An Unlocked Mind (Secrets #2)(21)
VIC WAS mentally knackered and his body ached. He’d been holed up in a room for eight hours with the design team as they laid out plans to massively revamp the area around St. Peter’s Square, an area which had been sadly neglected in Manchester. At one time it had been the heart of the city, but now it was rundown. Vic’s job, along with the rest of the design team, was to redevelop the square, involving a big rethink of the entire square for transport, pedestrians, and businesses. Another week, maybe two, and they’d be done. He much preferred the outside jobs, because that way his body got a workout in addition to his mind. Right then, he wanted a shower to wash away the hours he’d spent trapped in that greenhouse of a meeting room. For some reason the heating had been on full blast, and the air conditioner wasn’t working. He could feel the places where his shirt clung to his body because of the sweating he’d done, and he felt… gross.
He turned on the taps to get the water to temperature, then stripped off his clothes. A shower, a takeaway pizza from Carlotti’s, and then a night in front of the television until it’s time to go to bed. Perfect. Just the thought of stretching out and getting some rest was almost enough to make him forgo the shower and just drop onto his mattress.
He was about to step into the shower when he thought he heard something at his door. The metallic snap of his letterbox assured him it wasn’t his imagination. Vic turned off the water, grabbed the fluffy tan robe from its hook, wrapped himself up in it, and stalked downstairs to the door. For the life of him, he couldn’t think who could be there. His friends would never turn up unannounced.
Vic yanked open the door and came to a dead stop. It took a second for the kid’s name to register, and another to bite back the words that were right there on the tip of his tongue.
What the fuck are you doing on my doorstep at almost nine o’clock at night?
“Why are you here, Rob?” Vic asked by way of greeting.
At least Rob had the decency to blush. “I was… uh… in the neighborhood. I thought maybe we could… I don’t know. Hang out or something.”
Hang out? Vic studied the way Rob bit his lip. Then it dawned on him. He expects me to send him away. He’d come all the way from Manchester—for what reason, Vic couldn’t fathom as yet—and now there he stood on Vic’s doorstep.
He leveled a hard stare at Rob. “Hmm. In the neighborhood. This must be some new use of the word that I haven’t previously encountered. I take it you came by train?” Cheam railway station was literally just around the corner from the house.
Rob nodded, then dipped his chin. Vic was glad that he’d not gone with his initial reaction—Rob seemed more vulnerable now than he did the last time.
“You know I’m still gay, right?” he said at last, mentally going over what to do next. Rob’s sudden appearance had thrown him a little.
Rob shrugged. “I don’t care if you’re a—if you’re gay. You’re still a pretty cool guy.”
Vic arched his eyebrows at the compliment. “Well, gee, thanks for that encouraging endorsement.”
Rob hesitantly lifted his head, and Vic stared into blue eyes. “So, can I come in?”
Vic had no clue where this was going, but he certainly wasn’t about to leave Rob on his doorstep, not when he was such a long way from home. He moved back and swept his arm in the direction of the house. “Come in. Mi casa and all that.”
Rob stepped in, took his shoes off at the door, and made a beeline for the lounge. Vic followed him but paused in the doorway. Rob sat on the small two-seater couch beside the chimney breast, perched on the edge of the cushions. Vic walked in a leisurely manner across the room to sit on the larger couch facing him. He eyed the young man. Now that he had the time to take in his features, Vic found him to be not nearly as pretty boy as he had before. There was a hardness to him, but the way Rob’s gaze flickered around the room, the way he held himself, so still, so guarded, spoke of that vulnerability Vic had noticed. Rob reminded him of a hermit crab, hidden beneath a brittle shell, but if one looked carefully, they could see where tender bits were exposed.
There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there?
When it became clear that Rob wasn’t about to speak, Vic surged ahead. “Rob, why are you really here?”
A frown marred Rob’s features. “I just… I thought maybe, if you weren’t busy, we could spend some time together. If this is a bad time….” Rob lurched to his feet and moved toward the door. “Sorry if I bothered you.”
Talk about skittish.
“Stop.”
Rob froze at the threshold, and Vic sighed.
“I never said you were bothering me. I’m just curious as to why you’re here. You made your opinion of me pretty clear at the club. What was it you called me? Oh, yes. A poof. And just because I took pity on you that evening doesn’t make us friends. You have a long way to go to before we get even remotely close to being friends.”
Rob scuffed the carpet with a socked foot. “Would an apology help?” He lowered his gaze to the floor.
That same vulnerability shone through like a beacon, more obvious than before. Rob hadn’t traveled several hours by train simply to hang out. He clearly wanted to show Vic he was wrong, maybe in an attempt to salvage something out of the mess he’d made when they first met.