“Oh, I must apologise,” said Lucas. “They accompany me everywhere. They’re like children. So demanding. But I suppose they’re a bit of company, and they do protect me.”

Clive’s brow wrinkled.

“The cats protect you? How could a cat possibly protect you?”

“I guess that does sound rather incomprehensible, but I assure you they’ve never let me down,” he said with a glint in those dark, devil eyes.

Clive noticed James regarding the man in front of him and wondered if he was thinking the same thing as he was -- that despite the man’s eccentricities, he was every bit as handsome as Cook had described. His eyes may have been unnaturally black, but they were beguiling, and his smile was dazzling if not vaguely familiar.

The faint recollection of being in his presence at an earlier time, years, perhaps decades ago, became a niggling irritation, boring through his consciousness. He racked his brains but could not for the life of him remember where they could have met. It annoyed him even more that the man was so dashingly good-looking, with his neatly trimmed moustache and goatee, the tuft of hair sticking up over his pressed white shirt, and his high cheek bones and full lips. How could Clive have forgotten meeting a man like that?

“Your nephew has inherited the family’s good looks, James.”

Clive’s eyes darted from the handsome stranger to James and then to his own feet. He shifted uncomfortably on the spot and then walked over to a chair. He didn’t sit but rested a hand on it, a security device to help him feel less uncomfortable.

“Yes, very attractive,” Lucas said as he moved across the room to Clive.

He reached up and stroked Clive’s cheek with the back of his hand.

“Surprisingly soft,” he commented before leaning in and kissing the thirty year-old on the lips. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at James.

James babbled something indecipherable as Lucas pressed his lips once more against Clive’s.

Clive felt his body tingle. As Lucas kissed him, exploring his mouth with his tongue, he felt the stranger’s hand slip into the space between the buttons of his shirt. The man’s touch made him quiver, had his nipples erect within seconds. Clive let his head fall back, arching his neck and leaving it exposed. He closed his eyes as an overwhelming feeling of lust, desire and passion pulsed through his body. He moaned as Lucas’ lips moved from his lips to his chin and then his throat. For a moment they lingered there, sucking, licking, tasting.