Like a Lover (14 page)

Josh
wriggled back until he could feel the soft bulge of Rupert’s cloth-covered dick
against his arse.

“Do you
want to fuck or anything?” Josh asked. He was sleepy, but he could definitely
manage something if Rupert was up for it.

“No. This
is perfect.” Rupert sounded tired too. “Unless you want to?”

“Nah.
Sleep’s good for now.”

Rupert
rolled away to turn off the lights, then came back to his original position.
The weight of his hand on Josh’s hip was like an anchor, and Josh drifted off
with Rupert’s warm breath tickling his neck.

Josh woke
to the sensations of a hard cock pressing up against his arse and Rupert’s hand
sliding down his belly and into his underwear, where he curled it around Josh’s
erection.

“Mmmph,”
Josh managed, moving his hips to show his appreciation.

Rupert
chuckled. “Good morning.” He stroked Josh’s cock a couple of times, then guided
him to lie on his back while he moved down the bed to tug Josh’s underwear off.
Rupert eased his way between Josh’s legs to kiss his balls and run a teasing
tongue up his to the tip of his dick. “I seem to recall I owe you a morning
blow job.”

“If you
insist.”

Josh slid
his hands into Rupert’s hair and held on for the ride as Rupert repaid his
debt. After Josh had come, Rupert crawled up and traded lazy, jizz-flavoured
kisses while he rubbed off against Josh’s hip and eventually came in his
underwear.

“Aren’t you
a bit old to be coming in your pants?” Josh teased when he felt the warm wet
patch bloom against his skin.

“Don’t
care,” Rupert muttered before kissing him again. “Feels good.”

Afterwards
they lay on their backs, and Josh’s eyes drifted closed again. He was utterly relaxed
and filled with warm contentment. Rupert took Josh’s hand and stroked circles
into the palm with his fingertips.

“What’s the
plan for today?” Josh asked.

“There’s
nowhere we need to be till the service at four this afternoon. Unless you
particularly want to put in an appearance downstairs, I thought we could get
room service breakfast, then maybe go out somewhere for lunch so we get a break
from having to be sociable?”

“Sounds
good to me.”

They had a
lovely, lazy morning in bed, eating, watching TV and chatting. The breakfast
was so huge—and late by the time they ordered it—that they decided
to give lunch a miss. When they finally managed to drag themselves out of bed
and shower, they went for a stroll around the stunning hotel grounds.

Near the
house there was a rose garden. Gravel paths led through beds containing roses
in every colour Josh could imagine, and climbing roses trained over frames to
form an archway over the path. The sweet scent of roses was thick in the air.

Below the
rose garden, the path opened out onto a manicured lawn. An expanse of perfectly
tended grass swept gently down to a rockery at the bottom, and beyond that, a
steeper slope covered with rhododendrons and mature trees. They followed the
path down through to where it levelled out, and found a small lake among the
trees.

“Oh, look.
Swans.” Rupert pointed to the majestic white birds that swept towards them like
stately galleons from the opposite side of the water.

“They look
hungry,” Josh said. “If we’d known, we could have brought our leftover toast
from breakfast.”

The swans
watched them with their beady gazes until they gave up on Rupert and Josh as a
food source, and slowly started to drift away again.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

When it was
time to go back and get ready for the wedding, Rupert could tell that Josh was
nervous about facing the other guests again.

He felt a
sudden pang of guilt for asking Josh to do this. Although Josh was doing his
best, it was obvious he was out of his depth around Rupert’s family. Hell,
Rupert found it stressful, and he’d been brought up in this lifestyle and
taught which knife and fork to use as soon as he was old enough to hold them.
His mother had him handing snacks around at cocktail parties when he was ten
and mixing martinis at fifteen. He might not enjoy the pomp and ceremony that
went along with the trappings of his family’s wealth, but at least he was used
to it. He could only imagine how alien it must feel to Josh, though.

They
dressed in their room. Rupert was distracted, trying to sort out his tie and
then fiddling with his cufflinks, so he barely noticed what Josh was wearing
until he spoke.

“How do I
look?”

There was
an uncertainty to Josh’s tone, so Rupert knew he wasn’t just fishing for
compliments.

The
mid-grey suit set off Josh’s pale skin and dark hair to perfection, and the
green of the tie brought out his eyes. He was clean-shaven and he had parted
and slicked back his hair instead of letting it flop over his brow like it
usually did. His lip ring and ear piercings were the only things that made him
look anything other than utterly conventional, and the contrast was insanely
sexy. The tension in Josh’s face gave away his need for reassurance, and a
sudden rush of protectiveness and affection assaulted Rupert.

“You look
fantastic,” he said honestly.

“Are you
sure?”

“Definitely.
You look gorgeous, and that suit is a great fit on you. Even my mother will be
impressed.”

“You
reckon?” Josh’s cheeks flushed pink.

“Yes.”

“You look
good too.” There was a flash of heat in Josh’s eyes as he took in the sight of
Rupert all dressed up. “Reminds me of how you looked the first night we met. I
thought you were hot the moment I set eyes on you in the bar.”

Their gazes
locked for a heady moment, and Rupert flashed back to that night—the
nerves and excitement, and the illicit thrill that went along with paying for
sex. He looked at Josh now, and he still wanted him just as much, but his
feelings had morphed into something new. Something so much more than desire
alone.

Rupert
moved forward and cupped Josh’s face in his hands. His skin was smooth, and as
Rupert kissed Josh, he smelled the tang of cologne: something citrusy and fresh
that suited Josh perfectly.

Josh wound
his arms around Rupert and kissed him back. It was sweet at first, but when a
heat grew between them that they didn’t have time to satisfy, Rupert pulled
away reluctantly. “Are you ready to go downstairs?”

Josh
nodded.

Rupert
pressed a last chaste kiss to his lips and then took Josh’s hand. “Let’s go,
then.”

He kept
hold of Josh’s hand as they made their way downstairs. The ceremony was taking
place in the conservatory. The room had been completely rearranged since the
night before, with rows of chairs laid out to form an aisle. An usher greeted
them, and when Rupert explained he was the son of the bride, the usher led them
to a row at the front. Rupert stood aside to let Josh go in first so that he
could get the seat by the wall, and then Rupert moved in beside him.

The room
gradually filled with guests. Anne, Richard, and their children joined them in
the front row, greeting them with smiles and hellos.

Josh
glanced over his shoulder. “Wow, there’s so many people,” he whispered. “Do you
know most of them?”

Rupert
turned to look. There were a few familiar faces from his childhood. He caught
sight of his godparents, Bill and Justine, and waved to them. But many of the
people were strangers—friends of his mother’s from her new life with
Charles. He felt a pang of loss for his father, unexpected in its intensity.

“Not many,”
he admitted.

Something
must have given him away in his voice or his expression, because Josh frowned
and asked, “You okay?”

“It’s
strange for me, I guess,” Rupert kept his voice low, leaning in close. “To see
how much she’s moved on since Dad died. I forget sometimes because I don’t live
at home anymore. Don’t get me wrong,” he added. “I’m glad she’s happy. It’s
just….”

Josh took
his hand and squeezed it tightly. He didn’t seem to need Rupert to finish the
sentence.

At that
point, the music started and the service began.

Josh held
Rupert’s hand throughout, and Rupert was grateful. He could almost feel his
father there watching with him. His parents’ marriage hadn’t been perfect, but
it had lasted. His mother had been different then, softer somehow, easier to
relate to. Now she was a brittle shell of a person, all glossy perfection on
the outside but empty on the inside. She only seemed interested in the
trappings of her wealth and the social status she’d acquired. When his dad had
died, Rupert had lost his mother too.

As the
afternoon passed, tension crept up from Rupert’s shoulders and neck to form a
band around his head. His head ached. The drinks after the ceremony weren’t
helping. He was dehydrated after a couple of glasses of champagne, and too hot
in his suit. The strain of maintaining his social smile and making polite
conversation was getting too much, and he had the desperate urge to escape. If
it wasn’t for Josh, a constant presence by his side, he didn’t think he’d be
able to get through it.

As he
introduced himself to his mother’s friends from bridge and croquet, and to
Charles’s business associates, Rupert never shied away from introducing Josh as
his boyfriend. The reactions varied from thinly veiled embarrassment to
overeffusive enthusiasm and unsolicited anecdotes about their various gay
friends, relations, or colleagues.

The only
people who were genuinely pleased to meet Josh were Rupert’s godparents, Bill
and Justine. Bill shook Josh’s hand and Justine gave him a hug, and they
chatted for a while. Rupert relaxed a little as the conversation flowed easily,
and even managed to smile back when Josh gave him a small grin of
encouragement.

When Josh
excused himself to go to the toilet, Justine turned to Rupert and said, “You
look so happy together. It’s good to see. He’s lovely, Rupert.”

Conflicting
emotions rushed through Rupert. Pleasure that someone whose opinion he cared
about liked Josh, shame at the deception, and hollow longing for the false
reality he’d created.

“He is.” He
swallowed hard against the lump her words had caused in his throat. “He’s
great.”

“He’s a
very bright young man.” Bill sounded approving too. “Your father would have
liked him.”

Rupert
couldn’t manage a reply to that, so he gave an awkward nod and half smile
before taking another gulp of his drink. Someone had refilled his glass again
while he was chatting, but as the alcohol coursed through his system, he was
glad of it.

Thankfully
they were seated at a table with Bill and Justine for dinner, along with Daniel
and Emma, whose parents were on the top table with the bride and groom. Rupert
couldn’t have picked a better group of people to be sitting with if he’d tried,
and he offered grateful thanks to the universe for not putting him and Josh
with some of the awful people they’d met earlier.

Everything
went smoothly, and Josh seemed much more relaxed than he’d been at the meal
last night. Rupert saw him hesitate uncertainly over his cutlery once or twice,
but Rupert made sure he was always quick to start eating so that Josh could
follow his lead. Josh stuck to drinking water as always, leaving the wine in
his glass untouched, but nobody seemed to notice. If they did, they didn’t
mention it. Rupert drank some water, but the wine was too delicious to waste so
he drank that too. Now he was starting to enjoy himself a little, the buzz from
the alcohol was welcome, sending out warm tendrils of cheer and exuberance and
chipping away at his natural reserve.

The
after-dinner speeches were long. Rupert let his knee drop sideways until it
pressed against Josh’s leg under the table. He reached for Josh’s hand again
and stroked his thumb over Josh’s knuckles as he listened to Charles drone on
with some golfing anecdote about his mother. Josh’s fingers were strong and
slim as they played with his hand, and Rupert’s mind went to dirty places. He
must have completely missed the punchline of Charles’s story, because everyone
burst out laughing. Rupert faked a laugh too, but Josh nudged him and
whispered, “You didn’t hear any of that, did you?”

“Nope,”
Rupert admitted, getting lost in Josh’s eyes for moment. “I was too busy
thinking about you.”

Josh
flushed, but couldn’t stop the shy smile that spread across his face.

Rupert
wanted to kiss him so badly.

Once the
meal was over, the party moved to what was rather grandly called the Ballroom.
The high-ceilinged room had huge double doors that opened out onto the garden.
By now Rupert and Josh had both shed their jackets and loosened their ties, and
Rupert was grateful for the slight breeze drifting in from outdoors. It carried
the summer scents of cut grass, jasmine, and roses—evocative and
tempting. He wanted to take Josh’s hand and pull him out into the twilight,
away from all the people and the noise. But he thought his mother would notice
if they went missing too soon. Maybe they could escape later.

“Do you
need anything to drink?” he asked Josh.

“No
thanks.”

“Mind if I
do?”

“Of course
not. But you’re too heavy for me to carry upstairs later, so bear that in
mind.” Josh grinned.

Rupert
chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on drinking too much more.”

He was
already tipsy, but the evening was much easier to handle through the soft-focus
filter of alcohol. Full from dinner, he didn’t fancy beer, so he ordered a malt
whisky. At the sight of his mother approaching, he added to the girl behind the
bar, “Actually, can you make it a double? Thanks.”

“Rupert,
Josh,” His mother greeted them with a slightly too-wide smile that gave her a
rather predatory look.

“Hello,
Mother. Congratulations again.” Rupert hadn’t spoken to her since the formal
greeting line after the ceremony. “I hope you’re enjoying the evening.”

“Oh, yes.”
Her smile softened a fraction. “It’s been lovely. I think the caterers did a
terrific job.”

“Can I buy
you a drink?” he asked.

“No, thank
you. I had enough with dinner. Don’t want to trip over my feet for my first
dance as Mrs Engledow.”

“That
would
be unfortunate.”

“Darling.”
Charles came over to Geraldine’s side, diverting her attention away from Rupert
and Josh. He didn’t acknowledge their presence at all. “The band’s about to
start. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” She
smiled up at him, took his proffered arm, and they made their way to the centre
of the dance floor.

The lights
dimmed and a single soft spotlight picked up the couple as they stood in a
ballroom hold, gazing into each other’s eyes.

She really
did look happy, Rupert thought. It was a shame Charles was such a git. But he
supposed it wasn’t any of his business who his mother married, in the same way
that it wasn’t any of her business who he was sleeping with, or dating… or in
love with.

Just like
that, Rupert knew what this was. He loved Josh. He couldn’t deny it any longer,
but he had no idea how to tell him—or even if he should.

The band
started playing a waltz, and Charles swept Geraldine into a graceful circuit of
the dance floor as the onlookers clapped and cheered. The next couple to join
them were Bill and Justine, and after that a steady stream of people gradually
filled up the floor until it was a sea of moving bodies.

Rupert put
his glass down. “Shall we?” He offered his hand to Josh, who looked uncertain.

“I don’t
know how to do that type of dancing. Twerking is more my thing than ballroom.”

Rupert
laughed. “Fun though that sounds—and I definitely want to see it one
day—I don’t think my mother and her friends are ready for that. But it’s
easy, honestly. I’ll lead, and I don’t mind if you tread on my feet.”

“You should
have worn steel toecaps,” Josh muttered, but he gave Rupert his hand and let
him guide him onto the crowded dance floor.

Rupert took
Josh in his arms, ignoring the fact that a few people were looking at them
strangely, and started to move. Josh made a few mistakes at first, apologising
and frowning down at his feet with concentration until he picked up the gentle
rhythm. Then he relaxed and met Rupert’s gaze, a smile on his face.