Captured by Him ~ The fourth novelette from "Different Desire", a Gay Victorian Romance and Erotic novelette collection Read Free Page A

a man, who was standing with his back towards Milton, leaning casua lly against the stone wall, apparently looking out through the small space between the wooden door and the stone ceiling. As if he had felt Milton’s eyes upon him, the other man turned around and looked directly at him.
    “So,” he said slowly , in a slightly husky voice. “You are awake , then, at last?”
    Milton’s heart seemed to skip several beats , and he had to swallow hard because–and may God have mercy on his soul!–the man at the other end of the small room was , without any doubt , one of the most attractive men he had ever seen. It made Milton intensely aware that he was undressed down to the waist , and he instinctively pulled up the horse-smelling blanket to cover himself.
    The man in front of him was both tall and muscular , and he seemed , for some reason, vaguely familiar. He was wearing the most mundane clothes: a carelessly laced linen shirt, which failed to hide his collarbones and a layer of dark, curly chest hair, Milton could not help but notice. He also wore a green waistcoat, a pair of brown moleskin trousers together with a pair of rather worn out knee-high leather boots. But there was something about the frayed red scarf around his neck which tickled Milton’s mind, although he had no idea why.
    He really should not be considered good-looking, Milton thought rationally. In fact, he should not even be considered to be handsome, not with that rough dark stubble and the unevenly cut brown hair , which fell from one side and reached just above his strong jawline. The man was even missing one of his teeth, the one next to his front teeth, which made him look mischievous and slightly wicked when he smiled, as he looked down on Milton.
    But still, the man was, for lack of better words to describe him, dangerously beautiful, in a natural and rough way. In fact, he was more than that; the other man practically radiated with raw and untamed masculinity , and it took Milton all his willpower and decency not to start speculating about what he may look like under all those shabby clothes.
    And suddenly , it made Milton deeply irritated and ill-tempered because he finally realized who the man in front of him was.
    It was the husky voice together with the faded purple bruise on the man’s chin , and lastly , it was his unusual eyes that betrayed him: this was the highwayman who had tried to rob him. Who had stabbed him. And who now , apparently , had kidnapped him!
    “Who , in the Devil’s name , are you?” Milton demanded to know.
    “Ah, so you remember me now , then?” t he other man answered him calmly, his smile deepening somewhat, which made him look annoyingly charming. “You can call me ‘Badger’, that is what everyone around here calls me. And I am the one who saved your life.”
    Milton scoffed and ignored the stab of pain it brought him from his side. “You mean to say that you are the one who ran me through with a rapier!”
    “That was an accident!” Badger said , and his hoarse voice grew a little bit tight around the edges.
    “Preposterous!” Milton snorted. The other man was insufferable, he thought.
    “It was your own fault, you know that.”
    “Oh, really? I do not recall holding a rapier and somehow manag ing to stumble on a rock and fall on top of it,” Milton said. “No. I do not recall that at all!”
    To his satisfaction , he noticed the other man’s vexing smile was gone , and instead , his lips were compressed to a thin line.
    “Why can you not just say ‘thank you’?” Badger asked.
    “For what? Robbing me? Kidnapping me? Trying to kill me?”
    “For saving your life!” Badger growled. “Besides, I did not mean to kidnap you, but I could not leave you to bleed to death on a dusty country road. Perhaps I should have!”
    He stepped closer , and Milton felt his mouth go dry; however , the other man only sat down next to Milton on a three - legged stool and picked up a wooden mort ar and a