Page 14 of Drink Up, Darling
“If indeed. Now…” Athens dropped his hand finally, the connection gone in an instant. “What do you say we have a look upstairs?”
“We’re not meant to…”
“Precisely, darling.”
Chapter Five
Dariel was never really one to break rules, believe it or not. If it could be helped, he’d rather not make a scene. But he decided to make no objections as Athens led him up the grand staircase, once again passing old portraits and random ornaments from eras clearly predating the house itself. The thick, red carpet was well looked after, Dariel noted as he looked down to watch his step, preparing for the inevitable floorboard creak to expose them. None came however—they successfully snuck up with a great silence.
The landing didn’t look messy, in fact, it was quite the opposite. It wastooclean. As in, itsmelledlike someone had freshly painted the skirting boards, and dusted and vacuumed very recently. Each branch of corridor led to multiple closed doors, and a vase was placed in front of the sash windows on either side. Perfectly positioned with precise symmetry.
Dariel sensed Athens coming to the same conclusions as their eyes wandered over the pristine, Victorian, paisley wallpaper lining the walls. The pair of them stood side by side in equal confusion.
“Yep, the guy is definitely hiding something.”
His wife in the attic. No wait, which book is it where…
‘Jane Eyre. We’re his replacements.’“Come on.” Athens wasted no time, charging head on towards one of the doors, tapping Dariel on his lower back as he did so.
Dariel shook his head to stop his few seconds of delay before he walked over to the door Athens was already struggling to open.
Athens pulled back and sighed, flicking his hair back and placing his hands on his slim waist, agitated. “Bloody locked!”
“Definitely a body in one of these rooms.” Dariel tried to make light of the situation to appease his growing fear that maybe—just maybe—they weren’t safe here. Sweat pooled on his palms as he made small fists down by his side.
“Why would you lock your own doors unless you had something to hide?” Athens added after trying the door again, huffing with frustration as he failed.
Dariel decided to try the other corridor himself, twisting the nearest doorknob. After a brief moment of annoyance, he realised it was just stuck. A little shoulder strength forced the door wide open.
Athens was hot on his trail, coming right up behind him immediately. The room before them was exactly what Dariel expected—a nondescript bedroom, untouched and infused with the scent of a stately home.
“His bedroom?” Athens questioned, his breath tickling Dariel’s shoulder and sending a pleasant tingle down his back.
He needs to stop being so…
Dariel cleared his throat. “Not his bedroom. This room hasn’t been touched in a while,” he observed.
“Hmm,” Athens muttered, pushing himself into the room to examine further. He immediately threw himself onto the four-poster bed in the centre, and bounced back as if checking into a hotel.
“Hey! We probably shouldn’t start disturbing things too much,” Dariel heard himself saying before he truly had time to consider what he actually cared about.
“We’ve already disregarded the one rule he gave us, as long as we don’t break anything, we’ll be fine,” Athens stated from the bed.
Dariel edged slightly further into the room, hands still clammy, but he convinced himself Athens had a point, and he was quite enjoying the snooping. The theorising. The company.
“Definitely not his room, you’re right,” Athens noted before sneezing three times.
Dariel could help but chuckle. “You okay, there?”
Athens sat up, eyes blinking wide. “The mystery cleaners missed a bit,” he joked.
“Maybe this was one of their rooms?” Dariel surmised, stepping over to one of the windows and looking out onto the grounds below.
“That would make a bit more sense, but it also looks too ‘someone died here and we’re keeping it as a shrine’, don’t you think?” Athens’ nose twisted.
Dariel turned to face the other man still sitting on the bed, letting his fingers brush through the velvet curtain, mind deep in thought. “Or maybe he doesn’t actually live here at all.”
Athens raised a thick brow and Dariel noted the way the man was positioned on the bed: Long legs widely parted and feet firmly planted on the floor. Slender arms rooted at either side of his beautiful body.
