Under the spray, he tilted his head back and let the water rain down against his throat, sluicing down his shoulders and chest. Jace hated the way his signals tangled up around Callahan because there was so obviously two different versions of the man, but he didn’t know which was real and which was the front.
Callahan in his element was horrible. He was aloof, and not in the sexy awkward way he’d been the night Jace met him, and he was borderline callous with the dismissive nature of his words and his actions. He came across like he didn’t care about anyone besides himself, and Jace was pretty sure that wasn’t something a person could fake.
But sometimes, when it was just the two of them, Callahan was different. It was like sparks of another person burst out of him in the way he’d watch Jace, or the things he’d say. Jace remembered Callahan’s bold assertiveness the night before, minutes before Jace had sank into him. He shivered, and adjusted the temperature on the water to compensate for the way the memory made his blood boil.
When he wasn’t performing for his social scene, Callahan was the kind of man that could break Jace’s heart without even trying and wouldn’t even notice the fracture. Jace walked a treacherous line with the handsome man in the other room, and he needed to bolster himself one way or the other before he finished his shower.
Callahan had called him out about the night before, knowing full well that the way Jace touched him and moved inside of him hadn’t been pretend. Jace had wanted to fuck Callahan since they’d kissed at the club, so that should have been expected. What he hadn’t planned for was Callahan’s soft glances and the return of that awkwardness that had sent Jace spinning in the first place.
He rinsed and dried off, unzipping his bag for clean clothes. After he dressed, he found Callahan in the living room, Jace’s camera in his lap.
“Pretend for the weekend,” Jace announced from the doorway.
“What?” Callahan blinked up at him, startled.
“Real sex. Pretend relationship.”
This was something he could manage. As long as Callahan could find a way to not treat him like a lesser human when they were at the ceremony later that day, Jace was pretty sure he could make it through until they got home.
“And then?” Callahan asked.
“Then, no relationship, because that’s not…it’s not what either of us wants.”
Even as he said it, the words tasted like a lie. Jace did want a relationship, but more than that, he wanted to trust someone enough to be in a relationship with that person. He at least knew Callahan, with his complicated duality, was not that person.
“Sex, though?”
There was that damn hopeful expression again.
“If it happens,” he conceded. “Probably. Now can you please put down my camera?”
“I want to see your pictures,” Callahan said, setting the camera down on the table, which he’d cleaned.
“They’re not good. There’s nothing really here to see.”
“You don’t like Mallardsville?”
“I like Myers Bluff,” he said, taking the camera and wrapping the strap around it.
“But you’re new there?”
Jace sat down on the couch beside Callahan, running his fingers through his damp hair. Droplets spattered against his forehead, and he wished he’d dried it better.
“Yeah, Remington and I moved a couple months ago.”
“Are you and him…?”
“We’re friends,” Jace answered. “He’s my best friend. I told you that.”
Callahan studied his face thoughtfully, and Jace had to speak again to stop himself from feeling weak.“What about you?” he asked. “What’s your deal with Rhys?”
Callahan’s face darkened. “I don’t have a deal with him.”
“You let your best friend convince you to bring a fake date to an event where you’d be seeing him. There’s a deal.”
Callahan shrugged, then twisted his fingers together and stared down at his hands. Jace took the time to take another look at Callahan, the softer side of him starting to show again. Callahan had great hair, though, and before he knew what he’d done, Jace reached out and carded his fingers through the dark locks. Callahan’s shoulders trembled and he looked up, leaning his head into Jace’s palm.
His eyes were calm in a way that Jace hadn’t seen before, and he had the sneaking suspicion in this exact moment, frozen in time, he was getting his first look at the real Callahan McMillian. His heart constricted, and he slid his hand around, cradling Callahan’s cheek against his palm, wondering if he’d been wrong. This man, with the downturned, pouty mouth and the gentle laugh lines around the corners of his eyes, this was a man Jace could…
