Page 106 of The Ghost of Ellwood
I led him over to the couch and, once he sat, I snuggled in beside him. My thoughts drifted to the violent way Theo died and how his body was out there right now, his resting place covered in a blanket of white.
“Do you want me to go public with your story?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. I gave it to you so you’d know the truth. I didn’t think that far ahead.” He rested his head on my shoulder. “If you do, no one would believe you. I feel the only way you’ll be able to tell anyone is if there’s a body.”
“Wait.” The idea stopped me cold. “You want me to dig up your body? Are you insane?”
“Then show them my journal,” he suggested. “Say you found it in the desk, read it, and believe my disappearance was actually a murder. The property will be searched…my body found. You’ll be a hero, Ben. A cold case solved a hundred years later.”
“But what if…” Just thinking the words made me feel sick. “What if the discovery of your body is what sets you free?” I caressed his chilled cheek. “Is that what you want, Theo? To be set free? Because if it is, I’ll do it. I’ll go to the station tomorrow and tell them everything.”
He’d said before that he didn’t want to leave me, but had he changed his mind?
“I don’t want to go anywhere without you, Ben. As long asyouknow the truth, I feel like I can be at peace with it. The only thing I wish is to know what became of my father once he fled Ivy Grove.”
“I can ask Carter. I’m sure his info guy can find out.”
Theo nodded and trailed his fingertips down my arm. And then he shifted over and straddled me, his hands tangling in my hair. He didn’t need to say what he needed; I needed it too. More than sex, I needed the intimacy—his lips on mine and our bodies entwined.
I needed to feel him.
I tore off his shirt before doing the same to his trousers. Our mouths slammed together, his lips like oxygen for me. He unbuttoned my pants and slid them down just enough to release my cock.
The sex was slow and sensual. As Theo rode me, I kissed his smooth chest. Pleasure heightened with each thrust in and out of him, but the real pleasure came from seeing the gentle expression on his face as our gazes met. The shattered pieces of my heart from reading about his death began to mend the longer he was with me.
He came first, crying out as he dug his nails into my shoulders. My orgasm rocked into me soon after, and I gripped his hips, pumping faster into him. His eyes never left my face as I came apart beneath him.
Neither of us moved afterward. My cock, now growing soft, slipped from his ass, but my arms locked firmer around his torso.
“I love you,” he murmured against my ear. “My heart doesn’t beat anymore, but it belongs to you, Ben. Forever.”
Hearing the words caused a lump in my throat.
“I love you too.”
He was the best gift I could’ve ever asked for.
***
Two months later, the town knew the truth about Theo’s disappearance.
After talking it over in depth with Theo, and also Carter who’d come over to offer his support, we’d decided to make it public that I’d found the journal. It not only supported Harvey’s claim that George abused Theo, but it also made George the prime suspect in the case. The journal remained in my possession, though I’d shown it to the authorities.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Officer Jackson had said after I showed him everything. “I think you just solved a hundred year old missing case, Mr. Cross.”
The story had made the front page of the newspaper and made it on the evening news. Florence at the library had especially been excited to hear about it, and I’d taken the journal to her so she could read through it.
What worried Theo most was now everyone knew he and Harvey had been together.
“You’d think after a century, I’d be ready for the world to know,” Theo said, as we watched the news segment about him that evening. “It’s just as terrifying as it was the day my father discovered the truth.”
“It’ll be okay.” I held his hand. “It was hard for me too, at first.”
“Novelist Benjamin Cross uncovered a story that sounds like it’s from one of his books,” Penelope, the news anchor, said. “But it’s not a work of fiction. Theodore Blackwell lived over a hundred years ago and went missing right before World War I. Information has come to light that might be able to solve his disappearance at last.”
I kissed the top of Theo’s head as he groaned.
“I do not fancy being a celebrity,” he muttered.
