Page 8 of Need Him
Gareth stood tall as he wandered across the room, though Ben could sense the tension in him. He settled his slightly smaller frame in the visitor’s chair and crossed his ankle over his knee. His forehead was heavily lined, and the lines around his mouth were deeper, though not from laughter this time. His scruff appeared more pronounced than usual. Had he been out the previous night or even earlier that day? Was he still drunk?
Ben realised he was staring and refocused on the paperwork in front of him. It was a blank appraisal form, but he had no intentions of going through it.
“How are you finding the work?” he finally asked.
Gareth raised his eyebrows. “It’s fine. I know what I must do and when I must do it, and it gets done. It’s not difficult.”
The words were sharp, and Ben thought back to their previous encounters. The slight edge to Gareth’s tone had been missing in those conversations. Was he angry?
“Do you have a problem with me?” Ben asked.
Gareth snorted. “I would think that would be the other way around. You seem to have taken a dislike to me from the beginning.”
Ben sat back at that. “I have nothing against you.”
Gareth stared at him, then shrugged. “My mistake.”
“I don’t,” Ben insisted.
“If that’s how you speak to all your staff, I’m surprised you have any left.”
Ben stared at him, unused to the backtalk, as he would call it. “There is nothing wrong with the way I speak to my staff. I explain what I need to be done, and they do it. If they don’t, there are consequences.”
“Itisjust me, then.”
Ben bit down on his bottom lip, scrunching his nose as he gazed at his paperwork. Why was he focused on Gareth? He didn’t know, but something was bugging him about the man.
“Are you happy with the shifts you’ve been given?”
Gareth nodded. “Yeah. Neither here nor there for me. I have no one waiting for me, so I can come and go as I please.”
“Must be nice,” Ben murmured, eyes widening when the words escaped his mouth instead of being under his breath.
Gareth leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and cocking his head. “Why are you here all hours of the day and night if you have someone waiting for you at home?”
Ben swallowed and chewed his lip some more. “That doesn’t concern you.”
“Do you have a problem at home?”
Gareth seemed invested in Ben’s answer, and whereas normally he would’ve brushed it off, he found he didn’t want to. He brushed his hand across the front of his desk, wiping away invisible dust as he tried to regain his bearing on the conversation. He set his shoulders.
“My home life is none of your concern, as I’ve told you. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“I’m serious. Is your partner kind to you?” Gareth’s nostrils flared.
Ben’s gaze met Gareth’s, the golden hue shimmering with an intensity Ben couldn’t understand. “I don’t have a partner,” he found himself saying.
Gareth raised his eyebrows. “Why do you not want to go home? Is your house too empty?”
Ben snorted. “No. Far from it, unfortunately.” He shook his head to get rid of the need to bare his soul to this man he didn’t know. “That’s not why I brought you here.”
“Do you have roommates?”
“No.”
“Do you live with family?”
Ben blinked. “Yes. How did—”
