Chapter 31

“Have you seen this sky? It’s breathtaking.”

Luca stared out of the farmhouse’s living room window. Looking out towards the high moor, it was nothing but blackness — except for the sparkle of the millions of stars, tiny diamonds scattered over velvet. A pair of strong arms wound themselves around his waist and pulled him tight. A light kiss brushed the top of his head, and Luca smiled as he leant in close to Adrian, letting him take his weight.

“Starry Point at the top of the moor is the best place to experience them, but here on the farm comes a close second.”

“Starry Point. That’s romantic.”

Behind him, Adrian huffed. “It’s a patch of rough ground, more gorse than grass and covered in sheep shit.”

“Oh? Thought that’d be your kind of thing, being a big butch farmer—ouch!” Luca gasped at the pinch.

“That’s for being a smart arse.”

“You realise I’m going to have a bruise?”

“Yeah? I can think of much more fun ways of leaving my mark on you.” Adrian’s voice dropped, low and growly, sending a shiver up Luca’s spine as his dick throbbed in interest. “But how about some stargazing here, in the garden? I can’t remember the last time I took the time to truly look into the night sky. I promise I can guarantee an absence of both gorse and sheep shit.”

Luca twisted around in Adrian’s arms. “You want me to lie on the ground? On the very damp ground?”

“Hmm. I’ve got lots of thick blankets, and if you get cold I can keep you warm. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“In here, nice and comfortable with a good bottle of red.” Luca laughed, but the idea was folding its arms around him and holding him tight just as much as Adrian was.

It didn’t take long to gather together the blankets and a couple of cushions. The rain that had been so much a feature of the last couple of weeks had moved away, leaving clear night skies and the first signs of early morning frost.

Taking a bundle each, Adrian switched off the house lights, plunging them into darkness before a sharp shaft of light lit up the way as Adrian turned on a torch. Setting themselves up in the middle of the bumpy lawn, Adrian doused the light. Cuddling against Adrian, Luca blinked into the blackness. He sucked in a deep breath. Under cover of darkness, he needed to be open, honest, and truthful.

“Alex came to see me at the hotel a few days ago. He’d been away on business, so he couldn’t come before. He wanted to make sure I was okay.”

Beneath him, Adrian’s strong chest seemed to rise and fall with the pulse of the stars above.

“And are you?”

“Yes, I am.” Luca shifted out of Adrian’s embrace. Propping himself up on one elbow, he gazed down at Adrian. His eyes, adjusting to the darkness, met Adrian’s.

“I’m glad,” Adrian said. “Truly. He did what any good friend would.” He drifted a hand through Luca’s hair, and Luca sighed as he pushed into the touch.

“He did, because that’s what he is. I wanted you to know.”

Adrian pulled him back down. Settling Luca in against his chest once more, he placed a soft kiss on his head as he held him close.

They lay in silence, snuggled under the wide sky. Luca circled a finger over Adrian’s chest, slow and lazy. He’d hesitated, at first, about telling Adrian about Alex’s visit. But he couldn’t not tell him. Secrets and lies. He didn’t want them in his and Adrian’s life together, no matter how small and insignificant. There was nothing more, now, to be said.

A light breeze rippled over him, and he shivered. Adrian pulled a spare blanket over them. Luca sniffed. “Is this one of Spud’s?”

Adrian’s quiet chuckle filled the darkness. “I thought you wouldn’t notice.”

The only sounds disturbing the quiet were the occasional whisper of a breeze and the furtive scurrying of a nighttime animal, but even they faded and dropped away to nothing. As Luca stared into the glittering void, it felt like the world had retreated leaving only him and Adrian. All the strains, all the stresses, all of the needless warnings melted like butter in a hot pan.

“Look, see that?” Adrian said, his voice little more than a whisper, part of the night rather than cutting through it.

And Luca did. A shooting star, trailing a glittering ribbon in its wake. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen a shooting star before.” The only sky he’d gazed at, when he’d bothered to gaze at all, had been filled with the sodium yellow hue from city streetlights.

Luca felt the rumble before he heard it. “You’re such a city boy.”

“Guilty as charged. But I think I might just be changing into a country boy.”

“Are you?”

“I think so.” Luca smiled as Adrian’s arms tightened around him. They were strong and warm, holding him tight but not hard. He could pull away, but why would he when he was exactly where he wanted to be?

“Every country boy worth his salt should be able to read the night sky. It’s got its own language, everything has meaning.”

“That’s — poetic. Like stories attached to them, you mean?”

“There are lots of tales about the night sky, many of them centuries old if not older. But for farmers, they studied it for practical reasons. Like when to plant, and when to reap. My gran used to tell me stories of her grandfather, how he farmed according not just to the seasons but to the phases of the moon and where in the sky certain constellations were. I know some farmers who take the same approach. They’re mainly born again pagans who’ve escaped their corporate jobs in the city for a smallholding, but their intentions are good.”

“Tell me about the stars. Read the sky to me.”

“Really? Wouldn’t you just rather look at all the pretty twinkles and get romantic?”

Even in the dark, there was enough starlight for Luca to see Adrian’s smirk.

“I’ll let you get all romantic with me later. In bed. But for now I want you to tell me stories about the stars.”

Adrian’s smirk melted into a smile. “I’d love to,” he said quietly. “Look, do you see that clear line of stars? The way they reach a slight peak before bending down?”

Luca squinted. All he saw was a jumble, no discernible line, no?—

“Yes, I can. What is it?”

“Aries. The bent line of stars represents the horns of the ram.”

“Hmm, I think there’s a lot of artistic license going on.”

Adrian laughed, and Luca smiled.

“See that distinctive W formation?”

“No.”

Adrian tutted. “Then look harder.”

“I am looking. There’s—oh.” And there it was, a huge W that now he’d seen it he couldn’t not. Adrian’s chuckle vibrated through him and Luca huffed. “I didn’t spend my youth gazing into the night sky playing constellation bingo. It was far more misspent.”

Beneath him, Adrian shifted. Bringing his lips close to Luca’s ear, Adrian’s warm breath sent a shiver across Luca’s skin in the mild autumnal air.

“All I’ll say is, I learnt lots of things from lots of farmers in lots of fields that didn’t have much to do with the night sky.”

“Please, just tell me none of it involved sheep—that hurt!”

The hard slap on his backside brought a tingle to his arse cheeks — along with a pulse and a flood of warmth to another place.

“No livestock was harmed at any stage in the education of Adrian Hardy. Now behave. That bright W you can see, that’s Cassiopeia. She was a queen in Greek mythology, but gran always said she was really a Celtic princess who was banished to the night sky for running away with her true love, a lowly slave. Gran could read the sky like nobody I’ve ever known.” Adrian hesitated, and Luca felt not just the shift in him, but heard the catch in his voice.

“Adrian?”

“After all these years, I still miss her. She’d sit with me for hours, the two of us gazing into the sky, as she told me all the old stories everybody else had forgotten or no longer cared about. I loved her so much, and I knew she loved me best out of all my family.

“I was always an awkward kid. Quick to argue and jump to conclusions. Never listening to reason, too proud — or bloody minded — to admit when I was wrong.” He barked out a short, humourless laugh. “No change there, then. But she knew how to calm me down, how to make me stop and think. When she died, it was like I’d lost my anchor.”

“She sounds remarkable. I wish I’d met her.”

“I wish you’d had the chance to. You’d have liked her, and she’d have adored you.”

Luca caught his breath as Adrian flipped them around. Adrian gazed down. Everything about him was hard and intense.

“Adrian? What’s?—”

“I never did this with him.” Adrian’s voice was quiet and uneven. “It’s important you know. I never, not once, shared the night sky with Sam, just like I never told him about sitting under the stars with my gran, just like I never told him about the Lady’s Well. You’re the only one, Luca, the only one I’ve ever trusted enough to share this with.”

Luca placed a hand against Adrian’s cheek, dark stubble rough against his palm.

Trust. The word caught at Luca’s heart, plucking it like a guitar string and reverberating all the way through him.

Under the stars, together in a way Adrian had never been with Sam, a man who’d destroyed Adrian’s trust as he’d broken his heart, Luca couldn’t stay silent.

“And do you trust me? Completely and without reservation? Do you trust yourself to believe everything I’ve ever said to you, and will say, with be the truth?”

The silence pressed in on them. Nothing stirred, nothing moved. The night held its breath.

Luca’s heart squeezed, the pain in his heart sharp and real. His hand began to slip from Adrian’s face, but Adrian caught hold and laid a kiss on his palm.

“Yes,” he whispered. “I’ll always trust you.”

Adrian found Luca’s lips. Soft, warm, tender kisses filled not with heat but with care and reverence. Kisses Luca loved, and craved more of, but as he closed his eyes and gave himself up to all those kisses that made his heart sigh, a whisper like a cold breeze on a warm day shivered through him.

Adrian trusted him, but could Adrian really and truly trust himself?