“Bad,” Lee said. “She has a lot of proof that the two of you are more than friends. A lot.”
“Shit.” Drew wanted to kick something. He also wanted to fling himself out the window or scream and run as hard as he could through the night until the whole thing went away.
“She told them all about Rent-A-Boyfriend,” Lee went on. “And the press has worked like lightning to put everything they can possibly find about me out into the public sphere.”
Drew whipped back from where he’d resumed pacing, his heart bleeding for Lee. “Baby, I’m so sorry.” He crossed the room to hug Lee.
He would worry later about the fact that was the first time he’d called Lee a pet name. He didn’t know if he liked it, but saying something had made him feel closer to the man, to his boyfriend. Because if they were going to go through shit like this together, Drew sure as hell was going to call Lee his boyfriend and mean it.
“Are you okay?” he asked, holding Lee at arm’s length again. “This must be scary.”
“It is,” Lee admitted. “A lot of things about being with you are scary, but?—”
He was cut off by the jarring sound of Drew’s phone ringing. As much as he wanted to ignore it, he knew he couldn’t afford to. Especially when he pulled his phone from his pocket and saw his agent’s name on the screen.
“Avery,” he answered the call, overwhelmed in an instant.
“Drew,” Avery answered in a no-nonsense voice. “You’ve seen what Jessica did?”
“Yep,” Drew said, pacing again to get all the adrenaline rushing through him out. “Have you spoken with her at all?”
“I haven’t had a chance to. I’ve been doing damage control from this end, but I need to know a few things.”
“What do you need to know?” Drew asked, glancing at Lee as he marched passed. “I’m an open book. I’ll tell you anything and everything.”
“How about starting with whether your relationship with Lee Cresswell is fake or not?” Avery asked. More like demanded. Her tone wasn’t reassuring.
“It’s—”
Drew stopped, glancing back at Lee again. Shit. He’d been backed into a corner. He was going to have to confess everything now. Everything.
He huffed out a breath, then said, “I met Lee through Rent-A-Boyfriend, yes,” he said, looking at Lee for support as he spoke. “Not that it matters, but it was Jessica’s idea as a way to stop all the queerbaiting rumors.”
“Drew,” Avery said, like a disappointed mother. “You realize that fake-dating a man to protect your image when you’re straight is the dictionary definition of queerbaiting, right?”
“I’m not straight,” he said, maybe a little too loudly. “I’m bi. Which I didn’t know until I met and started dating, legitimately dating, Lee.”
Okay, maybe that timeline was off a little, but he really was with Lee. Or at least he wanted to be. They still hadn’t sat down and had the “are we dating for real” conversation. But Lee was the first thing he thought about in the morning and the last thing before he fell asleep every night. He’d never felt like he did with Lee with anyone else.
He was in love. Deeply, ridiculously in love.
And it was a shit time to come to that conclusion.
“Honey, I’m going to break this to you gently, because I only just found out about it myself, and because I love you and don’t like the idea of you getting hurt,” Avery said.
Drew didn’t like the sound of that at all. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Avery sighed. “You know I used to be a literary agent before I became a talent agent, right?”
Drew definitely didn’t like where this was headed. He looked at Lee, praying the man would tell him everything was okay and no other shoes were about to drop.
“Well, I used to work for Jerry Turnbridge’s literary agency,” Avery went on. “He’s one of the biggest names in the business. Maybethebiggest. Jerry and I are still friends.” She paused before saying, “Jerry signed Lee shortly after it came out that the two of you might be dating. There’s a major publishing company, and I mean super major, that’s offered him over a million dollars for a tell-all book about dating you.”
Drew was pretty certain his entire body turned to ice in an instant. He stared at Lee, unable to pull his eyes off the man. He couldn’t breathe. Everything suddenly made sense. The way Lee had been so tense and distant for the last week, the way they’d become so close so fast. Everything that had once been good suddenly felt tainted.
“Honey, are you still there?”
Drew blinked at Avery’s question. “Yeah,” he said, his throat raw.