“Welcome.” Rhys clinked glasses with him and turned on his stool to face him, their knees a hairsbreadth from touching. “So... I haven’t seen you in here before.”
“Come here often?”
“Recently, yeah. I bought a flat up the road a few months ago.”
“In Whitechapel?”
“Nah. Brick Lane.”
“Where did you live before?”
“Romford.”
Jevon nodded. “My uncle lives in Romford. Across the road from the sex club. Can’t remember its name.”
Rhys coughed through a mouthful of beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Lovato’s. Ever been?”
Jevon covered his flush with a swig of his own drink. “Can’t say I have. So why did you move?”
“Work mainly,” Rhys said with a shrug. “But other reasons too. I lived in Romford for fifteen years, man—since I was sixteen. That’s way too long for a shithole like that. Same faces, same fucks... it wasn’t doing me any good, you know? Habit draws me back there sometimes, but I’m getting better at fighting it.”
Jevon ignored the comment about fucking—had to or he’d lose his damn mind—and did a quick calculation. Sixteen plus fifteen meant Rhys was thirty-one, older than he looked, and two years younger than Jevon. “I think sometimes we have to give life a kick to keep it moving.”
“True that,” Rhys said. “It’s so easy to come home every night, be doing the same old shit, and not realise that the world’s a different place when you step out the next day.”
Jevon smiled wistfully. “I hear you. But it’s not quite like that for me. I work away a lot, so sometimes months pass before I notice that I’ve fucked up at home.”
“Where is your home?”
“I don’t really have one at the moment. I sold my flat last year, so I crash with family when I’m in the city. Maybe I’ll buy again someday, but I can’t be bothered right now.”
It was a shortened version of the truth, but Jevon didn’t feel like explaining his eccentric way of life just yet—or even at all, if this came to nothing. Which it would, because even if he hadn’t been getting on a plane the very next day, he had no idea how to ask someone like Rhys if he could see him again.
Luckily, Rhys’s interest in the property market dried up. He bought a couple of tequila shots and slid one Jevon’s way. “You know you’re way too hot to be sitting in a gay bar on your own, right?”
“If you say so.” Jevon toyed with the tiny glass. “I don’t come to these places much, so I don’t keep up with the etiquette. Is banging in the toilets the thing now?”
Rhys snorted. “It is around here. Ain’tmything though. I don’t mind fucking in public but it’s gotta be somewhere clean.”
Another zap of heat buzzed through Jevon’s veins, turning his body into a live wire of unfulfilled sexual tension. He imagined taking Rhys by the hand and leading him to a dark corner, dropping to his knees, and—Right. Like you’d even know what to do with a cock in your mouth.
Perspective returned like the grim reaper and Jevon almost laughed, but Rhys’s questioning frown stopped him. Jevon shrugged. “Sorry. I’m a bit leathered.”
Rhys nodded. “Fair enough. I’m halfway there myself. Fancy some fresh air? My place is five minutes away.”
Jevon gulped. He’d heard propositions like that before but never from anyone he’d have considered going home with.Am I tripping?The suggestive twinkle in Rhys’s dark gaze seemed like a dream, but the pounding in Jevon’s chest was all too real. “You want me to come back to your place?”
“If you want to,” Rhys said. “You seem like you’ve had enough of this place for the night, but I’m kind of enjoying your company, so...”
“What if I’m an axe murderer?”
Rhys shrugged. “There’s been nights when I wouldn’t have cared if you’d killed me in my sleep. You wanna do it now, I’d call that fate.”
A shadow clouded Rhys’s wry humour. It was fleeting—gone so fast someone else might not have seen it—but Jevon saw it. How could he not when his life’s work was to chase shadows away?
He slid from his stool in a motion that could’ve been smooth three pints ago and closed his hand around Rhys’s wrist. A spark flowed from where they touched to Jevon’s already thumping heart, and he swallowed, gripping Rhys tighter and chancing a glance to find him transfixed by Jevon’s hand on him.
Whoops.Jevon let go, but Rhys inhaled sharply and quickly reclaimed Jevon’s hand, pulling him forward. Jevon stumbled. He collided with Rhys’s shoulder, and they were inexplicably kissing.