“I only had your best interests at heart,” I begin.
“And what would those interests be?” he rumbles throatily.
“You’re out and proud. You have a promising career ahead of you as an LGBT icon and sexual enigma. That role would have forced you so far back into the closet, you’d need GPS to find your way out. And to be truthful, it would have put a real damper on my lifestyle as well.”
“How dare you,” he snarls. “How could you lie to me like that? Right to my face?”
“Easily enough,” I say and run my hands along his muscular arms, tense with rage and unspent adrenaline. My dumb dick doesn’t know any better than to get hard. Something about his unbridled aggression turns me on, even more thrilling than when he’s in distress. Adam on the brink of violence is a bonfire of raw power and sex.
“You don’t feel bad at all, do you?” he asks, cocking his head to stare at me.
“It was the smart thing to do. You weren’t heeding my advice.”
He shoves himself back from the wall in a vertical push-up and takes a turn about the room. I inhale his ripe male musk where it lingers in the air, sharp and tangy.
“You made Elliot out to be the bad guy,” he says.
“He was convenient.”
“If you hadn’t done that, none of this would have happened.”
And if wishes were horses…“I see the leaking of the video and Elliot’s unfortunate demise as two separate issues.”
“But they’re not. The reason I was so upset at him was because of that damned video.”
“You told me you were aiming for the painting,” I gently point out to him.
“I was.” He shakes his head, confused already. Emotions will do that. “How could you do that to me, Cassius?”
The poor thing still doesn’t see that everything I do is for his own benefit. His, or my own, but mostly his.
“I did it out of love, Adam. I did it to protect you from yourself. I couldn’t see you ruin your professional prospects or throw away our happy gay romance.”
“You did it to make me stay with you?” he asks as if that alone might sway him.
“That’s one of the reasons, yes.”
“That doesn’t make it any better,” he concludes with a hooded brow.
I shrug. “Perhaps not.”
He stands up straighter, clearly having Deep Thoughts, which is also worrisome to me. “What else have you done without me knowing?”
I sigh. I’m not sure he’s ready for all this. “The list is long and tedious.”
“I don’t care. Tell me.”
“The more important point is, you need me, Adam, to orchestrate your life. To feed you and clothe you and help you maintain your schedule. To manage all the people who manage you. You’d be lost without me.”
“That’s not… completely true.”
“Isn’t it? I hate to inform you, dove, but you are utterly incapable of taking care of yourself. Where there was mess and chaos in your life, I created order.”
“You really are a sociopath,” he marvels, and I don’t care for the superior look in his eyes or the judgment in his tone of voice.
“We’re name-calling now?” I ask. It appears the gloves are about to come off.
“I just… I can’t believe you,” he says, sounding a little too high and mighty for my taste. “You’re so incredibly fucked up. You’re like, a monster.”
