Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Dariel was never really one to break rules, believe it or not.
If it could be helped, he’d rather not make a scene.
But he decided to make no objections as Athens led him up the grand staircase, once again passing old portraits and random ornaments from eras clearly predating the house itself.
The thick, red carpet was well looked after, Dariel noted as he looked down to watch his step, preparing for the inevitable floorboard creak to expose them.
None came however—they successfully snuck up with a great silence.
The landing didn’t look messy, in fact, it was quite the opposite.
It was too clean. As in, it smelled like someone had freshly painted the skirting boards, and dusted and vacuumed very recently.
Each branch of corridor led to multiple closed doors, and a vase was placed in front of the sash windows on either side.
Perfectly positioned with precise symmetry.
Dariel sensed Athens coming to the same conclusions as their eyes wandered over the pristine, Victorian, paisley wallpaper lining the walls. The pair of them stood side by side in equal confusion.
“Yep, the guy is definitely hiding something.”
His wife in the attic. No wait, which book is it where…
‘Jane Eyre. We’re his replacements.’ “Come on.” Athens wasted no time, charging head on towards one of the doors, tapping Dariel on his lower back as he did so.
Dariel shook his head to stop his few seconds of delay before he walked over to the door Athens was already struggling to open.
Athens pulled back and sighed, flicking his hair back and placing his hands on his slim waist, agitated. “Bloody locked!”
“Definitely a body in one of these rooms.” Dariel tried to make light of the situation to appease his growing fear that maybe—just maybe—they weren’t safe here. Sweat pooled on his palms as he made small fists down by his side.
“Why would you lock your own doors unless you had something to hide?” Athens added after trying the door again, huffing with frustration as he failed.
Dariel decided to try the other corridor himself, twisting the nearest doorknob. After a brief moment of annoyance, he realised it was just stuck. A little shoulder strength forced the door wide open.
Athens was hot on his trail, coming right up behind him immediately. The room before them was exactly what Dariel expected—a nondescript bedroom, untouched and infused with the scent of a stately home.
“His bedroom?” Athens questioned, his breath tickling Dariel’s shoulder and sending a pleasant tingle down his back.
He needs to stop being so…
Dariel cleared his throat. “Not his bedroom. This room hasn’t been touched in a while,” he observed.
“Hmm,” Athens muttered, pushing himself into the room to examine further. He immediately threw himself onto the four-poster bed in the centre, and bounced back as if checking into a hotel.
“Hey! We probably shouldn’t start disturbing things too much,” Dariel heard himself saying before he truly had time to consider what he actually cared about.
“We’ve already disregarded the one rule he gave us, as long as we don’t break anything, we’ll be fine,” Athens stated from the bed.
Dariel edged slightly further into the room, hands still clammy, but he convinced himself Athens had a point, and he was quite enjoying the snooping. The theorising. The company.
“Definitely not his room, you’re right,” Athens noted before sneezing three times.
Dariel could help but chuckle. “You okay, there?”
Athens sat up, eyes blinking wide. “The mystery cleaners missed a bit,” he joked.
“Maybe this was one of their rooms?” Dariel surmised, stepping over to one of the windows and looking out onto the grounds below.
“That would make a bit more sense, but it also looks too ‘someone died here and we’re keeping it as a shrine’, don’t you think?” Athens’ nose twisted.
Dariel turned to face the other man still sitting on the bed, letting his fingers brush through the velvet curtain, mind deep in thought. “Or maybe he doesn’t actually live here at all.”
Athens raised a thick brow and Dariel noted the way the man was positioned on the bed: Long legs widely parted and feet firmly planted on the floor. Slender arms rooted at either side of his beautiful body.
Beautiful. What the hell am I…
“What?” Athens tipped his head to the side, and Dariel immediately realised how awkward he’d made things. His arousal filled the room like smoke.
Athens played into it, parting his legs ever so slightly wider and leaning back. Their eyes met and neither of them looked away.
“I erm…”
“You think he’s pretending this is his home?” Athens asked the question very calmly, as though the past minute had not happened, but his posture did not change, and his eyes were still glued to Dariel. He wobbled his knee a little. A tease.
Dariel snapped his gaze back to the window, his face was definitely a shade he really didn’t want anyone to see, and his trousers grew tighter around his crotch.
Jesus Christ, Dariel. Stop this. You know how desperate you look right now? Pull yourself together, lad.
“Oh, this is his home, definitely.” Athens had somehow managed to glide silently over to Dariel’s side and planted an elbow on his shoulder, Dariel being perfect height for an arm rest. His body seized up as the pair of them looked straight outside.
“I don’t think we’re here for the reason he gave though.”
How is he staying calm? He knows exactly what he’s just done, how can he be so casual and move on like…
“And I think we might find out soon.”
Then Athens’ presence vanished, and Dariel watched the reflection of the other man leave the room. A choking weight leaving Dariel’s shoulders.
“Hey, hey, wait, what do you mean by that?” Dariel finally broke out of the moment as Athens’ statements lingered in his brain, and he darted out of the room after him.
He was aware of his raised voice as he found himself back on the landing, slamming his hand over his mouth abruptly, as if it would have made a difference.
Athens was back at the other door, resting on one knee as he stuck a hair pin through the keyhole, and rattled the handle again. Dariel came up to his side, the moment gone.
Athens didn’t look up from his focus as he spoke. “I just meant he’s being too ‘nicey nicey’, and he hasn’t really given us a lot of information to make us trust him. I mean, look…” Athens tutted, not giving up with the clearly locked door. Dariel wasn’t quite sure what he was hoping to achieve.
“The email he sent us. It was out of the blue, and too good to be true. We both think that. Yet we both needed the money, so we said yes, without really thinking about it. He told neither of us we’d both be here at the same time, he sent all of his staff away for the week—that’s if they even work for him anymore—and then he lets us have a look around his home but not the upstairs, which he wants to hide from us for some reason.
We’re all strangers here, but he’s brought us together on purpose.
” A sigh. “All I meant was, we need to pay close attention at dinner, and ask him as many questions as we can. If it turns out he’s secretly a homophobic serial killer who wants to rid the world of attractive queers, then we kill him first, and go to the papers with our story. ”
Dariel just blinked. Athens noted his silence and flicked his head up to him, a smirk forming on his pretty face.
He is pretty. Oh, John. You are allowed to think that.
“What? Sorry, did I assume wrong? Or was it the murder part you didn’t like, cos we can try ulterior methods if push comes to shove…”
“You think I’m attractive?”
Athens stood to full height, inches away from Dariel, heat radiating from his skin. Dariel drank him in, his black trousers shaping his slim legs, the smooth skin stretched over his visible collar bones poking up from the buckles, and belts, and…
“Of course I do, darling. I’m a long-time admirer, as you already know.” Then Athens’ face dropped as Dariel stayed frozen in place, his mind a million miles away from focusing on what his face might be showing.
“Have I made things weird?” Athens asked, stepping back slightly. “I do have a tendency to be a bit full on.”
“I just…”
‘Oh, the shadows. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Dariel. I didn’t mean to make things weird. I should have known not to…’ Athens stepped back quite far, almost as if he was suddenly scared.
Dariel couldn’t feel the shadows this time. Maybe they weren’t even there… Maybe he’s read between the lines I didn’t even know I’d given him.
“I’m gonna look down the hall to see if…” Athens’ throat bobbed, eyes filled with shame. Dariel cut him off by reaching out and grabbing his wrist, holding him in place.
“No,” he said, confidently. “You don’t have to stop.”
Athens’ brows knit together, tension lifting a notch. “What?”
“I find you attractive too.”
Dariel actually felt Athens’ whole body relax this time. The other man stopped pulling away and moved back towards Dariel, looking down in sorrow.
“You’re charming, and cool, and maybe it’s because you’re the first person I’ve met who is like me so I could just be intrigued by you, or maybe it’s the adrenaline or fear and confusion of our predicament, but in the very short space of time I’ve known you, I know I want to get to know you more, and whatever happens tonight, I’m kind of looking forward to spending more time with you.
” Dariel let out a deep breath, then allowed himself to look up at Athens, pleading.
“If you’d want that?” A friend? Or something more?
Athens stayed silent for a beat.
Dariel continued. “And I don’t mind the way you’re acting around me, I’m just…”
“You don’t have to explain. I shouldn’t have been so forward.”
“It’s just been a really long time.” Dariel finished off his confession with a laugh of relief, hoping it would ease Athens.
It did the trick.
“Okay, okay. I get that.” Athens bit his lip. Dariel resisted the urge to slap his arm playfully, maintaining a grin instead.
“I need to see what’s in this room.” Athens professionally changed the subject and went back to the sealed door before them, this time peering through the keyhole. Dariel came up to join him, bending down to his side and immediately scenting the mint again, this time mixed with… eucalyptus?
“I can’t quite make it out, but there’s something fancy in there.
Gold perhaps,” Athens said, almost muttering it to himself as though he was trying to calculate something.
“I’ve never had the best eyesight, can you…
” He shuffled back, hinting for Dariel to take his place, and he did, filling the space and peering into the hole.
He was very aware of the position they were now both in, Athens hovering a gentle hand to Dariel’s side as he whispered close. “Anything?”
Dariel surveyed what he could. It appeared to be another bedroom, but a heavily ornate one in comparison to the one down the hall.
All blues and golds, an indistinguishable but grand mural of birds and flowers on the far wall where the extremely large bed stood.
And the room was lit, with a sense of atmosphere, perhaps by lamps and candles, as opposed to a large overhead light. It seemed very much lived in.
‘What do you see?’
‘He definitely does live here.’
‘His room?’
“Gentlemen!”
‘Shit.’
The pair of them shot up, startled by the bellowing voice from below.
‘It’s okay, he can’t really do anything. We’ll play it off.’
Dariel nodded.
Godwin shouted again, this time from slightly closer as it was clear he’d begun to climb the stairs.
The pair began to descend, meeting their host in the middle. He didn’t look angry, but Dariel read something behind his eyes that indicated frustration.
“Did I not ask you to stay downstairs?” Godwin questioned them both, though more in the manner of self-doubt. They could convince him he forgot, Dariel thought. Athens was perhaps already on it.
Godwin began to smile, his whole manner shifting. “No matter, gents. Dinner is ready, come join me in the dining room!”
And that was it. Godwin gestured towards the direction of the room. Both Athens and Dariel kept their spirits high as they headed down, Athens in front.
‘Close.’
Dariel imagined him winking and kept his head down.