Chapter 4
“What’s with the black wall?” Kat asked as she walked across the store.
“It’s not black, it’s charcoal.” Jeremy looked up at the expanse of bulkhead above the counter before returning to his paperwork. “What do you think?”
Crossing her arms, Kat popped a hip and considered the space. At one metre high by two and a half metres long, there wasn’t much of it to consider. “It’s potentially an upgrade from the dodgy posters you had up there. What are you gonna put on it?”
“I haven’t decided yet, but I have some ideas.” Rounding the end of the counter, he went to stand beside her and together they stared at the freshly painted wall. “I know a guy,” he said casually. “He’s agreed to come and take a look after work tomorrow night. With any luck he’ll take the job.”
“A guy?” Kat eyed him suspiciously. “What guy?”
He did his best to sound casual as he replied, “You remember, I spoke to him at the Comic-Con last week.”
Her eyes widened as she grabbed onto his arm and jumped up and down. “You mean, Mr Hottie?”
Jeremy grinned as he rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mr Hottie.” He was pretty sure a blush crept up his cheeks. What the hell was that about?
“That’s awesome. It’s about time you finally called him.” Kat headed for the door at the rear of the store. “You’re lucky he didn’t turn you down after you made him wait so long.”
“It’s only been five days.” The longest five freaking days of his life. “I didn’t want to seem overly eager.”
“Less than twenty-four hours is eager,” she scoffed as she dumped her bag in the back room. “Five days in insulting.”
Jeremy frowned. “I didn’t know that. It’s been a long time since I played this game.” He threw his arms in the air. “Not that it matters because this is not a date, it’s a business meeting.” Which he hoped would turn into a date… or rather, a hook-up. He could enjoy a night of casual sex with a hot guy and still maintain his vow to be single and get to know himself and all that crap. He’d never intended to become a monk.
“A business meeting. Right.” Kat pulled out the vacuum cleaner. “He’s an artist or something?” she asked, before affecting what he assumed was supposed to be a seductive expression. “Is he going to come and fill your wall with all the wonders of the universe?”
“Oh God, I hope so,” Jeremy said with a wistful sigh.
Kat giggled as she plugged the machine into a power point. “I approve. Although you may want to change your clothes between now and then,” she added as she inspected him closely. “You’re all wrinkly. Did you sleep here last night or something?”
Jeremy looked down at himself. His clothes were a little crushed and he probably smelled less than fresh, but he didn’t think it was that obvious. “It took forever to get the posters down, clean the wall, paint it. I didn’t finish until one-thirty this morning. By then it didn’t seem worth it to go home so I crashed on the couch in the back room.”
“You did all that work in one night, huh?” Kat asked with a sly grin. “Must be some business meeting you have planned.”
“Oh, shut up,” he said with a mock glare as he grabbed his bag from behind the counter. “Now you’re here, I’ll duck home and have a shower, make myself presentable. I’ll see you in an hour or so.”
Kat was too busy laughing to speak, but she did wave goodbye as he walked out the door.
Jeremy had never spent much time thinking about what league he was in, but when he saw Harrison walk through the front door of his store the next evening, he became convinced this man existed outside of it. Denim jeans hugged his legs to perfection. The long sleeves of his dark-blue shirt were turned up to reveal strong, masculine forearms. And the way the angular lines of his face contrasted with the softly curled hair and full lips was enough to make all the baby angels cry. Oh yeah, Harrison Winters was definitely out of his league. Whatever the hell Jeremy had done to draw his attention, he wanted to do it again—repeatedly.
Harrison caught sight of him and nodded in greeting as he walked over.
Clearing his throat, Jeremy came forward to offer his hand. “Welcome toFandom.”
“Thanks for inviting me.” As they shook, Harrison’s eyes lifted over his head to the now vacant wall above the counter. “This is the spot?” he asked, his eyes lighting up.
“Yeah.” Turning to stand beside him, Jeremy gestured to the charcoal wall. “I hope you don’t mind me starting without you. The whole thing was a hell of a mess and I wanted to give you something clean to work with.”
Harrison nodded, seeming impressed. “It looks great. You did all the boring work and left the interesting part for me.”
“That was kind of the point,” Jeremy said with a quiet chuckle. “To keep you interested.”
Turning his head, Harrison looked at him with those velvety brown eyes. “You do that just fine all on your own,” he said in a low voice.
Jeremy could practically feel the other man’s gaze as it zeroed in on his mouth and stayed there. He caught his bottom lip between his teeth, wondering if maybe they could skip the pretence and move straight to the part where they were fucking each other’s brains out.
Harrison’s throat moved as he swallowed. “Tell me what you have in mind.”
