“Freddie’s your friend. I’m a dick to him because, well, heisa bit of a dick, but I know he’s a good bloke, really.”
“There’s more to life than Freddie, or, at least, there should be.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed a touch. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Sure about that? Cos you’ve got your murder face on.”
I made an effort to soften my habitual frown.
Clearly unconvinced, Sam rolled his eyes. “Whatever. You don’t have to tell me.”
“There isn’t anything to tell.”
Thankfully, our food arrived before Sam could call bullshit, and he was instantly and adorably distracted.
I loved watching him eat almost as much as I was discovering I liked watching him sleep. Life fell away from him, and he was happy. It was a world away from the frantic elation I could bring him with my mouth on his dick, but the contentment in my heart was the same.
And so was the heat in my veins. Yeah, cos I was that kind of perv—watching him eat made me horny.
I shifted in my seat and sought cover in my lunch. The bustle of the bistro agitated me enough to dull my appetite, but I forced the whole plate down. I wasn’t gonna fuck this quasi-date up by being a claustrophobic freak.
When we were done—which was approximately three minutes later—he sat back in his seat and eyed the door. “Have you had enough yet?”
“To eat?”
“No, of being out and about. We can go home if you want.”
“Unless it’s to get naked, I’m good.”
Sam’s eyebrows twitched. “Uh, that’s okay with me, but maybe we should walk the pasta off first, if you’re up to it?”
I was up for anything that led to tumbling him to the nearest bed, but my leg was still being an arsehole. I considered our options and our location. “We could get the Tube to Regent’s Park? My mum used to take me there when I was little.”
“You haven’t been since?”
“Not for fun.”
“Work?”
“Charity five-a-side,” I clarified. “The gym wants me to host boot camps there in the summer too, but I’m ignoring that and hoping it goes away.”
Amusement warmed Sam’s face again. “That shouldn’t be funny, but I get the feeling you’d have been dead against that even before.”
“Yeah, and it doesn’t make much sense, given that my job was to exercise in public, but there you go. My therapist says I’m a walking contradiction.” Meera’s face popped into my brain. It had been a while since I’d seen her, and I’d cancelled my last session when my leg had flared up. Maybe later I’d finally get round to rescheduling, but with Sam at my side, it didn’t feel that important.
I dropped cash on the table and held out my hand. “Let’s walk.”
16
Sam
A week of good times and somehow I was still waiting for the sky to fall down. Every morning I woke up with Micah in my bed, ate breakfast with him before we went our separate ways for the day, and met up again at night for snacks and... other stuff, and all the while I couldn’t shake the sensation that we were existing in some kind of idealistic limbo.
It was as if Micah had forgotten the rest of the world existed. He still went to the gym and did his thing, but other than that, I had his undivided attention. He even started coming to the pub on weekdays and sitting in the corner with his book and ditching his diet Coke for half pints of the ale I’d introduced him to up north. Combined with his designer sports gear, the old-man drink was cute as hell, but the whole situation was... strange.
“Are you two seeing each other now?”
