“Ghosts of boyfriends past,” he said. Before he’d been thinking about how this might all go wrong, that was what he’d been thinking about. How he’d screwed up every other relationship he’d had in new and inventive ways.
Of course, relationship was a generous word to use to describe any of the other men he’d been with. They were more like secret affairs that left him feeling guilty, afraid, and unfulfilled.
After a while, he’d resigned himself to a life of watching porn while he jerked off instead. Even that had lost its shine pretty quickly.
“Well, at least you’ll never have to put me in that category.” Eliot smiled.
Danny wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t picked Eliot for nothing. He’d been perfect, obviously, but there was also a tiny part of Danny that liked him.
He was practically the opposite of every other guy Danny had dated. He would have been fairly confident, with any previous boyfriend, that an arm wrestling match was a fair fight.
Eliot was downright fragile in comparison. Not a guy Danny would normally look twice at. Not a guy he’d even notice in the first place, honestly.
And yet, his heart had done that weird somersault thing when he’d answered the door to him the other day. Knowing he was coming over had been strangely exciting, and not just because he’d been plotting a conspiracy.
Danny was currently pretending none of that had happened, because it was more confusing than he was willing to deal with.
“Yeah, that’s soothing,” Danny admitted. Worries aside, he liked getting to hang out with someone—anyone, really, but especially someone who knew where he was coming from—without the pressure of having to be switched on the entire time.
“You scrub up nice, by the way.” Eliot smirked at him. “I was starting to think you didn’t own a real shirt.”
Danny glanced at the button-down shirt he’d picked out for the occasion. It wasn’t anything special, but he supposed it was a little tidier than a t-shirt he’d slept in and a pair of sweatpants.
“I also look great in a suit,” Danny said. “But you’ll have to wait and see.”
Eliot hummed. “We’ll have to coordinate our ties.”
Then, unexpectedly, Eliot reached out and took Danny’s hand. Danny blinked at him for a second, confused, waiting for an explanation.
No one ever held his hand. He just didn’t date guys who held hands at all.
It wasn’t… the worst thing ever. Not even close.
“Our photographer just arrived. I don’t think there should be any question about whether or not this is a romantic moment,” Eliot said.
Then he leaned forward a little and gave Danny the most adoring look he’d ever been on the receiving end of.
Danny’s heart did the weird somersault thing again.
Eliot gave him a strange, blank smile, and then laughed as though Danny had said the funniest thing in the world.
He’d clearly been wrong: Eliot was one hell of an actor, and he never should have doubted him.
“That’s probably enough to get us photographed together,” Eliot said, not taking his hand away immediately. “I’ll keep it up until we’re not being watched anymore.”
“You’re really good at pretending you’re into someone,” Danny pointed out, still surprised by how believable Eliot’s obviously fake laugh had been.
“I’ve had a lot of practice. Most men I date are actually incredibly boring, but I like sex, and they like believing they’re funny and interesting. We all win.” Eliot smiled wryly.
Danny immediately wondered if he was boring, but wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. He suspected Eliot would be honest with him, and honesty wouldn’t necessarily be what he wanted to hear.
“Would it not be easier to date guys who aren’t boring?” he asked instead.
“There’s a shortage,” Eliot said. “And I’m not that pretty.”
Danny raised an eyebrow. Eliot was incredibly pretty, all long eyelashes and soft pink lips, just enough dark stubble to remind someone staring at him that he was a man.
Not that Danny was staring.
Or if he was, it was for show.
“I’d tell you you’re very pretty, but I don’t wanna make this weird,” Danny said. That was the best possible middle ground between not insulting Eliot and not letting him know that Danny was starting to rethink everything he knew about his type.
“I’ll take that as the half-assed compliment I think it was intended to be,” Eliot said.
Before Danny had a chance to defend himself, a waitress mercifully showed up. In the time it took to order lunch, Eliot would have forgotten about the comment.
Danny hadn’t, though. Eliot had given him a genuine compliment when he sat down, and now he felt like an ass for worrying about making things weird. Complimenting people you weren’t romantically interested in was fine. He knew that.
It was just hard to do. Danny wished he could be a little more like Eliot, a little more comfortable in his own skin. He didn’t hesitate to say exactly what he thought.
“You are pretty, and you can do better if you’re only dating guys who bore you,” Danny said, before he lost his nerve. Saying that out loud made him feel like he’d missed a step going down a flight of stairs.
It was worth it for the look on Eliot’s face, though. He was clearly stunned.
Danny would have liked to think Eliot had underestimated him, but he actually seemed to have a pretty good read on what Danny was like. That had taken all of his willpower to do.
“Thank you,” Eliot said after a moment of silence. “For the record, you don’t bore me. Not yet, anyway.”
Danny chuckled at that. He deserved it for hesitating, and he figured they were even, now. “Well, that’s why I’m paying you to be here. Even if I do get boring, you gotta stick around.”
“You haven’t paid me yet, so you should probably be on your best behavior this time,” Eliot said, pouring both of them a glass of water from the pitcher in the middle of the table.
Now that he was starting to relax, Danny was glad they were sitting outside. The sun was nice, the air was clear, and the sounds of traffic all faded into an undefined blur, soothing white noise.
If this was what pretending to date Eliot was going to be like, he could handle it. It was nice to have some company for once.
“I realized I kind of have to pay you cash, or there’ll be a record of it. You’ll get the money later in the week. Promise.”
Eliot shrugged. “I’m not in a rush,” he said.
Danny knew that wasn’t true. Eliot had let slip in one of their text conversations that he’d had to get his car repaired, and that wasn’t cheap. Danny had his home address now, too, and he knew the area. The rent for a shoebox-sized apartment there wasn’t cheap, either.
Eliot needed the money, which was why he was here in the first place. The least Danny could do was hold up his end of the bargain.
“By the end of the week,” Danny repeated. “I’m not trying to screw you.”
Eliot snorted. “If you want that, you’ll have to actually seduce me,” he joked.
Or at least, Danny was fairly sure he was joking.
“I don’t think I’m your type,” Danny said.
“You’re not,” Eliot agreed. “Don’t worry, you’re not in any danger of me throwing myself at you.”
That was a relief. The whole point of this arrangement was for it to be nice and simple. Sex only made things complicated.
Danny could get laid when he’d secured some good deals and didn’t need Eliot anymore. He’d gone without for long enough already that another few months wouldn’t kill him.
In the meantime, having to hang out with Eliot wasn’t the worst thing.
Chapter Seven
Eliot answered the door on Thursday evening to a man with greying hair and a fantastic beard, wearing a thousand-dollar suit that had obviously been tailored to fit.
He had no idea who the man was, but he definitely had good�
��and expensive—taste.
“Eliot O’Connor?” the mystery man asked.
Eliot nodded.
The man reached into the inside pocket of his coat and extracted an envelope with Eliot’s name written on it in block letters. “Courtesy of Danny Harper. It’s all there, but I won’t be offended if you count it.”
Eliot’s eyes widened.
He honestly hadn’t been sure whether or not he’d get paid. He hadn’t spoken to Danny after their first date, though he’d been watching the social media coverage and gossip. Nothing was official yet, but there were a lot of people doing a lot of talking about them.
Being the center of attention like that was strange. Eliot wasn’t sure how Danny could stand it all the time.
“Oh, umm. No, that’s fine, I trust him. So you’re…”
“His manager, Walter Holland.” Walter offered his hand. Eliot took it, gritting his teeth at the too-firm grip.
He probably shook the hands of sports stars all day, so it shouldn’t really have been a surprise that he nearly crushed Eliot’s.
“Did you want to come in?” Eliot asked, praying to any force in the universe that might be listening that the other man would say no.
“I have to be on my way,” Walter said.
Breathing an internal sigh of relief, Eliot smiled. “That’s okay. Uh, thank you for bringing this to me. And thank Danny for me if you see him before I do.”
“Will do.” Walter nodded, raising his hand as if to tip his non-existent hat. “You have a good night, now,” he added, stepping away from the door.
“I will,” Eliot assured him. “Thank you again.”
Walter waved as he turned and headed down the hall. Eliot watched him go for what he felt was the appropriate amount of time, and then shut the door behind him.
He headed to the living room and counted the money in the envelope. As promised, it was all there. He hadn’t expected otherwise. Right now, he was in a position to ruin Danny if he hadn’t been paid. He hadn’t told any lies yet, he was just a poor broke writer doing what he had to in order to survive.
Not that he intended to do that. Danny seemed like a basically good person who had good reasons for doing what he was doing. Besides, what they were doing was harmless.
Eliot had taken a lot of time to think about it, and he was sure now that it wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t anyone else’s business who Danny was dating, and if he wanted a smokescreen, then he was entitled to one.
The obsession with the private lives of certain individual people was one of the things Eliot had never cared for about his own profession, so it was fitting that he had a chance now to do something about it. Even this small thing, for one person.
He settled back down on the couch to deal with some emails, but found that he couldn’t quite stop thinking about Danny. This was a thing they were really doing now. He should at least thank the guy himself, even if it was only through text.
Eliot picked up his phone and sent off a quick note to Danny, not mentioning specifics. It wasn’t likely that anyone would get hold of their text messages, but Danny seemed concerned about the possibility, and Eliot didn’t want to be the one to screw it up.
The fact that it wasn’t wrong didn’t mean it wouldn’t come back to bite them. Being gay wasn’t wrong, either, but that didn’t stop coming out from being risky.
I hope Walter didn’t scare you, came the response.
He was charming, actually, Eliot texted back. He wanted to ask what Danny was doing, or how his day had been, but those were things reserved for real boyfriends. Today had been a stark reminder that he and Danny were involved in a business transaction, nothing more.
Oh. Well, good, Danny responded. Hey, I have a home game this week. Are you free Saturday?
Eliot chewed on his lip. He was free Saturday, and it was nice to be asked instead of having to arrange things himself. He’d been worried that all the organization was going to end up falling on his shoulders.
I’m free most Saturdays. He was lucky that Cocky kept a weekend staff, which he’d never been a part of. The extra money might have been nice, but working every day of his life wouldn’t have been fun for long.
I’ll send you the details. There’ll be a ticket waiting for you.
What are your team colors? Eliot asked, knowing this was something he could look up, but not wanting to stop talking to Danny.
That’s… a more complicated question than you think it is. You could wear a little purple, though.
Violet, lavender, lilac, mauve…
‘Purple’ was a very broad description. There was a lot of purple in Eliot’s wardrobe, which he mostly reserved for the winter. Now that it was spring, he was sticking to earth tones.
Uh. Royal, I guess? Danny responded after a few moments. None of that means anything to me.
Eliot chuckled at that. Of course Danny didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
Royal is a good enough description. Thank you.
No problem, Danny texted back, a little thumbs-up emoji at the end. That was cute.
Eliot really didn’t want to think of Danny as cute, but he couldn’t help it. Danny was cute, in a way he could only appreciate now that he was well and truly out of high school and didn’t need to be afraid of guys like him anymore.
Or at least, mostly didn’t need to be afraid. Once it was common knowledge that they were dating, Danny would provide an extra layer of protection in a city that was fine most of the time, but had a nasty side, too.
Like all cities, Eliot supposed. People were people wherever you went, and a boy like him was going to run into the worst of them sooner or later.
Eliot took his glasses off and set his laptop aside, preparing for a short nap. He’d get back to the emails when his stomach woke him to demand that he eat something.
He also probably needed to learn something about hockey before he went to his first ever game. He at least wanted to be able to tell whether or not Danny’s team was winning.
Chapter Eight
Thrilled as he was that his team had won and secured their spot in the playoffs, Danny’s victory high was overshadowed by the fact that it was taking every ounce of willpower he had not to hobble out of the change rooms post-match. He gritted his teeth and smiled for the fans, but inside he wanted to scream.
He couldn’t let anyone know he was hurting. Just a few more games for the season, and then it was all over.
Once he got through the hordes of fans—which he appreciated most days, but couldn’t wait to be free of today—he was glad to see Eliot standing at the back of the crowd. A friendly face was a friendly face, and he’d seen Eliot cheering a few times while he’d been playing in his ridiculous purple scarf.
That felt nice. He knew Eliot didn’t care about sport, so it meant something to Danny to have him cheering him on. Ridiculous as the scarf was, it was a nice gesture, too. Eliot was trying.
To Danny’s horror, the moment of relief coincided with his knee giving out completely. He stumbled, lurching toward Eliot, images of crashing into him flashing through his mind. If it didn’t blow his secret wide open, it’d at least start speculation about him having hurt himself.
To his surprise, he didn’t fall. Eliot caught him, which was no minor feat, since Danny must have been twice his weight. Eliot was tall enough, as tall as Danny was, almost, but willowy and not physically powerful.
All the same, he held Danny up.
Danny was too busy being relieved again to notice as Eliot shifted his hold, putting both hands on Danny’s jaw and holding him in place.
To kiss him, Danny realized belatedly, around the time their lips had actually connected. Up until that point, he’d still been in panic mode.
It wasn’t a gentle kiss. For some reason, Danny had expected Eliot to be hesitant and gentle, maybe even bordering on awkward. He was the opposite of that in every way, sucking on Danny’s lip, forcing his mouth open, moving one hand to grab hold of his hair and pressing t
heir bodies together.
That part was probably to stop Danny keeling over, but the rest of it… the rest of it didn’t seem entirely necessary.
Eliot smelled of cedar and lemon, and tasted faintly of peppermint. His lips were impossibly soft and agile, and the sheer force he was capable of shocked Danny. He remembered Eliot saying he liked sex when he’d last talked to him in person. Based on the way he kissed, no-holds-barred, Danny understood now what he’d meant.
Danny broke off for a breath, his head spinning and his lips swollen and tender. Eliot’s glasses had been knocked askew, a single strand of hair had flopped over his forehead.
Danny swallowed. That was… kind of hot?
Not even kind of. If he hadn’t been in agony, he would have had the world’s most embarrassing hard-on right now.
A particularly shrill wolf-whistle reminded him they were still in public. Danny had been too busy staring at Eliot to notice for a handful of seconds.
Eliot straightened his glasses and leaned in again, pressing a kiss into his cheek. “Put your arm around my shoulders and lean on me,” he murmured, barely loud enough to hear, and then laughed the same surprisingly convincing laugh he had on their lunch date.
Danny followed his instructions, grateful for the support. Eliot laughed again as they were walking away, as if he was having the time of his life.
How the hell had he known? He had to have known to react so quickly.
Danny definitely owed him one, but he had a ton of questions as they headed out to the parking lot, toward his car.
He didn’t even know how Eliot knew which one his car was.
“How did you…?” Danny asked, not sure what he wanted an answer to first.
“I saw it at your house.” Eliot ducked out from under his arm, leaning him against the car but sticking close to his body.
In case anyone was watching, Danny realized a moment later. Not because Eliot suddenly couldn’t get enough of him.
Cocky Page 4