"If I leave the club with JC, without you, alone, whatever, there’s little chance of us hooking up tonight," Justin answered, ordering a drink.

"For real?"

Justin nodded. "I’m not some play toy, Nelly. You want me tonight, you leave with me. You don’t leave with me, you don’t get me, understood?"

"You’d pass on good sex because I didn’t leave with you?"

"Pretty much," Justin replied. "I think you understand though, that if I really want sex and you don’t leave with me, there are large groups of these people known as fans that would be more than willing to have sex with me."

"If that were what you wanted, you be out there on the floor now, attracting them, instead of sitting up here with me," Nelly said.

"True, I would be. I don’t want sex from some random person, I want sex from you."

"Yet you’d still refuse me if I showed up later tonight?"

"If you choose not to take me up on that offer I might be forced to find someone else," Justin answered.

"Sure, dirty," Nelly laughed.

"Are you testing me?" Justin questioned.

"Me test you? Never!" Nelly declared.

"Fine, make jokes, but don’t be surprised if you stop by my hotel and my bodyguards tell you I’ve got someone with me," Justin replied, making a face at him.

"We’ll see, won’t we?"

Justin ended the conversation by getting up from the table and heading back onto the dance floor, checking out who was there in case he needed to prove his point to Nelly. He breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted JC talking to AJ McLean and made his way over to them, well aware that Nelly was following closely behind.

"AJ," Justin shouted to be heard of the music.

"Timberlake," he acknowledged. "Nelly."

"McLean," Nelly nodded.

"Following me?" Justin questioned.

"I haven’t decided yet, can’t let you be snatched up if I decide I wanna take you home," Nelly replied.

"You have to decide?" AJ remarked. "I don’t believe I’ve ever passed up a chance to leave with him."

"That’s because you haven’t," Justin replied. "See, Nelly, some people understand I’m not something to pass up."

"I pass you up all the time, Justin," JC said.

"That’s because you’re straight," Justin responded. "Any guy with even just a hint of gayness in them, wants me."

"You’re a smug bastard, Timberlake," AJ chuckled, shaking his head.

"So if I don’t leave with Nelly, you’ll come back to my room with me, then?" Justin said.

"If I don’t get a better offer," AJ nodded.

"Better offer than me? Never!" Justin exclaimed.

"It’s only better if I’m not a second choice," AJ said.

"Nelly, ya gonna hang out with these three all night or ya gonna check out some ladies wit me?" Murphy questioned coming over to them.

"Ladies for sure," Nelly answered. "You comin, J?"

"Naw, I think I’ll hang out with C and AJ for a while," Justin replied. "Don’t think I’m joking about what I said, either."

"I trust ya aren’t," Nelly said, following after Murphy.

"Playing hard to get with Mr. Hanes, are we?" JC inquired when Nelly was gone.

"So? It’s worked many a time before," Justin replied.

"Yah, but if what you’ve been telling us is true this isn’t the usual, you want someone to realize you aren’t to be used and thrown away, your heart’s at stake," JC said.

"And?"

"And it’s going to hurt a hell of a lot worse than it did when Janet Jackson didn’t speak to you anymore after you told her you loved her," JC answered.

"This is totally different from what happened between Janet and I," Justin insisted.

"For your sake I hope to God it is," JC said.

"It is," Justin replied. "Now instead of you depressing me, how’s about we dance?"

AJ and JC both nodded and they moved inward on the dance floor. Justin spotted Nelly and Murphy dancing further in, but decided to steer clear and draw his own group around him. He kept enough awareness of where Nelly was to notice when Nelly and Murphy left the club an hour before closing time.

"Find a better offer?" he questioned, pulling AJ as close to him as he dare in the crowded club.

"Your offer still stand?" AJ replied.

Justin nodded. "If you’re interested."

"Always, Timberlake," he said.

"All right, I’ma tell C and we’ll go, okay?" Justin said, scanning the floor for JC.

AJ nodded and followed Justin to where JC was dancing with the brunette who had caught his interest earlier in the night. Justin motioned between AJ and himself, waiting until JC nodded before leaving the club. The ride to the hotel was a short one made in silence.

"If Nelly comes by, let him know I’m occupied," Justin said to Lonnie before leading AJ into his suite.

"Normally the fact that you were just using me to make someone jealous wouldn’t bother me, but you just seem so damn sure Nelly’s going to show up, why?" AJ questioned, sitting on one of the couches.

"Wishful thinking," Justin answered, knowing there wasn’t any reason to keep it a secret from AJ. "I want Nelly to be so taken by me that he shows up even though he knows there’s a chance I’ll be with someone else."

"You really care for him, don’t you?"

Justin nodded. "It’s almost like I love him and I don’t love anyone besides my family and the guys."

"And you want him to feel the same."

"Otherwise I’m just a fool for thinking he could."

"You aren’t a fool," AJ replied. "Have you told Nelly how you feel?"

Justin shook his head. "I told him it was his deal, we’d move at his pace. It’d just freak him out if I told him."

"I under your not wanting to freak him out, but you’re playing a dangerous game. If you really care for Nelly as much as you say you do, don’t play these games and risk loosing him."

"How am I risking it?"

"How can he think about starting a relationship with you when you hook up with other people because he didn’t leave with you?"

"I wouldn’t do that if we were together."

"How does he know that though?"

"I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel nearly as sexually charged as I did earlier," Justin said changing the subject slightly.

"That’s a good sign, Timberlake," AJ replied. "Surely you must remember going through this when you and Britney first started dating."

"What, the feeling guilty for bringing someone back to my room because there’s a chance he really might find out?"

"That’s the one," AJ nodded. "Well since the mood’s officially been killed, you wanna go get something to eat and chat?"

"Sounds good," Justin agreed.

"Ya actually brought someone back," Nelly’s voice met Justin’s ears a couple of hours later when he returned from eating with AJ.

"You came by?" Justin said, grinning to himself.

"I couldn’t not after your whole thing at the club," Nelly replied. "I really didn’t think you’d do it."

"If it makes you feel any better, we didn’t have sex," Justin offered. "We were in my room for all of maybe ten minutes then decided to go eat instead."

"Does that mean if I came by you’d let me in?"

"If you promise not to leave before I get up," Justin replied. "And make it here in the next thirty minutes. I’m not getting up if I’m already asleep."

"Answer the door then," Nelly said.

"What if I’d said no?" Justin asked, opening the door.

Nelly shrugged. "I hadn’t thought that far ahead."

"You gonna leave before I get up in the morning?" Justin questioned letting Nelly in.

"If ya aren’t up before I have to leave, I’ll wake ya," Nelly promised.

"I’ma hold you to that," Justin said. "I’m not always gonna give in."

"Ya shouldn’t have to," Nelly replied. "Ya just gotta understand, dirty."

"You don’t think I understand? Sure things are probably different between the guys and me than they are between you and your friends, but you don’t think it was hard for me to come out and tell them I was bisexual? You don’t think I was worried about how they’d react?"

"Ya didn’t have much to worry about though! I mean shit ya had C to hook up with."

Justin laughed. "How many times do I have to explain to you that JC is straight?"

"But you said--"

"I know what I said, that doesn’t make it true," Justin stopped him. "As it happens everyone else is pretty straight, although Lance and Chris get a little touchy-feely when they’re drunk, but that’s besides the point. I knew all this when I told them and it scared me to think they might hate me."

"Why’d ya tell ‘em?" Nelly questioned.

"C caught me giving AJ head back in the day when we were all in Europe and it’s kinda hard to keep something like that a secret," Justin shrugged. "Plus I wanted to be able to be myself around them. I wanted to be able to bring my boyfriend around without worrying they might find out."

"You’ve had boyfriends?"

Justin nodded. "Mostly during the time period between when MMC ended and when the group got big in America, would’ve likely had more but I fell in love with Brit."

"What is it that ya want from me? For me to tell my friends we’re doin’ whatever this is?"

"I want you to do whatever makes you feel comfortable enough that you won’t freak out if someone sees us together," Justin answered. "We were friends before this began, why does it scare you so much now to be seen with me?"

"Cause people talk and people assume. It’s different for ya, dirty, when people talk and assume shit it comes with bein part of a boyband. People aren’t supposed to think rappers are gay or bisexual or whatever else. It’ll mess up my career if too many people listen and that messes up the careers of a lot of other people as well."

"You don’t think if it were to hit the general public that I was bi it wouldn’t mess up a lot of careers? That’s rich, Nelly," Justin rolled his eyes. "Sure it might not be as damning to my career but it’ll mess it up just as much. It’ll hurt the other guys careers too."

"I-- Can we talk about this some other time? I don’t know how to explain this all to you," Nelly said.

"Whatever," Justin sighed, laying down on his bed. "I hate to say this-- it’s the second time tonight I’ve done this-- but I’m really not in the mood anymore."

"I’m not either," Nelly agreed, laying down next to Justin.

"What are--"

"Sleeping, we’re gonna sleep," Nelly said. "It is all right if we just sleep, right? Doesn’t always have to be sex?"

Justin nodded, not trusting his voice. Nelly stripped to his boxers before climbing under the covers. They were both asleep within minutes.

"We’ve got a dilemma," Justin said the next morning when Nelly woke up.

"What’s that?" Nelly questioned, turning Justin around in his arms so that they were facing.

"You keep bein so sweet and I’ma fall in love with you and you’re still gonna be scared," Justin answered.

"I told you that wouldn’t scare me away, J," Nelly replied. "You wanna get rid of me, try something else."

"This isn’t me messing around trying to scare you away," Justin said. "There is a really pretty good chance I could fall in love with you."

"What happens if that occurs?" Nelly questioned.

"Things change. I can already tell you there won’t be sex if you don’t feel the same because I don’t put myself out there like that when it comes to my heart," Justin answered. "I’m just warning you."

"Warning noted," Nelly said, pulling Justin to him. "We’ll worry about that if/when it happens."

-

"Nelly, what’re you doing here?" Justin mumbled, allowing himself to be pulled into the rapper’s arms.

"I told the guys," Nelly replied.

"Told ‘em what?" Justin yawned.

"About us."

"And they didn’t take it well, is that why you’re here?"

Nelly shook his head. "They were actually pretty cool about it. Slo said he could understand the attraction and the others were pretty much whatever I wanted kinda thing."

"That’s good," Justin smiled. "You flew all the way out here to tell me that?"

"No I flew out here because I had a reason for telling the guys," Nelly answered.

"And what reason was that?"

"I love you, dirty," Nelly said, placing a light kiss on Justin’s neck. "I love you and I want to be able to show that I love you around the guys. I want to be able to bring you around without worrying--"

"You love me?" Justin whispered.

"I-- yah," Nelly nodded. "That’s all right, isn’t it? I mean you don’t have to say anything back, I just wanted you to know."

"It’s more than all right," Justin smiled, turning to look at Nelly. "I love you too. I have for a while now, I was just waiting for you to catch up."

"Well I have," Nelly said, giving Justin a kiss. "I can’t wait to tell people you’re my boyfriend. The public is gonna be so shocked!!"

"Hey now, there’s a rule about tellin a guy you love him then tryin to freak him out by saying you wanna go public," Justin said.

"You and this rule book," Nelly shook his head. "I’ma hafta steal it from ya and see if you’re just making these rules up or what."

"I swear they’re real rules," Justin insisted. "You can’t see the rule book though, it’s for members of this very exclusive club I belong to. I could be kicked out of the club just for telling you the rules--"

"Okay so how about instead of going through your comedy routine we celebrate the fact that we love each other by having sex?" Nelly suggested.

"Seeing as it’s been almost two months since we’ve had actual sex, I think I could be talked into it," Justin nodded.

"Good to know."