Free Bound Forever by Ava March

formed in his head.
    Oliver frowned. “What does it matter now? Grafton has his heir.”
    “Please, Oliver. Answer me. Would you have stayed with me?” He needed to know. Needed the comfort of the knowledge that Oliver would have stayed with him, though he had a very strong suspicion Oliver’s answer would offer no comfort.
    His lover’s gaze, heavy with regret, remained locked with his. “No. I could not have shared you. I could not have welcomed you with open arms when you came to me smelling of her.”
    “But I would have married out of duty and nothing more. I would not have loved her. I love you.” My heart belongs to you.
    Oliver shook his head. “I know. Still, I could not have been the secret you kept from your wife.”
    “But we already are each other’s secrets.”
    “Yes. Though it would have been different, and you know that. You would have gone to balls with her, went to the theater, discussed your day with her, gone home to her, laid between her legs. Had children with her. I could never share you like that, Vincent. It would have destroyed me.”
    And it would have destroyed Vincent in the process. He looked down, avoiding Oliver’s gaze, and adjusted the length of his greatcoat, draped over his leg. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you,” he admitted. He had a brief taste of it once before, and it had been agony not to have Oliver in his life.
    With a gloved hand, Oliver cupped his cheek and brought his chin up, refusing to allow him to hide. He cursed the chill temperature, needing to feel the comforting warmth of Oliver’s palm.
    “You would have been all right, Vincent. You would have succeeded in marriage, just as you succeed in everything you do.”
    Oliver’s confidence in him was staggering at times but, in this instance, entirely misplaced. Vincent made to shake his head, but Oliver held him still. “Would you have been all right?”
    That gloved hand slipped off his jaw. “No. You are the only man I have ever loved. I could never love another. But as you no longer need to marry, we do not need to discuss this. So let’s not speak of it.”
    “If you insist.” Vincent let out a heavy sigh. “But I would not have been ‘all right,’ not if I didn’t have you,” he grumbled.
    A little indulgent smile tipped the edges of Oliver’s lips. A smile that indicated Oliver’s confidence was still misplaced. But he knew he would not convince the man otherwise right now.
    Oliver’s gloved hand came back up to cup his jaw. Leaning close, he pulled Vincent down for a kiss. Just one brush of his lips provided the comfort Vincent sorely needed, vanquishing almost every trace of the fear, but not all of it. A tiny tendril remained, but he pushed it aside, focused on kissing the man beside him.
    He reached up and threaded his fingers in the wind-tousled waves of Oliver’s hair. With a firm tug on the strands, he slanted his lips over Oliver’s and pushed his tongue inside, demanding entry. Oliver moaned into his mouth and shifted closer, pressing full against Vincent’s side.
    Lust shot straight to his groin. His cock hardened, pushing at the falls of his trousers. But before the lust grabbed hold of all his senses, he pulled back just enough to whisper against Oliver’s lips, “I never said never again.”
    Oliver’s eyes flared, and a moan, this one thin and threadbare yet thick with excitement, shook his throat.
    Lest the man misunderstood his intentions, Vincent gave Oliver’s hair another tug. “But not now, boy,” he said, as firm as that tug.
    His lover instantly yielded. The dark fan of his lashes fluttered behind his spectacles, brushing the curve of his high cheekbones. A whimper slid past his parted lips.
    The man was so beautiful. So perfect. The other half of his soul.
    His heart clenched, the fear flaring to grip him anew. Needing the lust to mask it again, he slanted his lips harshly over Oliver’s. Let the silken depths of his mouth, the sweet