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Ben:Watching awful television with Ashley… would be glad of an escape. Meet me in the snug?
Dorian laughed at Ben’s response. He missed the mundane side of having a partner, being able to turn to someone and chat about nothing or everything. Loneliness was real, and it didn’t matter how many friends he had, it wasn’t the same as having a special someone who was just there.
The snug was a reception room not far from the earl’s room, which they’d spent many an evening in since school messing around, usually raiding the drinks decanters and playing games. Ben was already there when Dorian arrived, pouring two generous measures of whisky. He handed one to Dorian and they sat on the sofa.
“Until recently I wasn’t aware how awful Saturday night television could be,” Ben said and clinked glasses. “You’re my saviour.”
“Seems like becoming a father has put a dampener on your social life, but you don’t seem too unhappy about it.”
“Out of choice. I could have carried on doing what I did before, dinners, invites… y’know, and Ashley wouldn’t have had a problem with it, but I would. My father was a wonderful man, but not what you’d call hands-on and I didn’t want that for Davy.”
“Yeah, mine was always working or away. I can’t say I knew him that well, especially once I went to Harrow, and then my parents divorced.”
His parents had remained friends even after his mum had remarried, but his dad had died a few years back having been too wedded to his job to have room for anyone new.
“I do wonder if I’d have been the same if it hadn’t been for Ashley. I’d sort of resigned myself to being serially monogamous and not finding a permanent partner after Greg. And if I had found a fellow toff and we’d had children then the pattern would have repeated.”
Dorian remembered the fallout after Greg the Cheating Bastard had broken Ben’s heart, it wasn’t pretty. He elbowed him playfully. “Then it’s a bloody good job you got yourself a bit of rough from Essex.”
“I count my blessings daily.” He grinned, and looked positively smug. Bastard. “I doubt that was what you came to talk to me about though.”
“It’s about my fake boyfriend—I’ve made an arrangement, and I’m keen to get your blessing.”
“As long as it’s not Ashley I can’t see how it would be any of my business.”
“I didn’t think about asking Ashley. Maybe I should.”
Ben’s eye twitched. “I think not.”
Dorian snorted. “No fear, Benjamin. Your hubby’s safe from me. What about Harry? Your little brother is single, right?”
“And straight,” Ben said humourlessly. “Not to mention he’s at an artist commune in Portugal.”
He reckoned Harry would have found it funny to have played along but it didn’t matter now. “Good job it’s not him then. It’s Alex.”
“My secretary Alex?”
“Yes, which is why we felt it necessary to get your blessing.”
“But why would he?” Ben seemed as surprised as Dorian had been. “He doesn’t seem the type.”
“I’ll be honest I did ask him yesterday as he was helping me with the statement I put out, but I wasn’t expecting him to accept, and he didn’t.”
“But I thought you said…”
“He turned up about an hour ago asking if I was serious about it being a paid position and named his price and terms. He wouldn’t tell me why he’d changed his mind, just said it was a family matter.”
Ben took a sip of his whisky. “I don’t object to him helping you if he volunteered and wasn’t coerced into it, but I am concerned about his reasonings. It suggests he has some money worries.”
“I don’t think it’s anything dodgy per se, maybe he has a family member who he wants to help and it’s an easy way to do it.” There were ways to find out the information, and he didn’t want to invade Alex’s privacy but he did have to protect his own interests. “I could contact someone to look into what’s going on.”
“I’m not sure. A little intrusive, don’t you think?”
“He’s going to be playing my boyfriend, I’ve enough shit off the press as it is, if he’s up to his neck in something I’d need to know. Did you do a background check on him when you took him on?”
Ben shook his head. “Only in the sense I called up a couple of his previous bosses and they were glowing.”
“It might not have helped but whatever changed happened super recently.”
