“Yes, but—”
“I heard yes.”
“But you can’t go housebreaking,” David said. “You’re far too big.” Too big, too assertive in his movements, too used to making as much noise as he chose, and a great deal too encumbered by nice notions, no matter what he might think now. Delicate feelings were not a luxury David could afford for himself, and he didn’t need Richard’s getting in his way. “And it’s a job best done by one man.”
“I bow to your experience in these matters,” Richard said, with a touch of dryness, “but I’m sure I can be your…I believe the cant term is pair of eyes?”
Lord Richard Vane serving as a thief’s lookout. “That’s a foolish risk.”
Richard lifted a brow. “May I not judge risk for myself?”
“Well, but—” Of course he could. David still wanted to say no. Every instinct screamed it: Richard should not lower himself. He should not take risks that David could take for him.
You wanted to stand equal, David reminded himself. You wanted him to be part of this. He’s doing precisely what you asked, so what are you afraid of?
“Oh, very well,” he muttered. “If you must.”
Richard gave a decisive nod. “What if Skelton doesn’t have the letter after all? What if Maltravers did the sensible thing and lodged it at his bank?”
“Then we’ll need to force him to bring it out. How would you feel about kidnapping?”
“I’ll consider anything short of murder, and I might make an exception for my lord Maltravers.” Richard stroked the side of David’s face very gently, the backs of his fingers caressing the skin. “How dare he spoil this. How dare he lay a hand on you.”
“He throws things at his valet.”
“Then it is about time a valet threw something back,” Richard said. “I know very well you can look after yourself, but you’ve made an enemy, David, a cruel one. I did not intend you to put yourself at risk like that.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you I was doing it.”
“And then you presume to tell me I can’t come crib-cracking with you. Hmph.” He slid his fingers through David’s hair. “I’m quite sure you knew what you were about, but that does not allay my outrage on your behalf. And I claim the right to make Maltravers pay for this, one way or another.”
“As what?” David asked, watching his face. “What particular right is that?”
Richard’s fingers tightened a little. “The right to stand by my friend, and act when he cannot. The right you have always claimed over me.”
David caught Richard’s hand and lifted it to his lips. He ran his lips over the knuckles, nipped the top of a finger, slid his mouth along to tease the skin between finger and thumb with his tongue.
“Dear God.” Richard shut his eyes as David turned his hand over and attended to his palm, swirling his tongue over the thumb pad. “How do you make that feel so?”
“It’s just a touch.”
“It is not just a touch. It never was, over all those years. I have never felt a touch like yours.” David sucked a finger deliberately, with tight lips and a scrape of teeth, and Richard groaned aloud. “In the name of mercy. You torture me.”
“I love you,” David said into the palm he held, and Richard’s eyes snapped open. They stared at each other in the candlelight.
He had not meant to say that.
Richard’s eyes were on him. They were such a very deep blue, almost indigo in the candlelight. “You told me so once before, and it frightened the very life out of me. It frightens me now. David— Ah, hellfire.” Richard jerked his hand away.
David had time for a single pulse of bewildered, horrified loss before he registered the knock at the door. “Damn.”
“This is my life,” Richard growled. “Constant blasted interruption. Yes, thank you very much. Carry on,” he told the footman with his usual courtesy as the servant came in with David’s dinner. “What was I saying, Cyprian? Agreeing with you, I feel quite sure.”
David made some sort of reply and stood rigid until the man had placed the dishes at one end of the table and left. As the door closed behind him, Richard extended his hand again. David didn’t take it. “Richard—”
Richard took a step closer, running his finger under David’s chin to tilt it up. “Tell me again.”
David set his jaw. “I love you. I have always loved you. But as you have said yourself, that does not change anything.” He saw the confusion darkening Richard’s eyes and wanted to take it away, but this had to be said. “I still don’t know what to do. I had not intended to come back to London for some time. I needed time to think, to see my path well ahead, and I have not had that. And I won’t fall back into your life without thinking just because I want to.”