Objects Of His Obsession (26 page)

Now Evander did laugh, coming
over to the bed and sprawling on the side of it, beside Benedict. “You enjoyed
that?”

“You know I did.”

“So did I,” Evander admitted,
reaching out, stroking the damp hair back from Benedict’s face. “I never
thought I would. But I loved it. At least with you.”

“You mean you–”

Benedict’s face was a study. Evander
began to laugh. “Hell, Ben. In a way you could say we lost our virginity to one
another. Or at least that particular one,” he added, with a filthy smirk. “Before,
I’d always been the … one to penetrate. To take. Never be taken. Does that make
it clearer to you?”

Benedict was shaking his head.
“But why me? Why … why change what you clearly preferred?”

Evander’s heart was hammering
so damned hard against his ribs it felt it would explode. And all he could
manage, for all his eloquence, was, “Because, you thick-headed bastard, that
meant something to me.
You
meant
something to me. And I wanted to experience something with you I’d never had
with another.” Licking suddenly very dry lips, his turquoise eyes skidded away
from the sudden knowing wisdom flaring in the other man’s. “I love you, Ben,”
he muttered on a bare thread of sound. “And I didn’t know how else to show you,
and right now, I don’t know how else to tell you.”

There was a long, endless
silence. One that stretched Evander’s nerves till, taut as a cat, he was about
to get up and get away from that bed. Gather his clothes, dress, and just get
the hell out of that room.

Sweet Jesus, he’d tried. At
least he’d–

Benedict laid a large, rough
hand on his forearm, stilling him. “Christ, you really are a romantic, aren’t
you?” he said with a kind of wonder. As if Evander had turned into the most rare,
exotic of beasts before his very eyes. And when he would have jerked away, with
a sudden, raw strength, Benedict reached out and dragged him back, slamming him
down onto the mattress and rolling on top of him. Pinning him with his weight. “And
I love that in you,” Benedict said huskily, staring down at him. “So stop
looking like some caged animal about to tear out my throat and bolt. I love
that you gave that to me.
Yourself
to
me. I love that although Christ knows, you’ll always have more clever tricks up
your sleeve than me, more skill, you’ve never had that with another man. And …
I love you, too, Evander.”

On the soft, last words, Evander
closed his eyes. Feeling that terrible, wrenching,
hated
vulnerability ease. Feeling that shameful fear fade like mist
in sunshine.

And then the shock of just
what
Benedict was saying sank in.

The wonderful, wonderful shock.

His eyes opened wide, blazing
blue on the man staring down at him.

Benedict smiled mockingly.
“What? You thought you could just get away with some tortured confession of
love and I would let you walk away? I love you, you beautiful fucking bastard.
Always have. Always will.”

~~***~~

“So, it was true,” Benedict murmured,
lips moving over Evander’s chest. “You are a romantic.”

“That was just Juliana playing
with you.”

“I think not.” Benedict lifted
his head, glanced up into Evander’s heated face. “Why would she say you were
her knight in shining armor if she didn’t mean it?”

“You don’t want to hear this
story.”

Benedict’s teeth grazed at a
tight, peaked nipple. “I damned well do.”

Evander groaned, covered his
eyes with his arm. “Dammit,” he grunted, and muttered, “Very well. It was
Juliana’s … misfortune to be the most sought after debutante of her year at
eighteen. But by the time she was twenty-six her father was damned near ready
to kill her, and all of polite London knew it. Incredibly beautiful, the
daughter of a lord, on offer eight years and yet no engagement ring. With every
proposal she turned down Juliana became yet more conspicuous. They nicknamed
her the Belgravia Diamond. Her parents would have happily committed her to an
asylum by that point, if it wouldn’t have raised more gossip. Even her older
brother wasn’t about to step in. Probably he found the whole thing as awkward
as they did.”

“Not every woman marries,” Benedict
said reasonably. “It happens enough.”

“To have Juliana’s looks, her
social status, so many offers of marriage and
not
marry by twenty-six? Maybe in another family it would have been
allowed. Not hers. It looked distinctly damned odd. They weren’t the type to
permit that.”

“And so what happened?”

“We hadn’t seen each other
since my father’s death. His funeral, to be precise. But I knew enough of
Juliana to know that I could trust her, and that she appreciated plain
speaking. I also had a very strong suspicion as to why she’d never married. At
the reception after the funeral, we’d spoken, and she mentioned Eliza. At her
name there was a note in her voice I recognized. That of a woman besotted by
her lover. At twenty-one, I was legally in a position to do something about it.”

“And so you offered her–”

“What we both needed. Wanted. A
way to be true to ourselves, and yet have what we both wanted, a family,
children. I
had
to marry, in any
case. I needed an heir to the dukedom, and hadn’t been relishing … Christ, that
kind of dishonesty. I’d resigned myself to marrying some woman so damned hungry
for the title that, forewarned, she wouldn’t care about an indifferent husband.
It would have been a purely practical arrangement, but–”

“Instead you could save
Juliana, and save yourself.”

“Yes. Exactly.”

“So what happened?”

“Juliana and I came to an
agreement. I may have been younger than any of her other suitors, but–”

“Juliana was happy to marry
you.”

“Yes.” Evander sighed and
grinned suddenly. “She agreed to marry me as long as we eloped. It was her way
of sending a giant
fuck you
to her
family and Society in general.”

Benedict burst out laughing,
wishing to hell he’d been there to witness
that
nine days wonder, curled close to Evander until the man shifted, wrapped an arm
about his back and drew him yet closer.

His lips nuzzling Evander’s
neck, Benedict murmured, “I see just why Juliana called you her knight in
shining armor. You were. You truly are a romantic, Evander. Behind that steely
exterior you really are just–”

Evander’s fingers curled warningly
into the heavy muscle of Benedict’s shoulder. “Now you’re being a damned fool,
Ben.”

“You rescued Juliana.”

“She rescued
me
,” Evander retorted, dry as dust. Aristocratic
cool firmly back. “From marriage to some poor woman who would have grown to
hate me, title, money, social standing or not … and instead gave me … almost
everything I’d ever dreamt of.”

“
Almost
everything?”

“You, Ben. You’ve given me the
rest. It won’t be a conventional life, we won’t see each other as much as
either one of us would like, but I’d rather
any
time with you than unlimited hours with another. You’ve always been what I
wanted. Ached for, from that first glimpse. I just had to work out how to get
you into bed. After that, I knew it would work out.”

“Pretty damned sure of your own
attractions, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely,” Evander grinned.

Benedict frowned, spreading his
roughened palm over Evander’s chest, fingertips catching at the black hairs
there. “You know me, Evander. I’m obsessed with two things. You, and my work.
I’m going to be spending much of every year in Egypt. Oh, I’ll get away when I
can, and we’ll see each other in London or Paris, but frankly, it’s hard,
committed work. Those visits will be infrequent. I saw what it took Hamer to
succeed. Even with the team I’ve started to assemble, unless I’m very lucky, I
won’t find what I’m looking for the first dig season. Nor the second. Maybe not
the third, or the fourth… I just can’t predict it.”

Evander pressed a kiss against
the corner of his mouth. “I’m expecting all of that. And as I told you, I’ll be
visiting Cairo as often as I can. There are massive business opportunities in
the region. And Kingsley will be living there. No one will raise an eyebrow.
Juliana is already talking of the occasional visit with the children once
you’re settled. They’ll love it. And Eliza wants to come along with Juliana,
write pieces about the real Egypt. Not the usual tourist drivel. Maybe write
about your work, too, if you’ll agree to it. The whole thing will be
outstandingly normal, even if, in its own way, a three ring circus. If you can
tolerate it?”

“Hell, yes!”

Evander smirked, but still,
looked relieved. The mad, extended circle of family and lovers he’d mentioned
inflicting on Benedict had truly worried him. But then Ben would be a part of
that family. A vital, true part. “Glad to hear it,” he said lazily.

Benedict fell back against the
pillows, laughing. “Hell, all three of you been plotting this, haven’t you?”

Evander smiled. “Just a little.
I already have an agent over there looking at homes for me. I don’t suppose–”

“I like my place out there,” Benedict
said simply. “But I will gladly visit you at whatever palatial dwelling you end
up with.”

Evander gave him a turquoise
eyed glance of pure sin. “There will be many dinner parties. Many nights when
you’ll have to stay overnight. Can’t have you trying to navigate your way home half-drunk.”

Benedict grinned, shook his
head. “No, that wouldn’t do.”

“It wouldn’t do at all.”

“I love you,” Benedict
murmured, clearly enjoying the very sound of the words, pressing a kiss against
Evander’s chest, over his heart. Feeling its strong, steady thump beneath his
lips. “This won’t ever end, will it?”

Evander laughed softly. “With
your talent for obsession and mine for holding what I have and never letting it
go? Never.
Never
. I love you, your
sheer courage, your honesty. That insane obsession of yours. I would have
fought every hound in hell for you and I. You think I’d ever let that slip
away?”

His words cut straight to Benedict’s
heart. Bound it, tight.

As he closed his mouth over Evander’s
lush, carnal one Benedict knew that at last he’d gained it all, everything,
everything
he’d ever dreamt of, just as Evander
had.

All the objects of his
obsession, won, his.

And then his lover’s arms
tightened about him, and he knew that he didn’t need to wonder what it felt
like to be blessed.
He was
.

~~***~~

I’ve been an artist, a web designer, and a wickedly unreliable cook.
I really enjoy writing strong, alpha characters and if you’ve read
His
(The Hellfire Vampires Bloodline
standalone) or any of the Hellfire Vampires Bloodline stories which form it,
you’ll know that aside from writing historical fiction, I also really get a
kick out of writing paranormals. Although the research for those is a little
more speculative ;-)

I hope you enjoyed
Objects of
His Obsession
. It is a standalone, non-series, but The Hellfire Vampires Bloodline
series is continuing, and after the author blurb and HIS info I’ve including a
taster of the next Hellfire Vampires Bloodline novel.

You might also get a kick out of Cash: Angel, Demon, Rock Star (A
Seven Deadly Sins Story .1.), a story about one very sexy rock star, and the
angel and demon battling over not only his immortal soul, but his very mortal
body.

Reviews are really important for indie authors. Yeah, true! If you’d
like to leave a review or rating online, go for it and I will take your
thoughts on board. That said, feel free to email or stop by my Facebook page.

For other titles and info, please click my Amazon author page link
below, or stop by my
Facebook
,
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blog
pages and say hi.

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http://jaetjaggart.blogspot.com

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Other
Titles

Series: The Hellfire
Vampires Bloodline

His (The Hellfire
Vampires Bloodline),
standalone novel 1.

Series: The Seven Deadly
Sins

Cash: Angel, Demon,
Rock Star (A Seven Deadly Sins Story .1.)
(check my
blog
/
Goodreads
/
Facebook
for further info on this standalone story)

Single Title Novels

Objects of His
Obsession