiss me. Show me how much you want me.”
Andrew mirrored Darius’s actions, pressing his hand against the fall of Darius’s breeches, shaping the organ that was as hard as his own. He pressed his lips against Darius’s, but he didn’t close his eyes. He didn’t want to miss a moment of this.
Darius opened his mouth, pushing Andrew instantly into wild desire. Their tongues met, dancing and devouring. Andrew licked up one side and down the other, a sense of joy pulsing through him. This was what he was born for. This was what he wanted.
His partner banded his arms around him, dragging him in tightly, but Andrew did not release his hold on Darius’s shaft. Now he had it, he would keep it.
Darius growled against his mouth, the feral sound sending messages through every part of Andrew’s body. The urge to touch Darius, feel his bare skin, became irresistible. Not that he wanted to resist.
Pulling away, he fumbled at the buttons of his waistcoat. Darius knocked his hands away and took over the task himself, stripping the waistcoat away. Before Andrew could respond, he’d dropped to his knees, unfastening the buckles of Andrew’s breeches, and his shoes, tugging the garment and stockings away.
Andrew’s drawers went the same way. With fabric bunched around his feet, unable to move lest he stumble, he watched Darius take his cock in his hand.
His spine thrilled to the touch. But when Darius took the rigid flesh into his mouth, Andrew thought he might die from joy. With a strangled cry, he watched his lover’s dark head move over him, wetting and sucking, urging him higher, to a shockingly sudden peak. “I can’t…” Whatever he was going to say flew out of his head as his balls stiffened and he came.
Andrew clapped his hand over his mouth, biting down to stop his cries being heard all over the building. Unlike the taverns they’d passed, this inn was a respectable one, the customers keeping their revelry down to a civilized murmur.
How he wished they would shout and scream!
His orgasm went on and on while Darius lapped up every drop. Watching his throat and the steady movement as he swallowed sent Andrew into fresh paroxysms of delight. He could do nothing but stand in a tangle of discarded clothing while Darius drank his fill.
Andrew was still shuddering when Darius moved away.
He wiped his mouth and sat back on his haunches. “Get into bed. I’ll join you.”
Andrew had to bend to climb out of the clothes and his shoes but the action didn’t embarrass him. A soft wave of wellbeing warmed him, although the night was a chilly one and the maid had not lit the fire.
The massive four-poster seemed appropriate, a suitable place to celebrate his love. He could no longer fight it, even if he had wanted to. What remained of his misgivings had been swept away when he felt that gun against his head, together with the knowledge that he could have well ended his life tonight.
He had not. He was starting a new life instead.
Darius undressed. No shame there, so Andrew felt free to enjoy the sight of Darius’s gloriously rounded buttocks when he turned to find something in his pocket. He picked up a towel from the pile by the washstand.
When he faced Andrew again, he caught him staring. Darius smiled slowly. “Here I am.” His shaft was hard, the cap shiny and taut. A few drops of clear liquid beaded at the eye. Andrew badly wanted to claim them.
Darius strolled to the bed, his fluid and muscular body poetry in the light from the fire and the candles set in the wall sconces.