Page 22 of An Earl's Bet
He bowed.“I should be thanking you.That was the best fuck I’ve ever had.”
“Absolutely wonderful, Earnest.Thank you so very much.”Hugo’s cheeks were darker, flushed and his eyes shone with an intensity that Earnest couldn’t help but dread.Here it was, Hugo was going to send him away.Thanks for the fuck, you can go now.Just like last time.
“Perhaps we can do it again sometime.Maybe when you are in town next?”Earnest gathered up his clothes and put them on as he was walking away.He had to get out of here before Hugo broke his heart.It was already beginning to shatter into long shards, like when a glass window broke.Dangerous and unmendable.
“Earnest?”
He barely heard Hugo saying his name as he slammed the office door shut and started jogging down the hallway.Everything ached.But he had to go.It was better this way.It wasn’t until he was halfway down the driveway that he realised his feet were bare and his shirt buttons done up unevenly and ...well, this was the mess he deserved.He was going to feel every step of the long walk into Doncaster, until he could get on the mail coach back to London.Back to the life he had created for himself, one where no one could throw him out or send him away.A life without Hugo.He sobbed.What had he done?
Chapter 10
Hugo finally understoodwhy men lost their ability to reason when it came to sex.Earnest was perfection itself as he rode Hugo’s cock, encouraging him, and when he stopped worrying that he might be hurting Earnest and gave into the urge to thrust, his whole world changed.It became brighter and more beautiful.Having Earnest in his bed or putting his mouth on his cock had been incredible, but fucking him was something else.The way Earnest’s body held him tight and his muscles rippled as he moved above Hugo ...It had been the most wonderful moment in Hugo’s entire existence.Fuck.He’d give Earnest the world if he could.
Apparently Earnest didn’t feel the same way, as he hadn’t even kissed him afterwards.Just bowed sarcastically and left.It was terribly confusing, and Hugo had no one he could talk to about it.He stayed there, naked in his father’s office, body sated and brain spinning with too many questions.It took him a long time to realise that he wasn’t afraid anymore.That demon had been slayed too, maybe not forever, but at least for now.It was just one more reason to find Earnest and figure out how to make him stay.
He found his clothes, and half of Earnest’s, gathering them up before getting dressed.He placed Earnest’s clothes on his father’s desk with a little smile at the way his father would’ve hated that.It was satisfying in the most petty fashion, and he started to tell Earnest that he’d won the bet—nothing bad had happened—except he wasn’t there.Earnest was wrong.Something bad had happened.Earnest had, inexplicably, left.Hugo marched down the hallway towards the front door and his butler’s office, almost colliding with Sanjit, his valet.
“Sanjit.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Would you happen to know where Sir Earnest Pashley is?”
“No, my lord.”Sanjit’s hands twisted.
“What is the problem?”
“My lord.Your cravat.”
He lifted his chin and Sanjit removed the apparently offensively tied cravat and retied it.“Now that’s fixed, could we focus on finding ...”
“Yes, my lord.”Sanjit nodded.“Maybe Wong will know.I’m heading that way with a message.”
“What message?”His stomach sank as he realised one of the staff may have overheard them, and combined with his instructions that no one could use that room, perhaps that explained Sanjit’s manner just now.
“One of the kitchen hands spotted a man walking along the driveway and was worried about an intruder, so I was sent to tell Wong,” Sanjit said.Hugo’s butler, Wong, would be able to ready an army of footmen to figure out whether the man was a threat, but Hugo relaxed.Wong didn’t need to be informed about either the intruder or to find Earnest because they were one and the same.Hugo had found his lover, who apparently was making another dramatic scene, similar to how he’d behaved in London the first time they’d been intimate.