Chapter Five

 

Their first week together had gone by far too quickly for Ethan's liking. He wanted to wait until the end of the two weeks before he lost his memory, but Caleb had convinced him otherwise. If anything went wrong, they had another week to work on how to get it right.

"You need to know you live here and remember the house," Caleb explained. "I think you should spend some time alone here, while I go to the supermarket and stock up on essentials."

"I'd rather come with you."

"I know you would, but we have to do this sooner or later, and I'd rather it not be on a day when you have to go to work."

Ethan re-read the note on the counter in front of him. It was short and to the point. He didn't like it. He wanted to hold onto his precious memories of his time with Caleb for as long as possible.

"It'll be fine," Caleb said. "I'll be back in about an hour, and we'll talk about things when I get back."

Ethan sighed and drew Caleb in for a long, lingering kiss. "Hurry back."

He watched him go, closing the front door behind him. He could still see him through the window, but the moment he disappeared out of sight, he forgot what he was looking at.

He stared around the house in surprise and confusion. "What the fuck?"

Where the hell was he? How did he get here? Whose house was this? Where was his shirt? Was that a love bite?

The questions ran through his mind one after another. He had no clue what had happened to him. Fuck!

After a couple of minutes of panic, he spotted the note on the counter.

Ethan, stop panicking. You live here with Caleb. He will be back soon and will explain everything. In the meantime, look around the house.

"Look around the house," Ethan muttered. "What the fuck am I supposed to be looking for?" He recognised his own handwriting on the note, and the signature was his, but he had no recollection of writing it.

"Caleb, Caleb." He remembered he was supposed to have met Caleb for a night of hot sex—the man who everyone forgot after sleeping with. "Ah, this is something to do with Caleb and the memory loss thing."

Feeling a little more certain of what had happened, Ethan decided to take his own advice and explore the house he apparently lived in. There wasn't much to see. The place was modern in style and furnishings, though most appeared to be rather impersonal. He did find all his own clothes, alongside those of an obviously taller man, in the wardrobe and chest of drawers. The handful of books he owned was on a shelf in the study. Here and there throughout the house he found items he'd last seen in his own flat. The trunk in the bedroom contained a few sex toys, but nothing he recognised. In the bathroom he found his favourite aftershave, as well as his usual brands of toiletries. They were stored alongside ones he'd never used in his life. He took a sniff of the aftershave he assumed to be Caleb's and quickly resealed it. He didn't recognise the smell, and it was far stronger than he liked.

After he'd seen everything in the house, as well as taken a wander round the garden, he kicked back on the sofa and waited for Caleb to return from wherever the hell he'd gone.

When the tall, dark-haired man walked in the door, laden down with carrier bags, Ethan guessed he was Caleb.

"How are you doing?" Caleb asked, as he dumped the bags on the kitchen table.

"You left me on my own with no fucking memory of where I was or anything," Ethan shouted. "How do you think I'm doing?"

Caleb rolled his eyes and tossed him a packet of Ethan's favourite brand of biscuits. "That was the whole point. You had to remember this place to be able to come back here again. Now you'll remember exploring the place on your own, unlike this conversation, which will disappear at some point in the not-too-distant future."

"I think I should have left a longer note for myself," Ethan said. "I have no idea what the hell you're talking about."

Caleb sat down beside Ethan and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Ethan leant into Caleb immediately, only a few seconds later wondering why he felt so comfortable in doing so with a man he'd just met. He was still contemplating his reaction when he realised Caleb was explaining things to him.

"I'm cursed to be forgotten by all men who have sex with me. As soon as they leave my presence—or I leave theirs—they forget everything about me, including places. You moved in here a week ago. Today I left you alone for the first time since you moved in. What's the last thing you remember before being here?"

Ethan thought back. "I remember going to see you."

"When? For our appointment?"

"No. After that. I remember hearing messages on my answer machine from the two of us that night. You said…" Ethan struggled to remember Caleb's words. He knew he'd said something, and whatever it had been, it'd drawn Ethan back to him, but for the life of him, Ethan couldn't remember the words.

Caleb sighed. "You told me you had to come back to me when you heard me after you'd left."

"All I remember is standing by the machine. Everything else is a blur."

"I'm surprised you remember even that much. Try not to let the memory loss bother you. At least we have ways of leaving messages to remind you of me—notes, recordings, videos."

Ethan chuckled. "That has some interesting possibilities."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm thinking we make a video of the two of us together to explain things to me for the next time I lose my memory."

"I thought we decided long messages would waste a lot of time."

"I don't remember. Anyway, I wasn't thinking long, just something more than the note I left this time. That didn't do a great deal to stop me panicking."

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of chances to perfect this," Caleb said. "What do you think you needed to know this time that you didn't tell yourself?"

"That my boyfriend—you are my boyfriend, yes?—is cursed."

Caleb nodded. "Let me grab a video camera to see if we can sort your message, then we can spend the next week together without having to worry about what happens when you go back to work."

Ethan let Caleb set up the camera to record them as they sat side by side on the sofa.

"I have no idea what to say," Ethan said. "I suck at this."

Caleb patted him on the leg. "Let me start then. Hi, Ethan. I'm Caleb."

Ethan snickered beside him. Caleb frowned at him. "What would you suggest I say?" he asked. "You need to know who I am."

"I know. Carry on. I'll try not to laugh at the ridiculousness of this whole thing."

Caleb faced the camera again. "I'm Caleb, and I'm cursed to be forgotten by any man I have sex with. As soon as they leave my presence, they forget everything about me. I'm your new boyfriend, and you're living with me in my house."

"That's it?" Ethan asked when Caleb stopped talking, apparently at a loss for words.

"We decided on short and to the point, rather than going through everything we've said and done."

"That was really short, though."

"Maybe I should include a warning about Len."

"Who's Len?"

"My point exactly," Caleb said. "He's a warlock and the bastard who cursed me in the first place."

"Perhaps you should include a description in case I run into him."

"You've met him anyway. He served you at the club the first night you came to see me."

"Oh yeah, I remember him. He's a warlock?" Ethan hesitated. "You mean a real live warlock, like a witch, right?"

"Yes."

"Fuck me!"

Caleb sighed. "You see why this could become long-winded, remarkably quickly?"

"I guess."

"And this isn't even including anything about me being over two hundred years old or the stuff about what we enjoy sexually." Caleb switched off the camera. "Short and sweet is better, remember? Now, how are you going to know to play the recording to yourself?"

"I've no idea. Can't you tell me to?"

"Before or after you panic about where you are and who the strange man is?"

"This is going to be hard, isn't it?"

"Yes," Caleb said. "But we knew it wouldn't be easy before we began, didn't we?"

"I don't remember," Ethan muttered.

"Maybe we should rethink whether this is even workable," Caleb said. "If we're already struggling this early into the relationship, perhaps it might be better to cut our losses now, before one or both of us ends up with a broken heart."

"Before you end up with a broken heart, you mean," Ethan said. "Mine will be intact, since I won't remember any of this."

Caleb didn't bother to argue with him. "You should go for a walk and think things over. There's a nice park just along the road. We went there a couple of days ago. Maybe some fresh air will help."

"Won't I forget you as soon as I go outside? How will that help me consider my options?"

"You'll remember because we've not had sex since you lost your memory of me."

"So, what you're saying is…as long as we keep our cocks in our pants, my memory will be fine."

Caleb shook his head. "If one of us comes in the presence of the other, you'll lose your memories. Whether you come in my arse, down my throat, or in your own pants is irrelevant."

"Terrific. A life of celibacy is the only way I get to remember my boyfriend. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?"

"Neither of us did," Caleb replied. "I think we're both agreed that's never going to happen, which brings us back to Plan A—and how best to remind you of what you need to know."

Ethan went to find a shirt and jacket and headed out for a walk. He had to figure this out and quickly. Even though he could only recall spending these last few minutes with Caleb, not even an hour, he wouldn't have moved in with him if he hadn't thought him worth the effort. He just had to work out the best way to keep this relationship from falling apart.

He wandered round the park for a while and eventually found a bench to sit on to mull over his thoughts. He didn't see Len heading toward him to sit beside him. He jumped when the bartender nudged him with his elbow.

"Why are you putting yourself through this?" Len asked quietly. "He's not worth it, you know."

"I think he is," Ethan replied.

"He's a player who's had the tables turned on him. If I lifted the curse, he'd be jumping into bed with the next willing man faster than you can blink."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because it's what he does. Before he met me, he didn't remember the names of any of the men he fucked. Now they forget him, and he doesn't like it."

"He might have been like that before you cursed him, but now he's different."

"He's the same man he always was, and we both know it. If I removed the curse, he'd fuck you and leave you, just as he did me."

Ethan stared at Len. "You're jealous!"

"Of you? Don't make me laugh."

"You are. He forgot you, didn't he? So you cursed him, and this is your revenge, making him suffer until he finds his soulmate." Something flickered across Len's face and a horrible thought entered Ethan's mind. "Two hundred years is an awful long time for someone to be searching for their true love."

"Is it?" Len shrugged and gazed off into the distance.

"Why hasn't Caleb found his soulmate yet?"

Len smirked unpleasantly, and Ethan's suspicions increased.

"He has no soulmate," Ethan whispered. "That's why the curse is still on him, isn't it?"

"You're a clever one, aren't you?" Len sneered. "Of course there's no such thing as soulmates."

"Except for those who sleep with him," Ethan amended. "They find their other halves."

"No one has a soulmate," Len replied.

"Then how do you explain the other men finding love so quickly?"

Len laughed then shook his head. "They all had a little help from me. It's surprising how effective love potions can be, when they're made by one as talented as I."

Ethan felt slightly sick. "Did you give me one?"

"Yes, it was in your beer, but you stubbornly stayed with Caleb, the one man it won't work on, when the mixture was at its most potent."

"You bastard." Ethan wanted to punch the warlock, but there was one more question he wanted an answer to. "If soulmates don't exist, how can Caleb's curse be broken?"

"It can't, obviously, unless I lift it myself."

"Then Caleb never had any chance of finding love."

"Not a hope."

"Why do you continue to let him believe he can break the curse?"

Len laughed again, apparently finding this question even more amusing than the rest of the conversation. "Because it gives him hope," he eventually explained.

Ethan finally understood. Len found pleasure in watching Caleb suffer, and as long as Caleb had hope, the warlock could watch it be shattered, over and over again. "How long do you intend to let Caleb suffer because of your jealousy?"

"If I were the jealous type, why would I sit back and watch him fuck his way through half the population of England for two hundred years?"

"Because you want to watch him suffer. He's grown up since he fucked you, but you're still a petty, jealous, vindictive little bastard."

"He'll cast you aside if I remove the curse."

"No, he won't."

"I know him better than you ever will."

Ethan stood and glared at Len. "No, you don't. And I'll prove it by sticking by his side, no matter how difficult you try to make things for us."

"If I removed the curse, it would be over for the two of you."

"You keep saying that." Ethan laughed. "I don't see you proving it, though. You're all talk and no fucking balls."

Len stood so they were eye to eye once more. Then he smiled, and the malicious grin was one of the most terrifying things Ethan had ever seen. He vanished into thin air, and Ethan shivered. He had a feeling he hadn't seen the last of the warlock.

 

*****

 

Caleb paced the living room while he waited for Ethan to come home. He didn't want to influence his decision, but he wasn't above throwing himself at Ethan's feet and begging him to stay.

Even though he'd initially been reluctant to try a relationship, the brief taste of living with Ethan had made him an addict.

When Ethan finally walked through the door, his face was even more morose than when he'd left. He frowned, his brow furrowed, and he looked as if he might want to punch something or someone.

"Is everything okay?" Caleb asked. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know the answer. Was Ethan giving up on them already? Caleb wouldn't blame him if he did.

"I just had a charming visit from Len," Ethan said. "Does he always vanish into thin air in the middle of public places?"

"Not always, no. But he doesn't care if anyone sees him. He knows no one would believe their eyes, or they would assume he is some sort of magician with hidden cameras around the area. In this modern age, he can get away with such stunts. What did he say to you?"

"We talked about the curse." Ethan hesitated, and Caleb had a feeling he was debating what to tell him.

"What is it?"

"There's no way to lift the curse, unless Len ends it himself."

"Or if I find my soulmate," Caleb replied. "Not that I intend to look for him now that I have you here."

Ethan shook his head. "Len says there's no such thing as soulmates. There's no way to break the curse. There never was."

Caleb sighed as Ethan confirmed what he'd suspected for many years now. "It's okay. I guess, deep down, I always thought that might be the case."

"I can't believe Len let you believe there was a way to break the curse all these years. He's a dick."

"I know. Unfortunately, there's not a great deal I can do about him."

"I figured as much. At least he helped make my decision easier."

"He did?"

"Yeah. He reminded me what a stubborn git I am, and I'm not giving up just yet."

Caleb rushed over to Ethan, pulled him into his arms then breathed in deeply.

"You thought I would leave you?" Ethan guessed.

"It crossed my mind."

"I've no intention of leaving you to suffer any more at the hands of Len. So, you'd better get used to having me round, even if it means we spend more time than we want going over who you are and why I keep forgetting you."

Caleb squeezed Ethan tight. "I don't mind."

"Good, because I don't think Len's going to be lifting the curse anytime soon, despite his repeatedly telling me how you'd dump me immediately if he did."

"Dump you?" Caleb pulled back just enough from him to look Ethan in the face. "Not a chance."

Ethan smiled and kissed Caleb quickly on the lips. Caleb tried to deepen the kiss, but Ethan didn't give him chance to.

"Come on, and let's see whether this video works or whether we need to add anything else."

Caleb held Ethan and stopped him moving to the table where they'd left the camera. "We can't test it yet."

"Why not?" Ethan asked.

"Have you forgotten so soon exactly how this works?"

"Apparently."

"Sex first," Caleb reminded him with a grin.

Ethan laughed and walked him backward to the sofa. "I can't believe I forgot the most important thing about this whole mess."

"That makes two of us." Caleb dropped into his seat, pulling Ethan on top of him. "I guess I'll have to keep reminding you of that too."

Ethan tore at his clothes. "I think I'll need lots of reminders—daily ones. Hell, better make them hourly."

"I think I can manage that," Caleb replied.