Page 114 of The Blame Game

“Yeah? Not too boring?” he asked.

Shea scoffed. “God no. This wasn’t what I expected but it was … I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.”

“Why didn’t you say something to me?” Dom asked, shifting until his head was more comfortably arranged on Shea’s shoulder.

“Because it was … it was your call.”

Dom winced. “Because I pay you?”

Shea pulled away far enough to look him in the eye. “Because I know intimacy is hard for you and I didn’t want to push.”

“Oh.” Dom wet his lips, settling his head on the one remaining pillow. “What … how do you know that?”

Shea snorted, resting his head on the pillow beside Dom’s. “It’s not exactly hard to tell, Dom.”

“I guess I am bad at it,” he admitted. “Though, I did come out to some of my team so that has to count for something, right?”

“What?” Shea sputtered, rising up on one elbow. “That’s huge. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were busy with your family shit.” Dom shrugged. “It wasn’t important.”

Shea scowled like he didn’t agree with that. “How did it go?”

“It was … fine, I guess. It didn’t kill me.”

Shea chuckled. “It was a big weekend for me too. My dad and I talked. Hashed out some shit.”

“Yeah? How’d that go?”

“It was awkward but good. I think we made some progress. I came out to him too, actually.”

“Guess it was the weekend for that,” Dom said drily. “How’d he take the news that you’re gay?”

Shea pulled back far enough to look him in the eye and frowned. “I’m not gay, Dom.”

“What?” Dom blinked. “But you … I thought …”

“Fuck.” Shea pulled away and propped his back against the headboard. “Okay, so, I’m straight.”

“Uhh.” Dom looked down at their naked bodies. “You could have fooled me.”

“Well, I thought I was, anyway. I—I was always attracted to women. Always. And then … and then I learned how much escorts who slept with men made.”

Dom stared at him with growing horror. “You aren’t—you just did it for the money?”

Shea stared at the ceiling. “No. Maybe? At first, yeah.”

“With me?”

Shea winced. “You weren’t my first but you were one of the first, so … yeah.”

Dom felt a little sick. “And you weren’t into men at all? But how did you … did you have to take something to get hard or …?”

“No, no, I never took anything. I didn’t need to. I was fucking nervous the first time but um, the guy wanted to fuck me so Audra coached me through using a toy and … look, it doesn’t matter. I never did anything I didn’t want to do.”

“But you did it for the money,” Dom said dully.

“And you’ve fucked up your back for money,” Shea snapped. “Is that so different?”

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