Rentboy (12 page)

“Is this your boyfriend, Nicoletta?” Of course they’d think that.

“No, Gran, he’s Eddie mate.”

Bounding forward like an excited puppy, Edward introduced Fox as his friend from London. To avoid confusion he said, “This is Alder and Arden. Alder is a boy, and Arden is a girl. They don’t speak.” He said it all so naturally, as if it were perfectly normal, that Fox wanted to kiss him. Eddie introduced his Dutch grandmother, his grandfather, and his father’s father. Fox shook hands with each one, not taking in the names. What was the point?

“Hey, bro.” Nik threw her arms around Eddie. “Happy thirtieth.”

“Thanks. Nik. This is Fox.”

“Yeah, we met in the hall,” Nik said. She threw Fox a look as if to say,
Happy?

“Let me get you both a sherry.”

“I’d rather have a Stella,” Fox said.

“And so you shall,” Eddie said. “I’ll be right back with it.”

The dinner offered just as much meat as the lunch, a large roast goose with pâté de foie gras to start. The twins had been strategically seated on either side of Fox so he could help them with their food preferences without drawing too much attention to them.

“So Edward, my boy.” Everyone looked at Edward’s grandfather. “What happened to your eye? Did you walk into the kitchen cupboards again?” A little titter circled the table. It seemed Eddie had a reputation for damaging himself.

“Of course he did. Edward was covered in cuts and scrapes his whole childhood, and nothing much has improved.” Annika looked affectionately at her son.

“No he didn’t,” Fox said firmly. The desire to defend Eddie and show them he was not the buffoon they all thought him would not be repressed.

“It was like this.” With all eyes on him Fox set the scene. “We were in Russell Square, sitting on a bench having a natter.” The look on Eddie’s face went from curiosity to dread. Fox continued quickly to reassure him he was not going to expose their relationship. “I attract a lot of unfortunate attention. You know, the eye makeup, the clothes, the hair.” Eddie looked much calmer. “So a couple of ASBOs, three in all, came over—unprovoked, naturally—and started harassing me.”

“What are ASBOs?” The Dutch grandmother’s accent was still thick.

“It’s an acronym,” Eddie began as if teaching a class. “That’s when a word is made out of the first letters of a group of words.”

“I’m not stupid, Edward. I’ve been in this country for fifty years.” She raised a carefully penciled eyebrow at him. She was not the apple-cheeked granny type, more like an ex-Nazi collaborator.

“ASBO stands for Anti-Social Behavior Order, and it’s used as a generic name for disenfranchised youth who commit crimes and collect the dole instead of working for a living,” Fox said.

The smile Eddie threw him held genuine surprise. But then the bloke thought he was a street kid as opposed to a good student who had got nine GCSEs and three A Levels before being accepted into the Wimbledon College in the University of the Arts London.

Without pause Fox continued. “So Eddie told them to fuck off.”

A gasp from the end of the table caused Fox to bite his lip. “Sorry, Annika. He didn’t actually say those words as I’m sure you know. I was paraphrasing. He said, ‘Look here, you young scoundrels. Clear off or I shall have to deal with you, and it won’t be nice.’”

Everyone laughed at his imitation of Eddie’s accent. But he had them enthralled. “Then the biggest of them, shaved head, muscles in his spit”—Fox raised both his skinny arms, flexing his small biceps—“he smacks poor old Eddie in the eye.” Everyone looked at Eddie’s black eye, then back at Fox, who continued, “Without a thought to himself, Eddie jumped to his feet and went after all three of them with karate chops. He felled the biggest bloke and then kicked the arses of the other two.” Fox spread his hands to indicate that that was it, and wasn’t Eddie a hero. “Case closed.”

Clapping her hands together, Nik jumped up and ran round to Eddie, plopping a kiss on his cheek, “Well done, you.”

“It was nothing.” Eddie shrugged, his cheeks pink at the praise spontaneously bursting forth from everyone present.

“I knew those karate lessons would come in handy one day.” Dr. Atherton raised his glass to his son. “Well done, Edward.”

With undisguised love, Eddie looked at Fox. He was going to give himself away if he wasn’t careful.

“So, Edward, how is everything at LSHTM?” the elder Dr. Atherton asked.

“Same, you know,” Eddie said. “I hate working with old Howard.”

“Couldn’t stand the man myself. Never trusted him.” Dr. Atherton frowned down at the large portion of goose on his plate. “I suspect he took credit for some of the studies his students did. And he was always carrying on with females young enough to be his daughters. Could never work out how an ugly little chap like that got them in the first place.”

“He promises them good marks,” Eddie said, tucking into his roast potatoes.

Changing the subject abruptly, Eddie’s grandfather asked, “When were they diagnosed, Fox?”

“Who? Diagnosed with what?” Fox asked.

“Granddad, I’m not sure that’s a good subject to get into,” Eddie said, but the old gentleman carried on regardless.

“The twins. They’re autistic, aren’t they?”

“I rather thought that too,” Eddie’s dad said, then stuffed his mouth with goose. “But I didn’t want to pry.”

“I’ve had many a special-needs child in my school, especially in recent years,” Annika said. “They must have been diagnosed at some point. They’re thirteen, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, but they live with my mum, and I haven’t lived there for a while,” Fox said vaguely. He could hardly tell the assemblage that the twins had never been taken to a doctor since they were toddlers after it became obvious they were different. “I don’t know anything about things like that. I’m an…idiot.” He almost said art student.

“You’re not an idiot.” The affection in Eddie’s voice and the gentle smile on his face drew the attention of everyone at the table. Only Eddie seemed unaware that he had just told his grandparents there was more between him and Fox than merely friendship.

“Of course he’s not.” Annika’s high-pitched, slightly alarmed voice broke the moment. “Nicoletta, refill everyone’s wineglasses, will you?”

Nik rose to circle the table with the bottle. When she reached Fox, she whispered in his ear, “You’re going to break his heart.”

* * * *

A bright sliver of moon offered a small light in the clear night sky, helped a little by myriad brilliant stars. “That’s the North Star, and that’s Orion’s Belt. Over there is the Big Dipper.” Edward pointed out the constellations, indicating things he thought might interest Fox. Then he remembered a teacher when he was nine telling him,
“You don’t have to tell everyone everything you know, Atherton. They’ll think you’re obnoxious.”

They leaned on the wooden fence of the horses’ field behind the house. “You’re so clever, Eddie.”

“Only at academics,” he countered. “You made me sound like such a hero tonight.”

“You are. You’re my hero.” Fox looked up at him, smiling. “How come the stars twinkle like that?”

“I shouldn’t be boring you with this stuff. I only took astronomy as a secondary subject.”

“There’s nothing boring about you, mate,” Fox said.

Astonished at the assertion, Edward fell silent for a moment. He’d always believed himself to be extremely boring. He’d been told so any number of times in his teens, especially by girls when he attempted to date them to convince himself he wasn’t gay.

“Except your clothes; they’re boring,” Fox amended.

“What would you like me to wear?”

Looking into his eyes, Fox said, “I prefer you naked, but if you must wear clothes, you really suit nerdy pullovers and cords.”

Edward gave a quiet laugh. He’d never had so many compliments in his life. It made him feel quite self-conscious in a warm sort of way. “Stars don’t really twinkle. They emit a steady stream of light. Turbulence in the atmosphere bends the stream of light, making it appear to move.” He slid one arm around Fox’s waist. “Dear, I’ve never been so happy.”

Fox tilted his face and puckered up.

Kissing him softly, Edward said against his mouth, “I never thought I’d find anyone like you.”

“I bet you never.” Fox pressed his face into Edward’s shoulder. “A rentboy who nicks your laptop.”

Laying his cheek against the top of Fox’s head, Edward rubbed Fox’s back before letting his hand slide all the way down the faux leather kilt to Fox’s bottom, cupping it and squeezing. “Mmmm. You’re so hot.” A giggle from Fox made him stop squeezing. “What?”

“Hot?” Fox repeated. “You never say words like that.”

“There’s no other word to describe you. Except extraordinary.”

“Eddie, I wish you wouldn’t say stuff like that. I’m just an ordinary thief and a whore.”

“You’re nothing of the kind. You are a lost boy who has fallen on difficult times. But I’ve found you now.”

Across the field about a mile away, headlights rounded the bend, following the road as it wound along the edge of their land. With his face still tucked into Edward’s neck, Fox didn’t appear to notice. When the car slowed to a stop on the road several hundred yards to their right, Edward whispered, “You know how I called you paranoid?”

Fox looked up. “Yeah.”

“I’m getting paranoid too. Look.”

Fox followed the line of Edward’s pointing finger. “That car again.”

“Or one exactly like it. What’s going on?” Edward asked.

“Search me,” Fox said. A moment later the car cruised away. “Come on.”

This car business was more than a coincidence, but what could it have to do with him and Fox? “Yes, we’d better get inside.”

“I wasn’t thinking of going inside.” Taking Edward by the hand, Fox led him toward the barn that the horses slept in.

“What are you doing? It’s really late. We should go in.”

Fox continued walking toward the darkened barn, pulling him firmly by the hand. “I’ve always wanted to get fucked in a barn. Let’s pretend we’re young blokes from a Thomas Hardy novel and we’ve finally realized we prefer men.”

Chuckling, Edward allowed himself to be led into the black interior of the barn. “Hang on, I’ll get a lamp.”

“What? No lekky?” Fox asked.

“Electricity in the barn? It would cost a fortune.” Feeling about, he found the oil lamp that always hung on the post by the door and the lighter that accompanied it. “There,” he said when a small circle of light illuminated the surrounding area. “An oil lamp, to add to the Hardian atmosphere.”

Fox took the lamp from him. “Right, I’ll be Angel Clare turned queer, and you can be Gabriel who finally got sick of Bathsheba for being such a bitch and realized that he truly loves a man.”

“They are from separate novels, so that wouldn’t work,” Edward said.

“Don’t be so literal, Eddie,” Fox said.

“Tell you what. You be Fox, and I’ll be Eddie making love in a barn.”

“You’re no fun.” Fox lifted the lamp higher and wandered deeper inside. “Hell of a big barn for two horses.”

“It used to be a working farm, and the barn housed many animals.” Edward pointed up at the loft. “Do you want to go up there?”

“No, I want to do it in a horse’s stall, wearing a bridle.”

“Fox! You’re really pervy.” Not actually believing him, Edward led the way to a row of standing stalls where the two horses were secured for the night. Fox hung the lamp on a nail at the corner of the stalls.

“Who rides them?” Fox asked.

“Nobody much anymore. They’re old, but Nik and I used to ride them a lot. She’s really good. Better than me.”

“You can ride me now, and I’ll be the judge of how good you are.” Without ceremony Fox proceeded to strip off his clothes, looking pale and thin and adorably attractive in the lamplight. Edward couldn’t stop smiling as he watched him work. He’d always been really self-conscious naked, but Fox had no inhibitions. From the stall where the horses stood, Fox gathered a huge armload of straw and dumped it in the empty stall. Hanging on hooks were several bridles: he reached up and took one down. “Right, put the bridle on me.”

“It won’t fit. It’s designed for a horse’s head.”

“Do your best.”

Torn between laughter and his growing arousal, Edward placed the metal bit in Fox’s mouth and then attempted to adjust the straps to some semblance of a fit, but it was impossible to make it secure. “That’s the best I can do. Horses’ mouths are different. They can close their mouths over a bit because of the way their teeth are. But people can’t.”

“It’s fine.” Fox had great difficulty articulating with his mouth held open.

“You sound like a bad ventriloquist,” Edward said on a laugh.

“Don’t spoil the moment by analyzing it.” Fox got down on his hands and knees on the straw. “I want you to hold the back of the bridle like it’s a rein while you fuck me,” he said over his shoulder.

So aroused that he began to suck in long, hard breaths, Edward hurriedly stripped off his clothing. Removing his trousers, he stumbled in his excitement and nearly fell. “I’m such a fool, but you get me so worked up.”

“You’re gonna owe me a fortune, mate,” Fox said.

Understanding at last when Fox was having him on, Edward just smiled. He knelt down behind Fox, feeling the sharp, scratchy straw on his bare knees. “I don’t have a condom.”

“Me neither. Let’s bareback it. I didn’t have anything communicable last time I checked.”

Taking a long breath, Edward positioned his hard cock at Fox’s anus and then grabbed the bridle, pulling the straps tight in his hand so that they wrapped around Fox’s head, making a tight fit and putting pressure on the bit in his mouth.

“That’s it, Eddie. Take control of me.” The words were only just understandable, but they were sufficient to send a surge of gushing pleasure through Edward’s groin.

“There’s no lubrication. It will hurt.”

With an edge of desperation in his breathy voice, Fox said, “We’re in a barn in Wessex in the 1800s. Do it the natural way. Spit.”

Edward followed instructions, amazed at the things Fox knew. Then, thrusting hard and fast, he rode Fox the way he used to ride his horse, with wild abandon, the inhibition of years dissolving in the moment. Fox had chipped away at it slowly, and now it crumbled.