What Happens at Christmas (6 page)

“Sorry.” As he turned, Sean wrapped the towel around his waist again, but not before Justin had managed to sneak a look at his cock. Soft but plump, and awfully tempting.

“It’s okay. I’ve seen it all before in the locker rooms at school.” Although back then, Justin had tried really hard not to look in case anyone noticed. Now, he’d been able to fully appreciate it. His cock throbbed as it thickened and rose, poking into the shower curtain. He moved back a little so Sean wouldn’t be able to see it. “What did you say anyway? I didn’t hear.”

“I was asking if I should shave?” Sean ran his hand over his stubble.

It was long enough to be almost a beard now, thick and dark and sexy as hell.

“No, leave it. Andy couldn’t grow a full beard even though he’s over thirty, and he was really self-conscious about it. It will only make you more enviable.”

“Okay. I might neaten it up a bit, though. Have you got any shaving foam? I’m out.”

“In the cabinet over the sink.”

“Cheers.”

Justin ducked back behind the curtain. He lathered himself up, willing his cock to calm down, but then it was time to wash down there, and that didn’t help matters at all. He couldn’t resist giving himself a squeeze because it felt so good, and knowing Sean was on the other side of the thin plastic curtain made him feel extra dirty. Apparently he was into almost-exhibitionism, because his cock got harder in his hand and he gave in to the temptation to stroke in earnest for a moment.

He bit back a groan at the perfect, slick grip. If he really let himself go for it, this wouldn’t take long. Sean wouldn’t hear him over the shower anyway. Maybe he could—

“Can I borrow some tweezers? I need to sort out this unibrow I’m rocking.”

Sean’s voice was close.
Fuck
, he might be right outside the curtain. Justin snatched his hand away from his dick as though it had burned him, feeling like a right perv.

“Um… I think so.” His voice came out embarrassingly high and strained.

“You think so? Helpful, Justin.”

“I mean yeah. They’re in the cabinet too. Front left.”

Okay. I really can’t
. Justin reluctantly let go of his erection to focus on washing his hair instead, but his body didn’t give up on the idea even if common sense did. When he finally heard Sean call “Right, I’ll leave you to it,” he barely waited for the sound of the bathroom door closing before he took his shaft in hand again and jerked himself to a ridiculously fast climax, with images of Sean’s bare arse stuck on replay in his head.

It made a nice change from having sad wanks over the memory of Andy.

“Are we getting the Tube?” Sean asked.

They were almost ready. Justin was putting the finishing touches to his hair. The butterflies in his stomach were back in force now, his post-orgasm high all too quickly blitzed away by nervous tension.

“No. I booked us a taxi.” Justin picked up his phone and checked the time. “Fuck! It’ll be here in five.” He finger-combed his fine blond hair into place. Long on top, but short at the back and sides, the fringe swept sideways across his brow. His narrow face looked back at him from the mirror, tight with tension.

Sean stepped up behind him and put his hands on Justin’s shoulders. A steady weight, grounding him. “You look great.” His voice was calm and reassuring, with no trace of teasing. “Honestly, Justin. You look gorgeous.”

“Yeah?” Justin caught Sean’s gaze in the mirror and gave him a small smile.

“Yeah. Andy will wonder why the hell he was stupid enough to let you go.”

Justin’s smile widened. “You think?”

“I know.”

“You look good too.” Justin mentally congratulated himself again on the outfit choice. Those trousers showed off Sean’s long legs and slim hips beautifully, and the red shirt was a great colour on him. Justin had carefully coordinated his own outfit so they looked good together, his trousers in a slightly paler shade of grey and a purple shirt that blended with Sean’s deep red one. Neither of them was wearing a tie, to fit the smart-casual dress code, and Justin had instructed Sean to roll up his sleeves once he’d ditched his jacket. Sean had lovely forearms; it made sense to show them off. “I think we’ll turn a few heads when you walk in on my arm.” A car horn sounded on the street outside. “That’ll probably be the taxi.”

“Let’s go then, boyfriend. Show Andy what he’s missing out on.” Sean took Justin’s hand, and Justin’s heart surged at the contact.

It’s only pretend
, he reminded himself. But his body hadn’t got the memo. The fluttering in his stomach was now for a totally different reason.

As the taxi drove through the busy London streets, away from the residential area where Justin lived and towards the centre, the streets got wider and brighter. Justin’s stomach lurched with nerves again.

“Is this a really stupid idea?” he asked. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want. We can tell people you’re a mate, or we could just duck out of the party altogether and go to the pub, or out for dinner or something.”

“Don’t be daft.” Sean squeezed Justin’s hand, which he’d kept hold of throughout the ten-minute cab drive. “We’re nearly there now, let’s run with it. What could possibly go wrong?”

Justin could think of a few things. Mostly involving dancing, and embarrassing boners, and accidentally rubbing them up against the guy he’d been best friends with since he was seven years old.

He kept his worries to himself. Instead he said, “Maybe we should have discussed limits.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like… how far we’re prepared to go. I don’t want things to be weird.” Although Justin had a sneaking suspicion that they were already in weird territory. Sean was still holding his hand and stroking small, distracting circles on the palm with his thumb. It was robbing Justin of the ability to think straight.

“I’m pretending to be your boyfriend in a public place,” Sean said. “Unless it’s a very different party to the kind of thing I’m imagining, I think we’ll be okay. A bit of handholding, casual touches, maybe a kiss on the cheek? I think we can handle that.”

Justin’s brain got stuck on the word “kiss.” On the cheek…. He could do that, but even thinking about it made him imagine more. He’d spent most of his teenage years longing to kiss Sean. Wondering how it would feel, how he’d taste.
God
. He needed to stop thinking like this or he’d get hard again.

“I suppose… but I don’t want to put you in an awkward position. Just don’t do anything you don’t want to do.”

“It’s okay. We’ve got a safeword. If I yell ‘gibbon,’ you’ll know we’ve gone too far.”

Justin burst into a surprised snort of laughter. “Okay. Well, that will definitely get us noticed.”

Sean grinned, teeth gleaming in the flash of a car headlight from outside. “I think we’re there.”

The cab was pulling up outside the front of the hotel where the party was being held. Justin let go of Sean’s hand to pay the driver. Meanwhile, Sean got out and walked around to open Justin’s door.

“Thanks.” Justin took Sean’s proffered hand and climbed out of the taxi.

Sean laced their fingers together and squeezed. “We’ve got this.”

CHAPTER SIX

They’d aimed to arrive fashionably late, because Justin wanted to make an entrance. But when he saw how packed it was through the double doors that led into the function room, Justin wished they’d got there a little earlier.

Gripping Sean’s hand so tightly it was probably painful, Justin pasted a social smile on his face as they walked into the crowded room. His eyes scanned the people until they landed on the person he hoped was paying attention.

Andy was standing off to the side, deep in conversation. His dark head with its short, conservative cut turned towards the man beside him. Andy’s companion laughed at something he’d said. Justin gave him a quick once-over. A little taller than Justin, with brown hair and broad shoulders, he was cute, Justin supposed. The jealousy he’d been expecting was more of a flicker than a flare.

As though he could feel Justin looking at him, Andy’s new man looked up and met Justin’s gaze for a moment. Justin held his head high and drew Sean closer into his side. “There they are,” he muttered, still trying to smile and look relaxed. “Has Andy noticed us yet?”

Sean slipped an arm around his waist. “Yep. He just clocked you.”

Justin looked back at his ex. He caught the surprise on Andy’s face before his ex schooled his features into indifference. He gave Justin a curt nod, which Justin returned.

“He’s such a git,” Justin muttered. “Can’t even manage a smile for the bloke whose arse he used to plough. That’s just rude.”

Sean stiffened beside him and put a proprietary hand in the small of Justin’s back, steering him towards a table where there were trays of drinks laid out waiting. “Come on. I need some alcohol for this.”

“Beer goggles, huh? Charming. I’m not that ugly.”

“Not for
that
. For this whole situation. Being sociable with people I don’t know, dancing later…. You know I can’t dance unless I’ve had a few.”

Sean picked up two flute glasses of fizzy stuff and handed one to Justin. “Cheers, darling.” His eyes glinted as he grinned and clinked Justin’s glass with his own. “It’s a pleasure being your plus-one. But I’m not a cheap date, just so you know.”

“Do you put out?” Justin deadpanned.

“You’ll have to wait and see.”

That teasing glint in Sean’s eye was still there, and Justin had no clue what was going through his head. Was this all just a joke to him? Was Justin imagining the sexual tension that seemed to be hovering between them, getting thicker by the second? Maybe it was one-sided and Sean was immune.

Suddenly alcohol seemed like a great idea. It might switch off his brain for a while so he could chill and try to enjoy the party. Justin knocked back the stuff in his glass.

“Easy, tiger. I don’t think it’s supposed to be a shot,” Sean said.

“Whatever. There’s plenty more where that came from.” Justin took a quick look around to check nobody was paying attention and surreptitiously switched his empty glass for a full one.

“Well, if that’s the way it is….” Sean downed his too.

“Oh look, there’s Jess.” Justin caught sight of his friend waving from a table. “Looks like she’s saved us some seats.”

They made their way over to where Jess was sitting with Kieran and a couple of the other younger employees from their department.

Kieran gave Justin a bright smile, but it dimmed a little when he noticed Sean beside him.

“Hi,” Justin greeted his co-workers. “This is Sean. Sean this is Jess, Kieran, Meera, James, and Theresa.”

A couple of them had partners with them, so there were more introductions and names that Justin didn’t manage to commit to memory. They took the spare seats that Jess had saved for them. Justin was glad she’d kept two next to each other. That would make their mission much easier to accomplish.

“So,” Jess said loudly. “This is your new mystery man. It’s nice to meet you, Sean. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Sean glanced sidelong at Justin. “Oh, really?”

“Don’t worry, Justin only told me good things.” She beamed at them both from across the table and gave Justin a wink she probably thought was subtle. But after two glasses of whatever had been provided free on arrival, it really wasn’t.

“Well, that’s a relief.” Sean put his hand on Justin’s where it lay on the table.

“Yeah. I’ve never seen him so goofy over anyone,” Jess continued. “It’s
so
romantic that you two were friends for so long and then it suddenly turned into more. It must be amazing falling for your best friend.”

She was laying it on really thick, but the others seemed to be lapping it up. The other women were listening fondly, the straight guys were looking slightly uncomfortable, and poor Kieran looked as though he might cry. Justin felt a pang of guilt, but he wasn’t interested in Kieran anyway, so it was probably for the best that Kieran thought Justin was madly in love with Sean. It would be like ripping off a Band-Aid.

“It is,” Justin smiled at Sean. “It makes all those years I spent pining over him as a teenager totally worth it.”

Sean tightened his fingers on Justin’s hand, and something flitted through his eyes that looked like recognition, or regret. But it was gone before Justin could be sure what it meant.
Did he know?

“And you never knew I felt the same,” Sean said.

Justin’s heart skipped a beat and then started up again at what felt like double time. He stared at Sean, searching those dark eyes for a hint of teasing, a reminder that he was playing a part. But all he could see was sincerity. Sean was way too good at this.

“Oh my God!” Jess brought up a hand to cover her heart. “That’s so adorable. Well, better late than never, I suppose.”

“Absolutely.” Justin somehow managed to get the word out. “I’ll drink to that.” He raised his glass. More alcohol was definitely required.

Once he’d finished what was in his glass, he offered to go to the bar. “Anyone else want anything?”

Some of the others were still sipping at the fizzy stuff, but Jess requested a vodka and tonic and Kieran asked for a pint of lager.

“And what do you want, babe?” Justin asked Sean.

“Lager for me too, but I’ll come and help you carry them.”

As they approached the bar, they met Andy and his partner leaving it, carrying drinks in their hands. Justin squared his shoulders. With Sean by his side and a couple of glasses of wine inside him, he was ready for the confrontation.

Andy glanced their way but made no effort to greet them. But Justin wasn’t going to let him pass without comment.

“Hi, Andy.” Justin kept his voice smooth and passive-aggressively polite. “How are you?”

Andy looked surprised to have such a civil greeting from Justin. The last time they’d spoken had been a muttered exchange about a project when communication had been unavoidable. Apart from that, Justin had completely blanked him since the day the shit had hit the fan and he finished telling him what a lying, cheating scumbag he was.