Playing to Win by Avery Cockburn Read Free Book Online

in the privacy of your own homes, but in public, it’s pure illegal.”
    Colin’s pulse spiked. “Are we being charged?” Please just give us a warning. Please please please…
    Andrew put a firm hand on Colin’s arm, then turned to the policeman with a gentle smile. “Constable…Lawrence, is it? I’m afraid this has all been an unfortunate misunderstanding.” He opened his wallet and pulled out his driving license. His real driving license, with his true name and photo.
    The officer shone his electric torch on Andrew’s identification, then up into his face. “So you think we make exceptions for toffs?”
    Andrew’s smirk vanished in the harsh glare. “I—sorry?”
    “It’s people like you,” Lawrence said, “thinking the rules don’t apply to them. That’s what’s keeping this country in the Stone Age.” He swept his hand toward the back door. “I was gonnae give you just a warning, but you need a lesson.”
    “This is impossible!” Andrew sputtered as they were led outside. “You can’t do this to me!”
    “You’d best come peacefully,” the officer said, “cos I’d love to tell my pals at the pub I put an aristocrat in handcuffs.”
    Colin wished he were witnessing this scene from afar. Not just so he could avoid arrest, but so he could relish Andrew’s comeuppance. It almost made this worth it.
    As they headed toward the police van, passing a pair of glassy-eyed rave girls still dancing to the music in their heads, a black car with tinted windows pulled up to the curb across the narrow street.
    Andrew stopped short at the sight of it. “Oh thank God.”
    Out of the black car emerged a tall, muscle-bound man with a shaved head. He swaggered across the street toward them like a lion taking over a new pride.
    “Who’s that?” Colin asked Andrew.
    “Our savior, that’s who.”
    The man approached Constable Lawrence, pulling a card from the inside pocket of his dark blazer.
    Please let that be a get-out-of-jail-free card , Colin thought.
    The big guy nodded to Andrew, then spoke to Lawrence as he handed over his card. “Evening. I’d like to speak with the officer-in-charge, please.”
    The constable gritted his teeth. “Just a moment.” He beckoned to one of his fellow officers, and together, they led Colin and Andrew to a nearby police car.
    “What’s going on?” Colin asked Andrew after they were left inside the back of the vehicle. “Did Reggie just make it worse?”
    “They put us here so they can release us quietly, away from the others.” Andrew waved a dismissive hand at the police van, into which several of their fellow ravers were already being loaded. “It causes resentment and gossip if those people see us getting special treatment.”
    “How do you know all this?”
    Andrew gave a harsh sigh. “How do you think I know?”
    Great. Colin wasn’t the first man Andrew had sucked off in public, which meant he probably wouldn’t be the last.
    Silence fell, broken only by the occasional squawking of the police radio and the thumping of Colin’s pulse in his ears.
    Finally Andrew cleared his throat. “Would it be obnoxious to mention that, had you accepted my original invitation, you would at this moment be lying naked beneath my sheets, and that I would be lying naked beneath you ?”
    “Shut up.” Colin rubbed the thick scar beneath his left arm’s tattoo as he watched Reggie speak into Constable Lawrence’s radio. “What’s he doing?”
    “Talking to the officer-in-charge, remember? No doubt they’re mates from back in the day when Reggie was a detective with Strathclyde Police.” Andrew crossed his legs and laid his arm across the back of the seat. “Reggie’s probably convincing him or her that we’re not worth the hassle.”
    “What hassle? Won’t those yins in the van need the same of paperwork as us?”
    “Those poor sods in the van won’t get the officer-in-charge called into their superior’s office Monday morning to explain why they put a