“I didn’t know you were a reader,” Nikky told Drew, his eyes dancing with amusement as he looked at his friend over his drink.
“Sure, I read all the time,” Drew said, staring right back at Nikky with a sly look.
They were never going to be able to pull the whole fake dating thing off, Lee was certain of it. Drew had too many friends who knew him well enough to guess the truth, and Lee was a terrible actor.
At least, that was Lee’s initial thought. Once they reached the lavish estate where whoever Edward was lived and hosted parties, he wasn’t so sure.
“God, Drew, you really know how to find them,” the already inebriated and deliciously campy Edward observed as he swept Lee with a hungry look once they were in what looked like a nineteenth-century ballroom. “Yummy.”
“Get your own boyfriend,” Drew laughed, clamping his arm around Lee’s waist like he had at the theater and pulling him away from Edward.
It was a tiny moment, one most people would miss, but it had Lee breathless and pulsing in an instant. This was it. Drew had thrown down the gauntlet. So much for testing the waters and seeing how things unfolded. Drew had pulled out the B-word right at the beginning of the afterparty.
“Oh, is that how things are?” Edward asked, eyes lighting up with mischief.
“Shut up,” Drew said, blushing and lowering his face slightly in the perfect picture of sheepishness. He looked so beautiful that Lee was about three seconds away from falling in love with him then and there. “We’re going to mingle,” Drew went on, marching Lee away from Edward and over to the other side of the ballroom.
“So this is it, then, is it?” Lee asked once they were far enough from everyone else that they could talk without being overheard. “We’re going for the whole boyfriend thing?”
Drew took a long sip of the drink he’d been handed as soon as they’d entered the room and nodded. He also darted his eyes around to make sure no one was listening in before saying, “I think this will work. People are buying it. Hell,I’mbuying it.”
They both froze, staring at each other. Lee’s awareness of reality narrowed to the sensation of Drew’s hand on his waist and the shock in Drew’s eyes.
“I mean, I think we’re convincing, don’t you?” Drew asked quickly, then downed at least half of his drink.
“Yes,” Lee said, deciding to just go for it. “I think we can pull this off. Do you want another drink?”
“Yes, please,” Drew said as soon as he finished his first one.
Lee took the glass from him. “I’ll get you another and one for myself.” Something told him he was going to need it.
He peeled away from Drew, who immediately spotted some friends and greeted them loudly and with open arms, then headed for the bar at the far side of the room.
Abby was already at the bar, watching them and Jessica, who had gone to dance with a group of beautifully dressed women who she seemed to know. “Having fun?” she asked, smiling broadly at Lee.
“I think so,” Lee said, jitterier than he wanted to be. “This is a lot to take in. Do you guys do this all the time?” he asked the same question he’d asked Jessica.
Abby shrugged one shoulder. “Sometimes. Drew likes to go out and be around people. He’s an extrovert, in case you couldn’t tell.”
They both looked across the room to where Drew was dirty dancing with a laughing group of both men and women.
“He’s a lot of fun,” Lee said, smiling from ear to ear as he watched. It didn’t really make sense, but he felt so proud of his man, his fake man, for being such a free spirit.
A beat later, he realized Abby was studying him.
“What? Did I do something wrong?” he asked.
“Not at all,” Abby laughed. “I’m happy this agency place found you for him.”
It wasn’t lost on Lee that anyone overhearing them, like the bartender who slid two drinks across the bar top, wouldn’t know what he meant, but Lee totally did.
“Yeah, I think we both lucked out,” he said, taking the drinks. “I really like him.”
“He really likes you,” Abby said, wisdom and maybe a little cunning in her eyes. “I think you should go all in with this whole thing.”
That surprised Lee for some reason, and his eyes went wide. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah,” Abby said. “Really go for it. Remember, there are always cameras everywhere, but we control what they see.”