Page 13 of Gideon
“I said you were forty-five and honestly, Gid, you look it at the moment.”
“I do not,” he hisses. “I’m thirty fucking nine. I’m not even forty yet, you cheeky twat. Go and tell someone that right now.”
“How? Do you want me to get a loudspeaker and announce it outside the shops?” Milo asks peevishly.
“In my experience of cruises you’d catch more people outside the bar. It’s like a mob at five in the evening,” I offer and subside at Gideon’s glare.
“You don’t look good,” Milo says primly. “Which is probably your style of life for the last few years showing in your face. So, I had to say you were forty-five.” He pauses. “They’ll know from your passport, but I don’t think they were that bothered anyway. This was empty and I paid well over the normal price for it. You get a butler and everything,” he finishes cheerily.
“Everything? What, like bingo and quoits?”
“Cruises with old people can be quite wild,” I say, winking at him.
His mouth twists in distaste. “Please don’t try and help. I need mind bleach now.”
Niall laughs but it dies as Frankie comes in.
“Well, that’s sorted, Gid,” he announces. “I’ve told the captain who you are. Made sure he knows how you should be treated. He’s under no illusions who he’s dealing with now.”
“Oh lovely,” Gideon sighs. “I’ll look forward to the staff spitting in my food for the duration of the voyage.”
Frankie ignores him, wandering around the room and touching objects randomly. As the others lapse into a soft-voiced conversation he comes to my side.
“I don’t know who you are,” he mutters.
I smile cheerfully at him. “You do. It was on my CV.”
“Hmm,” he says in a low voice. “Well, Mr Jones, nurse extraordinaire, your job is to get him better. He’s got a film in six months. We need him back up and earning again as soon as possible.”
“Like a prize cow,” I say, my smile dying. This is his manager. Doesn’t he care? Can’t he see how sick Gideon still is?
He eyes me in a disgusted fashion. “Don’t be so bloody naïve. If he doesn’t work, none of us get paid. Now, get him better and watch your fucking step.” He leans closer. “You’ve signed a non-disclosure but I’m warning you as well. If any stories get sold about him I’ll know who it is and I’ll fucking ruin you.” He looks me up and down with a sneer twisting his lips. “I know you’re gay.”
“How?” I say sharply. “Did you look into me?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t be such a fucking Pollyanna. Of course I did. Eli Jones has student loans and a large overdraft because he was in hospital for an extended period of time. Not sure why that was, but I’ll find out soon. He lives a very itinerant life travelling from one job to the next. Currently shares a shithole flat with two other men. He prefers one-night stands to relationships.”
“Goodness, what a wicked person I sound,” I say lightly, hopefully covering up my intense desire to punch him.How dare he set someone to investigate me.
He glares at me. “Gid’s currently a little confused. He might find you attractive but it doesn’t mean anything.” I blink at the fact that while Frankie is lecturing me on keeping secrets he’s just spilled that Gideon Ramsay might like men. I shoot an instinctive look at Gideon and feel a spiral of heat inside me that I quickly squash as Frankie carries on haranguing me. “He’s been doing a little bit of experimenting lately before he settles down with Jacinta Foxton. Now, remember this, you fuck him and I will bury you so deep they’d need a digger to find you. I’ll destroy your career.” I stare at him and he smiles. “Just a little warning for you, Eli Jones. Remember what I said. A nurse sleeping with a celebrity. Gid might recover from it. Your career? Not a chance.”
I want to laugh at the ridiculous threats, but I can’t. There’s a malice under the bellicose words that’s almost frightening. This is not a man to be crossed. And he’s not wrong. I would lose my job if I slept with a patient.
“Frankie.” Gideon’s sharp voice breaks into our conversation, and when I look up, he’s slumped on the sofa. His colour is even more off but he’s glaring at his manager. “What are you saying to Eli?”
“Nothing, Gid,” Frankie says, his face wreathed in a big smile, no trace of the bully boy anywhere. “Just offering him some advice.”
“I’ll prepare for death, then, because what you know about the medical profession and nursing wouldn’t even take up space on the back of a stamp.”
Gideon raises one eyebrow at me in query and I make myself smile, but I know it’s shakier than I’d like because his gaze sharpens.
“Time to go, Frankie,” he says. “Otherwise you’ll be stuck on the boat and we really can’t have that.”
Frankie laughs. “Not likely. The age range isn’t even close to my chosen choice of partners.” I make a moue of disgust at the thought. He claps a hand on Gideon’s shoulder that makes him cough. I start forward but Gideon waves me back. “I’m going to meet the boat in Nice. I’ll bring any paperwork with me then. Okay?” And then he’s gone, leaving the room without even bothering to acknowledge Milo and Niall.
“I’ll look forward to that visit more than a root canal, if it’s possible,” Gideon says acerbically, but his tone belies the weariness in his body. I shoot Milo and Niall a look and they get up.
“We’re off,” Milo says. He bends and hugs Gideon, and something twangs in my chest at the bewildered way that Gideon receives the embrace like he’s never been hugged like that before. Yet these two men are brothers. Niall hugs him too, yet Gideon seems more relaxed in his embrace as if he’s used to it. Curiouser and curiouser.
