Are you saying you haven't seen A Knight's Tale ? Granted the pretty-boy bonding-ness of it is rather subtle but Bettany goes way beyond shirtless.
You are absolutely correct - although I don't remember having the same OMGGuh! response to buck nekkid Chaucer!Bettany that I had to shirtless Bettany, actually. Not to disparage his bum, which is indeed a fine thing, and actually, I really should go buy a copy of A Knight's Tale... No, though, it was the bending-back-while-looking-intense-and concentrating-on-flaming-juggly-things-competent-action-shot business. Er, combined with that bit, I don't know what it's called, but that defined muscle bit coming up towards the hip, or heading towards the groin, depending on your perspective? Possibly the Iliac? Or something? Anyway, THAT bit. Which was distractingly well defined. Um.
But, yes, you're right - I was all over Chaucer/William like a rash. That bit where nekkid!Bettany was just LOOKING at William, in the expectation that William would help him out a second time, and then suddenly he realised that William was maybe going to leave him to stew, and the bottom fell out of his world, and he just did the best desperate puppy eyes in the history of ever, and William looked right back at him, and there was a long 'If I do this YOU WILL OWE ME' undercurrent, with lashings of 'Oh Captain my Captain', and...yeah. Um. I still have a half-finished fic somewhere that has Chaucer unrequitedly smitten with William, and ending up drunkenly shagging Wat instead. Because that was SO what happened in my head. (And the Chaucer/Wat pigtail pulling was So Much Fun.)
But in Inkheart it's the wee boy who's doing that whole wide-eyed idolising thing at Bettany's character, and Bettany is being all prickly and scarred and untrustworthy and heart of goldish. And shirtless. I did mention the shirtless, right?
...um. Sorry. Apologies to the not-slashily-inclined in the thread - I didn't mean to go on at such length.