“I…am.”
“Then why—”
“Mistook the real pig for the fake,” I supplied quickly.
He gave me a long, challenging, up-and-down stare. “I see,” he said.
Oh, shit. Of all things, was my yearning for bacon going to get me outed as Not Shane? “I’m not really vegan, as such,” I said, remembering something some guy at my gym used to say. “I’m, uh, plant-based. It’s not, like, a moral thing for me.”
“So you don’t care about animals?” Tristan raised one eyebrow, and I remembered now how Tyler had described him. Assertive, relentless, and doesn’t let Doms get away with any shit. He’d told me about how Tristan had been the catalyst for a lot of change in the scene back in LA—or at least, a reckoning. At the time, I’d admired Tristan’s attitude.
Now that I was on the receiving end of it, though…
“Of course I care about animals.” I forced a chuckle. “Look, you caught me in a moment of weakness. But hey, try one of these yourself, and tell me if you could resist.”
Attempts to charm were not going to work. “I’m sure they’re delicious,” Tristan said, “but I’m not the one claiming to be vegan, am I? Wait, I’m sorry—plant-based. I’m also not the one who has an active profile on Punishr.”
Brandon had been talking. It was time to wrap this up. “Oh, hey, I think Ty needs me,” I said, looking over Tristan’s shoulder and waving. Tyler gave me a confused wave back. “Excuse me, have a great night, bye…”
I made my way back to Ty, and pulled him away from the octogenarian socialite he was chatting with. “Man, I nearly got made by your buddy Tristan,” I told him. “I am definitely not passing the friends test here.”
Tyler grinned as I recounted my error in bacon. “Tris can be a bit gun-shy. Those assholes in LA really did a number on him.”
Tyler had told me that story before—some pretty twink and his mean old Daddy had set up Tristan to be humiliated by a Dom. I’d been horrified at the time, and privately thought that the Dom involved had gotten away pretty easy in the end. Things clicked in my head, and I stopped dead. “Wait—Seth Jackson is the guy who went along with that scheme?”
“Yeah,” Tyler said. “Why?”
“He just seemed like a decent guy, is all.” Seth was the one I’d gotten along best with so far. The others were all nice enough, but Sebastian Fox was a lot older than me, Cooper was a lot classier, and Heath—well, since the active-profile-on-Punishr thing, he’d been giving me a wide berth. Seth worked construction, which I’d done some work in myself to help pay my way through school, so we had that much in common. We seemed to have a similar world view, and his pride in his sister reminded me of my fierce love for my youngest brother, who was on track to get a scholarship to NYU.
“Seth is a decent guy,” Tyler said, frowning a little. “He just made a mistake. And damn, if some guy had offered me a hundred grand to—”
“You’re right.” I gave him a quick peck on the lips. “I’m sorry. I’m being a judgmental ass.”
Tyler was about to say something else when a loud squeal sounded, reverberating around the room and echoing off the ceiling. As it died away, I could hear an excited omigod, omigod, omigod, from a voice that—yes, I was sure it was that Brandon guy.
“What’s he so excited about?” I asked Tyler, as laughter spread among the crowd and conversation resumed.
“Let’s go find out.” Tyler put his glass on the tray of a passing server, and took my hand as we made our way through the crowd.
I liked how his hand felt in mine. Firm. Secure. I squeezed it and he squeezed back, my heart giving a little sympathetic squeeze of its own. Maybe what really bothered me about Seth Jackson being involved in such a mean trick was the fact that I was involved in some shady shit of my own right now.
I didn’t like lying to people. I wasn’t a natural deceiver, and I saw no point in pretending to be someone I wasn’t…under normal circumstances.
Why the hell had I agreed to do this in the first place? My ex, Miles, was a shit, but if I’d wanted to get out of the city so bad, Tyler could have introduced me as his new guy.
I could have been Damon here instead of Shane.
We could have played the whole thing very differently.
Part of me wanted to pull Ty back, to lean in and murmur, “Let’s quit all this cloak and dagger shit and just tell them who I am, and by the way, how do you feel about going exclusive.” But then we got to the center of attention, and any chance of having a private conversation died.
Brandon was bouncing up and down on his feet, hands grabbing onto some guy I’d never seen before. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“That’s Ollie, Brandon’s best friend—and that guy standing behind Ollie must be his new guy.” Tyler sounded thoughtful.
“You haven’t met him?”
