Page 7 of Gideon (Finding Home #3)

Chapter

Three

You’re extremely pert for someone who’s in my employ

ONE WEEK LATER

Eli

I wheel my employer into the suite on the ship where we’re going to be spending a lot of time and only just prevent my jaw dropping. Fucking hell, it’s huge. I seem to spend my life in rich people’s homes, but I’ve never stayed in a suite like this on a ship.

We’re standing in an open-plan lounge and dining room.

I have this same arrangement in my flat but it’s very different, mainly because in my place you could stand in the middle of the room and touch the walls on either side.

You definitely couldn’t do that here unless you had arms like Stretch Armstrong.

The room is huge and full of light from the floor-to-ceiling windows which offer a stunning view of the ocean.

On one side is a table big enough to seat ten people and on the other is a massive sectional sofa and some comfy-looking armchairs grouped around a flat-screen TV.

It’s decorated in white and silver, and expensive-looking pale rugs are dotted about on the light oak floorboards.

I tap my foot on the floor. Definitely not laminate.

The butler who apparently comes with the suite hovers next to us. “Can I get you anything?” he says pleasantly. “Anything to eat and drink?”

“I’ll have a large gin and tonic,” Gideon says, but I shake my head.

“He’ll have a peppermint tea.” Gideon looks at me disbelievingly and I wink at him. “Good for your chest.”

He shakes his head at his brother who has come to see him off. “Well, Milo, please make a note. By the end of this trip my chest will be fine but my head will have exploded in boredom.”

The butler hesitates and Milo shakes his head at him. “He’s an actor ,” he says sotto voice, pointing at Gideon who blinks.

“An actor with perfectly workable eardrums. Why are you talking about me as if I’ve got to be handled?”

“Because you do,” Niall says cheerfully. “You need more careful handling than a box of crockery.”

The butler smiles and moves out of the room, hopefully to obey my instructions and not my patient’s. At the thought of him I look over and suppress a smile. He has moroseness down to an art, sitting slumped in the wheelchair with his arms folded.

It’s been a week since I first met him, but, as if he was establishing who was boss, he let me know with barked commands and acerbity left, right, and centre.

I’ve therefore spent the days shopping for stuff for him and coordinating with the hospital staff and the ship crew so we have a plan of action for everything.

“Well, here we are,” I say cheerfully and, I admit, loudly. A tiny part of me is enjoying actually winding him up simply because it feels like the right thing to do, and I love the slight twist of humour on his impatient face that shows he actually enjoys a bit of backchatting.

“Oh, joy,” he says sulkily. “Am I allowed out of this chair or will I have to stay in it for the duration of the voyage?”

“No, out you get,” I say heartily, winking at Niall who has a half smile on his face. It appears he’s Gideon’s best friend and the boyfriend of Milo.

Gideon sneers at me and gets out of the wheelchair gingerly.

He’s wearing jeans, a navy short-sleeved t-shirt, and camel-coloured suede Vans.

The clothes suit him but they’re hanging on him and highlighting how thin he is.

I watch him intently under the guise of taking his navy woollen hoody off him and hanging it in the coat cupboard by the door.

He’s pale and looks exhausted. His legs have a faint tremor and I shoot Milo a look of warning which he immediately understands.

“Gid, sit down,” he says impatiently. “I hate it when you tower over me.”

“I don’t want to sit down,” he says peevishly, while slumping onto the sofa with a thankful sigh that we all tactfully pretend not to hear.

“Because then I’ll go to sleep and I really don’t want to leave such a precious day as this has been.

One that will stay evergreen in my memory.

The day when I was wheeled onto a ship like I was in a bath chair while people fifty years older than me sprang up the gangplank like fucking toddlers.

” He shoots Milo a glance. “It hasn’t escaped my notice that every single person embarking today appeared to be seventy. What’s going on?”

Milo fidgets. “Ooh,” he says happily. “What a lovely view you have.”

“Milo?”

He subsides onto the sofa. “It’s a golden oldies cruise.”

Gideon starts to laugh. “I could have sworn you just said that you’d booked me on an old aged pensioner’s cruise.”

“I did say that.”

The laughter stops. “What the fuck?”

Milo holds up one hand rather imperiously.

“No, I’m not listening to any more whinging.

This was the only cruise ship docking that was going back to England.

If we’d waited for the next one you’d have had to stay with Frankie.

” He looks around as if the man is going to appear in a puff of smoke.

He needn’t worry. The fat controller was talking to the captain last time I saw him.

Milo continues talking. “I had to do some really fast talking to get you on this because there’s an age limit to take the cruise.

” He pauses and laughs. “Well, fast talking for me anyway.”

“Well, can I just say how glad I am that you worked so hard. What did you say to perform this magic trick?”

“Hmm.” Milo mumbles something and Gideon’s gaze sharpens.

“I’m sorry. What?”

“I said you were forty-five,” he says in a rush.

“You said what?”

I can’t help my grin of enjoyment, but luckily no one is watching me.

“I said you were forty-five and honestly, Gid, you look it at the moment.”

“I do not,” he hisses. “I’m thirty fucking nine. I’m not even forty yet, you cheeky twat. Go and tell someone that right now.”

“How? Do you want me to get a loudspeaker and announce it outside the shops?” Milo asks peevishly.

“In my experience of cruises you’d catch more people outside the bar. It’s like a mob at five in the evening,” I offer and subside at Gideon’s glare.

“You don’t look good,” Milo says primly.

“Which is probably your style of life for the last few years showing in your face. So, I had to say you were forty-five.” He pauses.

“They’ll know from your passport, but I don’t think they were that bothered anyway.

This was empty and I paid well over the normal price for it.

You get a butler and everything,” he finishes cheerily.

“Everything? What, like bingo and quoits?”

“Cruises with old people can be quite wild,” I say, winking at him.

His mouth twists in distaste. “Please don’t try and help. I need mind bleach now.”

Niall laughs but it dies as Frankie comes in.

“Well, that’s sorted, Gid,” he announces. “I’ve told the captain who you are. Made sure he knows how you should be treated. He’s under no illusions who he’s dealing with now.”

“Oh lovely,” Gideon sighs. “I’ll look forward to the staff spitting in my food for the duration of the voyage.”

Frankie ignores him, wandering around the room and touching objects randomly. As the others lapse into a soft-voiced conversation he comes to my side.

“I don’t know who you are,” he mutters.

I smile cheerfully at him. “You do. It was on my CV.”

“Hmm,” he says in a low voice. “Well, Mr Jones, nurse extraordinaire, your job is to get him better. He’s got a film in six months. We need him back up and earning again as soon as possible.”

“Like a prize cow,” I say, my smile dying. This is his manager. Doesn’t he care? Can’t he see how sick Gideon still is?

He eyes me in a disgusted fashion. “Don’t be so bloody na?ve.

If he doesn’t work, none of us get paid.

Now, get him better and watch your fucking step.

” He leans closer. “You’ve signed a non-disclosure but I’m warning you as well.

If any stories get sold about him I’ll know who it is and I’ll fucking ruin you.

” He looks me up and down with a sneer twisting his lips. “I know you’re gay.”

“How?” I say sharply. “Did you look into me?”

He shakes his head. “Don’t be such a fucking Pollyanna.

Of course I did. Eli Jones has student loans and a large overdraft because he was in hospital for an extended period of time.

Not sure why that was, but I’ll find out soon.

He lives a very itinerant life travelling from one job to the next.

Currently shares a shithole flat with two other men.

He prefers one-night stands to relationships. ”

“Goodness, what a wicked person I sound,” I say lightly, hopefully covering up my intense desire to punch him. How dare he set someone to investigate me.

He glares at me. “Gid’s currently a little confused.

He might find you attractive but it doesn’t mean anything.

” I blink at the fact that while Frankie is lecturing me on keeping secrets he’s just spilled that Gideon Ramsay might like men.

I shoot an instinctive look at Gideon and feel a spiral of heat inside me that I quickly squash as Frankie carries on haranguing me.

“He’s been doing a little bit of experimenting lately before he settles down with Jacinta Foxton.

Now, remember this, you fuck him and I will bury you so deep they’d need a digger to find you.

I’ll destroy your career.” I stare at him and he smiles.

“Just a little warning for you, Eli Jones. Remember what I said. A nurse sleeping with a celebrity. Gid might recover from it. Your career? Not a chance.”

I want to laugh at the ridiculous threats, but I can’t. There’s a malice under the bellicose words that’s almost frightening. This is not a man to be crossed. And he’s not wrong. I would lose my job if I slept with a patient.

“Frankie.” Gideon’s sharp voice breaks into our conversation, and when I look up, he’s slumped on the sofa. His colour is even more off but he’s glaring at his manager. “What are you saying to Eli?”