Taehyung

"Oh my God." I flopped onto Ewon's bed beside him "I needed that."

He moaned something that sounded like "Me too."

We lay there in silence for a moment, catching our breath and letting the dust settle. My body tingled all over, aching and twinging in places from the two rounds of acrobatic we'd had in the hour since I’d arrived, and this time I wasn't just lying down and Ewon on all four is just as hot as Ewon riding me. How had I spent so much of my life without this? Didn't matter. I had it now, and it was good, and I doubted it would have been this good with anyone else.

Ewon groaned as he pushed himself onto his elbow "Let me get rid of the ." he murmured, pausing to kiss my cheek "Be right back."

"'Kay."

One more kiss, and then he rolled to his feet and disappeared into the bathroom. It took me a minute to remember how my legs were supposed to move, but I finally managed to get on my feet too. Clumsily, I cleaned myself up, then dropped back onto the mattress. He joined me a moment later, and we came together in the middle like a couple of magnets. I swore once we were in bed together, we gravitated toward each other every single time, and I loved it.

I wasn't so sure how I felt about this silence, though.

had kept us occupied ever since I'd gotten here, but now that we were supposed to be relaxing, something was off. The fact that we were still touching and cuddling was reassuring, but it wasn't enough to keep me from noticing the uneasiness between us.

I pulled back just enough that we could look at each other without going cross-eyed "Hey. You okay?"

The way his eyes darted away from mine sent a chill through me.

"Ewon?" I touched his face "Everything all right?"

He swallowed "I, um..."

The chill got even colder.

After a moment, he cleared his throat "So, I saw you in an article earlier today."

"Oh yeah?" it wasn't unusual for my name to show up like that—hell it was a daily thing lately—but the apprehension in his eyes made my gut clench "What did they say?" 

"It was mostly about the movie you're starting next month." he avoided my gaze "But they also mentioned me. Again."

I swallowed "Did they?"

Ewon nodded and his eyes flicked up to meet mine "Yeah. They, um, it was just a sidebar. A picture of us with an offhand comment about how we'd been seen together and that neither of us had said anything beyond your publicist's statement."

"Same , different day, then."

"Yeah." he drew me into his arms, and as I rested my head on his chest, he went on "I've seen a few comments like that. Not full articles, but...it's on their mind. And it bugs me whenever they mention I'm a nurse living in Everett. I mean, it wouldn't take much to figure out exactly where I work, you know?"

I grimaced and nodded "Yeah. I know."

He sighed, his body tense all over even as he held me close. We lay in uneasy silence for a moment, and I could feel his heart thumping as hard as mine was.

We needed to talk about this. Really lay it out on the table, look it in the eye, and figure out where to go from here. Jennie was right—the press wasn't going to back off as long as they thought they had a chance to be the first to break the story. My life wasn't that ing interesting, but they sure thought it was.

I gently freed myself from Ewon's embrace and to my elbow so I could see him "I know it's stressful. Believe me, I know. But maybe we need to beat them at their own game."

Ewon's brow furrowed "How so?"

"Maybe...maybe we need to go public."

His eyes widened.

I rested a hand on his chest, and carefully told him everything Jennie had told me.

When I was done, he said "So, if we do decide to come out..." he chewed his lip "How do we do it? Just change our Facebook relationship statuses or something?"

"We could. Or we could be a bit less subtle about it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean actually go out in public as a couple. Right in front of cameras and everything." I paused "In fact, I've got a charity event coming up. It'll have the red carpet and the whole nine yards." I searched his eyes and whispered "You could come with me as my date." 

Ewon paled "That, uh..." he gulped, and I swore I could hear the gears turning in his head and see the film reels showing him a horror-movie version of what I was suggesting.

I touched his hand "Those events—they're honestly not as bad as they sound. The walk on the red carpet only takes a couple of minutes, and once that's over, it's food, booze, and stupid long speeches."

He exhaled slowly "And you'd really want to take me to something like that? Out in public with—"

"Ewon." I smiled and smoothed his hair "Are you kidding? I want to take you to everything."

"You sure you don't want to start small?" he smirked "Make sure I can be trusted to behave in public?"

"Please." I rolled my eyes "I'm the one who was raised on a farm. If I can behave, so can you."

He barked a laugh, but he sobered pretty fast "So you're serious. You want to do this."

"Yeah, I do. And, um—it might get a little crazy at first. Everyone's going to speculate about everything, and they'll probably hound us both for a while. But once somebody has a baby or a nasty divorce or something, everyone will lose interest in us." I ran my thumb along the edge of his jaw "We'll just have to ride it out until then." 

Ewon gulped "But you still think it's a good idea?"

I nodded "The tabloids are already sniffing around. Right now, they have control of the story. By coming out, we're doing this on our terms and giving them a hell of a lot less incentive to try to out us."

He seemed to mull it over for a moment "Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't make me nervous, going out in public like that."

"I know. Me too. But at least this way we can stop worrying about someone finding out."

"That would be nice." he said softly "What about your family, though?"

I tensed "What about them?"

"Well, I mean...they're bound to hear about it if it goes this public."

"So?" I shrugged tightly "I don't have any contact with them anymore, and they already know I'm out. Finding out I have a boyfriend won't exactly be a huge revelation." my own words echoed in my head, and I cringed "I mean, if 'boyfriend' is the word we'd use. I...have no idea how..." I cleared my throat "Is that the word we'd use?"

Ewon's expression softened and he touched my face "Oh yeah. I think that's definitely the word we should use. It's what I've been using." 

I relaxed a bit, releasing a breath "Oh. Okay. I mean I guess we have been using it, but I just didn't want to be presumptuous and—"

His gentle kiss shut me up, and after a couple of seconds of his warm lips against mine, my apprehension melted away. I wasn't usually such a rambling idiot around him, but when I got nervous, I couldn't help it. I wanted to get this right. Maybe I'd watched a few too many romantic comedies, but I was sure at every turn that I'd say something stupid and send him out the door.

But then he'd kiss me, and suddenly everything would be okay. Nothing had to be perfect—even though it pretty much was—and he could read between my nervous lines and hear what I was trying to say even if I botched the delivery.

Drawing back a little, Ewon whispered "You're not being presumptuous."

"Okay. Okay, good. Anyway, I'm not worried about what my family thinks. There's a reason I'm not in contact with them anymore." I held his gaze and ran my thumb along his cheekbone "If they find out, they find out. I just think going public would kill the excitement for the paparazzi. We'll never completely escape cameras and speculation, but they'll lose some interest."

Ewon chewed the inside of his cheek, eyes unfocused for a few long seconds. The gears and film reels were definitely turning in his head again. I got it. He was such a private person, and I knew all too well how much it to transition to life in the public eye. Finally, though, he nodded, and a little smile played at his lips "Okay. Let's do this."

My heart skipped "Really?"

"Yeah. Really. I'll follow your lead since you know how to handle these s better than I do."

I wouldn't go that far, but okay "Do you want to do this at the charity gala? Or just...go out? Like a normal couple?"

"The gala, I think. Might as well blow the closet doors off, right?"

"True. Get out in front of as many cameras as we can and be done with it."

He shivered, and then another furrow appeared between his eyebrows "What's the dress code for stuff like that, anyway?"

"This one is black tie."

Ewon grimaced "I don't exactly have a tux lying around."

"No, but they can be rented. And I know a guy in LA who rents the really nice ones, not the cheap ones you'd wear to prom. Swing into a suit shop and get your measurements, send them to me, and I'll make sure he's got something ready for you." 

"How much does that run?"

"Don't worry about it. I can—"

"Tae." he took my hand and kissed my palm "I don't want you paying for everything. I'm not rolling in money, but I can pay my way."

"Still. Events like this can be expensive as hell. And we're going so we can come out as a couple because my career means everyone is watching us."

"Would you still want to take me even if that wasn't an issue?"

"What? Of course I would." I closed my hand around his "If we didn't have to worry about coming out, it would be a no-brainer for me to take you to every event." I paused "I want to take you every event. Just, you know, without overwhelming you."

Ewon smiled "And I want to go with you. I can pay for my own tux. I promise."

"Okay. At least the limo's paid for."

"Limo?" the smile turned to a grin "Cool."

"Yeah, I won't lie—the novelty of showing up to these things in stretch limos has not worn off." 

"Good, then I won't feel like such a dork."

"Eh, we'll be dorks together."

His grin got even bigger "Now I'm really looking forward to it."

"Me too." I laughed "These events are pretty fun too. The food is good, and hopefully no one's speech will bore us all into comas." sobering a bit, I added "And it'll probably be more fun to go to the one after, since we won't be stressing about this anymore."

Ewon's grin vanished, and he nodded "Which I will be this time."

"Me too. Definitely." I leaned in, our lips almost touching "It might get bumpy once word gets out. Everyone's going to want a story." I exhaled "But we'll get through it. I promise."

"I know." Ewon kissed me softly "I could think of worse things for the world to know about than me dating you."

I laughed and pulled him closer "Ditto."

He kissed me again, and neither of us said anything more. Holding him tight, I let cool relief wash over me right alongside the warm arousal. This wasn't over yet—wouldn't be until we'd come out and the resulting drama had died down—but I felt better. Those nerves that had been chasing me around lately were backing off, and I finally felt like we weren't on quite such a precarious edge anymore. 

Which was a damned good thing.

Because when I wasn't so afraid of us falling off a cliff, I could focus a lot more on how quickly and eagerly I was falling for him.