THE drive into downtown had been extremely quiet. Marty hadn’t even put on 80s on Eight, his favorite radio station, because he’d been too busy mentally kicking himself ever since he overheard part of Tim’s phone conversation.
Tim had told someone he loved him.
Of course he had a boyfriend. Why wouldn’t he? He was a tall blond wet dream with eyes so blue they made you want to get naked and go for a swim. Men like that were snatched up as soon as they went on the market.
That was what happened with Christian. Twenty-four hours after Marty dumped his lying ass, Christian already had a new boy toy. The only person Marty played with was himself.
God, he felt like even more of a loser than before.
For some reason he’d foolishly believed that Tim might like him. Maybe even think he was cute. At the very least a-dork-able. There was just something about the way he held his hand. Tim even came to his defense in front of his mother and agreed to stay longer than they had discussed. But no, that had just been part of the act, the deal they had agreed to.
Why would Marty think anything more than that would come of this situation?
He was a fucking idiot.
“Something eating your cheese again?” Tim said from the passenger seat. He’d finally taken off his motorcycle jacket and was wearing jeans, which of course were skintight. He’d also borrowed one of Marty’s black shirts that had been too blousy for him but of course fit Tim like a glove. It accentuated every curve of muscle on his chest.
Marty had never looked that good in his own shirt. He hated Tim a lot right now.
“I’m fine,” he replied.
Tim chuckled. “That’s code for ‘I’m pissed.’” He sat sideways in the seat and studied Marty intently. “I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what I’ve done to upset you. At first I thought you were still ticked off that I took advantage of our little deal and extended it for my own reasons, but that’s not it, is it?”
“I said I’m fine.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so either,” Tim continued as if Marty hadn’t spoken. “That’s when I realized you were fine when you went to take your shower. Hell, you were singing at the top of your lungs. Someone who’s pissed doesn’t do that.”
Marty tore his gaze from the road. “You heard me?”
“Your bathroom’s not soundproof, you know?”
Warmth spread across Marty’s cheeks. If a semi had suddenly veered into his lane, he wouldn’t have swerved out of its way.
“Aw, you’re cute when you’re embarrassed,” Tim said, rubbing his big thumb across Marty’s cheek.
“Stop that!” Marty said, jerking away from Tim’s touch. “It isn’t right. You’ve got a boyfriend. What would he think about you touching me like that and saying I’m cute?”
Tim smiled. “And there we have the truth. The real reason you’re mad at me.”
“Of course I’m mad,” Marty replied. He was angry that Tim was probably just as much of a louse as Christian was, but mostly he was livid with himself. He’d been so swept up in Tim’s charm and good looks that he turned a blind eye to everything else about him. Just like he’d done with Christian. What made this even worse was that he knew Tim was a criminal. When would he ever learn?
“Mind explaining why?” Tim asked.
Marty snorted. “God, you sound just like Christian. He didn’t understand why I didn’t like him flirting with other men or telling them they were cute. He didn’t know why I was angry when he suggested we do a three-way. He didn’t know why I was so goddamn pissed off when I found him getting blown on the dance floor of a club.” Marty clenched the steering wheel and took several deep breaths. Damn, he wanted to hit something real hard right now.
“Marty, I’m sorry,” Tim said. His voice grew low and soothing like a lullaby. “I had no idea how much of a jerk your ex was.”
Marty snorted. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg.” He’d never told another soul except his sister about his tumultuous relationship with Christian, the guy his mother thought was the “perfect” boyfriend. “Besides being a cheating bastard, he thought I should lose weight. Every time I ate chips or had some ice cream, he asked me if I really needed it. And he always pestered me to go to the gym with him. He said I needed to put some muscle on my bones.”
“What a jerk!”
“Yeah, I think so too.”
“And your mother still likes him after knowing all that?”
“She doesn’t know any of that.”
Tim’s arched eyebrows communicated his surprise. “Why the hell not?”
He shrugged. “I don’t like bad-mouthing other people. Even if they deserve it. Besides, it’s no one else’s business. It doesn’t hurt that I’m ashamed I allowed any of it to happen.”
Tim rested his hand on Marty’s forearm and squeezed lightly before letting go. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed. You didn’t do anything wrong. Christian did.”
Marty shook his head. “I enabled the behavior. I didn’t stand up to him or tell him to take a hike after the first time I suspected he was cheating. It’s on me too.”
Tim’s silence revealed he couldn’t argue with that, which relieved Marty somewhat. It meant that Tim understood what he’d been through and how much he hated himself. “Which is why this isn’t right,” he said, stealing a glance at Tim. “You can’t call me cute or touch me when we’re not in pretend mode. You have a boyfriend, and you love him. I think that’s great and I’m happy for you both, but I won’t have some other man’s man cross any line with me.”
A huge smile practically ripped Tim’s face in two.
“I’m serious,” Marty said. “Don’t smile at me or think I’m being cute when I’m speaking my mind. That’s demeaning as shit.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” he replied, sitting back in his seat and staring out into the road.
“Bullshit. I heard you.”
“You heard me say ‘I love you’ to someone. That doesn’t mean I have a boyfriend. I was talking to my best friend, filling him in on what was going on with me. I do love him. Just not in that way.”
Marty studied Tim, trying to determine if he was telling the truth. Tim had already proven to be an excellent liar, but his expression was free from guile and had no hint of deception like Marty had always seen crouching in the corners of Christian’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said.
“Don’t be,” Tim replied. “I think it’s actually nice.”
“That I lost my mind there for a while?”
“No,” Tim answered. He rested his steely blue gaze on Marty’s. “That there are still actual good guys walking around this world.”
Marty swallowed hard and nodded. He didn’t know what else to say, so he refocused his attention on the road and on his heart, which jackhammered inside his chest.
MARTY stood in front of Biga’s on the Bay, the restaurant where Danny was throwing Sophia’s surprise “rehearsal dinner” party, but he couldn’t persuade his muscles to move another step closer. So far he and Tim had managed to fool his mother, but how were they going to handle a room filled with nosy relatives? Then there was his sister to consider. She knew Tim Drake was a figment of Marty’s imagination. She’d have endless questions, which naturally meant she was going to be insufferable all evening.
Maybe this grand scheme of his wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“Will you unclench?” Tim asked. “It’s going to be fine.”
“You don’t know,” he answered. If he sounded any more like a child, he’d be puffing out his lower lip.
Tim laughed. He laced his fingers with Marty’s and pulled him close. “But I do.” He spoke those words with such confidence Marty actually started to believe they could pull this off.
“How do you know?” he asked.
Tim decreased the distance until only a single breath separated their lips. The air between them filled with notes of citrus, wood, and spice from the bodywash Marty kept in his shower. He didn’t remember ever smelling as good as Tim did right now, and it was his bodywash. He suddenly felt the need to get very, very dirty.
“I’m good at what I do,” Tim whispered before standing back up and eyeing the restaurant’s interior. “That should help some.”
“What should?” he asked, not really paying attention to what was going on around him. He was too entranced by Tim’s smell, which suddenly dominated the world and filled every part of him.
Tim nodded to the front door, where a small group had assembled just inside. Five faces smooshed against the glass entryway, trying to get a better view and not caring who they elbowed and practically shoved through the glass.
Marty groaned and shook his head.
“I take it you know them?” Tim asked.
“Unfortunately,” he responded. “They’re my cousins.”
Tim slid his hand around Marty’s waist and grinned down at him. “Well, I think it’s time you introduced me. Don’t you?”
If Marty could, he’d say no, but his cousins would come crashing through the glass the moment he and Tim turned around. “It’s going to be a train wreck,” he said as Tim led him to the front door, where the girls squealed and ran back into the restaurant.
“Have more faith,” Tim said with a wink.
“I do. I have faith that this is going to be a train wreck.”
“Okay, then,” Tim added. “Have some faith in me.”
Seeing as how he had no choice, Marty did just that.
The introductions went surprisingly well, even with his cousins constantly batting their eyelashes at Tim. They obsessively fawned over him, asking him if he needed a drink or something to eat. Anything at all.
Marty was embarrassed for them, although he didn’t really have a high horse to mount these days.
None of it bothered Tim. Where most people would flounder in a situation like this, he flourished, as if pretending to be someone else was what he did for a living. He couldn’t just be a car thief. There had to be more to him than that. There just had to be.
He wasn’t only amazing at handling Marty’s horny cousins. As a pretend boyfriend, he was fantastic. No matter who they stopped to chat with, he found reasons to touch Marty, to draw him close or hold his hand. It was certainly more than Christian had ever done, and Marty had actually dated him.
When his mother saw them, she came right over. Marty had prepared himself for a return of his mother’s usual snark, but she was more than polite. She was downright giddy. She took Tim’s hand and proudly introduced him, calling him her future son-in-law, to the gathered friends and family, who all seemed generally pleased to meet a man they’d heard so much about.
Everyone appeared to be quite taken by Tim and their act.
There were only two exceptions: Christian, and Marty’s sister.
Christian eyed Tim from across the room. His lips were pressed into a fine line, and his eyes had narrowed to slits. Sophia was an entirely different story. One side of her mouth tugged upward in a silly smirk, and her eyes glinted with mischief.
When Sophia saw Marty watching her, she made a quick beeline to him, grabbed his hand, and practically dragged him into the far corner. “So,” she said, “who’d you bring?”
“Tim.”
Sophia placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side. “You know what I mean. Now spill. How did that,” she said, gesturing to where Tim was chatting with Danny, “happen?”
Marty wasn’t too sure how to answer. He couldn’t tell his sister he’d invited a criminal to her party or that he’d be coming to her wedding. She’d been enough of a Bridezilla as it was. He didn’t need her to suddenly start stomping through downtown San Antonio and destroying the city. “Honestly, it just did.”
She crossed her arms and frowned. “Don’t make me kick your ass, because I’ll do it. Right here in front of God and everybody.”
Marty had no doubt she’d follow through with the threat. She’d unfortunately done it before on more than one occasion. “We met today at Pegasus.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “Are you telling me you have no idea who this man is? That this is some stranger you picked up in a bar?”
“Pretty much,” he said with a nod.
“You don’t expect me to believe he agreed to pretend to be your boyfriend out of the kindness of his heart?”
“Of course not. I’m paying him for his time.”
Sophia’s eyes grew wide as she gaped over at Tim. “He’s an escort? You hired an escort?”
“Sophia, please!” Marty pulled her farther into the corner. The last thing he needed was for everyone to hear his loudmouthed sister’s faulty leap in logic. “Will you lower your voice?”
“That explains why he’s so hot,” she said. “Damn, if I’d met him before Danny, the things I would have paid him to do to me.”
Marty gagged. “I just threw up in my mouth a little.”
She snapped back around and slowly looked him up and down. “Oh my God!”
“What now?”
“You’ve done it with him. Haven’t you?”
“Really, Sophia?”
“Yes, really,” she said. She gave him the once-over one final time before giggling. “You most certainly have. You’re usually so tense, walking around as if you have a stick up your ass, but you seem much more relaxed. You’re such a slut!”
He rolled his eyes and loudly exhaled. He should correct her, but letting Sophia think Tim was an escort was certainly better than the truth, even if it made him look like a desperate loser. “He and I have not had sex.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Why the hell not?” she asked, gawking at Tim. “Look at him!”
“I’ve seen him,” he replied with a slow eye roll. “I may be desperate, but I’m not that desperate.”
She snorted. “Not desperate enough to sleep with an escort but desperate enough to hire one? Yeah, that makes sense.”
Nothing about any of this made sense, but this was the path he’d chosen to walk down. “Do you think anyone suspects the truth?”
Sophia didn’t answer right away. She watched Tim move around the room. Their mother had taken up permanent residence on Tim’s arm, telling everyone she came across how this was her Marty’s boyfriend, and everyone seemed quite taken by his charming personality and rugged good looks.
When Tim and their mother headed toward where their father sat in the back, chatting with Danny’ parents, Marty froze. Sophia clutched his forearm, and the two of them held their breath.
Emiliano Valdez was the kindest man to ever walk the planet, but he could usually spot bullshit at twenty paces. When Tim and their father shook hands and Tim sat down with them at the table, Marty and Sophia could suddenly breathe again.
“I think your secret’s safe,” she finally answered. “For now at least.”
“What do you mean?”
She nodded to where Christian skulked in the corner. He had his eyes trained on every move Tim made. “That bastard is up to something.”
When wasn’t Christian up to something?
“Do you think he’s jealous?”
Sophia exhaled and gazed up at the ceiling. “Why do you even care? Christian Wilder is a no-good buttmunch who should die in a deep, dark hole.” To say his sister didn’t like her fiancé’s best friend was an understatement.
Marty shrugged. “I guess it would just be nice if I could get at least one win.”
“Over Christian?” she asked as if she couldn’t believe her ears. “Marty, just being a decent human being makes you the champion in that contest.”
Yeah, because everyone knows nice guys finish first.
“You need to get over this obsession you have with trying to one-up Christian. It doesn’t matter how many guys he’s dated since you two broke up. All that matters is you’re finally free of him. He’s poison, and you know it.”
“I know, but still.”
She held both Marty’s hands in hers and forced him to look in her eyes. “I’ll say this one more time.” Her voice was firm but filled with undying love and support. “You’re probably one of the sweetest, most caring men I’ve met in my life. Are you a bit weird sometimes? God, yes! Is your ass flatter than a tortilla? You bet!”
“Is this supposed to be helpful?” he asked.
“Anyone would be lucky to have you, but you don’t deserve to be with just anyone. You deserve someone special, someone who’s going to see what a special gift you are. But until you find that special someone, I want you to make me a promise.”
Marty flashed his sister a bashful smile and nodded. “What is it?”
She spun him around and faced him in Tim’s direction. “Until you meet that special guy, I want you to hit that and hit it hard.”
MARTY didn’t go over to Tim like his sister wanted him to. Instead, he veered straight over to the bar. What he needed right now was a drink.
Too bad the bartender wasn’t paying any attention to him. Not that they ever did. Even if he walked around with a marching band, they’d still ignore him.
It was a curse that came with being an average joe wearing a blazer over a Batman T-shirt. It always pissed him off. His money was just as good as everyone else’s, but instead of causing a stink, Marty would do what he always did—sit there and wait with a smile.
Could he be any more of a doormat?
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked.
Marty started. This was the first time in, like, ever he’d been waited on this quickly. He was just about to answer when a voice behind him ordered. “Dirty martini, please. Extra dirty.”
Both the order and the suggestive tone of voice told him who had come to join him at the bar. Marty scowled and glanced over his shoulder to see Christian standing behind him with a crooked grin plastered across his spray-tanned face.
“Can I get you anything?” Christian asked. He knew full well that bartenders ignored Marty, which was why he often got their drinks when they went out together.
“I can order my own drink,” Marty replied through pressed lips.
“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked, strumming his fingers across the bar as if he had somewhere else to be.
“Vodka,” Marty replied.
“And what?” the bartender asked, glancing down at his watch.
“And a glass,” he replied, tapping once on the bar. He was done being patient with this jerk.
When the bartender turned around to get their drinks, Christian sidled up next to him and leaned against the railing. He adjusted his suit jacket so that it lay perfectly across his shoulders. Heaven forbid it had a crease! But that had always been Christian’s way. He wore suits from the courtroom to the bar and into the bedroom. He was a raven-haired Barney Stinson without any of the legendary awesomeness of Neil Patrick Harris.
“Straight vodka?” Christian asked. “Since when don’t you order a Cape Cod?”
“Since now,” he replied, staring straight ahead and refusing to look at Christian.
The bartender brought them their drinks and their bill. Marty threw back the shot. It burned like hell all the way down. He wanted to scream or, at the very least, jump up and down in pain, but he wouldn’t give either of them the satisfaction. He breathed through the burn, and when it finally subsided, he tossed a ten on the bar and turned to walk away.
“Hey!” Christian said, following him. “I want to talk to you.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk to you,” he replied as he wove his way past a group waiting to be seated.
Christian grabbed him by the elbow and tugged him back. “Come on, Marty. It’s been months. Can’t you get past being pissed at me?”
Marty took a deep breath and gazed up into the dark chocolate eyes that always got Christian his way. “I’m not angry with you anymore, Christian. I just really don’t give a shit.”
“That’s a lie,” he responded with a flash of his pearly whites. “You still care for me. We both know it.” He winked at Marty as if to tell him it was their little secret.
“No.” His tone was firm. “I don’t. What I do care about is my sister and making sure she has the perfect wedding she’s always dreamed of. So since you’re my soon-to-be brother-in-law’s best man, I’m going to mind my manners and keep the peace. For my sister.”
Christian’s grin turned into a broad smile. “Look at you pretending to be all tough and indignant. It’s so cute.”
Marty felt a migraine coming on. “My God. Were you always this much of a fucking asshole?”
“Whoa!” Christian threw up his hands as if he had no clue he was being a fuckwad. “Why the name-calling? I just called you cute.”
“He is cute. Isn’t he?”
Tim suddenly appeared at Marty’s side. He slid his hand around Marty’s waist and pulled him close. “I know I thought so from the first moment I laid eyes on him over by the punch bowl.”
Marty opened his mouth to speak, but surprise had stolen his voice. Did Tim really think he was cute? No, that couldn’t be true. It was part of the act. It had to be.
Christian’s nostrils flared. “So, Jim. How long are you in San Antonio for?”
“It’s Tim,” Tim replied with one arched eyebrow. He pulled Marty closer and locked gazes with Christian. Why did Marty suddenly feel as if this was going to turn into a pissing match? “And I’ll be here until after the wedding.”
Christian nodded as if he expected that answer. “Well, I’m glad you could finally make it. I was starting to wonder if you even existed.” He dragged his gaze from Tim to Marty, and a knowing grin suddenly materialized. Did Christian suspect this was a ruse?
“Oh, I’m real,” Tim replied. “Just busy.”
“Ah yes.” Christian nodded. “I’m sure prancing around in your underwear is a tough gig. I know it wears me out whenever I come home from the courthouse and walk around half-naked in my Calvin Kleins.”
“Calvin Klein makes a good pair of underwear,” Tim said. “But they’re not for me.”
“Too stylish?” Christian asked, brushing a stray piece of lint from his sleeve.
Tim shook his head. “Too small for my junk.”
Marty snorted while Christian bared his teeth.
“Come on, babe,” Tim said, looking down at Marty with wide, adoring eyes. “Let’s find a place to sit. It’s almost time to eat.”
Marty nodded. He didn’t dare try to speak. If he did, he’d bust out in laughter.
“Then, after we eat,” Tim said as they turned to walk away, “you can take me home for some dessert.” He glanced over his shoulder at Christian and winked.
Although Marty would have done anything to see the look on Christian’s face, he never once turned around. Instead, he took Tim’s hand, squeezed it in thanks, and followed him to the table.