AXEL – ‘THE TRIO: BRAINS, BRAWN, BEAUTY’
Eighteen Years Ago…
‘So how exactly is this going to work?’
Theo asks the question as I toss him a cold beer and hand one to Tay, before sinking into my sofa. The whole thing groans under my weight, springs threatening to pop. A train barrels past the window, glass rattling against the throb of bass from the pub downstairs.
The place is barely habitable – peeling paint, damp spreading in the corners, a radiator that clanks like it’s dying – but at least it’s mine. More home than anything else I’ve ever known.
‘It’s really quite simple,’ Tay says, calm in a way that makes me uneasy. She tips her head back and drinks, her throat working as the beer slides down.
I shouldn’t notice, but I do. I notice everything about her. Always have.
Seven years we’ve known each other. Theo and Tay, they’remore family than friends. The only ones that ever meant a damn thing. I’d bleed for them. Die for them.
But risk what we’ve built? Risk her by crossing that line?
Never.
Besides, she could get any man or woman she wanted. And she does. On the regular. Not that I’m about to judge. Stew on it, sure. But judge? I’m no hypocrite.
‘I go out with the guy, take his money,’ she’s saying, ‘and you, Theo, you pump it into that clever little program of yours and make more of it.’
‘Gooutwith the guy?’ Theo echoes, brows raised.
‘Yeah.’ She shrugs all casual, like it’s nothing. When to me, it’s everything. The idea of some stranger paying to sit across from her, to look at her, to?—
‘And what exactly is he paying for, Tay?’ Theo asks, voicing the question that’s choking me.
‘Companionship.’
‘Companionship?’ I cough out. ‘Are you shitting me right now?’
‘Don’t look so shocked. Not everyone has sex on the brain, Ax.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Hey, you two, can we just simmer down and focus here,’ Theo grumbles.
She cocks one dark brow my way, her eyes shooting sparks that fire straight to my groin.
Way to prove her point.
I shift in my seat, praying she don’t notice.
Bet she wouldn’t be so smug if she knew the truth: that I’ve shagged my way through half of London trying to burn her out of me. Not that it helps. Nothing helps. It’s always her. Her smile. Her face. Her body. A want that never fades, only builds.
‘Some people just want someone to talk to. Someone on their arm at functions. Someone who can dress the part, act the part?—’
‘And when dinner’s over and they want more than that?’ Theo asks.
‘I’ll be clear up front, it’s not an option.’
I scoff into my beer. ‘And you think they’ll listen?’
‘Ax has a point, Tay. There are other ways to make money – safer ways.’
‘Like what he does in those underground fights?’ she scoffs.
