Chapter 12
TWELVE
They slept well into the afternoon, or at least Leo did.
Joshua woke around noon and needed several seconds to orient himself—the bright sunshine, the warm weight plastered to his back, the memory of a conversation that felt like the hazy remnants of a dream.
The lingering impression of Leo’s hands all over him.
Of course I’ll still want you, little prince.
Moving a little, Joshua’s muscles gave a faint twinge. With a smile, he shifted in the circle of Leo’s arms to study him from up close.
In sleep, Leo’s features were lax, lips parted slightly to release long, regular breaths.
Joshua was briefly caught in wanting to trace Leo’s long lashes with his fingertips, their ends brighter, paled by the sun.
Then Joshua noticed the dark smudges under Leo’s eyes, hinting that his lack of sleep went beyond just that one night.
Slowly, careful not to wake him, Joshua slid out of the embrace and went to take a shower.
A glance into the mirror revealed several fresh bruises that Leo’s mouth and hands had left, littering Joshua’s torso and the insides of his thighs.
Finger-shaped marks decorated the spot where Leo had held on tightly, shadows pressed into the pale skin right next to the jut of Joshua’s left hip bone.
He fought the shiver of arousal and thought about it—waking Leo with his mouth and his hands, fingers nudging into him.
No, there was plenty of time for that later. Let Leo catch up on sleep first.
After a quick message to Tristan and Mo (Happy like a room without a roof!), Joshua retreated onto the balcony. He ordered a late breakfast, then settled in to wait with his book in his lap, the sun pouring down on him.
The knock at the door came some fifteen minutes later.
While Joshua sprinted inside to answer it quickly before it would disturb Leo’s sleep, he wasn’t fast enough; Leo gave a little jolt and came awake with a start.
He sat up, the thin sheet pooling at his waist, and dear God, he was breath-taking.
No one could blame Joshua for stopping to tug him into a close-mouthed kiss, smiling when Leo responded immediately, seemingly on instinct, skin warm with sleep.
“Breakfast,” Joshua told him in an undertone, straightening.
“If you want. You can sleep some more after.”
Leo’s eyes were slightly unfocused, staring up at Joshua. “Breakfast,” he repeated blankly. “Yeah, sounds good.”
Shooting him a bright look, Joshua went to open the door and made certain that Leo couldn’t be spotted.
He rolled the food cart into the room himself, and Leo climbed out of bed a moment later, fully naked.
After looking down at himself, he grabbed the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around his waist.
“What did you do that for?” Joshua asked.
“You’re dressed,” Leo pointed out. “So you don’t get to complain.”
“Just my pants. I didn’t want to flash a passing plane or something.”
Leo’s gaze dragged down Joshua’s torso, lingered on the bruise at his hip, then moved lower to assess the flimsy boxer briefs Joshua had shuffled into after his shower. “All right,” Leo allowed, slow and sweet. “The pants can stay. Not like they hide much.”
“Which is why it’s still unfair that you’re donning a toga,” Joshua told him.
Leo’s only answer consisted of a smirk. He followed leisurely when Joshua moved the cart over to the balcony doors and watched, head tilted at a curious angle, when he laid everything out on the table outside. “Some help?” Joshua asked.
“Certainly.” With that, Leo draped himself along Joshua’s back and clung to him, mirroring his every step and slowing him down with the effort of coordinating them both.
“You’re such a little shit,” Joshua said, but it came out soft and fond.
“Sorry about that.” Leo didn’t sound sorry at all. “Afraid I can’t help it, love. And since this is happily ever after, you’re stuck.”
“Well, I suppose it’s my cross to bear.” Reaching one arm around, Joshua brought Leo closer. Leo moulded himself to Joshua’s back and dropped light, fluttering kisses to the nape of his neck while Joshua continued laying out scones and jam, scrambled eggs, bread rolls and pastries.
“Fancy,” Leo murmured. “You trying to seduce me with food?”
Joshua snorted. “I think you’re a sure thing.”
“Smuttily ever after,” Leo said brightly, and Joshua laughed and twisted his head for a gentle brush of their lips.
Throughout breakfast Leo was mostly quiet, looking out at the ocean with sunlight reflected in his eyes, loose and relaxed in a way Joshua had hardly ever seen him.
Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
It was stunning. Even more stunning to think that Joshua had played a role in it, however small; that he’d contributed to Leo facing his past and opening up rather than hiding behind a veil of evasive half-truths.
Still he didn’t think Leo had fully grasped the concept of not letting himself be defined by what he’d been through. That was all right, though—Joshua would be there to remind him.
After breakfast, Leo pulled Joshua back to bed for another few hours of sleep. He waited until Leo had drifted off, then he picked his book up from the bedside table and settled in to read, with Leo a warm, steady weight on his chest.
Tristan barged in at around four, Mo and Nate in tow, dramatically covering his eyes as he shoved past Joshua into the room.
“Honeymoon’s over, bitches,” he declared.
“Wipe yourselves clean, get dressed and let’s go do some exploring.
We only have a couple of days here. I don’t want to waste them twiddling my thumbs because you arseholes finally figured out how to work this thing. ”
“Was that a pun?” Leo asked from the bed, bright-eyed and wild-haired. Jesus, Joshua wouldn’t mind spending the rest of eternity in this room.
“You be quiet,” Tristan told him. “I’m still mad at you for making our Joshy-boy cry.” Belying his own words he jumped onto the bed to hug Leo, then pulled back with a grimace and bemoaned the disgusting state of the sheets.
They agreed to leave in thirty minutes, and as soon as the others were gone, Joshua sat down on the edge of the bed. “You’ll stay with us, right? For the whole trip? When’s your flight back?”
“Haven’t booked it yet,” Leo admitted, almost sheepish. He glanced away with a little shrug. “Didn’t know whether you’d want me to stay, and traipsing around the country all by myself would have been stupid.”
There was really no better option than to kiss the spark of remembered uncertainty right off Leo’s face, so that’s what Joshua did—littered Leo’s cheeks and chin with butterfly kisses until he was laughing and pushing at his shoulders, then tangled both hands in Joshua’s hair to drag him into a deep kiss that ended with him sprawled on top of Leo, pressing him into the mattress.
“We still need to talk,” Leo squeezed out. “And I need to call James.”
“We have half an hour,” Joshua told him. “That’s totally enough time to talk, call James and get off in the shower. Not in that order.”
In spite of that, Joshua went easily when Leo shoved him off, stretching out next to him on the bed. He did pout though, which made Leo lean in to nibble on his bottom lip, all sharp teeth and laughing eyes. “Civil disobedience,” Joshua exclaimed, wriggling away, and Leo smirked at him.
“Darling, I don’t think you quite understand the definition of that.”
“Call James,” Joshua told him. His put-upon frown fell short of its mark, and his smile broke through as soon as Leo bopped him on the nose.
He shifted closer when Leo reached for his phone.
Putting his head on his shoulder, he listened in when Leo did indeed call James.
They received instructions that basically told them not to get photographed together until a strategy had been worked out.
“We need to look at all options,” James said.
“Is there anything you wouldn’t do? Any no-goes?
Say, if we consider spinning this in a way that relies heavily on the fairy-tale aspect of this?
Noble heritage, prejudiced parents that led to rough times, picking yourself off the ground and finding true love in the process.
It’s a beautiful story. Would sell like hot cakes.
But,”—a significant pause—“it would affect your parents.”
Leo was quiet for a short while, staring out at the blinding brightness of the sky. Tucked into his side, Joshua stayed silent. “Let it,” Leo said eventually, voice firm. “They don’t deserve my protection. Just keep my sisters out of it.”
As soon as Leo had ended the call, Joshua wrapped a hand around his wrist. He felt the flutter of Leo’s pulse under the pad of his thumb. “Hey,” Joshua said quietly, yet it seemed loud in the still room. “Are you quite sure you want to do that?”
“I don’t want to do that, no.” Leo’s tone was calm.
“Which is new, because before I met you, I might have enjoyed hurting them out of spite. Now, it’s simply a question of…
If this is our best chance to make things work, make us work, then that’s what we’ll do.
” He twisted his wrist out of Joshua’s hold, but only to lace their fingers.
His eyes were warm. “I’m choosing you, see? Simple.”
It didn’t feel simple at all to Joshua; it felt massive, felt like Leo had casually handed him his heart with an off-handed, “Oh, hey, thought you might have some use for this.”
Breathing through the ache in his throat, Joshua tightened his grip on Leo’s fingers. “What about your sisters, though?” he asked, and Leo’s gaze lowered, exhaling on a sigh.
“They’re old enough to handle it now. It’s been a decade, you know? Charlie is… twenty-two now? Twenty-three?” Leo paused, frowning. “Holy shit. Yeah, she should be. And Rosie must be eighteen, almost nineteen. If I talk to them before, make them understand…”