Chapter 15 #3
“Why?” Drew asked. “Do you need to do more research for your books?”
Lee’s mouth spread into a slow, heated smile. “I always need to do more research,” he said.
“Oh, do you?” Drew inched closer to him as well, dragging the backs of his fingers up Lee’s wrist, then shifting to trail his hand up Lee’s arm so he could hook it behind his neck. “Do you think your mom’s still watching us?”
Lee peeked past his shoulder. His mum wasn’t in the window anymore. “Nope,” he said, letting his eyes drop to Drew’s lips.
“Good,” Drew said, “because I’ve been thinking about this all day.”
He tugged Lee closer. Lee went willingly, slanting his mouth over Drew’s and breathing in the man’s amazing scent. Even better was the warmth of his mouth as their lips pressed together and their tongues sought each other out.
“You sure are good at kissing for a man who didn’t realize he was bi until just the other night,” Lee told him breathlessly, wanting to giggle like some sort of wood nymph.
“There’s just something about having a fake boyfriend that makes me want to be the best at all sorts of things I never thought were possible,” Drew replied in a sexy drawl before sliding his other arm around Lee’s waist and pulling their bodies flush as he went in for another kiss.
It had all the makings of an epic snog, but before they could really get going, the sound of Mum clearing her throat just a few feet away from them jolted the two of them back to reality.
Mum stood far too close for Lee’s comfort, holding the cake they’d decorated earlier. She wore a puzzled and not entirely approving frown. “What is a fake boyfriend?” she asked.
Shit. Mum hadn’t been in the window earlier because she’d been on her way out to join them. She’d overheard everything.
“It’s nothing, Mum,” Lee said, suddenly feeling a little sick.
“Forget I said anything,” Drew said, face going red in a hurry.
Mum glanced between the two of them before moving to set the cake on the garden table. “You know, another thing Margery told me about the things she saw online is a rumor that the two of you were only pretending to date to make it look like Drew is gay.”
The bottom fell out of Lee’s stomach. In the back of his mind, he’d assumed someone would find out the truth of their arrangement someday. He just never expected it would be his mum and that her knowing would make him feel so guilty.
“There are a lot of rumors out there,” Drew said, pivoting to stand by Lee’s side and bravely taking his hand. “Most of them aren’t true.”
It wasn’t lost on Lee that while holding his hand made it seem like Drew was admitting to something, in actuality, he wasn’t confessing anything.
“I see,” Mum said. She studied the two of them for a few minutes more, then huffed a breath and turned to the table. “Come have some cake. It’s Dan’s favorite.”
Nothing else was said about everything for the time being, but Lee could tell that his mum wasn’t going to drop the subject entirely.
That suspicion proved true when Drew excused himself to use the bathroom at one point and Mum launched right into him.
“What are you doing, Lee?” she asked in a hush, glancing back at the house. “What does fake boyfriend mean?”
“It’s nothing you need to worry about, Mum,” Lee assured her.
“I worry about you all the time, love,” she went on. “I worry what might happen to you if your books take a turn. I worry about your health. I worry whether you’re happy or not. And now I’m going to worry that this celebrity boyfriend of yours is only using you to advance his career somehow.”
“That’s ridiculous, Mum,” Lee laughed, though the sound was brittle and hollow. “How could someone like Drew use someone like me to get ahead?”
“You tell me,” she said, sitting back in his chair. “Margery says there are rumors. Do you really know what kind of a person he is?”
“Of course I know what kind of a person Drew is.” Lee dismissed the argument, reaching for another piece of cake he wasn’t hungry for as a way to end the conversation.
But was he really sure? Mum was right in that he didn’t know Drew as well as he could.
He was puzzled over why Drew would be with someone like Jessica, someone he considered conceited and only concerned with her image and her career.
What if the two of them had been together for so long because Drew was more like Jessica than he let on?
The man was an astoundingly good actor, after all.
He only made it halfway through his second slice of cake.
The thought that maybe he’d been duped and Drew really was just using him stuck in his throat as if the cake were too dry.
Everything within him wanted to dismiss the idea as paranoia and to continue getting to know Drew better.
That was the only way he’d answer questions about Drew’s character.
But like it or not, the shiny facade of his celebrity relationship had been tarnished. He owed it to his mum to ask a few deeper questions and to find out if Drew really was the amazing guy he seemed to be on the surface.