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"You have convinced me!"
Sam stared.
"A man with everything to lose."
He'd never seen John this outwardly upset. Not when the soldiers had taken his ship & emptied his warehouses. Not when Governor Hutchinson had dismantled their underground market. Not even when Gage had forcibly evicted him from his own home had John been this bold, this passionate.
Seeing the fire that burned within himself finally matched in his friend's eyes, Sam could restrain himself no longer.
He grabbed John by his vest, crumpling the once-fine fabric in his grip, and jerked him forward.
John's shout of surprise was swallowed by Sam's lips on his.
A moment later, John slid his hands into Sam's hair, pulling them together and eliciting a rumbling moan from the younger man.
When the pair pulled apart, Sam looked away, sure that he had finally pressed the gentleman too far, yet John kept his grip on Sam's face, gentle but firm.
"Look at me," he said softly. John pressed their foreheads together. "Look at me."
Sam raised his eyes to meet John's.
John said nothing at first, just scraped his thumb over Sam's rough stubble, a goofy smile gracing his soft features.
Then John sighed.
"I am broke," he murmured.
Sam blinked at John, confused for a moment, dazed from their kiss, before he realized that John was setting that aside for the moment - not rejecting Sam, not pushing him away and calling him sick or disgusting or whatever it was these days, just setting it aside to talk about later - to return the focus to what they would both agree were more pressing matters.
John moved one hand from Sam's face to dig into his pocket. "This-!" He pulled out a coin and pressed it into Sam's hand. "This is all I have left."
Sam studied the coin in his hand, though he had recognized the familiar weight of their coin as soon as it had touched his palm. He hung his head for a moment, letting out a puff of air as John's other hand slid from his face and he took a step back. Sam fisted his hand around the coin, before looking back to John.
"You're the only one with no agenda. You're the only one who can make these men hear the truth."
John stared, eyebrows raised hopefully at Sam as he waited for a reply.
Sam stepped forward, back into John's space. He mirrored the other man's earlier gesture, pressing his hand against the smooth curve of John's jaw and pressed a gentle, lingering kiss to the corner of his lips. Then, as he pulled back to meet John's brilliant blue eyes once more, he whispered, "Good luck."
And before John could fully absorb his words, Sam had pulled himself up onto his horse and was riding from the stables, not daring to look back at the face of the man he was leaving behind.