Epilogue

Luca stood in the utility room doorway, looking out over the farm, his hands wrapped around a steaming mug of tea. Lifting it to his lips, he breathed in deeply. Not fragrant Earl Grey, but full on Builder’s, so dark it could have been coffee. He took a sip and sighed. So much better than the weak as gnats stuff in Spain. Alex should have warned him it was all he had in stock in the beautiful hilltop villa’s kitchen. It was his second mug of the morning, which for him was barely an hour old, but it wouldn’t be the last.

A free day, after getting home late the night before, before returning to work at The New House. Home. The word sounded good, but more than that, it sounded right. Ladywell Farm had been his home for the last nine months, and it would be his home for all the years to come.

A querulous bleat snagged his attention. Luca couldn’t help the quiet laugh that bubbled on his lips, as an undersized and somewhat ratty looking sheep hobbled towards him on three and a bit legs.

“Hello, Tyson.” Luca produced the carrot he had ready, poking out from the hip pocket of his jeans, and offered it up. If the little sheep could talk, he’d have asked what the hell that knobbly, orange obscenity was. Be he couldn’t, so he gobbled it up then accepted the scratch on the top of his head as though it were his due, before he lurched off to sit in the weak early morning sunshine with Spud.

Luca smiled as he went inside and closed the door, another mug of tea calling. Tyson, or ‘that daft wool ball’ as Adrian called him, was the only sheep left from the small flock, the rest having been sold. Nobody had offered to buy Tyson, because he hadn’t been for sale. The daft wool ball was as much a pet as Spud was, even if Adrian refused to admit it. The field where the flock had grazed was now covered in polytunnels. With business booming, Adrian had needed it.

The rattle of a door opening, and a bang when it closed, was accompanied by two voices engaged in a good natured argument. As late as they’d arrived home the night before, Adrian had been up just as dawn broke, eager to check everything over, eager to make sure Harry hadn’t burnt down half the place, or destroyed the salad crops. Harry, of course, had done neither.

Luca threw bacon and sausages into the frying pan, and cut thick slices of sourdough bread to toast. The topic had been rumbling, on and off, for weeks, and Luca was on Harry’s side of the argument.

“Luca, will you tell him? We’re busy enough as it is, with the extra land under cultivation. The last thing we need is to open a bloody camping site.” Adrian’s grumble couldn’t disguise the good humour in his voice.

“Glamping. It’s called glamping. It’s good business sense. Those places make loads of money. You can charge hundreds of pounds a week in the high season.”

“My profession’s farming, not running a holiday camp.”

“Harry’s right, and you should give it some serious thought. March to October, it’s a long season and in this part of the country you can charge top rates. Diversification?—”

“I know what diversification is,” Adrian grumbled.

“Would be a good second income stream, and you’ve got the space to do it. There are always hoops to jump through with the local authorities, and there’s the investment to set it all up, but if you have the right contacts, it’s not as much as you might think. I know some people we could talk to. Start small and build up. Harry could run it.” Luca caught Harry’s eye, and they smiled at each other.

Adrian narrowed his eyes, as he looked from one to the other, before his gaze settled on Luca. “Have you been plotting with this one?” Adrian jabbed his thumb at Harry, who was now getting the kettle on, and throwing tea bags into an old brown teapot.

“We may have had a few discussions. Strictly informal of course.”

“Discussions?” Adrian took slow steps towards him, a hunter stalking his prey. A shiver skittered up Luca’s spine.

“Well, I’ll be having discussions with you. Later. Very full and frank ones. In private,” he added, his voice dropping.

Luca swallowed, and Adrian smiled, slow and dark.

“Got any biscuits? Or cake? If I have to wait for my fry up, I’ll die of hunger.” Harry rummaged around, muttering about Hobnobs and lemon drizzle.

Luca cleared his throat. “No. We’ve not been here, remember?” Was that croak really him? Adrian’s shit eating grin told him it was. He quickly adjusted his fattening dick before Harry turned around and stomped over to the kitchen table with the teapot.

“A posh Spanish villa for a few days. All that sun. Sounds lovely. Must be nice to have a friend who’d lend you their holiday home just like that.”

Luca looked up at Adrian, and cocked his head to the side.

Adrian nodded, and smiled. “Yes, it is. Good friends are worth their weight in gold.”

“Glamping. Now, that’s where the gold is,” Harry said, dumping three teaspoons of sugar into his tea.

* * *

Adrian settled down on the sofa next to Luca. This was the part of the day he liked best. A long day’s work behind the two of them, dinner eaten, a time to kick back and relax. The quiet time, as he’d learnt how to think of it. He wrapped an arm around Luca, who snuggled into him.

“Spain was wonderful, but this is better.”

Adrian snorted. “Rain and wind? And temperatures hardly breaking double figures?”

“You know what I mean.”

And Adrian did. This, here, the two of them. Sharing a home and a life. A life that had almost been snatched from them. He shivered, as the fear of what might have been rippled through him.

“Adrian?” Luca gazed up at him, his eyes soft yet challenging.

“I’m fine,” he said, brushing a soft kiss to Luca’s lips. “More than I deserve to?—”

“Hey, stop that. Right now. You remember what Claudia said?”

“I know, I know?—”

“And?”

Adrian sighed. Luca wasn’t going to let him off the hook. “That I deserve to love and to be loved, with truth and integrity. But for it to be so I have to believe it, in my head and in my heart.”

“She’s right.” Luca settled back against Adrian. “She’s been good for you. When’s your next appointment?”

“Wednesday evening.”

Every week, via video call. It had been Luca’s non-negotiable proviso: he was to seek professional help, the knot of his fear and distrust was pulled too tight for them to unpick alone.

He’d squirmed, his natural response to resist, to answer with a flat, hard no. But there had been no choice. Without taking the first, stumbling steps to prove he was determined to change, to become the better man he craved so much to be, one not corroded by the acid of distrust and fear for what might happen, there would be no Luca in his life. The ultimatum had been stark. Black and white. No debate.

“She said, when I spoke to her just before we went away, that she believed we might be able to go down to meeting every other week.”

Luca sat up and stared at him, a bright smile lighting up his face. “That’s great. Shows she thinks there’s been a lot of progress. I’m so proud of you. I know it’s been difficult.” He placed a palm against Adrian’s cheek.

“Yeah.” Adrian’s throat thickened “It’s helped. I had my doubts, at first, but it has. I feel sort of lighter afterwards. Knackered, and wrung out, but better.”

Who would have known that the plump mature lady, with the soft smile and an outdated tight perm, a mature lady who’d reminded him from the start of the grandmother he’d loved so much, would reduce him to tears with only a few seemingly simple questions? Questions that ripped through his armour, their sharp tips spearing into all the fear entrenched in his heart. The tears were less, now, and so was the fear. Little by little, piece by piece, he was becoming that better man.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Luca said, his gaze darting away for a second before coming back to meet Adrian’s. “Okay,” he said with a sigh, “not exactly forgot, but… Look, when I went into Love’s Harbour today, in the estate agent’s window there was a photo of a house for sale.”

“That’s novel. Makes a change from photographs of potatoes and examples of bad taxidermy.”

Luca huffed and attempted to look affronted. “Not just any house, but Jonathan’s. So… so I took a chance, and went around to see him. I caught him just as he was leaving to go to London for a few days. He’s selling up here and moving back, to be with the guy he’s met.”

“Sounds like it’s serious.”

“I think so. And I’m glad he’s found somebody.”

Adrian nodded, and pulled Luca back into him. No tightening of the muscles in his neck or shoulders, no hard clenching of his jaw, no buttons being pushed and held down hard. Jonathan had become as insubstantial as a fading dream, yet he wouldn’t lie to himself. He was glad of the news that the man would soon be going, and vanishing for good. But he didn’t want to think about Jonathan, not when he had other, more pressing things on his mind.

“Let’s go to bed.”

* * *

The sheets felt good, cool against Luca’s naked skin, but nothing compared to the intense heat radiating from Adrian’s muscular body pressed against his own. A shiver ran through him as Adrian’s rough, calloused hands roamed down his back, barely grazing over his arse before retracing their path. Strong, calloused, roughened hands, the hands of a man who worked the land, hands that could feel like the softest whisper of silk.

“God, it feels so good to be home,” Adrian murmured in a low, raspy voice that vibrated through every part of Luca.

Home. The word clutched at his heart. Home was more than just the farmhouse with its age worn, blackened bricks or the rich, fertile land. Home was right here in this moment, with only the two of them, skin to skin and hearts beating as one.

Luca moaned as Adrian’s lips trailed down his throat, nipping and sucking, marking each sensitive spot along the way, gasping as Adrian’s breath tickled his rapidly beating pulse, sending shivers down his spine with every teasing touch. Adrian traced the curve of Luca’s hip bone with his hand through the thin sheet before slipping beneath it. His fingertips brushed against Luca’s aching, rigid length, the touch light yet searing. Luca arched his hips forward, desperate for Adrian’s touch.

“Please, please, please…” Luca’s voice, thin and breathless, pleading and begging, wanting and needing more.

“Such a greedy, needy boy,” Adrian murmured.

Adrian’s hand wrapped around him, each stroke as slow and sensual as his kisses. As Adrian brushed his tongue over Luca’s nipples with a featherlight touch that sent electric jolts through his body, Luca gripped onto the sheet above his head and let wave after wave of pleasure crash over him.

“More,” he rasped as Adrian kissed his way lower, stopping to lap at his belly button, working his way south.

Adrian licked a wide, wet stripe from the base of his cock all the way up to the juicy tip, caressing with tiny sucks and light kisses before engulfing him completely in his hot, wet mouth. Luca whimpered, the contrast between the cool air on his heated skin and the scorching heat in his core almost unbearable.

With each thrust of his hips into Adrian’s mouth, Luca felt like he was unraveling from within. His entire world had narrowed to this one heart stopping, intimate moment, where nothing existed, nothing mattered, but him and this difficult, complex man whom he loved with every part of who he was.

Luca’s climax was thundering towards him, hard and strong, and when Adrian groaned around him he was powerless to hold back any longer.

“Jesus, Adrian. I love you so fucking much.” Luca’s voice cracked as he gasped for air, every part of his body clenching as he released into the mouth of the man who owned every part of him.

Luca collapsed, his body limp and boneless. He closed his eyes, his heart fluttering as Adrian kissed him long and deep, as he tasted himself on Adrian’s tongue.

They lay in silence, entwined in each other’s arms, the only sounds to be heard the calls of night birds and the soft breeze rustling the curtain.

“You have to say it again.” Adrian tugged at Luca’s hair.

“Say what again?” Luca smiled into the darkness.

He always said it. He cried it out, or pushed it through gritted teeth, even moaned it on a broken breath. But he always said it, and Adrian always asked him to say it again, afterwards, when they lay wrapped up in each other, sweat coated and sated, too worn out to move.

“Ouch!” The second tug was harder, and Luca gasped. “All right, all right. But you have to say it, too.”

“You go first.”

Luca didn’t need to think. The words were the same every time, and they would always be.

“I love you.” Luca’s throat thickened. Three simple words which meant everything.

“And I love you, too. I always will, as sure as night follows day.”

Luca sighed as Adrian tightened his arms around him. As night followed day, as day followed night, Adrian would love him as he would love Adrian.

Forever.

* * *

Thank you for reading, it was a pleasure to share Adrian and Luca’s story with you.

If you’d like to read more in the Love’s Harbour series, you can discover Joss and Oliver’s grumpy/sunshine story in Animal Instincts, and Alex and Ryan’s enemies to lovers story in Hearts Colliding.

Finally, if you enjoyed the book, please take a moment to leave an honest review here.