Heated Beat 01 - My Mate Jack (MM) (6 page)

“You don’t have to sleep on the couch,” Will protested. “It’s your place.”

Jack shrugged. “I’m easy. There’s only one of me. Besides, it’ll be like the old days.”

“Yeah, the prehistoric old days.”

Evan trod on Will’s foot. “Leave him alone. He’s already said he’s hardly ever here.”

Had he? Will didn’t remember that, but then he hadn’t taken much notice of the conversations Jack had been having with anyone else.

Evan took Will’s silence as acquiescence and dumped his bag on Jack’s bed. “Can I use your shower? I feel totally minging from the flight.”

“Sure.” Jack inclined his head down the hall. “Bathroom’s that way.”

“Cheers, mate.” Evan gathered his toiletries, kissed Will’s cheek, and disappeared, leaving Will and Jack alone for the first time since last summer.

“So….”

“So.” Will sat on the edge of Jack’s bed, deflated. He’d been desperate to see Jack for months, craving the easy friendship he’d missed so much, but it all felt weird now. Like a belated cloud of awkwardness had caught up with them.

“Evan seems… nice. You didn’t tell me you were seeing someone.”

Will shrugged. “It’s kinda casual. He didn’t decide he was definitely coming until a few weeks ago. Sorry I didn’t tell you. It slipped my mind.”

“It’s cool. I said bring who you want.” Jack leaned casually on the doorframe. It didn’t escape Will’s notice that he seemed reluctant to venture further into his own room. “What are you up to tonight? Anything good?”

“The girls want to hit the beach, but other than that, not really.” Will stretched his arms over his head. “Think we’re going to save ourselves for tomorrow.”

Jack grinned. “You’re coming to Pacha tomorrow, right? Write your friends’ names down for me. I’ll put them on the guest list.”

“Guest list, eh? Does that mean we get in for free?”

“Yep. No queuing, either. And you get access to more of the club. Be easier for me to find you. That place gets crazy.”

Will would have to take Jack’s word for it. The sort of clubs he went to in Leeds were nothing like the cool, slick clubs of Ibiza, and part of him wondered what he was letting himself in for.

“Anyway.” Jack pushed himself off the doorframe in a languid, fluid movement. “I’ve gotta get to work. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

“What?” Will sat up. “You’re not staying? I thought you were off tonight.”

“Caught a last-minute gig at Dragon Ball. It’s a tough place to get into. Can’t really say no.”

“Dragon Ball? Is that the secret party network I read about in
Mixmag
?”

Jack grinned. “Probably, but I told you not to read that shit anymore. I’d take you along, but it’s a pretty heavy night. I think some of your girls could take it, but I don’t reckon your boyfriend would like it. Down and dirty, you know? Like old times.”

Old times. That bloody phrase again. What was it about those two little words that cut Will to the bone? Maybe it was because he knew Jack was right. Suki would love a dirty stomping rave, especially one in the mystical heat of Ibiza, but the others, not so much. And Evan? No fucking chance. The bloke was dirty in bed, but that’s where it stayed.

Will sighed. “So you won’t be back until the morning?”

“Probably not.” Jack looked as though he might just walk away, but then he echoed Will’s soft sigh and crossed the room. He bent down and squeezed Will into another tight bear hug. “It’s good to see you, mate. I’ve missed you.”

He left before Will could reply.

I missed you too
.

W
ILL
ROLLED
over in bed. His face collided with Evan’s back and he wrinkled his nose. Evan smelled sweet, like the bubblegum mojitos he’d been drinking all day, and combined with the warm breeze blowing through the open window, it wasn’t a scent Will enjoyed.

He shifted again with a heavy sigh. Two hours had passed since they’d stumbled back to Jack’s deserted apartment, and he was still wide-awake… wide-awake and in denial that he was waiting for Jack to come home.

Yeah, ’cause that wasn’t pathetic at all.

A noise in the hallway disturbed the sullen quiet of the night—scrabbling and a soft thud. Will figured it was the girls still messing around, until he heard a decidedly masculine grunt. He glanced at Evan. There were no other blokes due home to the apartment, so that had to be Jack, right?

With another sigh, Will heaved himself out of bed. He wasn’t sleeping anyway, and his curiosity was driving him up the bloody wall.

He crept across the room. Evan looked out for the count, but Will felt so restless he couldn’t imagine his tiptoeing footsteps not waking the whole world. He slipped into the hallway and found it empty. He followed the sound of muffled voices to the living room and absorbed the scene slowly, like a bad, drunken dream.

The Mediterranean heat ran from Will’s blood. Jack was standing by the couch, shorts round his ankles and his dick in the mouth of a naked woman. In the soft light of the early morning, Will could see she was stunning, all long shimmery limbs and perfect boobs. Jack pulled her up and bent her over the arm of the couch. He turned his head and the first glimmers of the rising sun caught his face: eyes blank, lips curled in a snarl.

Will’s stomach turned over. He felt like he might faint, but he made it to the bathroom in time to lose a whole day of beer and deep-fried calamari. After, he crept back to Jack’s room and shut the door with a quiet click. He lay back on the sheets that smelled of Jack, heart pounding, though he didn’t know why. He’d seen Jack with girls more times than he could count, so why the fuck was he puking? Perhaps it was shock. He’d been in Ibiza for fifteen hours and he didn’t feel like he’d seen Jack at all. Still felt like he hadn’t seen his best friend for nearly a year, and the yearning ache in his belly remained.

Will closed his eyes and searched for a positive. The day had passed in a haze of sunbathing, drinking, and sightseeing. Will had been ambivalent toward the crowds of bikini-clad girls, but he’d fallen in love with the vibrant street artists who performed on every corner—dancers, magicians, fire-eaters. Will had been captivated, and he’d fallen into bed—Jack’s bed—feeling bewitched and inspired. Now he felt like he could scratch his eyes out, bleach his retinas, and still see the look on Jack’s face as he drove his cock into that beautiful girl. So much for looking on the bright side.

There was no fucking way he was going back to sleep anytime soon. Instead, he lay awake, taunted by Evan’s steady breaths, and tried to reconcile what he’d seen tonight with the memories of Jack he held so dear. He remembered the moment Jack had awkwardly pushed inside him like it was yesterday. Remembered Jack’s soft look of wonder and gentle caress of Will’s stomach. Was that the same man screwing a chick blind in the next room? Who the hell knew? Not Will. Maybe his memories were hopelessly skewed, hanging on to shit that wasn’t real. Jack was straight, he always had been, and their encounter had been a one-off, an experiment.

So get the fuck over it
.

Despite his fretting, Will eventually fell asleep, and he woke a few hours later, sweating, to an empty bed. He sat up and pushed his damp hair behind his ears. The sun was streaming through the open window, and outside he could hear the party island was already in full swing.

Will hauled himself out of bed and into the shower. Once he’d dressed in Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he ventured to the kitchen, bypassing the living room, and found Evan at the table, flipping through the stacks of DJ publications that littered every room of the apartment.

Evan waved a magazine in greeting. “What the hell is psych-tech-dub-trance?”

Will shrugged and opened the cupboards, searching for glasses. “Fucked if I know. Are the girls up?”

“Not yet. It’s only nine o’clock. Suki was trashed last night. Don’t think she’ll be up before noon.”

Will chuckled. “That’s optimistic. She’ll have her head in the bog before she sees daylight. Spirits don’t agree with her.”

“Hmm. She might have already done that. I’m sure I heard someone blowing chunks last night. What about you? Sore head? You were thrashing around most of the night.”

“Was I?” That was news to Will. Last thing he remembered, Evan had been oblivious to Will’s Jack-induced torment beside him. Maybe he hadn’t been as KO’d as Will thought. “Must’ve got too hot.”

Evan shrugged. “Yeah, you’d think they’d have air-con in a place like this, wouldn’t you? Jack told me there’s a recording studio beneath this building. Why would you build all that and not put even a bloody fan up here?”

Jack told me
. “When did you speak to Jack?”

“This morning. He came home as I got up. That’s why I’m holed up in here. He’s asleep on the couch.”

“Oh.” Will finally found a glass, opened the fridge, and retrieved the Ribena they’d bought the day before. He mixed a big glass and chugged it down. “Did he say anything else?”

“Who?”

“
Jack
.”

“
Jack
didn’t say much.” Evan eyed Will over the rim of his own glass of squash. “He looked even more hungover than you, if such a thing is possible. Maybe you should stay out of the sun today.”

“Piss off.” Will scowled and stomped away to the apartment’s beachfront balcony. He leaned on the railing and stared out beyond the crowded white sand to the sea. Until twenty-four hours ago, coming to see Jack in Ibiza had felt like a dream, but now he was wondering if he’d made the biggest mistake of his life.

W
ILL
KNEW
the moment Jack took control of the DJ stage. He’d spent much of the past decade watching Jack mix and make music, and though Pacha was a world away from the grimy underground raves back in England, Will
knew
. Jack had a style… a certain magic when he hit the decks, and Will would recognize it anywhere.

Not that he could see any more of Jack than the top of his head. Despite the VIP passes, Pacha was jam-packed.

“Are you going to stare at him all night?”

“What?” Will glared at Evan, irritated.

Evan arched an eyebrow. “Don’t give me ‘what’. You’ve been following his every move since we got here and staring at him for the last two hours.”

Part of Will was surprised it had taken Evan so long to notice his pathetic preoccupation with Jack, but on the surface he was bloody annoyed. “Piss off. I
came
here to see him play. It’s not unreasonable for me to look at him.”

“And the rest.”

Evan’s tone caught Suki’s attention. She danced over and inserted herself between Will and Evan. “No squabbling on holiday. Will, you might want to rescue your friend. I saw Cara heading to the DJ’s cool-down room. Poor Jack’s gonna walk right into her clutches when he comes off stage.”

Shit. Will’s skin crawled. Cara was a nice enough girl to share a bathroom with, but she went through men like hot dinners, and despite what he’d seen last night, Will didn’t want her anywhere near Jack.

Will abandoned Evan and pushed his way through the club. He knew he was being a dick to Evan, but the bloke was driving Will mental with his bitching and sniping. Was it any wonder Will hadn’t wanted to fuck him in Jack’s bed when they’d stumbled home for a siesta that afternoon?

Yeah, ’cause the fact that Jack was still asleep in the next room had nothing to do with it
….

Will tried to ignore the monster in his head and maneuvered his way through the sweaty crowds. He waved his pink wristband at the bouncer guarding the door to the DJ’s room and hustled his way inside.

The room was quieter than the rest of the club, and the drop in volume disoriented Will for a moment. He stopped and searched out his bearings. The lights were muted, and each dark corner was kitted out with low-lying couches and beanbags. Most of them were occupied, and it didn’t take Will long to find Jack and Cara all over each other. He considered leaving them to it. The chill-out room had the kind of vibe that suggested no one would care if someone was shagging in the corner, but something stopped him. Fuck’s sake, he’d traveled a thousand miles to see Jack, and they were flying out the next morning. Will didn’t want to leave with Jack’s conquests and fighting with Evan his only bloody memories.

Will kicked Jack’s legs, gleaning little satisfaction from the surprise in his face. He focused on Cara. “Suki’s looking for you.”

“So?” Cara kept her attention on Jack. “She’ll find me if it’s important.”

“It is important.” Will fought to keep his tone even, to keep from grabbing Cara and yanking her away from Jack. “She said to meet her in the toilets downstairs.”

Cara still looked as though she might protest. Jack nudged her. “Go on. Don’t leave your mates hanging. I’ll find you later.”

The promise seemed to mollify Cara. She disentangled herself and disappeared into thin air. At least, that’s what it felt like. Will didn’t watch her go, and neither did Jack.

“What’s up, mate?”

“Nothing’s up,”

“Yeah? So why did you just lie through your teeth to get rid of that bird?”

“What makes you think I was lying?” Will finally looked at Jack. Took in his bright eyes, flushed skin, and tousled hair.

Jack reached behind the couch and retrieved a bottle of water. “How many times have I watched you bullshit your dad, eh? Tell him we’re going night fishing instead of raving at Junction 14? What’s the matter?”

It was the first time Jack had really looked at Will since their reunion on the pavement outside the airport, a reunion that felt like a dream, cooked up by Will’s overactive imagination. “Nothing’s the matter.”

“Bollocks.” Jack twisted the cap onto his water bottle. Then he stood and gripped Will’s arm. “Come on. Let’s chip this joint.”

W
ILL
FOLLOWED
Jack up the steep stone steps carved into the cliff face. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

Jack continued his ascent of the cliff. Will grumbled. He didn’t like heights, and the climb seemed to go on forever until he walked right into Jack’s back.