Leather and Tea in London by JMS Books LLC

Author:JMS Books LLC
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay

Chapter 3

The morning dawned clear and opalescent and chilly: the crisp pale jewel of upscale London sprawled out under clouds in grey and brick, twinkles of color in traffic lights and shopping-bags, scarves and sweaters. Ben always had liked cool weather; he liked the bite of a deep breath, the bracing clarity of being present and real and alive.

These days, of course, he was getting older. Older than Simon; hell, older than Stephen, by a not insignificant number of years. Not old yet; but his left knee ached some mornings, and the muscles were stiffer than they’d once been, and a few of those scar-memories twinged. He didn’t have too many of those—he’d always worked more on the intelligence-gathering side, the communications side, rather than blunt-force operations—but he hadn’t been able to avoid a few. Simon knew all those stories, and had kissed the spot along Ben’s ribs, the one behind his shoulder, the knee.

Those memories made him smile. Not too old for his husband; not yet, anyway. Not after last night.

“Should we be going?” Simon emerged from the en suite bathroom, hair artistically swept up, blue eyes made even bigger with just a hint of eyeliner, pale pink trousers and grey sweater somehow both neat and tidy and consequently fabulously seductive. He didn’t always bother to dress up or to do the eyeliner; sometimes he did, for author events, signings, public appearances. Sometimes he liked being sparkly and outrageous; sometimes he was lazy and soft and rumpled, curled up with tea and a book.

Right now the look was armor. Ben knew it was.

He said, “We should be, before your brother eats all the bacon, and also you look great.” Simon grinned, and tossed him a wink, so they were good. They were incredible.

They had breakfast with Stephen, who did indeed eat most of the bacon—and eggs, and toast, and beans, and just about everything else—and also kept pouring tea for them, probably out of nerves. They reassured Simon’s brother that everything would be fine, and went out. Into the world. On a mission. Together.

That same scamper of giddiness darted down Ben’s back as they left the townhouse. Using his skills. With his husband at his side. With relatively low stakes. So much fun.

They went into the city proper, that fashionable glittering district where history met high-end names, and did a tiny bit of shopping, and after a while let the media notice Simon at a bookshop. He waved and said hello and offered to sign a few romance novels, maybe even do an impromptu reading. Ben, in the resulting clamor, quietly stepped out and wandered over to a small café where his contact sat reading a morning paper, and took the other chair at her table. “Amanda.”

“Lovely to see you, Benjamin.” Amanda Hassan—also not her real name—slid a dark-roasted steam-hot cup his way, dark eyes dancing. She looked flawless as ever, black hair and smooth brown skin and elegant suits and hands that could decode a message or fire a kill shot.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.