Arthur & Max

I recommend reading this short after finishing Wilde Love. Enjoy!

Bonus scene from Wilde Love

Arthur

While it wasn’t my place to complain, a man such as myself had certain… needs. And I was sick and damned tired of watching Lior and his Felix all perfect and sex-drunk half the time when I, myself, was getting the sum total of zero love.

And by love, I meant sex.

And by sex, I meant hard fucking.

Because, as I said, a man had needs.

Standing at the Wilde wedding watching those two sweet old souls renew their lifelong commitment to each other was like something out of a dream. It was too good to be true, seeing them celebrate over forty years together as committed, loving life partners.

I spent the ceremony on the verge of inappropriate emotional leakage, but I successfully distracted myself with thoughts of the incredible wine Felix would sneak me at the reception later. He’d still not gotten used to having a manservant and treated me more like a bro than a valet. While most of the time I spurred his public attempts to be my bud, when it came to wine, I wasn’t proud. I’d accept whatever the hell he saw fit to give me. The day Lio had explained we were going to Napa for a wedding, it was the Napa part I’d latched onto with a thudding heart.

Screw the wedding nonsense. I wanted to get taste the good stuff.

By the time the Marians and Wildes were three sheets—okay make that five or more sheets—to the wind, I was also sporting a silent but seductive buzz. And I was… needful.

There should be a better word for it besides horny. That word was so inelegant.

But dear god, if I was going to be forced into a room with dozens of beautiful gay men, what else did I expect to happen? It was like taking James Bond to Monaco and not letting him gamble. Unfair and unnatural.

From the very beginning, I’d had my eye on a cutie with dimples who turned out to be one of Felix’s cousins. I would never in a million years act on my attraction to the man, of course, but I was definitely enjoying the view so long as he was around.

He was fairly short with slender muscles, and I only really knew about the muscles because I’d seen him in jogging tights and a fitted running top outside on a walking trail. Little white ear buds had stuck out bright against his inky black curls and half of his shirt had been rucked up, revealing one half of a luscious bottom that made my palms… also needful.

Later, the group of Marians and Wildes had all gathered in the lodge lobby for an impromptu cocktail hour and I’d overheard someone call him Max. I’d been tempted to ask Felix about him, but in the end, I’d tamped down the urge. Poor Felix was so distracted and anxious about performing his grandfathers’ ceremony, I didn’t want to give him something else to stress over.

And the “help” drooling over his adorable cousin was silliness Felix didn’t need when two of the most important men in his life were getting ready to renew their vows.

So I asked Sassy Wilde. And got an ear full.

Apparently, sweet Max Wilde was unlucky in love like myself. In addition to being the victim of horrible bullying as a teen, he’d also had his heart smashed by his college boyfriend. Since then, at least according to his cousin Sassy, he’d scoffed at any attempt to set him up.

Which meant there was a slight possibility I could have no-strings sex with the adorable man without him wanting to dive into something more.

Because I was over forty and getting a little too old and set in my ways to consider anything serious. What kind of man would want to move into the royal palace with me anyway? No. I simply needed to scratch my itch.

And if I had one more glass of wine, maybe I’d be stupid enough to do it with a Wilde.

❖

Max

When I first saw Arthur, I thought he was a movie star. Maybe a friend of Aunt Jackie’s or a famous friend of the Marians. He was beautiful in a mature way with salt and pepper hair and laugh lines to the side of his eyes. Then I’d realized who he was. Felix had told me all about Arthur.

He was the king’s valet which was essentially the man who handled Felix’s husband’s personal affairs. Which meant the man lived in Europe—in a castle no less. Way, way out of my league.

But he was hot as hell.

And I was feeling so fucking sorry for myself at yet another Wilde wedding where I had absolutely zero chance of ever being the groom.

“Needs mores drinks,” I muttered to no one in particular.

“The plural stage of Max’s drunkenness has begun,” Hallie shouted in triumph. “I loves plurals Maxes.”

“I don’ts…” Whats weres we talkings abouts? “I don’ts knows whats plurals Maxes means,” I admitted.

“Shh,” Hallie said, brushing her slim fingers through my hair. Her manicured nails felt good along my scalp. “Babies needs heads scratches.”

“Everyone’s havings sexes,” I lamented. “‘Cept Maxes.”

Hallie said something to one of her brothers and within moments, pushed a bottle of water into my hands. “Chug, sweetie.”

So I did. I was nothing if not obedient. When that one was empty, she handed me another glass of wine except this one was suspiciously clear and tasted a lot like water.

“Wha’s dis?” I asked, studying it.

“Pinot Aqua. It’s new.”

“Huh.” I guzzled it down even though it wasn’t as tasty as the other stuff. After a while, I realized I’d been played. “I blame you for the loss of my good buzz.”

Hallie lifted a perfectly waxed brow. “Then I hope you blame me for your lack of hangover tomorrow too.”

“Mpfh.” It only made me sober enough to really realize that everyone was getting lucky except me. “Wah,” I threw in for good measure.

As we watched men toss their partners over their shoulders for whatever the precursor to the walk of shame was, the sexual tension in the room thickened like… thick… whatever.

Now I couldn’t stop thinking about thick things. I wanted some thick things. I glanced over at the beautiful be-suited man standing against a far wall. Arthur radiated calm patience. I wondered idly how many times he’d had to stand around watching a bunch of people get drunk off their asses.

Asses.

I tilted my head back and forth, opening first one eye then the next to see if I could catch a glimpse of the man’s posterior. He caught me gawping at him.

I groaned and accidentally blurted my thoughts out loud. “For the love of god, is there any gay man willing to toss me over his shoulder and take me to his bed?”

Arthur’s eyes heated. Almost in slow motion, he stepped away from the wall and bent at the waist in a formal bow.

“Sir, allow me.”

It was like something out of a movie. He strode over to me and scooped me up, proving to the entire room that age doesn’t mean you can’t go caveman on a dude.

“Eep,” I squeaked when he tossed me over his shoulder. “Omigod, is this happening?”

He smelled like money. Not a dirty wad of crumpled up bills, but some kind of elegant, old-world fragrance that I thought must have been formulated especially for my heart. Or dick. Or something.

“Yes,” I muffled into the back of his suit coat. “Yes, please.”

“Your room or mine, ma crevette?”

I spoke French, but wondered if my buzzed brain was misremembering the word for necktie.

My brain spun with the options of which room we should escape to. “Um… I… huh?”

His warm hand ran up the back of my thigh to my ass like he was exploring the prize he’d won at the fair. It gave me the guts to put my own palms possessively under the tail of his jacket and feel the firm cheeks under the smooth wool of his suit. The minute I grabbed on, they flexed.

“Sweet Jesus,” I moaned. “That’s… that’s a nice set of… muscles.”

His light chuckle made me wish I could see his face, so I was glad when he got us into a room and set me down on the floor in front of him. Arthur’s eyes were intense and focused directly on mine.

“Hi,” he said softly. “I’m Arthur Biancheri.”

My heart thump thumped. “Max Wilde.”

“Will you let me take you to bed, Max Wilde?”

“Please.” It came out in a scratchy croak so I cleared my throat and tried again. “I’d like that more than anything.”

Arthur’s hands slid into my hair on either side of my head, my eyes drifted closed, and a sigh escaped my lips. I was expecting his mouth on mine, our first kiss, but that’s not what happened.

His hands moved to my collar and began opening my shirt as his lips brushed across my cheek to my ear, his breath hot along my skin.

“Je te veux,” he whispered into my ear.

I want you.

“Oh god,” I breathed.

“T’embrasser…”

To kiss you.

His lips brushed down my neck, the tip of his tongue coming out to taste my collarbone, and back up to my other ear.

“Te toucher,” he murmured.

To touch you.

“Arthur,” I whimpered. “Please.”

“What do you want, ma crevette?”

“Kisses.”

Arthur’s lips caressed my jaw before teasing my mouth. When he finally pressed in with a full-on kiss, I tasted traces of white wine and sexy man. What a heady combination.

I sank against him as his mouth took charge of me, exploring and teasing, while his hands moved around to grasp my back and my neck to hold me close. I felt like a puddle of want and need. My dick pulsed against the front of his suit pants, but every time I tried to press my hips against him, he shifted.

I wanted to speed things along, to get him naked as soon as possible. After pushing his jacket off, I worked his tie open and began picking desperately at his buttons.

“Too fucking tiny. Help,” I pleaded. “I can’t… my fingers don’t work.”

Arthur’s smile was indulgent. “Let me. Finish getting undressed and lie on the bed, beautiful.”

I scrambled out of my clothes like they were on fire and I threw myself on the pristine hotel bed. Naked starfish ready and willing. All I needed was a distinguished valet to climb on and pound me into the mattress.

After sending up a particularly polite but harried prayer to the gods of lube and condoms, I glanced over at Arthur to see what the holdup was.

“Hngh,” I babbled as soon as I saw him standing there in naked splendor. The man was fit and hung like a motherfucking porn star. If porn stars had pretty-pretty, giant uncut dicks. Which, they did. “Nnnngh.”

“Acceptable?” he teased. “Not going to kick me out?”

“Gnfh,” I said with the international double hand signal for gimme that dick.

He crawled onto the bed and dropped open mouth kisses from my ankle to my inner thigh, running his warm hands over my calves and thighs and hips until reaching for my straining cock

“Are you drunk right now, Max?” he asked, meeting my eyes.

I knew what he was asking and I wanted there to be no mistaking my consent. “I was earlier, but I’m not now. Ok, maybe a little buzzed still, but I know exactly what I’m doing, Arthur. I want this. I promise.”

He nodded and smiled which only deepened the laugh lines by his eyes and made me want him more. The man was sexy as fuck.

After teasing all around the base of my cock with his mouth, he finally took it into his mouth.

“God yes,” I cried when what I really wanted to do was chant suck it, suck it, for the love of god, suck it.

I ran my fingers into his thick hair, reveling in the few waves that had defied his styling products. I wanted to mess this pristine valet up and see him flushed and debauched from fucking me senseless.

As he bobbed over my cock, teasing the crown with his talented tongue, I threw my head back in pleasure.

And almost knocked myself out on the headboard.

❖

Arthur

I heard the bang and looked up. Tears filled Max’s eyes suddenly and overflowed onto his flushed cheeks. I realized he’d hurt himself on the headboard.

“Cripes,” I said, crawling up his body to examine his head. “Baby, what happened?”

His beautiful dark eyes met mine. His lashes were deep black with shining droplets of tears caught in them. “Hit my head like an idiot.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” I murmured as I moved around to take a look at the back of his head. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m so stupid,” he said with a sniff. I moved his hand out of the way and felt gingerly for a bump. Sure enough, one was forming. I moved off the bed and began to throw on some clothes. He looked at me with wet eyes. “Where are you going?”

“To get some ice. I’ll be quick. Get under the covers and stay warm, alright?”

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I ruined everything.”

I smiled at him and walked over to kiss his forehead before clasping his face and forcing him to look at me. “You ruined nothing. I love to take care of people. Let me do this.”

He reluctantly nodded so I grabbed the key card and ice bucket before exiting the room in search of an ice machine. Once I found it, I returned and made up an ice compress with a hand towel. When I sat next to him on the bed, he automatically leaned in to my side. I moved us around until he was lying sideways on my lap and I could hold the ice on his head.

“How’d you become a valet?” Max asked. “You said you like to take care of people. Is that how you…?”

“It’s actually sort of an inherited position,” I explained. “My father and grandfather were also in service to the monarchy. So it was a natural thing for me to pursue.”

“Do you like, intern or something for that?”

“Sort of. I was sent to boarding schools and university to get the same education as Lior. It’s very different from a house servant or something like that. While many of my duties are domestic, I also help manage his life in ways people don’t expect. That’s why I need to have a high level of education. Because a valet is often someone a royal spends copious amounts of time with, we have quite a bit of influence on them. For that reason, there are very high standards of both education and integrity. At least, that’s how it’s done in our country.”

“Wow. I had no idea. That’s really interesting. Do you like it?”

I couldn’t keep my hands out of his dark curly hair. “I do like it. Mostly because I love Lior like a brother and making his life easier makes me happy.”

Max turned over to face me. He was so cute and sexy, my heart thumped faster when he looked at me.

“That’s really sweet,” he said. “I feel that way about my family too.”

I brushed the curls back from his forehead, but they fell back as soon as my hand moved away. “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a nanny.” His cheeks pinked and his eyes cast down as if there was something to be ashamed of.

I tilted his chin up with my finger. “That’s amazing. The kids must love you.”

His smile was self-deprecating. “They love me because they have me wrapped around their little finger. Despite all my early childhood classes in college, I’m total mush when one of them quivers a chin at me.”

“Do you want kids of your own one day?”

Max shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably not. I love being able to walk away at the end of the day. Maybe that sounds terrible, but I have dreams that don’t really include kids.”

“Like what?” I shifted so we were lying side-by-side facing each other. After reaching for his hand, I held it in mine and toyed with his fingers.

“I want to travel. I love history and art. Felix has told me so much about Gadleigh Castle, and I want to actually see places like that, you know?”

I nodded and smiled. “It’s amazing. I’d love to show it to you. I’m sure Felix would too. Why haven’t you come visit before?”

He blushed and looked down again which honestly hardened my dick inappropriately. I couldn’t help it—he was so sweet and delightful.

“I want someone to share it with. And I…” He shrugged. “I don’t really date. I’ve had some bad experiences, so…” He shrugged again. “Anyway, I’ll see it one day.”

My heart tightened in my chest. I leaned in and kissed him softly, telling him without words that he was worthy of being taken care of.

After I’d lost my breath from kissing him, I pulled back. “Will you stay with me tonight, crevette?”

“Doesn’t that mean necktie?” he asked. His eyes were glazed from the kisses and his lips were puffy.

“Cravate is necktie. Crevette is…” I eyed him, wondering if he’d take offense. “Shrimp.”

Max smiled and leaned in to kiss me again, muttering something about how sexy men can make any word sound sexy. I didn’t pay much attention to it because I was too busy noticing the pain from earlier wasn’t in his eyes anymore. As we kissed, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him on top of me, turning onto my back and wrapping my legs around the back of his.

He was hard, and the tip of his cock left sticky streaks across my stomach as he pressed into me. My hands cupped his glorious ass, and I realized I was a selfish bastard. How could I want to fuck him after he’d smashed his head only a little while earlier?

“I’m fine,” he muttered into my mouth. The little devil could read my mind. “Please. I want you, Arthur.”

I ran my hands all over him, up his slender back and across his rounded shoulders. When my grip returned to his ass cheeks, I pulled him in tight to me.

“Can I please—”

He cut me off. “Yes! Yes. Whatever you’re asking, the answer is yes.”

I smiled and ducked down to suck on his neck before flipping him onto his back and moving back down to his cock to resume the oral pleasure I’d been giving him before he bumped his head. Once he began gasping and begging, I couldn’t hold back anymore.

I needed to be inside him.

❖

Max

I’ll be honest. I’m sort of slutty anyway. But being with Arthur made me absolutely brainless and desperate. I begged him to fuck me, whimpering like a sex-starved lunatic.

He sucked down my cock like a pro, but that wasn’t what I wanted from him. I wanted his dick in my ass. I wanted to feel full of him, to feel joined together and be able to look in his eyes while he thrust into me.

“Please,” I asked again. “Arthur.”

“You’re so beautiful right now, sweetheart. Flushed and wild-eyed. Just look at you,” Arthur murmured as he kissed a path back up to my neck. The man knew exactly how to kiss the right spots to make me dizzy.

“Fuck me,” I said, panting like an over-excited puppy. “Need you inside me. Need you, need you.”

“Shhh. I have you, ma crevette. Je t’ai.”

I have you.

I moaned again and closed my eyes in surrender. Patience. I could do this.

While I concentrated on the feel of his soft lips, the gentle scrape of his evening whiskers, he must have somehow magicked up some lube because suddenly his fingers were at my entrance slick and demanding.

I tried to say something along the lines of yes, please, but it came out more of a garbled choke. Arthur’s sexy rumble of a laugh warmed everything inside of me.

His fingers circled and teased until finally pressing in and working my body into compliance. I writhed beneath him and enjoyed every second of it.

When Arthur finally began pressing his fat cock into me, I gasped. My knees were folded up by my face and my hands explored every inch of his lightly furred chest.

“Keep going. So good,” I told him, finally focusing enough to meet his eyes. “You feel amazing inside me, Arthur.”

His face softened into a kind of tenderness. I felt like his beloved treasure when he looked at me like that. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be his partner, the man he loved. Because even just being in bed with him for this one night was incredible and made me feel cherished and invincible.

I squeezed my eyes for a split second when the stretch became uncomfortable, and he immediately stopped.

“Breathe, sweetheart.”

I reached up to cup his face. He was so sweet, so kind. “It’s fine. Keep going.” I wrapped my legs around him to pull him in.

When he started moving again, he leaned in to kiss me. His tongue entered my mouth right when his dick pressed past my gland and shot fireworks through my body.

“Good god, do that again,” I begged. “Oh god. Arthur, fuck.”

He thrust into me with increasing speed as I cried out and clutched at him.

“Tu est mon fantasme devenu réalité.”

You are my fantasy come to life.

His voice barely made it into my ears, but when it did, I heard the affectionate tone and knew he had a heart. I felt both owned and cared for at the same time.

“Arthur,” I cried as he pegged my gland again. My cock was rock hard and leaking all over my stomach. As soon as I cried out his name, he reached for me and began stroking me off in time with his thrusts. It felt so fucking good.

“Ah fuck. Fuck.” I gasped and came in warm shots all over his hand and my own stomach. The shocks of pleasure throughout my body stole my breath, but when I finally sucked in some air, I heard Arthur grunt before calling my name.

After his climax, Arthur locked eyes with me, pinning me with his intense stare. We were both still gasping for breath, but it seemed like something was shifting between us. It hadn’t felt like an anonymous quick fuck to me.

I’d gone into this hoping to get laid. But now… now I wanted to stay the night with him, to curl up against his sexy, strong body and sleep in the protection of his arms.

I drew an index finger along his jaw. “You… that… I don’t know what to say.”

Please don’t make me go.

Arthur continued to study me for a beat before speaking. “I have not had enough of you, ma crevette. You will need to stay with me until I have.”

But he never did.

So when Felix and Lio announced admitted the following morning they wanted to have kids sooner rather than later and made a joke about hiring me as their nanny, it didn’t seem like such a joke. It seemed like fate.

Which is how I ended up staying with Arthur forever.