Six months later Mal chose his moment carefully. He couldn’t bring it up at dinner, not when Will was there. Tom rarely assumed his brittle, too-charming mask these days, even when uncomfortable subjects were raised before others, but this might be a bridge too far. Wandering Maberley’s woods often left Tom in a receptive mood, but Mal was terrified that Tom might simply run away if he had the open ground to do so. Tempting to ambush him immediately after f*****g him, but no. Mal wasn’t the most sensitive of men, but even he knew that the news of his correspondence with Tom’s estranged brother was not best broken while Tom lay gasping for breath with Mal still buried inside him. Even if it was doubly tempting to bring it up before he untied Tom’s wrists from the bedpost, when Tom couldn’t
