Clockwork Heart: Clockwork Love, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

You…you can meet him.”
    “Yes, as soon as you step aside.”
    “ No. ” Conny curled his fingers into Val’s shirt. “Tonight. You can meet him tonight. I’ll…bring him. To the café.”
    “Why on earth can’t I see him now? Is his cock pathetic? You know I’ve endured that before, and I won’t hold it against you. Sometimes they make up with their hands what God has taken away from their root.”
    For the first week when Johann had been unconscious, Conny had used a catheter to relieve him. No, there was nothing pathetic about Johann’s penis. “Please. Please , Val. I’ll do anything you ask. Only give me until this evening.”
    He wasn’t sure Val would agree, not until he got that tic in his jaw that said he didn’t like it, but he’d endure it. “You’re answering all my questions tonight. And so is he. This smells fishy, and I’ll have the rotten out of it. I’ll be watching the highway too—if you try to run him out of town, I’ll know.”
    “I won’t run anyone anywhere. We’ll be there. I promise.”
    Val brushed kisses on either side of Conny’s cheek, the greeting he normally would have given at the door. “Be well then, until tonight.”
    Conny stayed plastered against the water closet until Val’s footsteps echoed on the stairs, at which point he tore across the room and bolted them inside. Then he pressed his face to the wood as he sank to his knees.
    A minute later, he heard the water closet open before the creak, creak of gears announced Johann was crossing the room. He crouched beside Cornelius awkwardly, losing his balance briefly on his mechanical knee. He rested his clockwork hand on Conny’s shoulders. “What happen? Was is passiert? ”
    “Everything. Everything has gone wrong.” Conny covered his face with his hands. “Oh, why did I let him think you were my lover? I could almost make it work, but how can I keep you in the dark on that point when they behave the way they do? When they know how I normally behave?”
    Johann said nothing, only kept up the comforting pressure on Conny’s shoulders.
    “What a cock-up. I’d even scandalize my mother this time.” Conny bit his lip to stop a wave of tears. “But what was I to have done? Let you die? I couldn’t. I should have, but I couldn’t. I have to come up with a fiction. I have to hide as much of your clockwork as I can, and I must invent you a story of origin. I could tell them you were mute, if I could account for the fact that you don’t understand French to the same degree you can’t speak it. Because you’ll be a scandal as soon as they hear your accent. I could lie and say you’re from Berlin, but the least respectable German still knows French. They also don’t have an arm full of Austrian Army tattoos. God help me, this is worse than if I showed up on the arm of a pirate—”
    He stopped, lifting his head as the plan unfolded before him.
    “ Yes. That’s it.” He took Johann’s face in his hands. “You’re going out with me tonight, darling. You’re going to pretend to be my Austrian pirate lover.”
    Johann stared at him, uncomprehending.
    Cornelius sighed. “Right. I’ll try to figure out how to explain.”
    Johann, still unaware of anything Conny said, smiled.
    Conny let out a breath to resist kissing that hand. “Sometimes, Johann, I think you’re an avenging angel, come to torture me for my wicked ways.” Patting him on the head, Cornelius rose to his feet. “We’ll start by making a few modifications to your clockwork.”
    * * * * *
    Cornelius was upset about something, this much Johann understood. Everything else that happened that afternoon was a mystery to him.
    As Cornelius unhooked Johann’s right leg, he chattered away in French, making many gestures out the window toward the docks. He kept talking as he took the leg to his workbench and unscrewed the knee. Since Johann had no hope of understanding what Cornelius had to say, he focused on what his friend did. He took