The Boyfriend Clause

A high-stakes corporate promotion. A fiercely guarded secret. And a fake boyfriend who was never supposed to be the real thing.

Julian Mercer has spent twenty years locked inside a carefully constructed life. As a top executive vying for the Chief Operating Officer role at a multi-billion-dollar tech company, he controls everything—including the vault door on his sexuality. But when a journalist corners him during a national profile, Julian’s meticulously guarded privacy slips, and he accidentally invents a long-term partner. Now, to save his career and his promotion, he needs to procure a boyfriend. Fast.

Theo Alvarez has rules. As a sociology grad student funding his degree through an elite, hyper-discreet companionship agency, he provides the perfect illusion of intimacy with none of the emotional risk. He never crosses the professional boundary. He never stays. And he certainly never falls for a client—especially not a tightly wound, emotionally starved executive who tries to manage their fake relationship like a corporate merger.

Their arrangement is simple: Six weeks. Strict boundaries. Mutually assured discretion.

But performing intimacy in front of Julian’s cutthroat board of directors soon gives way to quiet mornings, shared secrets, and undeniable, scorching chemistry behind closed doors. As the lines between the contract and reality blur, Julian and Theo must decide what happens when the performance stops—and the feelings become dangerously real.

The Boyfriend Clause is a steamy, high-angst MM contemporary romance featuring the fake dating trope, opposites attracting, hurt/comfort, and a hard-won happily ever after.