The Wages of Sin by Alex Beecroft

Author:Alex Beecroft [Beecroft, Alex]
Language: nld
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: erotic MM, Romance MM
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

chAPteR eight

“Mr. Charles Latham.” Admiral Vane’s butler exuded a salty

air. It was probably the wooden leg, and the appalling mess of the

right hand side of his face. He bowed Charles into the orangery

as if welcoming a captain on board his skiff, and was not above

accepting a small token of esteem before he left.

The orangery too bore a faint nautical flavour; the stones

whitewashed, the lime trees trimmed into severe regularity, the slate

of the floor roughened and dulled by incessant holystoning.

The Admiral sat at a small table, surrounded by dark green

foliage, amber moons of oranges and the scent of citrus. He

wore a great wig, more suited to the past century, its cascading

curls the glossy blond-brown of new cut oak. A plump man.

When he smiled, as he did now, his shrewd brown eyes all but

disappeared into the round cheeks. His bull neck was swathed

from collarbone to ear in a cravat that looked soft as gauze and

lay in a limp bow over his uniform waistcoat. “I won’t rise, Mr.

Latham,” he said. “Waiting for death, hey?”

“I beg your pardon?”

With a rustle and flap the man at the Admiral’s side put down

his newspaper, emerging from the white screen like a butterfly

out of its chrysalis. Jasper. He had left off his clergyman’s garb,

dressed now in a suit of garnet silk that clung about his arms and

shoulders, shadows suggesting the curves of muscle. He had

swapped that awful wig, too, and the plain, clubbed style of its

replacement emphasised the hawk-like Spanish lines of his face.

Charles took a step backwards, cursing the fiery rush of blood

he could feel thundering to his face. A murderer, remember? But his

body listened to his reason not at all, prick stirring and straining

uncomfortably against the pinch of his tucked shirt. The blush

made his lips tingle and he swore he could still taste the kiss there.

A wash of panic went over him. The Admiral would notice!

66 Alex Beecroft

Surely he was bruised all over, visibly, like his throat? Impossible

for anyone to miss it!

“Mean that literally, young man.” Vane laboriously pushed a

spare chair with his foot, moving it an inch. As it scraped on the

floor, Jasper leapt to his feet and pulled it further.

“You must not strain yourself, sir.”

He gave Charles a little smile, sneaking it sideways beneath his

long black lashes. Such a smile! Sweet and uncertain and wicked

all at once. Charles’ lips twitched in answer, his back straightened

and chest puffed out with joy before he caught himself doing it

and scowled.

“I will not be treated as an invalid, Jasper. The thing swells by

the day, caution will buy me little more than minutes.”

“Forgive me…” Charles took the chair from Jasper’s hand,

watching the welcoming smile fade. “I’m not following.”

“This thing.” Admiral Vane cautiously unwound his

extravagant cravat, revealing a bulge of pulsing flesh about

the size of a fist emerging from the side of his throat. His

expression, as he watched the change in Charles’ face from shock

to curiosity, reminded Charles suddenly of Jasper’s trademark

cynical amusement. “Could pop any time, I’m told. Blood all

over the shop. Dead in under a minute. Not a bad way to go.

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