Angelo pushed the stray thought out of his mind and listened while Yuri confessed that he was terrified he'd fail maths.
One honey colored lock of hair fell over Yuri's tear-reddened eyes. Angelo brushed it back. “Rest for a while. Take a nap. And when you wake up, I'll help you study. But only if you test me in history.”
Yuri relaxed further until he was nearly a liquid. “'kay,” he whispered, then closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
5
Yuri Pines for What He Cannot Have
Yuri joined Jacki at an Oxford coffee shop, sitting at her table. She had a mug of something chocolaty in front of her and a half-eaten raspberry tart. In front of him was a cooling cappuccino. Yuri lifted it and took a deep sip. No longer hot, but it was still delicious.
“Sorry I'm late,” he said. “Thanks for the drink.”
Jacki sniffed. “It would've been hot if you'd gotten here on time. Isn't that supposed to be the job of that valet of yours? To make sure you aren't late for shit?”
“It's not like he lives with me, or like I even see him all that often. He nags by text, though. He's gotten really good at it.”
“But somehow you still showed up late,” Jacki tsked.
“Simon and I were having a… discussion, back in his room. I had a hard time getting away from him.”
“I bet. What do you see in him, anyway? He's kind of an idiot.”
“I see his arse. His fantastic, bitable arse.” Yuri took another sip of his coffee then added, “He’s also got a huge dick and he knows how to use it.”
Jacki grunted in disgust. “He’s one big giant dick, all right. I hope the sex is worth it.”
Yuri smiled at her and winked. He didn’t want to lie to her, because in truth, the sex was kind of disappointing.
After spending their whole lives together thus far, he and Angelo had finally separated—Angelo to Oxford’s Keble College, and Yuri to St. John’s. For two years they’d lived different lives, in different houses, where they ate in different halls, and saw each other rarely. It wasn’t as if they’d ever had an official relationship in the first place, but after coming to Oxford, the unspoken bonds between them were severed. One day, Yuri knew, they’d have to get married and at least pretend to be in love, but that wouldn’t be for a long, long time. Not before they’d finished schooling and become officially engaged, at least. Until then, they were both free to do as they liked. And who they liked.
Which for Yuri had meant trying to replace the Angelo-shaped gap with an economics major and rugby player named Simon.
He was intelligent, handsome, and best of all, gay. And at first the sex had been really good. Yuri turned out to love giving and receiving blow jobs every bit as much as he’d thought he would. That part was great. Then Simon had talked him into anal, and that had not gone quite as well.
It hurt at first. Yuri had expected that. He’d been sticking toys up his arse for years, though, and thought he had a pretty good idea of how it would feel. In the end, though, it became worse than painful. It was routine. It was boring. It was a chore to be completed.
“What bug is up Simon’s butt, anyway?” Jacki asked. She forked a bite of tart into her mouth then sighed with nearly orgasmic pleasure.
“Stop that. It’s weird. People are looking. And Simon’s pissed off because I won’t go home with him for Christmas.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. I explained to him how I have to be home for Christmas, so he said he could come with me and then I had to tell him why that was not going to happen.”
Jacki snorted. “Yeah. It’s one thing to sow some wild oats. It’s another to bring the field home to meet your parents.”
“Shut up. But yeah. Simon’s upset with me right now. I’ll make it up to him, though.”
“I just bet you will, you perv.”
“Fuck you. How are you and Melanie doing?”
“We are fantastic,” Jacki said, then proceeded to tell him all about how they’d celebrated Melanie’s birthday.
Yuri listened with half an ear, a little anxious about going back to St Johns and seeing Simon tonight. He’d been so angry at Yuri. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could avoid Simon until after the holidays and by that time his temper would’ve cooled down. He could only hope.
Seeing Angelo for the first time in months was far more torturous than Yuri had expected. Angelo was not one tiny iota less gorgeous and he hadn’t grown any fonder of Yuri in his absence.
Angelo spent the break hiding in his room at the castle as much as possible while Yuri had to put up with function after function while wearing the stiffly embroidered and stiflingly hot Mirean royal suit Philippe had insisted he had to wear. Yuri schmoozed with the representatives of various countries while Angelo hid in his room. Yuri diplomatically dodged questions about when his and Angelo's engagement would be made official while Angelo was probably sexting his girlfriend.
It filled Yuri with rage.
“You’re being rude,” Yuri hissed at him at a party. He and his brothers were ridiculously resplendent in their black silk suits embroidered with the crimson griffons and silver wyverns of the Mirean royal coat of arms. Angelo, on the other hand, wore a long navy silk jacket that was buttoned from the high collar to his waist and fell all the way to his knees. It was embroidered with gold lotuses. He’d paired it with loose gold trousers and pointed juttis. He looked absolutely delicious and that added more fuel to the fire of Yuri's temper.
Angelo looked up.
