hang out that you spent five grand for a few hours with me.”
The guy might be sexy as hell, but he was a total asshole. He’d seemed uncertain, possibly a bit shy, when I’d first seen him walk into the ballroom earlier. Armed with Zach’s information about this guy being some sort of big shot in baseball, I revised my earlier impression. He wasn’t uncomfortable, he was self-absorbed and probably felt something like this was beneath him.
Unlike some of us, he was probably here because he figured it’d be a good career move to be seen doing something charitable on his downtime. Well, that was too bad, because I wasn’t a fanboy and I didn’t give a shit about stroking his ego.
“Actually, I bid as much as I did because you looked ready to crawl into a hole every time another woman placed a bid on you,” I informed him. I met his gaze, silently daring him to disagree with me. “Now, I realize your problem is the huge stick up your ass. You probably don’t even know what you were raising money for tonight, but you needed something to keep yourself in the human interest spotlight, and you’d been hoping a bachelor’s auction would do the trick. And as an added bonus, the lucky lady might put out, keeping you from having to work to get laid.”
PJ visibly flinched at my accusation. Good. The cocky sonuvabitch deserved to be brought down from his high horse. “You don’t know shit about me.”
“You’re right,” I agreed, standing a bit taller as I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned in. “And every time you open your mouth, I’m a little happier about that fact.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, shrinking back into the corner. His eyes darted around the room as though he was trying to make sure our little spat wasn’t turning into the sideshow for the evening.
Wanting to make sure I kept the upper hand, I leaned in so close I could smell his cologne as I whispered in his ear. “It means you think you’re hot shit, but you’re not. I don’t know what your deal is, but you’re hiding something. And as uncomfortable as you obviously are right now, I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out your secret.”
PJ grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back. Not hard, but enough to let me know he wasn’t comfortable with me in his personal space.
Good.
“Look, I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you can’t fuck with someone else’s life and think it’s okay. There are a lot of eyes watching us because of your little stunt. This might’ve been a fun little prank for you. Not everyone can wave their rainbow flag. It’s just not possible for some of us.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I shot back, reminding myself this was not the time to freak out on him, no matter how much I wanted to. I’d been keeping Zach’s secret for years, because being a Southern boy with dreams of playing football didn’t work if you came out as gay.
And the way PJ tensed every time I got too close to him, combined with the way he looked ready to puke as those women were bidding on him, I had a feeling he’d spent years doing the same shit as Zach. As much as I wanted to hate PJ, he had to know I understood.
But I couldn’t come out and accuse him of being gay if he wasn’t, either. Shit. I needed Zach. We needed to get out of the hall, because as the auction wound down, more people were filing out of the ballroom to mingle. “Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I still think you’re hiding something, but it’s not really my place to call you out on it. God knows we all have plenty of skeletons in our closets. Why don’t we go down and have that dessert I paid five grand for and start over?”
“Why?” PJ didn’t seem convinced of my sincerity. I couldn’t blame him. The night had turned into a messed up roller coaster and I wanted to get off. “Seems like you’ve already made up your mind that I’m a conceited asshole looking for an easy piece of ass, so why not go back and hang on your little buddy over there? Or did you already piss him off, too?”
I looked around, trying to figure out who PJ was talking about. The only person I’d