Page 7 of Broken Promises (Soho Knights #5)

JASON

Jason was late. This was nothing new for him, but he still hated it, and it was the reason his best friends saw him as unreliable.

They wouldn’t say anything like that, but he knew his flighty nature irritated them – some more than others.

He couldn’t help it, though. He always planned to be on time, but something always happened that distracted him.

It was Sunday and time for their weekly brunch, which was something they’d done for five years, ever since they’d discovered Sex and the City and decided they wanted to be those girls.

Yes, Jason was the Samantha of the group.

Charlie was Charlotte, the hopeless romantic.

Langdon was Miranda, with his no-bullshit attitude.

Jason didn’t think they had a Carrie in the group, though.

Paolo was demi, so didn’t hook up with anyone.

It wasn’t something Paolo shared openly, but Jason had worked it out.

Gregory was the quiet one, yet he was a secret dom or something.

Jason had seen some muscly beasts hobbling out in the early hours once the nerd was done with them.

It was kind of hot. In fact, all his friends were hot, and if they weren’t family, Jason would have definitely tried something.

To be fair, he had tried with Langdon at uni, but he hadn’t been interested.

Jason had been disappointed because he didn’t like rejection, but he was pleased because now he could tease Langdon all the time and make him feel uncomfortable.

It was their love language, to torment each other like siblings.

Jason saw KC’s Café across the street, but was out of view from the front window, which is the table they always occupied.

He’d had to run part of the way here because the cab had been stuck in traffic, and he got irritated that he was going to be even more late.

He’d jumped out on Whitehall and run the rest of the way – big mistake.

He was knackered, and he was a regular gym goer.

He was only twenty-seven, so hoped he wasn’t getting too old already.

Jane had told him twenty-seven was the golden age, as it was the last year you could refer to yourself as a young man.

Once he’d caught his breath, he squared his shoulders and made sure his arse still looked fabulous in his tight jeans, and then sauntered across the road. As he walked into the place he thought of as a second home, he caught the tail end of a conversation.

“For fuck’s sake, I’m not in love with him,” Charlie shouted.

It was unlike Charlie to shout. He was the heart of their group and rarely raised his voice.

“Who’s not in love?” asked Jason.

They all spun round to look at him. He dumped his bag and coat on the chair he used every time he was in here, and gave them a quick smile, then he rushed over to KC, who was more like a mother to him than his own.

This woman had been through hell, and he adored her.

She was the true definition of a role model.

To have transitioned in the nineties and opened a business was incredible.

Even being in Soho, it hadn’t been easy for her, and Jason had been horrified when she’d shared her experiences.

Things were still challenging now, but back then they sounded horrendous.

Jason hoped things wouldn’t revert to the way there were then, but sadly, many people were trying to make that happen.

“Where have you been?” asked Charlie.

“Getting railed all night. I swear to God, he had a cock like a baby’s arm. I won’t be able to walk for a week.”

To emphasise the point, he lowered himself onto his chair with a wince.

His arse didn’t really hurt that much, the guy had been pretty average, but he got an A for effort.

That was a boring story, though, and besides, Jason hadn’t really been into him.

He just hadn’t wanted to go home alone, not after sitting on Patrick’s lap.

The man had looked into his eyes like he was boring into his soul.

“Are you going to see him again?”

Who was he talking about? He’d love to see Patrick again– this time with neither of them wearing clothes, and Jason on his back with his legs over his head. He was getting hard just thinking about it. Where was he? Oh yeah, he had to give a verdict on Mr Average.

“Nah. You know me. Fuck and chuck, or get fucked and chuck,” he laughed.

“Excuse me!”

They all turned to find a po-faced woman with two children.

“Yes?” asked Jason.

“Can you not speak like that, please? It’s very offensive.”

“Do you know what is offensive? Listening in on other people’s conversations.” He turned back to the group, effectively dismissing her. “Now, where was I? Did I tell you about his tongue?”

“Jason,” Paolo warned. “Why don’t we change the topic to something we can all contribute to?”

“That’s boring. I should have stayed in bed with Hercules.”

“His name was not Hercules,” said Charlie.

“That was his profile name. We didn’t really speak much. ”

“Right, moving on,” interjected Paolo. “Langdon, what’s new with you?”

“Well . . .”

“Ooh wait,” shouted Jason. “I’ve got something for you.” He gestured towards Charlie.

“Do I want to hear this?”

“I ran into your hot daddy last night.” And my own hot daddy as well, hopefully!

“Sebastian?”

“Yeah. He was looking for you in Mickey’s. Did you know he had a friend who actually is a hot daddy? I’m not joking, an actual daddy. He called me a brat.”

They all burst out laughing.

“Not like you to get knocked back,” said Langdon with a smirk – the fucker!

“I didn’t get knocked back. His husband just died, though, so he said he wasn’t up for fucking me just yet. Shame, as it would have been so hot.”

The thought of Patrick owning him, calling him boy as he ploughed him.

.. He knew in his mind that Patrick would be one of those people where it wouldn’t matter how big his cock was, he would know just what he was doing with it.

In Jason’s head, he knew Patrick had a big cock.

He had a feeling he’d be playing with more girth than length, and that was his favourite.

That stretch when you were being split open. .. there was nothing like it.

“Jason. Focus. What did Sebastian want?”

At that precise moment, KC appeared with their food.

Jason had sent KC a text to say he wasn’t far away so she could get his food ready at the same time.

The last thing he wanted was to make his friends wait for him.

He hated to disappoint them, and how irritated he made them.

He didn’t mean to, but he had to put on enough of a mask at work.

At least with them, he didn’t doubt they loved him.

“Jason, what did Sebastian want? ”

Oh, yes. That was right. This was about Charlie, and not Jason.

“He wants you to call him. He gave me his number for you.”

Monday morning brought the usual deluge of emails, which had come in over the weekend.

The company had offices all over the world, so when he logged off on Friday, the US was still awake, and by the time Monday came, Australia had already had theirs, and the Middle East worked Sunday instead of Friday.

So there were over a hundred unread emails in his inbox.

He had a feeling it was going to be one of those days.

JenSure was a global specialty insurer, which insured businesses rather than people’s homes, cars, lives, or pets.

They did everything else, and the company had five thousand employees.

Jason was the global head of HR, so he looked after the operational side of HR and all the business partners.

In short, all the crap nobody else wanted to do, but he loved it.

From a young age, he knew he wanted to work in HR, but he’d taken a business and finance degree.

He knew that if he wanted to be successful in this role, he had to understand how business worked.

Once he’d graduated, he’d gone to night school to do a Masters in HR.

He was the only one of his brothers who had a secondary degree, although Gregory could get one with his eyes closed if he wanted.

They were the only two who’d gotten first class degrees.

Jason knew he was clever, but his problem was focussing on something.

Thankfully, he’d always studied subjects he found interesting, which made things easier.

He’d hated the school subjects he was forced to take, but his parents hadn’t cared about his education, so he’d done enough to get into college, and then smashed his A-levels because he took subjects he enjoyed.

“Coffee?” asked Dexter .

He was the head of talent acquisition and was on the leadership team with Jason.

They were both early birds, but for different reasons.

Recruitment people were always notoriously early, but Jason had to get into the office first to ensure he got his desk.

After hybrid working came in, everyone had moved to hot desking, but if Jason was seated at a different desk, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate all day.

It would feel like his skin was trying to crawl off his body, and he’d barely be able to get anything done.

But if he was in his seat, he would smash through all his tasks, so Jason had been in the office for fifteen minutes before Dexter arrived, and had already halved his emails.

Dexter was a handsome guy. Jason thought gingers were always hot as fuck, and they always had one thing in common– girth! He snorted at his thought.

“What’s funny?” asked Dexter.

“Intrusive thoughts.”

“I won’t ask... well, not until after we’ve had coffee.”