Drude took Ephraim’s coat in much the same manner as Ephraim had taken his, though with far more grace.Then Hull set to work on his waistcoat buttons with familiar eagerness and stole a kiss as he whisked away Ephraim’s cravat.No sooner had the kiss ceased than Drude descended upon his knees—a very far way for a man of his stature to go, Ephraim thought—to dispense with his trouser buttons and ties.
The sight of Drude (immense, horned, hooved, tailed, with his dark hair pouring down like ink and his dark eyes gazing up in barely-restrained hunger) kneeling before him was more than enough to set Ephraim’s pulse pattering.The gentle brush of his fingertips andclawsagainst the wool of his trousers over his root would’ve sent Ephraim over the brink if he were but forty, thirty, even twenty years younger.At present his mast strained every timber in its desperation to rise.
“Brace your hands on my shoulders,” Drude bid him.“So you may step out.”
Ephraim had spent so much of his concentration upon resisting that very urge that it took him a half-second too long to obey.He laid his hands upon the brawny scarlet muscles—felt them strain against his palms as Drude slid his trousers down—tried not to think about how pale and withered his own legs were in comparison to Drude and Hull’s sinewy thighs and well-turned calves.Belatedly he realised he’d forgotten to step out of his trouser-legs and hastened to do so.Mercifully, Drude didn’t seem put off by his dawdling.
Having done away with his trousers, Drude reached for the hem of his shirt.
“Perhaps—!”Ephraim blurted, his voice emerging in a far higher pitch than he’d intended.
Drude’s hands ceased at once.The fathomless dark eyes glanced up in unmistakable concern.
Ephraim cleared his throat.“Perhaps we might leave the shirt… for now?”
The heavy brow unknit, and the relieved smile that graced those scarlet lips was far kinder than Ephraim deserved.
“Of course,” Drude replied in that sonorous rumble that seemed to carry through the floorboards.
The shirt covered Ephraim from throat to thighs, which more than sufficed to hide his withered candle stub.He knew Hull appreciated the stub and all the rest—he knew nothow, but Hull had expressed said appreciation time and again in more ways than Ephraim could possibly have imagined, and so he felt forced to trust that it was both possible and true—but it would require heights of vanity far beyond Ephraim’s reach to assume that anyone besides Hull could hold his body and its feeble efforts in the same regard, and so it was something of a comfort to him not to bare absolutely everything from the start.
Though as Drude’s appreciative gaze traced over his shirt and skin alike, he felt very naked indeed.Not unpleasantly so, which was better than he’d hoped.His own gaze lingered on Drude in return.
“I told you he was beautiful,” said Hull.
Hull had told Ephraim nothing of the sort.Then again Ephraim could hardly blame him, given how he struggled to describe Drude’s beauty himself.
“I never doubted it for a moment,” Drude replied with a low throaty chuckle that went straight to Ephraim’s root.
Only then did Ephraim begin to suspect that, unaccountably, Hull had not spoken to him but rather to Drude.Of Ephraim.And called him beautiful.
Well.If Ephraim’s countenance weren’t already aflame, that thought would suffice to break out in fresh rosy blooms across his features.
Drude glanced from Ephraim’s face to the hem of his shirt and back again.“Perhaps… we might begin with a kiss?”
“Oh!”Ephraim struggled to drag his blood back up from his root to his brain so he might explain himself more sensibly.“That’s—very kind of you to offer, but—I thought—rather, that is to say—not that I mind, you understand, quite the reverse—but I had supposed you would attend to Hull.”
“Oh,” said Drude.Evident and unaccountable disappointment flickered across his brow, but he recovered swiftly and manfully; if any offence were taken he showed not a hint.
Hull broke in.“If you would prefer…”
Ephraim glanced between them: two beautiful men, one a stranger and the other his dearest beloved, both of whom (for reasons far beyond Ephraim’s understanding) desired him.And yet.“I fear I find it difficult to concentrate upon… well,anything, really,” he said, with a desperate glance at Hull, “knowing that you are wounded.”
Comprehension dawned across Hull’s handsome features.Concern followed, much to Ephraim’s dismay.
“Forgive me,” Hull began.“I hadn’t considered?—”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Ephraim hastened to assure him.
Hull exchanged another speaking glance with Drude, then returned his gaze to Ephraim.“Then, perhaps, you might like to watch matters unfold?Just to begin.”
Ever since Hull had first revealed his true form, Ephraim had harboured a great curiosity regarding fae ritual and custom.He had glimpsed magic from Hull now and again.It thrilled him every time.Nonetheless he felt it would be gauche to ask to watch.
But if the offer was made to him, unprompted, then…
“Yes,” Ephraim said softly.Perhaps he ought to strive to sound more commanding or confident, but he had barely courage enough to speak as matters stood.“I think I would.”
Hull gently drew Ephraim down for a kiss.
