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“Thank you for indulging me in talking about my travels, Sir Phillip,” Colin said sincerely. It had been one of the most pleasant evenings he’d experienced in quite some time.
“You’re always welcome,” Phillip replied, his gaze locking with Colin’s. The candlelight danced across the room, casting a soft glow that deepened the expression in Colin’s eyes. The air shifted, charged with something intimate. Colin’s lips parted slightly, caught off guard by the sudden pull between them.
But before he could respond, the moment shattered. A servant entered the dining hall, and Colin was abruptly reminded of their surroundings and of Marina, who had been present the entire time.
“Sir,” the servant addressed Phillip, “we’ve received word that highwaymen have been spotted nearby. Your guest will be unable to travel home tonight.”
“Thank you for informing us,” Phillip said with a nod, then turned to Marina.
“I suppose I’ll have the servants prepare a room for you,” she said to Colin, her voice quiet, almost gentle. “They’ll let you know when it’s ready. I’m retiring for the night. Good evening, gentlemen.”
With a graceful nod, she exited, leaving Colin and Phillip alone once more.
“Well, that’s a turn of events,” Colin said, breaking the silence with a crooked grin.
Phillip chuckled, a touch nervously. “Yes, quite. But, as I mentioned, you’re always welcome here. I’d actually appreciate the company. Nights are usually quiet… Marina turns in early, and I’m often left alone.”
Colin glanced around the room, candlelight flickering off polished wood and aged books. “Well, if I had to be stranded somewhere, this certainly isn’t a bad place to end up.”
Phillip smiled, the tension in his shoulders easing. The two returned to their discussion, heads leaning in over the large botanical book splayed open on the table.
They flipped through several worn pages until they came upon the extinct plant Silphium.
“I’ve always wished I could’ve seen this in person,” Phillip said, tapping the illustration. “They say it was an aphrodisiac.”
Colin smirked. “Can’t say I have much experience with those.”
“Really?” Phillip asked, tone curious.
“No,” Colin said, voice dropping slightly, his gaze intensifying. “Never needed it. A good conversation is usually enough.”
Phillip’s breath hitched. He looked away for a beat, then back, slower. “No, I suppose I haven’t needed them either… not that the opportunity’s ever really presented itself.”
Colin’s smile deepened, a quiet confidence dancing in his expression.
Phillip swallowed, then added, “I do have some saffron in the greenhouse. They say it has similar properties. Would you like to see it?”
Colin tilted his head, clearly intrigued. “I would.”
Without waiting another moment, Phillip stood, perhaps a bit too quickly and motioned for Colin to follow. As they walked side by side through the hall, Phillip could feel his heart thudding, louder than before, the air between them taut with something unsaid.
The walk to Phillip’s greenhouse was quiet but far from still. Every step echoed with a current Colin couldn’t explain, the silence between them heavy with anticipation. The chill of the night clung to their coats, but the closeness of their strides warmed the space between them.
“Welcome to where I spend all my free time,” Phillip said, opening the greenhouse door.
A rush of warm, humid air greeted them, fragrant with soil and the faint sweetness of flowering herbs. Colin stepped inside and paused, stunned. Phillip moved quickly, lighting a series of oil lamps and candles, their glow flickering across broad leaves and curling vines.
Colin slowly turned on the spot, taking in the jungle of foreign flora. “This place is… extraordinary,” he murmured. Then, his eyes widened. “Wait, is that an olive tree?”
Phillip smiled with a quiet kind of pride. “It is. A farmer in Paxos gave me a shoot. Barely survived the journey back, but I nurtured it like a child. Just recently harvested enough olives to make this.” He reached over and picked up a small vial of almost golden oil from his workbench, holding it up to the candlelight.
Colin stared at it in awe. “You are incredible, Sir Phillip.”
Phillip flushed, his gaze dropping as he looked away, suddenly shy. “Hardly.”
“No, really,” Colin stepped closer. “Most people would’ve given up on something like that. But you brought life across an ocean… and kept it alive.”
Phillip looked up, his eyes meeting Colin’s. The warmth of the greenhouse wrapped around them like a cocoon, the outside world forgotten.
“I suppose I just needed something to care for,” Phillip said softly.
A beat passed. Then another. Neither moved.
Colin took another step forward. “I can see that.”
The space between them narrowed, breath mingling in the humid air. Candlelight played across Phillip’s features, casting soft shadows across his cheekbones, the curve of his mouth. Colin’s gaze lingered there, his expression unreadable but his intent becoming clearer with every breath.
Phillip’s hand, still holding the vial, trembled slightly. He set it down without looking, every ounce of his attention fixed on the man standing inches from him.
“I didn’t expect tonight to turn out like this,” Phillip whispered, voice barely audible.
“Neither did I,” Colin replied, his voice low and rough, eyes flicking to Phillip’s lips.
Phillip’s breath caught. Neither moved, but the tension crackled, electric, as if the entire greenhouse was holding its breath with them.
Phillip’s eyes dropped involuntarily to the fullness of Colin’s lips, then flicked back up to meet eyes that had darkened like a storm rolling in at midnight. The soft warmth of candlelight caught the shimmer in Colin’s gaze. There, barely perceptible, was a nod subtle, but unmistakable.
Then Phillip was kissing him.
It was sudden, hungry, but with a tenderness just beneath the hunger as if Phillip were both claiming and revering him at once. He pulled back for only a breath, but Colin was already panting, lips parted, gasping for something he didn’t even know he’d been starving for until this moment.
God, he needed this man, needed to be ruined by him, rebuilt by him, devoured whole.
Colin surged forward, groaning into the next kiss with a desperation that made his fingers twist into the back of Phillip’s hair. Their mouths met again, deeper, messier, the kiss no longer a question but a demand. Phillip answered by plunging his tongue into Colin’s mouth with a kind of desperate precision, tasting, teasing, taking.
Colin whimpered against him, letting go of the reins completely. He surrendered, letting Phillip lead this frenzied dance of lips and breath and heat. There was nothing polite in it now, only raw, aching want.
And then, just as quickly, they broke apart, gasping, cheeks flushed, eyes wild, both men staring at each other like they’d found the missing half of something they hadn’t known they were searching for.
“I need more,” Phillip whispered, his voice rough with want.
Colin’s mouth curved into something between a smirk and a plea. “Then take it.”
The air between them held still for a single heartbeat and then they moved.
Hands slid under fabric with practiced urgency, peeling away the layers between them as if clothing were a cruel joke. Shirts were tugged, coats cast off, breaches were loosened. Fingers stumbled over belts and waistbands, not bothering to be gentle anymore. They stripped each other in feverish silence, until both men stood bare.
“Are you certain you want this?” Phillip whispered, his voice low as his eyes roamed slowly over Colin’s sculpted form, each muscle kissed by candlelight, every inch of him a living echo of the statues Phillip had once admired in silence. Only this was no roman statue, this was heat and breath and trembling need.
“Yes,” Colin gasped, nodding with urgency, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Just the sight of Phillip bare, strong, eyes burning with desire had him aching, pulsing, completely undone.
Phillip’s lips curled into something dark and hungry. “Good,” he murmured. “Lie down.”
Colin obeyed without hesitation, reclining onto the bench beneath him, legs parting with bold, unspoken invitation. There was no shame in him now only want, raw and open.
Phillip stepped forward, slow and deliberate, reaching for the small vial on the workbench. He held it up for a moment, letting the golden oil catch the light before pouring a few drops into his palm.
“Seems we found the perfect use for this,” Colin said with a breathless smile, voice thick with anticipation.
Phillip didn’t answer with words only a smirk, and a wicked glint in his eyes as he slicked his fingers with the oil, the scent of olives mingling with the humid air around them.
Colin needed this
Phillip swirled one slick finger at Colin’s puckered entrance as he slowly entered him, watching in awe as Colin bloomed open at the intrusion.
Colin moaned at the unfamiliar yet very welcome feeling, he had no idea such a sting could feel so pleasurable.
“M…more please” Colin managed to moan out.
Phillip quickly added the second finger, slowly working him open, as he watched the way Colin’s brow furrowed when he hit certain spots. He was so beautiful under the pale light of the moon.
He needed him, all that's holy couldn't stop this path they were taking now. Phillip kissed past his lips to his jaw, enjoying the buzz his throat made as Colin moaned whilst Phillip began to scissor inside him.
“Im ready, please” Colin gasped out at a particularly hard thrust of Phillips fingers. Colin proceeded to whimper at the loss of Phillips fingers.
“Such good manners, how could I ever refuse you” Phillip whispered into Colin's ear before once again standing straight. The sight beneath him was truly the greatest he'd ever seen, better than finding an endangered plant on one of his expeditions.
Colin's legs were spread lewdly apart, his cock leaking against his chistled stomach, and his eyes were already half lidded after only taking his fingers. Such a sight made Phillip painfully hard.
Phillip poured some of the olive oil into his hands, stroking it down his cock, he shuddered at the sensation of finally being touched, even by his own hand, he was determined to make this as purely pleasurable an experience for Colin as it would be for him.
Phillip positioned himself at Colin’s entrance, pausing to look up, searching his eyes one last time for certainty. Colin met his gaze and gave a quick, eager nod, breath already catching.
As Phillip began to slowly press forward, Colin gritted his teeth, a soft sigh escaping him each breath a blend of sharpness and pleasure, pain edged with desire.
Phillip sank into him with a single, fluid thrust, burying himself to the hilt. The breath rushed from Colin’s lungs, stolen by the sudden fullness, by the weight of the moment. Their eyes locked, unblinking. For the first time, Colin wasn’t the wandering traveller, and Phillip wasn’t the reclusive botanist. In that gaze, they were no longer separate, they were one.
“Please,” Colin whispered, voice trembling, not from pain but from need, raw, and aching.
Phillip’s hips began to move in slow, deliberate rhythm, testing what Colin could take, each shallow thrust a question, each moan an answer. He watched every shift in Colin’s face, listening to the symphony of his sighs and gasps, learning him by touch, by instinct.
The greenhouse glass trembled with each of Phillip’s deepening thrusts, the rhythm of their bodies echoing in the humid air. Their mingled groans filled the space, a symphony of breathless yeses and whispered names, each sound heavy with need, with something far more than just lust.
Phillip leaned in closer, sweat beading at his brow, lips brushing against Colin’s ear as his pace grew more urgent, more consuming. And then finally his hand wrapped around Colin’s neglected cock.
Colin let out a startled, broken sound, somewhere between a gasp and a squeak, the added sensation overwhelming. His hips bucked instinctively, chasing the friction, his body caught in the exquisite balance between too much and not enough.
Phillip matched his rhythm to Colin’s rising cries, stroking in time with each thrust, every motion building toward something inevitable, something earth-shattering. Colin’s hands clawed at Phillip’s back, his body trembling, unraveling under the weight of it all.
And when release came, it came with a cry, Colin’s body arching, heart thundering, Phillip following not long after with a low, guttural moan, burying his face in the crook of Colin’s neck as he finished deeply inside him.
Phillip collapsed onto the warmth and dampness of Colin’s stomach, breath still uneven, heart pounding against skin. Colin’s fingers moved gently over his back in slow, soothing strokes, grounding them both in the quiet afterglow.
For a long moment, they simply breathed together.
Then Phillip broke the silence, voice low and laced with a hint of laughter.
“I guess we didn’t need the aphrodisiac after all.”
“No… we really didn’t.” Colin chuckled, his chest rising beneath Phillip’s cheek.
Phillip shifted slightly, resting his chin just above Colin’s heart. “That was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” he murmured, the sincerity in his voice soft but undeniable.
Colin’s gaze lingered on the ceiling, but his voice came quietly. “It was everything… and more.” He turned his eyes to Phillip’s, vulnerability flickering beneath the edge of his smile. “How am I supposed to let you go now?”
Phillip lifted himself just enough to meet Colin’s eyes directly, brushing a thumb across his cheek. “What I said still stands,” he said gently. “You’re always welcome here.”
Their eyes held an aching longing. No more words were needed. They remained like that, bodies tangled, hearts steadying together in the warmth of their shared silence. For now, they were still one, wrapped in a moment they both knew wouldn’t be left behind.