Page 95 of These Old Lies

“Why the twenty-fifth?” He ignored the tears streaking down his face.

“The anniversary of the first time we kissed.”

Charlie had remembered?

Ned let himself fall into Charlie’s arms, the hat box pressed between them. The darkness protected them from being seen, and Ned showed Charlie what he remembered from their first kiss.

???

Flanders, 25 April 1916

Charlie

Charlie stepped out of the dank Flemish bar and into the fresh air, practically dragging the other man behind him. In the pitch black, it wasn’t like anyone could see.

“Where are we going?” The lieutenant’s voice was painfully posh. It madeCharlie’s teeth hurt, though other parts of his body found it very attractive, and, apparently, they were making the decisions tonight.

Charlie turned away from the crowds of uniformed men gathered in and outside the bar to go down a narrow, dark passageway between the nightclub and another rough building.

“A place where you can do more than stare at me with those hazel eyes.” Charlie was pretty sure he sounded confident.

“Excuse me, Corporal?” That haughty prim tone again. But fuck. That height? Those cheekbones? This officer might be an arrogant tosser, but he was the best-looking man in that bar.

“So, are you telling me that you haven’t spent the last two hours sizing me up like I was ice on a hot summer’s day?” Charlie looked knowingly at the bulge in the lieutenant’s trousers.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.” The lieutenant backed up against the brick wall but didn’t move away. Oh, he definitely knew what Charlie meant.

Charlie was done with games. He stepped forward so that he was only an inch from the other man and could feel his warm breath on his cheek. He reached down and confidently slid his hand up and down. “You might not know what I mean, but your cock does.”

The taller man moaned, actually moaned, and half collapsed against the brick wall with his lips slightly parted. “Jesus Christ.”

The lieutenant must be hard up to be reacting this strongly to having his cock touched. “Look at you, you’re aching for it, aren’t you?” Charlie couldn’t believe his own mouth; he didn’t normally talk during his encounters, and never like this. Something about this man made Charlie want to bemorethan he normally was.

“Fuck. Touch me like that again.”

Charlie was happy to oblige, but he’d come here for a bit of mutual pleasure, too. “Turnabout is fair play, though.”

Immediately two large hands clasped at the front of Charlie’s trousers, working their way in. “Just let me get these damn buttons open.”

“Shouldn’t be too difficult to find what you’re searching for. Oh fuck, look, you found it.” As the lieutenant’s hands stroked up and down Charlie’s cock, he realised the other man knew exactly what he was doing. Charlie had hit the fucking jackpot.

And then the lieutenant leaned in, putting his mouth on Charlie’s. “What are you doing?” Charlie jerked back, stunned.

“I would have thought it fairly obvious.”

“You like that?” Charlie had never kissed a man before. Kissing wasn’t what chaps did when they came out to the back alleys like this.

“You don’t?” The lieutenant’s tone was respectful. There was no doubt he would stop if Charlie asked.

Charlie thought about it for a moment. The kiss hadn’t been unpleasant. Different from women’s mouths, but still enjoyable, and that was the whole point of meetings like this. “That’s not what I said. Keep doing it.”

They did, kissing each other like their lives depended on it, hands sliding up and down each other’s cocks. Charlie always enjoyed sex, but this was making him want to crawl out of his skin with need.

The lieutenant pulled back again. “Let a chap breathe every once in a while.” Then he dropped to his knees in a smooth movement. “Tell you what, I never liked the turnabout rule.”

Was he going to do what Charlie thought? Normally he had to pay quite a bit of money to have this experience. He didn’t want the officer to know that, so he said, “I thought turnabout was in the officers’ handbook, alongside rowing and Latin.”

“Is sucking cocks in the handbook? I didn’t read it.” That joke would have made Charlie laugh except he was suddenly very, very distracted. The lieutenant was proving he most certainly did not need a handbook.