Read Men of London 02 - Sight and Sinners Online

Authors: Susan Mac Nicol

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Men of London 02 - Sight and Sinners (3 page)

BOOK: Men of London 02 - Sight and Sinners
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The restaurant was frenetic, testament to the great service and exceptional food. Taylor had come here to celebrate the end of the nightmares that had plagued him recently. They’d ceased about two days ago, and while he wasn’t sleeping well, he
was
sleeping. He hadn’t yet found out who had come to a grim end or how but he knew he would sooner or later.

He’d wanted Leslie to come with him but Leslie had apparently got a hot date. Taylor just hoped the guy had stamina, as Leslie had spent the day anticipating what he would do to him. His friend could be extremely creative.

Taylor watched as a man entered the venue and stared around fiercely. He was definitely worth looking at, he mused idly. Broad shoulders, blond hair, a rather curvy arse and a pair of strong legs currently encased in black chinos. He was shown to a table near the window and Taylor tried not to be too obvious as he watched the front of house manager attend to her customer’s needs.

I’d like to attend to his needs. I’m sure he would make me very needy too. God, why don’t gay guys wear a button or something so we know whether it’s worth pursuing?

Taylor smirked and watched the sexy stranger pick up his menu. As he did, he lifted his eyes. They met Taylor’s, and for a minute Taylor lost his breath. Mr. Mysterious had eyes as dark as grey slate, with straight brows and the longest, sexiest eyelashes Taylor had ever seen. The two men stared at each other for a moment, the other man’s gaze challenging and open, his eyebrows raised quizzically until finally Taylor dropped his glance. He looked down quickly at his plate of spaghetti Alfredo as if he’d discovered the Holy Grail in it. For some reason, that confident¸ sexy stare had unnerved him like no other. He thought the man looked rather familiar, but recognition eluded him.

Taylor fiddled with his fork, twirling some pasta onto it and raising it to his mouth. As he did so, he couldn’t help notice that Mr. Mysterious was still staring at him, his gaze hooded. Taylor shovelled the food into his mouth then licked sauce off his lips. Twice. The man watching him tensed slightly then looked away as a waitress approached his side with a drink.

What the hell? I feel like I know him. And he seemed a little rattled at my lip licking. At least that worked. Perhaps he
does
bat for my team.

That idea made him smirk. He risked another quick glance over at the man as he sipped his drink. Blond and hunky had now got his food and was eating it in quick, economical bites as if he expected it to run away and he needed to eat it before it did. There was nothing sloppy about it, just focused, structured movements of his knife and fork. He ate what looked like a rather large steak, putting in between full, pink lips. He didn’t look Taylor’s way again.

Taylor appraised him idly and ran his tongue wetly around the rim of the glass, just in case he looked up. He had it on good authority that the move was a guaranteed show starter when he did it. He heard a gentle cough to his left side and glanced over. Gideon Kent stood there, his handsome face amused and his hazel eyes glinting in the dimmed light of the wall sconces.

“Seen something you like, Taylor?” His deep voice echoed softly in the quiet of the alcove where Taylor sat. Gideon looked immaculate in his dark blue tailored business suit, coupled with a pale blue button-down that hugged his muscular chest. If Gideon wasn’t spoken for, Taylor would definitely have made a play for him. As it was, he felt guilty for lusting after the man when he was in a relationship with his best friend.

He waved a hand airily. “I was admiring the view, yeah. Wondering if he played on my team and whether I should go over and buy him a drink.”

Gideon snorted. “Good luck with that. He might be on our side but Draven Samuels is a difficult bugger. Comes in here regularly and always tips the staff very well. But he’s not an easy man to get to know.”

“Draven? Unusual name. I like it.” Taylor stared over at the man on the far side who was sipping what looked like Coke. “Funny thing is, I think I’ve met him before but I just can’t put my finger on where.”

Gideon turned and ran a critical eye around his restaurant before turning his attention back to Taylor. “Well, make whatever play you like but I don’t want to find you in the bathroom stalls together.”

Taylor opened his mouth to deny that he did that and Gideon laughed. “Remember who sleeps in my bed, Taylor. Eddie loves post-fuck conversation and he’s told me a few stories. Not that it’s any of my business; I just don’t want jizz messing up my clean bathrooms.” His nostrils flared and a small smile softened his lips. He sniffed once, a look of pure satisfaction on his face.

“I like the aftershave. Maybe Draven would like it too.”

A light went on in Taylor’s brain. He remembered Gideon had lost his sense of smell and taste in a bad fire some months back. Recently he’d begun to be able to smell again and Eddie had been as excited as all hell about that fact. You’d have thought he discovered the cure for all the afflictions of the human condition.

Gideon laughed and motioned toward the empty plate as Taylor eyed him with narrowed eyes. “Looks like you enjoyed your food. I’ll ask Eddie to send you out an Italian coffee, on the house. I know that’s what you usually have to finish off a meal.” He checked his watch. “Gotta go. I might be the boss but I can’t be seen to be slacking off. Say hi to that crazy roommate of yours. I’ll tell Eddie you say hi.” He grinned fondly. “The man is causing havoc in the kitchen tonight. He’s broken two plates already.”

He waved and disappeared into the busy hive of the restaurant. Taylor hadn’t even had time to thank him for the free drink. Sighing, he looked over at the mysterious Draven Samuels. He was absorbed in some sort of pudding, poking at it with a fierce scowl that looked as if he thought it might bite him. Taylor choked back a laugh. Well, at least he knew the man’s name now. He grinned wickedly. He’d take the bull by the horns and go over there, buy the man a drink. Perhaps he could seal the deal on this one; he just had to make his move. Taylor licked the rim of his glass again and smiled.

*****

 

Draven prodded at his mocha latte ice cream dish and scowled. It wasn’t the pudding, dribbled with some sort of delicious honey sauce and peppered with pecan nut chips that were causing his ire. No, it was a honey of another sort. It was the man across the room who’d licked his lips like some sort of porn star then ran his pink tongue around the rim of his glass. Draven wanted desperately to feel that tongue circling another kind of rim. But now he’d remembered where he’d seen the younger man before, and there was no fucking way on God’s green earth that he was pursuing his initial instinct to take the man home and screw the lip-licking crap out of him.

When he’d first laid eyes on him, his dick had reared to attention like a meerkat popping out of its hole. The man had every attribute that pushed Draven’s “want it, have to have it” buttons. A little younger than him, with light, coffee-coloured skin, thick, curly black hair down to his shoulders, what looked like a trim and wiry physique under a tight red polo shirt, well-muscled arms that led to fingers that could definitely strum what they liked, and lips beneath a hint of dark stubble—those damn lips again—that would look just as good sucking his cock as they did licking sauce off. He’d seen Gideon wander over to him and have a conversation and then watched as Brown Eyes went back to trying to be sexy. He was succeeding if the steel in Draven’s chinos was anything to go by.

He attacked his dessert with gusto, lamenting each time he stabbed the spoon into the goo that was melting in his bowl that he wouldn’t get to take the man home tonight.

“Has that pudding offended you in any way?” The enquiry was delivered in an amused, warm tone. Draven knew who it was before he looked up. He schooled his face to show the required expression of diffidence and disinterest. The man from the table with the beautiful lips stood before him, a slight smile on his face, but Draven noticed the hands fidgeting at his sides. Brown Eyes wasn’t as confident as he made himself out to be.

“I’m sorry. Did you say something?” He stared at the younger man, trying to convey the fact he wasn’t interested even when he knew it was a lie. He’d felt the same thing the first time they’d met as well.

Warm, dark caramel eyes stared into his appraisingly. “Well, the way you were stabbing it, I thought it might have disagreed with something you said. You don’t strike me as the kind of man who’d take kindly to being argued with.”

Draven set his spoon down and leaned back in his chair. The man’s smile faltered a little but he held Draven’s gaze.

“I don’t think we know each other well enough for you to make that assumption,” Draven said sharply. “Anyway, is there something I can do for you?” He stared at the other man.

“I was going to ask if you wanted a drink.” The man held out a hand. “My name’s Taylor, by the way. Taylor Abelard.”

Draven nodded. “I know who you are. And no, thanks. I have a drink.” He held up his empty glass and waggled it then set it down and picked up his spoon.

“We’ve met before? Where? I thought you looked familiar but I couldn’t remember where from…” Taylor’s voice trailed off as Draven deliberately went back to eating the last remnants of his ice cream. He ignored Taylor’s sharp, indrawn breath as he was deliberately dismissed.

“Aren’t you going to at least answer my question? I’m sorry if I offended you offering you a drink but…” Taylor’s voice was husky with anger.

Draven ignored him and continued eating, yet still the man didn’t get the hint and move away. Instead, one slim hand reached down and plucked the spoon from between his fingers. Draven looked up, startled, as Taylor smiled and held the spoon away.

“You’re quite rude, aren’t you?” Taylor said conversationally. “You could just have said no thanks, politely.”

“No thanks. Now piss off.” Draven growled and reached for his spoon.

Taylor shook his head, his face set. “Oh no, you’re not getting this back until you tell me where we met and why you’re being such an arsehole.”

Draven looked around the restaurant. “I’ll just get the waitress to bring me another.” He knew he was being childish, but his frustration at not following through on his desire and his knowledge of what this man did to people was like acid in his stomach.

“Fucker.” Taylor said quietly, and at that insult, Draven looked up, his fists clenching. No one called him names like that, especially not beautiful men with kissable lips and the look of a dark angel.

“Give me back my fucking spoon.” He made a move to rise out of his seat and Taylor moved forward, his hips just below the level of Draven’s mouth and he swallowed at the sight of that silky groin. Taylor was wearing a pair of drawstring pants made out of some sort of soft, black material. Draven wanted to pull the knotted cord at his waist with his teeth and watch them slide off slim hips to the floor. The outline of Taylor’s crotch was visible beneath the fabric, tantalisingly close.

“Just tell me where you know me from and I’ll leave,” Taylor said curtly. Draven could see from the implacable set of his shoulders and the hardened eyes that he’d have no peace until he told Taylor what he wanted to know.

“We met at an investigation a year ago, when Bobby Meredith went missing. Remember him?” Draven said bitingly. “Little kid with strawberry-blond hair, six years old, who was found in pieces under an oak tree in a field in Sussex.”

He watched as Taylor’s café au lait skin paled and he thought Taylor might pass out from the sick look on his face.

“Bobby?” Taylor said haltingly, and Draven watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallowed. “Yes, I remember Bobby…” His voice tailed off and he paled even more. Draven felt a spurt of satisfaction at being able to shake the man’s composure. “You were consulted on that case to help ‘find’ him.”

Taylor’s body was trembling and he had a haunted look in his eyes as Draven continued. “His parents were friends of your parents, if I remember, and they thought you could use your
powers
to help. You used to babysit the kid from what I recall.” He spat the word “powers” out with the derision he felt. “I was helping a friend of mine in the force do a psych profile for the guy we thought took him, and that was when we met. There in the field over the remains of Bobby Meredith. You were looking at part of his left leg when you passed out, if I recall.” He had no idea where his viciousness came from and he knew it was totally out of line but at those last words, Taylor gave a strangled cry and spiralled senseless to the floor.

*****

 

“Taylor? Honey, come on back, okay? It’s Eddie. Come on, bud. Wake up.”

Groggily Taylor opened his eyes to stare into a pair of bright green ones that regarded him with concern. Eddie’s face was pale, and his freckles stood out like raindrops on a pavement.

“There’s my lad,” Eddie crooned as he brushed a hand through Taylor’s hair, lifting sweat-drenched strands from his cheek. “I thought you were never going to wake up.”

Taylor struggled to a sitting position as Eddie helped him up. “I passed out?” he said faintly. “God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you worry—”

He was in Gideon’s office, seated in the big armchair in the corner of the room. There was a ring of worried faces surrounding him: Eddie, peering at him anxiously, Gideon regarding him with a concerned frown and…Draven-fucking-Samuels. He stood there with a scowl on his face.

BOOK: Men of London 02 - Sight and Sinners
7.78Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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