“Yes, but they look far better on you.” Cassius smooths the tie over my chest with a possessive hand, following the tail to where it ends just above my navel. A shiver of arousal shoots from my groin to my toes. I haven’t been touched in so long. I’m hungry for it. His coat hugs my shoulders like a warm embrace. It smells like money and some woodsy cologne that reminds me of split logs in the wintertime.
“Thank you,” I say.
“My pleasure. Now let me introduce you.” He steps aside so that I’m facing his companions. “Everyone, this is Adam Bailey, the model and Instagram influencer I was telling you about.”
My grin feels too ridiculous for my face. “I’m really just getting started.”
“What an astronomical start it has been,” Cassius says as he pulls out a chair for me. I sink down into the plush leather and Cassius goes around the table making introductions. The couple I recognize immediately, Holly Hamilton and Diego Perez, both pop stars who have something of a cult following on social media, not only because of their music but because they’re so open about their love for each other. Cassius introduces the buttoned-up, business executive looking guy as Teddy Wilkes, a tech entrepreneur who helped him design a few apps during his art school days.
“You went to art school?” I ask Cassius. Artists are such interesting people. I didn’t really know any in my hometown, but I’ve met a few since moving to L.A.
“Yes, that’s how I know Elliot. We met at UCLA. He was a painter, and I majored in the digital arts.”
“What was the app you created?”
“I called it The Morning After app. You could snap a picture of a person in a dim night club while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and the app would show you what they might look like the morning after, once you’d sobered up.”
My mouth drops open in astonishment. “That sounds terrible. My literal worst nightmare.”
Cassius smiles. “You would have broken my filter, Beautiful Adam.”
Beautiful Adam.Is he teasing me? Flirting with me? Hard to tell. He has so much confidence. I wish I had that too.
“How would I have done that?” I ask.
“Because the pictures would have been exactly the same.”
My hollow belly warms at his compliment and my face flushes with heat. I imagine Cassius in bed, a flash of naked torso with the same dark hair on his chest, a trail of it arrowing down to his groin, tufts of it in his armpits smelling like power and sex. I doubt he has to do any manscaping in his line of work, whatever it is. He strikes me as wealthy. Old money. He must be rich to afford a membership at a place like this, to associate with famous pop stars and tech entrepreneurs. Is he this prim and proper in bed? Is he gay? God, I fucking hope so.
“Didn’t you use Lucia as one of your betas?” Holly asks, interrupting my horny daydream.
Cassius nods. “What a mistake. She almost broke up with me for that one. Shereallydidn’t like her morning-after photo.”
“Are you two together?” I blurt out, then worry I’m being too nosy.
He lays a hand on top of mine. “No, darling, I’m phenomenally gay. But she is my oldest and dearest friend. I’ve known Lucia since we were kids. We went to the same private school, and she joined me at UCLA because like me, she wanted a sampling of plebeian culture.”
I’m not sure what he means by all that, and I don’t want to ask, but hellz yeah to the gay part.
“So, Adam, what brings you to L.A.?” Diego asks, eying me up like a five-dollar chicken dinner. Or maybe it’s my gaydar that needs tuning. Even the straights seem gay out here. I mean, everyone wears pink.
“My friend Elliot invited me out for a photo shoot and introduced me to SPG—Style Poise Grace.”
Holly smiles. “We know who that is, sweetie.”
“Right, well, they ended up signing me, and Elliot offered to let me stay with him at his place until I can find a spot of my own.”
“Please tell me you’re not still couch surfing,” Cassius says like he’s offended on my behalf.
“Rent in L.A. is a lot higher than I expected, and a lot of my endorsements haven’t paid out yet.” Elliot has some questionable habits, which I don’t mention to them because I don’t want to embarrass him. “He’s been very kind to let me live with him for practically nothing.”
“He’s charging you rent to sleep on his couch?” Cassius says with astonishment.
“It’s only fair.”
Holly shakes her head. “You should be charging him for the privilege of seeing your handsome face every morning.” She winks at me, and I glance over at Diego, but he only smiles back. Their attention is doing funny things to my head. And my dick.
The server comes by then and asks what I want to drink. He doesn’t card me, so I order a gin and tonic. Even though I don’t really care for the taste of gin, it has fewer calories than most cocktails.
