Chapter 23

Adrian gazed down at Luca, sleeping soundly next to him in the bed. It was early, the sun still not fully risen, yet he’d need to get up soon as another busy day beckoned. It would be the same for Luca; different professions yet ones that occupied them both to the full. He needed to wake Luca up, but not for a few minutes.

It had been a long time since he’d woken up with a man and not wanted to either shove him out the door, or slip away quietly and run as fast as he could. His stomach clenched, and he didn’t have a clue whether that was in excitement or fear. His life had been on an even keel. He”d known what each day held. He’d known he’d go to bed alone and wake up alone. It was his life. It was what he’d learnt to expect from it. It was what he’d told himself he wanted, as he ignored the insistent whisper that he was a liar. The evidence was next to him, in the shape of a man who looked like he belonged there.

Luca shifted, mumbled something, and opened his eyes. His hair formed messy tufts, and one cheek held the imprint of the wrinkled sheet, but as sleep slipped away and he turned to look up at Adrian, both his lips and his eyes held a soft smile.

“Morning,” Luca said, his voice a little sleep rough as he pushed himself up to sitting. “What’s the time? I should get back to the cottage and get ready?—”

Adrian caught hold of Luca’s wrist. Not hard, not with force, but just enough to stop him from slipping away.

“It’s early. There’s plenty of time for you to get back. Harry and Elena won’t be here and stomping around the place for another couple of hours.” He brushed his thumb across Luca’s wrist, the weight that had pushed against his heart as Luca had rushed to get up and leave faded, as Luca sighed and fell back into the warm, crumpled bed.

“I do have to get going soon, though.” Luca made no such attempt, and Adrian bit down on his smile. “I don’t want any of the staff seeing me sneaking back into the cottage.”

Adrian’s smile vanished. “Sneaking around?” He began to climb out of the bed. Maybe it was time to get up. He was pulled back down by a hard tug on his arm.

“Stop it. It’s too early for even you to get all tetchy. All I mean is that small communities have a need for gossip. It’s their lifeblood. We both know it. The staff at the hotel, when they aren’t whispering in corners about the guests, are dissecting the life of some poor sod from the village. Most of it, I suspect, has very little basis in fact. They think I don’t know. Ryan says it’s the same with the pub’s customers. I’d rather not be the latest juicy morsel.”

“It’s one thing to not feed the rumour mill, but I don’t want us feeling like we have to hide.”

“I don’t want to feed it either. And no, we’re not hiding. We’re being discreet for now, as we agreed we would. Alex knows about us, which means Ryan does, too. You know that when I told Alex I was staying on at The New House, I also told him why. Is that your definition of sneaking around? Because it’s not mine. But what we do is our business, not anybody else’s.” Luca slipped his hand into his, entwining their fingers. “But there is somebody else I need to speak to, somebody I don’t want hearing through gossip. I owe it to Jonathan?—”

“Jonathan?” The name exploded from Adrian’s tongue. Sparks of electricity twitched every single one of his nerve ends. A growl, dark and primitive, clawed at his throat, fighting to get out.

“Yes, Jonathan.”

“Jonathan. The man who was ever only your friend?” It was a cheap shot, and Adrian regretted it the moment the words flew from his mouth.

Luca said nothing, only stared at him, bland and unreadable. He’d rather Luca’s anger, because that would be something to push back at. Not that Luca deserved to have him pushing.

“I’m sorry.” Adrian rubbed his brow. “I don’t blame you if you want to make a run for it.” Jonathan Owen-Jones. His reaction to the man was visceral, primal, leaving him snapping and snarling like a feral dog. None of it was the poor bastard’s fault. “Of course you need to tell him.”

“Yes, I do. And no, I don’t want to make a run for it. I know you don’t like him. I get that…”

Adrian kept his mouth shut, because Luca didn’t get it at all. Yet how could he explain it without looking like a fool, a head case, or both?

“… involvement with each other, if you could even really call it that, was over long before we met?—”

“Involvement. You know that’s what he wants.”

Luca shook his head and swore under his breath. He was losing patience, and Adrian couldn’t blame him.

“What he wants and what he gets are two different things. We were introduced soon after I got here. I told you that, just like I’ve always told you I liked him — and still do. We have a lot in common. And I wasn’t prepared to live like a monk. Adrian, for goodness sake, that aspect of our relationship was over almost before it began. I stepped away. Me. I wanted his friendship but nothing beyond that. He knows the score, and he’s accepted it.”

“But he hasn’t, has he? He may have heard you telling him you only wanted to be friends, but he didn’t listen. He wants more from you. A lot more. I don’t blame him. I might hate him for it, but I don’t blame him.”

“Hate? That’s a strong word.”

Adrian said nothing as he met Luca’s cornflower blue eyes, drilling into his. Jonathan didn’t deserve his bile. It was stupid, wrong, and illogical. But when had tangled, messy, screwed up emotions ever made sense?

“He just reminds me of somebody,” he said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “Someone I had reason to… dislike.” He tucked the H-word out of sight.

“And that’s his fault how, exactly? You can’t lay your experience of somebody else at his door.” Luca gently massaged his shoulder. It felt as good as it made him feel guilty. “I know he’d like to rekindle a romantic involvement?—”

“Romantic?” Adrian raised his brows. “Is that what it’s called now? Romantic?”

Luca huffed. “For god’s sake, Adrian. I’m trying to take the heat out of a subject that’s firing you up — and with no reason. Let me be as plain as I can, even though you already know this. We had a fling. Yes, a fling. A very short fling. That was all it was for me, and not even a particularly successful one.” Luca glared, but his cheeks were flushing hard.

“Not very successful?” Adrian narrowed his eyes.

“No. We weren’t compatible. Not like that.” The pink flush on Luca’s face deepened. “And as I said, I stepped back. After just a couple of times. It was before you and I even met. But I’m not blind, I know with the smallest encouragement he’d like to… but it’s never going to happen.”

Jonathan, tongue hanging out and drooling like a dog for what he couldn’t have. It was juvenile, it was stupid to the point of imbecility, and it made him an arsehole. But it was making him feel so damn good.

“I’m not prepared to let him hear about us through the grapevine. It doesn’t sit well with me. I need to tell him how things lie. If he finds out, in the pub, in the shop, or wherever, about us, how do you think he’s going to feel?”

Stupid. Belittled. Embarrassed. A laughing stock. He’d been there, done that, and had got the fucking T-shirt. He’d got over it. Jonathan would get over it. But the man didn’t deserve to feel like he’d been made a fool of. As much as the sight of the guy dragged him back to a past he never wanted to revisit, Jonathan had never been a part of that particular shit storm.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No! Where Jonathan’s concerned, you’re like a dog straining at the leash. I don’t want you ripping him apart when he’s done nothing to deserve it. I’m going to go and see him.”

“Because it’s the right thing to do?”

“Exactly so.”

Adrian nodded. It was the right thing to do, of course it was. Didn’t mean he had to like it, though. “I’m sorry. I’ve been acting like a wanker. Again.”

“Hmm.” Luca’s eyes narrowed and darkened, as he edged closer, bringing his lips to Adrian’s ear. “Yes, Adrian Hardy, you hit the nail on the head. You’re a wanker and a dick. You’re bad tempered. You’re insanely and irrationally jealous, which is kind of hot in a perverse way. Oh, you’re also incredibly rude. And arrogant. You’re?—”

“Getting way out of line,” Adrian growled as he pushed Luca down onto his back.

“Then maybe you should teach me a lesson.” Luca stared up at him, his eyes black pools ringed with the thinnest of blue, as he bit down on his lower lip.

“Maybe you should shut the fuck up and take your punishment.” Straddling Luca in one quick move, Adrian’s eyes fell closed, all thoughts of Jonathan swept away as he claimed Luca’s hot, wet mouth.