The Wild Heart by David Menon Read Free Book Online

of what I do’.
         ‘ There you go again’.
         ‘ What?’
         ‘ Talking as if you live half your life in some kind of parallel universe’.
         ‘ Chances are more easily afforded when you’re as young as you’.
         ‘ So you’ve got a thing about the age difference between us?’
         ‘ I’m thirty-eight, you’re twenty-three. I’m bound to be a bit doubtful about it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it does my ego the world of good to know that you want me but I don’t understand what it is you see in me’.
         ‘ And it makes you feel better to believe that I’m just playing with you?’
         ‘ Better?’
         ‘ Makes it easier not to give in to your feelings’ said Mark.
         ‘ What are you doing to me? Whenever I think of you I feel like I’m unravelling’.
         ‘ And that’s a bad thing?’
         ‘ I didn’t realise how easy it would be for the right guy to do’.
         ‘ So I’m the right guy then?’
         ‘ You certainly don’t miss a trick’ said Ian.
         Mark thought Ian looked the business in his blue jeans, white linen shirt, black leather single-breasted jacket, big chunky silver watch on his hairy wrist. He didn’t know if he preferred him all washed and scrubbed up like this or all dirty at the end of the working day when his signature smell was strongest. He was definitely a meat and potatoes man as opposed to a quiche and salad one, a pint of bitter, not a vodka and slimline.  
         ‘ So when you said that life for you was alone’ said Mark ‘ Can you tell me what that was all about?’
         Ian looked down at his beer. ‘ It was about a long time ago back in Ireland’.
         ‘ Was it something to do with the troubles?’
         ‘ Yeah, it was to do with the troubles’ said Ian.
         ‘ You’re a deep on alright, Taylor’.
         ‘ Am I?’
         ‘ It’s part of your charm’.
         ‘ Do you fall in love easily?’
         ‘ You ask me a lot but you don’t give much away about yourself’.
         ‘ Sorry’.
         ‘ It’s okay. I’m just letting you know and the answer is no, I don’t fall in love easily. Do you?’
         ‘ No. It’s only happened once before’.
         Mark smiled at the implication of what Ian had let slip and then smiled even more when he saw Ian blushing.
         ‘ Do you realise what you just said to me?’ said Mark.
         ‘ Yes, and I’m going to get another round in before I say anything else I shouldn’t’.
         Ian went to the bar and brought them a couple more pints out. If somebody had told him a few weeks ago that he’d be sitting here with Mark he’d have told them they were on drugs. If he’d known this was going to happen when he’d gone into Conor Naughton’s flat and blown his brains out he’d have considered it some kind of sick joke. That was the trouble. The other side of his life wasn’t exactly compatible with falling in love.
         ‘ Do you have any family over here, Ian?’ Mark asked when Ian returned with their drinks.
         Ian shook his head. ‘ No. Look, do you want to go and get something to eat?’
         ‘ Yeah, I’m famished’ said Mark who noted the quick change of subject.
         ‘ Where do you fancy going?’
         ‘ This is Manchester. We can get whatever we want’.
         ‘ Yes, but it’s Saturday night and we haven’t booked anything’.
         ‘ So?’
         ‘ So why don’t we head back to my place and we can order some takeaway?  I’ve got loads of wine and beer at home. We could send out for pizza, Chinese, Indian …’ he was caught by the filthy, wild look in Mark’s eyes that so turned him on. ‘ … what are you thinking?’
         Mark grinned all over his face. ‘ I’m thinking that I could eat chips out of your boxer shorts whilst you were still wearing