Robby’s heart twisted. “Or he’ll want nothing to do with me because I’m a client.”
Wyatt scoffed. “Calder has fucked so many of Linc’s clients, they think it’s part of their service contract. Trust us, he will never be able to resist you.”
“I don’t know. If the last twenty-one years of my life have taught me anything, it’s that I’m really, really resistible.”
“Okay, that’s just not true. You are only resistible because of this energy you put off. You have a giant ‘keep away’ sign around your neck.”
Robby rubbed his eyes. “That’s not true. I was with Elijah for months, and he never even noticed me.”
Wyatt sighed. “Okay, real talk. Do you really believe you and Elijah were a good fit?”
No. “Yeah. Why not? Because he was too good-looking? Too famous for me?”
“No, you idiot, because he was a total bottom and so are you. Like, you need somebody to take care of you, and let’s be real, that was never going to be Elijah. You need a Daddy, not a boy,” Wyatt explained.
“Don’t listen to him. He thinks everybody just wants to be spanked and have their hair pulled,” Charlie said.
Robby wasn’t sure if he’d like that or not, but he was willing to try. He wanted to try a lot of things. Would Calder teach him?
“Hello?” Charlie sang, snapping her fingers in front of his face, ripping him from his thoughts. “I think you were with Elijah because that meant you didn’t have to try. Your fake relationship with him was much easier than a real relationship with somebody who could care about you like you cared about them. You definitely have baggage, probably stemming from your abusive childhood and the fact that you were raised in a cult. Which is a way better bio for IMDB, just FYI. That Jasmine chick isn’t doing you any favors as your publicist. My publicist, Mario, would have killed for a client with a backstory like that.”
Robby really didn’t know how to address any of that, so he focused on what he did know. “You guys are putting a lot of faith in me somehow getting Calder to fall in love with me. You, yourself, said he doesn’t do commitments. He fucks anything that moves. Even if he sleeps with me, I doubt he’ll fall for me. That’s not how the real world works.”
Charlie rolled her eyes. “Who lives in the real world? We live in Lalaland. You are a twenty-one-year-old virgin who was raised in a cult. I’m in the movies. Wyatt makes money on YouTube. Your ex-boyfriend left you for a dude who’s probably a serial killer. The real world doesn’t apply to people like us. In LA, we make the rules, and I’m telling you, Calder is the guy for you. We just have to make him understand that.”
Robby wanted to believe Charlie’s pep talk. He wanted to think that they lived in a world where somebody like Calder, the guy who refused to settle down, would look at Robby and see somebody worthy of happily ever after, but no matter which way he turned the thought, it just didn’t fit. But it didn’t change how unsafe he felt. Maybe it was a fluke, just some random break-in, but Robby wouldn’t be able to sleep at night until he knew the truth.
“Fine. I’ll hire Elite, but that’s all I’m agreeing to. I’m not going to waste my time trying to seduce Calder. I just need his help, that’s all.”
Wyatt and Charlie looked at each other before Charlie smiled and patted him on the cheek. “Whatever you say, angel face.”
“Don’t call me that.” Only Calder could call him that. Even if it did things to his insides every time he did.
Charlie smirked. “Whatever you say, buttercup. Let’s go tell Linc the big news.”
Was he really doing this? Agreeing to having Calder in his life, day and night? This would be torture. Why was he like this?
Why did Robby keep putting himself in situations where he never got what he wanted? Where he was forced to pine for a guy who didn’t even know he was alive. What if this was just another Elijah situation, only worse, because Robby already knew what it was like to kiss Calder, to feel his hands on his body? It would hurt so much more to be so close and yet so far from getting what he wanted, and he couldn’t have what he wanted.
But he’d do it anyway because the tiniest part of him kept hoping there was a chance. A chance that maybe, just this once, he could.
“A cheese knife?” Linc asked, incredulous. Calder could only nod. “First, he beats a cop with a sex toy, and now, he’s murdered a man with a cheese knife. This boy is either a secret assassin or a walking disaster.”
Calder was leaning towards the latter. “Yeah, so you can see why he needs constant supervision until he’s safe.”
Linc hooked a brow upwards, leaning forward. “Supervision you want to provide.” It wasn’t a question.
Calder shrugged. “I’m sure you can spare me.”
Linc frowned. “You want to do this free of charge? Why? It’s not like the boy can’t afford to hire us.”
Calder squirmed beneath Linc’s weighted stare. “The kid doesn’t have anybody else.”
“But he has you?” Linc asked.
Yes.“It’s not like that, man.”
“You’re not fucking this kid, are you?”
