“I respect that. I respect you,Dax.”
A serious practicality sparked in my mind. “There is one thing you might not like—if we’re doing this, it’s probably best we don’t mess around with anyone else while this is going on. I’m not demanding exclusivity because I feel like you shouldn’t be able to fuck around. I don’t give a shit, but I know how the press can be if they find out either of us are messing around with other people,and—”
“Oh, I get that. And I definitely don’t need Nance and Keeg reading about that, so I’m game for that if you are.” He seemed surprised by his response. “Damn, Dax Munro, I never thought anyone could make me go exclusive, but guess it just took a specialman.”
I laughed, but considering the kind of man Jace was, that meant a lot tome.
“So you’re really in this, whatever it is we’re doing?” headded.
“The thing?” I teased, recalling his verbiage earlier that morning. “Yeah, I’m in thething.”
“Good. I could use a PR guy on Speed Dial. I need thehelp.”
I rolled my eyes. “No, you don’t, but I’m happy to pretend youdo.”
I claimed his mouth onceagain.
We really were in over our heads, but as I’d mentioned to him before, it was definitely better if we were in over our headstogether.
28
Jace
It was settled.
Dax and I were officiallyathing.
Neither of us knew what that thing was—if just a flirtation or if we could be regular fuck buddies or what, but we were both in it to see where itled.
Selfishly, I was relieved because considering how Dax had freaked out over the exposure we’d received, I figured he would bail, that it might be too much for him, but despite how that part of him was something he struggled with, he’d pushed through like the Dax Munro I’d come to know over the past couple ofmonths.
Dax had met with Hacksmore once again, and they’d sorted through the mess together. A few days later, as scheduled, Dax and Carter headed back to Los Angeles, but Dax had assured me he’d be back, and I believedhim.
Just like the first time my picture had gone viral, the notoriety that had come along with those pics of me and Dax circulating the web had peaked and waned, and people approached me for selfies and signatures far lessfrequently.
With the spare time I had on my hands, I needed to do something…keep busy. I wasn’t the sort to sit around, so I hit the gym, spent time with my buds from the station, and volunteered at Fever Fight and for various projects where I could be handy—Zed needed a shelf built in his new apartment, Nance needed help cleaning the shed out back, and Benny at Fever Pitch had asked for help resurfacing his roof, which I’d signed on to help with when he mentioned he was struggling to come up with the money for theproject.
As helpful as I was trying to be, there were some other, more personal interests I was tending to as well, and fortunately, I had just the friends I could talk to aboutit…
* * *
“You mindif I ask a weirdquestion?”
Ash, Beau, and I sat on the back deck of Benny’s house, having just finished a few hours of working on his roof. They’d been kind enough to lend me some help that afternoon, and in return, I’d offered them some of Nance’s leftover barbecue from a few nightsearlier.
“Shoot,” Beau said, then took anotherbite.
Ash eyed me suspiciously, I guessed because after my query when he was working on Nance’s car, he knew the sort of question I couldask.
“How do you bottomgood?”
Beau jerked forward as he started to choke on his chicken. “The fuck?” he asked between coughs as he recovered from what must’ve been more of a surprise than I’d figured it would be. Ash gave him a few pats on theback.
“You alright?” Iasked.
“Yeah, yeah.” Beau chuckled. “Just not the question I wasexpecting.”
“So…” Ash began, like he was considering what I wasasking.
