Page 74 of The Gods of Chaos and Chance

When Ben pulled away, he asked, playing with Aleksey’s collar, ‘So, did you find the generator? It’d be nice to get all this stuff in the fridge. No hot water and we can’t wash clothes either.’

Aleksey was busy unbuttoning Ben’s shirt. ‘I looked and I looked, but I found nothing but sea.’

‘Uh huh. Well maybe we should go look now then? In actual places that involves actually looking? They might have left a store of diesel if we’re lucky. They left all that shit in the boathouse and cottage. All the junk they didn’t want.’

‘Like Hitler’s pants? Huh.’ Aleksey glanced down at the shorts he’d just released, pleased. ‘He must have gone to Spain commando, as you are now.’ He slid his hands around and cupped Ben’s backside, pulling him even closer. With great care, he lifted his legs and wrapped them around Ben’s waist, pinning him entirely. ‘Breathe in.’

Ben did and his shorts fell to the floor.

They resumed kissing.

Ben eased off once again, ignoring the sigh of impatience he got in response. ‘You said that book was about flying, which it was, obviously. But it was about love too, wasn’t it?’

Aleksey tipped his head to one side. He’d never heard Ben comment on anything he’d read other than to occasionally relate to him a particularly gory zombie death scene. He nodded. ‘I wondered if you’d get it, yes.’

‘Johnny Kavanagh was love returning after death.’

‘Yes, from the beyond the grave.’

‘You can’t kill love. Love like…ours…’

Aleksey pulled him in, his arms wrapped around Ben’s head, caressing his hair. No, they couldn’t kill love like theirs.

But he didn’t want to put this theory to the test any more, either.

* * *

Chapter Forty-Five

In the end they accomplished none of the things they knew needed doing, mostly finding the power and getting it on and fixing the roof of the pavilion. The former task Aleksey was almost reluctant now to do at all. Again, his strange thought about the old man watching patiently in his corner returned to him. It was as if, by putting electricity in, someone had tossed the old chap a smart phone and mockedgo on, grandpa, you can just record all your stories now. Well it didn’t work like that. Retrofitting this house seemed almost like blasphemy to him—although he was juggling this view with missing hot showers and shaving.

They ate, they built up the fire for later, and then they took the dogs and went down to the little beach beyond the lawn. Slowly they undressed on the shore. Aleksey watched Ben’s shorts slip to the glistening pebbles and thought that however many times in one day he got to enjoy that sight, it would never get old. But he’d been alarmed by Ben’s inner fears about his body ageing. He realised Ben had some justification for dreading a time when his sleek muscle and beautiful skin were not as they were now, and were instead not something anyone would want to watch slowly being revealed. And even Aleksey, who saw no physical flaw in Ben and never had, knew that presumably this betrayal by time would come for him one day.

But not today.

Ben hopped swearing and wincing down to the water’s edge, making Aleksey laugh, ruining the illusion, which quickened his undressing and joining him.

He waited until Ben had turned away and dived under the water, however.

Hisphysical perfections were now marred by scars that spoke of betrayal.

Love beyond the grave? Yeah, he’d walked away because he was a coward and he could not bear to have Ben Rider love him less.

He joined Ben under the water and twisted around beneath him, surfacing further out. The water was surprisingly warm near the shore, but the further he swam, the colder it got. He dived once more and swam back, under Ben who was on the surface. It was interesting being beneath a naked man in water. He grabbed the obvious and tugged lightly before exploding out of the sea next to Ben, swallowing water as he laughed at Ben’s pained expression. He flicked his hair out of his eyes. ‘Look.’

Ben turned to see what he was pointing at.

Radulf was swimming to them. He appeared to be grinning, although they gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was just ensuring he could still breathe in the swell—keeping both sides of his muzzle high. PB, however, was still on the beach, his menacing scowl lowered as far as it could go. He was snarling at the waves which lapped with the power of slops in a teacup at his paws.

‘He doesn’t want to be left behind.’

‘Can he swim?’ Ben sounded doubtful.

Aleksey chuckled gleefully. ‘He can now.’ He waded back to shore, hefted the young dog into his arms, regretted the impulse when he felt the strain on his leg, but carried him back out into the deeper water. He pointed him to the shore and let him go.

‘There you are; he’s actually quite good.’

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