“How so?” he asked.
“He’s a bit forward,” she shyly commented. “I mean, not in a bad way. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something keeping him guarded. Don’t you think?”
“I think he seems all right.” He turned to her. “You seemed a bit guarded in the beginning too, if I remember right.”
“Yeah, but that was different,” she said and pressed her hand against the glass pane. “I had needs and desires. I wonder if he even knew that Nicholas slept with men.” She huffed. “He’d probably disown him.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Some men need a little of the right approach.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and turned her around. “You like to watch two cocks fucking,” he teased, letting her thigh nestle between his legs to feel the erection slumbering against his zipper.
A blush crept over her face, revealing the hidden truth. She slapped him on the chest. “Stop teasing me.”
“Teasing?” He turned her around and pressed her against the door, grinding his cock against her ass, leaning his nose against the nape of her neck to smell the scent of her honeysuckle shower gel. He inhaled deeply, forcing his brain to keep this scent in his memory forever. “Oh, poppet, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
BY THE TIME Adam stepped from the end of the path, it was nine thirty. Tony was standing on the veranda with a cloud of smoke billowing from the cigar he was already working on. Adam walked across the lawn, taking his time to steady his uneasy breaths. Where was she? Would she be glad to see him?
When Adam reached the back porch, Tony walked over to the steps and extended his hand. Adam gave it a firm shake. “Have a seat,” Tony offered.
Adam sat down in one of the large wicker chairs.
“Do you like Scotch or would you rather have a beer?” Tony asked.
“I’d take a Scotch.”
Tony poured the amber liquid into a short-stemmed glass. He handed it over to Adam along with a fat, rolled cigar. “Here, my good man. Let me get that.” Tony snipped the end of the Cuban before handing Adam the lighter.
Adam leaned back into the chair and puffed on the earthy tobacco. “So how in the hell did you get these?” He tipped the end of his cigar in Tony’s direction. “Wait, maybe I don’t want to know.”
Smoke drifted from between Tony’s lips as he said, “I have my ways. Trust me. It was easy. I have a patient who owed me a couple of favors. Besides, I like to have things I have to work for, forbidden things. I enjoy owning things.”
“I have a feeling you have a lot of people who owe you favors.” Adam laughed and leaned back into the chair. “This place is beautiful.”
Tony nodded. “Yes, it is. It has quite a history too.” He took a languid puff from the Montecristo. “Local stories tell of abominations done on this land. Men and women worked to death. It’s horrible to think such atrocities happened here. But there were other things that took place on this property too. Lurid things.”
Adam nursed the Scotch. “Really? What kind of lurid things?”
Tony glanced over to Adam and gave him a rogue’s smile. “Parties, voodoo, affairs of the heart. The usual.”
Adam’s lips curled into a mocking grin. “I see. All kinds of unsavory activity.”
“Tell me, how long were you in Iraq?” Tony asked abruptly, catching Adam off guard. “Lily told me you’d been there taking pictures.”
With a twinge, Adam took down the last of the Scotch. “I was there for a little over a year.”
“Must’ve been hard to see all of that.”
“That’s why I watched it behind a lens,” Adam said before taking another puff from the cigar. “Made it seem less real, I guess.”
“You must’ve been able to find some beauty over there through all the mess.”
“Yeah, the women were beautiful; their dark eyes drew you in. It was like they put you in some exotic trance or something. Most of the time they were covered up, so you couldn’t see what their bodies looked like, but, God, I could only imagine what kind of body would be attached to such gorgeous eyes. They were cautious of American men, though. So, you know, it wasn’t easy to get to know them. The people were all right. It’s a hard situation for everyone.”
“I see.” Tony tilted his empty glass at Adam’s. “Ready for another?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Why not what?” Lily said as she walked out onto the veranda. She was carrying a tray with a glass globe pitcher filled with a dark red liquid. She stopped short of Tony and Adam. “What?”