I relax my face and take a deep, soul-cleansing breath. Cassius touches my jaw, then my neck, drawing his finger down the center of my shirt. His thumb drifts to rub my nipple through my tight dress shirt, making the tip of it brush against the fabric. My eyes flutter shut before opening again. I want some ecstasy so bad.
“So handsome,” he compliments with a tiny smirk, then pushes our plates aside and arranges my knees so they’re sandwiched between his own.
“What are you doing?” I ask, truly nervous now. Cassius didn’t give me the script beforehand, so I’m not sure what the hell I’m supposed to do next.
“I’m going to kiss you.”
“Now? But I just ate a ton of raw fish.” He makes me carry a spritzer of mouthwash whenever we go out because he hates the smell of food breath.
“Shut up and kiss me,” he says, going for it. I let him slowly French kiss me into stupidity. My dick gets hard straight-away, and I moan into his mouth before remembering we’re in a crowded restaurant.
“Very good.” He strokes my inner thigh, close to my dick but not quite. “Now you’re going to glance over and notice Maddox sitting there. Then you’re going to drag me by the hand to go meet him. We do not know Lucia.”
I nod, head still clouded by lust. I glance over to see a murderous scowl on top of Maddox’s resting bitch face—no surprise there. Lucia looks fabulous as always with a plunging burgundy sweater that shows off both her tan and her cleavage. She’s got a large, jeweled brooch affixed to it, probably something vintage that once belonged to Cassius’s mother. He’s very generous with her things.
“Let’s go,” Cassius urges, and I rise from the bar and pull him along, using him as a human shield as we approach their table.
“Hey, Maddox. Funny seeing you here. This is my boyfriend, Cassius Peacock.”
“Great,” Maddox says with a sour look. “I’m a little busy though.” He motions to Lucia while glaring at Cassius and me.
“Is this your co-star on that new show you’re on, Adam?” Cassius asks, cradling my hand in his arm and rubbing over the top of it like we’re the type of couple who does a lot of PDA, which for the record, we’re not.
“Co-star?” Maddox snorts. “Hardly. That would mean he has more than a bit part, and unfortunately for your boyfriend here, he doesn’t.”
“Steve says there may be room to expand my role,” I remind him. Steve is our director. We all got the same speech at the start of filming.
“Steve is lying to you. I’ve seen the script for episode four already. You try to poison me like a sneaky little bitch, and I strangle you to death.”
“To death?” I clutch my neck and hope that’s not the case.
“Yep, till you’re no longer breathing. Dead as a doornail. Sayonara, Tristan Ramsey, and so long, Instagram Adam.”
He makes a bye-bye motion with his hand, dismissing me like I’m worthless. Nothing. Trash. I want to pummel his arrogant face until he can no longer make that stupid, condescending smirk. Smash his head against the table until he takes it back. Twist his arms and break both his legs so he has to crawl out of here on his hands and knees. Cassius and Lucia exchange a look, and then Cassius is dragging me away from their table.
“What did I do?” I ask once we’re outside the restaurant in the balmy night air.
“You looked like you were about to murder him, dovey.”
“I did?” I don’t remember saying anything, just a sort of blind fury while I imagined Maddox’s face bloody and misshapen.
“You certainly did. Your muscles got super tight and the hand that was holding onto mine practically crushed my delicate bird bones.”
“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I inspect his hand. His fingers all appear to be working properly.
“I’m fine but you may have an anger management issue, Adam.”
“Maybe. I just hate him so much.”
“Have you ever gotten into a fight before?”
“A few. People were always picking on me.”
“And what happened?”
“I beat their asses.” Sometimes my brother helped, before I could hold my own. Some idiots thought a pastor’s son was an easy target. They were wrong.
Cassius nods, still scrutinizing me. “Okay, but we can’t go flying off the handle whenever someone displeases us, can we?”
