Page 73

Two years later

Zeph looked up when Jack put a coffee on his desk. “You’re back! Ooh coffee, thank you.”

If they’d been the only ones in the office, Zeph would have leapt into Jack’s arms, but he made do with a caress of Jack’s thigh. Then did it again. They might be alone in the room but could get interrupted at any moment.

Jack groaned quietly and caught hold of Zeph’s wrist. “Are you busy? Is it urgent?”

“Yes, and yes. I’m expecting clients. Damn them to hell.”

That made Jack laugh.

So would this. “Do you think you can persuade Ethan Ward to stop sending dick pics to every woman who gives him her phone number? The guy might be a brilliant drummer but he’s also a complete moron.”

Jack looked over Zeph’s shoulder at the screen. “Nice dick, though. Wow. Quite a tattoo.”

Zeph spun round, then caught the smirk on Jack’s face and changed what he’d been going to say. “Yes. It is a lovely dick. The idea of being impaled on a green dragon. Hmm. Enticing. Can’t think when I last saw a nicer dick to get impaled on.”

Jack narrowed his eyes. “Try.”

“Might take me a while.” Zeph turned his chair and his fingers flew over the keys. “But this guy should keep it in his pants.”

Finally, he sighed and pushed back from the desk. “There’s going to come a time when I can’t solve this sort of thing. How boring my life will be then. No dicks to look at.”

As he expected, Jack spun his chair so that Zeph was facing him.

“Are you bored?” Jack pinned him with his gaze.

Zeph was more worried about Jack getting bored. He’d exchanged his high-octane lifestyle for… Well, a far less intense one.

“Pictures of dicks and no sign of the real thing?” Zeph gave a sad sigh. “The story of my sad, lonely life.”

Jack growled. “I was away three days! You’re pushing—”

The door flew open and Lake burst in. “Oh my God. Zeph, please come and speak to Patricia. She is on the war path and I haven’t done anything.”

“Maybe that’s why she’s on the war path,” Jack suggested.

“Hide me!” Lake pleaded.

Jack gave a heavy sigh. Zeph knew he had no patience with most of the staff at Navy Blue PR.

Lake flung himself under Zeph’s desk and crouched at his feet, his head pressed against Zeph’s shins.

Zeph didn’t think he’d ever seen Jack’s eyes open that wide.

He hoped shock wasn’t replaced by fury. Jack had a possessive streak that might turn Zeph on, but he didn’t want him to go after Lake.

Though the idea of the two of them under his desk made him smile.

Patricia appeared at the door. CEO of Navy Blue PR and in her forties, she was always immaculately made up, wore elegant clothes and was cutthroat sharp in almost every way. “All well?”

“Can all ever be well?” Jack asked.

She smiled. Jack was one of the few people she ever smiled at. But that was because her six-year-old daughter Cindy absolutely adored Jack. It was a shock to everyone, especially Jack.

“Very true. While we have idiot clients like Ethan Ward who insist on sharing their genitals with the world, all cannot ever be well. Other than that?”

“We’re up to speed with security for the concert and the fashion show,” Jack said. “I’ve dealt with the Higgins issue, sacked Milo and have everything in place for Paris.”

“Excellent. You can come out now, Lake.”

Lake crawled from under Zeph’s desk and stood up. “I was looking—”

“Don’t insult my intelligence. If you weren’t a social media whizz and didn’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of films and TV shows and everyone involved with them, you’d be of no use to me whatsoever.”

“No use?” he whimpered.

“Little use. Go and do what I expected you to have done yesterday. I want it on my desk in the next hour.”

Lake slid out of the room and Patricia sighed. “I wish you two would work full-time but even part-time you’re more use than him.”

The door burst open again and Cindy came in pulling a little suitcase.

“I’m thinking about locks on the doors,” Jack said under his breath.

“Baby, I told you to stay in my office.” Patricia turned soft in an instant.

“But I heard Jack.” Cindy let go of her case and threw herself at Jack, leaping up at him, expecting him to catch her, which he did.

Jack’s jaw tightened and he patted her back. “Cindy Blue, how are you?”

Zeph smiled. Jack spoke in rhyme to her. She tried to do it back.

“I am fine. Like a…wine.”

They all laughed.

“Think you could watch her for a while?” Patricia asked. “Just one phone call. I had to bring her because the nanny’s sick.”

“No problem.”

Patricia shot him a grateful look and left.

Cindy opened her case. “It’s a spa day. Hair, nails and face day. Today. Okay. Hurray.”

She beamed at Jack who looked horrified. Zeph smothered his laugh.

“Can I read you a fairytale about a nightingale?” Jack asked.

“No… So.” Cindy held out a handful of nail varnishes. “Which would you like? That’s the colour of my bike.”

Cindy sat Jack at his desk.

Zeph carried on working, occasionally shooting glances across the room.

Jack was so good with her. For a really tough guy, it was a miraculous transformation.

The year they’d spent travelling had softened Jack’s edges, made him more relaxed, though there was always a part of him that was alert to danger. That would never change.

Cindy’s tongue was out as she concentrated on painting each of Jack’s fingernails a different colour. Jack kept shooting Zeph a glance and grimacing, but he only ever had a smile for Cindy.

He’s a good man. He never agreed with Zeph when he told him that, but he was.

They’d bought this business because a life of leisure was not for them.

Definitely not for Jack, but not for Zeph either.

They hadn’t been looking for a public relations and marketing company but they’d met Patricia when her car had been in an accident and he and Jack stopped to help.

It was almost a surprise to the three of them that they’d ended up buying her out of her company, but keeping her and almost everyone else on.

Her former business partner had died some months before and she’d been struggling.

The company made use of Zeph and Jack’s security skills.

Neither of them was good at the schmoozing but Jack was an expert on keeping high profile clients safe, along with securing their homes, their journeys and anywhere they were staying.

He personally trained every bodyguard they had on their books and Zeph knew he enjoyed it.

In a way, he was passing on the knowledge that Thomas had given him.

Zeph was on the digital side of the business and it wasn’t all dick pics.

That gave him an idea and he grinned.

“Something funny, honey?” Jack called.

“Just thinking of something that rhymes with kick.”

Jack grumbled under his breath.

“That hand’s done, now you…you’ll look nice in the sun.” Cindy gave him a wide smile.

Jack regarded his left hand. “Pretty, kitty.”

She grabbed his right.

Zeph was still doing occasional consultancy work for UK government security services, mostly tweaking facial recognition software, checking the strength of their systems at keeping out hackers, and unbeknownst to them, looking to see whether there was any mention of Jack or Thomas in any of their many aliases.

Thomas hadn’t been happy about sharing those with Zeph but Jack had persuaded him.

Jack’s work for Navy Blue meant some travelling, but more often than not, Zeph went with him. He looked up at him and Jack mouthed, I love you.

“I love you,” Zeph whispered.

The door opened again. Did no one ever knock? Ethan Ward walked in with his manager, Trevon Brooks. Brooks nudged him forwards.

“Sorry for all the trouble,” Ward said.

“Careful what you say.” Zeph inclined his head towards Jack and Cindy.

“He’s learnt his lesson,” his manager said.

Zeph doubted it.

“I won’t do it again,” Ward mumbled. “I just thought she was the one.”

“I think if she was, then that wasn’t what you should have sent her,” Zeph said. “Try flowers.”

Ward sighed. “I was…”

“I guessed,” Zeph said. Drunk, high?

“Did you get them all?” Brooks asked.

“Those that had been uploaded, yes. I’ve set up a catch and delete system but it will be a while before we can be certain more aren’t going to pop up. To be honest, there’s not much to stop anyone putting a picture on line and claiming it’s you.”

“But my tattoo…” Ward glanced at Cindy.

“Could be drawn on,” Jack said. “Just stop doing it. Next time Zeph might not be able to help.”

“Right, yeah. Okay. Thanks, sorry.”

The pair left. There was something about Jack that seemed to put the fear of God into some clients.

“Done,” Cindy said. “I want a bun.”

“Good job,” Jack told Cindy. “I don’t need to sob.” He held out his hands for Zeph to look at.

“I only did a bit of your fingers, this time…lime?”

“Well done, and I’d like a bun.”

“Now your face…in space.”

She was brandishing a lipstick and Jack paled.

“Red will suit you,” Zeph said and gave Jack the most lascivious look he could manage.

He responded with a frown but sat still while Cindy smeared the lipstick over his lips and beyond.

Jack was saved from the application of a glittery blusher by the arrival of Patricia.

“Honey! What have you done? That’s my Clé de Peau Beauté!” She whipped it from Cindy’s fingers.

Zeph googled it. Ooh. He could have some fun with those details later.

“So sorry, Jack. Thank you so much. See you both on Tuesday, right?”

“I wanted to do Jack’s hair, while he sits there,” Cindy protested.

“No more,” Patricia said firmly and carried her and the case out of the room.

Jack pushed to his feet. Zeph stepped over and grabbed his hand as he was bringing it to his mouth. “No.”

“No?”

“Keep it on,” Zeph muttered. “Don’t lick it off. I want to do that.” He pulled Jack’s hand down to feel how very interested his cock was in that idea.

Jack’s pupils dilated and he groaned. “Have you finished work?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go.”

“And not slow.”

Jack laughed.