Slippery Creatures (The Will Darling Adventures, #1)

by K.J. Charles

Who the hell came armed to rob a bookshop?

“Should I be taking you dancing?” “Not in those clothes. I’ve standards.”

Kim shut the door behind Norris at last, and Will heard the bolt go. He came back through the shop to where Will stood, face unreadable, eyes watchful, incongruous and beautiful in his scuffed black-and-white finery. Will stepped forward and shoved him against a bookcase.

“My grateful nation wasn’t grateful enough to give me a job. I pawned my medals to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly, and I’ll tell you what, the Military Cross doesn’t fetch a great deal, no matter how many bars you have on it. The pawnbroker told me I should have tried for a Victoria Cross. That would be worth something, he said.”

Calling it honour is putting ribbons on a pile of shit. It might look good, but it still stinks.”

“What I say is, one can be as moral as one likes but one should have the courtesy to do it in private, like any other bad habit.

“I wonder if you’re a brave man, or a stupid one.”

Both.

They are driven by staggering greed at the top and fanatic idealism below, and between greed and fanaticism people can justify anything.

“It’s impossible to eat onion soup with dignity, so please don’t try,” she remarked, which was embarrassing because he hadn’t been trying.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Suffice to say I love Kim dearly, but ‘love’ means an awful lot of things. I think more people should understand that.”

“I think you’re rather lovely,” he said, startling himself. “I know I am,” Phoebe assured him. “But it’s always nice to be told so.”

“I might just be nervy.” “You are a terribly delicate flower.” “It’s the waiting,” Will said. “At least in the trenches, when they tapped you for a raid, you know it was happening and you got on with it.” “Scheduled mayhem is more convenient? I suppose you can put it in your diary. Work around it.” “‘Sorry, I’ve no time for a knife fight in the street on Thursday, could you make it Friday?’”

“Don’t be a shit,” Kim said, and the worst part of that was he sounded entirely resigned, as though he expected Will to be a shit. “I’m not that bad, and you’re not that stupid.”

“If you’d listened to a word I’d said at any point in the last weeks, it would now be held securely,” Kim snapped. “It’s a pity you’re constitutionally incapable of that.”

Kim rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. You know who you are, and you wear it well. I really don’t know why you listen to me.” “Nor do I, you corkscrew-tongued bastard. Jesus wept. You could open wine bottles with that.”

“You’re a bit of a mess, aren’t you?” “My friend, you have no idea.”

😭😩❤️

“It would help if you were more reliably unreliable. At least I’d know where I stood.”

It could be the start of a story or the end of one, Will thought, as they headed out together into the cold, dark street. It could be a farewell, or the foundation of a friendship. It could be an awkward drink in a crowded pub with an upper-class man wound tighter than a neurasthenic’s pocket watch, or just possibly something else entirely, something precious and fragile that Will didn’t want to look at straight on in case he jinxed it. It could be anything. He might as well find out what.