Page 109 of Love Beneath the Guillotine
The group talked on for a time, but there was a pronounced affection in every word and movement between Léon and Henry that ratcheted up by the second until Henry finally leaned over, in front of everyone, and whispered in his ear, “I need you. Right now.”
Nothing but a breath of air passed Léon’s enamoured lips.
“You’ll go to the back door,” Henry directed. “Two minutes.”
Léon’s knees turned so weak it was a wonder he could stand. He looked over at Émile, his plate of food being devoured as he sat next to Souveraine, her fingers absentmindedly tousling his hair while she listened to whatever was being said at that table.
With a step so fast it was like his shoes were on fire, Léon rushed over to her.
“The problem isn’t us,” a woman with grey hair was saying. “It’s the system. It needs to be dismantled and rebuilt from the bottom up. Women are kept, very deliberately, in their place by taxes, property laws, marriage laws—none of it is a reflection of our skill or character. Men want to keep us in a perpetual state of childhood and dependency.”
Léon leaned over Souveraine’s shoulder. “I, um, need to… be back in… in… not long?”
She vaguely raised a hand towards him. “Yes, yes, go away.” Then she leaned towards her new associate. “So what you’re saying is that every difficulty and failure of my entire existence is basically down to being trapped in a patriarchy?”
A shout of agreement went up around the table, and seeing that both she and Émile were perfectly happy, Léon looked for Henry. It took him a moment. So many people milling about,the light from the fires, the glittering everything. Then finally he found him.
Henry, distant across the room at the back of the cathedral, half hidden in shadow. His dark gaze sought Léon’s, and there was something about him that was… changed. That untouchable tilt of his head was back, just like the first night he’d seen him. That cruel sneer about his lips. That masculine energy that had Léon in the palm of his hand from day one. He took the lot of it, turned his back on Léon, and walked out the door.
Léon was stunned. He’d said he wanted him, but the way he looked just then… Disconcertingly distant. Half stranger. But all sex.
Léon dashed across the room, flung the door open, and stepped out into the cold of a frigid alleyway, the door slamming behind him in his eagerness.
A hand smashed into Léon’s shoulder, and his back hit the wall hard. A clash of metal sounded, and the ice of sharp steel pressed into his neck. “Listen carefully, pretty boy. You’re going to do everything exactly as I say.”
A squeak of unadulterated excitement escaped Léon’s beautiful lips before a hand wrapped tight around his throat, pinning him against the rough stone.
“You think this is funny?” Henry’s words growled across Léon’s cheek, and he pressed the blade a little deeper, so that it hurt just right.
“No, Monsieur,” Léon whispered, his heart about to burst out of his chest. “Only… I have no money…”
“I don’t want your money,” Henry sneered. “I want something much better than that.”
“What do you— Uhhh.” Henry’s fingers found Léon’s dick, already hard for him.
“Well, what have we here?” Henry’s dark eyes turned molten, and he gave a little squeeze.
Trying his very best not to push himself into Henry’s hand, “Please don’t do that. I’m not that kind of man.”
“Aren’t you?” Henry trailed the blade across his neck, beneath his chin, tilting his head up with the sharp point. “Because you look like a filthy little slut to me.”
Henry remained careful with the knife, shifting it quickly to allow Léon’s mouth to drop open, which it did, widely. Then Henry said, “How about you put those lips to some good use, and I might let you walk out of here alive.”
The knife followed the raise of Léon’s Adam’s apple as he swallowed hard. “What do you want from me?”
Massaging Léon’s firm dick through his breeches, “Are you really going to play innocent with me? As though I can’t see the way you’ve been fucking me with your eyes all night. You’re going to get on your knees, and you’re going to suck my dick like your life depends on it.” He pressed the tip of the blade to the gorgeous hollow of Léon’s throat. “Because it does.”
Léon had never fallen on the ground so fast. He ripped at Henry’s breeches. “Please don’t make me, Monsieur. You’re going to ruin me.”
“You were already ruined. You don’t walk around with lips like that and not expect them to get fucked.”
“Please—”
“Shut your fucking mouth.”
Léon almost came in his breeches.
Henry snatched a handful of Léon’s hair and ripped his head back. “One more word and I’ll take the other hole.”
