Page 26 of Doubting Hearts

Toby scowled. “The bastard. How could he do that to you?”

I shrugged. “Tommy always was very self-absorbed.” I grinned at a memory. “My parents were always very supportive of me being gay. They loved Tommy too, and it made them mad when he left me. My father threatened to break his legs with the stout stick he uses as a walking stick if he ever saw him again.” I chuckled. “My dad’s a big man and not one to suffer fools gladly. And in his opinion, leaving his youngest son for the tables of Monte Carlo classified Tommy as a fool.”

The thought of seeing my father laying into Tommy with his “knobkerrie,” as it was called in SA, always made me feel better.

Toby smiled wistfully. “Your dad sounds great, looking out for you like that. Your whole family sounds perfect.”

I grunted. They weren’t perfect, but I was very lucky to have them. Toby picked up his carton and peered inside it, as if looking for gold. He gave a soft grunt of satisfaction as he plucked another breaded prawn out of the bottom and popped it in his mouth. “Tommy leaving must have been really difficult for you. How did you cope?”

I wasn’t going to tell Toby that I’d been planning on asking Tommy to marry me just before he’d announced his bombshell. I still had the rings in my closet. I also wasn’t going to tell my current lover how I’d fallen apart and sunk into a spiral of self-pity.

“It hurt. Lucas convinced me to come down here and start over, because everything in London reminded me of Tommy. I had a business there, similar to what I do now. I sold it and started one up here. It’s not as profitable, but it gives me and Lucas a living. It helps that I love woodworking, and I have a talent for it. I might even try my hand at sculpting sometime.” I finished my carton of food and pushed it to one side.

Toby looked at me with a slight smile. “Lucas is a really good bloke.

He sounds as if he’s been a good friend to you.”

I nodded. “He’s a free soul, is our Lucas. He likes nothing better than going back to Devon for his surfing, and he still has to find the right woman.” I grinned. “I think he might have done that in Tammy, though. They certainly seem to be getting on well.”

Toby chuckled. “He’ll need all the luck he can get with Tam. She’s quite a handful.” He scowled. “Better Lucas than that current boyfriend of hers. He’s a prick.” He finished his food and sat back, patting his stomach, apparently satiated. I thought the time had come to ask him a little about his past.

“So why did you break up with your last boyfriend—Trevor, was it?”

He nodded. “Trev and I had only been together about six weeks. We met at a hotel management seminar in Leicester. It started off okay, and then he started getting too—” He hesitated. “—too possessive. He wanted to know where I’d been every minute, who I was talking to, what I was doing when he wasn’t with me. I don’t do that sort of attention very well. No one bloody owns me.” I heard the fierce determination in his voice.

“So he just left?” I was surprised. “He doesn’t sound like the kind of man who would give up easily.”

Toby’s face darkened. “Not quite. One night we had a huge fight, and he hit me. Right across the bloody room.”

My mouth dropped open at the thought of someone doing that to the man sitting in front of me.

“The bastard!” I exclaimed. “What did you do?” He fidgeted for a while, and I waited.

“He didn’t think I’d fight back, but I did.” His voice held a grim satisfaction. “I’ve had enough in my life of being pushed around. So I smacked him one across the head and kicked him in the groin. Then I sat on top of him and told in no uncertain terms if he tried to hit me again I’d bloody kill him. When he could finally speak, because his nuts were probably pushed back into his stomach, he got aggressive, but he left me alone and I left.” He shrugged dismissively. “You fight back with a bully, they generally tend to leave you alone after that. He did anyway. He’s gone back to Leicester now.”

I felt quite in awe of my feisty little git. “Wow. You are so turning me on with that story. Not that I needed much, anyway, to do that where you’re concerned.”

He grinned at me. “Really? Me beating the shit out of people makes you horny? I’ll have to remember that.” He looked at me with a glint in his eye. “So, what did you do to relieve the pressure before we met? Have you had any relationships with anyone here in the town? I have to confess I haven’t found it a very varied menu to choose from.”

I chuckled. “I know what you mean. The ones who are gay are either too old or spoken for, and the ones who are gay but won’t admit it yet are just far too much work.”

Toby laughed. “I had the idea of trying to convince them which side their bread was buttered, but honestly? I don’t have the energy. There would be too much angst to deal with.”

The thought of Toby seducing a wannabe gay man and pulling him over to the dark side made my cock twitch. I shook my head. “I agree. That would get far too complicated.”

“And you don’t do complicated, do you?” said Toby, his voice quiet.

I kept silent, and he sighed and moved on.

“I’ve had plenty of opportunities with guests at the hotel to have a casual encounter, but Simon would kill me. The one thing he definitely would renounce me for would be having sex with one of his patrons. The old phrase ‘don’t soil your own doorstep’ is a big thing with him.” He glanced at me. “Present company excepted, of course. You don’t count, as you’re an external tradesman.” He laughed loudly, obviously remembering our first encounter and the unfortunate hired help comment.

“Glad to hear it,” I said in amusement. He stopped his laughing and continued.

“I’ve found a few of them extremely tempting, though. I could have fucked them senseless in the laundry room or, even better, the library.” My groin heated up at the words coming out of his beautiful mouth, and he grinned. “I’ve always had a fantasy about screwing someone over a leather desk or couch. Maybe we should try it sometime.” His seductive tone went straight to my cock, and I shifted in my chair.

“The last guest that made me an offer was a Frenchman. His name was Julien, and he was pretty hot. Slim, dark, and very sexy. He offered to suck me, then let me fuck him senseless. I was very tempted, I have to say.”

Toby’s voice was musing, but there was an overtone of pure mischief in it. If he carried on like this, I’d be sweeping everything off the table and giving him one right there.