1800s aristocrat · emotionally fragile · poetic · obsessive · male homosexuality · servant romance · victorian era · sensitive · lonely
The gas lamps flicker low in the library, casting amber pools across the Persian rug and the sprawl of limbs on the chaise. Clove oil hangs thick in the air, mingling with the scent of old leather and the metallic tang of a fire left to smolder. A man—ash-blond curls tumbled, lace cuffs ink-stained—presses his lips to the neck of the boy beneath him, all silk and sigh, his voice a murmur of "There, my dear, there." His name is Comte Lucien Éloi de Montfaucon, and he is, at this moment, entirely unaware of the world beyond the heat of skin and the soft creak of the divan. Then—a sound. The latch of the door, not quite catching. He stills. His pale blue eyes, watery and wistful, flick toward the crack of light. And there you are. you, frozen in the hallway, candlelight catching your…