Kinney and Patrick

"Kinney!" John Aidan Brian Kinney looked up from his journal to see the object of his obsession smiling brightly at him. Eyes that reflected the sky, lips the color of red roses blooming in the Spring sun and a smile that lit his very soul. Kinney loved his wife dearly and yet so drawn to this young man that his very heart ached with need.

"Yes," Kinney replied cooly. Patrick's excitement and his ardor for his mentor were not put off by Kinney's cold nature. Patrick accepted the behavior born of Kinney's station in life and Kinney's need to protect Patrick and Martha, Kinney's wife.

"Join me in the gardens, the day is so fine and I can make use of the exercise." Kinney nodded, closed his book and joined his young lover. "Kinney look!" Patrick pointed to a bright blue butterfly that had lit upon a white rose. "Is it not a thing of beauty? Do you not wish to be as free as this wonderful creature? Able to fly freely."

"And to love freely?" Kinney murmured softly. They moved away so as not to frighten away the butterfly.

The two men slowly strolled through the extensive gardens then took a path that led through the woods to a small stream. It was there they first experienced their forbidden love and there they would set into motion a legacy of more than one hundred years in the making.

Kinney sat upon the great rock listening to the water as it moved across the stones. He watched as Patrick, not more than five years his junior but with such a youthful countenance as to have the look of a child, waded into the shallows. Kinney indulged in one of his most guilty of all pleasures, watching Patrick.

"Kinney," Patrick said with a touch of a whiny plea, "join me. The water is so refreshing." Patrick knew that his tall, stoic, straight-forward lover would never remove his boots and step onto the muddy shore but he could dream. A rustling noise made Patrick turn. There standing in the cool water looking almost uncomfortable was Kinney. His toes barely breaching the shoreline but there he stood.

Patrick stood in awe for the moment. It was a small testament to their love, a gesture but it spoke volumes to Patrick. Kinney the silent, Kinney the cold brooding man, his Kinney, Patrick's love. For, Kinney could not refuse his love anything. Patrick moved closer to the tall man with the intense hazel eyes, eyes that could still lesser men with their gaze. Patrick had no such fears. Standing on tiptoe, barely reaching Kinney's lips, Patrick dared a kiss.

Kinney responded. Their time alone too fleeting, too precious to not return the kiss. Kinney deepened the kiss. He gently lifted the boy to bring him to a soft patch of grass where they could make love comfortably. Then after they would hold each other close.

"We must leave this place," Kinney whispered into the sun kissed golden hair.

"Not yet, please Mr. Kinney, a few more moments, please," Patrick pleaded.

"Patrick..."

"Shh, I know your meaning. You mean to say that we must leave here, your estates, perhaps our very homeland. To make for another place or country where we may live..."

"And love."

"And love, in peace. I know all this. Just a few moments longer. I want to feel the sun on my face, the sun of our home, the sun of where I first made your acquaintance." Kinney nodded and drew Patrick closer into his chest. Both men sighed loudly, tears stained their faces, they knew they must leave.

"Know this, Patrick Taylor, wherever we may call home, for all time to come, you will always be my heart."

"For all time, Mr. Kinney, you will be my love. For all time."

-end snippet 6-

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