Chapter 19 #2
As soon as the pic was taken, Nikky stepped deliberately back to Harry’s side.
“I’m looking forward to all the projects I’ve got lined up,” he said, as amiable as possible, even as a new sort of determination not to let himself or Harry be steamrolled filled him.
“Harry and I have been working together on some music as well. I hope to record it all with him soon.”
Everyone, including Charlotte, looked surprised at that.
“I had no idea,” Charlotte said, her smile all teeth and irritation.
Nell snorted. “I should have known that’s why you grabbed onto this one, Harry. Cradle-robbing Hollywood’s latest golden boy has its rewards.”
The people who had slipped over to join them chuckled and snorted. “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, eh, Harry?” one of them teased.
Nikky didn’t even try to smile at the remark. “Harry is extraordinarily talented,” he said.
“Oh, of course, of course,” the man who had made the comment said, not looking particularly penitent.
Nikky just stared at him, but he wasn’t the only one to take a shot at Harry.
“I suppose there’s one way to try to make a comeback,” the woman who had her arm linked with the man who’d made the nasty comment said. “I’ve seen the pics of the two of you together on social media. Harry, you dirty old man, you.” She laughed, the sound like broken glass.
“Excuse me,” Harry said, nodding, then turning to go.
Nikky did the strongest thing he could come up with in the moment. He sent the woman a disapproving look, then followed Harry.
“Nikky!” Charlotte called after him, catching up as Nikky caught up to Harry. “Just ignore them,” she said, making a brushing gesture. “They’re nothing but a pack of British snobs anyhow. No offense, Harry.”
Harry paused to stare flatly at her, then walked on.
Charlotte leaned toward Nikky, like she wanted to grab him and pull him back into the hyena pit of partygoers, but Nikky just wanted to stay by Harry’s side.
“We can leave if you want,” he said, taking Harry’s hand as they reached the side of the room where the bar had been set up.
Harry wasn’t fast enough to keep his hand away from Nikky this time. He didn’t squeeze Nikky’s hand in return, though. “I might go,” he said, glancing around them as if everyone in the room had a grenade tucked up their sleeves. “You should stay and mingle.”
“I don’t want anything to do with these people,” Nikky said, holding Harry’s hand tighter. “I don’t want anything to do with this part of the industry. That was the whole point of all of this. It wasn’t just about intrusive fans or Holberg or—”
He stopped seconds before blurting that he was ready to give everything up, everything, to just be Harry’s subby boyfriend when he spotted Holberg himself at the corner of the room. Worse still, Holberg was chatting with Albion, ostensibly like the two of them didn’t have a care in the world.
Maybe the two men were fooling everyone else into thinking they were casual acquaintances, but the second Holberg happened to glance over and catch sight of Nikky, and as soon as Albion noticed him and Harry, too, it was like the world narrowed down into a point like the sight of a gun that was pointed right at him.
Albion scowled, then stepped away from Holberg and headed toward them. Holberg followed, of course.
“Don’t leave me,” Nikky said, gripping Harry’s hand tighter.
Harry said nothing, but shifted his hand until their fingers were threaded together.
“I’m surprised to see the two of you here,” Albion said, his smile false and brittle.
Nikky heard both meanings in his simple statement. He was surprised to see the two of them there together. “You know Harry and I are dating,” he said, standing taller and forcing himself to show defiance that he never would have dreamed of just a month ago.
Albion let out a quick, humorless huff, his smile even more strained. “I thought we discussed this,” he said, not to Nikky, but to Harry.
Nikky’s eyes went wide. “It wasn’t Holberg you ran into,” he spoke his thoughts aloud, staring at Harry. “It was Albion.”
“Let’s not make a scene,” Albion murmured, shifting so it looked like he was standing next to Harry, looking out at the party with him, instead of confronting the two of them.
Holberg slipped into place by Nikky’s side, which made the hair on the back of Nikky’s neck stand up in alarm.
“Here’s how things are going to go,” Albion went on.
“We’re going to announce your album, including the fact that you’re recording Charlie Darling’s songs, you’re shifting your career toward music entirely, and you’re going to be the next big pop idol. ”
“That’s not what I want,” Nikky said. The words felt weak and ineffectual. He’d been saying them in one form or another since the beginning, but no one had listened to him.
No one listened to him now.
“You seem to forget that I hold all the cards,” Albion went on, then added, “Let go of that man’s hand.”
Rage took over from fear in Nikky’s gut, and he tightened his grip on Harry’s hand, even though Harry’s hand went limp, like he would let go.
“I’m not doing any of that,” he said. “Harry is more important to me than any contract or career. I want out of the recording contract. I plan to consult my lawyer about it as soon as possible.”
Albion sneered, but that wasn’t the worst reaction.
Holberg snorted and pulled out his phone. “Yes,” he said, ignoring the entire second half of what Nikky had said. “We know you and Harry here are very close.” He tapped a few things on his phone and held it up so Nikky could see.
The bottom dropped out of Nikky’s stomach as video of him and Harry in bed together played across the screen. It was raw and intimate and incredibly damning. And it was on Holberg’s phone.
Nikky let go of Harry’s hand. “I thought you deleted it,” he said, barely able to form the words.
Harry looked miserable, transformed. The confident, cocky man he’d been when they first met, the dominant, protective lover that had made him feel safe from the moment their ruse had shifted from a game they’d been playing to reality was gone.
All that remained was the guilty shell of the man Nikky had fallen head over heels in love with.
“Holberg hacked my phone,” Harry said, his voice rough and small.
“I was just hoping for a few friendly pictures,” Holberg laughed. “Imagine my surprise when I found this juicy porno waiting for me.”
Nikky couldn’t breathe. The whole world would see it.
Videos like that didn’t just die off once someone like Holberg got ahold of them.
Deleting it from Harry’s phone was pointless now.
Deleting it from Holberg wouldn’t do any good either.
His intimate, vulnerable moment with Harry, a moment that had changed everything for him and unlocked parts of himself he’d kept so well guarded for his entire life, wasn’t private anymore.
The whole world would see him, would see him and Harry together, and he had no control over it.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
“You knew,” he said to Harry. “You knew that Holberg had the video. Albion has known for longer than me, too.”