Worth Keeping Read Online Free PDF Page A

isn’t he? You’ve trained him well.” There was a note of wistfulness in his voice. “Right, I’m off. Thanks for rescuing me from the crazy monkey again.” He turned to go and Nick grabbed his arm. Owen winced.
    Nick’s face fell as he realised he’d grabbed Owen’s injured arm and he let go swiftly. “Christ, sorry, didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m a bloody klutz.”
    Owen shook his head. “It’s okay.” He stood uncertainly. “Did I forget something?”
    Nick blew out a breath. “No. But I can’t in all honesty let you go.” Owen frowned and Nick hastened to qualify his statement. “You need some space, that’s obvious. But I’d rather you stay here in the spare room where I can keep an eye on you then let you go into town and do God knows what to yourself.”
    A faint glimmer of hope sparked in the other man’s eyes. “You want me to stay here, with you?” Owen’s body stilled. Socks chirped quietly.
    Nick nodded. “At least until you get yourself back on your feet and decide where you’re going. You washed up on my island. It’s only right I get to take care of you for a while. It’s a fisherman’s responsibility to look after the catch of the day. And you have no bloody shoes on either. What kind of an impression are you going to make asking for a room at Rose’s B and B?”
    “I got the impression you wanted rid of me as soon as possible.” Owen wasn’t making this easy for him. His chin tilted up stubbornly and Nick sighed in exasperation.
    The man might be older than him but he was acting like a teenage brat.
    “I know what I said. I’m a grumpy arsehole early in the morning. Now do you want to stay here for a while or not?”
    “Does that offer work both ways?” Owen leaned over, tucking a strand of wayward hair behind Nick’s ear. Nick drew a deep breath. Even that slight touch made his pulse race.
    “What do you mean?” Nick asked. “Which offer?”
    “You want me to stay here so you can keep an eye on me, stop me doing something stupid. Do I get the same courtesy? Are you going to stand on that cliff again anytime soon?”
    Nick swallowed and felt an ache in his chest that hadn’t been there before he’d met this irritating man. It radiated through his heart and his stomach and turned his brain to mush like a chemical toxin.
    Owen waited expectantly. “Because if it doesn’t then no thanks. I’d rather not watch someone else destroy himself. It’s tough enough managing my own self-destructive tendencies.”
    “I won’t be jumping off the fucking cliff,” Nick growled. “God, you are one cheeky son of a bitch. I wouldn’t be any good looking out for you if I was dead, would I?”
    Owen smiled faintly. “That’s the way I see it. It’s kind of a two-way thing.” He looked at Nick slyly. “And enough of the insults. You should respect your elders.” Owen looked more relaxed. Colour had returned to his face and there was a new ease to his body.
    Nick snorted. “Two years doesn’t make a big difference.”
    “I do like younger men,” Owen mused, a wicked glint in his eye. “And you lived up to expectations this morning so...”
    Nicks face reddened. “Yes, well, enough of that.” A thought struck him and he cleared his throat. “Just to be clear. That’ s not the reason I’m inviting you to stay. I don’t need a fuck buddy. I have one of those already.”
    Disappointment at his words crossed Owen’s face. Nick’s heart raced at the implications of that look.
    The person he saw for that with any regularity at all was Daniel Smith. They’d met during a chess match about eight months ago. Nick had gone back to Daniel’s house and found his new friend’s warm mouth around his cock and it had escalated from there. But another session like the one with Owen this morning, or even more—Nick’s cock lurched at the thought of actually wrapping his mouth around this man—might be his emotional undoing.
    “If you say so,” Owen said but the glint in