“No, the other blond hunk handing out the bubbly.”
Jevon laughed. “He’s Efe’s boss. He owns the pizza place we were at the other week, this place, and a bunch of others in the city. Urban Soul? Ever heard of them?”
“Nope.”
“Fair enough. I don’t know him that well, to be honest. Just that he’s pretty awesome to Efe, and he has, like, two boyfriends.”
“Two?”
“Yup. Cass and Jake. I’ve never met them, but Efe says they’re every bit as hot as Tom.”
A month ago, Rhys would’ve been fascinated, but his world had narrowed to just Jevon, and as sweet as the story was, he wasn’t interested. He drained his beer and pulled Jevon in for a surreptitious kiss. “Can we get out of here?”
“Sure, but I can’t come back to yours. I’ve got to go home and start packing my life up.”
Rhys nodded, ignoring the dread that slashed through him. “I’ll come to the station with you.”
King’s Cross was on Rhys’s way home anyway, and they parted ways outside the over-ground platform that would take Jevon back to Bedford. “Look,” Rhys said. “I know I’m a bit of a drag when I go into one, but you were right earlier—I don’t want to waste the next few days sulking about you going.”
“Make the most of it, eh?”
“For sure.” Rhys tugged Jevon close and wrapped his arms round his waist. They kissed long and slow, but mindful of their public location, Rhys broke away before things got too hot. “I’ve got an early shift the day after tomorrow. Maybe I can come over?”
“Sounds like a plan.” Jevon nuzzled Rhys’s jaw, then backed off. “Bring that champagne. We’ll have some fun.”
He began to walk away. Rhys watched him go, lost in the elegant rise and fall of his lithe body. He almost didn’t hear Jevon when he stopped at the ticket barriers and called his name. “What?”
Jevon dragged an oyster card from his back pocket and swiped the barrier. “I said, if that shit you pulled in the restaurant is just a job, then I’m quitting mine to sell car insurance.”
Fourteen
Gearing up for an overseas deployment had always been a no brainer. The camps were where Jevon was meant to be, and he’d never questioned it. But it was different now. There was a line down his heart, blurred and cruel, and whichever way he turned, people got hurt.Hegot hurt.
It didn’t help that time seemed to be slipping through his fingers. Two weeks had turned into one, and now he had only days left before he boarded the plane to Greece. Excitement warred with sadness, and the ominous dread in his bones got heavier with every passing day.
Still, he’d promised Rhys they wouldn’t get bogged down in their impending separation, and that apparently meant pretending it wasn’t happening. Pretending this wouldn’t be Jevon’s last trip to London before he left.
He got off the train at King’s Cross and walked straight into Rhys’s open arms, his smile wide enough to split his cheeks. “’Sup. You all good?”
Rhys hummed. “Nothing a week’s kip wouldn’t cure.”
“You haven’t slept?”
“Nah. The overnight ran, uh, over. I haven’t been home.”
Jevon stepped back, belatedly noticing the bag at Rhys’s feet and the clothes he often wore to and from the air ambulance base. “Damn. What do you want to do? Go home and rest for a while?”
They had loose plans to visit Efe and go out for a few drinks before they returned to Rhys’s flat for the night, but Jevon would be as happy to hold Rhys in his arms as he slept. Happy to be anywhere as long as they were together.
But Rhys shook his head. “I’m good. Just need a shower and a change of clothes and I’ll be right as rain.”
On another day, Jevon might’ve argued that a shower couldn’t repair the damage from a twenty-four-hour shift, but this wasn’t an ordinary day.
They made their way to Brick Lane. Jevon waited while Rhys took a shower but, when he’d been gone twenty minutes, braved the steam to check on him.
Rhys was standing beneath the hot water, head down, hands braced on the wall. Jevon hovered in the doorway for a blink of an eye before stripping his clothes and stepping under the spray to join him.
He stood behind Rhys, his arms around his waist, his face nuzzling the swathe of perfect pale skin between his shoulder blades. Even a glance across a crowded bar from Rhys was enough to make Jevon’s dick twitch. Naked in the shower? Yeah. It wason.