The Dickens with Love by Josh Lanyon Page B
Authors: Josh Lanyon
Tags: Romance MM, erotic MM
Ads: Link
together tonight.”
“No. We’re not getting together tonight. Or any other night.”
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. That was probably a good thing because anything that came
out would have been humiliating. I’d forgotten how painful and pointless it was to care about another
person.
Into my thoughts, he said in that same clipped, cold voice, “Who is your buyer for The Christmas
Cake . What’s his name?”
“I told you, he wishes to—”
“Remain anonymous? Yes. I imagine he does. Your buyer is Grigori Stephanopoulos, correct?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Safe to say, I’d have never made it as a spy. “I can’t—”
“You don’t have to. Stephanopoulos told you that if I knew he was the buyer, I would not entertain his bid. You knew that. Even if you don’t know the full story, you knew by his own account that this was a man that I would not wish to deal with. You deliberately withheld that information from me. That’s correct, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t seem to find the oxygen to answer him.
Into my stricken silence Sedgwick said, “I already know that it’s correct.”
Words came to me. The wrong words, but I said them anyway. “He’s offering you two million for the
book.”
“I don’t care if he’s offering ten million. I don’t care if he’s the last buyer on the planet. I won’t deal with him—or you. You lied to me from the start.”
“If you would just—”
www.samhainpublishing.com
61
Josh Lanyon
“You’re a liar and a cheat and a whore. It’s been very instructional getting to know you, Mr. Winter,
but our acquaintance is now at an end. Don’t call me again.”
He replaced the receiver with a quiet click.
I listened numbly to the dial tone for long seconds before it occurred to me to hang up.
62
www.samhainpublishing.com
Chapter Nine
Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!
Happy, happy Dickens who never spent Christmas Eve in a department store or mall. Personally, I
doubt if anything was more likely to drive man to want to kill his fellow man than Christmas shopping.
Simply trying to find a place to park is grounds for homicide.
I was scheduled to work early Christmas Eve, and the morning and early afternoon passed in a numb
blur of increasingly frantic customers. By four o’clock I was off with a day and a half of holiday ahead of me. It stretched like a wasteland.
Staying busy helped. Or as busy as one can stay who has virtually no personal obligations. I ordered
America concert tickets for Darcy and that concluded my Christmas shopping. That’s one of the bright
sides of not having anyone in your life around the holidays. No time wasted writing Christmas cards, a fortune saved in stamps and presents. It’s really a positive thing if you look at it right.
I went to Aldine Books on West Sunset and paid for the 1924 edition of Gertrude Chandler Warner’s
The Box-Car Children whichI’d had the legendary “Old Guy” who owned the place put on hold for me.
On the drive home I decided a numb Christmas would be better than a blue one, and I stopped at a liquor store and bought a bottle of E&J VSOP.
I reached home, poured myself a brandy and did my best not to listen to America’s Holiday Harmony
through the wall. I couldn’t help trying to identify the familiar melody, and then it came to me: “A
Christmas to Remember.”
As the snow is gently falling, hang the mistletoe you said, A Christmas to remember lay ahead.
I opened the window to the street and let in the sounds of traffic to drown the music.
It struck me how silly this was. Before I’d heard of that damned Christmas Cake book or met
Sedgwick Crisparkle, I’d been looking forward to nearly two days of nothing to do but read and rest.
Nothing had changed, really. What was I getting so worked up
“No. We’re not getting together tonight. Or any other night.”
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. That was probably a good thing because anything that came
out would have been humiliating. I’d forgotten how painful and pointless it was to care about another
person.
Into my thoughts, he said in that same clipped, cold voice, “Who is your buyer for The Christmas
Cake . What’s his name?”
“I told you, he wishes to—”
“Remain anonymous? Yes. I imagine he does. Your buyer is Grigori Stephanopoulos, correct?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Safe to say, I’d have never made it as a spy. “I can’t—”
“You don’t have to. Stephanopoulos told you that if I knew he was the buyer, I would not entertain his bid. You knew that. Even if you don’t know the full story, you knew by his own account that this was a man that I would not wish to deal with. You deliberately withheld that information from me. That’s correct, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t seem to find the oxygen to answer him.
Into my stricken silence Sedgwick said, “I already know that it’s correct.”
Words came to me. The wrong words, but I said them anyway. “He’s offering you two million for the
book.”
“I don’t care if he’s offering ten million. I don’t care if he’s the last buyer on the planet. I won’t deal with him—or you. You lied to me from the start.”
“If you would just—”
www.samhainpublishing.com
61
Josh Lanyon
“You’re a liar and a cheat and a whore. It’s been very instructional getting to know you, Mr. Winter,
but our acquaintance is now at an end. Don’t call me again.”
He replaced the receiver with a quiet click.
I listened numbly to the dial tone for long seconds before it occurred to me to hang up.
62
www.samhainpublishing.com
Chapter Nine
Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!
Happy, happy Dickens who never spent Christmas Eve in a department store or mall. Personally, I
doubt if anything was more likely to drive man to want to kill his fellow man than Christmas shopping.
Simply trying to find a place to park is grounds for homicide.
I was scheduled to work early Christmas Eve, and the morning and early afternoon passed in a numb
blur of increasingly frantic customers. By four o’clock I was off with a day and a half of holiday ahead of me. It stretched like a wasteland.
Staying busy helped. Or as busy as one can stay who has virtually no personal obligations. I ordered
America concert tickets for Darcy and that concluded my Christmas shopping. That’s one of the bright
sides of not having anyone in your life around the holidays. No time wasted writing Christmas cards, a fortune saved in stamps and presents. It’s really a positive thing if you look at it right.
I went to Aldine Books on West Sunset and paid for the 1924 edition of Gertrude Chandler Warner’s
The Box-Car Children whichI’d had the legendary “Old Guy” who owned the place put on hold for me.
On the drive home I decided a numb Christmas would be better than a blue one, and I stopped at a liquor store and bought a bottle of E&J VSOP.
I reached home, poured myself a brandy and did my best not to listen to America’s Holiday Harmony
through the wall. I couldn’t help trying to identify the familiar melody, and then it came to me: “A
Christmas to Remember.”
As the snow is gently falling, hang the mistletoe you said, A Christmas to remember lay ahead.
I opened the window to the street and let in the sounds of traffic to drown the music.
It struck me how silly this was. Before I’d heard of that damned Christmas Cake book or met
Sedgwick Crisparkle, I’d been looking forward to nearly two days of nothing to do but read and rest.
Nothing had changed, really. What was I getting so worked up
Similar Books
