The Nobleman and the Spy (17 page)

He came over to Reese and slipped an arm around his back. “Now, shall we go back to the house and get some rest and something to eat?”

Reese nodded, suddenly bone tired and wanting nothing more than to sleep for several hours.

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They trudged back through the woods and gardens. When they reached the house, Karl informed the butler they would be retiring after the rigors of their journey despite the fact it was midafternoon.

“We"ve been through something of an ordeal and wish our sleep to remain undisturbed by any servants, please. And tell the cook not to worry about planning dinner. We will take a cold plate and tea when we awaken.”

After delivering those imperious instructions, Karl led the way upstairs. They reached Reese"s bedroom door. He opened it, went inside, and turned to face the erbgraf.

“Good afternoon…Karl.” It was the first time he"d called the man by his given name.

Karl gazed at him with a look so intense, Reese felt stripped bare by it. “I would advise you muss your bed before you come to mine,” His Excellency suggested.

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Karl woke in the night, sweating like the very devil, his body wrapped intricately around hot, naked flesh. His nose was pressed against Jonathan"s nape, and his cock was buried in the groove of his bottom. One of his arms had gone numb from being trapped beneath the other man"s body. It felt like deadwood. The other draped comfortably over Jonathan"s hip, and his hand curved around Jonathan"s semirigid cock. He smiled and licked the salty skin near his mouth. What a delicious way to awaken.

Even with the drapes drawn, Karl could see daylight had faded from the sky.

He had no idea what time of night it was, and he didn"t really care. Right now he wanted nothing more than to rouse Jonathan with the erection probing his rear, and when they were finished squeezing every ounce of pleasure from each other, go down to the kitchen and rummage up a massive meal of cold cuts from the pantry.

The simple pleasures of life were so good.

Karl peeled his sticky flesh from Jonathan and threw back the blanket to let cool air bathe their skin. Reese murmured a protest and shifted restlessly.

Karl stroked his arm, kissed his shoulder, and nudged him with his cock, beckoning Jonathan toward consciousness. He slid his hand down the man"s well-muscled chest, over his concave stomach to his cock. It was harder now and grew even thicker as he wrapped his hand around and began to tug.

Jonathan grunted and pushed into his hand. Ah good, he was awake at last.

Karl slid from behind him, pushed Jonathan onto his back, and crouched over him.

He gazed down into sleepy eyes as he continued to pump Jonathan"s erection.

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“I want to take you this way,” he said huskily, “so I can see your face when you come.”

“From the front?” Jonathan"s eyes opened wider. Perhaps he hadn"t been aware men could join that way. Karl believed his new lover was quite ignorant about much of lovemaking. He was curious to know more about the man in Jonathan"s past who"d done such a poor job of fucking him and had left him afraid to trust.

“Yes, just like this. I"ll show you. Are you flexible?”

“I don"t know if I"m
that
flexible,” Jonathan said wryly.

“Let"s find out. Shall we?” Karl grinned and pushed Jonathan"s legs up, tilting his pelvis. He leaned down and licked the other man"s musky penis, then tongued his balls until Jonathan groaned. When he had him fully relaxed, Karl traced his tongue along the soft strip between balls and anus. He circled the puckered rim, gripping the backs of Jonathan"s trembling thighs in his hands to keep them apart.

A louder groan came from the other man as he squirmed against Karl"s probing tongue. Karl pulled away and reached for a jar of lubricant he"d placed on the night table before they"d retired. Oh yes, he"d come prepared for this, knowing even before he left his uncle"s house he was going to fuck the life out of Jonathan Reese sometime soon. He"d taken a bottle of oil from a cupboard in the water closet.

Even an old man like his uncle had needs, and Karl had guessed he would find a lubricant there.

He splashed a bit of the fragrant oil in his hand and slathered his aching cock with it, drawing in a breath at the smooth glide of his hand over the sensitive flesh.

Then he set to work on loosening Jonathan"s tight hole, pushing in and stretching it with several fingers. Jonathan fiercely clenched the sheets, bunching the material with the strength of his grip.

“Do you like this? Tell me how it feels,” Karl prompted as he frigged him with his fingers.

“Full. Good,” Jonathan snapped tersely.

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“Do you want more?” he teased.

“Yes.” The harsh, gritty snarl made Karl smile.

He moved up, pressing Jonathan"s legs farther back on either side of his head.

He placed his cock at Jonathan"s entrance and watched his lover"s face as he slowly pushed inside.

Jonathan grimaced at the initial thrust, his mouth tightening and his brows drawing together. Then his lips parted and rounded into an
O
of pleasure. A soft breath escaped him.

Karl grunted as the ring of muscle stretched around him, barely allowing him entry into the narrow channel. Heat hugged him, and his own breath was stolen by excitement. “Mein Gott, you are so tight,” he murmured.

And then, noticing that Jonathan"s eyes were closed in pleasure, Karl demanded roughly, “Open your eyes and look at me while I fuck you.”

Jonathan obeyed immediately. He looked much younger like this, so open and amazed. He was barely recognizable as the world-weary agent whom Karl had first met as he gazed up at him with wonder in his eyes.

Karl took his time filling Jonathan with the entire length of his shaft before gently withdrawing. He pushed in again, the lubricant easing his way and Jonathan"s loosening muscles granting him easy entry this time. Over and over he retreated and advanced, like an army set to take a position but not quite ready to overrun it. And all the while Karl refused to surrender to the urge to close his eyes and plunge. He continued to look at Jonathan, challenging him to meet his gaze and be with him at the moment of climax.

“Harder,” Jonathan gritted between his teeth at last. “Do it.”

That was the signal Karl had waited for. He began to pump with more vigor, his belly slapping against the backs of Jonathan"s thighs. Need built inside him, growing exponentially with every thrust. He wanted to possess Jonathan"s body, to drill him into the mattress, and he gave in to that desire, pounding, pounding, pounding while the bed squeaked and groaned beneath them.

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Jonathan rolled his head on the pillow. “Too much. Keep going.” He muttered the contradictory phrases. “Jesus God, right there!” he cried out. His legs, braced against Karl"s shoulders, shook as he came. Spurts of cum streaked his belly.

Ecstasy suffused Jonathan"s face, and his eyes had closed when the peak of ecstasy overtook him.

And then Karl couldn"t either. He closed his eyes and gave in to the sensations raging through him. The friction of their two bodies gliding together like flint and tinder burst into flames. He was consumed in fire as he exploded inside Jonathan.

After riding out the waves of climax, Karl pulled out of Jonathan and lowered his legs to the bed. He stretched out on top of him, pinning him down and laying his head on the pillow beside him. Karl watched the pulse leap in Jonathan"s neck, and the pool of sweat collected in the hollow of his throat. He blew a breath across him.

“Hot?”

Jonathan nodded.

“Me too.” Karl winced as all the aches and pains he"d been ignoring—his bruised ribs, damaged arm, and various cuts and bruises—began to clamor their disapproval of all the activity. He gingerly rolled off Jonathan to lie beside him on the big bed.

“Are you in pain?” Jonathan looked over at him. “How"s your side?”

“It will heal. I"ve had worse.”

Karl deprecated the pain, but Jonathan sat up and began examining him. He brushed back the hair from Karl"s temple to reveal the wound there, then moved his hands down to lightly touch his bandaged arm and red- and purple-flushed side.

“You shouldn"t be doing strenuous things. You"ll strain this rib.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Karl responded lightly. “I"ll be sure to stay on my back next time and let you do all the examining and probing.”

“I"m serious.” Jonathan frowned. “I"ve seen small injuries become serious problems when they weren"t properly tended.”

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Such solicitation coming from this aloof man was precious. Karl would"ve enjoyed teasing him more, but didn"t want to drive Jonathan back into his shell.

“All right. I"ll be careful,” he promised.

Karl"s stomach rumbled loudly. “I think we should sneak down to the kitchen and see what the cook has left for us in the pantry. I haven"t eaten since yesterday evening, and I"d wager you barely touched your food at the dinner since you were intent on guarding me.” He pushed himself up off the mattress with a groan. “Come on.”

As Karl pulled on his smalls, trousers, and shirt, he watched Jonathan dress with efficient economy of movement. Another smile shimmered inside him. It seemed every little detail about Jonathan delighted him—from his calm demeanor, to his cleverness, to his sweet vulnerability when at last he put his defenses down.

Karl was a bit dismayed by the strength of his feelings for this man he barely knew.

He told himself he was being emotional because Jonathan had saved his life twice now, but Karl knew it was more than that.

For the first time ever, he was imagining a sexual liaison as more than a temporary thing. For the first time, he wanted more from a relationship with a man—more time, more confidences, more sexual encounters, and more sharing. A no-strings affair was not going to be enough. But given Karl"s exalted position as erbgraf and Jonathan"s mysterious British government employment, how could they find a way to be together beyond stolen moments?

“You"re being unusually quiet,” Jonathan said as they descended the stairs and headed for the kitchen. “Are you considering who might be conspiring against you?”

“No. Actually, I was thinking about how you"ve exploded into my life much like a bomb. I don"t think I"m going to be able to let you go again.” Years of practice in exchanging light banter gave a devil-may-care lilt to his pronouncement, but Karl wasn"t joking at all. He slid a sideways glance at Jonathan to see how he took the words.

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Inscrutable as always, the Englishman stared at the corridor ahead of him.

“I"m afraid you"ll have to. This cannot last, as you well know.”

Karl wasn"t interested in listening to this sort of talk. “Tell me, Jonathan. Why are you a spy?”

“I fell into it after the war, recruited by my commander. I was certainly not ready to return to civilian life or to the village I came from. I had to do something for a living, and apparently sneaking about and occasionally killing people is something I"m good at.” He didn"t smile, but his eyes gleamed. “Or I was until recently.”

Karl felt a knot of excitement in his chest. He knew he"d disrupted the careful man"s precise life. Turnabout was fair play—Jonathan had made him think of things he"d never particularly considered before.

“Ah, I have hurt your career, your reputation as a man who does not give a damn.”

Now Jonathan gave him a real smile. Just a fleeting grin, but one filled with genuine amusement and affection.

Karl continued. “Therefore I owe you work, don"t I? I could hire you. You could leave this shady employment of yours and become my personal bodyguard. Of course, you would have to be near me at all times, and no one would think anything of it.” Brilliant! The solution to how they could maintain a secret relationship had simply popped into his brain.

Jonathan didn"t answer as they walked through a door into the servants"

world—the pantry, kitchen, scullery, servants" dining area, and more. It was still a few hours before morning, and not even the lowest kitchen maid was up from her bed, stirring the coals in the stove in preparation for breakfast. The rooms were still, the house silent with only the pair of them moving through the hushed night like ghosts.

“I"m quite serious.” Karl grasped Jonathan"s arm, stopping him. He stared into Jonathan"s face, but the other man wouldn"t quite meet his eyes, looking somewhere The Nobleman and the Spy

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just past Karl"s ear. “I"ve never been this serious about anything in my entire life.

Would you give up your job—whatever it is, exactly—and join my staff?”

For several long moments, Jonathan still didn"t speak. It was so quiet there in the corridor that Karl could hear the patter of mouse feet scampering across the kitchen floor beyond. Then, at last, Jonathan spoke.

“You don"t really know me.”

“Thus the point of wanting you around, so I can get to know you better.”

Jonathan drew a deep breath. “You ask too much. I can"t indulge in that kind of…ongoing friendship with you.”

Karl refused to let him off that easily. “Why not? Do you think I don"t fear the danger too? Not the danger of being caught in flagrante, but the danger of caring too much?” Oh Lord, he sounded like a schoolgirl speaking of star-crossed romance.

It was humiliating to bare himself so with no shield of sarcasm to protect him, but he plunged on.