Eli looks startled. “What for?”
“For giving us Gideon. The new and improved version.”
“I’m not a MacBook,” I say crossly.
Eli smiles at me. “If you were a MacBook, I’d definitely be asking for an instruction manual.”
The others laugh and start talking loudly about something to do with the estate, but I lean closer to Eli. “I think, out of everyone in the world, you are the only person who will never need that.”
“Really?” His lips are close and his eyes are so merry and warm that my heart hurts.
I nod and he smiles. “Maybe I need one because making you happy is something I want to work at,” he whispers.
“You don’t need to work at it,” I say gruffly. “You manage it effortlessly.”
He stares at me and I nod abruptly. Unable to speak for a second, I sit back quietly, eating my steak and drifting while listening to the lively piss-taking banter around the table. A hand comes down on top of mine which is resting on the table.
“You alright?” Eli asks.
I smile at him, turning my palm over and taking the hand he offers and squeezing it. “I can honestly say I’ve never been better.”
He grins but whatever he was going to say dies away as the back gate clicks and, like a villain appearing on a stage set, Frankie appears minus the bang and smoke. However, he looks like he’s got smoke coming out of his ears at the moment. Dressed in a black suit even in this hot weather, his hair is slicked back, and he’d look suave if his face weren’t red and his hands weren’t clenched into fists.
I feel Eli’s hand tighten on mine as Frankie walks towards us, and the conversation dies away.
“Good afternoon, Frankie,” Niall says. “I’m so sorry we started the party without you. We’d quite given up on you appearing completely uninvited.”
Frankie shakes his head impatiently. “I haven’t got time to banter with you, Niall. This is serious.”
“What’s happened?” I say slowly, feeling the blood starting to pound in my temples. Eli squeezes my hand, but I can’t return the gesture. All my attention is on my manager and the sick feeling that’s growing in my stomach.
Frankie throws me a look that seems to combine extreme stress with some sort of dark satisfaction. “Seems like your secret’s out, Gideon,” he says loudly, his flair for dramatics showing for a second until he battens it back down again.
My stomach sinks so quickly I feel a surge of nausea. “What do you mean?”
He shrugs, taking out his phone from his inside pocket and palming it. “I mean that someone sold some photos of you and nursie here. They’ll hit the papers tomorrow.” He looks at me, and, for an incredible second, I could swear a smile is hovering on his lips. “Game’s up, Gideon.”
Chapter
Fifteen
The bastion of havoc and bad behavior
Eli
Gideon stiffens all over like he has rigor mortis, and I tighten my grip on his hand.
“You alright?” I ask in a low voice.
To my amazement he doesn’t show any sign of hearing me. Instead, he stands up, and I feel my hand fall away unnoticed and unneeded. I lift my fingers and massage my chest as I watch him stride over to Frankie.
“Show me,” he demands, his voice tight and very,verycontrolled.
Frankie fumbles with his phone and holds it out to Gideon. He takes it and looks intently at the picture before sinking suddenly into a chair. Milo exclaims and hugs Gideon’s shoulders as Niall takes away the phone and stares at it. He shakes his head. “Wankers,” he says in a low, angry voice, and then, to my amazement, he hands the phone to me.
I take it tentatively, feeling like it might turn around and bite me. It’s as if it’s a sentient being. I look down and gasp. It’s Gideon and me, and the first gasp is one of relief because out of every photo someone could have taken of us, the one of us hugging in the coffee shop is probably the least harmful to Gid’s career. I think of the blowjob in the garden and shudder.
However, when I look again, I realise how very incriminating this photo actually is. Gideon is holding me close, one hand clutching low on my hip and the other cradling my face. He’s talking intently and the fondness in his eyes is unmistakable even in this grainy image. It’s an incredibly intimate pose, something no straight man would entertain, but it’s my face that really gives the game away because I look like I’m drowning in him, all my attention on him and the love I feel visible in my eyes. I hope that it’s just visible to me. I shudder, and Niall takes the phone away.
