Chapter 16
Austin’s phone rang when he was getting ready for a shower.
He grabbed it, giving the screen a goofy smile when he saw who it was. He clicked accept and placed the phone on the bed beside him. “Hey, you.”
“Hi,” Dominic replied. “What are you doing tonight? Did the director cancel again?”
“Nope,” Austin said, shucking his shirt. “Going in for a line read. Want to come over after?”
“Sounds great,” Dominic said. “I have a surprise for you.”
Austin threw his shirt into his laundry hamper. “Oh yeah? Is it a sexy surprise?”
“Maybe,” Dominic said.
Austin’s mind raced with a hundred possibilities.
Would Dominic tell him about another fantasy?
Would there be any more roleplaying? Austin was surprised by how much he’d enjoyed it last time.
It was like acting, but infinitely more exciting and personal.
And no one was yelling “cut” or telling him to get on his mark.
“You might have to wait a while,” Austin said reluctantly. “This line reading will take a few hours.”
“That’s fine,” Dominic said, too fast. “I’ll be waiting when you get back.”
Austin rubbed his inked pecs. There was a faint layer of regrowth there, which was generally when he’d book his next wax appointment.
But he’d been thinking about letting it grow out a little after Dominic mentioned that he hated that Austin had to do all this maintenance.
Austin also hated it, but it was so normal in the acting business he’d stopped bitching about it years ago.
He could at least let it grow back to normal between shoots.
“Do I need to do anything to get myself ready?” Austin asked. “I’m getting in the shower. How thorough do I need to be?”
“Thorough,” Dominic replied.
Austin grinned. “Noted.”
His phone beeped. Austin pulled himself out of the sudden wave of fantasies and checked it.
“Levi’s trying to FaceTime me,” Austin said.
“Take it,” Dominic told him. “I’ll see you when you get back.”
“You got it.” Austin hung up the call and clicked FaceTime. “Hey man, how’s Barcelona?”
“What? I got back ages ago,” said Levi distractedly.
He was in a hotel room, wrapped in a fluffy white bathrobe and looking so concerned that Austin started looking him over for injuries.
The last time Levi looked so worried, it was because he walked into a revolving door and bruised his cheekbone, meaning he had to drop out of a photoshoot.
“You look serious,” Austin said. He lay back on his bed, checking the time. “Whatever it is, talk fast. I have to be at a line reading in forty minutes, and I still gotta shower.”
“Right, yeah, cool,” Levi said. Then he stared at the screen, lips pursed reluctantly.
Austin narrowed his eyes. “Dude. Just tell me. Don’t drag it out.”
“Right, yeah,” Levi said again. He bit his lip, which was probably covered in some stupid lip balm filled with ingredients that Austin wasn’t convinced were real. Some of the fruits Levi told him about had to be fake.
“I’m gonna hang up,” Austin threatened.
“Okay, god!” Levi grimaced. “So, you haven’t seen the article that’s just started circulating on ?”
“Stop going on that website,” Austin said. “It’s not flattering when they post photos of you getting a smoothie. It’s just weird.”
“It’s not about me,” Levi said.
“So, it’s about me? Do tell.” Austin tucked his hands behind his head, his mind still lost in all the fun things Dominic was going to do to him when he got home. Then the implications sank in, and Austin’s smile faded.
“Wait,” he said. “Did they get something incriminating about me and Dominic? We haven’t even talked about how we’d handle that. And I know he’s the kind of guy who would want to talk about it. He probably has, like, color-coded folders and shit on the stuff we’re allowed to do in public.”
Levi’s silence was answer enough.
Austin groaned, thinking about how good it had felt getting railed in that bar bathroom. Dominic was never going to do that again after this.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“Pretty bad,” Levi said slowly. “It’s… um. Just read this.”
A link popped up in his messages. Austin clicked it.
BODYGUARD IN BOXERS ON ACTION STAR’S BALCONY, the headline read. There was a photo underneath it, an appallingly low-resolution picture of Dominic in all his boxer-clad, hairy glory.
Austin blinked. Then he sat up and glared at the aforementioned balcony attached to his bedroom.
“Those fuckers have been climbing trees again,” he said. “I thought we stopped that! Dominic had the gardeners cut down all the low-hanging branches! What the fuck did they do, bring grappling hooks?”
“Are you reading it?” Levi asked.
“I’m reading, I’m reading, shut up.” Austin settled back down against the bed and started scrolling.
Dominic Sheath, 36, has been positively identified as the mystery man on action star Austin Wayne’s balcony. He is also Austin’s bodyguard of two years.
“One year,” Austin said. “These guys never fact-check. You know they fired their copy editors? It really shows.”
“Would you just read it?” Levi demanded.
Austin rolled his eyes and got back to it.
The article continued: Sheath was heard saying that he needs to break things off with the star.
“So, I’m getting broken up with,” Austin said, ignoring the dread squirming in his stomach. “Great. What else are they saying? Is it because I’m too intimidating? Do I invite people over for fireball hockey, and it freaked him out? I actually liked that story. We should actually do that.”
“That fake story ended with someone fake going to hospital,” Levi said, rushed. “But sure, yeah, whatever.”
Austin stretched his arm up over his head, doing his best to look unaffected. “Do I need to keep reading? Or does—”
“There’s a video.”
Austin froze. Pictures could be twisted to mean anything. A video was much harder to deny.
He scrolled down. There was a video embedded in the middle of the article. A pop-up ad blinked into view as he tried to click on it. Austin swiped it away and stabbed the play button.
Dominic’s voice drifted through the room, tinny and far away. The paparazzi were obviously climbing different trees nowadays; this was a terrible vantage point.
“I need to quit,” came Dominic’s voice, soft and cautious.
Austin’s heart dropped. There was a pause, and he watched Video-Dominic glance back toward the balcony doors, which he had closed. Couldn’t let Austin hear his conversation, of course.
“Austin didn’t do anything,” Video-Dominic continued. “It’s me.” Another pause. “Meet me at the beach? Usual spot.”
The video stopped. Austin stared at the terrible video, frozen with Dominic’s phone to his ear. What morning was this? It had to be one of the several nights he’d stayed over the last week. Austin shouldn’t have bothered talking him into it.
Levi piped up from his tiny FaceTime in the corner of the screen. “At least he said it’s not you!”
“That’s the line everyone uses when they dump someone,” Austin said flatly.
He stared at the balcony, with a sour taste in his mouth.
What did Domnic do after that call? Come back to bed and kiss Austin like nothing was wrong, knowing that he was ending it?
What was tonight, a last-minute hurrah? Did he have someone else lined up?
“It might not be that bad,” Levi tried. “He said he’s quitting the job. Right? Not you.”
“I think he was pretty fucking clear,” Austin spat.
“Austin—”
“I need to shower,” Austin said. He stabbed the END CALL button and threw his phone onto his bed, stalking toward the bathroom with a glower that would make anyone in the world shrink back in fear.
Well. Almost anyone.