Unfit to Print by K. J. Charles

Author:K. J. Charles [Charles, K. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, Historical, Romance, Multicultural, diverse, victorian
ISBN: 9781912688012
Goodreads: 39330140
Publisher: KJC Books
Published: 2018-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Gil wasn’t sure if Vikram was going to come back in, and was unreasonably relieved when he heard footsteps on the stairs. He wouldn’t have gone running after him, that would be stupid, but nobody would want an old mate to walk off in a huff like that for no reason.

Or if there had been a reason it was the tension of their prior conversation, those painful revelations spilled out to someone who was and wasn’t a stranger, was and wasn’t a friend. Doubtless Vikram hadn’t wanted to be reminded of their youthful misdeeds. There were plenty of men who started regretting their acts thirty seconds after they spent; of course it would be embarrassing for an upright lawyer to recall his schoolboy passions, and how very much they’d seemed to mean at the time.

Vikram didn’t make any reference to their conversation or his abrupt disappearance when he came back in. He just hung up his coat in the corner again, and Gil took a look at him while he did so. A lot of his height was in his legs, which had the lean look of someone who walked a lot. Come to that, his expensive shoes were heavily worn on the sole though the uppers were smartly polished. Vikram wasn’t the sort to sit in a hackney when he could be striding along the pavement.

Vikram knelt back down to the pictures, his expression closed. Controlled, it was; controlled enough to make Gil wonder what he was controlling.

They’d played the fool as boys, and it had been...more than fun. It had seemed important then, overwhelming at times. It was hard to imagine that now, these many years over the chasm that separated Gil’s adulthood from his boyhood; hard to remember any of the things that had seemed so important when he’d had things to take for granted, like a soft bed and food and a father who loved him. If Matthew’s malice hadn’t pulled the pair of them apart—

Well, who knew. Maybe Gil would have been the first one to break Vikram’s heart. He was glad he hadn’t done that.

Vikram had come to the end of an album, so Gil passed him another. He groaned. “How much of this is there?”

“Shelves. Matthew liked his pictures.”

“I can’t say I feel the same.”

“Yes, but you don’t enjoy much.”

Vikram’s head came up sharply. His eyes looked huge, dark and liquid, and Gil felt like a shit. It was the kind of dig he’d been used to making when things were different. “Sorry. Look, you don’t have to like pictures. You don’t have to like anything. All I meant was, uh.” He stalled on that.

“What did you mean?”

Gil sighed. “Look, if you don’t like fucking, that’s fine. And if you like it, that’s fine too. It’s all fine if you’re happy. It’s just, you don’t look happy.”

“You don’t know me.”

“No, I don’t, you’re right. Fair enough. Are you happy?”

Vikram blinked. It looked like a question he hadn’t expected to be asked. “I...have a fulfilling, busy life.

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