Ficorpio
Chapter 1
After filming a queer romance series, I never managed to leave the role behind.
Under the guise of friendship, I coaxed an award-winning actor into living with me.
Then he found my secret love diary.
Adrian Sterling’s expression turned icy. “You’re washed up, buried in debt, and somehow romance is still all you think about…”
Overcome with guilt, I packed my bags that very night and moved out.
I never expected the series to become a breakout hit after its release—or that we’d have to reunite for a publicity campaign.
Afraid Adrian might misunderstand, I kept pretending we barely knew each other.
But that night, he tagged me publicly for the entire internet to see.
“You left a box of T’s behind when you moved out. Come pick them up.”
Three years earlier.
I was a struggling actor when I landed a role in a queer romance series.
My costar was Adrian Sterling, whose investor-backed casting had secured him the other lead.
He played an obsessive doctor who forced his love on the married straight man I portrayed.
A man from Adrian’s world carried the languid ease of someone who had never been denied anything he wanted. Perhaps that was why he found the role so fascinating: a man tormented by the one thing he could never have.
We spent nearly every day together during the six-month shoot.
On-screen, the doctor fell for the straight man.
Off-screen, I was the one who gradually fell for Adrian.
But Adrian only ever saw me as a good friend.
When he learned I was drowning in debt and living in a run-down apartment in a cheap inner-city neighborhood, he kindly suggested I move into his luxury riverfront apartment.
Once filming wrapped, we should have gone our separate ways.
He would return to being the privileged heir he had always been, while I went back to taking whatever work I could find.
But I was too greedy.
Terrified that I might never have another reason to see him, I accepted.
…
During my first two weeks there, Adrian came by only once.
That was when I finally understood.
The apartment was merely a favor tossed casually to a friend. He had never intended to live there with me.
So I came up with a foolish plan.
I practiced cooking until my hands ached and studied every detail of his habits, determined to make him feel comfortable whenever he visited.
Slowly, Adrian began coming over more often.
When he got drunk, he liked to drink the hangover tonic I made, then cling to me and act spoiled.
“Elliot, how do you smell this good?” he murmured once. “And your waist is so slim. You’re nothing like those stinking friends of mine…”
The worst time he crossed the line, he blew softly against my ear, wrapped an arm around my waist, and called me his wife.
Chapter 2
Heat rushed all the way to the tips of my ears. Deliberately, I called him by the doctor’s name from the show.
His gaze changed in an instant.
Then he kissed me with savage force.
I parted my lips in a daze and let him take whatever he wanted.
“God, you’re shameless…”
“When you act like this, how are you ever supposed to find a woman?”
He kept cursing under his breath, but the words spilling from his mouth were the doctor’s lines.
I held him tighter.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who needed to break free of the role.
Once Adrian sobered up, I had no choice but to behave and play the part of his good friend.
There had been a time when I let myself hope. A time when I thought I might be special to him.
He even took me to meet the friends he’d known since childhood.
The moment they saw me, every one of them put on an exaggerated expression.
“Wow. So you’re the gorgeous guy Adrian’s been hiding away.”
“No wonder he refused to bring you around. Afraid one of us might steal you?”
Their teasing left me flustered, and I instinctively looked at Adrian.
“Oh, shut up.” He pulled me behind him protectively. “Leave him alone. He embarrasses easily.”
Later, when the drinking games began, Adrian took several shots for me.
In the dim light, I stared helplessly at the clean, striking line of his profile. Heat spread through my chest.
Maybe Adrian did like me, at least a little.
Then we started playing Truth or Dare.
Adrian lost and chose truth.
“I heard that show you two filmed gets pretty intense,” one of his friends said. “You kissed so much your lips were swollen. Are you seriously telling us neither of you caught feelings?”
My heart climbed into my throat.
Adrian kicked him under the table. “Don’t make it weird. We’re both straight.”
“Then what about that long-legged model whose post you liked the other day? You trying to get with her?”
“I could introduce you two…”
I felt as if I’d been dropped into freezing water. My mind went numb, the voices around me fading into a dull buzz.
On the ride home, Adrian noticed my mood. He cupped my face and pinched my cheeks.
“Don’t be mad. My finger slipped. I liked her post by accident.”
I smiled as if it didn’t matter.
“I’m not mad. I like long legs too.”
Adrian was six foot three, with proportions so perfect they hardly seemed real.
The next second, he slid a finger between my lips and swept it through my mouth twice.
His gaze darkened. “Elliot Bennett, are you thinking about dating someone?”
My mouth was sensitive. Tears immediately blurred my vision, and I nodded.
“The director did suggest that once filming ended, the two of us should each find a girlfriend and try having a real relationship.”
Adrian’s mouth curved into a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “You haven’t even finished paying off your debts. Who would want to date you?”
His face was impossibly beautiful.
Chapter 3
I had nuzzled the sharp bridge of his nose, sucked the slight swell of his lower lip, and kissed his trembling lashes.
I was like an addict beyond saving, incapable of enduring the withdrawal.
“Who are you planning to inflict yourself on, Elliot?”
Adrian’s voice remained unreadable.
“Claire Hart? If I remember right, your first love was her type—the gentle, sophisticated older woman.”
Claire was the actress who had played my wife in Out of Place. We’d stayed in touch after filming wrapped, and she occasionally helped me find work.
I couldn’t understand why Adrian was bringing her up.
“She’s far too good for me. I could never deserve her…”
Something inscrutable crossed Adrian’s face. His grip on my jaw tightened until he lost all sense of restraint.
The marks he left took a long time to fade.
I had a dream.
I dreamed we had just finished filming an intimate scene and were holed up in a hotel on a rainy day, helping each other take the edge off.
I might not have worked on many productions, but even I knew what that made us: set husbands.
And whatever happened on set had to end the moment filming did.
I woke with a start. The moon hung high beyond the window.
When I saw the state I was in, I buried my burning face in the pillow and punched it twice.
A few minutes later, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I slipped into the room next door and pulled one of Adrian’s pajama shirts from his closet.
I had almost no experience with this kind of thing.
Adrian’s scent filled my lungs, but no matter what I tried, I couldn’t quite get there.
It was torture.
In the end, I had to replay those intimate scenes in my head. The naked hunger in his eyes when he’d looked at me.
“Adrian…”
At last, I gasped his name, and my mind went blank.
Once my breathing settled, I went to wash the shirt, my face still blazing.
The man in the mirror looked dazed, his eyes dark and hazy with desire.
A celebrity-news alert appeared on my phone.
#AdrianSterlingPartiesOnAYachtWithFemaleModel
His friends certainly worked fast. They’d already introduced him to someone.
His fans were flooding the comments, insisting it was nothing more than a casual outing between friends. Everyone in the industry knew Adrian did whatever he pleased, but when it came to relationships, his record had always been clean.
I opened my messages and saw that Adrian had just posted a status update.
There’s nothing going on between me and her. It was a magazine shoot. That’s all.
I had no idea who he was trying to convince.
The next time we saw each other was on my birthday.
I cooked enough food to cover the entire table. Adrian arrived carrying a cake.
It was blue, my favorite color, with my name scrawled crookedly across the top.
Adrian’s gaze drifted away from mine. “The decorator was new. Their technique needs work.”
“But don’t worry. It tastes good. I made sure they used the most expensive ingredients…”
My eyes curved with my smile. “Thank you. I love it.”
Adrian smiled too, then urged me to make a wish.