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“Good Lord, it can’t be that bad, man.”
“Well, you know Dorian issued a statement after the incident with Simon?”
“Chris mentioned it. Although I wasn’t paying much attention as I was trying to figure out how to unjam one of the roller shelves at the time.”
He’d hoped that Dara might have had a little more of an inkling and could’ve have guessed where this was going, but instead Alex was going to have to spell it out. “Part of the statement was to support Robin and Simon, the other part was to put off others thinking he might want to get back with Robin.”
“I hate to say it, but issuing a denial won’t help much.”
“He went further than a straight denial, he alluded to having a boyfriend.”
Dara’s brow crumpled. “But he doesn’t….” Alex thought he may have seen the penny drop. “Oh no, Alex, don’t tell me you’ve agreed to pretend to be Dorian’s new squeeze.”
“There will be absolutely no squeezing! I will be playing the role of his boyfriend for a few months, nothing more.”
“You great numpty. Have you any idea of what you might have let yourself in for? Why on earth have you agreed to do something so monumentally daft?”
He’d come this far, he might as well tell Dara the rest of it. “I needed the money so I agreed terms with Dorian. My parents have got themselves into some housing trouble and I needed to find a way to help as fast as possible.”
“I’m sure they appreciated your help, but surely there must have been other options.”
“Nothing that was so quick. They were camping out in a tent in their garden due to safety issues with their house. Dorian has already paid a good chunk of the money upfront, so I’ve been able to get the ball rolling.”
Dara took a large bite of his cake and chewed slowly. “So what’s the plan? Float about as his bit of stuff for a few months and hope his fans don’t suddenly go after you like they did Simon?”
He didn’t think he was putting himself in front of a firing range. “We’re working out exactly what it will look like. Low-key dinners, maybe a few evenings in the sort of bars and clubs movie stars go to. We might engineer a weekend away where it looks like we go walking.”
“You sound thrilled by the prospect,” Dara drawled. “Ready to be stalked across the country by the press trying to find out everything about you?”
“There’s not that much to say. It’ll be a few months, and then Dorian will move on to someone new. I’m not to be blamed for the split. Once he finds a new partner I might propose that he cheated on me so I could be the victim.”
Dara wrinkled his nose. “Why would you want people to think he cheated on you?”
“It’s play-acting. I’ve been cheated on before, it’s not like it doesn’t happen in real life.”
“I guess it would mean you wouldn’t have his fans think you broke his heart. Although I’m not sure Dorian would want to tarnish his reputation further either. You will be careful, though, won’t you?”
It was nice of Dara to worry but he didn’t need to. “I think with what happened to Simon if there’s any hint of trouble there’ll be extra security so I’m not worried.”
“I’m not talking about you being physically harmed. Dorian’s a lovely looking lad, and I bet he can be very charming. You might lose your head over him.”
Alex spluttered. “No, that’s not on the cards. What I’m getting out of this is my parents’ house repaired.” He decided to leave out the clothes Dorian had mentioned as he didn’t need Dara jumping on thePretty Womanbandwagon. “Nothing more.”
“The other way to look at it is you’re both single, and like men, so you could just enjoy it.” Dara waggled his eyebrows. “See how much of Dorian is real and how much of the rest is CGI.”
“Dara!”
“What?”
“I am not sleeping with Dorian. He’s paying for my company, not my arse.”
Dara smirked. “Up to you. Have you watched any of his films? I’m not sure you realise what you might be passing up.”
He was not going to continue this conversation. “I need to get back.”
Alex didn’t wait for Dara’s reply and started to head back upstairs.
“I recommendThe Escort,” Dara called. “You can’t go wrong with that one.”
