Love Him Free (On the Market #1) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,7

of Eric’s endless words explaining why he was leaving, and none of them explained why he decided to take to Twitter ten minutes after everything ended. And none of them, really, explained why after fifteen years, Rocco suddenly wasn’t enough. Or why he’d fucked a guy the night before he bothered to end things.

Maybe it was just because Eric was falling in love with someone else.

Rocco: Just tell me why.

Eric: I don’t know how to explain it. I guess maybe he makes me feel the way you used to when you appreciated me. I want to be sorry, but I don’t know if I can be. Not when it feels this good. I know this has probably hurt you, but I bet it doesn’t hurt the way it should. Am I right?

He wanted to throw his phone against the wall and watch it crumble to the floor in pieces because that son of a bitch was right, and it didn’t hurt the way it should. But he wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. He wanted to get away, do something new and different and maybe completely off brand for him, only because he wanted to shed the outer-layers of himself that were all imprinted with the man Eric was.

He hit the home button, Eric’s tweet disappearing into the void of time and space, and he tried not to look at his DMs because he knew they were full to bursting. He had a few celebrity friends—and a few old real-life friends who were probably watching his life implode on itself, waiting for the supernova to consume what was left.

He wouldn’t let that happen.

Probably.

He would live well, god damn it.

Maybe.

Dragging a hand down his face, he tried to stand, but a wave of vertigo caught him so hard, he stumbled sideways and just managed to hit the couch cushions instead of the floor. He felt himself groan—it was probably loud, not that anyone was around to hear it. On his belly, his drunk-heavy limbs reached for the throw pillows that still smelled like that asshole, and he buried his face in them before closing his eyes.

When had he stopped loving Eric? Or more importantly—had he ever?

Rocco strolled into his agent’s office refusing to take off his sunglasses. His double shot Americano was cooling against his palm, and he was just barely starting to feel like a person again after a greasy plate of hash browns and two mimosas. He felt coated with grease and liquor sweat in spite of an extra-long shower, but it was hard to care when he knew something was going on.

He hadn’t bothered opening his text yet. The ones from Eric had stopped somewhere around nine the night before, and two of his brothers tried to get him to respond, but they were easy enough to ignore. None of them had really liked Eric, so at best they wanted to gloat, and he wasn’t in the mood.

Mostly, he was just stressed. He’d lost both his boyfriend, and more tragically, the interpreter he’d been working with the longest. The last thing he wanted to do right then was get in touch with the agency that employed Eric—and not just because he’d have to explain, though it was likely they already knew. But they hadn’t turned out the best interpreters in the past and once upon a time, Rocco had felt lucky to have Eric.

A bitter, sharp-edged laugh threatened to slip out, and he took a sip to wash it down as he tipped a little hello to the receptionist. If she tried to get his attention to stop him from pushing the elevator button, he wasn’t aware of it, and he was inside and riding up before she could follow.

Rocco knew he approached his agent with swagger that came with his own notoriety. He was unique—in the fact that he was as big as he was, with a body that required massive amounts of protein and the number of hours he spent in his gym with his trainer. He was attractive—which was a given for his industry. He had a nice, big, uncut cock that was sought after for close-up shots even when he wasn’t a headliner in a film. He was Deaf, and he knew both fetishists and the curious alike watched for that one single line at the end of every movie where he let himself voice his Deaf accent to the world.

Part of him hated that people got off on it, but the bigger