God, didn’t Dante know it?
He turned towards the main house, the most logical direction to head in search of the mysterious pumpkin field, and let his mind drift to themultipletimes Sid had taken him apart that way, each time more profound than before. Eachtime, when he’d been so certain his body had nowhere left to climb.Eachtime when he’d been so fucking wrong.I never knew I could come like that. And now he did know it, he could think of nothing else.I want his cock in me.
Dante stopped walking. The realisation shouldn’t have been a shock, but somehow it was, and a roadblock appeared in his brain, built on the foundations of a lifetime of being a shit human being.You’re really gonna bend over for him, Pope?
A shudder passed through him. That voice wasold. Redundant the moment Dante had discovered Asa Gerrard did just that for Luis and still held his own on the street. Fuck, Asa was still kingnow. No one cared how or who he fucked.Dantedidn’t care. So why did Sid fucking him feel like a river he couldn’t swim?
Because you’re scared. You’ve never slept with someone you love.
Love—the word stuck in Dante’s throat as if it wanted to bubble up and spill out, but a fucking devil blocked its path.You don’t love him. You don’t love anyone.But his heart didn’t believe that anymore. It hadn’t in years, not since he’d found Luis’s broken gaze across a dilapidated snooker club and every evil thing he’d ever done had come crashing down around him.
You love Luis, so why can’t you love Sid?
No answer came to Dante. He uprooted his feet from the ground and kept walking, drawn to Sid despite the chaos rioting inside. Instinct led him to the back of the main house. He skirted around the perimeter and slipped through a couple of gates until he came to a third.
Sid was there, his back to Dante, hefting sandstone into raised beds built from old railway sleepers. Dante trailed to a stop and stared, instantly transfixed by Sid’s body as it flexed and heaved, caught between concern that Sid was working too hard and the reality that Dante was a bucket of thirst for him.Why does he have to be so goddamn hot?
As if it made a difference. As if Dante wasn’t as hooked on the man beneath Sid’s sun-kissed skin as he was on the rest of him.
Dante suppressed a sigh.I might love him, but I fucking hate this.
Whateverthiswas.He’d run out of brainpower to figure it out.Fuck, I just need to be near him.
Dante started forward as Sid seemed to sense his presence and turn around, biceps popping as he heaved another rock from the wheelbarrow at his feet, sweat beading his fair brows.
Out of habit, Dante took the rock from him.
Caught off guard, perhaps, Sid let him. “What are you doing here?”
“Benjamin sent me,” Dante hedged, unwilling to admit that perhaps he’d have tracked Sid down anyway. “He said you were working on something I should be helping you with.”
A genuine scowl creased Sid’s face. “I don’t need your help with everything, especially not bullshit like this.”
“What is it?” Dante asked mildly. He knew better than to poke the beast when Sid was moody.
“It’s going to be an echinacea display, with some late daisies and sunflowers, for the summer garden party at the house.”
“Why isn’t it by the house then?”
Fresh fury darkened Sid’s sunny features even more. “Long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
“Yeah, well. I haven’t. It needs to be done by the end of the week.”
Dante eyed the newly built raised beds, the rockery, and heaps of sacks of compost waiting to be deposited. He didn’t know much about building the spectacular displays he’d seen around the estate, but it was clear there was a lot to do before this one was done. “Do you—”
“No.” Sid dropped the sandstone in his hands onto the artfully arranged pile in the nearest raised bed. “If you’re done with whatever you were doing today, go home. Have some downtime.”
“I don’t need downtime.”
“Says who? You’ve worked every day for two weeks.”
“So have you.”
“That’s my choice.”
“And this isn’t mine?”