Dirty Angel-BarbaraElsborg (27 page)

The restroom was brightly lit, and empty. Aden bundled Brody into a stall, locked the door and pushed him onto his knees.

“No noise, okay?” Brody rubbed the bulge of Aden’s cock, squeezing and pressing him through his jeans and Aden’s stomach roiled as his balls tightened. “The price you pay for not eating those bugs is no talking. No moaning.”

“Not even a tiny squeak?”

Brody smiled up at him with his sexy eyes, then mouthed Aden’s dick through the material. The wash of warm air made Aden shudder. Brody wrapped his hands around his butt and pulled Aden into him but Aden was too impatient for play. He tugged Brody’s hands to the front of his jeans which were swiftly unbuttoned and unzipped. He wasn’t wearing shorts and his dick sprang out against Brody’s mouth.

The first long lick from root to tip had Aden curling his toes in his boots. He threaded his fingers in Brody’s silky dark hair and tried not to yank on it as Brody’s tongue practiced butterfly flutters over the crest. Aden clenched his butt cheeks and held his breath. Brody wrapped one hand around the base of Aden’s cock while he worked the head with his lips and tongue, and only now Aden was trying to keep quiet did he realize how much noise he usually made. Not just the sounds that normally came out of his throat but instructions for the guy sucking him off.
Fucking harder, fucking slower, fucking faster, not there, fucking there.
He didn’t need to tell Brody what to do. His touch was perfect.

Of course someone came in just as Aden was about to explode. He pressed on Brody’s head to get him to stop but he didn’t. Aden leaned back against the cubicle wall, gritting his teeth, tensing every muscle in his body as he thought of the insects he’d seen Brody eat, imagined the mouth on him having just eaten those bugs, conjured up the image of a bamboo worm coming out of Brody lips onto his dick, but nothing helped. Orgasm was a train thundering inside him, an unstoppable force.

As he exploded into Brody’s mouth, a sound escaped from his and he quickly turned it into a cough. He tensed as he spasmed, struggling to keep still, to keep quiet, to keep from wrenching out Brody’s hair. Brody swallowed every last drop of come, then licked Aden clean before tucking him back in his jeans and zipping him up. He rose silently to his feet, a big smile on his face, and Aden kissed him, tasting himself on Brody’s lips.
No insects.
When he reached for Brody’s crotch, Brody shook his head. The drier went on then off. The outer door swung open and closed.

“We’ve been in here long enough,” Brody whispered. “We’re missing the woman playing the harp. I’ve been looking forward to it all night. It’s the reason I wanted to come. Well, that and the insect feast.”

Aden rolled his eyes.

As they emerged from the bathroom, a security guard heading toward them gave them a hard stare. Brody tugged down his sweater and Aden held back his smirk.

“Want to watch a film or listen to ghost stories?” Brody asked. “Or just go and lie down and listen to the harp music?”

“Whatever you want.”

Brody took his hand. “Let’s talk.”

Shit.
The one thing Aden didn’t want to do.

When they returned to their sleeping place, there were still no other people in the area they’d chosen. Aden settled on his side facing Brody, and pulled the blanket over them. He knew what Brody meant now about being grateful for the airbed. That marble floor looked cold and hard.

Aden wondered what Brody wanted to talk about. He tried not to waste time thinking about his life. There was no point and it was depressing. He couldn’t change the past, only by not being born, the one thing that wasn’t his fault.

“Not been too cheesy has it?” Brody asked.

“It’s been fun. Though maybe not the harp music. She’s good but it’s not my thing.” The woman was still playing. “Tell me she stops eventually.”

“I wonder if it’s like this in heaven.” Brody grinned. “Angels with harps annoying the shit out of everyone.”

Aden swallowed against the lump in his throat. “Do you believe in an afterlife?”

“No. Do you?”

“Yep.”

Brody’s brow furrowed.

“That surprises you?” Aden asked.

“That you’re religious? Yeah, it does given what you’ve said about being such a bad guy.”

“I’m not religious. I’ve never been to church in my life. But recently I’ve come to believe there’s another sort of existence after this one.”

“Why?” Brody threaded his fingers with Aden’s, stroking his palm with his thumb.

“Because we should be accountable for how we live our lives. There has to be a price to pay for choosing the wrong path, a reward for picking the right one.”

“You believe in heaven and hell?”

“Yes. If you’re the best person you can be, then you go to heaven. If you’re not, then you deserve hell.”

“You said you came to this recently, so what happened?”

“Something that made me realize I’d had choices and made the wrong ones, but that it might not be too late to change.”

Aden didn’t want to have this conversation. He shouldn’t have started it.

“Now you’re doing something to put things right?”

“In a way, though I’ll probably still end up in hell.”

Brody tugged him closer. “Does it worry you?”

“It makes me sad for missed chances, wasted opportunities. Maybe if I had parents who wanted me, I’d have turned out different. They set me on the wrong path but it was my fault I carried on along it.” He pulled out of Brody’s grip. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“How did they die?”

An iron fist grasped Aden’s heart. “What part of I don’t want to talk about it do you not understand?”

“What have you done that’s so bad?”

Something unforgivable. Something from which he could have walked away and he hadn’t. Suddenly everything seemed hopeless. He’d taken a life. How was there any way back from that? Yet, if that was true, what the fuck was he doing now, trying to be a better man, thinking he had a chance of a place in heaven?

“Sorry.” Brody wrapped his arms around him and held tight. “I don’t mean to pry. I feel like I’ve bared my soul to you and you still have yours locked away in a box.”

“That’s the best place for it.”

Brody kissed him. A soft sweet kiss that tugged at Aden’s heart.

“You wouldn’t rather have gone to a club?” Brody asked.

“I’ve been to plenty of clubs. I’ve never spent the night in a museum.” Maybe he’d remember this when he and Brody were far apart. A raft to cling to while he endured Dante’s perfect storm. “What did you want to talk about?”

“About you. Me. What happens when the month is up?”

I wish I knew.
He opened his mouth then closed it again.

“Can we still see each other?” Brody asked.

“I don’t know.” Aden’s gut churned.

Brody sighed. “That guy Lucian isn’t competing for the same job. You two are nothing alike. Is there even a job? Tell me the truth.”

“Lucian wants me to fail. That’s all I can tell you.”

Brody moved back. “I don’t understand.”

Join the club.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen when my time is up and that’s the truth. I won’t make promises I might not be able to keep. I need easier questions.”

“What’s your name?”

Aden laughed. “Aden.”

“Aden what?”

“North.” He wasn’t even supposed to tell him that.

“Did you go to college?”

“I left school when I was not quite sixteen.”

“Tell me the names of some of your friends.”

“Ringo, Tariq, Lee, Big Ken. Guys I hang around with sometimes.”

“Am I your friend?”

The closest thing he’d ever had. “Yes.”

Brody snuggled closer again and slid his arm around Aden’s waist. “Do they know you’re trying out for this job?”

“No. You’re the only one I’ve told.”

“Do they know about the scars on your back and how you got them?”

“No.”

“Do they know why you think you deserve to go to hell?”

“No.”

“Do they know how your parents died?”

“No.”

Brody pressed his mouth to Aden’s ear. “Will you ever tell me?”

Aden hesitated, then said, “No.”

He felt Brody tense.

“Better that you don’t know. It’s my cross to bear.”

“You think anything you’ve done could shock me? Remember what a fucked up life I had with Matt?”

Aden couldn’t make light of it. “Let it go,” he whispered. “Please.”

The lights went out and chattering in the cavernous hall fell to whispers.

“I won’t let you go,” Brody murmured in Aden’s ear.

But I have to let
you
go.
Aden’s heart had hurt more in the past week than it had for years. He’d thought he didn’t care about anything and he’d been wrong. He’d become involved in Brody’s life. The need to keep him safe burned inside Aden’s chest like a speck of phosphorous. Each moment they spent together enmeshed them further. It was too late to just walk away. The damage had been done. Now Aden had to put things right before he went up or fell down.

Tim, the guy who’d stood with him in line, had said heaven was everything you hoped for, a place where you could be with friends and family who’d died. Aden had interrupted him, but he thought Tim had been going to say that each person’s heaven was different, tailored to their wants and needs. But Aden had no one. There would be no one to keep him company. He hadn’t much cared whether he lived or died and now he did.

“What are you going to do about Matt?” Aden whispered.

But Brody had fallen asleep, his steady breathing warming Aden’s cheek. When Aden was sure Brody was deeply unconscious, he carefully extricated himself from the guy’s hold and pushed to his feet. He picked up the flashlight and walked away from the entrance hall.

When he reached the section with the dinosaurs, he sat on a bench and leaned against the wall. Whatever he did in the twenty-one days that were left wouldn’t change his future, but would affect Brody’s. Despite Aden’s warnings that he couldn’t stick around, he knew he’d hadn’t got through to Brody. The longer Aden spent with him, the more he didn’t want to leave.

He’d disappear from Brody’s world and Brody wouldn’t understand why. That seemed cruel, but if Aden told him this had run its course and he’d had enough, that was cruel too. There was no explanation for leaving that Aden could give and not hurt Brody. Gaining knowledge of love, assuming it was possible, shouldn’t be at Brody’s expense. Why hadn’t Raphael seen that? Aden couldn’t believe he hadn’t. So what was Aden missing?

He wondered whether he could manipulate Brody into telling him to fuck off, doing something that pissed the guy off so much that he pushed Aden out of his life. It doomed Aden to hell, but maybe that was the price he had to pay for this brief period of happiness. Not love but the closest he’d ever get.

For the time being, he could do nothing. Matt still lurked in the shadows and until he was no longer a threat to Brody, Aden wouldn’t leave. He wasn’t going to sit around waiting for Matt to make a move. Aden had to find him. Neutralize the threat by one means or another whatever the consequences as far as Aden’s future was concerned.

“Sorry we can’t stay for the full breakfast,” Brody said as they walked out of the museum.
“The practice doesn’t usually open on Sundays but we’re on the rota for emergencies once every six weeks.”

“No problem.” They had coffee to go and Aden had picked up a couple of muffins from the breakfast buffet.

“I can take you back to the cottage before I go to work.”

“It’s fine. I’ll come with you. I can read the paper, stitch up a hedgehog or two. Though I draw the line at neutering dogs.”

Brody laughed. “Sure it’s not because Des will have you shoveling shit if he spots you?”

“You can see through me already?” But that wasn’t it.

“Want to call in at your place before we leave London?” Brody asked as he drove through the capital. “You could pick up some of your things. I know you’re not allowed to go home but I could go in and get stuff for you.”

“I had to surrender my key.”

“Where do you live?”

He hesitated. “Deptford.”

“A flat?”

“Bedsit.” That he’d never see again. “Have you decided what to do about Matt?”

“No.”

“What do you want to happen?”

“For him to leave me alone.”

“You think he ever will?” Aden didn’t.

Brody’s knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “You have no idea how much I’d like to say yes, but I know him. He won’t give up. He might leave me alone for a while, but then he’ll come back. He won’t accept I don’t want him anymore. It’s beyond his comprehension.”

“He’s sick in the head.”

Brody let out a choked laugh. “Because he wants me?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah I do. Narcissistic personality disorder, I suspect, though I’m no expert. Matt’s arrogant, cocky, manipulative, vain and self-centered.”

“Fuck-a-duck, that sounds just like me.”

“Except you can laugh at yourself and be okay with others laughing at you.”

Aden huffed. “I’m still smarting from when I mounted My Little Pony and almost slithered off the other side.”

“If Matt had done that, he’d have blamed the horse, the person holding it, the one who saddled it and if anyone had laughed, he’d have gone ballistic.” Brody accelerated as the speed limit changed. “Part of me thinks it’s my fault he’s the way he is.”

“That’s crap and you know it. If he needs someone to blame, you’re the obvious target.”

“I admired him. No, more than that. I hero-worshipped him.” Brody spoke so quietly Aden only just caught what he was saying. “I thought he was the most brilliant person I’d ever met. I encouraged him to think he was too good to be teaching chemistry in a comprehensive school, that he deserved to be rich and famous. He couldn’t cope with criticism so I never criticized him. Whenever I did…”

“He hurt you and made you believe it was what you wanted.”

Brody glanced at him. “He’s always scared me a little I think, but I convinced myself, or he convinced me, that it was the intensity of our relationship that was sometimes overwhelming. When you said he tried to kill you, I didn’t want to believe it, but I do believe you. I should have gone to the police nine months ago.”