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  “Neither have I, other than that one time you were so kind as to indulge me.” Although I imagined if we ever got around to it again, he’d be riding me as if I were Anubis.

  Tommy rose from the table and came around to where I was sitting. He squeezed my shoulder, and I would have sworn I felt a phantom kiss upon my hair. “Let’s be on our way, then, if you’re quite finished demolishing my brother’s larder?”

  I made a rude noise and rose myself, wiping my lips on the cloth napkin. “Lead on, Macduff. And cursed be he who first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’”

  “Ah, Roddy, how cruel of you to make me want to kiss you when anyone can walk in on us.” He smiled. “You do realize that I’ll be taking advantage of your delicious body every chance I get, don’t you? Simply as friends, dear chap.” And he strolled through the door, leaving me standing in the middle of the room with an almost painful arousal.

  * * * *

  By the time I had once more got myself under control and climbed the stairs to my room, Tommy was coming down, his kitbag balanced on his shoulder.

  “On the double, if you please, Mr Sayer.” He chuckled as I raced past him.

  I finished folding my clothes, placed them in my carpetbag, penned a brief thank you note to Sir Bertram and Lady Dinah for allowing me to stay in their lovely home, and said a hasty goodbye to the servants who’d been so kind to me. Then I hurried to the stables, where the horses were saddled and waiting. I added my bag to the rest of our gear that was packed on the little donkey’s back, and swung up onto George. I’d promised him a gallop, after all, although that would have to wait until after we’d left the city behind.

  The journey passed, now in companionable silence, now in comfortable stories of how we had spent the years since we had first met. Tommy had seen many wondrous things—such as the Taj Mahal as he’d told me when we’d gone to see The Monkey’s Paw—while I had simply farmed and taken care of the man I’d loved.

  “It’s all very mundane,” I murmured.

  “Ah, but you don’t know how comforting the mundane can be.”

  I shrugged. “All right. Suppose I tell you about the first time I ever mounted a pony.”

  “All right.”

  “Nanny took me to a street fair where locals and travellers were selling clothing, animals, all sorts of things people might want.” That was before Brother had decided to become a missionary, when Nanny and I were still happy. I doubted Brother had ever been happy—he’d desperately wanted to rise up in the church, but he hadn’t the facility for it, and failed the tests. I didn’t mention that to my friend. “A man was selling ponies, and I wanted to ride the black and white one in the worst way, but Nanny said no and dragged me away.”

  “How old were you?”

  “About five or six, I believe. I was a beast about it.”

  “Not you.”

  “Trust me, I was not all joy as a child. I whinged and dragged my feet. Nanny got tired of hearing me, but she was a good woman, and she promised me a treat if I’d behave. I agreed, and we went to a vendor who was selling sweetmeats.”

  “Did you have any intention of staying put?”

  I had to smile. He knew me well. “Oh course not. I told you I wasn’t all joy. While Nanny was distracted, I slipped away and went back to the shaggy little pony who looked like he was almost asleep. I climbed onto his back and tapped his sides with my heels. What I didn’t know at the time was the pony was only half-broken.”

  “What happened?”

  “He took exception to me sitting on his back and began to buck, and I held onto his mane with both hands.”

  “Were you afraid?”

  “I suppose I should have been, but I wasn’t. That pony bucked like mad, and I became almost giddy with excitement. I was laughing when the pony’s owner finally got his hand on the halter and yanked me off. He swatted my seat just as Nanny came looking for me. She was frantic, thinking I’d been stolen, and then she was furious with the man for laying a hand on me. She began to beat him about the head with her umbrella.”

  Tommy started laughing softly. “And then?”

  “She dragged me home, muttering under her breath the entire way about the nerve of some people.”

  “And once you got home?”

  “She gave me a hiding I never forgot. To this day, I’ve never forgot.”

  “But you rode that pony.”

  “Yes.” I grinned at my friend. “I rode that pony.”

  * * * *

  Each night we would stop our travels at a different inn, where Tommy made sure we would be provided with decent food for the horses as well as for us and a bed with clean sheets. And true to his word, my friend had his hands on me at every discreet opportunity.

  This time, however—the animals were bedded down, we’d finished a stroll through town after a light dinner, and had gone up to the room we shared.

  “Do you…do you mind if I make love to you?” he asked hesitantly after he’d closed and locked the door.

  “You already do.” I removed my coat and hung it up, then took his, hung it beside mine, and ran my palm over the front of it.

  “I mean…may I sodomise you?”

  I blinked at him. Previous to this, we’d got each other off with hands or mouths, and although my arse would have liked to become even better acquainted with his prick, since he hadn’t shown any apparent interest in the same, I hadn’t pressed for it.

  “Never mind. I understand.”

  “Understand what?”

  “If you’d rather not do that. Some men don’t.”

  I frowned at him. “Who?”

  “Warrick would never let me—”

  “Selfish bugger,” I muttered under my breath. “Of course you may, Captain Smythe. I should like nothing better.”

  His face lit up like a sunrise. “Brilliant. May I undress you?”

  “I hope you won’t be disappointed.” Aside from the faded scar on my arm, a souvenir of the boating trip down the Ruzizi that I’d taken with Charlie, my buttocks and thighs were also covered in faint white marks, remnants of Brother’s attempts to beat the fear of God into me. When Charlie realised what they were, he’d been furious. If Brother had still been alive, I’d been fairly certain my love would have gone back to Udjidji and killed him.

  I held out my arms and stood before my friend.

  Tommy placed a finger under my chin and urged my mouth closer to his. Then he kissed me, soft and warm and tender, and I sighed against his lips. All the while, his fingers were busy undoing the buttons of my shirt.

  “You are allowed to help, you know,” he murmured against my lips, and I laughed.

  “Oh, I beg your pardon.”

  “And so you should.”

  I continued laughing, lowered my arms, and began undoing the buttons on my friend’s shirt. “Well, but Thomas, you didn’t tell me that was what you wanted.”

  He growled, nipped my lower lip, then sucked it into his mouth. I groaned, and my prick became harder than it had been.

  We took our time removing each other’s clothes, but soon enough stood there in just his drawers and my summer union suit. Tommy unbuttoned the lower portion of my union suit and enclosed my prick in his calloused palm.

  “Mmm. You fill my hand beautifully.” He made quick work of the rest of the buttons and pushed the sleeveless top off my shoulders and down my legs. “I love looking at your body.”

  “Truly?” I could feel myself colour from the centre of my torso up past my chin and to my hairline.

  “Indeed. You’re perfect.” But would he continue to think so if he saw those scars and recognised them for what they were?

  “Thank you. I think you’re perfect as well.”

  “I’m not.” He reached up and touched the patch that covered his right eye.

  “You’re being foolish.” I cradled the side of his neck and ran my thumb over his cheek. “You are the most perfect—” I shook my head and gave a lopsided smile. “We’re wasting time. H
ow do you want me?”

  “On your back on the bed.”

  My legs were shackled by my trousers, since my boots prevented me from getting them off my legs, so I shuffled to the bed.

  “Roddy. What’s this?”

  I froze and swallowed. “What?”

  “This.” He stroked a spot high on my back between my shoulder blade and the base of my neck.

  “Oh.” I could have laughed in relief. “Nanny called it an angel’s kiss.” Although it seemed to me it looked nothing like a kiss. I’d managed to see it once in a mirror—a ring of small, dark brown ovals.

  “It’s an unusual one. It almost looks like a bite mark.”

  “It’s not,” I assured him, unconcerned. It never bothered me, since I could never easily see it. And I had more important things on my mind—most specifically, getting the rest of my clothes off. I sat down on the bed and removed my boots, trousers, and union suit. Once freed from my clothing, I tossed them aside, stood, and folded back the bedcovers. Then I lay down and turned my attention to my friend.

  He stood there, seeming unable to draw his gaze from me.

  “Tommy?”

  “Right.” He stripped off his boots and clothes and rummaged through his kitbag. “Here we go.” He held a small jar and unscrewed the lid. The scent of sandalwood—a scent I’d noticed my friend often wore—wafted up to my nostrils, and I inhaled deeply.

  “Mmm.” The scent almost made me giddy. I hooked my arms under my legs, pulled them back and apart, and exposed my opening to his gaze.

  “You’re so fearless,” Tommy said as he climbed on the bed. He positioned himself close to me and pressed a kiss to the bend of my knee.

  “I? Fearless?” I could hardly get the words out, so breathless had his action made me.

  “Yes, you.”

  I would have asked him how he’d come to that conclusion, but he pulled an underhand trick that completely distracted me. He moved my testicles aside and began smearing the lotion up over the sensitive span of skin between them and my anus, dipped into my hole just enough to find my sweet spot, and covered my mouth with a hand to prevent my howl from going any further than his palm.

  He removed his finger from my body, and when I nipped his palm, he removed his hand from my face.

  “Wait. No.” I managed to raise my upper body to see what he was doing. “Ah.”

  He’d added more lotion to his fingers, and three of them entered me. “So hot,” he whispered. “So tight. When was the last time you did this?”

  My brow furrowed. “A year? A little more? Why are you asking me this, sir? At a time like this?”

  “I beg your pardon.” He kissed me, removed his fingers again, but before I could protest, he replaced his fingers with his prick, and my body accepted it as if I’d been made for Thomas Fortescue-Smythe to possess. “Sorry, I won’t last long.”

  He would if I had anything to say about it. Charlie had taught me some tricks to stave off an orgasm, both his and mine, and I employed them now.

  “What are you—oh!”

  “Yes, my—” No, I couldn’t call him “love.” But I could call him something almost as good. “My friend.”

  Tommy’s eye gleamed, he kissed me once again, and began a steady, driving thrust against my sweet spot, constantly targeting it while he dragged his fingernails over my throat and down my torso to circle round and pinch a nipple.

  I had no intention of just lying there, however. I did a bit of fingernail-dragging myself, down his back to the curves of his buttocks. I also explored the crevice between them and found his own puckered opening.

  He reared back, driving even further into me, met my smug gaze, and growled.

  I tickled the space below his hole, and his movements sped up until finally he reached between us, smeared my prick with the moisture that oozed from it, then enclosed it in his hand and tugged. I didn’t even think to do anything to extend our pleasure. Instead, I shuddered and exploded all over his chest. A second or so later, he followed me over the cliff into the abyss.

  We sprawled on that bed, struggling to regain our breaths.

  “This was good, Roddy.”

  “It was.”

  We fell asleep and woke up a few hours later stuck together. In spite of that—or perhaps because of it—I was happier than I’d been since Charlie and I had left South Africa.

  And I decided I would enjoy this for however long Tommy was willing to have me, and I would keep to myself the fact I’d given him my heart.

  Chapter 20

  That week on the road was more pleasurable than I could ever have imagined, in spite of the evening when we stopped at a town where not a single bed was available, due to a boxing match that was being held in the vicinity. We’d had no choice but to spend the night in the stables with the horses.

  Making love on a bed of hay, I found, was highly over-rated, but afterward Tommy plucked hay from my hair and stole occasional kisses and….

  And dammit, he was making it very difficult for me to fall out of love with him.

  * * * *

  After a leisurely week on the road, we arrived at Greenbriers and cantered up the curving drive to Fortescue Manor. It was a lovely house, and Tommy saw my approving gaze, although truthfully, it wasn’t my place to approve or disapprove of his home.

  “Growing up here must have been an amazing experience,” I said by way of excusing my bumpkinish stare.

  “It was. If I were ever to have children, I would love to raise them in a home like this one.”

  Children? I would have given him whatever he wanted, but that…that was beyond my power. It brought home, as if there was more need, that I could never have a future with him. But oh, how I wished—

  I shoved the thought aside as the front door burst open, and a woman hurried out, her hands extended.

  “Thomas!”

  “Mother!” Tommy dismounted and went to her.

  Lady Fortescue-Smythe was a petite beauty with a riot of white-blonde curls which she had obviously passed on to her youngest son. Tommy had told me of her, and I could see she retained the fine looks that had earned her the title of “diamond of the first water” during her come out. She welcomed her younger son with tears of joy.

  For a moment I envied my friend this obvious affection. No one in my family, not even my own mother had ever displayed such affection toward me, reserving it for the poor and destitute in the towns and villages where she and my father proselytised.

  Of course, Nanny had cared for me as if I’d been her own flesh and blood, and I’d been happy with the tenderness she had showered on me.

  And there had been Charlie, who had loved me beyond life. I dismounted and stood there, smiling wistfully as I rubbed my thumb over the ring I wore.

  But then Tommy stepped back and pulled me against his side. “Mother, this is Rodney Sayer. He came with me from Africa. You’ve heard me speak of him.”

  “Yes, of course. Rodney. What a pleasure to meet you at last, dear boy.”

  “Roddy, please, milady.” I took her hand and raised it to my lips. In all the books I had read, that was how it was done. “Meet me at last?” I queried.

  “Thomas spoke endlessly of you when he was demobbed.”

  I sent a glance my friend’s way, and he blushed and smiled. “Mothers,” he mouthed. I had no idea what he meant, but I smiled back at him.

  His mother chuckled indulgently and patted my cheek. “Dear boy,” she repeated. “You must call me Lady Eugenia. And how long may we count on the pleasure of your company?”

  “For as long as I can keep him here, Mother. I’m afraid I got Roddy to…come…under duress—I gave him no choice.” Tommy answered before I could say a word, and I felt myself blushing at his mild innuendo. “And I’m depending on you to help me persuade him to stay.”

  “Of course I’ll do all I can.” She beamed at me. “Oh, this arrived for you.” She took something from the pocket of her dress and handed it to me.

  “
Ma’am?” I turned it over and realised it was a telegram.

  “Johnson had one of Bertram’s grooms bring this.”

  “And he arrived before we did?” Tommy sounded surprised.

  “He drove Dinah’s MG.” She gave a huff, and I couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or simply concerned. “I don’t know what your brother was thinking, getting her a car like that.”

  Tommy huffed himself, and I imagined this was an ongoing worry. And it was none of my business.

  I opened the telegram and read it in growing amazement, then turned to stare at Tommy, open-mouthed.

  “Is your farm all right?”

  I nodded but couldn’t utter a word.

  “Roddy. What’s in it?”

  “Really, Thomas,” his mother chided him.

  “Really, Mother,” he responded. “You know good things are rarely announced in telegrams.”

  “No, this is…it’s…” I was finally able to speak, only to realise, “I have no words.”

  “Here, let me read it.” Tommy took the wire from me and ran his gaze over the information that was going to change my life. “Hmm. Roddy’s manager informs him a vein of diamonds has been found in the hills that surround his fields.”

  Diamonds.

  “Well, how very fortunate!” Lady Eugenia exclaimed.

  “Yes!” I could have danced a jig. If this proved to be true…I might not have a title before my name, but I’d have money enough to prove to any who looked askance at my friendship with Tommy that I wasn’t taking advantage of that friendship. Of course he might still send me away one day, but until then I’d be a worthy friend.

  “Indeed.” My friend didn’t exactly seem pleased, and I frowned at him. “You’ll need guards to protect the mine. Nelson really shouldn’t have—”

  “Guards? I’ll need guards?”

  “Everyone and his mother-in-law will want to get at that mine once this information becomes common knowledge, and trust me, dear boy, it will. I’ll contact a friend and have him deal with it.”