The Law of Attraction (4 page)

Alec turned his back on Ed and went to the built-in wardrobe to pick out some clothes. Ed noticed faint lines of pale scars that marred Alec’s back in the light from the window. They striped his shoulder blades, cutting across the smooth skin. Ed frowned as he wondered what could have caused them.

“I’m afraid I have to be somewhere this morning.” Alec stepped into some expensive-looking chinos, pulling them up over his muscular legs. “I’m sorry to turf you out.”

He didn’t sound sorry at all. He sounded cold, distant, and uncomfortable.

A sick feeling of disappointment settled in Ed’s belly like a stone. Not that he had really expected anything different when he came home with Alec last night, but still. In the darkness he thought he’d felt a connection, a momentary tenderness that made him hopeful. Now, in the cold light of day, he felt foolish and cursed his overactive imagination.

Ed gritted his teeth and took a deep breath before replying. “No worries. I need to head to the gym anyway, and I have lunch plans.”

Nobody liked to feel utterly disposable, and the offer of a cup of tea or coffee would have softened the rejection a little. This was exactly why Ed didn’t do one-night stands anymore, because on the odd occasion he had in the past, he always felt crap about it in the aftermath. No matter how good the sex was, it wasn’t worth feeling like shit the next morning. Even when you parted on good terms, there was something uncomfortable about the whole morning-after disconnect after spending a night with someone.

Ed pulled his T-shirt over his head and sat awkwardly on the edge of the bed to pull on his socks and shoes. The sheets were rumpled and smelled of sex. The memory of Alec thrusting between his thighs assaulted him, their bodies wrapped close as Alec kissed his neck and shoulders, over and over. The intimacy of that moment seemed a million miles away now, and Ed fleetingly wondered if he’d dreamed it. He pushed the images away and stood. “I’ll let myself out.”

Alec was still buttoning his shirt. “Okay, sure.” He looked up and met Ed’s gaze.

There was a flash of something in his dark eyes. Regret—or discomfort? Ed didn’t give a fuck right then. He just wanted to get out of there and get home so he could wash Alec off his skin.

“Goodbye, then.” Ed suppressed the ridiculous British instinct to say thank you.
Thank for sucking my cock, thank you for fucking me, thank you for three amazing orgasms… but fuck you for making me feel like nothing in the morning
.

Alec’s lips curved in a poor attempt at a smile. “Bye.” His eyes gave nothing away.

That was it, then. Goodbye. Not even a half-hearted “See you around.” Ed had been given the brush-off plenty of times before. He didn’t know why he was letting Alec get to him any more than usual. Somehow Alec had fooled him into thinking there was something special there during those stolen moments of intimacy in the darkness, but maybe it had all been in Ed’s head? There was certainly nothing to show for it this morning.

Ed turned on his heel and walked away. As he let himself out of Alec’s flat, he resisted the childish urge to slam the door behind him—but only just.

Ed called Fiona as soon as he got on the Tube.

“I’m on my way home. Can we go out for breakfast? I’m starving and I need to be spoiled.”

“Oh dear,” she said sympathetically. “Morning-after blues?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Okay. I’ll see you back here soon, and then we can go out and you can tell me all about him.”

Fiona sat curled up on the sofa with a mug in her hands when Ed let himself into the flat they shared. They’d been flatmates during their time at university, but then Ed had moved to Manchester for two years to complete his training with a firm there. When he came back to London last month after spending a few months travelling abroad, he’d needed somewhere to live while he took some temp jobs and applied for something permanent in the area he wanted to work in. He’d slept on Fiona’s sofa for while, but then her other flatmate got a job in Birmingham, so Ed had moved back in officially.

She studied him over the rim of her mug. “You look like something the cat dragged in.”

“Good morning to you too. Is that coffee?”

She rolled her eyes and offered it to him. “Have it. I’ll make myself some more.”

“Thanks. You’re an angel, Fi.” Ed came and took the mug. He sat beside her and gulped it down in a few grateful swallows. It was delicious: the real thing, not crappy instant stuff, the perfect temperature, and exactly what he needed.

“I know.” Fiona leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I’m going to get dressed. You go and shower and make yourself look less debauched. It’s currently obvious from a hundred paces that you’ve been out all night and thoroughly fucked. And don’t even get me started on the mark on your neck. It looks as though you’ve been mauled.”

Ed chuckled, but the sound of wry amusement stuck in his throat. “Nice of him to give me something to remember him by, eh?”

“Well, at least you can’t be pregnant.”

Ed laughed. “That’s true.”

Once they’d found somewhere to sit and the waitress had taken their orders, Fiona folded her arms on the table and fixed Ed with her penetrating blue gaze.

“So, spill. Why are you looking like someone pissed in your cornflakes when you should be glowing in a post-sex high? I saw him. He looked gorgeous. Was he crap in bed?”

“No!”

“Were
you
crap in bed?”

“Fuck you, no!” Ed retorted indignantly. He recalled the ecstatic expression on Alec’s face when he came. “He didn’t have any complaints. I don’t know, I….” He flushed, lowering his voice and feeling foolish. “I guess I thought there was a connection, more than just a fuck, and I hoped maybe he’d ask for my number or something. But it must have just been me, because he could hardly look at me in the morning. It was horrible.”

Ed looked down, fiddling with the cutlery on the table. He picked up a spoon and studied his inverted reflection, not wanting to see the sympathy in Fiona’s eyes. “It’s stupid, really. I knew it was only going to be a one-night stand.”

“It’s not stupid.” Fiona reached across and took his free hand, giving it a squeeze. She threaded her fingers into his, and he looked up again. “It always sucks when you want more and you can’t have it.”

“Yeah, well. He’s obviously a cold-hearted git anyway, so I’m better off without him. But why don’t I ever meet any nice guys?”

Fiona raised her eyebrows. “Simon? Matt? Ring any bells?”

“Okay, okay. Why don’t I ever meet any nice guys who hold my interest for more than a couple of months?”

“I don’t know, sweetie. Maybe you haven’t met the right one yet.”

The waitress interrupted them with their breakfasts and coffees, and Ed let the subject drop. He wanted to push Alec out of his mind. He was never going to see him again anyway.

“So,” Fiona asked as she loaded her fork with bacon and scrambled egg. “How are you feeling about the new job on Monday?”

He frowned. “I’m mostly excited. A little nervous too, though. This is the best chance I’ve had since I qualified. Even if it’s only a temp job, it’s in a good firm, and I’d love to work for them permanently if I get the chance. But that means I have more to lose. What if I’m crap at it or make a terrible first impression?”

“You won’t be crap,” Fiona assured him. “You’re bright, you’re capable, and you’re not scared of hard work. You’ll be great.” Then her brow furrowed critically. “Although you might want to try and find a way of covering up the teeth marks on your neck, unless they’ve faded by Monday.”

Ed flushed and reached up, touching the mark. It was tender under his fingertips. His cock stirred as he remembered the sounds Alec had made as they rocked together. “Yeah. Do you have some magic make-up I can use?”

“If you need it, but it probably won’t be that noticeable by then.” She grinned. “Now you have a respectable job, you’ll need to tell your hook-ups to keep the marks below collar level.”

“No more hook-ups.” Ed hacked viciously into his bacon, accidentally shoving some baked beans off the edge of his plate. “I doubt I’ll have time for any sort of love life for a while. I expect to be constantly exhausted and stressed out. It will just be me and my trusty right hand for the foreseeable future. Or maybe my left if I need variety.”

On Sunday, Ed spent most of the day reading up on the law firm he was about to join. He surfed their website obsessively and reread all the information they’d sent him.

Late afternoon, he went to the gym and ran off some of his nervous energy on the treadmill before beating the hell out of a punchbag until his arms felt like jelly. Alec popped into his thoughts while he was working some of his stress out. The memory of Alec’s coldness in the morning and the way he’d dismissed Ed made him punch the bag that much harder. He was pissed off with himself as much as Alec, angry that he’d let Alec get under his skin. What did it matter what a stranger thought of him, anyway? It had been a good fuck. That was all.

This evening was Ed’s turn to cook, so he rustled up some pasta for them both. Fiona tried to tempt him with a glass of wine, suggesting it might help him to relax—“chill the fuck out” were her exact words—but Ed refused, not wanting to do anything that might compromise his alertness in the morning.

After dinner he was horribly anxious and couldn’t settle to anything. He went to his room and pulled shirts and ties out of his wardrobe, rejecting each combination. At least he had a half-decent suit, thanks to a loan from his mum and stepdad. Once he got his first month’s wages, he could pay them back and go shopping for some better work clothes.

Fiona tapped on his door.

“Come in.”

“Need any help?” She came in and stood beside him.

“Will this do?” He gestured to the latest combination that he had lain out on the bottom of the bed.

“It’s not bad, but do you have a tie with more blue in it?”

Ed rummaged around. “How about this one?”

“That’s better.” She nodded.

“Okay, thanks.” Ed hung the selection on the back of his door ready for tomorrow morning.

“Now come and watch some TV with me and stop worrying. You’re going to be brilliant.” She slipped her arm through his and led him into the living room.

They watched a couple of old episodes of
Friends
, which was always a sure-fire way to make Ed laugh. Fiona got him to sit on the floor between her knees and massaged his shoulders until the muscles unknotted and some of his tension finally leaked away.

“Thanks.” He tilted his head back to smile at her. “You’re a star.”

“I know.” She grinned back and then yawned. “Okay, it’s definitely my bedtime now. You should try and sleep too.”

“Yes, Mum.”

She ruffled his hair as he leaned forward to let her up. “Night, Ed.”

Ed took his laptop to bed with him and checked his emails before attempting to settle down for the night. There was one from his mum, wishing him luck for tomorrow. She’d scanned in a picture the twins had drawn for him: balloons and flowers and assorted rabbits and birds in a variety of unlikely colours surrounded the words “Good luck Ed,” written in giant bubble writing. He grinned as he admired it and then sent a copy to his printer so that he could stick it on his fridge along with other assorted pictures from the twins.

Fifteen years younger than Ed, eight-year-old Alice and Ava were the product of his mum’s second marriage, along with his other half-sister, Gemma, who was fourteen.

Ed was close to his family and went home to visit them as often as he could. The seaside town of Worthing on the south coast was only about an hour and a half away from London, but fares were expensive and life was busy.

He typed in a quick reply to his mum, telling her to thank the twins for the picture and promising to try and visit soon.

Once he’d switched his lamp off, Ed ended up tossing and turning, unable to settle and get comfortable. His brain was in overdrive with all the stuff he’d been reading about his new job, and the anxious, churny feeling in his belly wasn’t helping. He looked at the glowing red digits on his alarm clock and groaned when he saw it was well past midnight already. Ed tried to push the thoughts of tomorrow away and slow his breathing, forcing himself to relax. As his mind wandered he found himself thinking of Alec again, and inevitably those thoughts resulted in him getting hard.

Might as well
, he thought as he slipped his hand into his pants and gave his cock a squeeze. A satisfying wank would probably help him sleep. He couldn’t be bothered to power up his laptop again and look for some porn, so the memories of Alec would do nicely.

Ed closed his eyes and thought of hard muscles and dark chest hair. He ran his free hand over his nipples and remembered how Alec’s chest had felt rubbing against his. He moved his hand faster over his prick, making sticky sounds. This wasn’t going to take long. He rolled onto his side, fucking into his hand as he imagined Alec’s cock between his thighs, his hands tight on Ed’s hips as he bit down on Ed’s neck.

“Fuck!” Ed came with a groan, making a total mess of his sheet in the process as he failed to catch much of it. “Bollocks,” he muttered as his cock jerked again, and he squeezed out the last drops.

After he’d mopped up the wet patch with a couple of tissues, Ed collapsed and fell into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER THREE

Alec walked through the glass doors of Baker Wells into the lobby at seven thirty on Monday morning. They slid open as he passed through, out of the chill morning air and into the climate-controlled environment of the offices.

It was one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in London, but all was quiet at this time of day. Alec was usually one of the first into work. He enjoyed the peace and quiet and the time to organise his thoughts before the office filled with his colleagues. He was a creature of habit and tended to arrive at the same time every day, coffee that he had picked up from the Starbucks on the corner in one hand and his briefcase in the other.