Mr. Preston gazed long into Jon's eyes after hearing from his own mouth that he had recently been seeing his uncle. Breaking his stare, he glanced up at the balcony once more wondering what they had thought about this, or if Jonathan had even told them.
"Joshua, please don't make me feel silly or crazy. I'm serious about this." Jon tried to keep his cool and not grab the man's arm, as he wanted to do.
"It's fine, Jon. You don't need to worry about it. It's all probably nothing more than a subconscious desire hidden deep inside you that you may not even realize just now," he looked back at Jonathan giving him a smile as best he could. "You haven't told them, have you?"
"No." Jonathan moved closer to the car and away from Mr. Preston.
"Jonathan." The man followed him, urgent to express his meaning. "You can't hide this from them if they care for you as I suspect they do. Let them help you carry this, at least. It's a burden you don't need to pack around on your own, son."
"I can't worry them with this, Joshua. They would probably think I'm nuts anyway. They already think I'm crazy for even grieving over Jim like I am," he turned to face the man speaking low so those upstairs couldn't hear him.
"Have you talked to this apparition?" Mr. Preston asked now.
"No! What, do
you
think I'm crazy too? Hell no, I ain't talked to it." Jonathan started out loudly, then quieted his voice cringing that he had most likely alerted Tony to them, who by now, had disappeared from the balcony.
Mr. Preston opened the passenger's side door turning to Jonathan as Tony came out the front door of the mansion. He shrugged "Maybe you should..." his grin and wink told Jonathan that he was joking, yet serious.
Jonathan laughed as he watched Mr. Preston close his door. Backing away, he looked on, as the car slowly move around the drive and back down the path to the main road at the end.
"You didn't tell him, Mr. Preston." The driver asked as he drove them out of sight of Jonathan and Tony.
"He's not ready, Charles. When he is I'll tell him, but not a moment before." Mr. Preston became suddenly irritable.
The driver only nodded in answer leaving his thoughts to himself.
Tony's gentle hand brought him back to reality being placed on his shoulder. "You about ready to eat, or do I have to force feed you again?" The man fussed teasingly.
Jonathan turned to him grinning, "That might be fun. Can I resist just a little?"
"Hmm." The man grinned wryly at him. "Are you possibly wantin' some attention, or is that your hand in your pocket, I see?"
"No, not my hand, Tony. But, you know that, don't you?" Jonathan's expression seemed to suddenly fade to a more serious look.
"Yes, Jonathan. And you know I'm always ready when you are." The man surrounded him in his arms planting his lips to the young man's abruptly.
Jonathan moaned at the feel of Tony's power and control over him. He thrilled in the sensations he felt as the man's one hand clutched the back of his head, the other firmly moving down his back and over his bottom. There it pressed him taut to him while he plundered Jonathan's mouth with mastery and urgency. Leaning forward a bit, Jonathan allowed his arms to dangle giving his lover the sense of utter control over him, which he knew would heighten Tony's experience even more. The trust between them was all that kept Jonathan from hanging onto the man for dear life.
As abruptly as he began, he clinched a handful of hair yanking Jonathan's head back. Staring into his face for a moment he could see the young man was up for some rough treatment, at which he would gladly oblige. Pulling him up straight with him, he forced him ahead of him while he pushed him to move toward the door by the hair.
"Get yer ass upstairs, boy. You an' me got somethin' to talk about." His tone was gruff and brash.
Jonathan giggled at his authority, only to rouse him more.
"Yer laughing at me?" He suddenly halted, jerking Jonathan back to his body grasping his lower jaw tight, his fingers biting into his flesh meanly. "You think this is funny? You just wait till I get you upstairs, boy. You won't think it's so funny then."
"Oh, I hope not, Tony." Jonathan boldly let him know what he really wanted with his emphasis and the seriousness in his tone and expression.
"Well hell, baby. If you needed it that bad, you only had to say so." Tony's breathing elevated slightly at the daring way Jonathan was staring at him. It was as if he would defy him to go further than they had ever gone in the many times they had simulated a rape, or just played the master/slave role with each other. Tony had always been cautious with Jonathan, not wanting to injure him, or cause him pain, or at least more pain than he could stand. But, now it seemed Jonathan would challenge him to go beyond that with him now.
"I won't hurt you, Jonathan." He warned.
"Did I ask you to?" The young man fired back quickly.
Tony's eyes narrowed at the mixed signals Jonathan was sending him now. Knowing the young man the way he did, he surmised he was only playing this game to incite him further.
"Get up those stairs, boy." He finally shoved Jonathan ahead, still grasping a handful of hair tight. Jonathan moved quickly up toward the door, pushing it open, starting toward the banister.
"Oh, my." Forrest halted in his tracks coming from the south wing. "Sir!" he called out to Tony in exasperation of what he saw and his deep concern for Master Jonathan.
"Its fine, Forrest. We're just playing a game, ok?" Jonathan quickly assured him that no harm was being done. At the moment, Tony was keeping Jonathan an arm length away pushing him up the steps to the second floor with haste.
"Are you sure, sir?" The man needed more affirmation than was given at the moment.
"I promise, Forrest. It's only a game. Nothing to worry about." Jonathan couldn't look back at the man, but followed the lead of Tony's rough guidance that didn't seem to care that Forrest was upset by the sight of this. They disappeared into the south wing of the second floor, away from Mr. Bowman's old room and the family.
"Sir, we haven't finished preparing that wing!" Forrest called up to them from where they stood.
"It's fine, Forrest." He heard Jonathan call back to him. Shrugging, the man then went on about his business.
Tony led him to the room he used to reside in when he was working undercover there. Pushing the door open hard, he shoved Jonathan toward the sheet covered room. Everything had been covered once news of Mr. Bowman's death had reached the help. Supposing that it might be a long while before anyone would reside there again, the servants had gone about each room covering mirrors, furniture and the like. They locked up the walk-in freezer and the refrigerator was practically cleaned out. They presumed there was no sense in leaving good vegetables and such to rot.
Jonathan kept his footing, barely, standing straight and would have turned to face his lover of the moment when Mr. Bowman caught his eye in a corner near the closet. This was a room the man had frequented when Tony lived here before and it stood to reason; Jonathan would see him there now.
He gasped coming up on his toes as he caught himself teetering forward once more. When he caught his balance again, he stood staring at the man in the corner long. Again, he was the same as he had seen him in his coffin, wearing the dark olive green Italian suit he had been buried in. Yet, his eyes were open and he smiled at Jonathan, standing in the corner as if he had never died.
Tony halted suddenly as Jonathan gasped; he reached for him, as he appeared to almost fall face foreword to the floor. Then as the young man steadied himself, he watched as every ounce of color faded from Jonathan's face.
"What's wrong, Jonathan?" He muttered to him slowly coming up close behind him.
"What do you want from me?" Jonathan bellowed at the empty corner that Tony had looked at following the direction of his stare.
"Jonathan!" Tony reached for his shoulder just as he spun taking to a run out the door they had come in. He glanced back at the corner squinting to see if he could see anything there, but saw nothing. What had Jonathan seen that was now upsetting him so? Then the sudden thought of Jonathan's upset possibly driving him to do something more than dangerous to himself if not foolish at that, forced him to ignore whatever it had been that upset him.
He raced after him not seeing the direction he had gone in. Jonathan had disappeared completely by the time he made it to the balcony over the foyer. Rushing ahead, he crashed open the doors of the room the rest of them were in and ran out onto the balcony.
"Jonathan saw something in my old room! Now he's loose in the mansion. I need help to find him fast!" he voiced breathlessly.
