Thanks to Christie, our staff was phenomenal and knew how to handle the customers.
The food was excellent, and came out on time from the moment the doors opened. Christie was truly a professional. All the spirits remained calm, no paranormal activity to chase our customers off, and I was back in my long-held hosting job. A job I’d done most of my adult life and one I loved.
I knew a lot of people would complain about restaurant work, but I’d always liked it—the smells of the kitchen, the chaos of the front desk. Customers complaining, bragging, happy, and angry. Busy restaurants came with a certain buzzy energy I’d never found anywhere else, and it energized me.
I was so proud of what we’d created, but I was equally happy when I had a couple of days off to rest and not think about it.
I was staring out the cottage window toward the swans swimming elegantly across the lake when I heard the knock on my bedroom door. “Come in,” I called out without turning.
Cary came in and walked over to me, drawing me into his arms. “Mmm, I’ve missed this,” I admitted, and got a nice squeeze in response.
“What’s your plan today?” he asked.
“Rest, a walk around the lake, feed bread I stole from the kitchen to the swans, and then rest some more.”
Cary chuckled. “Want company?”
“My god, yeah, and I can come up with some other things we can do, too, if you’re interested.”
Cary laughed and spun me around to face him. “That sounds amazing,” he said, leaning down to kiss me.
Cary’s amazing mouth worked its way over my body, his gentle caresses calming tired nerves as much as his tongue gave me pleasure.
He glided his cock inside me, and I rode him slowly this time, allowing the pressure to build inside us in our timeless dance.
I watched him as he lay beneath me, our eyes making love as much as our bodies. Before we came, Cary lifted his long arms and cupped my face in his hands. “You’re amazing, Evan,” he said.
He didn’t speak any words of commitment or words that promised affection, but the statement he made was enough. Cary was slowly convincing me he really wanted me. All of me.
36
Cary
It was precisely whatboth of us needed. Two days with no interruptions, no pipes to fix, no customers to placate. Just Evan and me.
I showed him my favorite path through the woods along his property line, down to the public lands and the beach. I packed us a lunch, tossed it in the backpack I used when hiking, and we spent most of the day wandering along the river and beach.
At one point, I showed him a spot that sat away from the beach against one of the huge monoliths that hadn’t made it into the sea. Only the highest tides reached that far up the beach.
As a result, a mound of dirt had built up behind the great rock with soft grass, forming a natural wind break. We curled up on an old blanket too battered to be used for the bed any longer and ate our lunch.
“This is like being in a Hallmark movie,” Evan said after finishing the leftover chocolate tart I’d stolen from the kitchen one night after closing.
“Sorta is. You happy?” I asked. He smiled, pushed me onto my back and straddled me.
“I don’t think happy adequately describes how I feel.”
I smiled up at him. “That makes two of us,” I replied, letting my heart fall just a bit more for this man as he leaned down and kissed me before sliding in beside me. We must’ve fallen asleep because I began dreaming… or at least, I was in a different time.
Two young men played in the surf just down the beach from where I lay with Evan. They came together, falling into each other’s arms, then quickly looked around and rushed toward the rock.
It’d been different then. The land wasn’t high or flat enough that you could lie on it like me and Evan. Instead, there was a hidden alcove behind the rock where the two men embraced, kissing.
When one of the men’s hands slipped down the pants of the other, I blushed, feeling like a voyeur. I looked away and up the cliff, only to find someone else watching. It was the old man, and his face conveyed pure anger.
He turned away and stomped back up the path toward the manor.
I looked back to where the two men were about to make love, but they had vanished. Now, only one man sat alone at the base of the rock. “My father sent him away. Forced him to leave or he’d have him arrested. Said what the two of us had done was a crime.
