Temptation ~ The second novelette from "Different Desire", a Gay Victorian Romance and Erotic novelette collection Read Free Page A

the uncommon combination of extremely good taste, an eye for quality, and money to buy it with, Oliver had concluded. Apparently he had also been a rather avid collector , and the library held many thousands of volumes and many rare books that could not even be found at the libraries at the University of Oxford .
    The old library even smelled good, in that way that only century - old pulp paper blended with the scent of worn calfskin-leather and a certain amount of undisturbed dust could smell. It truly was a literary treasure in Oliver’s opinion , and every now and then when he had found an exceptionally rare edition , Oliver had let out a short cry of excitement. Time had simply flown by , and it had been well after midnight when Oliver finally returned to his bedchamber, nearly getting lost on his way in the dark castle.
    So despite my new and rather challenging , not to mention all - too - attractive , student, staying at the Wyclif fe Castle cannot be a complete mistake, Oliver thought cheerfully and played lazily with the quill from the inkstand while he waited for Winston. Besides, there is no harm in resting one’s eyes on a handsome student, I mean, is there really? And it is not like anything would ever happen between us anyway …
    He was perfectly wrong in his conclusion, but at the moment, Oliver was obliviously unaware of it.
    In fact, for the first time in many months, he felt rather happy and content. Ever since Adam had left him , there had seemed to be a shadow cast over his ordinary and everyday life, but now it felt like that something was about to change.
    Oliver had been Adam’s lover for almost tw o years ; however , when Adam’s time at the university was coming to an end, Adam had rather insensitively informed Oliver that he did not intend to continue their relationship. He was leaving Oxford for Birmingham , and apparently he also fully intended to leave his “youthful mistakes”, as Adam cold-heartedly had called their relationship, behind him too. His decision had left Oliver miserable and strangely hollow, because although he had always had t he troubling suspicion that Adam’s feelings for him had been somewhat lesser than his own , he had nevertheless always imagined that he would join him in Birmingham when his history thesis was finished.
    Not that Oliver had imagined that they would share a household together or some immature fantasy like that, but he had still thought that they would at least be together.
    Clearly he had been mistaken. Although, in the end, Oliver realized that it was not really perhaps only Adam that he missed, if he was being perfectly honest to himself. It was not even the stolen nights when he climbed the college wall, mortally afraid of getting caught by the night watch , to meet Adam in his coll e ge room for a sinful night together. And it was not even what they did together in Adam’s narrow student bed that had never been designed for two people.
    It was the emptiness of not having someone to lie close to. Or listening to his heartbeat as his lover fell asleep. And the fragile feeling of being loved, if only just a little.
    Oliver allowed himself to drift away in the bittersweet memory, when the table clock on top of the Bombe commode suddenly chimed and brought him hastily back to reality. Half past eight? Already? Oliver thought. That is odd. Now where was Winston?
    The day before they had – after a lot of grumbling from Win ston’s side – completed a list of subjects that Winston needed to focus on the most , and they had agreed to meet at eight o’clock to start their morning lessons. There must have been a misunderstanding. Perhaps Winston had thought we were to meet at nine o’clock? Oh, well. There is nothing else to do about it than to go and find him, Oliver reasoned. Slightly irritated, he left the parlour room.
    He meant to set a firm example to his unorganized student , and there was no need to let Winston get away with being late on their