Page 15 of Centerpiece

He turned and was across the room trying to unlatch the window when an arm crossed his chest, another arm wrapped around his waist, and he was lifted from the window without any fuss or apparent strain.

It wasn’t right that Holburn had an oak’s strength as well.Agreeable surrendered without contest, and when his feet were placed on the floor and Holburn spun him around to face him, he looked up helplessly.

“There are guards outside the door,” Agreeable whispered in dismay.“They saw me.I’m sorry.I’ll tell them I kept you here by force.Do you think they’ll believe that?”He considered Holburn’s shoulders with concern and distracted lust.“Holburn,” he worried aloud after that, pausing to bite his lip, “will you stay to watch me hang?Will you find my ma and tell her I’m sorry, if that’s not too much trouble?”

“Shh.”Holburn squeezed Agreeable’s upper arms as if he thought Agreeable needed the help to stay on his feet.He leaned down to buss Agreeable’s brow with a kiss and a tickle of a stray curl.“Good lad.Breathe for me.Stay there and catch your breath.”

“They could come in at any moment,” Agreeable warned, voice rising.“You’re naked.The priests won’t like that if they learn of it.The two of us.They frown on that, official-like.”

“You’re a freckled angel.”Holburn shook his curls from his face.“Breathe, I said.You’re going to be good for me and breathe.”

Agreeable nodded, although hehadbeen breathing.Too fast, but he had certainly been breathing.

“Now stay here.There’s no way out the window anyway, unless you want to break a limb, which would get you nowhere.”Holburn cautiously took a step away, then exhaled wearily before glancing around.He had his chemise over his head in the next moment and was already grabbing his breeches.Thus dressed, if looking nearly as tired and tumbled as Agreeable did and holding his pants up with one hand, he pointed at Agreeable to remind him not to move, then walked barefoot to the door.

“Won’t even get another fuck before I die,” Agreeable mumbled, but couldn’t truly complain, for his last night on earth had been wonderful.

Holburn turned around to scowl at him, and then he was swiftly and furiously crossing the room just to stop in front of Agreeable and tug the cowl from his head.Holburn took the scarf next, although that he merely pushed down to Agreeable’s neck so that he could put a hand to Agreeable’s cheek and stare at him.

“Stay,” Holburn ordered again, sounding as though Agreeable had annoyed him, yet his hold was gentle.

Agreeable reached up to take hold of Holburn’s wrist, then felt foolish and grabbed the ends of the scarf instead, soothed to have the soft cloth between his thumb and forefinger.

“Are you a lord?”Agreeable wondered breathlessly, not truly expecting an answer.“You act like one, I think.But not like the ones here.Yes, I’ll stay,” he answered at last.He would do whatever Holburn wanted, even if Holburn would never know that.

Holburn pushed out the same weary breath as before, muttered what sounded like a prayer, then marched to the door.

He opened it enough to put his head and shoulders through and spoke quietly to whoever it was on the other side.The guards, likely, but possibly Betram.Agreeable shifted from foot to foot but was where he’d been told to stay when Holburn closed the door.

Holburn rolled his shoulders before he turned.

“Now, answer me as honestly as you can.As honestly as you did last night in my bed.”Holburn paused, leaving Agreeable to clutch the scarf and nod.“Who do those clothes belong to?Or do you wear a skirt all the time?”

“Miller’s wife.”Agreeable glanced down to his shoes, which were his.“‘Was drying in the sun with the scarf.No apron.I should have had an apron.”

Holburn scraped a hand through his curls, tutting absently when his fingers caught in a tangle.“So we need to return the dress,” he decided aloud.“And get you something else that will fit you.”

He moved quickly, passing Agreeable to get to the small chest by the bureau, which he opened to root through.Agreeable was hit in the face with a chemise and a pair of short breeches made of cloth so fine that he squawked in protest.

“I can’t wear those!I’m not trying to be one of the Count’s pages!”

“A page.”Holburn stopped, hose or stockings dangling from one hand.He closed the chest.“I can’t give you a pair of my long breeches.I’m taller than you.Take the dress off, if you please.”

Agreeable yanked on the lacings he’d worked so hard to get right and tossed the false bosom of his forgotten clothes onto the bed.Holburn was there to help him tug the dress over his head this time, as he had done in the night.ThatAgreeable remembered, because his naked flesh had been explored thoroughly before his ass had been ploughed again.Holburn had asked if Agreeable—if Remi, had wanted him to call it his cunny, and Remi had spilled from the very idea and then hoarsely told Holburn to call it whatever he wanted as long as he filled it.

Their eyes met once the dress was gone.Holburn’s lip twitched, but he didn’t smile or lean in for a kiss.He handed Agreeable the stockings, and Agreeable shook himself into action to remove his shoes and stumble into stockings that were lighter than air.

“Oh, youmustbe a lord,” he murmured as he stroked his calves to better feel the stockings against his skin.He nearly jumped into the air when Holburn dropped to his knees to do the same.

“Sorry,” Holburn offered, breathing against Agreeable’s knee while his hands wandered.“I have a taste for pretty people wearing pretty things.Especially when the pretty things are mine.Aliette uses it against me often.”He ran his palms up and down Agreeable’s calves, then sighed and reached for garters Agreeable hadn’t seen him grab.He tied them himself, lingering at his work.

Shaking and flushed, Agreeable slipped the chemise over his head.It was too large, but floated into place because it was as fine as everything else.

“If I don’t get dressed now, they will come to arrest me and find me under you,” he informed Holburn with regret.“Then we will both be in trouble, for this is not the capital.”Though Holburn would likely have to endure a scolding at most, and maybe give money to the priests for some new building or other.

A sigh was his first answer, and then Holburn rising to his feet and leaving Agreeable to manage the breeches himself.Agreeable finally tucked the chemise in and wished for a belt, although wasn’t sure he’d be free long enough for it to matter.When he reached for the scarf, Holburn stopped him with a hand on his.

“Keep that.I’ll repay the miller’s wife.But you should have that.It’s what you liked the most about your disguise, and it comforts you.”

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