Read Online Clockwork Heart: Clockwork Love, Book 1 by Heidi Cullinan - Free Book Online

glowered. “I want to speak to you this evening. The two of us, alone. Unless you have no more need for our friendship, with your pirate lover.”
    With a sigh, Cornelius kissed Valentin’s cheeks. “You are too dramatic. Where shall I meet you?”
    “At The Alison. I’ll reserve the back room.” He kissed Cornelius back and squeezed his arm. “Thank you.”
    Cornelius started toward the door, pausing when he realized Valentin wasn’t following him. He would harangue Johann as soon as they were alone. Cornelius should stop it. Except he didn’t know how.
    Johann winked. “Go. Is good.”
    Yes, but was it really? Cornelius realized when they two were next alone, they would have to have an awkward conversation. Unless of course Johann was already gone, horrified by Conny’s display or chased off by Val.
    Pressing his hand against his suddenly splitting head, Cornelius stumbled out of the room and into the hall, certain the letter Louise possessed and whatever had Félix up in arms couldn’t be half as bad as anything he was leaving behind.
    As the door closed behind Cornelius, Johann and Valentin regarded one another. For a long time they said nothing, but eventually Valentin’s irritation spilled over into words.
    “I’ll give you five hundred francs to go away.”
    Johann said nothing.
    Valentin developed a tic in his cheek. “Eight hundred. A thousand. What is your price to leave him alone?”
    Johann made no reply.
    Valentin’s nostrils flared as he closed the distance between them. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but you’re not telling me the truth. That much I do understand. You should know this—if you hurt him, if you so much as break his heart, I’ll kill you.”
    Johann kept his expression mild. “I feel this also. Do not hurt Cornelius.”
    Valentin made a very French noise through his nose, but said nothing more. Eventually he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
    Alone at last, Johann shut his eyes and let the mask fall away from his face as he allowed himself to acknowledge the weight of what had happened. Of what he had done. What Cornelius had, quite clearly, been happy to have him do.
    The kiss. The kisses. The touching, the holding.
    The wanting. To kiss Cornelius more. To be his lover not for pretend. To make love to him for real.
    It had not been bad. It had not even been merely tolerable. It had been as if someone had lit a flame inside Johann, a torch he hadn’t known he carried. In fact, Johann didn’t know when he’d yearned for something more.
    He decided he would not wait a month to see if it happened again. When Cornelius returned, he would find a way to explain himself. That he wanted to do more than simply kiss. He didn’t fully understand what else taking a male lover would entail, but he was ready to admit he was willing to embark on that adventure.
    He was also fairly sure none of these things would be in the dictionary.
    He wondered, too, if he should find a way to explain some of his past to Cornelius. About how he truly had been a pirate, how what he’d told Valentin had been the truth, with only the part about the army discovering him once more being omitted from the tale. He would tell Cornelius, yes. But he decided he would kiss him first. In case the kisses could help soften the blow, to keep those explanations from making Cornelius want to send Johann away.
    Because that was the only thing Johann wanted now: to stay with Cornelius. With or without the kisses. For as long as Cornelius would let him remain by his side.
    * * * * *
    Cornelius found Master Félix in the vault where the tinker’s most expensive, valuable clockwork prosthetics were kept, which also housed the additionally locked unit where the clockwork heart had been stored. The vault that was now in complete and utter shambles, every bit of priceless clockwork shattered and strewn across the floor.
    Cornelius put a hand to his chest. “Were we burgled?”
    Félix blinked