More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The two were linked, quite inextricably, his affection for Murdo exposing him in ways that horrified him.
“David,” he said, when they broke apart. “David.” He said David’s name like it meant something all on its own. Like a vow. Like a promise.
Did he know how much Murdo cared for him?
What was the point of having the gift of life—and the gift of knowing how precious it was—if he couldn’t share it all with this man?
kindly but distant figure from Murdo’s childhood who’d had no time for her youngest son as she coped with pregnancy after pregnancy,
Love for this complex, sometimes difficult man who was, nevertheless, capable of great kindness.
Murdo looked briefly puzzled by David’s affectionate behaviour, but when David went to draw away, he tightened his hold on David’s hand, and they stayed like that for a long while, finishing their ale and watching the fire burn down to nothing but ash.
Making love with Murdo had become vital to David over these last months. Not just for the pleasure of it but for the give and take of it, the generosity and the joy of it. These were the things that showed David that, whatever he may have once thought, he wasn’t a criminal. Or a sinner. Making love with Murdo had turned David’s most shameful secret into his greatest joy.
“I didn’t know I wasn’t happy before,” he murmured. “Before what?” Murdo gave a lopsided smile. “Before you. Not that I was actively unhappy. I had plans. Objectives. Things to acquire or achieve. But—” He paused, then said simply, “You make me happy, David.”
“He’s not the love of my life, you idiot!” David snapped, incensed by Murdo’s obtuseness. “You are!”
“It’s just, I’ve loved you for so long, David. I really didn’t think you felt the same way.”
For now, anyway, because Murdo was looking at him in a way that made speech impossible. Murdo Balfour, who’d spent his life hiding his true feelings behind an amused little smile and a single crooked brow, was looking at David with desperate, undisguised hope.
My beloved.
