Chapter 15
Contrary to Will’s belief, Scott Palmer wasn’t an idiot.
He’d always had good instincts.
He sensed that something was off as soon as they got on the yacht, and as the evening progressed, the sense of disquiet kept getting stronger.
Like, Scott was hot. It wasn’t just his ego; it was an objective fact. He knew he was hot, and other people knew it too. It was very rare that people’s gazes weren’t drawn to him whenever he entered the room. When he and Gadiel had first met, Gadiel had been no different from other people, his appreciative gaze difficult to miss.
But now...
Gadiel didn’t give his body more than a passing glance. Since they had gotten on the yacht, Gadiel hadn’t tried to touch him in any way. Sure, they weren’t exactly alone; the yacht had a crew. But they stayed out of the way. It wouldn’t have been impossible for them to get some time alone—had Will not been there too.
Yeah, about that.
Scott had picked up on the tension between his cousin and Gadiel straight away. Gadiel seemed angry with Will, pointedly not looking at him all evening—except he kept shooting Will quick looks whenever Will wasn’t looking his way. Which wasn’t often, because Will’s eyes had beenpractically boring a hole in Gadiel’s face since the beginning of the date. That in itself was strange enough. Scott had seen Will at work before: he was great at making himself as unobtrusive as it was possible for a six-foot-tall man to be, his gaze rarely resting directly on his clients in order to make them feel more at ease. This fixed, intense stare definitely wasn’t Will’s usual behavior at work.
“Okay, am I missing something?” Scott finally said over dinner, sick of the tension he didn’t understand. He didn’t like conflict. He’d never liked being around angry people. “Did Will do something, Gady?”
In his peripheral vision, Scott could see Will scoff at the nickname, but he ignored it, keeping an expectant gaze on Gadiel. He was the one more likely to talk.
Gadiel pursed his lips. “I just found out that he was a liar.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Will said. “I’m the one who told you the truth! It makes no sense that you refuse to talk to me but are totally fine talking to him.”
“That’s different,” Gadiel said, without looking at Will.
“I still don’t see a fucking difference,” Will bit out.
Scott blinked, stunned. His cousin rarely swore, much less at work.
“Wait,” he said. “Is this about...?”
Will glowered at him. “Yes. It’s about your bright idea to not tell him that we’re related. I told him the truth, and now he’s pissed. But not at you. Me.”
Well.
While it was a relief to know that Gadiel wasn’t angry with him for their little deception, it was perplexing that he was angry with Will.
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Gadiel hissed, scowling at Will before flushing and averting his gaze. “Go away.”
“You’re the one who wanted me here,” Will said tersely.
“That was before I found out that you were a lying asshole with an agenda!”
“That’s rich coming from a—”
“Um, guys?”
“Stay out of it,” Will bit off, barely glancing at Scott before going back to boring a hole in Gadiel’s face with his eyes. “You are being ridiculous, and you know it.”
“I know no such thing.”
“You’ve barely looked at me for three days,” Will said.
Gadiel glared at him. “And that matters to you why exactly? You’ve been just pretending to be my bodyguard so that your cousin could get laid.”
A muscle jumped in Will’s jaw. He pushed his plate away and got to his feet. “I’ll be on the lower deck if you decide to finally stop acting like a big baby.” And he stalked away.
“Screw you!”
As Will disappeared out of sight, Gadiel’s scowl transformed into something dejected and unhappy.He stabbed his fork into a piece of salad on his plate.
Scott cleared his throat. “Well, that was uncomfortable,” he said, trying not to show that he was more than a little peeved. Frankly, he wasn’t used to not being the center of attention. He and Gadiel had barely talked tonight, with Gadiel distracted and uncharacteristically moody.The whole thing was irritating as hell, considering the fact that Will’s entire purpose here was to help him get together with Gadiel instead of distracting and frustrating him—or whatever the hell this tension between them was.
“It’s his fault,” Gadiel said. “How can he expect that I’ll be fine with him lying to me?”
Scott almost rolled his eyes. Why couldn’t he just let it go? “Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad you aren’t angry at me, but don’t you think you’re overreacting a little? Will only lied because I asked him to.”
Gadiel’s lips thinned. “You don’t understand. I trusted him. I thought he was—my bodyguard, but he isn’t! He’s my bodyguard because you asked him to become one.”
“So?” Scott said, feeling beyond confused and exasperated. He really didn’t understand what difference it made.
Gadiel scowled again andstabbed something on his plate with his fork, the noise so loud that Scott flinched. “Enough about Will.” His lips opened, wobbled, and then pressed together tightly before he put on a smile that didn’t look sincere in the slightest.
He still managed to look like the prettiest thing Scott had ever seen.He could never look at the curve of Gadiel’s lush mouth without imagining it wrapped around a cock, and his lips looked even sexier when he was pouting like this. And fuck, those half-lidded blue eyes always looked kind of sleepy. It was sexy as hell, making Scott think of fucking for hours until they both were tired and spent. Damn, he truly couldn’t wait to get his dick inside the guy. His whining over Will’s lies was a tad annoying, but Scott could ignore it. Gadiel would get over it as soon as Scott got him wailing on his cock.
“Frankly, I’m surprised you’re cousins,” Gadiel said, scoffing. “You’re so lively and personable while he’s so—so rigid and unemotional! It drives me crazy that he can make me feel like a stupid kid with one look.”
Scott snorted. “Yeah, tell me about it. We’re nearly the same age, but Will has always had a way about him that made me feel about two inches tall.”
“I know, right?” Gadiel said, leaning forward and suddenly becoming very animated, his eyes burning with fervor. “He’s just so—so damn exasperating!” He jumped to his feet and walked to the railing. He huffed, looking down. “Even the way he stands there is so—ugh. So damn self-assured and superior I sometimes wanna scratch him—or slap him or—” He cut himself off, flushing.
Raising his eyebrows, Scott got to his feet too and joined him by the railing. The lights from the skyscrapers cast vibrant reflections across the water and were bright enough to let them see clearly.
Will was leaning against the railing on the lower deck, his tall form erect and tense. As if feeling their gazes, he looked up.
Scott could see Will stiffen when he saw them, but they were far enough to be able to talk without being overheard—except Gadiel made no effort to keep their conversation private, raising his voice as he continued criticizing Will for every little thing.
The longer it went on, the more bothered Scott felt. He felt almost like the third wheel, despite standing right beside Gadiel. It was kind of humiliating that his cousin managed to remain the focus of Gadiel’s attention even while he was twenty feet away.Granted, Gadiel’s attention was hardly positive, but still.
Something wasn’t right.
If Scott didn’t know better, he’d think... he’d think that Gadiel had a thing for Will or something.
But that was ridiculous. Will was just Will—boring, stuffy, standoffish. Scott loved Will like a brother, but he wasn’t blind to his flaws. Will simply wasn’t... very interesting. The mere idea of Gadiel being more interested in Will was laughable. Scott was the interesting one; had always been. He was more charming, more personable, more amusing—and hell, a great deal richer. And more importantly, Scott was gay. Will was straight as an arrow.
No, he was definitely imagining things. Gadiel was just angry with Will; that was why he seemed so fixated on him. That was all. But it was becoming increasingly obvious that he needed to get Gadiel truly alone, without Will being there to distract him.
When Gadiel excused himself to the restroom before they were about to dock, Scott took the opportunity to approach his cousin.
“I need you to leave us alone, man,” he hissed.
A strange expression flickered over Will’s face for just the smallest part of a second. “I’m his bodyguard. I can’t allow him out of my sight.”
“Oh please. Who will attack him? He’s just the third son of the sheikh. Or do you think I’m a danger to him?”
“No,” Will said after a moment. “Of course not.”
Scott clapped him on the shoulder. “Great, then. I’m going to walk him home, you stay out of sight, okay? Stop hovering over us and ruining his mood. You’re cockblocking me.”
Something shifted in Will’s expression. “I wasn’t,” he said. “Cockblocking you.”
“Maybe not intentionally, but your little spat keeps distracting him. Just stay away from us.Did you forget what you’re here for?You’re supposed to help me, not make things harder for me.”
After a long moment, Will gave a clipped nod. He disappeared into the night as soon as the yacht docked.
“Where’s Will?” Gadiel said when he returned.
“He’s left,” Scott said, helping him to get off the yacht. “He said he’d give us some privacy. Let me walk you home. Your place isn’t far from here.”
Gadiel looked around, frowning a little. “What do you mean he left? Without even saying anything to me? That doesn’t sound like him.”
Suppressing his annoyance, Scott shrugged with a smile. “He’s probably tired of third-wheeling. Come on, surely you can give the man a night off.”
Gadiel’s lips tightened at the corners. “He can’t just leave without talking to me. I didn’t say he could go.”
For fuck’s sake.
“All right, I talked him into staying out of sight,” Scott admitted. Stepping closer, he touched Gadiel’s cheek. “I wanted to be alone with you. Don’t you want that too?”
“Of course,” Gadiel said faintly.
Scott grinned. “Let’s go, then. It’s a nice night for a walk.”
It was. Dubai’s layout wasn’t really conducive to walking, but Gadiel’s apartment was located in a quieter part of the city and there was a nice promenade along the beach.
They walked in silence.
It felt a little awkward. And strange. Gadiel was far less talkative without Will there.
“I can’t see Willanywhere,” Gadiel said, looking around. “If he’s just staying out of sight, he’s great at it.”
“Oh, Will has always been good at staying out of sight. Even when we were kids. You wouldn’t even know he was at the parties, he was great at blending into the scenery. He’s always been allergic to socializing.”
Gadiel frowned. “There’s nothing wrong with being an introvert. Not everyone likes being the center of attention.”
Scott gave him a sharp look. What was up with jumping to Will’s defense? Wasn’t Gadiel angry with him?
“I didn’t say there was,” he said slowly. “I know he’s an introvert, and it’s fine by me.”
“Right,” Gadiel said with a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I misunderstood you. So, Will has always been this... reserved?”
Scott shrugged, more than a little annoyed. It felt like all they had talked about on this date was his cousin. “At least ever since he started living with us,” he replied reluctantly. “I remember him being different when his parents and siblings were alive. More open and quick to laugh.”
“Oh,” Gadiel said softly.
“Anyway, enough about my cousin,” Scott said. He knocked their shoulders together. “Let’s talk about us.”
“About us?”
“Yeah.” Scott looked around and tugged Gadiel into a dark alley.
“What are you doing?” Gadiel said with a startled laugh. “Scott, it’s not safe—”
“There’s no one around, don’t worry,” Scott said, pushing him against the building. “And it’s dark here, no one will see us.”
It was dark in the alley, so he couldn’t see Gadiel’s pretty face well. But that didn’t stop him from finding Gadiel’s soft, full lips in the dark.
Gadiel tensed up before suddenly pushing him away. “Don’t—I can hear someone!”
Scott scoffed and tried to pull him closer again. “Come on, there’s no one—”
He was shoved against the wall and something sharp and cold pressed into his nape. A knife. “Don’t move,” someone growled in accented English. “You got cash on you?”
Fuck. Muggers.
“Not much,” Scott said, his heart pounding.
“Credit card?”
“Y—yes.”
The man took his cash and credit card from his pocket. “The PIN,” he ground out, pressing the knife harder against his neck. It pricked Scott’s skin, making him gasp. “And you better not lie to us. Or I’ll gut you like a fish.”
Swallowing, Scott told him the PIN, and Gadiel did the same. The man said something in Arabic to his accomplices, and two dark shapes left toward the brighter street, likely to the ATM there. Only two thugs remained, presumablyto make good on their threat if Scott and Gadiel had lied to them.
Scott told himself the situation wasn’t all that bad. Sure, he’d lose some money, but it wouldn’t be much, since his card had a daily limit for withdrawals, and the ATM probably did, too. As long as they didn’t actually get stabbed, it would be okay. All they needed to do was stay calm and—
The lights in the building nearby turned on, and it illuminated the alley better. One of the remaining thugs suddenly said something in Arabic, and the man holding Scott at knifepoint tensed up and looked at Gadiel. He said something too, sounding excited. The only word Scott caught was Gadiel’s name.
They must have recognized him. They must have initially not recognized him in the dark, mistaking them for tourists.
“Dammit,” Gadiel whispered, his eyes flashing with fear.
Scott was at a loss. Didn’t that just mean that Gadiel would be held for ransom? Why did Gadiel suddenly seem so scared?
Before he could say anything, the man holding Gadiel barked something out. Scott could only watch helplessly as Gadiel was half-pushed, half-dragged away from him.
Just as Gadiel disappeared out of sight, there was the sound of footsteps from behind. Scott thought it was the other thugs returning from the ATM, but a moment later, the man holding him at knifepoint grunted in pain and fell to the ground.
“I’m never listening to you again,” Will said. “Where’s Gadiel?”
“The other guy took him that way,” Scott said, straightening up and pointing toward the dark alley. “They recognized him.”
Will swore under his breath and headed there, barking over his shoulder, “Go hide somewhere before their friends return.”
“I can help you!” Scott said, jogging after him. “I’m fit, I can throw a punch!”
Will ignored him, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
Scott eyed him warily, sensing how pissed off he was, but continued following him.He was fit. He could help.
And never mind that it hadn’t even occurred to him to put up a fight before Will had turned up—Will always made him feel braver than he was.
Thankfully, it didn’t take them long to find Gadiel. He was being pushed into a car by two thugs, but the area was illuminated well and the thugs couldn’t be too obvious about it without attracting attention. Gadiel seemed to be resisting their attempts to move him, but for some reason, he wasn’t calling out for help. It made no sense. There were people around; someone could have helped him.
But Scott didn’t have much time to wonder. Will reached the car in the blink of an eye and slammed a fist into one of the thugs’ temple.
Scott winced involuntarily when the guy fell like a rock.
“Will!” Gadiel said, his face lighting up.
Will shoved Gadiel behind him, toward Scott, his eyes trained on the thug with the knife. “You don’t want to do this,” Will said as the other thug got to his feet shakily. “Leave now, and I’ll let you go.”
The thugs sneered and attacked.
“Are you okay?” Scott asked Gadiel, keeping only half an eye on the fight. He had no doubts about his cousin’s ability to handle a few muggers. Will had gotten a black belt in karate years ago, and he’d only become more proficient in martial arts since then. He could wipe the floor with Scott when they boxed, and Scott was good .
“Shouldn’t we help him?” Gadiel said, chewing on his lip as he watched the fight anxiously. “It’s two against one. I don’t think Will has a gun.”
“He doesn’t need one,” Scott said, shrugging.
And he was right. Within less than a minute, both thugs were on the ground, groaning weakly.
“We should—” Scott cut himself off, realizing that Gadiel was no longer by his side.
“Will!” Gadiel said, cradling Will’s face and patting his cheeks and neck, as if to ascertain that he didn’t have any injuries. It was beyond weird. It was obvious that Will was fine. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Will said, his gaze sweeping over Gadiel. “You?”
Gadiel gave him a radiant smile.It made his face so breathtakingly beautiful Scott could only stare.
“I’m fine,” Gadiel said softly, looking Will in the eyes. “Thanks to you.”
Oh. Gadiel was looking at Will as though he were a god, as though he’d drop to his knees for him right there if Will told him to. He seemed to have forgotten that he’d been angry with him—if he’d been angry with him at all.Scott was starting to doubt it.
I’m here, too , Scott nearly said but bit his tongue. The whole thing was humiliating enough without him pointing out that he was there.
“It’s my job,” Will said curtly, his gaze lingering on Gadiel’s smile before shifting to the thugs on the ground. “We should probably call the police.”
“No,” Gadiel said, grabbing Will’s arm before slipping his hand down his forearm to his hand. He squeezed it. “Let’s just go home.”
Will frowned and cast him a probing look. “Why? By the way, why didn’t you call out for help?”
Gadiel winced, averting his gaze. “Can we just go home? Please? I’ll tell you later.”
Giving him a long look, Will nodded. “Fine. But we will talk about it later.”
“Okay,” Gadiel said, already turning toward his building and heading there.His hand was still holding Will’s, so Will was forced to follow him.
Scott moved after them, his gaze locked on their hands.
Well. That was...
Scott tried to tell himself that he might be misreading the situation. Gadiel being grateful for being saved was only natural. This didn’t necessarily mean anything.Will was Gadiel’s bodyguard.It was natural that Gadiel would want some physical reassurance after such an ordeal, though it did beg the question of why he was seeking comfort from his straight bodyguard while Scott, his date, was right there.
There was also the fact that Gadiel had barely even glanced at him, his eyes only on Will.
As for his cousin... he was harder to read, but that was nothing new. Will had never been easy to read. He wasn’t a man for outward shows of emotion. But. He was allowing Gadiel to hold his hand. Granted, it was hardly a romantic gesture—Gadiel was all but pulling him by his hand—but the fact remained that Will was allowing it. He could have easily pulled his hand out of Gadiel’s grasp. But he hadn’t, even though he was usually very strict about keeping a professional distance from his clients.
Scott didn’t know what to think.
But one thing was for sure: all else being equal—had Will been gay—Gadiel wouldn’t even look at Scott.
The question was: did it matter?Will wasn’t gay. Did it matter that Gadiel might be harboring something of a crush on him? In all honesty, had Will not been a relative, Scott would see his appeal. Will might be boring and far too serious, but he was hot. What gay man with functional eyes wouldn’t crush on a six-foot-tall hottie with a body like Will’s?Will was steady and self-assured, which weren’t really qualities Scott looked for in a man, preferring charming, pretty twinks, but he could see the appeal of a man like Will. So Gadiel’s crush was understandable, really.
But that didn’t mean Scott had to like it.
He didn’t. If he and Gadiel got together, he would always wonder if Gadiel wasn’t settling for him just because he was gay and looked somewhat similar to Will. Yikes. Even thinking about it made him cringe. He liked Gadiel a lot, but he wasn’t going to be anyone’s second choice. Plenty of fish in the sea and all that.
“Hey guys,” Scott said.
Gadiel practically jumped and gave him a startled look, as if he’d forgotten about his presence entirely.
That only solidified Scott’s decision. “I think there’s no point in me following you. I’ll catch a cab to my hotel.”
Will frowned. “You’ve just been mugged. You don’t have money.”
“I don’t need money when I have my phone,” Scott said, pulling it out of the inner pocket of his jacket. The muggers hadn’t yet taken it away before Will saved him.Speaking of which, he needed to call his bank and block his card.“See ya. Or not.”
“What?” Gadiel said, hesitantly. “What do you mean?”
Scott gave him a crooked smile. “Look, Gadiel, I like you a lot—you’re funny and gorgeous—but I’m no one’s second choice.”
Gadiel frowned in what seemed like genuine confusion. “What?”
Scott felt a pang of doubt. Was it possible he was mistaken?
But then he looked at the way Gadiel was still gripping Will’s hand, noting how close to each other they stood, clearly comfortable in each other’s personal space, and Scott knew he wasn’t mistaken. Even if nothing was going to happen between them, clearly there was something there. Something Scott wasn’t touching with a ten-foot pole.
“I’m not an idiot,” Scott said with a chuckle. “I can read the room.”
“I don’t understand,” Gadiel said, still frowning.
For the first time, Scott actually felt the age difference between them. Christ, the guy was so young, not even out of his teens yet. Maybe he was genuinely clueless about what was going on here.
“A word of advice,” he said, softening his voice. “Straight guys are a very bad idea, no matter how hot they are. Trust me on that.”
Gadiel stared at him blankly before flushing. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said, not looking at Will.
“Right,” Scott said with a snort. “And the fact that you look at my cousin like you’d choke on his dick if he let you means nothing, of course.”
Gadiel opened his mouth and closed it.
Scott looked at Will.
There was a very strange expression on his face. Scott couldn’t read it at all. But Will didn’t look shocked by his words. Then again, if even Scott had noticed Gadiel’s little crush, Will had likely clocked it days ago. He’d always been the observant one.
“Text me when you get to your hotel,” Will said evenly, as if Scott hadn’t just said what he’d said. “Let’s go, Gadiel.”
Blushing furiously, Gadiel let him steer him away.
Puzzled by Will’s non-reaction, Scott turned around and went looking for a cab.
What a night.