Page 34 of Salacious Star

Ethan arched an eyebrow. "What do you want to do with him, then?"

"I...think I want to date him," I whispered, lowering my voice, as if Tristan had microphones in the walls.

"Wow." Ethan's eyes widened. "You haven't had a boyfriend in...years."

I nodded, gesturing emphatically. "So you see the problem. How am I supposed to date him when I have to fuck him for work? I can't have it both ways, and the money is really good, E. I can't just quit right now because I'm interested in Tristan."

Ethan considered quietly for a moment, and I waited. His careful thought before he spoke had talked me off a ledge more times than I could count over the course of our lives, and I knew that he was going to have the most profound advice for me, advice that would make everything all make complete and total sense.

"I get that the work thing is challenging," Ethan finally said. "But Xan...these don't have to be mutually exclusive things. Clearly you have chemistry, and you've already gotten the first time fucking out of the way. Some couples crumble before they even get to that point, so if you think about it, you're already five steps ahead of everyone else when they think they're interested in someone."

I shook my head. "You're not getting it," I muttered.

"No, I think I am," Ethan shot back, his voice firmer than I'd heard it in a while. "I think you're scared of losing a good thing with work, and you're terrified of being shot down by a cute guy that you're interested in and have explosive chemistry with. You're not a special snowflake with these issues, Xan. They're pretty normal. And do you know what would fix these problems?"

I shrugged one shoulder.

"Talkingto him," Ethan pressed. "Have you told Tristan that you like him as more than a coworker?"

The memory of Tristan's warm, amused gaze as he looked at me in the grocery store flashed to the front of my mind, and my cock - now soft from the conversation with my twin - gave a valiant twitch that I ignored. He'd looked...happyto see me, and my stomach twisted.

"I'm going to guess from the lost expression on your face that the answer to the question is no." Ethan shook his head and pushed away from the desk, crossing over to me and patting me on the shoulder. "Put on your big boy pants and call him, Xan. I know that you want to make sure that your professional life is solid, but you deserve a personal life too. You deserve to be happy."

His voice softened with his words, and I sighed, looking at him. "Okay, fine, I'll...talkto him," I mumbled, shoving Ethan's hand off my shoulder.

He snorted. "You don't need to act like I told you to take him for a syphilis test," he said, snickering some more as he opened the door to the office. He stood to the side so that I could walk out, and fell into step at my side as I headed back to the front of the building. "Drinks on Friday?"

I nodded. "Yep, always."

He clapped his hand on my shoulder again. "It'll be fine. Have a conversation. You'll walk out of it with a boyfriend, andthen we can turn our attention to my dismal love life and what we're going to do about it."

His words were light, but there was a thread of tension running through them that caught my attention, making me look at my brother. Something in his expression discouraged me from asking whatthatwas about, though, and I shrugged his hand off, nodding.

"Sure, sure. Have fun with your books."

I gave him a two fingered salute before ducking out of the building, heading to my car. My mind churned, and I sighed as I slid into the driver's seat and turned the engine over.

I knew that Ethan was right. I needed to be honest with Tristan, if only so that he didn't get uncomfortable if he figured out my little crush before I told him. It was the polite thing to do.

But we had another shoot scheduled, so maybe...yeah, definitely, this conversation could wait.

15

I walked onto set two days later with my stomach full of even more butterflies than I had the first time that I'd done so, and I immediately zoned in on Tristan, who was standing in the middle of the set talking to Dorian. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt for the scene this time, and my stomach flipped as I made a beeline for him, though again, my nerves were for wholly different reasons this time.

This time, my anxiety had nothing to do with the fact that we were going to be doing a scene at all, and everything to do with thetypeof scene that we were doing.

God, I hoped that I could do this. Convincingly, anyway.

"Xan, hey! Good timing, we were just wrapping up our lighting setup." Dorian's smile towards me was wide and genuine, and I nodded at him, shoving my hands into the pockets of the soft house pants that I'd been given to wear for the scene.

"Great. Um. Mind if I talk to Tris for a minute?" I asked, stumbling over my words. Not an iota of cool to be found.

Dorian cocked his head to the side, but he nodded easily at my request. "Of course," he said.

He walked away, and then Tristan turned to face me with an easy smile. His eyes flicked over my front, making my cock twitch, before they returned to my face and he nodded at me.

"Did you read over the script?" he asked me, his eyes gleaming slightly as he leaned close. He looked excited, and my cock jerked in my pants as I nodded.

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