Free The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans by Amy Crook

up.
“Apparently there’s no shortage of wannabes, but no one’s got anything
like my experience.”
    “Good,” said Julian, taking Alex’s phone
and putting it on silent, and then doing the same for his own. “Now, I
believe I was promised sex?”
    Alex grinned. “I believe you were,” he
said. He manhandled them around until he could stand with Julian still clinging
to him, though it required the assistance of both Julian and Alex’s wand-cane.
“I knew this thing would come in handy one day,” said Alex, though he
left it by the couch as he carried Julian into the bedroom.
    Julian held on tight, rewarding him with kisses,
and he managed to get both their shirts off before Alex laid him out onto the
bed. “Whatever shall I do with you?” Alex teased, mouth moving down
Julian’s body while his fingers worked at Julian’s trousers.
    Julian tangled his hands in Alex’s soft curls.
“Whatever you want,” he said, his voice embarrassingly breathy.
“I’m all yours today.”
    “I’m all yours every day, my love,” said
Alex, and then that was all he said for a while once words became unnecessary
or lost to moans.
    They ended up sated and snuggled up on top of the
covers despite the air-conditioned coolness of the apartment. Julian suspected
the thermostat had been given a subtle nudge upward when he’d started staying
there in deference to Alex’s desire to get his clothes off as often as
possible, and Julian wasn’t going to complain about either.
    “So, where do you think we can weasel a
reservation tonight, now that we’ve been off the society pages for so long?”
said Alex, dropping a kiss on Julian’s sweaty hair.
    Julian giggled. “We could go to the
Atrium,” he said. “I like it there at night, and they’ve always got
room.”
    “Your wish is my command,” said Alex,
kissing his nose. “I like it there, too, and they’ve got that shrimp thing
that Alys says is too hard to make here in my plebeian kitchen.”
    “Ooh, I like the shrimp thing,” said
Julian. “You call for reservations, I’ll warm up the shower?”
    Alex pretended to think about it for a moment, then
tickled Julian until he giggled and they rolled over for more kisses. When they
stopped, breathless and grinning, he said, “I accept your proposed
division of labour,” and gave Julian’s bottom a playful swat.
    “Hey!” said Julian, giving one right back
as Alex and his creamy mounds went hunting for his pyjama bottoms so as to not
flash the brownies. “Geoff is right, you do have a lovely bottom, I’ll
have to tell him how spankable it is,” he teased, giving the other cheek a
little swat before he scampered off to the shower.  
    Alex joined him quickly enough, and they took their
time getting clean, still new enough in their relationship to revel in these
little moments of intimacy. Privately, Julian hoped they’d never grow tired of
it, but he wasn’t naive enough to think it would always be quite this easy.
    “What’s that little frown for?” asked
Alex, kissing the thought away with the wrinkle between Julian’s brows.
    “Just hoping you always like this enough to
waste hot water,” said Julian. “I really like the parts where we just
enjoy each other.”
    “Me, too,” said Alex. That seemed to be
all there was to say, so they spent a few more minutes indulgently kissing,
then Alex rinsed the conditioner out of his curls and they got out and got
ready for dinner.
    There weren’t even any messages waiting when they
checked their phones.

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 5
     
    They couldn’t say the same the next morning. They
set no alarms and woke late, since Alex was officially off the case until his
name was cleared, and Julian was still on his unexpected vacation. Julian
nuzzled at Alex’s hip where he was sitting up, frowning at his phone.
    “Stupid people being stupid?” asked
Julian.
    Alex stroked his hair absently. “Pretty much,
yeah, but we can get dressed and have breakfast before dealing