Lost and Found by Liv Rancourt

Author:Liv Rancourt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay historical romance, gay romance, 20th century romance, lgbt romance, m/m historical romance, historical fiction
Publisher: Liv Rancourt
Published: 2019-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

KEEPING SOME SPACE between us, I swallowed hard and kicked off my shoes, stepped out of my trousers, and tugged down my drawers. I didn’t look at Louis until I had a towel wrapped around my waist.

He still wore his trousers and shoes, and he stared at my towel with a look I could not decipher. Desire, surely, but tempered by other things.

“Shall I leave you to get undressed?” I asked. “I think we’re distracting each other.”

“The bath is down the hallway. I’ll be there in a moment.”

I left him, thoughts crowding each other in my mind. This was one of the first times he’d referred to his leg. He worked so hard at minimizing his limp and ignoring its effect on his life, clinging stubbornly to his home on Montmartre. Navigating the butte had to be difficult. Climbing endless flights of steps challenged me, and I had two good legs.

I bypassed the showers and found the bath. The room held a pool large enough to seat thirty or forty people. None of the apartments had indoor bathrooms, but neither did our farmhouse back home. This pool, with its cool blue tile and steam rising from the water, was much more inviting than the old metal tub Mother dragged into the kitchen and filled with water from the pump.

I dropped my towel on a nearby chair and stepped into the shallow end, the water wrapping around my ankles like a warm embrace. There were two other men across the pool, hanging from the edge in the deep water. I took another step and inhaled the pungent mint-scented steam.

With my attention trained on the water’s warmth, I didn’t notice Louis’s entrance until he’d leaned his cane against the bench and draped his towel over mine. Only a few feet separated the bench from the pool. He hobble-stepped across the slick tiles and slipped into the water, his expression displaying the same cool remove he practiced on the street.

But his eyes, dark and gleaming, met mine, and I felt a click, as if a thing binding the two of us had dropped into place. He sculled over to me, lips curving into a generous smile. The invisible binding tightened, and I had to fight the urge to wrap him in my arms.

This was unlike me, such new territory I could not guess how to proceed. We had witnesses, so kissing him was out of bounds.

“There’s soap in the bucket.” Louis pointed at a metal pail sitting to the right of the steps.

I nodded, my ability to speak seemingly lost in the mist.

He paddled past me. “There.” He pointed to a spot midway between the other bathers.

“Okay.” Feeling stupid, I followed him. There was a step running all the way around the pool, so when we reached the wall, we sat, water covering us to our waists. Our thighs touched; our shoulders brushed. When we’d both settled into place, I dared give him a sidelong glance.

“Why do you stay?” I might be too forward, but it was something I wanted to know.

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.