Page 41 of Judging Duke

“As for you, I don’t want to see you anywhere near Duke again. Do you understand me? You see him in here, you walk the other way. Get it?”

“You can’t stop me.”

“No, you’re right, I can’t, but I know plenty of people who will help me if you try anything again. Understand?”

“I pay good money to use this gym.”

“We all do, and I’m not stopping you from coming here. What I am suggesting is that you turn the other cheek, walk away, be the bigger man, if you like.”

“That’s not difficult.”

Marc raised an eyebrow, daring him to continue. Simon took the hint and walked away, and I watched every step, noting the slight sway of his hips.

“I thought you’d gone,” Marc said, almost bumping into me. “Jesus, Duke. You’re drooling again. Fight him or fuck him, but get him out of your system.”

Usually, I’d fight my own battles. Hell, I’d done that enough on the streets, but where this guy was concerned, all rationality flew out of the window.

He irritated me in a way no one had ever done before, and I found it incredibly difficult to contain my temper…or my lust.

“He’s a fucking wanker,” I said angrily as we walked out of the gym. I’d just about have enough time to get home, shower and meet my client at the building I shared with a friend. She bore the brunt of the cost, but then she had the biggest clientele, offering many beauty treatments as well as massages.

“How do you know him again? Ziggy mentioned he was the brother of an old friend.”

I didn’t have time to go into much detail. “Yeah, I knew him before I moved away from home. Robbie, his brother, was my best friend. Simon blames me for his brother’s accident and has hated me ever since.”

“As I said before, love or hate, both are strong emotions. Both can morph into the other. Love becomes hate. Hate becomes love. How long since you saw him last?”

“Well, that’s the funny thing. Robbie’s accident was fifteen years ago, and I’ve not seen either of them since then. This year? I’ve seen Simon at least half a dozen times.”

“But you’ve not seen Robbie.”

I shook my head. “I can’t face him.”

“Why not?”

“I almost killed him. He fell off that roof because of me.”

“Did you push him?”

I shook my head again, lost in the memory of that night. The sickening thud as he’d hit the ground that had never left me. “I dared him to do it.”

“But you didn’t make him.”

“I didn’t make him do it,” I repeated his words.

“Then what’s stopping you from reaching out?”

“He might hate me as much as Simon does.” Could I cope with that? By not seeing Robbie, I could live in denial, thinking that we were still friends after all this time.

I knew Simon and I would never be the same as before. I suppose I knew deep down that Robbie and I wouldn’t be either.

“You might be surprised.”

Simon had said that Robbie had tried to contact me. Perhaps it was time to put the past behind me. I’d already started to try and rebuild my relationship with my parents. Robbie could be the next step.

“You could be right.”

“I usually am. Just ask Ziggy. I’d best get going. He’s expecting me home. It’s date night tonight. He says he has something special planned.”

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