Blindsided (Fake Boyfriend #4)(72)

Talon turns to glare at him, and Alan throws up his hands.

“Okay, fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. This doesn’t affect Miller as much as it does you. You have further to fall. You’ve already pissed off some major endorsements with your ‘scheduling conflict.’ Meanwhile, you’ve been sitting on your ass training a lost cause.”

Now I can taste bile. Nice. Talon blew off endorsement deals for me? I suspected as much, because huge stars like Talon generally have a busier schedule off season than when we play. Hearing it for a fact makes it worse—like it’s the actual truth instead of an insecurity I can try to rationalize and dismiss.

“Last I checked, I pay you to support my decisions,” Talon says through gritted teeth.

“You pay me to do what’s best for you.”

“For my career, you mean. Having Miller on the field with me is what’s best for my career. You need to remember that.”

There’s a knock at the door, and Damon lets Lennon in.

“Thanks for coming.”

Lennon smiles at him. “No problem. What’s with all the secre—”

He stops short when he sees Talon approach me and land his ass on the ornate love seat next to me. I was reluctant to sit on it at first in fear of breaking it. It doesn’t look like it can hold me, let alone Talon as well. Its flimsy legs still unnerve me.

Lennon’s blue eyes shine bright behind his thick-framed glasses.

“This is all top secret for now, but I know I can trust you,” Damon says.

“Of course.” Lennon’s glance flits between Talon and me. “But can someone tell me straight up what’s going on? Because I think I’m jumping to all the wrong conclusions here, seeing as I’ve just been hired to write about LGBTQ players, and now I’m about to sit down with the biggest quarterback in the league and his college roommate. I’m trying not to salivate over here.”

Damon claps his back. “You’re not far off the mark.”

Talon reaches for my hand. “Miller and I … we’re … well … our story is kinda complicated.”

“Not that complicated,” I say. “I’ve wanted him since we were teenagers, and I thought I’d never get him.”

Lennon’s hand goes to his heart. “Aww. This is so awesome.”

“Rules,” Damon interjects. “They can refuse to answer any question you ask, and Alan and I can object as well. This article is not to hit the stands until we give you approval, but it might have to be released at short notice if this gets out before we planned it. That’s the only reason you’re getting advance warning about this, and you’re the only interview we’ve approved.”

“Done, done, and easy. I won’t tell Sports Illustrated about it until you’re ready. They’ll want an official photoshoot, but that can be done short notice if needed. After my last pushy editor, I’m not going to risk the story being released before any of you are ready.”

Damon smiles. “I knew you were the right guy for the job.”

“You mean apart from him being your client’s boyfriend?” Talon quips.

“I trusted Lennon before he even knew Ollie,” Damon says. “We ready to do this?”

“Yep. Let’s do it,” Talon says. His confidence hasn’t wavered, but the ill feeling in my stomach won’t go away.

Something isn’t sitting right with this, and I don’t know if it’s because I can practically feel Talon’s agent glaring daggers at me or if it’s still the off feeling from this morning.

This is what I’ve wanted nearly my entire adult life—Talon and me together.

It’s just nerves.

Alan stands over the other side of the room, his arms folded and a harsh scowl on his face. That makes it worse. I’m worried Alan brings up good points. He’s right when he says I don’t have much to lose. My career is rocky as it is. This will either make or break me. This might boost my career or kill it, but it will definitely give my profile a bump up in the celebrity world. I’ll go from being in the background of paparazzi shots to being the one they want a photo of. Talon’s already at that level, and his career has nowhere to go but down.

I don’t want to be responsible for that.

Now the seed’s been planted, it’s only downhill from here.

We shouldn’t be doing this.

Fuck, why did I think we were ready for this? We both went from knowing we had to stay quiet to suddenly sitting for articles that will paint us as a committed couple. Like the most committed couple to ever couple, and here I sit wondering if Talon is one hundred percent sure.

I should trust him. He’s been nothing but open since this whole thing started, but it’s fast. It’s superfast.

You’ve been in love with him since college. That’s not fast.

It’s superfast for Talon. He only realized he wasn’t straight a few months ago, and his agent certainly isn’t confident in our relationship.

The rational voice in my head tells me that nothing’s changed, but we’ve taken such small steps I haven’t noticed how far we’ve come, and now we’re here doing a coming out interview about our relationship, when we haven’t even said I love you to each other.

Talon’s putting a major risk on his career for a small chance this might actually work between us.