They Came to Buy My Sister, So I Went in Her Place as a Boy novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Loft
"Come up," I said.
It was all I said.
I opened the pen gate and let him through.
He came in past the dog, who sniffed his hand and sat down.
I took his hand.
It was cold from the road.
I led him across the yard in the dark, past the house with its one dim window and past the sleeping flock, to the byre at the back.
The loft was over it.
It had been my father's, and then Xabier's and mine, where we slept in summer when the house was too hot.
I had not been up there in five years.
The ladder was dry and sound.
I climbed first, and I heard him come after me, his weight shaking every rung.
At the top I lit the lantern that hung from the rafter and turned it low.
The hay was piled deep against the far wall, sweet and new.
The slates were close over our heads.
It had begun to rain.
It came on all at once, hard and loud on the roof.
He stood bent under the beam with his hat still in his fist.
"Take it off," I said.
He put the hat down.
"Take everything off."
He did.
He stripped slowly in the lantern light with his eyes on my face.
He laid coat and shirt and boots and the rest on the boards, one by one.
When he was bare he stood with his hands at his sides and let me look.
The light ran gold over his chest.
It showed me every scar, the long one on his arm, the one on his ribs, the pale seam on his thigh.
He was hard and flushed and very still.
I walked all the way round him.
I put my hand flat on the middle of his back.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of They Came to Buy My Sister, So I Went in Her Place as a Boy are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend