Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 159050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 795(@200wpm)___ 636(@250wpm)___ 530(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 795(@200wpm)___ 636(@250wpm)___ 530(@300wpm)
He pulled out the key he’d made a copy of during Knight’s absence. He’d seen Knight hide it and used the opportunity to obtain one of his own but never broke the promise given to the man who Elliot had believed to be his lover. Well, fuck that promise, and fuck Knight and his undecided bullshit. Jake had been right. Knight would never commit to anyone. Not with that perfect face, the sense of humor that made everyone feel at ease, and the way he fucked like a demon. Knight could have anyone, so why would he choose Elliot, the poor, scrawny kid no one ever wanted to keep?
William on the other hand? Lonely and imprisoned in a single room, he might just form a true bond with Elliot. Just like him, William Fane had no one to care for him.
Elliot gently knocked on the door, swallowing a sob that stubbornly pushed at his throat. “Mr. Fane? May I come in?”
A deep sigh came from up close and made the wood vibrate under Elliot’s touch. He swallowed but reined in his fear and stayed put as the tormented soul answered.
“I sense distress. What did he do, Elliot?”
Elliot had planned to be more collected, to hide his pathetically broken heart from William, but when he spoke, it was no use. “He doesn’t want me. He never has,” Elliot choked out, hugging the wood. The floor was crumbling under his feet, and all he wanted was to curl up and turn into stone so that his chest would stop hurting.
William stayed silent for so long Elliot feared the pathetic truth had put him off, but the deep voice spoke in the end, “I am sorry you had to go through this. He is that kind of man. Too handsome. Incapable of loyalty or true compassion.”
Elliot put the key into the lock but hesitated, waiting for an invitation, for once struck that if he forced his presence on William, he might be rejected yet again. When Knight had taken him out of the trailer and into this castle of a building, for once Elliot had felt so very wanted. Like he wasn’t the man rejected by even his father.
“I got so wrapped up in him it feels like I’m bleeding.” The tears wouldn’t stop flowing, and they dripped down his chin, onto his bare chest. “As if there are cuts all over my body, and I am just waiting to die.”
“You won’t die of a broken heart. Believe me, I know,” William said, and the sound Elliot heard sounded suspiciously like a hand rubbing the other side of the door. “Come in, please.”
Elliot took a deep breath, wiped his face with his arm, and turned the key. If only William could see what Elliot had to offer, everything would work out.
He pushed open the creaking door and didn’t dare to look up right away. Stricken by nausea brought upon him by anxiety, he stared at black shoes with silver buckles right in front of him. William stood silently, not blinking when the bright glow of Elliot’s flashlight shone straight into his eyes. And yet he looked as if he were flesh and bone. He wore the same exquisite finery as the first time Elliot had seen him, and the front of the waistcoat still bore the red stains that would never be washed off.
“I’m sorry I haven’t visited you for so long,” Elliot whispered.
William swallowed, elegantly moving away from the wall. The heeled shoes gave his form a grace impossible to achieve in modern footwear. “That’s quite all right, my boy. I do know the perils of attachment to the wrong man. And I forgive you, even if I can’t say it didn’t hurt me when you wouldn’t even visit. I have been lonely for too long. Locked away in this room no one ever enters.”
Elliot put his bag on the floor, still amazed that the man he’d idolized for so many years was right in front of him, even though two hundred years had passed since his brutal death. Maybe this was destiny after all, and Knight just one last painful step on Elliot’s way?
“Does it still hurt? Do you still love him?” Elliot pushed some hair off his face, watching William’s every move. He had to know that William wasn’t burdened with thoughts of anyone else before he could invest his feelings yet again.
The handsome face tensed, and William crossed his hands on his chest, obscuring the bloody stain. “Betrayal never stops hurting. But I have moved on. I will not keep my hopes up for a man who treated me so poorly. Neither should you,” he said, approaching Elliot in elegant strides. He looked just like a real person. He wasn’t translucent, and there was no glow to his appearance. And yet he was long dead.