Page 49 of He's the One

“Shall I call your mum? Can you remember her number?”

“Yes, but I don’t want you to contact her.”

Theo was puzzled. “Can you email your brother?”

“No.” Col groaned. “I don’t want to let him down.”

“How far away does he live? Though you’re not going to be well enough to go anywhere tomorrow, well, technically today, unless maybe I drove you. I could do that.”

“Dominic’s in hospital.”

“Oh God. Both of you in hospital? I’m sorry. Then let me drive you.”

Col stared straight at him. “Marsden high security psychiatric hospital.”

Theo pressed his lips together.Fucking hell. Don’t say anything.But he thought plenty. If Col’s brother was in Marsden, he had to be someone who was considered mad, bad and dangerous. You were only sent to places like that when you posed a substantial risk of serious violence to the general public. What the hell had he done?

A nurse came up to the bed. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.”

“Please. Not yet,” Col pleaded. “Let him stay until I fall asleep.”

The nurse looked between the two of them, glanced at their joined hands, then nodded. “Keep your voices down.”

Theo’s heart was pounding. “I thought that was going to be one of those moments when a TV episode finishes on a cliff-hanger and you’re left dangling for a week.” He winced. “Sorry, that wasn’t appropriate and maybe you weren’t going to tell me more, which is perfectly fine. You don’t have to. You really don’t. I’m babbling. Sorry.”

“You know how you didn’t want to tell me about being the son of a marquess? Well, this is something I don’t tell anyone. I never told Robert, but I want to tell you. Collier wasn’t the name I was given when I was born. I doubt my real name will mean anything to you because you’re too young to remember. I kept my surname. Hammond is common enough that it didn’t put me in danger of discovery. Billy Hammond, my original name, might have done.”

Theo shook his head. “It doesn’t ring a bell.”

“It was all over the news fifteen years ago and occasionally it pops up again. The press would like to know where I live, what I do for a living, if my friends know what my brother did, if I visit him, how he’s doing, whether I want him to be released… If you’d been a journalist, no matter how much I fancied you, I’d have walked away.”

“You fancy me?” Theo whispered.

Col smiled. “You’re adorable.”

For a moment, Theo’s throat was too full for him to speak.Adorable.No one had ever… “I’ve never had a boyfriend before,” he blurted.Shit! Why did my throat choose that moment to open up?

“Why not?”

“A million reasons. Well, no. Slight exaggeration but several hundred thousand.” Theo frowned. “You actually want me to tell you why not? Because once I get started, I’ll keep going and going and then you won’t want to be my boyfriend either.”

“No, I don’t want you to tell me. I can make up my own mind and so far, you’ve been pretty much perfect.”

Theo looked down at their clasped hands where, hidden from sight, Col was rubbing circles on Theo’s palm with his thumb, sending little jolts of electricity shooting through his body.

“You don’t need to tell me about your brother,” Theo said.

“Thing is… For the first time, I actually want to. My head aches and I have this idea it will stop aching if I tell you.”

Theo bit his lip. “My medical knowledge is pretty basic, but I think your head aches because you’re concussed.”

“I’m thinking straight about this. Maybe I’m feeling brave all of a sudden.”

“I won’t tell anyone. I know that might sound hard to believe becausemybrother used to say I couldn’t keep a thought in my head. But I’ve learned how to keep secrets. Even so, are you sure you want to do this now?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay then,” Theo whispered.

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