Carnal Rites by Ines Johnson (learn to read books .TXT) 📕

Jaspir behind him. Jaspir's lips around him. It pulled Liam out of the car and to the front desk. The man at the desk was new, not the plastic looking older male Liam had come to expect.

"Jaspir no longer works here," the man said.

He was already gone. He'd barely waited a day before heading off to live out his own dream. Liam had heard all the words spoken between Jaspir and Merlyn this morning. Words of enduring love that would stand the test of time and space. Neither of them had shared any such words with him.

"Perhaps I could be of service?"

Liam looked the new concierge up and down. He felt no pull, no desire for the male.

Liam turned, walked out of the establishment, and climbed back in his car. He drove aimlessly for another hour, until he pulled up to another familiar house. He climbed out of the car and approached the front door. He hadn't been back here since he left ten years ago. On that day, his Mother had been away with her lover. It was his father who saw him off.

"Dedicate yourself to her, make yourself indispensable. Love is fickle, but being needed will earn you a place in her life."

Liam had taken those words to heart. Those first few years without his father had been hard. There was no one for him to talk to. Merlyn had her head in the books or up in the clouds thinking of Jaspir. Liam had been alone, but the last thing he wanted to do was return to his father a failure. So he sucked it up and stayed at the grand house, stayed behind Merlyn, in the shadows.

He'd given it his all. He'd taken a moment to step in the light. He'd made her see him. But still, it hadn't been enough. She didn't love him. She no longer needed him. He had failed. He only hoped his father would understand.

Liam knocked on the door.

It took a moment before he heard steps from inside. The door opened. A sallow looking older man peered down at him. Not quite at him, his hollow eyes peered at Liam's shoulder.

"Can I help you?" Not only were his face and eyes hollow, so was his voice. He must be new to not recognize Liam. It had been ten years since Liam had been home, after all.

"My name is Liam. I'm the first son of this household."

The man's eyes met Liam's briefly. There was no spark of recognition, but he must have believed him because he stepped aside and let Liam pass.

Liam entered his old home and looked around. Nothing looked the same. But things sounded the same.

He heard the sounds of lovemaking down the hall. A woman's high-pitched gasps, asking for more, harder. When Liam was a child he didn't truly understand what those words meant. Now he had firsthand knowledge. The accompanying male's deep groans sounded nothing like his father's voice.

So nothing had changed.

"Is my father in his study?" Liam took a step towards the room. He'd nearly passed the manservant, but halted at the confused look on the man's face.

"Your father?"

"Yes, my father" prompted Liam. "Lord Thomis." The servant must have been confused. Liam's surviving father was brown-skinned with dark hair and dark eyes to Liam's pale-skin, red hair, and green eyes. Liam didn't want to take the time to explain, but something in the manservant's eyes halted his departure.

"I'm sorry, my lord," the servant stuttered. "Lord Thomis went to the Goddess two years ago."

Ice went down Liam's back. That simply wasn't possible. Liam rushed to his father's study. The door opened without protest. Everything was covered in sheets, a layer of dust further confirming its disuse. Liam felt ill.

How could his father have died without him knowing? Everything was as it was when Liam still lived here. Unfinished calculations on the white board. Stacks of unopened financial documents detailing the royalties from his father's many inventions. A light green settee sat in the corner. Lord Thomis had placed the settee there years ago. For his Mother, he'd explained to Liam. The piece of furniture still looked untouched as the day Liam was born.

"He passed away in his study two years ago," the manservant confirmed from just outside the door. The older man looked into the room as though it held ghosts. "Your Mother was away with..." He didn't finish the sentence. "Lord Thomis often stayed inside here for days. I didn't know anything was wrong until I smelled..."

The silence dragged between them. From down the hall Liam heard his Mother climax. The manservant looked over his shoulder towards the sounds, a haunted look on his face. Liam looked up at the man and finally recognition dawned on him.

It was his Mother's lover. His hair had the beginnings of gray, his physique carried a few extra pounds, but it was unmistakably the same servant from his childhood.

His Mother had sworn undying love for this man, forsook her surviving husband for him. Neglected Liam and his two younger sisters for him. Yet, here he stood with Liam while she lay behind closed doors with another.

"It's you," said Liam.

The man didn't answer. He didn't meet Liam's eyes. His eyes stayed on the closed door down the hall, a look of longing that Liam recognized. He'd seen it in his father's eyes. He'd seen it in the mirror himself. But it made no sense. His Mother had sworn her love to this man.

"I thought she loved you?"

Now the man's eyes turned to Liam. "She does," his voice was adamant with life at last. "We're just... going through a rough patch."

"For how long?"

"For... awhile. She's a passionate woman. She just needs a lot of attention."

Liam didn't want to know how much attention his Mother needed. He didn't want to know if this was her first lover after this man or her tenth. When he thought of his father, who claimed to have loved his Mother, he remembered that neither his father's eye nor