Gentleman Sinner(76)

‘What time is it?’ he croaks, looking past me to Theo.

‘Ten, you lazy bastard.’ Theo’s front meets my back as Callum grumbles under his breath, turning and wandering down the hall, his trousers undone and hanging low, a hand raking through his ruffed-up blond waves. I grin to myself but jump when Theo’s mouth meets my ear.

‘Keep your eyes to yourself,’ he whispers, pushing me onward.

My face screws up in guilt. ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I follow Callum, looking for Jess as I go. Where is she? When I enter the lounge, I find Theo’s friend shrugging on his shirt. ‘Where’s Jess?’ I ask him, craning my neck to look into the kitchen.

He peeks up at me without lifting his head, fastening his belt, but he doesn’t speak. What’s going on?

‘So you stayed here last night?’ Theo asks, dropping to the chair in the corner of the room. He looks stupidly too big and mean for the quirky floral piece.

Callum’s lead gaze moves across the room, from me to Theo. ‘And?’

‘All right, grouchy pants.’ Theo chuckles softly.

Callum’s hard face creases into a frown. ‘ “Grouchy pants”?’

‘Don’t worry,’ I jump in, dropping my bag. ‘I was ‘panicky pants’ this morning.’

Theo scowls at me, and Callum grunts. ‘Woman’s turning you into a fucking pussy.’

‘Speaking of pussy . . .’ Theo sits back in the chair, working hard on keeping a casual persona. It’s a piss take. He knows it, I know it, and Callum knows it, too.

‘No,’ Callum grunts, short and sharp.

‘Then why the fuck are you here?’

‘Because I’ve never in my life seen a woman so drunk, and I figured it was dangerous.’

‘Because she wasn’t sober enough to give you her consent?’

‘Fuck you,’ Callum snaps, shoving his feet into his shoes as he points at me.

I recoil. ‘What the hell have I got to do with it?’

Callum smiles tightly. ‘She’s your mate. You like her, and Theo likes you. Which means should anything happen to her, you’ll wail, Theo will have to deal with it, and I will get earache as a result.’

My eyebrows are high and surprised, and Theo bursts into a fit of laughter across the room. I look at him like he’s lost his mind, because it sounds like he has. I’ve never heard him laugh so hard. ‘You’re a twat, Callum Tyler.’ Theo chuckles around his insult. ‘A fucking twat.’

Callum grabs his car keys. ‘Again, fuck you.’

‘When was the last time you got some?’

‘Fuck you.’ He strides out of the room.

‘A while, then?’ Theo shouts to his back. ‘Why would that be, Callum? There are plenty of women willing to drop their knickers for you.’

‘Fuck you.’ The door slams, and Theo continues falling to pieces in the chair, rubbing at his eyes.

‘What was all that about?’ I ask.

He breathes some calm back into him, letting the odd chuckle slip here and there. ‘He likes her,’ he finally says.

I scoff, marching out of the room to find Jess. ‘Could have fooled me.’ I swing her bedroom door open and find her half dangling off her bed, dribbling into the pillow. ‘Jess.’ I shake her, dodging the flailing arm that swipes at me. ‘Jess, wake up.’

‘Go away.’

‘Callum just left. Did you know he stayed?’

She lunges upward like she could have been electrocuted, her wild hair covering most of her face. She brushes it away and finds me. ‘What?’

‘Callum, he just left. He stayed?’

‘I don’t know, did he?’ She scans the bed, her forehead heavy, clearly trying to rewind through her memories and find the information she needs. ‘Oh, no. Please, no.’

‘What?’

‘I threw up.’ She heaves, like she could vomit again. ‘And I might have told him I had an orgasm when he carried me over that puddle.’

‘You didn’t?’ I’m as horrified as she is, praying she dreamed that part.

She fake-cries, falling to the mattress and burying her face. ‘I fucking did.’

I shake my head at her in disappointment. But I’m laughing on the inside. My cool, together friend has been bamboozled by a man. I never thought I’d see the day. ‘You twat.’

‘I am. I’m a twat.’

‘I need to get changed. And you need to get all that alcohol out of your system before you start your shift tonight.’

Her head shoots up, panicked, her blonde hair sticking out here and there haphazardly. ‘He’s gone?’

‘Yep. And he hasn’t had any for a while, despite there being plenty on offer.’ I waggle a suggestive eyebrow at her. ‘Just thought you should know.’

She blows a raspberry and plumps the pillow under her head. ‘I guarantee he’s heading straight back to the Playground to let off some steam with one of the strippers.’

‘Dancers,’ I correct.

‘Do they put out?’

‘Sounds like it, but I think he likes you.’

‘What makes you say that?’ she asks. ‘The vomit on my chin?’