Page 12 of The Harvest Homecoming

“It will be,” he said as he gave me a shove back into my room, entering after me and kicking the door closed.

I felt lightheaded. “I’m sorry. What?”

He placed the tray on my desk, his eyes black with…was that passion? Oh hell. My cock fattened up quickly as he turned to look at me. Oh yes, that was lust making his eyes glow like polished ebony. “Clothes off, Your Highness.”

The man had grown quite bossy since we’d last been together. I liked it. A lot.

“While I do love how this is amazingly similar to an erotic dream I had just last night, I have to ask once more…what?”

After giving me a look that should have incinerated my nightclothes from my body, he lifted the lid on the sterling silver dish. On the deep base dish where my favorite little butter cookies should have been was a box of condoms beside a tube of lube. My mouth fell open.

“I’ve thought about things,” he said while working to remove his lightweight sweater vest. A sweater vest on any other man would have drawn my scorn, but Rani wearing a dark blue cashmere Prada sweater vest made my dick incredibly happy. Once his head was free, his curls tumbled playfully about. My fingers itched to get a hold of them. His haircut was shorter when we’d been together, and for many years after. Perhaps he felt it was more professional, but those ringlets were the perfect frame for his beautiful face. “I’d like to see if we’re still sexually compatible. Then, if that pans out, we could take things slowly to judge if you’re being honest about—”

“Yes.” I tore off my robe and flung it across the room.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes to anything that brings you back into my arms,” I blurted out while trying to untie the string of my pajama bottoms. All I did was knot the fucking thing, which made me very mad. I heard his soft laughter, so I glanced up from the chastity PJ bottoms to my…Rani. To my Rani. His kissable lips were tipped up at the corners. Closing the distance between us, he gently swatted my hands away.

“Seriously, what would you royals do without your staff?” The backs of his fingers skimmed my lower abs as he reached into my bottoms to pick at the tight knot. My balls nearly emptied at just that slight tickle of a touch. He smelled divine.

“We’d be lost,” I replied earnestly. His gaze flicked up from my problem to my face. The tiny smile slipped away. “I’ve been lost. For years. Acting out to show the world what a bad boy I am when all I needed to do was be the man my little brother already was. I lost you due to my need to prove something without taking a real stand. I hurt you, and I am so very sorry. If I could do things over, I would never leave.”

“To quote C.S. Lewis, you can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” He gave the string a sharp tug. My bottom slithered down my thighs to puddle around my ankles. My cock stood proud and stiff. “Perhaps we can change the ending for us, but it’s going to take time, Harold. I know you like to dive into things headfirst, but trust broken is like an old man’s bone. It takes gentle care and time to heal. Can you give me that? Gentleness and time?”

“God yes.” My heart was thundering in my chest as he unbuttoned my pajama top with excruciating slowness.

“Then we just have to see if the heat we always had in bed still lingers or if your pumpkin-headed behavior doused the flames.”

His sight tangled with mine. I could see a thousand things in those chestnut pools. Passion, yes, but there was some other small thing there that didn’t quite fit. He dropped his eyes, severing eye contact.

“Rani, what are you doing?” I asked, which was probably the stupidest question ever posed by a human being.

“I’m going to suck your cock,” he replied, his tone rough but flat. It was then that I sensed something was off. “That is what you want, right? To rekindle because I was the best you ever had?”

“Yes. No, I mean…” There I stood with my pajamas around my ankles with the most stunning man in the world licking his lips in preparation to suck my brain out through my cock, and two voices began to chatter inside my head.

What the hell are you doing? The man is about to put your dick in his mouth! Stop waffling and feed him your cock!

No, there’s something not right yet. Ask him if he would like to talk.

Talk?! Forget talking. Stuff your penis into his mouth right now. Talk later. Or better yet, don’t talk at all.

If you wish to reconnect on a level deeper than just sex, then you should speak to him if this isn’t feeling right. It’s the mature thing to do.

“Harold, are you stroking out on me?”

“No, I just…” I knelt down to cradle his face in my hands. “Hand to God, I was listening to an angel and a devil on either shoulder.” He blinked, surprised. “I do want this. I want you so badly it makes me ache inside, but I don’t want just sex.” He sat back on his heels, eyes curious, regarding me as one would a tiger one would stumble upon in the jungle. Wary but intrigued. “I’d like to date you. Properly. In the wide open. No hiding or sneaking around. A proper courtship. Oh God, now I’ve tumbled into the Bridgerton world!”

“You want to court me. Am I hearing this correctly?”

“Yes.” I nodded sharply, thumbs caressing his cheeks. “I want to take you to the festival on my arm as my official date.”

“That would be…” His long lashes fluttered and opened to capture my gaze. “That would be lovely. Yes, lovely. Would you kiss me now?”

“Yes, Lord, yes, I would love to kiss you now.”

And so I did, with infinite tenderness. He leaned into the touch of lips, eagerly running his tongue along the seam of my mouth after a moment of hesitation. I met his hunger with my own, sliding into his mouth to taste and tease until we were rolling around on the floor like two weasels in a wool sock.