Page 35 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

Jules pulls back, blinking slowly.

He strokes the side of Lachlan’s face.

‘I don’t think you know what that means to me.’

Lachlan shrugs. ‘I know you pretty well.’

‘I want that,’ Jules tells him. ‘To be your world. Is that selfish?’

‘Very, but that’s what I want for you, baby.’

‘To be selfish?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘I was born selfish, Bodyguard.’

‘No,’ Lachlan corrects calmly. ‘You were born into a prison, and any selfish action has always come at a price. I want you to put yourself first, to be happy and fuck the consequences. I love that you gave yourself this,’ he says, holding Jules’ wrist, his thumb rubbing over the crescent moon, his Neiguan pressure point. ‘I love that there was a moment when you hesitated and then overcame that hesitation by saying, fuck it.’ Jules’ brow is creased in the middle, the overwhelm of big feelings and the bittersweet pain they stir. ‘I love you, and I want you to walk your own path, go your own way.’

‘Not North?’

‘Fuck North. Fuck West.’

Jules smiles, tears in his eyes. ‘East, then.’

Lachlan has no poetry to give, only the plainest of words.

‘Any which way you point, that’s my East. You’re my world, my compass, my lodestone. I would die for you in a heartbeat.’

‘Well, you’d better not because I’d drag you right the fuck back.’

Lachlan laughs, kisses him deeper, can’t help himself.

‘You really would, wouldn’t you?’

‘You’re mine, Lachlan.’

‘The legions of hell would tremble to see you coming.’

‘Damn right.’

They dance some more, and then Lachlan buys him drinks before Jules leads him by the hand into a restroom stall where Lachlan makes him writhe with joy, bliss and love behind a locked door, and when it spills, Lachlan swallows all of it, greedy for every drop.

He lets them stay out an extra half an hour as a gift.

And on the way back home, a storm rumbles in the distance.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘Is something wrong, baby?’ he asks Mimi while they eat breakfast together. It’s just the two of them. Jules is sleeping in. Blaire is back, but he hasn’t seen her yet. She didn’t come to see him, didn’t check in.

It’s unpleasant when things aren’t right between them.

Mimi looks up from her breakfast, oats and bananas with brown sugar.

She has this little line between her eyes.

‘Daddy.’ He straightens up, listening. ‘Where’s ZeeZee?’