Page 116 of Leather and Longing
I don’t want to bring anyone else into this.Seth had been his usual amazing self, but Adam didn’t want to rely on others to teach Paul, or to run scenes in his place. This was theirs to explore, to claim, to rebuild.
Blindness hasn’t taken that from me.
He set down the mug with a quiet clink and leaned back.
When he gets back, we’ll talk. I’ll tell him how I feel.
It was almost comical, the big bad Dom, his heart quaking at the thought of baring his soul.
When the doorbell rang, he almost jumped out of his skin, he’d been so deep in introspection. He walked across the hall and opened the door.
“Good morning. The name’s Dave Kennedy. I’m here to see Mrs. Lambton about the building work we discussed.” The voice was mature, its gravelly quality indicative of at least a pack and a half of cigarettes a day for the last twenty years.
Adam frowned.
Building work? What the fuck?
“Mr. Kennedy, I’m Adam Kent. Mrs. Lambton is my sister, but she isn’t here at the moment.”
“Oh, right. Damn, I knew I should’ve called first.”
“Is she expecting you?” This was the first Adam had heard about any building work being required.
Mr. Kennedy chuckled. “I doubt it. We spoke on the phone about, ooh, must have been six months ago. I told her at the time I was chocka with site work, but she said there was no hurry. Besides, it wasn’t as if we could’ve had it all done for this season anyway. Then she called me again in May, but I was still snowed under. I happened to be working down at the Spyglass in Ventnor today so I thought I’d pop along here on the off-chance, see if I could get a quick look at the place.”
Adam was burning to know more. “Would you like to come in, Mr. Kennedy?”
“It’s Dave, please, and yeah, if you don’t mind, that’d be great.”
Adam stepped aside to let him enter, silently wishing Paul was there. Nothing about Dave’s manner rang any alarms, but there was a mystery here that needed to be solved. He closed the door behind them.
“Oh, now this is nice.” The genuine pleasure in Dave’s voice calmed Adam’s fears. “I love these old houses. How many bedrooms?”
“Six or seven.”
“Right-oh. Is it possible for me to take a look at them? Mrs. Lambton asked about the feasibility of taking a large room and dividing it into two, to make two singles. And of course we’d need to think about adding en suites to the others. There might be rooms downstairs that can be altered, too.”
Adam was officially lost.
“So, can I see them?”
That was further than Adam was prepared to go. He didn’t know Dave, and he certainly didn’t feel comfortable about letting him loose in the house.
And besides, I need to know what the fuck is going on here.
“I’ll need to see if you’ve got a room large enough downstairs,” Dave added, “that will accommodate all the guests for breakfast. We can always knock two rooms into one if there isn’t one.”
Guests?
Cold spread through his body as Dave’s words sank in.That sneaky, conniving bitch.His heartbeat quickened and his throat dried up, making it difficult to swallow.
“Are you all right?”
Dave’s hesitant question dragged Adam’s attention back into the present. He swallowed, his mouth devoid of saliva. “Yeah, I’m fine.” The reply came out as a croak. “Would you excuse me a minute?” He needed water.
“Sure.”
Adam left Dave in the hallway and went into the kitchen. He searched the draining board for the glass he knew was there and filled it with water. Adam gulped it down, his heart still racing. He drew in a couple of long breaths in an effort to calm himself, his hands trembling. When he could breathe more easily, he put down the glass and rejoined Dave.
