Rentboy

him. “Say the words, or I’ll start screaming them again.”
    “Cock,” Edward whispered. “Fuck.” He rolled off onto his back, pulling Fox with him until their
    positions were reversed.
    Fox rested his head on Edward’s chest, lying very still. “Now say wank .” Fox ran through a
    litany of sex-related slang while Edward repeated the words. Some were funnier than others, but they
    laughed at them all. After a long while Fox slid off. Edward rolled onto his side, drawing Fox into a
    tight embrace. “Put your leg over me, Eddie.”
    Edward rested his thigh on Fox’s hip and drew Fox’s legs closer with his calf. “Like this?”
    “Yeah, like that. Hold me tight.”
    Fox fell asleep quickly, but Edward stayed awake for a long time, not wanting to miss a minute
    of being with this lovely, funny, sexy young man. An hour later, still unable to sleep, Edward rose, put
    on his glasses, and went naked into the living room. He had been meaning all day to clear up some
    work. For security he never saved any information on his hard drive. Everything to do with his work
    was saved on memory sticks. In the drawer in his desk was the stick with the information about the
    pesticide formula. The only other copy was in the safe in his lab. No one was going to get their hands
    on the original compound for Lintrane. Tests had proved it lethal to humans when it was supposed to
    kill only insects. The revised formula he had been working on for weeks was completely safe, and
    that was the one he would submit to the pharmaceutical company.
    Edward took the memory stick with the dodgy data on it into the kitchen and put it on the wooden
    chopping board. With the meat mallet his mother had bought him and which he had never used for
    cooking, he smashed the memory stick and then dropped it in a plastic beaker full of water, poured
    salt into it, and went back to bed. Fox was still in the same position he had been in when Edward left.
    He lay down, pulled the young man into his arms, and finally fell asleep.
    Chapter Four
    Tossing aside a science magazine and an empty pizza box, Fox sat on the couch to pull on his
    jeans and the black Gravel boots he’d bought from Sinister Soles on the Tottenham Court Road. As he
    fastened the buckles down the sides he speculated why Eddie had not wondered how a rentboy who
    supposedly lived in a box in a back alley could afford boots that cost a hundred and fifty quid. But the
    dude was a total nerd. He probably had no idea how much they cost.
    Why did I have to admit I cut myself? Now he’ll think I’m some psychotic emo idiot who
    spends his spare time sitting in graveyards reading poems by Stevie Smith and Sylvia Plath. But
    the very fact that he had admitted it at all made him wonder about Eddie and why he had trusted him.
    He’d never admitted to anyone before that the way he dealt with his pain was to create yet more of it.
    Fox retrieved his black shirt and finished dressing.
    Amid the clutter on the desk was Eddie’s laptop. Fox glanced at the bedroom door. All he
    needed to do was take the laptop and leave. Then he noticed a couple of memory sticks. The
    information his father wanted might be on those. Eddie would think he had taken the stuff to sell. But
    even as he shoved the computer into his leather backpack, the thought of Eddie waking up and seeing
    his laptop gone, believing him to be a common thief was untenable. He was such a lovely man, Fox
    wanted Eddie to think well of him. In the same instant a picture of what his father would do to him
    and the twins if he returned without it bloomed in his mind’s eye as he headed for the door.
    Without knowing why, he crept back to the bedroom door to take one last look at Eddie. Naked,
    his lean body lay sprawled across the bed on his side; Eddie was really long and thin, almost as bony
    as Fox. And he was right; his nose was long and narrow, hawk-like, but it suited him.
    Sorry, Eddie.
    Quiet even in big boots, Fox made his way across the wood floor and left quickly. The house
    was silent. He went carefully down the staircase and let himself out into the pitch-black street. In the
    distance Big Ben chimed five o’clock.
    I can’t go home yet. I hate being there. The twins will still be asleep, so they’ll be safe.
    Fox walked away from the oasis of Eddie’s little flat, wondering how he could finish college,
    take care of the twins, keep a roof over their heads, and keep them all fed. There were two choices.
    Spend the