CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Shea awoke late the following morning and rolled over, staring at the ceiling, grateful it was a Sunday and he didn't have to work.

Still wallowing in his funk, he'd been half asleep on the couch last night when Dom and Audra got back from the gala—much earlier than Shea had anticipated.

And then they'd told him about everything that had happened that evening.

That had certainly woken him up quickly.

The three of them hadn't come to any solid conclusions about what to do about any of it though and, eventually, Dom had headed home for the night.

Shea had talked to Audra to get her private take on things, then gone to bed. But he'd lain awake for a long time, feeling guilty about everything that was happening.

He still felt guilty.

He was the reason Dom's life was going so badly right now.

Well, Shea wasn't responsible for Dom's back issues.

But otherwise, if they had never gotten involved or if Shea had done a better job protecting Dom from being spotted the night of the fire, they never would have been in this mess.

Instead of doing what he was supposed to, he'd erased those lines, let everything become messy and blurry.

Messy, blurry boundaries had become a messy, blurry situation.

Now their privacy and job security were on the line and Shea had dragged Audra into it as well.

What in the hell had he been thinking?

Shea was tempted to admit his feelings for Dom, but it felt so selfish . It would add more stress and pressure to Dom's life when he was already dealing with so much. A part of Shea held out hope that maybe after Dom was retired, after he was out of the spotlight, he'd be more willing to openly be in a relationship with a man.

But Shea had no idea what Dom's plans were for after retirement. Hell, he wasn't sure Dom knew what his plans were. What if he took a job with the organization? What if he continued to be in the public eye?

How long could Shea wait?

And the moment he told Dom he wanted to be together, the pressure would mount.

Audra had been right.

Shea could be patient, for a while. A few more years, maybe.

But forever?

He couldn't do it. He couldn't spend the rest of his life in a hidden relationship.

Marriage wasn't huge on his list of things he felt like he needed, but he did need a partner who was proud to be with him.

Privacy from the media, from the general public, from the trashy gossip sites … that was fine . Shea certainly didn't need to splash his relationship all over social media for validation.

But Shea wanted to be with someone who was comfortable acknowledging what they meant to each other in front of their family and friends.

And honestly, Shea wasn't sure if Dom would ever be ready for that.

The thought made him sad, not only for himself, but for Dom.

Shea's phone buzzed on the nightstand and, with a sigh, he grabbed it and unlocked it. He froze when he saw the number of notifications.

Phone calls, texts, every chat app and social media site he used.

Oh shit , that was a bad sign.

He immediately went for the app he used to chat with Dom and found several messages waiting, his stomach growing queasier with each one he read.

Are you awake?

Fuck! Pick up your damn phone. I need to talk to you. It's urgent.

Numbly, Shea sat up, reading the next one.

JockGossip is insinuating you're an escort.

With shaking hands, Shea typed out a response. I'm sorry. I just woke up and saw this. What do you want me to do?

Kate's already here to discuss strategy. I'll call a car for you. Bring Audra if you can.

Fuck, fuck, fuck , Shea thought. He tugged on underwear, walked down the hall, and pounded on Audra's door.

"Get up," he called out. "We've got a problem."

Forty minutes later, Dom let them into his apartment. His expression was grim and he looked exhausted.

"Hey, thanks for coming," he said tightly.

"Yeah, of course." Shea hesitated in the doorway.

Under ordinary circumstances, he might have reached out to hug Dom but he looked tense and stiff, unhappy. He was clearly giving off ‘stay away' vibes.

Shea and Audra had spent the ride over going through messages and reading the stupid JockGossip article.

Shea had tried not to throw up as he waffled between guilt and fear.

This was probably the end of things with Dom. It would be the best thing for Dom, Shea knew that. But God, the thought made him ill.

Kate was already in Dom's apartment, her laptop set up at the dining room table along with a similar breakfast spread and cups of coffee as the previous time.

But this morning, there were stress lines around her eyes and mouth and her eyebrows looked a little unevenly groomed. Shea had only met her once, but from what he'd seen and what Dom said about her, Shea was pretty sure those signs equated to a full-on meltdown from anyone else.

She nodded at Shea and Audra politely, then gestured to the table. "Help yourself to whatever you'd like. I thought you might need some fortification for this."

Well, that was concerning.

Still, he gratefully took the cup marked with his name. "Thank you."

Audra murmured her thanks as well and they took seats around the table. This time, Shea sat across from Kate and Dom.

When their feet bumped together, Dom pulled away.

Shea swallowed hard. Right. So that was how things were going to go, huh?

Kate cleared her throat.

"So, I want to make one thing clear." She looked at each of them, meeting their gazes, her tone kind but no-nonsense. "I have no personal issue with sex work. I think it's an important job and it should be legal and well-regulated. I am laying no judgment on any of you for any decisions you may or may not have made around any form of that service you might have chosen to take part in. That being said, the best way to handle this situation is for me to have all of the information so I can protect the organization, Dom and the rest of my players, and the two of you. Do with that what you will."

Dom glanced between Shea and Audra, who both nodded.

They'd discussed it before they left their apartment and agreed that if they had any hope in hell of getting through this situation, they were going to need Kate on their side.

"I've been paying Shea for sex for years," Dom said.

"And I am also an escort," Audra said quietly. "Though Dom and I have never been involved. I was involved with Mark Goodwin, however."

"Okay. That's what I guessed but I didn't want to assume anything without confirmation." Kate folded her hands, all business. "Now we need to decide how we want to deal with this situation."

Dom glanced over at Shea. "Well, I think it's obvious, no?"

"Is it?" Kate lifted her eyebrows.

"Option number four." Dom swallowed audibly. "Selling the romance. Shea and I have been dating for a while, we're in love, he is moving in with me, etc."

He smiled, but it was thin and tight.

"No!" Shea protested. "Dom, you'd be outing yourself!"

Dom sighed, giving him a weary shrug. "What are our other options?"

"I—I don't know off the top of my head but there must be something. Maybe—maybe not seeing each other anymore. If Audra and I go away—"

But Dom shook his head. "We know that won't work. This is the only solution."

"Dom's right," Kate said. "At this point, we're well past any other options that I laid out previously and I can't think of any others."

Shea took a deep breath. "Can we speak in private for a minute, Dom?"

"Sure. Please give us a few," Dom said to Audra and Kate. He rose to his feet.

Shea followed him into the bedroom, feeling sick as he shut the door behind them. "Dom, you can't do this!"

Dom crossed his arms. "Can't I?"

"No, of course you can ," Shea conceded. "But you shouldn't. This is—I know how much you value your privacy! I can't ask you to do this."

"You aren't asking. I offered."

"Yes, but …" Shea sputtered, unsure of what to say. How to make Dom understand. "I don't want this for you, Dom. I don't."

"Hey, I know that." Dom's hard, closed-off expression softened. "I know you would never ask me to do that. If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that. You would never force me out of the closet."

"Not for anything," Shea whispered. "Not even to save myself."

Dom stepped forward, grasping Shea's upper arms. Shea wanted to press closer, feel the heat of Dom's body against his own, reassure himself with Dom's touch, but he hesitated, settling for resting his hands on Dom's chest.

What did this mean? This gesture of Dom's, was it a declaration of his feelings? Or something else?

Dom looked Shea in the eye and reached out, cupping his cheek. "I trust you, Shea. And there are precious few people who I feel that way about."

"I know that," Shea whispered.

"And this isn't the way I wanted my life to go. I wanted to retire without having to make a big splashy announcement or, hell, end up in JockGossip at all. But this is where we're at. And I don't see any other way around it."

Shea swallowed thickly because he didn't either.

Dom let his hand fall away but he stayed close, still looking him in the eye. "I don't want this gossip to jeopardize your work at the clinic."

"I know. And I don't want that either," Shea admitted thickly. "I love my work. I—I enjoyed sex work. I was good at it, but physiotherapy is my passion."

"I know." Dom squeezed his arms. "And I'm sure this would be rough personally for you, too."

"Yeah." Shea looked away, glancing out the windows overlooking the water. "My friends and my sister would probably understand. But my parents and I have had such a difficult relationship and we just got to a better place and I—I would hate to risk that."

"I would hate to risk that for you too."

Shea looked at him again, torn. "But you being forced out of the closet, Dom … that's a huge price for you to pay."

"Yeah, well." He let out a rough laugh. "The PR scandal of hiring an escort of any gender wouldn't exactly be a picnic either."

"Oh," Shea said. He hadn't thought about that part of it. "True."

"Hey, look at me," Dom coaxed.

Shea looked into his eyes, taking in the fine stress lines around the corners and wanting to reach out and smooth them away with his thumb. But he didn't, too unsure of where they stood.

Dom continued, his voice low and earnest. "I would weather that PR scandal if it meant keeping you safe though. Protecting you from the repercussions of the gossip."

"Dom," Shea said, shocked, not knowing what else to say to that. What did that mean?

"But I only see one way out of this that protects you, Audra, and the team."

Shea nodded.

"And that's telling the world we're in a relationship. But if we go this route," Dom said softly. "You'll have to stop working as an escort. I don't want to demand that of you. If we were really dating, I wouldn't . I wouldn't ask you to give it up if you wanted to keep doing it. I'm not saying I wouldn't get jealous but I would never ask you for that, you understand?"

Head spinning, Shea nodded. "No. I—I understand."

"But if you kept seeing other clients, it would be too easy for someone else to out you. One of your current clients or, hell, someone hiring you just to entrap you. All it would take was a discreet video camera and they'd have proof."

He must have seen something on Shea's face because he said, "Maybe I'm being too paranoid here but …"

"No. I wish you were but that's all too plausible."

Fuck ! He couldn't put this off any longer.

Shea sucked in a deep breath and pulled away, licking his lips. "There's, uh, something you need to know, Dom. Something I need to tell you."

He frowned. "What is it?"

"I'm not an escort anymore," Shea confessed, pacing, because he felt like he was going to combust if he didn't move. "I haven't been for years."

Dom wet his lips. "But you—but I've been paying you …"

"Yeah." Shea winced. "You're my only client. After graduation, I ended it with everyone else."

"What?" Dom stared, so still it seemed like he'd been turned into a statue.

"I didn't keep the money," Shea blurted out. "Maybe I should have? I could have given it back to you when this ended. I donated it though. To charity."

"Christ, Shea, I don't care about the money ," Dom scoffed. "I just want to understand. Why? Why would you do that? Why keep seeing me?"

Shea hesitated, the words, ‘I love you' stuck on his tongue.

"Because I wasn't ready to let you go," is what he said instead. As much of the truth as he felt ready to share. "Because I didn't want to stop seeing you. And you were the only one I felt that way about."

"Fuck." Dom let out a shaky breath. "I—I don't know what to say to that."

Shea smiled, though it was weak. "You don't have to say anything. It changes nothing. Only, if you're sure you want to pretend to be in a relationship, you won't have to worry about me seeing any other clients."

Dom's heart twisted as he followed Shea out of the bedroom, the words, " you're my only client " echoing in his ears.

How could he be so blind? How had he not realized what was going on?

In the past few years, Shea had always been available whenever Dom wanted. He'd hardly ever had a scheduling conflict, and when he did, it was never because of another client.

Dom could see now that there was a difference between how they'd interacted before and after Shea's graduation.

But Dom had just … ignored it.

Was it willful ignorance? Something else?

Did it mean something when Shea said, "you were the only one I felt that way about?"

But Dom had no time to dwell on it now, not when Kate and Audra sat at the table, looking at them expectantly.

Dom cleared his throat. "Shea and I agree. We'll sell the relationship to the public. I need to speak to my agent, of course, but I think he'll agree that's our best option."

Shea nodded. "And I'll speak to someone at the image consulting agency about it too. Kate, you should know that I'm not seeing any other clients right now. I haven't since my graduation."

Her eyebrows rose to her hairline. "Dom is the only person you're seeing?"

"Yes."

She didn't hide the surprise on her face but she merely nodded. "Well, that does make some things easier. You should probably ask them if they want you to continue to work as Dom's stylist or not. I would lean toward yes but I'm sure they have contingency plans for these situations."

Shea nodded, his expression still a little blank and dazed.

Dom studied his face, heart aching.

God, he hated that Shea was in this situation because of him. Shea had given him so much and what had Dom done? Exposed him to scandal. Threatened his job and his relationship with his family.

Once they found out who the leak was, Dom was going to make them regret it. How could anyone be so fucking selfish?

He hated the loss of privacy but he had to acknowledge that it was part of the price he had to pay as a public figure.

But Shea and Audra weren't public figures. They hadn't signed up for this. They didn't deserve to get dragged into it too.

"So, do we know how they got the photo of Audra and Mark?" Shea asked.

Kate shook her head. "Not really. I mean, we know where it was taken and approximately when, but all that means is that it was either someone who attended the event or worked at it."

"True," Shea said. "But that narrows it down from all of the greater Toronto area to a few hundred people, right?"

"Yes," Kate agreed. "I'll certainly sift through the guest list and—"

"Hey," Dom said, frowning when he remembered something. "Sorry to interrupt but I almost forgot to tell you about what happened last night before we left the hotel."

He told them about the conversation with Birdie, Mitchell, and the guy he'd been with. "His name was Joe. Shit, I can't remember his last name. Audra, do you remember?"

"It started with a G," she said, her brow furrowing. "Griffin? Griffith, maybe?"

"That sounds right," Dom agreed. "Maybe we can start digging into that? See if we can learn anything about him?"

"I will," Kate said, but she frowned. "Don't you think it's a little suspicious that he gave you a name whose initials are J-G though? As in, Jock Gossip."

"Fuck!" Dom hadn't even considered that it could be an assumed name. He'd been thinking about the situation with Mark Goodwin and making sure Audra was okay, and there was the goddamn pain in his back that was always fucking there. "I didn't even notice that."

"Me either," Audra admitted.

"I mean, it's still worth looking into," Kate said. "Can you describe what he looked like?"

Dom did and Audra added a few things, but that didn't help much either. "He was pretty generic," he admitted.

Audra nodded. "He was. And if he is the kind of guy who is getting people's info, that's gotta be helpful, right? Everyone would look right past him."

Kate nodded. "Exactly. Though I do wonder if he's the guy I saw Mitchell with before. I need some time to consider if it would be wise to ask him about this Joe Griffin or Griffiths or if that would be tipping our hand."

"What about the fact that I gave Joe, Mitchell, and Birdie info about my back problems and that didn't get published?" Dom asked. "Does that clear any of them?"

"No," Kate said. "It only means they found something juicier."

"Damn."

They segued into another topic and while Audra and Kate were discussing something that Dom should probably be paying better attention to, he glanced over at Shea.

He looked … defeated.

Like the weight of the world was resting on his broad shoulders. Under the table, Dom nudged him with his foot and he glanced up and gave Dom a weak smile.

Fuck. Dom hated the way this was impacting Shea.

They spent the rest of the morning discussing how they were going to handle the situation.

By the time they wrapped up, there had been several conversations with Dom's agent, a call with someone at the escort service, an order from a local restaurant for lunch, and enough coffee that Dom's stomach felt like it was filled with battery acid.

Or maybe that was the stress.

"Okay." Kate shut the lid of her laptop with a tired sigh. "We all have our marching orders. We know what we have to do, yes?"

"Yes," they all agreed.

Everyone sounded—and looked—exhausted.

Kate gave them sympathetic smiles as she packed her briefcase. "I know today was a lot. But we'll get through this."

"In a way that doesn't end up with us all in trouble?" Dom muttered.

Kate cracked a smile. "Oh you're already in trouble. Gilly wants to string you up by your toes. Brace yourself for practice tomorrow morning."

Dom rubbed his face. Joy . He looked forward to getting screamed at by his coach. That sounded fun.

He'd already missed video review and working with the trainers this morning. Kate had spoken to Gilly about it but that didn't mean he was going to get away scot-free.

After Kate left, and it was just Dom, Audra, and Shea standing around, Audra touched Shea's arm. "Hey, I'll meet you downstairs in the vehicle Dom called for us."

Shea nodded.

The apartment door closed behind her and then it was just Dom and Shea. Tension filled the air as Dom looked at him.

Shea had been wearing a hangdog, guilty expression all day and it deepened as he whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't be," Dom said, reaching out, pulling Shea close to him like he'd been wanting to do all day, but once again, Shea held himself stiffly, not pressing close. "This isn't your fault."

"Isn't it?" Shea stared past his shoulder, his gaze stricken.

"No," Dom said firmly. "Admittedly, none of this has gone the way we wanted it to. But this isn't on you. We made these decisions together and we're going to face them together, okay?"

Finally, Shea looked him in the eye, and for the first time that day, Dom saw a flicker of something in his expression other than helpless resignation. Something like hope and determination wrapped up in one.

"Okay," Shea whispered.

"And I'll see you tonight, yeah?" Dom coaxed.

Shea swallowed. "Yeah, I'll give you a heads-up when I'm on my way over."

"Sounds good. I'll talk to someone here about getting you a key and card access." Dom smiled faintly. "I'll tell them my boyfriend's moving in."