Stuff (The Bristol Collection) by Josephine Myles Read Free Book Online Page A

with had promised him a lift back into Bristol the next morning, then growled like a bear with a sore head and refused to get out of bed when Mas’s alarm went off.
    “I don’t know why you even went that far with a bloke you didn’t know from Adam. It’s not safe, Mas. I’m worried about you. You could get yourself into all kinds of trouble.”
    “What’s with the lecture? I think your other half must be rubbing off on you.”
    “If you’re trying to make some kind of sex joke there—”
    “Whoa! Just a figure of speech. Honest. But is he? You’re sounding kind of out of breath.” Mas had a hard time imagining straitlaced Lewis up to anything as kinky as frotting while Jasper was on the phone, but experience had taught him it was often the quiet ones you had to look out for. Jasper was a case in point. Skinny, geeky, wouldn’t say boo to a goose, but a total demon in the sack.
    “I’ve just got back from a run.”
    “Yeah, got to work off all that excess sexual tension now you’re settled down into a boring old coupledom, haven’t you? Tell you what, if you and Lewis ever want to spice things up with a third, you’ve only got to say the word.”
    “They’re perfectly spicy as it is, thank you very much.” Now Jasper had gone back to prim-and-shy mode, which was always good for a laugh. “Now I’m assuming that wasn’t the emergency you’re calling about.”
    “Sadly, this one actually trumps the emergency in my pants. I suffered a few…setbacks yesterday. And I’m going to need some help for a little while.”
    “What kind of help?”
    “You haven’t gone and done anything like filled your spare bedroom with books, have you?”
    “No, but why am I starting to think maybe I should have done?”
    “I need a place to stay.”
    “I knew it.”
    “I’ve lost my job, and I’m being evicted. Please, Jasper. There’s no one else I can ask.”
    “What about this bloke you’ve been seeing so much of lately? You know, the one who keeps taking you out to dinner.”
    “Grant? He’s married. I don’t think his wife and kids would be too thrilled with me camping out at their place.”
    “Married? Oh, Mas.” The disappointment in Jasper’s voice touched a nerve.
    “What? It wasn’t like I was the one doing the cheating.”
    “No…but you facilitated it.”
    “For fuck’s sake! I didn’t even know he was when we started shagging.” Which wasn’t entirely true, as Mas had noticed the pale band around Grant’s finger where a wedding band had been removed, but he’d taken the tale of a recent divorce at face value as all that sexy toppy goodness on offer had been too much to resist.
    “You’re wasting yourself on men like that and all those one-night stands. When are you going to settle down with someone who treats you right?”
    “Settle down? I’m twenty-two. Plenty of time to settle down when I’m old. I’m having the time of my life.” Might not feel like it right now, but if he said it often enough, it would come true, he was sure. “Seriously, I couldn’t be happier.”
    “If you say so.”
    “I do. So, when can you help me move my stuff in? I’ve been given a month’s notice, but I could really do with moving sooner rather than later.” And to somewhere where Walter didn’t have the address, but he wasn’t about to confess all that and risk a shoplifting lecture too. “Today would be good.”
    Jasper sighed. “I’ll have to talk to Lewis. Will you be in all day?”
    “Got bugger all else to do, have I? Other than pack, but that’ll be a piece of piss. Reckon I could be finished in a couple of hours.”
    “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
    “You’re the bestest, and I’ll totally make it up to you guys. I’ll cook dinner every night, give you footrubs while you watch TV or read or whatever it is you do for fun every evening. I’ll even stop angling for a threesome, if that’ll make it easier.”
    “Don’t promise things you can’t deliver,”