Love, Hate & Clickbait: A Novel

But when Clay met Thom’s eyes, he didn’t look annoyed or dismissive. He looked satisfied—like how he’d looked at the breakfast, when he’d leaned up toward Clay, telling him to play along with his romantic nonsense. When he’d whispered in that low, secret voice, Trust me.

He’d turned off his phone. The sight of the flat black screen staring up at him from its perch on his desk was the scariest thing he’d ever experienced. He was completely cut off—from Clay, from his job, from the world at large. Adrift in the open sea.

Clay had had plenty of emotionless sex before, but his guess was that Thom didn’t just have casual sex; he weaponized it. Thom Morgan would chew him up and spit him out.

looking gorgeous in a way Thom himself had designed;

Then again, maybe that’s what he’d been his whole life—the empty suit. Maybe what was happening now was him becoming someone else. He wasn’t sure who. The room vibrated and melted a little, and he felt more like himself—enough to stand, at least. Becoming someone new sounded terrible. But it also sounded better than staying the same person he’d bee

Thom took a deep breath. He had already done the impossible last night, when they’d been in bed together. He hadn’t held back. He’d let it all show—everything he felt; everything Clay had drawn out of him; the things that had been there before and the things that had grown, slow and stubborn,

For as much as Clay hated him, he did feel that they were cut from the same cloth.

What kind of ring would Thom want? He considered asking him, then felt a powerful rush similar to what he’d felt in the meeting, of something like possessiveness. He wanted to pick out a ring for Thom.

Thom was used to being the center of attention at these events, or close to it, but usually that meant that he was the focus of admiration, envy, or fear. He honestly didn’t really care which of those feelings he inspired; they were all a form of power. Today, it felt like he was caught in a maelstrom of gossip, helpless to its whipsaw currents. He