Emyr's Smile by Amy Rae Durreson Read Free Book Online Page A

and gasped. He could feel
Emyr’s breath on his cheek, rough and hot, and knew that he was
about to be kissed. Then the hitch of Emyr’s breath and a soft drip
on his cheek made his conscience tighten around him like a noose.
Putting his hand up, he found Emyr’s cheek and held him a breath
away, feeling the slick lines of tears under his palm.
    “You’re crying.”
    “I’m aware. Let me have
some dignity, Heilyn.”
    Heilyn swallowed and
argued the part of him that was all lust away. He didn’t want to
begin like this. He wanted something brighter and sweeter. “When
you kiss me…”
    “Yes?” Emyr breathed,
nuzzling Heilyn’s fingertips.
    “I want it to be
because I make you happy. Not just because you’re sad.”
    Emyr froze. Then, with
a groan, he rolled off Heilyn. “You are the most inconvenient thing
in my life.”
    “This is a noble
sacrifice on my part too,” Heilyn said, and curled up behind him,
wrapping an arm around Emyr’s waist.
    “And inconsistent with
it.”
    “Your life needs more
inconsistencies.”
    Emyr snorted at that,
but then his hand came up to cover Heilyn’s, their fingers
tangling. “Sleep, Heilyn, and stop confusing me.”
    And so Heilyn did, as
the storm slowly passed over them and faded into quiet rain.
    There were more storms
after that, but Heilyn started listening to the weather gossips in
the morning and made sure he could leave early if bad weather was
coming in. Father Cian must have realized what was going on,
because he invariably happened to have the pony trap out on those
days and, more often than not, was heading along the coast road and
it was no trouble at all to take them both home.
    Heilyn stayed overnight
through a few storms, though now they sat together in the kitchen
and talked quietly through the storm. Emyr didn’t invite him back
into bed, and Heilyn couldn’t quite decide how he felt about that.
He wanted so badly to touch Emyr and be touched in return, to slide
their bodies together and take pleasure from other. Simply lying
together chastely had been torturous, and so intense he had been
giddy with need by the time the sun crept through the crack in the
shutters. It had frightened him a little. He had never simply
wanted like that before. His purpose was simple: make Emyr happy
enough to smile. He was starting to wonder, though, what changes
Emyr was making in him in return.
    Emyr was touching him
more. Nothing sexual, of course, and Heilyn wasn’t even sure he
knew he was doing it. He’d just developed a habit of moving Heilyn
out of his way as he cooked by slinging an arm around his shoulder
and pulling him across the room. When they huddled under the
oilcloth in the rain, his arm went around Heilyn’s waist to keep
him close. He summoned attention by touching Heilyn’s arm or
turning his cheek to see something interesting, his fingers always
gentle.
    Heilyn wished he could
be as chaste and respectful, but his fantasies were getting more
compelling by the day. Even as he wandered across the frosty common
in the morning, he imagined just stripping naked as Emyr cooked,
spreading himself out across the kitchen table and begging. He
invented absurd schemes which would get him into Emyr’s bed
(possibly even “accidentally” tied to Emyr’s bed, so Emyr would
have to crawl all over him to release him, and then he’d, of
course, be overcome with lust and leave Heilyn tied there while he
stripped off and nibbled his way down Heilyn’s chest and then
pushed his legs apart slowly, those long fingers pressing…and, damn
it, he was at the shrine already) or let him fall conveniently onto
Emyr’s lap and land on his mouth (or his cock). He could imagine it
so clearly he could have painted it: Emyr’s eyes hazy with pleasure
as Heilyn stroked him, Emyr’s mouth sliding wetly over the head of
his cock.
    It made his work a
little more challenging, especially now he was down to the fine
detail work and needed to concentrate. He was painting fast,