As soon as Trent had seen Ashby and that guy Kiefer, he’d known something wasn’t right. He probably should have checked the situation before going barreling in, but the way Ashby was recoiling from the dude’s touch made Trent see red.

He knew he didn’t have a stellar record when it came to heartbreaks, but he would never creep on a girl who was clearly not interested. Despite his face being hidden behind Kiefer’s white Stetson, Trent could still tell from Ashby’s clenched fists and ramrod straight back that he was very unhappy.

He wasn’t sure what the hell possessed him to act like Ashby was his boyfriend, but it was the first idea that popped into his head and ran with it. Thankfully, Ashby responded like it was exactly what he’d needed.

Still, when they’d watched Kiefer leave, Trent had turned uncertainly to Ashby as he gently let him go. “Sorry,” he said. “Seemed like that guy was an asshole.”

Ashby rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Yes,” he said thickly. Then he took a gulp from the half-finished cocktail in front of him. “He was. And I’m deeply grateful for the dashing rescue. I hate when things like that happen. It would be nice not to have to rely on a friend to bail me out, but…” He trailed off and gave Trent an apologetic smile. “I hope you were planning on dinner after all, because it’s my treat after that. I insist.”

Trent opened his mouth. He was so used to covering the check when he went out with friends. But Ashby’s eyes were glassy and it seemed important to him to pay Trent back.

“Okay,” he said. “But let me buy you a new drink.” Kiefer had obviously bought the fresh one for Ashby and a petty part of Trent didn’t want him touching it.

A strange emotion played across Ashby’s face. “Deal,” he said softly. Then he leaned against the counter, catching the bartender’s attention. “These were simply wonderful, Darnell,” he said with a genuine air. “But I think we’re going to switch to wine now.” He glanced at Trent. “Unless you prefer something else?”

Trent shook his head. He’d drink anything, quite frankly. “Sounds good.”

He watched while Ashby amiably chatted with Darnell, shaking off his fright at having that douchebag’s hands on him. He just loved people, or so Trent was starting to think, as he asked Darnell his opinion on the best red wine they had. Darnell, in turn, brightened up at being asked about something he was clearly passionate about.

By the time the two of them moved into the restaurant area, Ashby happily knew which wine to ask their waiter for and seemed fairly recovered. But Trent was perturbed.

“That happen a lot?” he asked once they were seated with their menus. Trent slipped his leather jacket off, noticing Ashby’s gaze lingering on it as he did.

Then Ashby looked questioningly at him before understanding what he had asked.

“Ah, yes,” he said, toying with one of the prongs of his fork. “I’m always too scared to tell them to fuck off. I bet you think I’m pathetic.”

Trent frowned at him. “Not your fault dickheads get all pervy.”

He glanced up and realized Ashby was looking intently at him. “I suppose,” he said. “But I’d like to stand up for myself a little bit more. I’m sure you’ve never suffered from unwanted attention in your life.”

Trent thought back to the paparazzi that had hounded him until he’d snapped. Dez Starr’s face probably disagreed with that statement.

Ashby seemed to realize he’d said something off. “I mean, I doubt you’ve felt very afraid,” he said quietly, looking down at his menu. He blinked a couple of times. “You’re so big. You could scare anyone off.”

He was clearly disturbed by Kiefer’s advances and Trent felt furious all over again. It was true he could handle himself. Ashby looked so much more delicate. “That sucks,” he said, unsure what else to offer. “Glad I could help this time.”

Ashby relaxed a little. Then he reached over to squeeze Trent’s hand. “Me too,” he said. “Thank you. Now, enough of this moping. Let’s act like we’re on holiday.”

He offered his dazzling smile to the waiter so he could order their wine as well as olives and bread. He was extremely confident asking for what he wanted but not patronizing to the staff. It made Trent feel like he’d been brought up with both money and manners.

“So, I met your dad,” Ashby said, sipping his wine once their waiter delivered it. “He was walking Merlin. He seemed nice.”

Trent blinked at him. “You…talked to my dad?”

Ashby nodded. He didn’t bite into his bread, rather ripped off little bits, then buttered them individually before popping them into his mouth to chew slowly. “He said to tell you that he hoped you had a nice night. I invited him to join us, but I think he felt like he’d be intruding. It was nice to say hello though. Do you visit him here often?”

Ashby was so innocent, but Trent couldn’t help but raise his hackles. His dad wouldn’t talk to him, but he’d talk to Ashby? Fine. “No,” he said. “I’ve not been here in a while.”

He didn’t want to go into why he was back or talk about his mom. He didn’t want to admit that Ashby had probably exchanged more kind words with his dad than he had in years. So instead he sipped his wine and mustered up his best smile.

“It’s nice to be back,” he said. He wasn’t entirely lying. His cabin was nice and quiet, and he hadn’t expected to make a friend. Even if Ashby was so completely different from him. Trent leaned his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand, arching an eyebrow. “What about you? You seem like the kind of guy to have lots of friends. Why come here alone?”

Ashby closed his menu. Their eager waiter spotted the gesture and zipped over to ask if they were ready to order. Trent already knew he wanted the steak, so he let Ashby go first as he was also decided, choosing the ravioli. The waiter took their menus once they were done, leaving them one less thing to fiddle with.

“I do,” said Ashby. “Have a lot of friends, I mean. I went to school abroad and didn’t really stay in touch with a lot of those people. But I’ve met loads of people on the London scene.” He laughed and rolled his eyes. “The trouble is, you meet each other through partying and dating and shagging. Then you’re in this strange bubble where most of you know what everyone else looks like when they orgasm.” He smiled and touched his thumb to his lower lip before knocking back the rest of his wine. “They are a lovely lot, though,” he concluded while he topped up both their glasses. “Sorry, that was probably more information than you were expecting.”

Trent shrugged. It took a lot to surprise him. “So, what? You got bored of them?”

“Oh, no,” said Ashby, his eyes wide and earnest. “No, if anything, they were sick of me, and, well…I guess I just needed a break from everyone.” Trent raised an eyebrow at him and he sighed in response. “I was dating this guy for a while. Gordon. He was absolutely rubbish, but I was too stubborn to see it, even when my friends tried to save me from myself. I…may have said some unkind things to them.”

Trent could sympathize with that. He’d accidentally burned far too many bridges in his life. It was a miracle he was still as close with Blake, Joey and Raiden as he was. “But you broke up with the asshole?” he prompted. He found he was curious to know.

Ashby’s eyes darkened and he took another big gulp of wine. Did he realize how the altitude would affect him up here? He’d get drunk pretty fast if he kept that up. Normally, Trent was the first to start a party, but he was strangely worried for Ashby’s well-being. So he took a sip from his own water, hoping to drop a hint.

“Yes,” said Ashby firmly. “I should have done it ages ago. He…well, I found him cheating on me. So I finally got enough backbone to break it off.” He sounded disgusted with himself.

Trent scowled. “It takes a lot of guts to end a long-term thing,” he said. His co-star on The Fixer had been in the midst of a divorce during filming and Trent had supported her through a lot of shit. Hell, Barry had been divorced three times. Trent knew what kind of toll that could take on a person.

Ashby offered him a small smile. “I guess,” he said.

Their food arrived and distracted them for a few minutes while they ate. Trent kept glancing at Ashby though, just every now and again. Who could cheat on such a nice guy? He was gorgeous, too, objectively speaking. His ex must have been a real piece of work.

“You feel like more boarding tomorrow?” Trent asked before he could consider the implications. But as soon as he said it, he thought he’d like that a lot. Who else was he going to hang out with, after all? He’d just spend the rest of the week getting more annoyed that he didn’t have a date to Blake and Elion’s wedding.

Ashby blinked, then grinned. “I’d love to,” he said. He placed his cutlery down on his ravioli and drank a little more of his wine. “I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it! I was actually not half bad, I thought, once we got going. You’re a pretty good teacher, you know.” He frowned. “But you’re sure you don’t mind?”

Trent took a drink, not wanting Ashby to feel like he was the only one enjoying the wine. He and Darnell had certainly picked a good one. “What else am I gonna do?” he asked, although the question was kind of rhetorical. He already knew he didn’t have much else other than his TV to keep him entertained. Plus, Ashby was fun. He didn’t mind spending time together. In fact, he thought he could maybe call Ashby a real friend if they gave it time. He got a good vibe from him despite them only knowing each other a day.

Ashby’s smile was somewhat coy. “Well, I’d love to, in that case,” he said. Then he sighed, swirling his wine around in his glass. “I never thought hurtling down a mountain would be so peaceful at the same time as being so exhilarating. That’s a contradiction, isn’t it?”

“It’s right, though,” Trent pointed out. That was exactly how he’d always felt about snowboarding.

For a second Trent held Ashby’s gaze as they grinned. Then Ashby swallowed and blinked rapidly, a pink tinge rising on his cheeks. “Yes, um, I’d love to meet up again and practice. If you really don’t mind.”

“Sure,” Trent said. It was no big deal. In fact, he was looking forward to it.

They ate the rest of their food in companionable silence until Ashby asked the waiter for more wine and the dessert menu. When had they gotten through the first bottle?

Trent felt pleasantly buzzed, but he was slightly concerned that Ashby was going to make himself sick. “You know the altitude messes with your system up here,” he said gently.

But as soon as he spoke, Ashby’s face fell. “Oh,” he said. “Should I have not ordered any more? I just felt so on edge after, well, you know.”

He looked guilty and Trent regretted not choosing his words more carefully. “Hell, no, man,” he said. “You said it yourself, you’re on vacation and that asshole tried to ruin it. Let’s do this.” He nudged one of the water glasses toward him. “Just maybe hydrate as well, for me.”

Ashby looked at him a moment and licked his lips. A slow smile crept onto his face. “Of course,” he said. Using his long fingers, he plucked the glass from the table and drank it all in one go. Trent watched his Adam’s apple bob elegantly as he swallowed. He wasn’t sure why the sight was so mesmerizing.

A drop remained on the lip of the glass and Ashby licked it before placing the glass back down. “Done,” he said cheekily.

Trent shifted in his seat. “Thanks,” he said. “You’ll feel better.”

He wasn’t sure what had just passed between them, but he couldn’t help but be relieved when their wine showed up. After lecturing Ashby on not accidentally getting too wasted, he found he might be in need of some relief himself.

He’d never spent time with anyone like Ashby before. It wasn’t that he was gay, he was just…unique.

Urgh, Trent knew he was getting weird. They’d lapsed into a slightly awkward silence. He needed to un-weird it. If Ashby were a girl, Trent knew he would have been able to just give her a smoldering look and ask her about herself. That always set his dates at ease.

Well…this wasn’t a date, but he still wanted to set Ashby at ease.

“So, um, you’ve been to the States before?” he asked. He ran his thumb and index finger up and down the stem of the wine glass.

As he’d hoped, Ashby’s face brightened. “My father and I are British citizens, but my mother is actually American,” he said. He wiggled his fingers, getting animated. “She’s a translator for the UN, speaks several languages, very exciting. Traveled all over the world, met my dad in London, he’s an engineer. Then they settled down in Singapore while I grew up. I mean, they were always traveling still, but I got to go with them in school holidays and it was all rather grand.”

“That’s awesome,” Trent said.

Ashby nodded, then sighed. “A lot to live up to,” he admitted.

“So what do you do?” Trent asked, genuinely curious.

Ashby gave Trent a tight smile and flipped his blond hair. “I’m just gorgeous, dah-ling,” he said with a giggle. “No, I…go to parties and date idiots and have an Instagram with ten thousand followers for no other reason than I’m rich and pretty and go to parties and date idiots.” He rolled his eyes. “Spoiled trust fund baby, you see. My grandfather was a stockbroker on Wall Street,” he added. “You can see why I’m such a catch. Utterly useless. Shallow.” He laughed and drank more wine, but Trent didn’t think he was joking.

Trent frowned, licking the wine from his lips. It was genuinely very good. “I think you’re cool,” he said. “You don’t need to have your whole life mapped out already. Especially if you don’t have to worry about money.”

Ashby sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “I can’t complain. I’m just in the post-breakup blues, maybe.”

Trent scoffed. “The guy was clearly a Grade A jerk,” he scoffed. “You’re way better off without him.”

Ashby lifted his glass toward Trent. “I’ll drink to that,” he said emphatically. “Cheers!”

They talked a little about what Ashby’s life had been like in Singapore and ordered some dessert. The food here was actually pretty damn good, Trent had to admit. As much as Trent had been isolated in the mountains growing up, Ashby had been in a bubble of European migrants, not really experiencing the Asian culture around him. Trent thought perhaps as nice as having staff and an enormous house had been, Ashby felt like something was missing from his life.

Love?

Trent blinked. Yeah, probably. Wasn’t everyone looking for love? Ashby deserved to be with a nice guy. Not someone like his cheating asshole ex.

They managed to skirt around the topic of what Trent did for a living, which was the first sign that alerted him that maybe Ashby knew more than he was letting on. But it was so nice for a change to just pretend he wasn’t a fucking movie star or pop star. He felt like he could enjoy himself for once. There was always a chance another guest might recognize him and put a photo up on Twitter. But as they made their way to the end of the bottle, Trent found he didn’t care.

He had enough wits about him to ensure they each drank another couple of glasses of water. But Ashby was so much smaller than him and by the time they charged the meal to Ashby’s room and the wine to Trent’s, Ashby couldn’t stop giggling.

It was endearing. Trent couldn’t help but smile at him. “Come on, trouble,” he said. For the second time that evening, he wrapped his arm around Ashby’s waist as they walked through the restaurant and out of the bar. “Let’s get you home.”

“Shh,” said Ashby, pressing his fingers to his pale pink lips. “People will think we’re a couple.”

“They already do,” Trent assured him, grinning back down at him. “Why, are you ashamed of me?”

“Oh, do be sensible,” Ashby slurred. “You know, I actually had your posters on my wall growing up.” He snorted. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you when we met.”

Something strange fizzed through Trent’s insides. So, Ashby did know who Trent was. The idea of Ashby having Below Zero posters up as a teenager made Trent’s insides tingle. Not that he hadn’t made friends with fans before, but he just hadn’t expected it of Ashby.

“It was probably because I was a dick to you,” Trent grumbled. “Supposed to be all smiles, all the time. Every girl’s dream.”

Ashby blew a raspberry as they walked through the lobby towards his room. Or at least, Trent assumed. Ashby was leading the way, tugging Trent along with his arm still around his waist. “You’re not a dick. You’re a teddy bear.” Ashby patted Trent’s chest. “Maybe make that a grizzly bear. Dear lord, you’re so buff. It makes me weep.”

For some reason, the compliment made Trent feel a little flushed. “You’re hot, too,” he said without really thinking it through.

Ashby giggled, then stumbled free of Trent’s arm. “Don’t be silly, silly,” he said. “I’m not…” He waved his hand up and down. “You. Anyway, this is my room.” He patted the door affectionately. “Me. I sleep here.” He sighed and leaned against it, pulling a key from out of the side of his boot. Then he looked up at Trent through his eyelashes. “I know I’m totally barking up the wrong tree. But…I do sort of wish I could invite you in.” He smiled and pressed the key to his lips, his eyes half-closed and sleepy looking. “You are very lovely, Trent Charles. If ever you need a pretend boyfriend in return for tonight, you know who to ask.”

With that, he hummed and unlocked his door. Waving, he bade Trent goodnight, then went inside his room.

Trent stood there for a good twenty seconds before he realized he should walk away and go to his own cabin.

Ashby wanted to invite him in. Well…that was extremely gratifying. It was natural that Trent be flattered by the compliment. In his reasonably drunken state, he grinned and wondered what that might be like. To sleep with a guy.

Having so many male queer best friends, it wasn’t like the concept was totally alien. But as Trent let himself inside his cabin and stripped for bed, he found his mind wandering for the first time, perhaps ever. Normally the idea of going with another guy left him feeling a little perplexed. It did nothing for him. But the good wine and good mood were urging him on.

What if he’d said yes to Ashby’s offer?

It wasn’t like they would see each other again after this vacation. They lived in different countries. Trent could have accepted the invitation into Ashby’s room and explored where the night might take them.

By the time he got into bed, he was half-hard.

It was just a fantasy. It wouldn’t do any harm. So he spat in his palm and took himself in hand. Ashby had such a pretty mouth. The image of him touching the key to his lips fueled Trent as he massaged his balls with one hand and jerked off with the other.

He pictured Ashby sucking him off and loving it. Trent would hold onto that beautiful blond hair and moan like he was now, loudly and with abandon. He gnashed his teeth as his climax built quickly.

All too soon, he was gasping and spilling into his hand, quivering as the orgasm rippled through his body. He hummed in contentment, draping his arm over his eyes as he caught his breath. He barely had enough energy to pull a couple of tissues from the box and mop himself up before sleep claimed him, the smile still on his lips.

The last thought that drifted through his mind was that maybe he should have said yes.