Page 22 of Declan
“Again?”
“Yeah,” Royal answered, squaring his jaw. “His last boyfriend really fucked him over. Big time.”
What am I doing?
My pursuit over a guy I wouldn’t let myself have was out of character for me. Spontaneously going to a gay club that night and carrying a drunken young man out with me had the potential to fucking ruin my career. Or at least cause so much scandal in the media that I’d end up ruining my own career by hiding away from the world.
“That sucks about his relationship, but I don’t see how it relates to me. I’m not gay,” I snapped at him. “I didn’t know it was a gay club until I got inside. But then I saw Kyler, recognized him from the set, and thought I’d say hi. That’s all.”
Huh…looks like he actually believes me.
Royal held my gaze a moment before dropping it to the pavement. “Sorry. I get a little protective of him. No offense meant.”
“Well, if you have all of this under control, I’m going to take off,” I said, motioning to the passed-out men in the car. “Have a good night, Royal.”
My hands were shaking so bad by the time I got to my car that I could barely unlock the door. That had been a close call. A major eye-opener, too. I’d let myself become blinded by my infatuation.
Just because I wanted Kyler didn’t mean I could have him.
It’d been months since I’d had afix, and I was starving for it. Starving for a man’s touch. Pretty fucked-up that I had to use an addict analogy to describe something that should’ve been natural, but itwasn’tnatural for me. Not after years of having it drilled into my head of how wrong it was.
Perhaps a part of me was a hopeless romantic. With emphasis on thehopeless.And for once, I’d wanted to find something real—not just portray it in a movie. My attraction to Kyler was exactly that; something I felt in my very core, something that excited me.
Excited me?
Maybe that was it, then. I was bored. Bored with going through all the motions, being pulled in different directions as people fought for my attention. Sick of all the fake-ass people. Tired of being someone I wasn’t.
It was nearing one in the morning by the time I returned to the hotel. Gideon was in his room, so maybe I’d slide by without having to confront him. Good. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with that shit anyway.
I kicked off my shoes and made a mental note to toss them in the dumpster in the morning. Until then, I’d place them in the trashcan in the bathroom. Maybe they could be cleaned, but I didn’t want to risk it. They were stained red with the jello shot and smelled too vile. After taking a quick shower—mainly to wash off the stench of smoke and my own self-loathing—I collapsed into bed.
Yeah…I was bored with my life. To some people it might’ve been exciting, but when you’d lived it for eight years, it became monotonous.
Kyler was something new and unexpected, a burst of color in a gray world.
***
“Did you see the news?” Jennifer asked the following day.
We’d been filming since seven that morning and had taken a break for lunch. I’d just taken a bite of my turkey sandwich and nearly choked. I felt the blood wash from my face and my gut knotted.
“No. Why?” I asked as a million things flashed through my head.
Had someone seen me atRawthe night before? Had they taken pictures of me holding Kyler and now it was plastered all over the news? Ah, fuck. I was in the process of thinking of every excuse I could to justify my actions.
“Don’t look so scared,” she said with a laugh. “Though, I can understand it. For us, it’s always scary to see what new bull the media is spreading.”
I relaxed a little and continued eating. “What’s the news?”
“There’s a serial killer on the loose by the sound of it,” she responded. Her red hair was curled and looked a little too perfect. We’d both been dolled up that day to film the big ending scene of the movie where our characters attended a wedding. “There’ve been attacks in Washington, Oregon, and the latest one was in Colorado. Oh, and we’re also trending, as well.”
“Nice, we’re in the news with a deranged psychopath. That’s comforting.”
Jennifer laughed. “Yeah, apparently you and I are eloping here.” She gasped, exaggerating the action, and started gushing like a reporter would, “Actor Declan Price, heartthrob and untamed bad boy, finds love on the set of his new movie.”
I rolled my eyes so far back in my head, I wondered if they’d get stuck that way.
“I know, right?” she added, shaking her head. “They’re so desperate for juicy gossip that they have to create their own just to stay relevant in the news.”
