That might not actually be that bad. I may write a story about that!
The thorns from the briar bush pricked against his skin as he crouched down behind it. It made him wonder just why in the hell this kind of bush was planted in a noble woman's yard. Riff crouched down beside him as silent as he had been these past few days. He had even started to avoid Cain so much that the Count had had to ambush him in the hallway. He would have demanded an explanation but for some reason knew that Riff wouldn't give him one. Not yet at least.
Another gardener walked by and he crouched down lower so as not to be caught. When the other had walked away he hurriedly darted out from behind the bush and plastered himself against the wall of the manor, looking around to corner to make sure that no one was there before proceeding. Riff of course had no trouble keeping up with him and even held him up as he ungracefully tripped over a small rock that he hadn't seen.
He Smiled lightly at him before continuing to move stealth fully around the premises. After their initial contact Madam Hawthorn had been conveniently busy every time he or Oscar had attempted to visit her. This left him with no other choice than to infiltrate manor and find out for himself just what was going on. He had taken the opportunity to drag Riff along with him. He had hardly seen him at all recently. Like a phantom he seemed to disappear as soon as he had entered the same room as him. Cain was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Looking to the right he spied a back entrance into the Manor. Undoubtedly it lead into the servant's quarters, not that it mattered. It was a way in to go unnoticed. He just hoped that there was no servants in there to spot them. Creeping along he opened the door a crack and peeked inside. No one was there. Perfect.
Leaving the door open he heard Riff close it quietly behind him as he made his way down the hallway. Taking a mere guess as to which direction he needed to go he headed up the north stairwell. The further they went the darker it seemed to get and few and far between were the torches along the walls. Riff took one out of it's holder and held it to the side so Cain could see where he was going.
At the top of the stair was a heavy wooden door that was locked heavily on the outside. It would require a many assortment of keys or at least 15 minutes to pick the locks of all seven of them. Of course all of them had to be from different brands, now didn't they? He sighed and got to work on them quickly. He hoped that Oscar, who and agreed to distract Madam Hawthorn, would keep her busy enough so that she or one of her servants wouldn't find them.
With one last click the last bolt unlatched and Riff moved up close beside him to help push open the trap door. Thankfully Riff was skilled enough to help him and keep the torch away from their clothing and not set either of them on fire. They climbed up into the room above them and shut the door slowly after them.
It wasn't as Cain had expected it to be. The room was cluttered with antiques, some of them broken and nearly all of them cluttered in dust. A small unmade bed resided in the corner with a single small oil lamp of the table beside it. It smelt recently used.
Riff placed the torch in the holder above the door and maneuvered around Cain to check the room for any possible hazards. Finding nothing and no one Cain was quite disappointed. Had he been mistaken in his information? A loud click caught his attention and he whirled around to look back at the door.
Riff ran over and attempted to open it to no avail. "I'm sorry Mr. Hargreaves, to have to lock you in there. But it seems that you don't know how to leave well enough alone." It was Madam Hawthorn. Several other clicks followed the initial one and he knew that she had placed all the locks back into place. He went over to the single window that the round room had and looked down what seemed to be at least four stories to the yard bellow. There was no way that either he or Riff could climb down that thing.
He looked around the room once again for anything that he could use as a latter or a rope to no avail. The bed sheets that were there had no hope of reaching the ground even with all of them tied together. They were trapped.
Several hours later Cain was sitting on the small bed while Riff was leaning against the wall opposite to him. The sun hadn't even gone down yet and he knew that Oscar wouldn't even attempt to get to them until nightfall.
The day before Cain had received information from one of his acquaintances about the girl known as Silvia Hawthorn. Apparently her parents had died when she was little and she had been sent to live with her aunt, Amelia Hawthorn who happened to be the Madam of Hawthorn Manor. Guests to the manor had claimed to see a young girl with long blond hair roaming the halls at night with several guards surrounding her. She always had a sad look to her that made some of the men who visited instantly fall in love with her.
It was rumored that her aunt hated her because of her beauty and shut her up in one of the manor's towers, letting her out only at night to roam the manor when no one was around to see her. This is what lead to Cain breaking into the manor in the first place. This room was probably the girl's room. But where was the girl? That was something that the Count didn't know the answer to just yet. But he planned to find out. Right after they got out of this damn room of course.
He sighed and tapped his fingers impatiently against the metal bar that was the bed's headboard. Glancing over at Riff he saw the same practiced bored expression as his own. The only difference was that Riff had for some reason grown uncomfortable around him.
Making his decision he stood up and walked over to his butler whose eyes opened and widened in surprise at his masters sudden movement. Grabbing a hold of Riff's wrist he dragged him back over to the bed and forced him to sit on it before sitting back down beside him as though he hadn't done anything strange at all.
Riff looked at him with a strange questioning look and silently waited for Cain's explanation. "Why have you been avoiding me, Riff?" He looked startled at the question and Cain could see from looking into his eyes that he was desperately searching for an explanation without giving away his real reason for doing so.
"I-I haven't been avoiding you, Master Cain, I have just been very busy lately. I am sorry if you are upset by that. I will try to be more accommodating to your needs." 'Nice cover, Riff. But I know better than that.' He thought.
"What's your real reason for avoiding me?" He could literally see Riff panicking, although he was very good at hiding it. "Don't lie to me, Riff. I know there's a reason. Now tell me it." His voice left no room for argument.
Riff looked away from him and it was clear that he didn't really want to say what had been bothering him. But it was an order from his Master Cain, he couldn't ignore it no matter how much he wanted to at the moment. "A few days ago I accidentally walked in on you…ah…pleasuring yourself." He said it bluntly in order to get it over with, a slight blush marring his cheeks.
Cain froze for a moment beside him. He had been there? Suddenly he remembered that he had called out Riff's name as he was touching himself. He had thought that he had still been busy with the paper work. Evidentially that wasn't the case. "And that caused you to start avoiding me?"
"Well…" He paused trying to find the right words. "You…uh….called out my name, Master Cain."
He waited a few moments before attentively asking. "Do my affections bother you, Riff?"
"No-no…I suppose I was just embarrassed at having walked in on you…doing that. Anyway it's not as though anything can come of it."
He was mildly affronted at his bold statement. "Why not?"
Riff glanced at him before answering. "I am merely your servant, Master Cain. It is improper for me to have such a relationship with you."
Cain frowned at that. "Improper? Since when has anything I say or do been proper? You're the only one that's been there for me through everything. How can it not be that I fall in love with you?"
Riff jerked back to look at him, startled. "You shouldn't love me, Master Cain! You should find a nice young girl to marry and have a family with…" He trailed off at Cain's glare.
"Why? To appease all of my nagging relatives and to abide by societies strict codes and boundaries? I'd rather be an outcast with you than marry some simpering female who wants nothing more than to add more pounds to her check book." He raised a hand to Riff's cheek and leaned foreword so he couldn't look away. "You know as well as I that everyone I try to get close to but you and a select few die before they could ever really mean anything to me. Don't deny me the chance to love someone whole heartedly without the fear of losing them to death."
Leaning foreword he placed his lips against Riff's and kissed him for the first time. His lips were as soft as satin and parted gently as he ran his tongue against them. He could feel Riff starting to pull away and wrapped his arms around him, drawing him in tighter as he continued to kiss him. He didn't want this to end. He didn't want to lose Riff. Not to anyone.
Stubbornly he pushed him back down against the mattress, leaning all of his weight on him so that Riff had no choice but to comply. Slowly he took possession of Riff's mouth. His tongue sweeping against and exploring every contour of it. Riff was his. And he was never going to willingly allow anyone to take him from him.
Slowly he released him from the kiss and allowed him to breath as he placed kisses along his neck as he unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt. Riff brought his hands up and held onto Cain's, preventing him from continuing undoing his shirt. "We shouldn't…"
He looked down into his eyes and asked him seriously. "Do you love me, Riff?"
"…Yes." Cain kissed him again.
"Then there's no reason we shouldn't do this." Having his master's tongue shoved down his throat once more stopped any further protests he might have had and he gladly wrapped his arms around the form of his young master. No matter how he protested he knew that he too had wanted this for a long time now and was in no position to deny his master his desires.
He allowed Cain to unbutton his shirt all of the way and slip it to the sides of his body along with his suit jacket. His cold hands trailed down his warm flesh, trying to explore every part of him as though he could disappear at any instant. His fingers rubbed and twisted his nipples and he was hard pressed not to gasp into his mouth as his master ground his hips into his.
Groaning he flipped the both of them over, undoing Cain's shirt so he could lick his way down his lover's chest. The Count buried a hand into Riff's bluish hair and urged him to continue. He vowed to poison anyone who even thought to dare interrupt them at this moment.
Riff licked a wet line against a sensitive patch of skin just above his pant line that efficiently broke Cain out of his current line of thought. He gently pulled Riff up by his hair and kissed him passionately while he skillfully removed his tie, shirt, and suit jacket from him. They both kicked off their shoes before Riff escaped Cain's embrace and moved back down lower to his pants. His fingers moved awkwardly to undo his belt and slip it off of him before he nervously unzipped them.
Cain lifted his hips to help Riff as he slipped his pants and underwear off of him and was nearly quivering with anticipation. This was much better than any of his fantasies. He would take the real Riff over any of them any day.
When Riff carefully wrapped his lips around the head of his erection Cain had to bite his lip to keep from moaning too loudly. His mouth felt exquisite around him and he momentarily lost his breath as Riff took in more of his erection.
Having another man's length in his mouth was something new to Riff so he did what he knew that he would of liked and paid close attention to the sounds his master was making. Evidentially he was doing a good job of it when Cain buried his fingers back into his hair and attempted to thrust into his mouth. It was a good thing that he was holding his lover's hips or he might of choked on him.
Reluctantly he let his lover fall from his mouth and moved back to search along the table. Soon he found what he had wanted and turned back to his lover who was looking at him with half-lidded eyes, panting lightly. Seeing what his butler held a slight grin passed his lips and he parted his legs widely while giving Riff a 'come hither' look.
Riff moaned lightly at the sight and quickly leaned back over his lover, kissing him deeply as he fumbled to uncork the bottle of perfume he had stolen from the table and lathered his fingers in it. He kissed his way down Cain's chest and took a nipple into his mouth as he slowly slid a finger into him. Encouraged by his moans he quickly stretched him thoroughly before adding another finger.
Pushing his fingers deep inside of him he ended up brushing against Cain's prostate which caused him to arch his back and thrust down onto Riff's fingers. Carefully he removed his fingers from him as well as the rest of his clothing before lavishing his own erection in the potent smelling liquid. He replaced the bottle back onto the table and positioned himself carefully over Cain. "Are you sure?"
Cain looked up into his eyes and said without hesitation. "Yes." He leaned down and gently kissed his lover before he began slowly pushing his way past his sphincter muscles, waiting for them to relax each time he tensed up before moving foreword. Soon he was seated all the way inside of his lover and he waited until Cain smiled and rocked his hips back against him before he withdrew slightly from him. Pushing back in he drew a groan from his master's lips and he was somewhat surprised to hear him ordering him to move faster not too soon after.
Wet sounds of flesh slapping against flesh filled the small round room and the sound of both of their moans almost hid the noise of the squeaking mattress beneath them. It certainly hadn't been meant for this purpose.
Sweat clung to both of them as would water to a condensed glass and the fact that they were technically prisoners in Hawthorn Manor no longer mattered to them. The only thing that mattered right now was each other and the pleasure that they were making one another feel. Cain moaned and thrust back desperately against him and Riff sensed that they would both soon be ready to come and began stroking Cain's erection in time with their thrusts.
Pulling Riff down to him Cain kissed him passionately and moaned into his mouth as he came. His contracting and tightening muscles bringing Riff into an orgasm soon after.
Slowly they came down from their climax, both clinging to each other desperately as Riff carefully laid his weight upon Cain's sweat covered body. They panted heavily for a few moments before Riff lifted himself slightly to pull out of Cain, causing him to moan regretfully at the lose.
He rolled over to the side and brought Cain up against him so that neither of them would roll off the bed and was thankful that it was a warm night as their skin was thoroughly exposed to the spring air. Cain looked up at him with tired but loving eyes. "There's no way that you can deny me now."
He smiled and kissed his forehead. "I wouldn't want to." Cain returned his smile and curled up against his side. He rested his head against his chest and was soon drifting off to sleep. "I love you, Riff."
Riff nuzzled his hair and closed his eyes. "I love you too, Cain."
A.N. Not the end yet of course. Rapunzel hasn't been rescued and/or died yet. Oh yes, and Oscar is in for a treat.
