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“I currently employ you. That is correct. But after last night…and considering the way you looked at me when we first met…” He paused. Jesse held his breath. “Forgive me. You are a fascinating human. And my instincts told me there was more to your interest than professional curiosity.”
Jesse looked away.
“I’m sorry,” Magnusson continued after a moment. “It has been a very long time since I understood the nuances of human emotion. I sometimes forget that.”
“No kidding…Sir,” he added after an awkward moment.
“I think you really had best start calling me Emory.”
Jesse’s skin heated. “Okay…Emory.”
Emory surveyed him for another long moment. “You have a date this weekend, yes? With Tom?”
Jesse blinked. “I guess I do.”
Emory nodded. “Tom’s a fine man.”
“Look… I don’t need you to—”
“Go on the date, Jesse,” the baron said, lifting Jesse’s unfinished drink and downing it. “Experience a bit of normality. It’s important you know what you want before anything goes any further. But either way, we head to the mayor’s at six.”
He left. Jesse was alone with the flickering fire, the taste of brandy in his mouth and the lingering scent of mint and ice water that was the smell of Emory himself. Jesse scrubbed his hand over his face and retreated to his room.
He sat heavily in his chair and fired up his systems. His searches had found a list of Ivor, Harrison & Associates’ public cases—mostly family law, to Jesse’s surprise. There were several employment and property cases, too, but nothing Jesse thought could relate to Magnusson. He remembered the baron’s promise to fill him in when the time was right, hesitated, then shut down the searches.
He went to shower, willing all the weirdness to make sense in the morning.
It didn’t. But he and Tom had enough work that he found it got easier to ignore as the days slipped by.
Jesse caught himself smiling more and more. He had a job—a real job, a decent roof over his head. And, he thought as Tom snuck another look his way, the possibility of something more than a hurried fuck over a kitchen counter on the horizon.
Then why the hell couldn’t he stop thinking about the goddamn Undying Baron? The new systems in the study and library had already been successfully tested, but he found excuses to go into those rooms more than he should. But he and Magnusson did not cross paths again. He was not summoned or even emailed by the haemophile. Greenway was the one who confirmed the schedule for the following Saturday.
“Hey, you okay?”
Jesse shook his head and blinked. “Huh?”
“You were a million miles away.”
Jesse blinked until Tom came into focus. He was clad in motorcycle leathers and was holding out a helmet.
“Sorry,” Jesse said, taking the helmet. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Because we don’t have to do this if you’ve changed your mind.” Caution flickered in Tom’s eyes.
“No, I swear. All good. Fuck, we really heading out on this?” Jesse said, running his hand over the cherry-red chassis of Tom’s motorbike.
Tom’s face brightened. “If that’s okay with you. I love riding these roads. But I can always borrow a car from the estate, if you’d prefer?”
“Are you kidding?” Jesse said, zipping up the leathers Tom had lent him. “I always wanted a go on one of these.”
“Okay then,” Tom said, nervousness tightening his smile as he loaded a bag into the panniers. “Climb aboard.”
Jesse watched with a tickle of anticipation as Tom straddled the bike. He climbed on behind, and the tickle fizzed brighter as he spooned Tom’s body.
“Hold tight, okay?”
Jesse nodded, then they were off.
