Rentboy by Fyn Alexander Read Free Book Online Page A

having struggled up there on her own before William Baillie got up.
    Listening, as alert as a fox, he tried to tune in to his father. Should he do it now? No. He was too tired. In order to avoid getting home too soon he had walked part of the way before getting the tube and then the bus. All he wanted right now was to sleep. Quickly he ran on tiptoes up the stairs, carrying his boots. If he could make it to his bedroom without seeing his father, he could hide in the wardrobe to sleep for a while. No locks were allowed on any of the doors inside the house. Not even the bathroom. No one was allowed to avoid William Baillie even if they wanted to.
    Inside Fox’s darkened bedroom, huddled in his bed, lay the twins. They whimpered when he opened the door. “What’s up?” he asked, not expecting an answer. “It’s me, Fox.” He switched on the lamp. The twins lay as they always did in bed, bodies wrapped around each other. They sat up gingerly. They’d been beaten again. “Did he belt your arses?” Four big eyes stared hollowly back at him. “Show me.”
    The twins pulled off their pajamas to show recent red stripes across their backs and buttocks. Tears burned Fox’s eyes, and the urge to cut himself bubbled up inside him. He sat on the bed and gathered them into his arms. Despite the warm morning, they shivered uncontrollably. “When did he do it? Last night?”
    Nothing. They looked at him, then laid their heads on his shoulders.
    “Don’t worry. I’m going to kill him soon. I just need to figure out how.”
    “Fox!” Baillie’s voice outside on the landing made them jump.
    “Let’s get in the wardrobe, quick,” Fox whispered.
    All three scrambled off the bed and into the wardrobe on the nest of pillows and blankets Fox had secreted there. By some miracle his father had never discovered the fairly obvious hiding place, because he would have remarked on it before now. Huddling together in the darkness, they waited in silence, hearing the bedroom door open, their father tramp around the room in his heavy army boots before leaving again. For a long time Fox held his twin siblings against him, until at last they all fell into a troubled sleep.
    * * * *
    With one hand Edward reached out, eyes still closed, expecting to feel Fox’s warm, skinny body beside him. Nothing. Disappointment washed through when he opened his eyes. Fox was gone. Edward placed his hand on the bed where the young man had slept, finding it cool. He’d obviously been gone for a while. And he had left without being paid again.
    Did he leave a note, he wondered hopefully. “Don’t be ridiculous, Edward.” It was not as if they were in a relationship or anything, his bloke gone off to work early, leaving him a note to say good-bye like a normal couple.
    Reluctant to start the day alone, Edward sat up on the side of the bed. The memory of fucking Fox in the shower came flooding back, and he had an instant erection. Naked, he walked to the bathroom. The used condom and foil packet still rested in the drain. Edward scooped them up and pressed them to his nose. Too much water had washed over them to leave behind any scent of Fox. But he could not make himself toss them in the bin and instead placed both carefully on the edge of the sink before turning on the shower.
    Edward rarely masturbated, not even with his morning hard-on. Thoughts of the day’s work ahead would distract him until his willy fell limp. But this morning everywhere he looked he saw Fox. The clean white tiles in the shower disappeared as he closed his eyes and saw Fox facing the wall, saying, “Fuck me.” As if the young man were there still, he leaned against the wall and gripped his penis. In a few fast strokes the hot friction of his hand brought on an orgasm that rocked his body and left him gasping. Was he in love with a prostitute, or was he just taking his first sexual encounter too far in his mind? Making more of it than there was and certainly more than Fox