“Naturally, but it’s not the done thing here. I find that every country has these odd taboos. I’ll tell him you have an open mind on the subject. Fucking is all they’re really interested in.”

  Theo replied at length to Johnny’s brief remark while he and Robbie continued to stimulate each other’s erections. Robbie was hardly conscious of revealing his most secret and unmentionable desires to a comparative stranger. Johnny took everything for granted.

  “He says he doesn’t usually like it but he wants you to,” Johnny reported. “No, that isn’t quite it. He says that he doesn’t usually like boys who want to do it but he doesn’t mind if you do because you’re different. He wants you to have everything you want.”

  They tried to see into each other’s eyes in the dark while Johnny spoke. Their mouths met and opened to each other again and they exchanged another tumultuous kiss. Their hands became more agitated on their erections. Robbie could feel that they were both close to orgasm. He broke away with a cry and dropped to his knees between Theo’s legs and measured the soaring flesh with both hands and stretched his mouth wide to receive it. He thought of Rico and acknowledged his debt to him for having shown him what he wanted. He was worshiping at the source of life, paying obeisance to a primal force greater than his own. Theo pushed a cloth into his hand and made a low growling sound in his throat. Robbie hastily moved the cloth to his erection and ejaculated into it while Theo’s body gave a leap and Robbie’s mouth was filled with sweetish aromatic fluid. He tasted the thrilling mystery of it and swallowed it with joy. He continued to suck on the superb flesh until it began to dwindle. He lifted himself back onto the bench and Theo put his arm around him and drew him close and kissed the side of his face and spoke.

  “What’s he saying now?” Robbie asked the dark shape forward.

  “Why he doesn’t know is best known to yourselves, but he wants to be sure you came.”

  “God, yes.” He turned an ecstatic face to his lover and nodded. Theo hugged him and laughed.

  “Forgive my asking but you must make allowances for my curiosity. Is his cock enormous?”

  “Yes. Unbelievable.”

  “So we’ve all heard. He’s famous for it although I’ve never known anybody before who can speak with authority. You’re one of the elect. With your looks, I’d expect you to be. I’ve heard ten inches.”

  “I don’t know but it could be. Maybe more.”

  “Lumme. If the first fine frenzy has passed, shouldn’t we get back? I don’t want everybody to think I’m aiding and abetting an elopement.”

  “Yes. Just tell him I don’t care what I have to do. I’m going to be with him tonight.”

  Greek was spoken while Theo’s arm tightened around him. “He’s glad you agree because he wasn’t going to give you any choice,” Johnny explained. “He says that the moment he saw you he wanted you more than he’s ever wanted a boy in his life.”

  Robbie settled back against his lover with a sigh of profound contentment. He’d made love to the great cock. If anything went wrong later, at least he’d had that.

  Theo kicked the engine into noisy activity and turned and headed toward town. Robbie trailed the cloth he had used in the water and kept his other hand on Theo’s quiescent sex. He felt it stir whenever they exchanged a kiss. He could still feel his hands on him everywhere, wanting all of him. His arm around him now was so possessive that he felt as if he could never give himself to anybody else. As they neared the lights of the town, they arranged their clothes and fastened buttons. They looked into each other’s eyes when there was light enough to see the desire burning in them, promising them the ultimate union.

  When he could see him clearly again on the bright waterfront, Robbie was stunned anew by the Greek boy’s looks. He was boldly handsome. His strong straight nose gave force to an otherwise endearingly gentle face. His generous mouth was a composition of fluid, enticing curves. When he turned his wide-set eyes to Robbie, they contained depths of slightly awed, amorous devotion. Robbie could scarcely believe that he knew the stalwart body almost as intimately as anybody could. They strolled along the waterfront toward the sound of music with their arms around each other.

  “Do you all have the boys here?” Robbie asked Johnny. After what had taken place, the question seemed no more than politely conversational, although it was hard to imagine the Englishman as anybody’s bedmate.

  “How charming of you to ask. The boys all have each other. I’m not very keen on sex myself. I’m a very visual person. You doubtless are too, but you’re a supreme beauty. I dare say that affects one’s responses to life. You can’t keep it all to yourself. Given the choice, I’m inclined to like the occasional girl. The poor things are usually so grateful, unlike you dazzling boys.”

  “But then—” Robbie felt hopelessly out of his depth. Here was another man who preferred girls but who took it for granted that boys made love to each other. He would never get it all straight. “You didn’t mind talking about those things?”

  “I minded not being able to see more. It’s very sensible to settle the basic questions beforehand. In this particular case, I think I envy both of you.”

  “I can’t thank you enough. You’ve been awfully damn understanding.”

  “Why not? All these boys are my friends. People talk a great deal of nonsense about sex. Try not to let it confuse you. You’re still very young but old enough to get away from your parents when you choose. They’re surely more understanding than you think.”

  The music was growing louder, an odd Eastern wail. They turned in at an arched door and were submerged in a din of shouting voices and the insistent music. A small orchestra played at the end of a wide, bare, harshly lighted room filled with long tables set around a clearing in the middle. Robbie caught sight of Mrs. Dianopoulou’s party at the end of one of the tables. There were no women at any of the other tables in the room. When he looked around, Johnny had disappeared. Theo took his hand and led him in among the tables and seated him between two handsome youths who looked so much alike that he assumed they were twins. They greeted Theo exuberantly with much handclasping and patting of each other’s backs. Theo squeezed a chair in beside Robbie and spoke at length. Robbie heard Theo’s name for him being repeated and caught the word “adelphos.” These must be two of Theo’s married brothers. There was a family resemblance and they were as fair as Theo. The latter pointed first at one and then the other and repeated names. “Niko. Tassos.” Niko had wavy hair. Tassos’s was straight. Otherwise Robbie couldn’t have told them apart.

  “Niko. Tassos,” Robbie said, looking from one to the other. They all laughed and nodded and Niko put an arm around his shoulder and hugged him. Theo took Robbie’s hand and put it on his cock. It was hard again. So was Robbie’s. Theo put an arm around his waist and moved his other hand slowly over him, up along his ribs and across his chest and down to his groin where his erection was imprisoned. He was making it clear to everybody that he had chosen Robbie; they were pairing off publicly. It amazed Robbie but he loved it. He wished he could stay forever. Copper tankards of retsina were set out along the table and Theo filled a glass and held it to Robbie’s lips for him to drink. As soon as he had done so, Robbie took the glass and held it for Theo. They continued to share the glass, refilling it constantly and feeding each other wine. When their eyes met, they became inextricably fixed in each other. Sometimes they were able to break the contact by laughing at themselves, Theo’s laughter so joyously youthful that Robbie wondered if he might be younger than he, and sometimes their gaze grew so intense and their hands moved with such urgency on each other that he didn’t think they could stay out of each other’s arms a moment longer.

  He had time to observe that in the exclusively male gathering, except for the Dianopoulou party, they weren’t the only pair exchanging physical endearments. A good many arms were around a good many shoulders. Couples sang as they looked yearningly into each other’s eyes. Groups danced together, lined up on the floor in a row linked by the handkerchiefs they held in their hands. They dipped and stamped and leaped in skillful unison to an elusive beat. There were slow dances and fast dances, sometimes with a leader, always in a row. This pattern was broken when two boys moved onto the floor and performed a dance of astonishingly explicit eroticism. To Robbie, it appeared to be a mating rite and he hoped his parents wouldn’t be shocked. Occasionally, he caught his mother’s eye from several tables away and smiled and nodded distractedly at her before he returned his enthralled attention to Theo.

  Helene felt guilty about leaving the boy to his own devices. It wasn’t the sort of evening he was apt to enjoy. He would find the noise and the rough boys irritating, although he seemed to be playing some sort of game involving a wineglass with the handsome lad beside him. She didn’t quite know how he’d been separated from the party. She’d thought he was with the young English painter and then they’d both disappeared. She really shouldn’t have let herself get so taken up by Carl. The music grew faster and suddenly Mrs. Dianopoulou was on her feet and whirling into the lead of a row of dancers. She moved with charming grace and assurance.

  “You see?” Carl said, leaning close to Helene to make himself heard. “She is wrong to make fun of me when I tell her she is beautiful.” He spoke with disarming affection. Helene thought he was really very nice but wished he didn’t make her feel that he was about to pounce.

  They were all a bit giddy from the long evening of retsina. Robbie swayed and propped himself against the table as Theo disengaged himself from him and rose. He stood with a hand on his shoulder and spoke to him. The hand seemed to be telling him to stay where he was. Their eyes gazed lingeringly at each other. Theo gave his chin a tender little tap and turned away. The twins stood and patted Robbie’s shoulders and followed. Robbie’s eyes roved admiringly over their wide shoulders and slim hips. All three had similar builds, the twins more developed and mature, too compact and muscular to be graceful but sexually compelling. He wondered if they were alike in every detail.

  The music came to a halt and the musicians began to put away their instruments. There was a general movement toward the exit. Robbie searched for his interpreter and saw him standing at Mrs. Dianopoulou’s side. He hurried to him and drew him aside while the party prepared to leave.

  “He’s gone. What do I do now? He seemed to want me to stay here,” Robbie said in an undertone.

  “I doubt it. They’re closing. Don’t worry,” Johnny reassured him. “One thing about an island is that you always know where everybody is. He’ll turn up at the right moment.”

  They all drifted out, Robbie dragging his feet beside Johnny in case Theo came back for him. He knew they would find each other somewhere. Their hands on each other all evening, the last look they had exchanged were guarantees that Theo wouldn’t let him get away.

  They wandered along the waterfront, everybody telling Mrs. Dianopoulou and each other what a fascinating evening it had been. Johnny nudged Robbie and nodded ahead of them. Robbie saw three familiar figures standing under a streetlight and he was instantly afire with the need to be at the Greek boy’s side. He was disappointed that the twins were still there but realized that he would never dare go off with Theo if they weren’t. Numbers lent innocence. He said a polite goodnight to everybody and murmured another word of gratitude to Johnny and moved on toward Theo, trying not to hurry. The three brothers gathered around him, all talking at once, and pointed at a boat. Robbie supposed they were putting on a performance for his parents’ sake. He looked into Theo’s eyes and laughed and touched his hand. He heard a motor start and voices calling, among them his mother’s, and the motor went puttering off across the water. Robbie turned as his parents approached.

  “These are friends of Johnny Metcalfe. They want me to go somewhere with them,” he explained. “I think they want to show me where they live. Do you mind? They’re brothers.”

  “Run along,” his father said. “Go see something of the real Greece. You can tell us all about it in the morning.”

  “Aren’t you tired?” his mother asked. She wondered if he really wanted to go off with these simple good-looking boys or didn’t know how to refuse and was waiting for help from her. She had shirked her responsibility to him enough for today. “Don’t you want to tell them you’ve had a pretty long evening?”

  “I’m not remotely tired. I don’t suppose I’ll be very long.” He held his breath, ready to do battle, but she only gave him a thoughtful look and nodded and they both said goodnight and strolled on. At least he could count on his father not to interfere. He expelled a long liberated breath and Theo seized his arm and they leaped together onto a bigger boat than the one Theo had been running. Theo moved purposefully along the benchlike seat, pushing cushions onto the forward floorboards. A lamp on the short mast cast a shadowy shifting pool of light on the forward area, too bright for privacy. The twins edged past them, gripping their arms from behind and shoving them toward each other, and continued to the stern. The engine started and Theo made a grab for Robbie and pulled him down onto the improvised bed. Privacy was forgotten as they came together with the breathless urgency of lovers who have been interrupted in an act of passion. Clothes were flung aside. They were gloriously naked together. Their hands grappled with their bodies while their mouths devoured each other. They rolled about, clasped in each other’s arms, in a passion to get into each other’s skin. Their hands and mouths were everywhere on each other. The motor drowned their shouts and moans and laughter. Robbie saw that the engine housing offered some shelter from onlookers but he didn’t really care. They were all brothers. Theo’s cock slammed about against him as Robbie twisted and turned to feel it all over him. They had sudden uncontrollable orgasms against each other’s bellies, clamped together to subdue the ecstatic convulsions of their bodies.

  They lay quietly in each other’s arms, their mouths loosely joined and their tongues indolently playing together. “S’agapo, Roddy. S’agapo,” Theo murmured against his lips.

  “S’agapo.” It was an odd outlandish sound but Robbie loved saying it. His body was still tingling with what he thought of as an initiation. Nothing that had happened with Rico could compare to it. He had entered a world of adult passion and found a partner waiting to welcome him. He wasn’t the victim of some strange private sickness. Theo had held his cock in his mouth, briefly but without aversion. The thought of any of this happening with a girl shocked him; it would be obscene, a desecration of what he thought of as feminine refinement. Male needs demanded male satisfaction. No girl could offer him the complete physical abandon he had shared with Theo.

  Theo stirred and pulled a cloth out from somewhere and wiped them off. Robbie looked at the straight nose and the bewitching mouth and stroked his hair and tilted his head so that he could look into the gentle wide-set eyes. A paragon of masculine beauty. His lover. They wanted each other equally, insatiably. Their hands and mouths became active again and their bodies moved against each other as Robbie’s erection revived. Theo stroked it lovingly and laughed while Robbie felt Theo’s cock lengthening and filling out. Robbie moved to it and Theo acknowledged his desire by holding it and shifting about so that he could stroke Robbie’s eyes and nose and cheeks with it. He laughed again and scrambled to his knees and backed up against the forward bulwark. He spread his knees wide and thrust his hips forward and dropped his hand away from it. It lifted with its own power. Light fell on it and isolated it in space like phallic sculpture.

  Robbie lifted himself to it with his hands on Theo’s thighs and his mouth offered it all the adoration he had discovered in himself; he worshiped proud masculinity. He had found his god. Theo ran his hands through his hair and murmured gentle words to him.

  “S’agapo,” he repeated “S’agapo.”

  He called out something to the twins, whose presence Robbie had almost forgotten.

  In a moment, he felt the cushions give under a new weight and his daze of adoration was shattered by somebody moving around close behind him. His heart suddenly raced with excitement as it dawned on him that Theo wasn’t going to keep him exclusively for himself. By sharing him, he would extend his conquest of him. Robbie was seized by a passion of surrender. Theo pulled his head up against his chest and put his arms around his shoulders and held him firmly, a captive for his brother’s pleasure.

  A hand moved over his buttocks and oiled fingers prepared him. Robbie’s heart pounded as he wondered again if the twins were as magnificently equipped as their brother.

  Hands held his hips and lifted them and hard flesh entered him easily. It felt no bigger than Rico’s but the hands were filled with desire to know his body. They moved over him eagerly and found his erection and fondled it as if they enjoyed feeling it. Men, even married men, didn’t have to pretend to be indifferent to a boy’s body.

  He broke Theo’s hold on him. If they were all going to take him, he wanted to participate in his surrender. He wanted men to want him. He wanted to give them pleasure.

  He swung his shoulders around and looked up at the man who was joined to him. He recognized Niko’s wavy hair. The handsome young Greek smiled down at him. Robbie lifted a hand and moved it slowly up over the compact body, lingering to caress the muscles of his chest and toy with his nipples. He felt the flesh within him grow harder and slip deeper into him. He reached for the back of Niko’s neck and pulled his head down and opened his mouth to this unexpected lover. Niko’s kiss was reticent until Robbie aroused it to passion with his darting tongue. He was gathered into strong arms and Niko began to move in him with a conqueror’s thrust. He wasn’t just being used as a convenience; they were making love together. He seemed to be filled with a vast reservoir of love that was finally being tapped. Sex was the key to all of life’s rewards.

  Niko’s thrusts accelerated as he drove toward orgasm. His hands were intent on bringing Robbie with him. Their mouths broke apart and they both cried out with the approaching climax. Robbie found the cloth and held it in readiness. They achieved simultaneous orgasms and Robbie let himself drop down betwen Theo’s legs and laid his face against the object of his adoration. Theo smoothed his hair. Niko clung to him while his erection diminished, then withdrew from him slowly and was gone.