Page 10 of The Temptation
For now, I needed to buy myself some time in order to find a more permanent solution to this problem. It was time to call in my friends and pray they could think of something that would keep me in Cincinnati.
3
PIERCE SUTTON
As soon asI got my parents to their hotel, I rushed to Rome’s downtown penthouse just a few blocks over from where they were staying. I needed help. ASAFP.
Yet I nearly jumped out of my skin when Liam answered the door. They hadn’t been dating that long, and I was still acclimating to the idea of Rome and Liam being attached at the hip.
“Oh. Shit. Guess I should have called first. Sorry, I—” I stammered, already backpedaling while scrambling for an alternate plan.
Liam snorted. “Get your ass in here. It might be hard to believe, but we don’t fuck constantly.”
Well, that stopped all thought in my brain. I had nothing to say. My feet obeyed his command, and I walked through the door. It was only as I was handing my coat to Liam that my mind started working.
“Um…sorry for intruding. I got myself in a bit of trouble with my parents, and I thought Rome could help me out of my mess.”
“Aren’t you getting a little old for that?” he quipped.
“Have you told your mom that you’re bi and dating a man?”
Liam narrowed his eyes at me. “Touché.”
A grin played on my lips. “I’m joking.”
“Me too.”
Liam was still a hard read for me, but his cold look cracked into an affable smile, and it was difficult to deny that Rome had found a good match.
“Hey, Pierce!” Rome shouted as he strolled down the hall with two beers in hand. “I didn’t know you were stopping by. How was dinner with the folks?”
“Bad.”
Rome stopped, his happy-go-lucky expression falling away. “How bad? Like, work bad? Or?—”
“Like ‘it’s time you came home and got married’ bad.”
“Ooooh, shiiiit,” Rome groaned. “We’re gonna need help. Living room. We’ll call for backup.”
Liam and I followed Rome into the living room like a pair of lemmings. At that moment, I was willing to try anything, even jumping off a cliff, if it meant I didn’t have to return to Boston and the family fold. Liam was kind enough to grab me a beer while Rome called Sebastian and Declan, conferencing everyone in. It took a couple of minutes for me to explain what had been discussed at dinner and why.
“No,” Sebastian snapped. “You can’t move to Boston. Not happening.”
“Honey, I don’t think Pierce’s parents are going to agree with you just because you don’t want him to go,” Byron chimed in.
“Are we understanding correctly that you don’t want to move?” Declan confirmed.
“Yes, I want to stay, which is why I might have told my parents that I’m seeing someone.” There was a long silence, and I tacked on before Declan could ask, “No, I’m not seeing anyone right now. I’m not even slightly talking to anyone. The dating cupboard is bare.”
Parker snickered. “Wow, you’ve stepped in it now. I can’t remember the last time I even fibbed to my parents about my dating life.”
Declan cleared his throat. “No, you just lied by omission.”
There was a pained moan and lots of movement like Parker was throwing himself onto his fiancé. “No, it wasn’t an omission. I hadn’t given them an update about us because my life was so crazy. Totally not the same thing.”
“Anyway,” I said loudly, shoving the conversation onto the right track. “This whole boyfriend thing was to buy myself some time. My parents are in town for a couple of weeks, and I need a stand-in to go through the motions of being my boyfriend for at least one dinner. Maybe two. Nothing too hectic. After they leave town convinced that I am at least attempting to date, I can actually…you know…”
“Make yourself emotionally available to another human being?” Byron supplied in a voice that was decisively sharp.Fuck, Byron is way too good at reading Sebastian and his friends.
