A Regency Tale - 24

[ismenin]

Hello! Here's the next part. NC-17



Thanks to Lady Sunrope for beta

Part 24 - Love and Sex

Elijah stood in the hall and glanced about him. The house was the same shape as was his, but in reverse. All the rooms were opposite each other, but immediately Elijah felt at home. He was in familiar territory.

Elijah smiled as he examined the statues in the niches. Obviously his grandfather had patronised the same art dealers as had Dom's grandfather, so similar were the pale figures staring blindly down at him from their pedestals.

Then Dom came out of a room to greet him, and Elijah promptly forgot about statues and grandfathers, for although Dom's welcome was as formal as it must be before the servants' impassive gaze, he was smiling at Elijah with his eyes and the corners of his mobile mouth turned up just so.

The dinner was very good - as if he cared a fig for that, he thought - but Elijah was longing for the moment when the covers would be drawn, the servants dismissed and they would be left alone.

When the door shut behind the servants, Elijah began to speak. "Dom, I..." Elijah stopped abruptly. This was not the place to ask such a question - he would wait until they lay in bed together, naked. The thought made Elijah's groin tighten, but he held a tight rein on his emotions. He could not give in to such lascivious thoughts here, where he was unknown.

Dom, correctly interpreting the slight look of panic that suddenly appeared on Elijah's features, drew the conversation into safer channels by asking about Jack. Elijah, relieved at the innocent enquiry, painted a picture of his day with Jack being shown the City sights.

"Oh, my poor love!" Dom exclaimed on a laugh. "Not St Paul's! And the Museum - however did you bear it?"

Elijah grinned. "It was no hardship, Dom. Jack was so excited by the things he had heard his mother talk about in his infancy that it would have taken a man with a heart of stone not to wish to grant him his heart's desire."

Dom reached over the table and grasped Elijah's hand lying idly on the polished wood and tightly grasped it. "You have a generous nature, Lij, I hope it never deserts you."

The touch of Dom's hand awoke Elijah to other things. "Have you arranged somewhere for us to...go, Dom? And when do we leave?"

The look in Dom's eyes grew soft as he looked at his love, so eager, so intense. "We shall leave as soon as it seems polite in me to usher you out through the back door, Lij. One cannot be seen to rush a guest out of the house, you know, as if he is a common tradesman!"

Elijah tightened his grip around Dom's long, elegant fingers. "Yet you take me out through the back door, Dom? Scarcely a way to treat a guest."

Dom laughed. "It is the shortest route to our destination, Lij. It came to me in a flash of inspiration - I do not know why I did not immediately think of it - taking you there, I mean!"

He gazed at Elijah's slightly flushed cheeks and the avid expression in his eyes. "I was about to suggest we leave in an hour, Lij, but I see that will not do at all. Shall we say... twenty minutes?"

Twenty minutes later Elijah was being led by Dom through the back door into the small garden at the rear of the house. It was just after ten o'clock, and was still light, being the height of the summer.

Dom's butler watched them leave and shook his head. It was not his place to question his master, but why he needed to take such a distinguished guest as his Grace of Stanford out through the back alleys he had no guess. But his Lordship was ever innovative. No doubt he had good reason.

Dom cast an anxious eye over Elijah. He was not at all sure that Elijah had recovered enough from his ordeal to do what they both had had in mind for several days. "Are you well enough?"

Elijah frowned mightily. "If you are about to ask if you should call a chair for me, Monaghan, I swear I will have a fit of the mother on this very pavement. Good God, man, do you all think I am so weak?"

Dom took Elijah's arm in his and grinned. "I was thinking that it is only a few days since your head was aching so badly you could scarcely talk, Lij - don't bite my head off for being solicitous of your welfare."

Elijah's frown vanished, and a grin replaced it. "But, my dear Dom, it is not my head that is aching, now, you know, and I am anxious of all things to relieve it."

It was nearly dark and Dom was glad of it. As they entered the less affluent parts of the city, the streets lined with tall houses packed close together, they would be less conspicuous as there were several bucks on the strut, and they both were sure, scanning the groups of men with a diligent eye, that they would not be remarked upon or seen by anyone they knew.

Dom stopped outside one of the houses and took two keys from his pocket and opened the front door. "Here we are, at last, Lij. I am glad to say if anyone sees us entering they would not think it in any way remarkable, for I am well used to coming here. I have held this set of spare keys any time this past year, and used them, too, on occasion. Let us go in."

Elijah saw immediately he entered the door that there were several apartments in the house, as Dom unlocked an inner door and thrust Elijah inside.

"But...but...whose lodgings are these, Dom? Are you sure your friend is from home?"

Elijah looked around the well-furnished, but untidy apartment, stuffed with all the adjuncts essential to a city gentleman.

Dom dragged Elijah towards the bedroom with a cheeky grin. "Well, if he returns tonight, he will have to kick his heels in the Park, Lij, for I intend savouring you and I am in no mood to hurry it."

"Whose, Dom...whose lodgings?" Elijah repeated urgently, stopping at the bedroom door. He did not wish to be interrupted in bed by an irate stranger.

"These are Ceddie's rooms, Lij - do not be distressed. He is out of town, remember? I will leave our cloaks and hats on this table outside the bedroom door, if it pleases you, then, if he comes home he will know it is we who occupy his rooms. For I know that no other of his acquaintance in London has a set of keys."

Elijah breathed out a rapid sigh of relief. He felt safer now. Dom undid Elijah's cloak and his own and threw them on the table together with the two high-crowned hats, and pushing his Lij inside and closing the door with a decided snap, turned his attentions to more pressing matters.

Elijah noticed that for all Dom's appearance of sang froidhis fingers were trembling, so Elijah helpfully undid Dom's shirt buttons. "For we have to return home in these clothes, Dom, and it would not do for you to let your man - or me, Slade, for that matter - see your shirt with the buttons torn off."

Dom laughed and doffing his shirt, and his other clothing, helped Elijah with his garments.

The bed was clean and comfortable, and as Dom kissed Elijah's neck, the question resurfaced that had earlier been exercising Elijah's mind.

"Dom," he began a trifle shyly, "I know you must think me a complete zero, but is there a name for what we are about to do? A name above the commonplace, I mean. Something different."

Dom could not help himself - he kissed Elijah as hard as he could. "You mean, I collect, something louche and obscene?"

Elijah sighed deeply for Dom had just run a trembling hand down his right side, then nodded, "Yes, that is exactly what I mean."

Dom, in between nipping the skin under Elijah's nicely muscled arm, murmured, "I think you mean fuck, Lij."

Elijah was surprised enough to stop toying with Dom's left nipple for a moment. "But that is merely an expletive, is it not? I have heard Barney - and Harry use it - oh, yes, please, more! Like that! Does it truly mean to...do what we are about to do?" Elijah eyed the small bottle which Dom had placed on the bed table.

"It does, my love. Do you like the term?"

"Above all things, Dom. It seems...right." There was a short pause during which they kissed each other, then..."Dom, may I fuck you, tonight?"

Dom was so surprised that he began coughing. Elijah, dutifully patting his lover on the back with one hand, and pushing his erection into a more comfortable position with the other, waited for the spasm to abate.

Dom regained his breath, and his composure. He was not only amused at Lij's request, but also very aroused by it. "And how long, my dear, have you been thinking of doing this to me?"

Elijah bit his lip, thoughtfully. "Since last we...fucked. I have wanted to do it since then. I would like to feel what you felt inside me - for, if I remember correctly, you found it most pleasurable."

Dom wound a finger around one of Elijah's curls, and kissed him again. "Most pleasurable, yes. You may indeed do so, for I, too, have wanted...god, Lij!" Dom groaned as his lover's hand slid down his belly and grasped him. "It has been too long!"

Elijah reached for the oil. "You must tell me what to do if I go wrong."

Dom smiled into the pillow, for he had turned on his face and was presenting his very elegant arse to Elijah's eager fingers.

"I do not think that you will...require any instruction, Lij...just do it. Just. Like. That." Dom hissed loudly.

Then they stopped talking and gave themselves up to love.

Dom was determined to watch his lover's face as he came, so he turned neatly onto his back, which movement totally surprised Elijah, who was assembling in his mind the best way to proceed without making a total fool of himself.

Dom, interpreting the signs, and wishing to expedite proceedings, wound one elegant leg about Elijah's waist and placed the other over his lover's shoulder.

Neither man spoke. The air about them was so charged with emotion that each man doubted whether he could manage a coherent phrase.

Elijah was determined not to come before he had entered Dom...the look on Dom's face made this event a distinct possibility, so erotic a sight were the hooded eyes and the damp, kiss-blown mouth.

Elijah's eyes did not leave Dom's face. With one gentle, but firm stroke he began to push, and as he entered, the pressure almost deprived him of breath, so tight...

"Dom!" he gasped. "Oh, God!"

Dom's lips were slightly parted, and he panted for breath as the pressure inside him increased. This was his Lij inside him...at last, his Lij...

All thought dissipated as Elijah, one hand on the mattress and one on Dom's side, came to rest against Dom's body, completely sheathed within.

Neither man moved for a few seconds. For Elijah, the moment was sublime, almost sacred. He was thinking how soft and silky was Dom's skin, how hot and welcoming was his body ...it was nearly more than could be borne.

Dom closed his eyes at last. He was in grave danger of weeping, this he knew, and he did not wish Elijah to take that as a sign of pain, for then his Lij would stop - withdraw from him - and that would be unbearable. Elijah's face, illuminated by the moonlight was unearthly in its passion, and, as he began to move, Dom thought there had been nothing...nothing... within his experience that matched it.

Elijah was making soft, incoherent noises in the back of his throat, and Dom, rising with a passion to match his lover, realised that the keening noise he could hear as faint as a distant echo, came from his own mouth.

Elijah could not hold; he had become part of a torrent of emotion that had never before come within his experience or his understanding. Dom, realising this somewhere in the distant recesses of his mind, moved slightly, to help Elijah, and almost cried out as the movement caused his Lij to press against the most sensitive spot.

Dom reached up and roughly drew Elijah to him as he came, spurting over his own belly and Elijah's as they pressed together. Elijah gave two more thrusts and cried out softly, as his climax took him, and together they lay, one on top of the other, breathless. Dom wondered what it was that had happened to them both - for something had happened, for certain - in the few minutes since Elijah had entered him.

Dom gazed at his Lij's eyes, now closed, the long lashes matted together with unshed tears, and his mouth rose red and swollen from their kisses - he could not help himself - he kissed him again.

Elijah, his breath uneven, smoothed Dom's hair and returned the kisses. It was true neither man had breath for kissing, but that did not matter. They lay in each others arms, tightly wrapped together, and said not one word. Speech was not necessary, for each had found in the other something they both knew was not calculable by ordinary standards.

They fell asleep like this, not moving, or wishing to move, as the benign moon continued to stare at them through the leaded window.

*****

Elijah had moved off Dom and now lay at his side, Dom's face buried in his neck, breathing softly in deepest sleep. Elijah woke as he heard a muffled sound from the outer room, and then an urgent whisper. "Damn it, man! Have a care, or you'll have them both out on us..."

Elijah was about to wake Dom, when a soft tap on the door stopped him. "Dom, old chum, is that you, you bastard? I wanted my bed this night, and I find you in it - and I hope for your sake it is Stanford who is in it with you."

Dom stirred as Ceddie's voice intruded into his befogged mind, and opened his eyes, but before he could answer, Ceddie called out. "You may have one hour more, and then I shall expect my lodgings to myself, man. Good God! It is outside of enough, you cad! One hour!"

The two men heard the outer door closing and the sound of footsteps on the steps to the pavement. More than one set of footsteps. Dom raised himself on one elbow and smiled at Elijah in the moonlight. "I wonder who it was that Ceddie brought home with him, Lij? If he was hoping for a night's sport in this bed, I'm afraid he was sadly out. Still," he said, optimistically, peering at his pocket watch by the light of the moon, "I see it is only a little after two, so I suppose he may yet have as much joy in it as have we, if it is possible for any man so to do."

Elijah touched Dom's arm. He wished to speak with Dom about the joy he felt in his heart - of the experiences he had this night, but this was not the time. He would not rush his declaration - not for worlds.

The men found water in the ewer. It was cold, but sufficed for a quick wash before they dressed by the light of a candle Elijah had found on the mantelpiece.

There was no-one about in the street as they left the house. They could hear a drunk singing some way off, but there was no sign of him as they walked down the pavement into a narrower road which Dom said was the quickest way to Berkeley Square.

Suddenly, as they passed an empty patch in the middle of the street, a low, harsh voice growled "That's him, lads - the smaller one! But kill them both, to be safe!"

They had no time for thought, for six or seven ruffians charged at them through the dark. There were no gas lights in this street, and as Dom and Elijah stood, back to back against the onslaught, Elijah heard the hiss of steel as Dom drew a sword from the stick he had been carrying, and there was a glint of a polished blade in the moonlight.

Elijah was not afraid - except for Dom. He had nothing with which to defend himself but his walking stick, which he thrust between the legs of the first man who rushed at him; it felled him, but then there came a loud shout from the corner of the street and several burly men raced towards them.

This is the end, Elijah thought, and saw Dom glance at him, all the love he felt for his Lij shining a loving farewell in his grey eyes.

But the end did not come.

The newcomers were not concerned with them, but with the ruffians who had first assaulted them.

In a very few moments, three of the brutes lay dead on the floor, and the other three ran off in a panic. What seemed to be the leader of the new pack bowed low to Dom and Elijah, and as he was a stout man, and still slightly breathless from his exertions, took a few deep gulps of air before speaking.

Elijah noticed that Dom still held his sword up in front of him, but the man grinned displaying a mouth in which there were more gaps than teeth.

"No need of that, m' lord - no need at all. We is a-guardin' of yer, see? Courtesy of Sir Victor, who pays us werry well to do it. We 'as been a watchin' of yer all night, sirs - well, apart from the time yer wus in Mr Fairford's 'ouse, we wus."

Dom lowered his sword in amazement. Elijah, regaining his breath, was the first to reply. "Sir Victor hired you to guard us?"

By this time the other five men were lined up next to their leader in the street. Elijah looked about him, expecting to see a few lights in the house windows or a bemused and angry householder standing on his doorstep complaining about the noise, but there was no-one.

"Ah!" said their principal guardian with a satisfied grin on his face, "people round 'ere knows when to keep their ogles outer other folks business they do, sirs. Now, if yer is agreeable, my boys, 'ere, and I will take you 'ome. You needn't fear to be furver interfered wiv when we is by yer."

One of the escort had picked up Dom's discarded stick and rather bashfully handed it over to him, and when Dom made to hand him half a guinea for his pains he was astonished to see the man steadfastly and firmly refuse the coin.

The guardian explained, as if to one speaking to an infant, that they had been paid for their night's work and did not need - or require - any further gratuity.

Elijah, whose dealings with the lower classes had not included any indication that gold coin was not eminently acceptable to them, was quite surprised, but Dom had lived with soldiers and knew exactly how the thing was.

They walked down the street, their guardian in the middle of the two near-victims, the others following behind.

Dom moved to Elijah's side and made as if to grasp his hand, but Elijah was not sure that this was the correct behaviour, given their company. The guardian laughed.

"Lord love yer, sir. You take an 'old of 'is 'and if yer wants, there's none of us is goin' ter stop yer."

"When did Sir Victor, er, hire you?" Dom asked as they walked along the darkened streets.

"Well, the dook, 'ere, wus still sick in 'is bed when I fust saw 'im," said the Guardian, casting an expert eye over Elijah. And you wus sleepin' in a chair by 'is bed when Sir Victor brought us in ter see yer."

Dom stopped and stared at the man. "You mean Sir Victor engaged you to guard us before we had even left his house?"

The man nodded. "He felt there wus summink smoky goin' on did Sir Vic, an' 'he wus right, too. Them wus a particklar wicious band of ruffians as set on yer, sirs, an' no mistake. But they're no match fer us, eh, boys?"

There was a wry chuckle from behind them. Dom was the first to voice his thoughts on the attack. "Did any of you see who it was that gave the order to attack us? Who it was who pointed us out?"

The voices behind them mumbled that they had not seen or heard who the instigator was.

"It was my fault, m'lord. I 'ad not expected 'em to attack so near to Mr Fairford's house, an' I was dead wrong to think it. I wus keepin' my eye out, but we wus too far back to nab 'em before they attacked yer. It won't 'appen again, I'll go bail it won't." The man breathed, deeply, shaking his head. "Right bamboozled me, they did, and its not a thing that 'appens to Bert Slugger every day of the week, I can vouch."

Elijah was trembling, although he tried hard not to show it. So was Dom. He had not been afraid for himself, but the thought of his Lij lying in the street weltering, once again, in his own gore, made Dom's blood run cold. It was obvious - there was someone out to kill Elijah, and whoever it was had thought that Dom would be better dead with him. It was not a comforting thought.

The men insisted on escorting the two men to their separate homes, stating quite plainly that they didn't know how to look Sir Victor in the eye as it was, letting those murderers get so close as they had.

Both men wished to spend the night in each others arms, but knew this was impossible. Dom, parting from Elijah at his doorstep, told his love that he would be at his door promptly at eleven the next morning to discuss leaving town. "For we cannot stay, Lij - it is not safe here...for either of us now. Deny yourself to any other visitors - we must have privacy to talk alone."

Elijah nodded and went inside. Samuel, obviously on the watch for his master, answered the door and, casting an experienced eye over the duke, was inclined to think there were serious matters afoot, judging by the band of amiable ruffians who were even now wishing him a friendly farewell.

Dom stood at the bottom of the steps and determined that he would remove Elijah from town on the morrow, never mind what protests his love advanced.

It was the only way to keep him safe.