Holy shit, no one can know about this. What the hell had he been thinking?! Heath has to find Murphy and make sure the idiot knows that what he said meant absolutely nothing. Heath rounded the corner of the Surf Club and conveniently nearly ran into the stupid idiot that was plaguing his thoughts. Taking the opportunity to fix this mess, Heath grabbed Murphy and shoved him into the wall.
"Easy there," Murphy said with a grin. It made Heath madder than if Murphy had fought back.
"Don't look at me like that," Heath said viciously. "I just wanna make sure we're clear about last night yeah? Nothing happened. Ok?"
"Ok. No one said it did. But if you're not careful people might start getting ideas," Murphy said, alluding to the fact that they were pressed very close together.
"Shut up," Heath said with a final shove before letting go of the other man and taking a few steps back. Murphy took a step forward and brushed his clothes straight.
"If however what you meant to say was 'Liam, can you please not mention the fact that I hit on you last night' then that's fine. I won't say anything."
xxx
This is pure gold. It's been a while since Liam had one up on Heath, it'll be fun to watch him squirm.
"Good," Heath barked out and moved to leave, but Liam wasn't about to make it that easy on Heath.
"But I can't do it for nothing," Liam said, making it clear to Heath who held the power in this situation.
"How about you do it so your face stays intact," Heath shot back with that Braxton arrogance.
"You wouldn't ruin my face, you think I'm hot," Liam said, making the last part a little louder than necessary, purely to stir Heath up. For all Heath's talk Liam was ninety percent sure Heath wouldn't actually hit him.
"Keep your voice down," Heath said in a panicked, angry whisper, "I do not."
"If you say so," Liam shrugged, smiling at Heath in a way that said he didn't believe Heath at all. "But you do seem awfully touchy about it."
"I do not," Heath said again, checking himself too late and proving Liam's point. Liam's smile widened, it really was great to have Heath on the back foot for once. Heath, seemingly at a loss as to what to do next, fell back into his default mode of thug. "Stay the hell away from me," Heath commanded irritably, shoving Liam one last time and stalking off.
"But we haven't finished negotiating yet," Liam called after Heath cheerfully, not wanting to let Heath have the final say and because he knew it would piss Heath off. Heath's amusing reply was to stick his finger up at Liam as he continued his dramatic exit.