“You didn’t. You were great.”
“Great? Great at what exactly?”
Sebastian turned back around so he was facing the room, then grabbed a champagne glass from a passing waiter. He took several long sips before saying, “Darren totally bought it and Rick is so jealous he looks like he’s going to break his own teeth.”
I followed the direction of Sebastian’s gaze and saw that Rick was watching us from across the room. If looks could kill, I’d be dead and buried for sure. Not that I gave a shit.
“That boyfriend stuff hit the spot and that kiss… genius,” Sebastian murmured. He downed the rest of his champagne and quickly grabbed another one.
“Bastian, if you’re taking something for pain, you shouldn’t be mixing it with alcohol.”
“Nuh-uh-uh,” he said as he started swallowing the champagne like it was water. “You only get to pretend to be all possessive and caring when they can hear you. And cut outthe Bastian stuff unless they’re around, ’kay?”
“Sebastian,” I began, but he ignored me and wandered off. By the time he reached Rick and Darren, he was on his third glass of champagne. I wanted to grab him and ask if he actually believed everything I’d done had been an act, but I didn’t really have a leg to stand on. There’d been no reason to introduce myself as his boyfriend. I’d done it because Ihadwanted to punish the fucker who’d hurt Sebastian so badly with his selfishness. Even if I’d liked the way it’d sounded, it hadn’t been right to do that to Sebastian without making sure it was okay with him. This night was supposed to have been a pretend date and nothing more. I’d taken it to a whole new level by leading people to believe we were together. And Sebastian was a celebrity of sorts… what had I been thinking?
I hadn’t been.
That was the problem.
I’d been on a high from kissing Sebastian and I’d wanted to somehow mark him as mine so that asshole would know it.
God, I wasn’t much better than the selfish son of a bitch.
I made my way back to the table and sat down. Sebastian was making small talk with Darren and a few of the other guests at the table. Rick kept sneaking covert looks at Sebastian, but luckily, I didn’t see Sebastian returning any of them. If I had, I probably would have lost my shit altogether.
As dinner was served, Rick suddenly said, “I hope you guys don’t mind Darren and me stealing a bit of Sebastian’s thunder, but we have an announcement we just can’t wait to share.”
“Rick, honey, not here,” Darren said.
“Why not here?” Rick responded, clearly a little tipsy. “We’re all friends, right?” he added. Rick’s hand teetered as he lifted his glass of wine. “Darren and I are pregnant. The baby’s due next fall.”
The announcement received several cheers and comments from the guests sitting at our table. Sebastian hunched in on himself, then reached for his wine glass. Like with the champagne, he started guzzling it down. When he motioned to a waiter for another glass, I discreetly settled my hand on his thigh beneath the table and leaned in so I could whisper words only he would hear.
“Sebastian, baby, let me take you home, okay?”
He shook his head. “I’m fine,” he muttered. “I’mfine.”
The waiter filled the glass and he toasted Darren and Rick. His words were still relatively clear, but within minutes of starting dinner, he started to lean against my side and his eyes looked a bit heavy-lidded.
“You okay?” I asked him.
He nodded, then blurted, “Is headache a code name for sex?”
Every single person at the table froze and looked at Sebastian, but he was looking at me. “Your brother and you were talking ’bout headaches. Does that mean he and his husband wanna f—”
I kissed him to silence him. I’d only meant to derail his line of thinking with a simple kiss while I simultaneously came up with a way to pass the whole thing off as a joke to the guests at our table, but when Sebastian began hungrily kissing me back and searching out my lap beneath the table with a fumbling hand, it was all I could do not to throw him on the table and havehimfor dinner instead.
“Remember when you couldn’t keep your hands off me like that, Bernie?” I heard someone at the table say. It was enough to remind me that our little make-out session was turning R-rated pretty quickly, and from the way Sebastian was whimpering low in his throat, I was going to turn it X-rated long before Bernie could even answer his wife.
“Hmpf,” I heard a man, presumably Bernie, dryly respond before calling out to the waiter for another drink.
I managed to tear my mouth from Sebastian. He looked confused at first, then he was scanning the faces at our table. I expected him to be embarrassed, but the alcohol had clearly kicked in because he leaned his head on my shoulder and began stroking my chest as he grinned and said, “I have my boyfriend’s headache.”
Several people at the table chuckled and resumed eating as Sebastian tried several different versions of the same sentence, each sounding more and more slurred.
“I think it’s time to take this one home,” I said, trying to keep my voice even because Sebastian’s roving hand had found my dick through my pants and was palming it.
“Cause you have my headache?” Sebastian asked.
