Fortunes of War by Mel Keegan

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

Chapter Twenty

He had changed, yet not changed. Nothing about Dermot Channon was boyish now. His

body had broadened with muscle while his face had fined down to planes and angles that

were smooth, beautiful. His eyes smouldered, whether in anger or lust. His fury had been

frightening, and Robin knew how close to violence he had been.

It was his own doing. Channon would not have been at fault if he had gone through with the

act of retribution. It would have been a fitting penance for what Robin had said, and the

dead faint was sheer good fortune.

As he dressed he checked discreetly between his legs, but found no blood or semen, no

soreness. His body burned feverishly but it was only the wound paining him, and he felt a

pang of shame. The Dermot Channon he had known for so long would not punish a man who

was already fainting and sick; but for those few moments they had been strangers.

The horrifying story of death and struggle purged the resentment from them both, and the

love offered freely moments later was precious. Robin had forgotten Jen. Are you mine?

Channon asked, and Robin had made his commitment without realising what he had done.

He was acidly aware of the truth. There could be no way back to the cartographer’s shop,

nor to Jenny’s bed; there was no choice to be made. Did he betray her? In his heart he

suspected he did, but nothing weakened his conviction that Jen Armagh’s happiness came

first. Robin would madden her as he pined — not for an impossible dream now, but for the

lover who was tantalizingly just beyond his reach.

Or would be become the adulterer? His mind’s eye glimpsed secret meetings by moonlight

on a remote beach where a ship waited, fetching a fugitive to England. Clandestine

lovemaking in a tavern on the moors, pleasure seized out of guilt and hardship, till he was

discovered ... a man betraying his wife with the sin and crime of sodomy. A Spaniard would

be accused of seducing the son of an earl, and perhaps of spying. Channon would be hanged,

and Robin might easily hang beside him. Ned Blythe, and Jenny, would never live down the

disgrace. And the tittle-tattle would go on, tainting the future for the growing twins, who

would never quite outlive their father’s shame.

The future loomed like a mountain range of thunderheads. He saw no way back without

Channon, and none with him. So I choose, Robin thought as he dressed. The half life of the adulterer, till I am mad and curdled? Or freedom, at what price? Jen’s grief, before my

children call that whey-faced knight their father! He had no choice, yet still it hurt. Home called with a siren song, but he saw the doom in answering it.

Channon had swiftly dispelled his misgivings, though one real fear had lingered in Robin’s

mind — that Dermot would find the body of a grown man less appealing than the youth he

had desired. Then, the blaze of Channon’s lust was consuming. Robin was sure Dermot

would swallow him alive, and was prepared to be fucked at once if it be needed, though he

was himself too feverish to respond.

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