Page 10 of Not Your Golden Boy

Albion didn’t reply. His narrowed eyes and stern expression said everything. Nikky found himself glancing between the men, desperate to figure out the entire story of the obvious history between the two of them. Part of him wanted to speak up and share that he loved Harry’s music, all of his music, not just the one hit, but that felt too close to offending Albion.

“What are you doing here, Harry?” Albion asked at last.

“I’ve come to take Nikky to lunch,” Harry answered, in no way intimidated.

Albion frowned. “It’s not lunchtime yet.”

Harry shrugged. “I’ll wait until you’re done here.”

“And if that takes all day?”

“Then I’ll wait all day,” Harry said, crossing his arms.

Honestly, it was thrilling to have Harry standing up for him so strongly. Harry Bayonne, his fake boyfriend, was standing up for him.

“I did say I’d go to lunch with him,” Nikky said, speaking up in a way he never would have dared otherwise, since Harry was sticking his neck out for him. “If you don’t mind,” he had to add at the end.

Albion stared at him for a moment, then shifted to stare at Harry for twice as long before looking at Nikky again. “Who am I to ruin your lunch plans?” he asked with a falsely friendly smile. “Let’s just give another of these songs a try and I’ll let you two kids run off and play.”

The words were plainly designed to try to put Harry in his place. Nikky couldn’t help but be impressed that Harry didn’t look the least bit cowed. In fact, he seemed even tougher and more masculine.

Damn, the man was going to make him fall head over heels for real. Not just because he was hot as sin, but because his very presence made Nikky feel like, for the first time in a long time, someone might be there to protect him.

Shit, that felt good.

“I’d like to play some of my songs for you, too,” he found the strength to say. “I trust you got the demo files I sent to you the other day.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got them,” Albion said, back to smiling indulgently at him. “We’ll give those a try later.”

Nikky wasn’t sure he meant that with any enthusiasm, but it was a start. All he needed was a little bit of Harry’s confidence backing him up to advocate for his own music. It had him feeling that maybe there was a chance his whole plan to shift his career and take himself out of the public eye just might work after all.

four

​. . .​

Dean Albion. If Harry had known that’s who Nikky was working with on the album that was apparently going to solidify his music career over his acting career, Harry would have warned his new friend to stick with acting.

“Let’s give Charlie’s second song a try,” Albion said, ignoring Harry entirely and turning back to Nikky. “I think this one really matches your voice and intensity.”

Nikky glanced straight to Harry with a look that begged for help. He then pulled himself together and faced Albion, albeit with a certain skittishness that brought out a seriously protective instinct in Harry, and said, “That’s the love song, right?”

“It is,” Albion said with a broad smile. “And it’s right up your alley.”

Nikky froze, his cheeks flushing a soft pink that would have had Harry’s blood pumping under other circumstances. “The pronouns in the song are feminine,” he said.

“Is that a problem?” Albion asked, his smile still in place but his eyes going stoney.

Nikky cleared his throat. “I’m gay. Openly gay. I might not talk about it a lot, but I’ve never tried to hide it.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Albion said, brushing a hand through the air as if something like a person’s sexual identity didn’t matter. “Everyone loves it when celebrities are vague about their sexuality these days anyhow. Keeping things vague is a great strategy for staying at the center of the public’s attention.”

Nikky sent a forlorn look Harry’s way. A whole heap of things started to make sense in Harry’s mind, chief among them the reasons Nikky had hired Rent-A-Boyfriend instead of trying to tackle the intentional implosion of his career on his own. Whether he was fully aware of it or not, it was pretty clear to Harry that having someone to help and guide him was more important than the actual tarnishing of his image.

Harry was more than happy to step up and do the job behind the job he’d been hired to do.

“Nikky is out,” he said, crossing his arms. “I’m guessing that song is inappropriate for him, but if you want him to sing it, I suggest you let him sing it with male pronouns.”

“That’s not going to work,” Albion said, also crossing his arms and falling into a staring competition with Harry. “Charlie has a clause in his contract saying his songs will be recorded exactly as he’s written them.”