He sent the text message in the middle of the day on Saturday knowing Drew would be on set despite it being the weekend.
He was surprised when Drew sent his reply almost at once.
“I am a well of knowledge.”
Lee grinned at his phone. He could hear Drew’s dry tone and see the glint of teasing intelligence in his eyes. His mouthtwitched into a wry grin of his own and his heart sped up as he went for broke.
“I’m writing a character with a high-profile job. He’s pining for the other guy, but they haven’t been able to spend much time together. Do you think he would rub one out in the shower while thinking about him, and if so, would it be slow and sensual or quick and dirty?”
He hit send, amazed at his own audacity. He was sexting with Drew Oberlin in the middle of a cloudy Saturday.
Lee’s gut clenched when three dots appeared in reply.
“Slow and sensual, of course. With long strokes and special attention paid to the tip. While holding his balls.”
Lee laughed, even as his dick pressed against the front of his jeans. He and Drew definitely needed to spend some quality time together.
Except there was the little problem of the fact that Drew hadn’t really come right out and said he wanted to take their fake relationship into real territory.
And the much bigger problem of the fact that Jessica had returned to London.
“Thank you for your expert input.”
Lee sent his reply and would have set his phone down and gone back to work, certain Drew was probably busy as well. But three dots stopped him.
“I’m willing to explore giving you my input any time.”
Lee caught his breath. A major part of him still had a hard time believing any of this was happening. He couldn’t believe that he and Drew might actually mean something to each other.
It was as wonderful as it was surreal.
“We need to get together to discuss that and do some deeper research. Very deep research.”
He couldn’t believe he sent that reply as well, or that Drew responded with a kissy emoji. That was even headier than if he’d sent a string of eggplants and splashes.
All of it would have been great if it wasn’t for the inherent complications of their romance.
“I saw a rumor that Jessica Nightingale is back in London, visiting your boyfriend,” Diana said an hour or so later, when the two of them started a chat that was meant to encourage both of them to concentrate on writing while online with each other.
“Yep,” Lee replied with a sigh.
“And?” Diana prompted him.
“And I don’t completely know what’s going on right now with the two of them,” Lee admitted.
“Social media is whispering that the two of them might actually be together after all and that Drew dating you is just a front,” Diana said, one eyebrow arched in the chat window at the top corner of Lee’s screen.
Lee’s gut tightened, because that was the original point of the whole thing. But now, everything had evolved, and the even bigger secret that he felt it was his duty to hide was Drew’s true sexuality. He felt a much greater responsibility to let Drew come out for real in his own time, when he was ready, than he did for protecting a fake relationship.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said with a sigh. “Everything is really complicated right now.”
“Yeesh. That doesn’t sound good,” Diana said.
“All I know is that Drew and I get along well. Really well. I don’t want to be a complete fool by saying it, but yeah, I think we could really have something.”
“Boy, I wouldn’t want to be in your position,” Diana said with a humorless laugh. “This whole thing is going to get really weird, I can feel it.”
“It might already be really weird,” Lee admitted, wishing it wasn’t true.