“Mr. Dare, can you tell us when we can expect more Marshall Kane books?”
Turning slowly, he scanned the crowd until his gaze landed on a petite girl with golden hair and rosy cheeks. She didn’t look any older than twenty, but there was fire in her eyes, a determination he admired.
“What’s your name?”
“Cheyanne Davenport. Pagebound Media.” When he didn’t say anything further, she pressed on more insistently. “Readers have been waiting eighteen months for the next installment of the popular Marshall Kane series. Can you tell us why the delay and when we can expect to see future novels?”
Computing the name to memory, he offered a genuine smile as he slid into the back of the SUV. “No comment.”
Reporters pressed against the back window when he closed the door, still shouting questions at him. A few of them even ran along beside the SUV when Ryder pulled away from the curb, but they fell away quickly, leaving them in blissful silence.
“I’m sorry,” Cameron muttered as they slowed to a stop at a red light. “I shouldn’t have said that.” A lock of chocolate-brown hair flopped over his brow when he hung his head. “I shouldn’t have saidanything.”
“Maybe.” Talon would certainly agree. “I don’t need you to fight my battles, sweetheart.”
Cameron winced. “I know. I really am sorry. It’s just that—”
“With that said,” Asher cut in, speaking over him. “Thank you.” He chuckled when Cameron snapped his head up to stare at him. “I’ve been writing for a while.” As he spoke, he reached out, brushing the loose hair back from Cameron’s face. “In all this time, I don’t think anyone has ever believed in me like you do.”
“That’s not—”
“Not Luke,” he interrupted again, his smile growing wider when Cameron huffed. “Not Becca. Certainly not my publisher.” That tight feeling in his throat was back, and there was a flutter in his chest. Not uncomfortable but definitely noticeable. “It means a lot, Cameron.”
“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”
Jesus, the guy was killing him.
“Don’t you see?” Taking both of Cameron’s hands, he brought them to his lips to brush soft kisses over the knuckles. “That’s why it means something. You didn’t do it because you thought it would help, or because that’s what they wanted to hear. You said those things because you believe them.”
Cameron stared up at him, his brow creased, and his head tilted a little to the side. He looked adorably confused, and truthfully, Asher couldn’t blame him. He could describe every subtle nuance of his characters’ emotions in painstaking detail, but when it came to his own feelings, words always failed him.
Then again, he’d never felt like this before he’d met Cameron. He couldn’t say exactly what the feeling was, only that it was warm and weightless.
And foreign.
And slightly terrifying.
Which was why it was probably best not to say anything else on the matter until he figured out exactly what the hell was happening to him.
Reaching out, he hooked a hand around the back of Cameron’s neck and pulled him into a blistering tangle of lips and tongues. Cameron offered no protest, sinking into the contact with a happy sigh that went straight to Asher’s dick.
Asher groaned, tilting Cameron’s head back to deepen the kiss. It probably made him an asshole, and it definitelymade him a coward, but kissing Cameron felt like a much better idea than talking about his feelings.
~
An hour later, Cameronlounged back in Asher’s hot tub as he went over everything that had happened during the evening.
He really shouldn’t have said anything outside of the restaurant. In his defense, he hadn’t planned it. Honestly, he hadn’t even known he was going to say anything until the words were already spilling out of his mouth.
The entire point of the outing—no pun intended—had been to address the rumors that Asher was gay. Cameron had known the question of how that information might affect book sales would come up at some point. He had thought he’d been prepared for it.
Sinking deeper into the heated water, he tilted his head back and stared up at the clear, inky sky with a sigh.
When that reporter had suggested that Asher’s sexuality might negatively impact his work, he’d just kind of snapped. While he’d meant every word he’d said, he also realized his opinion on the topic might be slightly biased…and incredibly naïve.
In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter if Asher liked men or women. Who he chose to take to his bed wouldn’t influence book sales or the path of his career. His workwould be judged on merit, and no one would care about anything else.
They didn’t live in a perfect world, though, and there would always be people who cared. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t even logical, but that was the reality they lived in…and Cameron hated it.
