The Hot Floor (6 page)

“Well, that’s easy for you to say, when you’re already as bald as a coot.”

“Aye. Saves anyone finding out about the receding hairline, doesn’t it?” Evan rubbed over his head, which shone in the sunlight.

I wondered if it felt as smooth as it looked, or if I’d feel the regrowth prickling my hand. As if he could read my thoughts, Rai reached up to run a hand over Evan’s crown, then planted a kiss on his neck. Christ. If only that were my neck. I reached down to surreptitiously adjust my shorts. I really had to stop thinking about things like that when I was in company. It didn’t help that Rai seemed to be attempting to worm his hand down the back of Evan’s combats, if the mutual squirming was anything to go by.

“So how did you two meet?” I asked, desperate for a distraction.

Evan chuckled. “I was doing some work up at the university. One of the khazis wouldn’t flush properly, and their handyman couldn’t fix it on his own. So I was poking around in the cistern trying to figure out if it was going to need the whole mechanism replacing, when this pint-sized madman stomps in and starts laying into me for disturbing his ‘very important calculations’.”

“You should have seen him.” Rai wrinkled his nose. “Up to his elbows in shit, he was.”

“Was not. I was just wet.”

“Yes, with
toilet water
. Ugh! Then he stood up and towered over me with this massive wrench in his hands and that massive tool in his pants, and I thought I was done for. He had this murderous glint in his eyes.” He shuddered dramatically. I was beginning to think Rai had missed his calling. The stage would have been more fitting with the way he carried on.

“Murderous glint? You come up with some right nonsense sometimes, love. That was me checking you out.” Evan looked up at me and gave a fond smile. “He had this awful lime-green flowery nylon shirt on, and I found myself wondering how much better he’d look if I stripped it off him.”

“And did you?”

Rai snorted derisively. “As if I’d have let him anywhere near my shirt, the state he was in. No, he asked me to go out for a drink with him instead.”

“And you said yes.”

“Not bloody likely! I said no, but he was still hanging around outside when I left the library, and he asked me again.”

“I’m a right glutton for punishment,” Evan explained, smiling. “Couldn’t get him out of my head, though. I’d never had anyone lay into me like that before. Most blokes wouldn’t dare. Especially little ones like him. And he does look hot when he’s angry.”

“So you said yes the second time?” I asked Rai.

“Nope, but I did give him my mobile number, and after about fifty or so texts from him begging me to give him a chance, I decided to meet him for that drink and give him the brush-off in person.”

Evan got Rai into a headlock. “You’re so full of shite, Nakamura. It was only three texts, and you were bloody well gagging for it.” He cupped the substantial bulge at his groin, just in case I was in any doubt as to what Rai had been gagging for. I wasn’t going to lick my lips. I wasn’t.

I did.

Rai squirmed his way out of the headlock. “You were the one who was gagging for it, Mr. Horndog. You were like my own personal stalker. He kept sending me photos of his package and telling me all the things he wanted to do to me in explicit detail.”

Evan didn’t look the slightest bit abashed. “You asked for that photo. And you were the one who started things with the dirty texts.”

“Was not.”

“Was too.”

Evan cut off Rai’s inevitable backchat by grabbing his head and pulling him into a wet, sloppy snog. I should have looked away. I really should have done, but they looked so unbelievably hot together. Evan wasn’t kidding about the octopus hands either. Looked like Rai was about to try to worm them under Evan’s clothing.

Before the semi-on in my pants could turn into a full-on boner, I cleared my throat. “If you guys want some privacy, I’ll head off now.”

Evan broke things off with a slurping, lip-smacking sound.

“Sorry, mate, I was forgetting myself. We’re being terrible hosts,” he said to Rai. He turned to me and gave a sheepish smile. “It’s just nice to be in company where we can relax and be openly affectionate, you know?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Kenny wasn’t out with his family, so it was a nightmare when they visited. I had to pretend I was just a flatmate. We even had to sleep on single beds pushed together and pull them apart when they came over.” I gulped, surprised I’d come out with all of that to them. Denise was the only other person I’d ever told about it.

“Oh, babe, that must have been horrid. Here, come on over for a cuddle.”

Rai perched himself up on one end of the sofa and patted the seat beside him.

“Uh…” I looked over at Evan, who nodded approvingly. “Okay.”

I’d barely touched my bum to the seat when Rai was all over me like a rash. The warmest, most affectionate rash ever. I felt the sofa springs protesting as Evan’s weight settled down on the other side of me. A heavy hand rested on my shoulder, the solidity of it grounding me even as Rai’s energetic caresses excited me.

This really wasn’t helping with the semi-on situation.

“Are you sure we can’t rewrite the rules, hon?” Rai pleaded over my shoulder. “He feels so good, I just want to tear all his clothes off and suck his balls empty.”

Huh? Rules? I made a strangled noise in my throat as one of Rai’s exploring hands dipped down between my legs to illustrate his point by fondling the organs in question.

That semi-on problem? We were way past it now.

“They’re your rules, pet,” Evan said mildly, although his other hand had now found my hip and was squeezing firmly. “And you remember why you came up with them. We wouldn’t want to wreck a friendship and make things so awkward someone had to move, would we?” Evan settled his weight against my back, and I felt his beard tickling my ear. I dropped my head back against his shoulder, exposing my neck to Rai’s nuzzling mouth. I couldn’t help myself.

“Rai gets jealous,” Evan murmured into my ear. “It’s not a problem if it’s just the odd night here and there with someone we don’t mix with otherwise, but if he thinks I’m seeing the bloke when he’s not around, he can’t cope with it.”

“I wouldn’t want to…” I began, but Rai slurped on my neck, and my body arched involuntarily. “Christ! I wouldn’t want to cause a problem with you guys. Really.”

Rai pulled himself up and gave me a regret-tinged look. “Yeah, Evan’s right, the big bastard.” He scowled in Evan’s direction, then scooted back a little so there was a couple of inches of space between us.

“I’m always right, love. You should know that by now.”

Evan gently eased himself away from me, and I slumped back against the sofa, panting like a dog after a run around the park. My neck had been well and truly slobbered on, and I could feel Rai’s saliva drying against my skin. I probably should have been embarrassed about the erection tenting my shorts, but I figured things had gone past that already. Besides which, a quick glance to either side proved I wasn’t the only one whose dick had sprung to attention.

“So, Josh,” Rai said, in an innocent, conversational tone. “Tell us all about your job. I bet you’re quite the expert at blowing things now.”

“Not really,” I said, but seeing his disappointed pout, I pulled myself together. It was innuendo he wanted, was it? I remembered the term for our small furnace that had made me smirk all the time during my first few weeks at Sulis Glass.

“My blowing technique still needs a lot of practice, but I do get to shove my long, hot rod in the glory hole every day.”

Rai’s delighted giggle was soon joined by Evan’s chuckle and my own, ever so slightly hysterical laughter.

Yep, it was probably best to keep these two as friends.

Chapter Five

After that fateful Sunday, the three of us fell into a safe routine. Several times a week, I’d get home to find a note from Rai in my pigeon hole, inviting me over for dinner and a few games of Kerplunk. I’d happily head down there at the arranged time and get treated to something from Evan’s limited yet hearty repertoire of dishes. I’ve got to admit, shepherd’s pie wouldn’t be my first choice for a meal in a heat wave, but the company more than made up for any misgivings about the food.

Rai had settled down into affectionate-but-not-excessively-grabby mode, and the two of them were pretty good at remembering not to snog each other in front of me for too long. We had fun and chatted about all manner of aimless crap. I’d discovered me and Evan had a mutual love of cheesy horror films, while me and Rai both had an unhealthy obsession with the entire England rugby team.
 

A month later, I was peering in the window of one of the charity shops down Walcot Street, wondering if Evan would be pissed off if I bought Rai that hideous retro appliqué wall-hanging featuring a cross-eyed owl, when I heard Denise’s booming yell.

“Hey, Josh, wait for me!”

I turned and watched her trotting down Walcot Street in her heels. When she finally reached me, she put her hands on her hips. “Well, hello,
stranger
. Long time, no see.”

I winced. Yeah, Denise could be pretty bloody scary when she was pissed off. “Hey, Den. How’s things?”

“Nope, you’re not getting away with it that easily, girlfriend. Where have you been all this time, then? No, wait, don’t tell me. I can guess.”

It had only been last week I’d spent the evening round at hers. No wait, last week I went round to Stella’s to look at her old photos again. Make that the week before. Oh,
shit
.

“I’ve been really busy at work. Liam’s got me slaving away over a hot furnace to make enough stock to cover us for when we move.” The plan was to move everything over one weekend and get back to work again as soon as possible, but given the amount of time it would take to cool down and then heat up the furnace again, we’d definitely be losing a few working days.

“Right. So you haven’t been spending every spare hour round at geeky and slaphead’s, then?”

“Don’t call them that. They have names.” Although privately I had my own names for them: octopus and trouser python.

Denise huffed and gave me a wounded look. In the warm early evening light, her cherry-red lipstick and violet mascara glowed unearthly shades. “I just thought we were friends, that’s all, but I got dumped like last season’s clothes the minute you got pally with those two.” She sniffed and blinked rapidly. Oh shit. Was she about to start crying?

“I’m sorry, Den. No, really, I am. I’ll make it up to you.” I thought hard. “How about I take you out for a meal and then on to the vodka bar.”

“It’s going to take more than a burger and a few shots of flavoured vodka to crawl back into my good books, sunshine.” Denise’s tone was still a little chilly, but I could see she was interested in the offer. I stuck my hands in my pockets, jangled my keys and had a spark of inspiration.

“Okay, then. Listen, I’m not really supposed to do this, but…” I leant in closer, conspiratorially, and Denise mirrored my movement with her eyebrows raised. Yeah, she could never resist the allure of something just a little bit naughty.

“I’ve got the keys to the new studio. It’s still a building site, and I’m not meant to go in there unattended, but do you fancy a sneak preview?”

Yep, I’d got her. Her eyes shone like Murano glass. “Can we go now?”

I glanced at my watch. Half past five. The workmen should all be gone by now. “Sure, let’s do it. It’s pretty much on the way home, anyway.”

Denise beamed and locked arms with me. We started up the hill towards the junction with Cleveland Place.

“Are we cool now?” I asked.

“It’s a good start, but if you want to be my BFF again, you’ll have to come over this evening and paint my toenails. I’m going purple this time.”

I’d been hoping for an invite round Rai and Evan’s, I’ll admit, as they’d been busy the last couple of nights. However, one look at Denise’s face warned me I’d better have a bloody good excuse if I wanted to get out of it with all my limbs intact.

“Sure. That sounds fun. The coming-over bit, anyway.” I decided to risk some of my usual banter. “Not having your stinky feet on my lap.”

“Watch it, girlfriend.” Denise elbowed me pretty sharply, but she sounded happy, so I swallowed my protest at being abused. “You can plait some of my hair too. I’ve got some gert lush beads to go in there.”

“I may be gay, but I’ve never plaited anyone’s hair before, Den.”

“You’ll be fine. I’ll teach you,” she announced airily, and I could see it would be futile to try and get out of it. “You’d better make sure you have yourself a shower before you come over, though. You bloody well honk, you do.”

“I’ve spent the whole day toiling away next to a furnace kicking out a thousand degrees. I’m not surprised I’m a bit ripe.”

“A bit ripe?” Denise screwed up her nose. “Baby, if you were a banana, you’d have gone black by now. And that wasn’t a compliment, white-boy.”

Denise had moved on from my body odour and was complaining about her toe rings absolutely bloody well killing her by the time we got to the bridge, but she soon changed her tune when I opened the door to the bridge house.

“Ooh, it’s lighter than I expected!”