Cal shook his head with a little laugh, taking another sip of his ruby ale. "You are a far braver man than I."
Morgan frowned at him, one finger absently circling the rim of his glass. "Surely being a tutor isn't that bad -"
Cal smiled again, amused at his friend's stunning naivete. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Who's the brat, anyway?"
"Lord Lynch's son," said Morgan smugly. "The famously pious, paragon of virtue."
Cal merely raised his eyebrows. "And you're sure that's not propaganda designed to get high-ranking noblewomen to fall in love with him?"
"Yes," snapped Morgan.
"Come back in a fortnight and tell me if I was right."
*~*~
Morgan's position as Richard Lynch's tutor began two days later, and Cal's mildly ominous words were still echoing in his mind as he sat opposite his new student.
The Right Honourable Richard Lynch was eighteen years old, with lustrous flaxen hair that fell in waves to his shoulders, and plump lips with a cupid's bow that had been designed by Aphrodite herself. He sat primly in his chair, slender manicured hands folded decorously on the table, waiting for his new tutor to speak.
Morgan swallowed. Suddenly, he felt a dark urge to throw him on the floor and hold him down and paint him in his cum.
When he still didn't speak, Richard said, "So, you're my new music tutor. How many instruments do you play?"
Morgan unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth, that honey-sweet, dew-clear voice washing over him like a spell. "A slightly more complicated question than one might think -"
"Because you play the violin and, by extension, similar instruments such as the viola and double bass?"
"Yes, that's right. You're very quick." Richard gave a little smile at the praise, and Morgan's pulse stuttered. "I also play the harp, flute, and piano."
"Impressive," said Richard. "Violin is my favourite; may we commence with that?"
"Y-yes, of course."
To Morgan's utter lack of surprise, Richard played beautifully, as though he channelled .Orpheus through his delicate, gold-ringed fingers. His eyes were closed, lips slightly parted, as each note poured seamlessly from the stringers. The music seemed to augment his beauty a hundredfold, and Morgan had to sit down as a dizzying wave of lust came over him.
Despite Morgan's unforeseen attraction to his student, he thought that his new job was going rather way. Richard was as agreeable and polite as his reputation indicated, and he was finally succeeding in persuading himself that Cal had just been bullshitting as usual. Richard had a habit of standing unnecessarily close to Morgan when he was demonstrating a technique, which rendered Morgan's lust greater by every passing day, but other than that things were going perfectly.
Until they weren't.
Richard was being uncharacteristically petulant, acting like a child. "I don't want to play the harp, I want to play the violin," pouted Richard.
"Richard," Morgan began patiently, "you can already play the violin beautifully. I am not being paid to teach you things you already know."
"But I don't want to. The strings hurt my fingers."
"The strings - you play the violin, that has strings!"
Richard crossed his legs. "But only the harp's hurt my fingers. I won't play it."
"You'll do as I say," barked Morgan.
Richard took a step closer to him, and despite himself, Morgan felt a frisson of desire go down his spine. "No, you will do what I say. I am your employer!"
That was when Morgan's temper snapped.
He slammed Richard against the gold and scarlet brocade wallpaper, yanking his arms behind his back. Richard whimpered in fright.
"Stop being a brat," snarled Morgan. "You may be an adult, but your father put me in charge of you for our lessons, so you will obey me."
"Fuck you," spat Richard.
Anger and lust coursed through Morgan's veins, entwining and merging until one was indistinguishable from the other. All he wanted to do was hold Richard down and fuck him roughly with his hand around his throat, hissing that this was what happened when young men disrespected their superiors.
God, what the fuck was happening to him? When had he become so depraved?
"What are you going to do?" sneered Richard. "You can't punish me, my father will -"
With an animalistic growl Morgan pulled him away from the wall, sitting down heavily on the velvet chaise-longue and hauled him onto his knee, arse sticking up in the air. Richard struggled, making a noise of outrage, but Morgan held him fast. "Let me go!" he yelled. "How dare you! I am not a child -"
"If you don't want to be treated like a child, then you shouldn't fucking act like one." He pulled down Richard' breeches, exposing his arse to the coolness of the parlour.
He reached for the first thing he saw, the violin bow, and struck.