the unknowns of what was going to happen next terrified him. He hadn’t wanted to give up Paris, but his brother had asked, and Archer couldn’t tell him no. Archer had never been able to tell him no, even when it came with a heavy price.
He missed being a nobody back at the labs. A nerd in thick-rimmed glasses with his badly accented French which made the few friends he managed to win over, laugh and like him just a little bit more. He wasn’t meant for this life of public scrutiny and politics. He had years more ahead of him to sink into his research, and then a lifetime after that to make a name for himself in the world of astrophysics. He wanted to get lost in the endless expanse of open space, to bury himself in the heavy, blinding gasses of nebulae, and never come back. But for now, that wasn’t his life. For now, he had given that up because he loved his brother.
Grabbing his loafers, he walked into the living room and sat, deliberately taking his time to slip his feet in. He smiled to himself at the sound of Katerina’s huff, and he did his best not to laugh as she no doubt sent at least a dozen texts to Rex letting him know that his baby brother was being disagreeable.
“Showing up late isn’t going to change anything except people are going to take more notice,” she warned him.
And logically he knew that was true, but he was hoping if he acted out enough, Rex wouldn’t want him to show up at these lunches. “Yeah well, he doesn’t need me for this.”
“He needs his out and proud gay brother because it helps that he has a strong, personal connection to the community he’s trying to uplift,” she snapped.
Archer’s cheeks pinked. “I’m not gay. I’m bisexual.”
She stared at him a long time. “You’ve only been in relationships with men.”
The fact that she even knew that about him, and that every one of his short-lived trysts was now being used against him to negate his sexuality was enough to send him flying over the edge into rage. “You know what, fuck you. You have no right to say that. I don’t have to defend my sexuality to someone who doesn’t know me.”
She hesitated. “I wasn’t trying to…”
“Yes, you were,” he snapped. “I don’t have to live up to some perfect idea of bisexuality in order to qualify as bisexual, and I’m not a fucking token he can parade around when it works for him.” He loved his brother, he respected his choice to remain closeted, but he was not the posterchild for the Good Gay Man. He never would be. He refused to be. He stormed ahead of her, and he could hear the soft click of her phone as she sent furious texts, and he knew what it was about. He knew she was trying to do damage control.
His phone rang five minutes into the drive, and he considered not answering it, but he knew better. “I’m not in the mood to talk.”
“Archer.” Rex’s gentle rumble—the one he used to use on Archer when he was young and moody and angry for no damn reason had a soothing effect he didn’t want. “She didn’t mean it.”
“I don’t appreciate this, Rex. This isn’t fair. I don’t need your staffers digging into my past, and I don’t need them using the men I’ve dated to try and negate my identity.”
“I know.” Rex breathed out a heavy sigh. “I gave my statement to the press already and they’re gone.”
Archer froze, his gaze trained out the window as the trees rushed by on the side of the freeway. “Seriously? Why?”
“Because I love you, and I’m sorry. There are some benefactors here for a couple of charities and I’d like you to join me for lunch. You and I both know why this is important to me, but I won’t let that happen again.”
“I don’t want my personal life blasted in the media for an agenda, and I certainly don’t fucking need to defend my own sexuality because I’m not bisexual enough,” he snapped.
“I’m sorry,” Rex said again, and his apology was kind enough that it made Archer angrier. He didn’t want his brother to be sincere right then—so he could at least feel justified in his anger.
It was hard enough dealing with the fact that Rex was one of the good guys in a sea of corruption, because it