All Man (3 page)

Jules gave him a watery smile. “Thanks,” he managed.

“Nothing to thank me for. I was too late to be much help. Sounds like you’d already done the hard part.”

“I guess. You scared the shit out of him, though.”

“I hope so. Are you okay—physically I mean? Did he hurt you?”

“I don’t think so.” Jules did a quick inventory of his body. He raised his fingertips to a sore spot on his cheekbone. “A bit here, I think, where he banged my face into the wall.”

Gareth touched the spot with gentle fingers. “It’s going to bruise. We should get some ice on that. Want me to go and get some from the bar?”

“No,” Jules said sharply. “Don’t leave me alone.” He flushed at how needy he sounded. But Gareth was the one solid thing he could cling to, like a sturdy boulder in white water. “I just wanna go home.”

“We can make that happen. I’ll come out with you and find you a taxi.”

“Okay. I’d better text my mate, Sacha—let him know I’m leaving.”

“Won’t he want to leave with you?” Gareth frowned.

“Nah, it’s fine. I don’t want to ruin his night. No point in both of us having a shitty Saturday. I’ll be fine once I’m home.”

But when he pulled out his phone, he found he’d missed a message, probably during all the drama. He huffed a humourless chuckle when he read the message from Sacha.

Sorry to ditch you but I got lucky. Going home with that couple. Sacha sandwich FTW
.

Gareth was looking at him questioningly, so Jules handed him the phone to read for himself. Jules grinned. “I think he wins.”

Gareth smiled ruefully. “I’d say so. Now come on, let’s get you home.”

It took them a while to find a taxi and Jules was exhausted by the time he finally let himself into the flat he shared with Sacha. He was almost relieved Sacha wasn’t there. He didn’t want to have to relive the whole horrible experience with Lee.

Gareth insisted on coming in with him. “I’ll walk home later. It’s not far from here. I just want to make sure you’re okay after that bump on the head.”

Jules stumbled as he walked between the taxi and his front door, and Gareth put an arm around him to support him.

“Oops, sorry,” Jules said. “But I think that’s more down to the booze than the bump.”

Gareth made Jules go straight to bed, and Jules could hear him banging around in the kitchen. He wondered what he was doing. Eventually he came back with a mug of hot chocolate, some paracetamol, and a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel.

“Those are Sacha’s peas,” Jules said.

“I’m sure he won’t mind.” Gareth pressed the makeshift icepack against Jules’s aching cheek. It felt nice.

Once Jules had taken the pills, drunk his hot chocolate, and kept the peas on for twenty minutes or so, he was feeling much better. He was still woozy from the vodka, though.

One of the effects of feeling better was that Jules was reminded of Gareth’s attractiveness. In his role of manly protector, he was even sexier than he had been before. Jules hadn’t noticed what he was wearing in the aftermath of the whole Lee fiasco, and in the club and the taxi it had been too dark. But now he could see and appreciate the grey ribbed T-shirt that clung to Gareth’s burly frame. It showed off the bulk of his muscles and his nipples to perfection. As Jules sipped his hot chocolate with Gareth sitting on the edge of his bed, his cock sprung back to life, pushing insistently against his underwear as if reminding him he'd been supposed to get laid tonight.

When Gareth sighed and said, “Right then. I’d better make a move, if you’re sure you’re okay?”

Disappointment lanced through Jules at the thought of him going. “You can stay here if you want,” he said quickly. “I mean… if you’re tired. It’s late and might be hard to get a taxi now all the clubs will be kicking out.”

Gareth’s expression was hard to read as he studied Jules. “I don’t mind walking,” he said finally. “But I’ll stay if you’d rather have the company. I can sleep on the sofa if you’ve got a blanket I can borrow.”

“Or… you could sleep with me?” Jules raised his eyebrows and put on his best suggestive tone, trying to make his meaning clear. It was a challenge to flirt with a bag of slightly soggy frozen peas pressed up to his face, but he thought he did a pretty good job. “I owe you one after all, what with you being my knight in shining armour earlier.” He slurred a little, the vodka making his words run together.

“Jules,” Gareth sighed. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“Oh. Well, if you’re not interested.” Jules drooped, his cheeks flushing with humiliation.

“It’s not that I’m not interested. Hell, Jules. It’s not that at all. You’re gorgeous. But I don’t want you to have sex with me just because you’re grateful. I only did what any decent bloke would have done in the same situation.”

Jules smiled, relief and excitement rushing through him. “It’s not just that I’m grateful, you idiot. God, Gareth. You’re completely my type and I think you’re really hot. So, what about it?”

Gareth stared at him for a moment before asking, “How much have you had to drink tonight?”

Jules shifted uncomfortably as he admitted, “I’m not sure.”

“Not knowing is never a good sign. Look, Jules. I’m flattered—honestly. But you’re still drunk, and you look like you’re coming down from something too.”

Jules swallowed. It wasn’t worth trying to deny it. His pupils were probably still bigger than normal. He opened his mouth to protest, but Gareth continued.

“So, I’m going to go, if you’re sure you’re okay to be on your own?”

Jules nodded. “Yeah. Course. I’ll sleep it off.”

“Good idea. Here, give me your phone. I’ll put my number in just in case. I only live about twenty minutes away, so call me if you need me.”

Jules watched as Gareth keyed the number in.

“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll see you out.”

“No, you stay in bed. I’ll let myself out. Bye for now. I’ll see you on Monday.” He stood and moved towards the door.

Jules threw back the covers and got out of bed to follow him. The air was cool and he was only wearing his underwear. Goosebumps broke out on his skin. “Gareth, wait!”

“What?”

“This isn’t a come on, but….” Jules’s voice wobbled a little. “I could use a hug before you go.”

Gareth had been so careful with him, hardly touching him except on the knee or shoulder. Maybe he thought Jules was traumatised by what had happened with Lee and didn’t want to freak him out. But Jules was feeling pretty shaken and he needed to be held. If Sacha had been here, Jules would have crawled into bed with him. But he wasn’t, so a hug from Gareth would have to be enough.

Gareth’s voice was gruff as he spoke. “I think I can manage that.”

He took Jules into his arms and held him in a tight, perfect hug that went on and on. Surrounded by Gareth's warm male scent, with a solid body to lean on, Jules was in heaven. He felt utterly safe and blissful. It was Jules who finally pulled away. He sensed Gareth would hug him as long as Jules let him, but the poor bloke needed sleep. Jules couldn’t expect him to babysit any longer.

“Thank you.” On impulse he pressed a chaste kiss to Gareth’s stubbled cheek. “See you Monday.”

Gareth flushed and his face melted into a sweet smile that did funny things to Jules’s stomach. “Yeah. Night, Jules. Sleep well.”

Jules got back into bed as Gareth closed the bedroom door behind him. Exhausted now, he turned off the lamp and curled on his side, hugging his pillow and smiling.

His dreams were filled with strong arms, sweet smiles, and all things Gareth.

CHAPTER THREE

On Monday morning, Jules was a nervous wreck. He tried on five different outfit combinations before he finally settled on what to wear: grey casual trousers that hugged his arse and a white short sleeved shirt that was ever-so-slightly see-through, just enough to show a hint of nipples if you looked closely, but not enough to be slutty.

He stared at his reflection critically and ran his hand through his mop of hair. Long on top, it was cut close to his head at the back and sides, showing off the length of his slender neck and his ears with their multiple piercings. He supposed he was good-looking by some people’s standards. But Jules looked nothing like the sort of men that
he
found attractive, so it was hard to judge his own appearance. He thought he was too pretty, too femme, too skinny. Some men went for that of course, but Jules couldn’t see the appeal.

Had Gareth really meant it when he said Jules was gorgeous or had he been trying to let him down gently? Jules flushed as he remembered how he’d propositioned Gareth and been turned down. Not that he wasn’t used to being rejected—hell when you hit on as many blokes as Jules did, rejection was part of the territory—but being rejected by Gareth stung much more than it normally did.

He touched the bruise on his face, trying to ignore the lurch in his belly when the memory of how he got it flashed unbidden through his brain. It wasn’t very painful anymore but had come up as a very visible purplish mark. Jules only ever wore a bit of eyeliner and lip-gloss, so he didn’t have any foundation or concealer to cover it up.

Oh well
. He squared his shoulders. It was nothing to be ashamed of and would make a good story at the salon.

Sure enough, as soon as he walked through the door, Shelley did a double take.

“Oh my god, Jules! What have you done to yourself?” She rushed over and started fussing, making him tilt his head towards the light so she could examine it properly.

“It’s not that bad,” Jules said. “It looks worse than it feels.”

Tyler joined them, frowning. “What happened?”

Just then the door to the salon opened and Gareth came in. He caught Jules’s eye and smiled, and Jules’s stomach flipped with a mixture of lust and longing. Back in his scruffy work jeans and a T-shirt that had seen better days, Gareth was still as gorgeous as Jules had remembered.

“Morning everyone,” Gareth said, then spoke to Jules directly. “How are you feeling? Did you manage to sleep okay after I left you?”

“Um. Yeah, thanks.” Jules blushed, surprised that Gareth had so easily admitted they’d been together on Saturday night.

Tyler and Shelley both whipped around to look at Gareth.

“You were with him? What the hell happened?” Tyler’s voice was sharp.

“It was nothing serious. Just some twat giving me a hard time in a club bathroom.” Jules didn’t want to go into the gory details. At the time it had been fucking scary, and he didn’t like to think about what might have happened if he’d been alone and hadn’t managed to fight Lee off. “Luckily Gareth was there to give him what for.”

“You’d already handled it. I was too late to be much use.”

“You scared the pants off him, though. It was brilliant.”

“Yeah, well. He deserved it.”

They grinned at each other.

“You should be more careful, love,” Shelley said. “I keep telling you to get to know a bloke first. It’s not safe hooking up with strangers like you do.”

“I’m fine, Shelley, really. And blowing someone in a club bathroom is safer than going back to his place if he’s an axe murderer, isn’t it?”

She shook her head but she was smiling. “You boys. I don’t know what to do with you.”

Jules didn’t get to speak to Gareth alone until lunchtime. The salon was busy, despite them needing to work around the fact that half the sinks were out of action. Jules had a constant stream of customers to wash, rinse, and make cups of tea for. He got to do a couple of bloke’s haircuts too. Shelley didn’t let him do anything very complicated yet, but he was allowed to do short back and sides.

While Jules was at one of the new sinks shampooing and rinsing out highlights, he was very aware of Gareth working a few metres away. Gareth was dismantling the old sinks so he could put in the remaining two new ones today. This involved a lot of crawling around on the floor on hands and knees, and Jules was finding his arse rather distracting. The second time he accidentally squirted water in a customer’s eye because he was watching Gareth, he decided he had to ban himself from looking before someone complained to Shelley about him. As it was, he doubted he’d be getting many tips today.

“You can take your lunch break now if you want, love,” Shelley said to Jules after he’d delivered a customer to her, dye rinsed out and ready for a cut and blow-dry.

“Okay, thanks. I’m going to nip out to get something. Do you want me to bring you anything back?”

“No, I’ve got a salad again,” she sighed. “Don’t you dare come back with cake and start eating it in front of me.”

“What about you, Tyler?”

“I’m good thanks. Duncan made me a packed lunch.” Tyler got that dreamy look in his eye that he always got when he mentioned his sexy policeman boyfriend.

“Gareth?” Jules raised his voice. “What about you?”

“Huh?” Gareth backed out from under the sink he was tinkering with and mopped his brow. “Sorry. I didn’t catch that.”

“I’m going out to get some lunch. Do you want anything?”

“Um….” Gareth frowned, consideringly. “I’m not sure what I fancy. I could do with stretching my legs. Is it okay if I come with you?”

“Yeah, of course.” A ripple of pleased excitement spread through Jules and he beamed.

“I think he fancies
you
,” Tyler whispered, grinning manically and wiggling his eyebrows. Luckily he had his back to Gareth, who was oblivious as Jules tried to control a blush that made his ears burn.

“Fuck off,” he hissed at Tyler. But he couldn’t stop smiling. Because, did Gareth? Could he?

Once they’d bought their sandwiches, they took them to a nearby park to eat them, sitting side by side on a bench in the sunshine.

“So, were you really okay on Saturday after I left?” Gareth asked.

“Yeah. I was fine. Slept like a baby.”

There was a long pause before Gareth said, “It’s just. Well… I’ve been on the receiving end of a similar situation myself… a long time ago now, but it did my head in for a while. So there’s no shame in being freaked out by it, and if you want to talk to me about it, you can.”