Once And Always

Chapter 10

Hello everyone!

How was your weekend?

It's Monday tomorrow so this is an early (?) update for you.

Enjoy!

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By the next afternoon, Tee still had not been able to put Tae's earthshaking kiss out of his mind. Sitting on the grass beside Willie, he stroked his proud head while he gnawed on the bone he had brought him. Watching him, he thought again of the Khun Luang's easy, smiling attitude when the kiss was over, and his stomach knotted as he compared his own innocence and stupidity to the older's sophistication and brittle worldliness.

How could the Khun Luang have held him and kissed him as if he were trying to devour him one moment, and then joked about it the next? And where, Tee wondered, had he ever found the ability to match his lighthearted mood when his own senses were reeling and his knees were knocking together? And after all of that, how could Tae look at him with those freezing eyes of his and advise him not to make the same mistake "dozens" of other people had?

What made him behave like that? Tee wondered. He was impossible to cope with, impossible to understand. He had tried to befriend him, only to end up being kissed. Everything seemed so different out of their small village in Chiang Mai; perhaps here, kisses like that were nothing out of the ordinary and he had no reason to feel guilty and angry. But he did. Loneliness for P'Godt swamped him, and he shuddered with shame for his willing participation in Tae's kiss.

He glanced up as Tae rode toward the stables. He had gone hunting this morning, so he'd been able to avoid him while he tried to gather his wits, but his reprieve was coming to an end—Khun Luang Kimmon's car was pulling up in the front drive. Reluctantly, he arose. "Come, Willie," he said tightly. "Let's go tell Khun Luang Tae that Khun Luang Kimmon have just arrived, and spare poor P'Ohm a needless trip to the stables."

The dog lifted his great head and regarded him with intelligent eyes, but he didn't move. "It's time you stopped hiding from people. I'm not your servant, you know, and I refuse to keep bringing your meals out here. Mr. Pawat told me you used to be fed at the stables. Come, Willie!" he repeated, determined to take control of this small part of his life, at least. He took two more steps and waited. The dog stood up and looked at him, his alert expression making him certain he understood the command.

"Willie," he said irritably, "I am growing excessively impatient with arrogant males in this house." He snapped his fingers. "I said come!" Again he stepped forward, watching over his shoulder, fully prepared to drag the obstinate animal by the scruff of his neck if he refused. "Come!" he said sharply, and this time the dog followed slowly in his wake.

Buoyed up by his small victory, Tee walked toward the stables from which Tae was emerging, his long rifle hanging loosely from his hand.

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In front of the house, Khun Luang Kimmon assisted his spouse out of the car. "There they are, over there," he told him, nodding in the direction of the stables. Tucking their hands together affectionately in the crook of his arm, he started across the lawns toward the other couple. "Smile," he teased in a whisper when the smaller guy's steps lagged. "You look as if you're going to face an executioner."

"Which is more or less how I feel," Copter admitted, shooting him a sheepish smile. "I know you will laugh, but Khun Luang Tae rather frightens me." He nodded at his husband's astonished look. "I am not the only one who feels so—nearly everyone is in awe of him."

"Khun Tae is a brilliant man, Copter. I've made enormous returns on every investment he's been kind enough to recommend to me."

"Perhaps, but he is still horridly unapproachable and . . . and forbidding, for all that. Moreover, he is capable of giving the kind of crushing setdowns that make one positively wish to sink. Why, last month, he told Miss Farraday that he dislikes simpering females—particularly those who cling to his arm while they are simpering."