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A distinguished, mature man—something that should have put me right off. I liked women with curves, the feel of soft skin against mine. Yet here I was, with my sweatypalm against his sharp stubble, wanting to put my mouth on his, scrape my teeth against his skin, press lips against lips.

Where on earth had all this come from? I absolutely understood his predilection for alcohol, because right now, I needed that bourbon—preferably a whole bottle—to numb the ridiculous thoughts forming in my head.

“Kissing,” he said in a voice that trembled. “Is that something we should be doing?”

He swallowed, staring at my mouth like he’d never seen it before. How had I not noticed? I’d not even thought of it before, but yes. A hundred per cent kissing, please. I think I nodded. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

“I’d love to,” he admitted, moving his gaze to my eyes like he was asking permission.

Consent. He had all of mine, even if I had no idea what that actually meant.

Which, of course, was when the clatter of Jean’s heels punctured the silence and made him shoot up to standing, leaving my hand to lazily trail down his chest, stopping somewhere on the way as he attempted to step back, causing the chair to scrape awkwardly against the floor as Jean popped around the corner.

“Oh, hello!” she said, stopping dead in her tracks.

Caught in the act? Absolutely not. Nothing to see here. Stewart looked flustered as anything, and I was…smiling.

“I’m just going,” he said awkwardly.

“See you at what? Six?” I enjoyed jumping in and watching him squirm.

Perhaps we needed this. A bit of space.

Anticipation.

I hadn’t felt it in a long time.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Jean scolded me. “I just got word from Buxtons. They want you to draw up contracts for all five of their sites. We won’t have time to sit down for the next two weeks, so expect early starts. Also, I need to ask Stewart to drive us on Tuesday—pity he was in such a rush.” She glanced towards the door through which he had made his escape. “Two site visits and a meeting with Janusz Sadowski at their sales office. It’s in Croydon.”

“Croydon?” I managed to spit out in some kind of judgemental disgust.

“Yes, Croydon, Dylan. We take what we can. We’re picking up business, and you and I can’t afford to say no. Notto anything. Take it, do the work, and let him pay you. Move on.”

I nodded carefully.

“And I like that you and Stewart are finding your feet.”

“Our what?”

“Being…friendly.”

“Jean…” I warned.

“Oh, don’t tut me, Dylan. Do you think I’m blind? I see how the two of you look at each other. And my middle boy is queer. You know this. Don’t be silly, not around me.”

“Oh.” I had known. Not even considered it. This was…new. Very new. I’d only really started thinking about Stewart differently…

Who was I lying to now? He’d been the hot neighbour in my head since the first time I laid eyes on him. And now?

“It’s very new,” I huffed out, trying to sound casual.

“Hmm,” she said, barely looking up from the laptop as she tapped away, not even bothering to sit down. “Sadowski has a massive contract pending in Southwark, so I don’t want to hear you grumping aboutvisiting the fine city of Croydon, you hear me? That Southwark site is huge. We’re sealing that deal on Tuesday, mark my words.”

“Yes, okay.” I took a seat, still a little flustered, and rolled up the plans from earlier. I should really get started on those contracts and get ahead of myself.

“Is this a steady thing then? You and Stewart?”

Nosy? Jean? Never!