Page 11 of A Devilish Element
Linfield sank dramatically into the chaise, allowing his head to loll. “Anatomists, chemists, scholars, what do any of you actually know? I may as well hire a whore and be done with it.”
“And where do you propose to find one of those in this godforsaken place?” Jem asked. Batting words back and forth was easier on his brain than attempting a reasoned defence that would fall on deaf ears, anyway.
His lordship merely chuckled. “James… Jem… I invited accordingly.”
Their party numbered but half a dozen… seven, with the addition of Miss Wakefield, and none among them prostitutes. Accordingly, he bristled, shoulders lifting.
“Ha!” Linfield slapped the chaise. “You baulk at the label. It is all right, dear Jem, I did not mean you.”
Then unless there was a hereto unknown brothel located on their doorstop, he had no idea to whom Linfield attributed the label. Not Bell, or George, or Lady Linfield…
“Did you really think I’d give the serious matter of my cock no thought?”
“On the contrary, I imagine the matter consumes you. As indeed is this beast.” Jem pointed down, drawing his friend’s attention to the leech half-shadowed by his shirt tails. “It seems the good doctor left one of his pets behind.”
“Goddammit! Get it off me.”
Jem traced a fingertip along the length of Linfield’s thigh to where the leech sat near the root of his bruised and sullen prick. “I’m not certain I know the technique—”
Linfield grabbed his wrist. “Don’t play games. Get it off.”
It or you? The thought flashed, lightning fast through Jem’s brain. Despite Linfield’s counter, he still bristled at the implication that he was employed as his lordship’s plaything. Jem instead drew a circle around the sanguisuge. “Look at its plump little body. It’s thoroughly gorged on your essence. One might even venture tumescent with it.” He gave a slow, almost flirtatious blink, then slipped his fingernail beneath the sucker, releasing it. He flicked it away, so that it landed with a splat upon the tea tray between the sugar bowl and a spray of cake crumbs.
Such marks it had left behind; a vibrant mottling of black, blue and red. It was a cruel sight and a barbaric treatment. His anger dispersed, as he reflected on Linfield’s dilemma. Would he too, be willing to endure such torture if he found himself in similar straits? Consumed by a sudden wave of guilt, Jem applied his handkerchief to the wound and gently wiped away the smear of blood. “All these marks in such tender places. It seems an extreme measure.”
“What choice have I?”
“There must be other ways, the nitrous—”
Linfield clenched his fist around Jem’s coat front. “Stuff your science experiments. You and I both know there’s one tried-and-true way, and if you cared even half as much as you once professed—”
Love words had never fallen from his lips. “Linfield, no amount of cajoling will change the facts. I told you when you wed, that we were done with all that.”
“I’m not done with it. I need you. You’ve abandoned me when I need you most.” His nostrils flared. Then he sucked in a jagged breath. “I… Goddamn you, James. Seriously, just, goddamn you. This is your fault. The whole situation. ‘I can’t’,” Linfield imitated in a whiny voice. “‘Not with a married man.’ Why in hell’s name should that make any difference? It’s hardly a love match.”
“Nevertheless, you made a vow to her.” Jem replied, tempted to point out that it had never been a love match between them either. “To love… to keep her… forsaking all others. Swore it before God and in Christ’s name, if you recall.”
“You speak as if I had any free will in the matter when I had none. Thus, now having been coerced, you abandon me. You condemn me to be a fumbler forever. To feel no more joy, experience no more pleasure—”
“Your wife, I’m sure will provide those—”
“My cobs shrivel at the sight of her, my prick wilts, so that I am forced into this,” he gestured at his bruised member. “And it is grossly unfair. And you… you who claim to be my friend, can fix this, but you will not.”
They had never been friends. Their relationship was far too lopsided for that. He was the hired help. The man coaxed into performing additional acts through the dangling of carrots.
“Linfield, I cannot. It’s not right.”
Linfield clasped him tight about the wrist and wrenched his hand over so that it sat firm against his prick.
The effect was instantaneous.
Jem snatched his hand away. “I said I can’t. Moreover, I won’t.”
Linfield’s eyes lit with a challenge. His thin mouth puckered into a nasty expression before turning sly. “You don’t mean it, though, Jamie. ’Tis only to appease your conscience. But you must put that aside. This is a serious business, and there’s no place for squeamishness. I must do my duty, and you, you must perform yours.”
“My duty is to teach you equations and languages.”
“Te luppiter dique omnes perdent! Quaeso, melius discerem si mentula tua in me exercitio usus es.Please, Jem. You want me to pass the exam, don’t you? And somehow it all sticks in the old noggin better when you use non-standard methods.”
