by Clare London
The photos were astonishing. The scenes were not just beautifully shot but presented with bold, elegant showmanship that kept the whole audience entranced. Dominic had a style all his own and an eye for drama. A couple of shots of the team packing up the kitbags seemed routine, but became a moment of shared camaraderie with a joke or two; a portrait of three men leaning into the wind became a vivid illustration of the whole team’s determination and struggle.
Aidan leaned back in his chair and surrendered his heart and mind to the wonderful, theatrical experience.
AT the end of the show, several people pushed forward to shake Dominic’s hand, or to quiz Gerald about the trip. Photographers took some extra portrait shots of the climbers. Dominic and Gerald looked good together, relaxed and comfortable in each other’s company: two strong, capable outdoorsmen.
Aidan felt the stabbing pain of jealousy. Dominic had told him there was no romance or even sex between him and anyone on his team; that their closeness was based on friendship, trust, and love of the climb. But Aidan couldn’t help but feel an outsider in Dominic’s world. His head told him it would never have worked between them and he should sneak off now while he could get lost in the crowd, but his heart couldn’t resist joining the queue to meet Dominic. His heart didn’t want to resist.
“Dominic? That was marvelous. I loved hearing—” Aidan’s words dried up as he caught the blank, cold look on Dominic’s face.
“Thanks for coming.” Dominic shook his hand as he had done all the other reporters or visitors. There was no particular warmth in it. His gaze flickered over Aidan and a slight frown creased his brow. “Glad to see you dumped that filthy sweater.”
Sweater? What was he talking about?
Aidan felt nauseated at Dominic’s cold-shouldered response. Surely he didn’t deserve that? When Dominic turned away from him to greet another well-wisher, Aidan grabbed his arm and pulled him back around. “What’s wrong?”
Dominic gave a sharp, mirthless bark of a laugh. “Don’t play me for a fool.”
“I’m not. I’d hoped we could at least be civil. You seem pretty glad to have moved on.”
“Moved on? Me?” Dominic’s eyes darkened. “You really want to discuss this in public?”
“Yes,” Aidan said bravely. But… discuss what? Aidan couldn’t bear the look of hostility on Dominic’s face. What the hell was his problem? Was it because Aidan hadn’t been in touch since Dominic got back? Did something go wrong on the trip or maybe with the funding? But surely Dominic couldn’t blame Aidan for any of that.
Dominic gave a slow, ragged sigh. “I just think you should have told me.”
“Told you what?”
“That you were seeing someone else. I know we were just a business arrangement, and we said all that crap about no strings and being seen just for the press—”
“Wait a minute. Seeing someone else? What are you talking about?”
Dominic had continued regardless. “I may be blunt, I may be antisocial, I may—occasionally—be downright rude, but I don’t cheat on a lover, whether I’m with them for a week or hope it’ll be much longer.”
Cheat? What’s happening here? Aidan, without thinking it through, got angry instead of asking outright. “I should have told you? I don’t remember you asking! To tell you the truth, I don’t remember anyone asking, when they wanted me to date a complete stranger for the sake of the publicity.” Okay, so Zeb had asked if Aidan had a current boyfriend, but it had been a late afterthought. “Oh, and let’s not forget, for the sake of the money too.”
“So you want to bring that up as well?” Dominic scowled at him. “I assume you did all right out of it. Let’s face it, I understand how these things work.”
“These things? What things?”
“Deals,” Dominic hissed. “Arrangements. Campaigns. Paper dates. Whatever you and your agency want to call it.”
“Paper dates? What the hell does that mean?”
“You bloody know what it means. You played your part well enough, didn’t you?”
“Dom?” Tanya tugged at his arm. “Claudio wants to introduce you to a production company.”
But Dominic remained focused totally on Aidan. “Don’t get sanctimonious about it now. You knew from the start what the terms were.”
Oh God, Aidan had never known a statement prove so untrue.
“It was all false. A game.” Dominic was trying to lower his voice, but his anger vibrated in every syllable. “More fool me to let it run away from that. We were both paid for it, and you were happy enough to move on as soon as I got the funding. If, in fact, you were ever free to start with. After all, we didn’t see that much of each other. You had plenty of free time to maintain your glamorous model lifestyle. How many other men were you dallying with while you were fluttering those long eyelashes at me?”
Dallying? Dallying? “No one uses that bloody word anymore!” Aidan snapped. Why the hell was he worrying about Dominic’s vocabulary rather than his vitriol? And why was Dominic being so cruel? So unfair? “I never dated anyone else at all. I can’t believe you think I would have. I can’t believe you have so little respect for me, after I thought we had a real connection—”
He realized that silence had suddenly fallen around him a split second after he saw Dominic’s gaze focus on something over Aidan’s shoulder and his mouth drop open. Everyone else facing Aidan was looking that way too. Shock registered in every expression.
“Aidan?” someone said softly behind him.
Aidan turned slowly, resignedly. Never had he been so unhappy to see his twin. Zeb was standing in the doorway of the studio in one of his trademark neon sweaters and skinny jeans. His hair was longer than usual and softened by what had obviously been weeks of professional inattention, but he was still the same old Zeb, except today his expression was solemn. “Bro.”
Aidan’s hood had fallen back; his hair was still styled in the same way as Zeb’s. They were of a similar height and build, and no more than three feet apart. There would be no mistaking the fact they were related.
“There’s two of you,” Dominic said weakly. His gaze darted back to Aidan, then away to Zeb again. “Two.”
“Oh my God,” Tanya breathed.
“Two of you,” Dominic repeated, though his gaze kept returning to Aidan. “What the hell’s going on?”
“Who are you?” Wendy asked, turning her head sharply from side to side as if she were at a Wimbledon tennis match. “Either of you.”
“I’m Aidan,” Aidan said. “Wendy, you know who I am!”
Wendy shook her head slowly. “Darling, I thought I knew, but this is astonishing.”
“And I’m Zeb,” Zeb said firmly. He moved over to Aidan’s side and took his hand.
Dominic’s bemused voice cut in over everyone else. “You’re not Zeb. How the hell can you be? Who’s Aidan?”
“Aidan,” Wendy said sharply. “You owe us an explanation, I think.”
“Two of them? You greedy man,” Gerald murmured at Dominic’s side, with a broad grin. “You only told me about Zeb.”
“And who the bloody hell is Zeb?” came Titus’s booming voice from the back of the studio.
Aidan sank down into one of the armchairs and put his head in his hands.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
ZEB squeezed Aidan’s shoulder. “It’s time, don’t you think? We need to come clean.”
“We can’t. You can’t. Oh fuck.” Aidan didn’t know what to do, what to think. Everyone was clamoring at him for explanations, for excuses, for information. Wendy and Titus looked stunned, and the look on Dominic’s face was excruciating. This was the worst day of Aidan’s life.
Zeb slipped his hand away and stepped in front of Aidan’s chair. “Okay. I got this poor man in trouble, so it’s up to me to sort it out.”
“Zeb!” The reporters started calling to him.
“Are you really Zeb Z?”
“Zeb, is he a body double?”
“Shut up,” Ze
b snapped. The cameras still flashed, but the journalists stopped shouting. For the first time, Aidan noticed the man who’d followed Zeb into the studio, standing quietly at the back of the crowd, watching Zeb closely.
Lukas. Aidan breathed more steadily. Did this mean there’d be some sense brought into the situation? Lukas had been the twins’ rock through many turbulent times. It seemed, however, he was giving Zeb the lead on this.
“I am Zeb Z,” Zeb said. “I’m not stripping anything off to prove it to you. You’ll have to take my word for it. Or the word of Lukas Stefanowicz.”
The cameras swerved toward Lukas, who nodded confirmation.
Zeb continued. “And this is not my body double, as you so insultingly suggested. This is my twin brother, Aidan.”
“How long have you had a twin, Zeb?”
Zeb rolled his eyes. “Since birth, you moron.”
The crowd laughed. “Where’s he been hiding, Zeb?” shouted another reporter.
“He’s not been hiding,” Zeb snapped again. Aidan had rarely seen his twin so authoritative, and when he glanced across the room he saw Lukas’s obvious approval. “He’s been leading a perfectly normal and, I can tell you, successful life that just doesn’t happen to be in the public eye. Yet.” He glanced quickly at Aidan, then back to his audience. “And he doesn’t need you lot harassing and bullying him. Either of us, for that matter. Remember what you’re all here for, and it’s not us, is it? It’s for the report of this spectacular expedition, the final stop on the Hartington Hike.” He swept a hand theatrically toward Dominic, as if to direct the attention of the press back to the official event.
“Decent of you to remember us,” Gerald said, still grinning. “Though I’m about ready for the pub now, I can tell you. I’m happy to take new friends along with me too.” He smiled down at Wendy. Somehow she’d ended up beside him and was staring up at his wolfish smile with wary admiration.
“Now wait a minute!” came a crisp cry from Tanya. “You can’t just dismiss all this with a few words and a pint.”
“Tanya—” Eric began.
She ignored him and turned to Aidan. “I’m not entirely sure which one you are, but I think it’s disgraceful that you’ve deceived and manipulated us and our client.”
“Tanya,” Dominic said in a surprisingly mild tone.
Tanya ignored him too. “So, who have we been negotiating with? Who’s been dating my Dom? Who’s responsible for mellowing him to the extent I got my first hug ever?”
“For God’s sake,” Dominic muttered.
She glared at him. Her voice was climbing in both volume and pitch. “And who’s responsible for dumping him and making him the sourest, most miserable he’s ever been, since he came back from the trip?”
“Now wait a minute,” Aidan protested to her. Dominic’s miserable? He stood, tired of cowering behind Zeb’s defense. “I never dumped him. You were the one who said the deal was done and the charade was over. I assumed I wasn’t needed any more.”
“What do you mean, you never dumped me?” Dominic’s voice broke in.
DOM reckoned it was about bloody time he spoke up for himself. This whole thing was pretty bizarre, but there were certain things he’d like to get straight, in a manner of speaking. “You said, ‘all part of the service,’ remember? It was a clear statement that things were over.”
“Oh hell, no. It wasn’t… I didn’t mean…” Zeb—no, Aidan—shook his head, his eyes wide. “I thought it was what you wanted.”
“Did you say charade?” Claudio called over. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that a representative of the sponsors was still there, and one who looked very aggrieved. “Tanya, is this something we need to discuss?”
“Everything’s fine,” Tanya said, though she didn’t look sure.
“It wasn’t a charade,” Aidan ground out through gritted teeth. “Nothing was a charade on my part.”
“Nothing, you say?” Dom asked quietly.
Aidan met his gaze fiercely. “Nothing.”
Dom couldn’t mistake the sincerity in Aidan’s eyes. He couldn’t believe the rush of relief and excitement that suffused him. Stupid man! Both of us. If we’d just been more honest—
“Excuse me, but it sounds like everything has been a lie,” Claudio said tartly.
“Don’t be so bloody ridiculous,” Dominic replied, still gazing at Aidan and ignoring Tanya’s groan of despair behind him. “Are you suggesting I didn’t climb the bloody mountain?”
“He did. I’ll vouch for him on that,” Gerald said robustly. “He snores like the dickens at high altitude. No one else reaches that particular pitch.”
“Look,” the real Zeb said, sounding a little panicky. “None of this is anyone’s fault except mine. Why isn’t anyone listening?”
“You were happy with it all? With me?” Dom asked Aidan. He had to know the real truth about his date. And not about the stupid acting-like-his-brother thing.
Aidan’s eyes shone with anger, fear, distress—God only knew what else. “Yes. Oh yes.”
“Excuse me?” Claudio repeated, his voice rising in pitch. “I need a full explanation.”
“They won’t ask for Dominic’s funding back, will they?” Tanya muttered, probably too loudly, because Claudio winced.
Aidan turned to Claudio, his expression pure misery. “You’re right in one respect. Something was a lie. I’m not Zeb. I never was.”
“Thank God for that!” Dominic said grimly. He was pleased to see it startled them all. “Though the pair of you had me going when you appeared side by side. For a second I thought I was hallucinating. I wondered what was in that ghastly coffee.”
“But you’ve been pretending to be Zeb?” Tanya looked close to tears.
“I don’t know what to do about this,” Claudio said.
“Nothing,” Eric said smartly. “You signed up a gruff old mountaineer who’s done you and your products proud. That’s still the same, whoever he’s been snogging for the gossip mags. Isn’t it?”
Tanya looked close to fainting now. Dom was torn between wanting to crow and concern for her.
“No harm was meant,” Aidan urged. The hostile glares had him trapped like a hunted animal, and Dom had an overwhelming urge to shield him from it all. “It wasn’t meant to go that far.”
“What do you mean by ‘that far’?” Dominic asked.
Aidan stared at him again. A blush crept up his neck. “I’m not talking about that.”
“About what that?” Dominic asked relentlessly.
“Please,” Aidan hissed at him. His eyes were darting back and forth again. He looked so upset at Claudio’s shock, the Lukas bloke’s frown, Tanya’s threatening tears, his friends’ condemnation, and—dammit, probably at Dom’s growling too.
Instinctively, Dom stepped toward him.
“Look!” Aidan cried desperately, apparently to everyone and anyone. “It was to help out Zeb. Just one evening, he said. Just one date, until he could take over. I didn’t know I’d fall in love!”
The room fell momentarily silent.
“What?” Dom’s breath felt suddenly tight in his chest.
“What the fuck?” Gerald muttered to Wendy, though loud enough that everyone could hear.
“I saw it first,” Wendy muttered back to him. “Saw how bad he had it. The poor darling’s been so unlucky in love in the past. We’d almost given up hope—”
“Wendy!” Aidan wailed. “Are you really airing my dirty laundry here? Now?”
“Please. Tell us what’s really going on,” Claudio said. At this point he looked more confused than angry.
“I couldn’t go on the date with Dom. I had to be somewhere else,” Zeb replied. He glanced at Lukas, whose expression had shifted from approval to annoyance. Zeb grimaced briefly, then continued. “I asked Aidan to take my place so that we didn’t break the contract.”
“You see,” Aidan added, “no one would tell the difference—”
“Well,” Dom interrupted very lou
dly. “That’s the first thing I take serious issue with.”
“You… what?” Zeb asked.
“But we’re identical twins.” Aidan stood side by side with Zeb, and inevitably everyone’s eyes were flicking between the two men, judging the proof. Except Dom’s eyes weren’t; he still concentrated solely on Aidan.
“Stupid arse,” he said fondly. “You think I can’t tell you from anyone else on the planet? Maybe the pair of you had me confused at first, especially if I didn’t get a good look. But whatever the fuck your name is, I know for certain you’re the man I went to bed with. And the one I’d want back there if there was any goddamn chance.”
There was another, far more shocked silence.
Someone cleared their throat, slowly and deliberately. An elegantly dressed older woman stepped to the front of the crowd that surrounded Dominic and the twins.
“Jesus Christ,” Dominic groaned.
“No,” she said in a sharp, well-educated voice. “As you should well know. I’m just your mother.”
The air crackled with the single snap of a camera flash. Immediately Titus swung around to face the photographer in question and roared, “Out! All of you! Right now!”
And, astoundingly, they all filed out.
Chapter Thirty
THE ensuing quiet in the studio was a welcome contrast, with just a select few people remaining. At least Aidan knew them all personally. The press were probably lying in wait outside the front door of the agency—where Titus and Lukas had bustled them out like two of the most professional London club security men Zeb said he’d ever seen—but Aidan felt at last there was enough calm for him to get his thoughts straight. He drew a couple of chairs away from the group and sat down, hoping to catch up on news with Zeb. Someone turned Dominic’s slideshow on again and it had the same mesmerizing effect as the first time around. Dominic had seated his mother in one of the armchairs and sat down beside her to talk. Tanya and Eric had joined them. Wendy and Gerald were giggling over something in the back row of the audience chairs.
