You know the sex was a new level of filthy when you can’t even meet your lover’s eyes over your cup of coffee the next morning. Low slept with the man, woke with a finger up his ass and a convulsing throat massaging his dick, and yet, it was their sex from last night that him blushing.

Thank God for all that melanin, though.

He wrapped both hands around the cup and blew into it then sat back with a sigh. He sighed.

“You’re okay?” Renzo asked.

Low looked up at his lover with a smile. Renzo Vega, decked out in a dark blue suit, no tie, the top to buttons on his crisp white shirt opened to show a hint of the chest Low just spent a good twenty minutes licking. Low’s love bites decorated his throat and Renzo seemed to be showing them off. All that coupled with his dark hair and serious gray eyes.

Daddy.

As fuck.

“I’m okay.” He nodded, took a mouthful of coffee and flinched when it scalded his tongue. Damn it. He gulped. “More than okay.” He took a breath. “I’m—I decided to tell my family.” When Renzo lifted an eyebrow, he clarified, “About me. About us.”

Renzo reached across the table and took his hand. “Is that what you want to do?” Concern darkened his expression as he watched Low carefully. “I love you, Low. I also understand why you’ve kept your secrets. Don’t do this for me.”

“No.” In a way he was, right. But truly… “This is for me. It is exhausting lying all the time.”

Renzo’s lips thinned.

“I want to be open about you. I love you,” Low whispered. “I don’t want to lie about that.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.” He nodded.

“Okay, I’ll clear my schedule, and—”

Oh shit. “No. No. I need to do this myself.”

Renzo scowled. “I’m not letting you come out to your family alone.”

Yeah. Not that he had any doubts, but yes, Low loved him some Renzo Vega. “Thank you.” He swiped his thumb over Renzo’s knuckles. “But this is something I have to do. Please. Let me do this. For me. And for us, too.”

Renzo stayed silent for so long, staring at Low, he thought he would disagree, but in the end Renzo jerked a nod. “Fine, but call me as soon as you’re done. I’ll come to you.”

“I will.” Low picked up his cup. “Last night when you came in, you looked sad.” He cocked his head. “Why?”

Renzo put down his coffee cup, expression losing the softness that flooded his eyes from the second they’d waken up. “Remember what I told you about my captivity, my fellow captive who stabbed me and left me to die?”

Low nodded. “Yeah?”

“He’s here.”

Low lurched forward, grabbing Renzo’s hand. “What? How?”

“I’ve always known who he was,” Renzo told him. “He’s been…around.” He waved a hand. “Out there in the shadows, but recently, he’s made himself known.”

Low didn’t understand. “What does he want?” He frowned. “Is he some kind of threat? He wants to finish the job or something?”

Renzo chuckled, but it was a forced sound that had Low cringing. “I almost wish that was it. Would probably make things easier.”

“I don’t—” Low shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

“He told me why he did it.” Renzo relayed what Monster promised the Syren guy. “I would probably have done the same.”

Low tightened his grip on Renzo’s fingers. “Would you? Really?”

Renzo didn’t speak for a few seconds, then he shook his head. “No.” He shrugged. “But only because I’d learned Monster never spoke the truth and he certainly never kept his promises.”

How had those children survived that hell? Low couldn’t conceive of that nightmare. For these two men to survive and thrive they had to be special. “You’re amazing. You know that?”

Renzo startled gaze flew to his.

“To survive, to be here with me today, to be the man I love.” He swallowed. “You’re amazing.”

“I don’t feel like it.”

The raw honesty in that confession melted Low. “I know, and that’s why you’re amazing.” He exhaled. “Okay, so what does Syren want?” Because dude had to want something to show up outta the blue after all this time, right?

“He wants me.”

Low blinked. “Wah? You’re going to have to wheel and come again.”

Renzo grinned for real this time, and his eyes crinkled at the corners. Damn. “Syren has decided our shared trauma makes us family, and he wants me to forgive him, lean on him.”

Um. Low pursed his lips. He was not expecting that. “So what, he wants to let bygones be bygones?”

“Basically.”

“You believe him?” He picked back up his cup and sipped his coffee. There had to be a catch in there somewhere.

Renzo took his time answering, but when he did, he nodded. “I do.”

“Okay.” He drew the word out. “Then what, you don’t forgive him for what he did to you?” Low couldn’t begin to imagine how horrific the whole thing must have been for both men involved, but he could see a child believing when the adult told him to do something in order to get back to his family. Low would have done the same. He, of course, hadn’t been the one stabbed and left for dead in a dumpster, but he understood both sides.

“I’m no longer angry. I haven’t been for a long time.” Renzo pushed away from the table and paced the floor. “That’s not it.”

“Tell me.” He sat back and waited.

Renzo sighed. “My nightmares, they’ve somehow gotten worse since Syren popped back into my life.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “He brings back these memories, babe. It’s not as if they’d ever left me, but with him around they’re full fucking Technicolor where before they’d been black and white.”

Low put down his cup and went to him, wrapping his arms around Renzo. “I’m sorry,” he muttered against Renzo’s neck.

Renzo clung to him. “It’s like I can feel the cold all over again. I can smell the filth of our bodies, I can hear Monster’s voice.” He trembled in Low’s embrace. “I don’t want to go back there.”

“You don’t have to.” Low rubbed Renzo’s back furiously. “You never have to go back there,” he promised.

Renzo’s arms tightened around him, his face buried in Low’s neck. They stood like that until Renzo’s phone went off. He lifted his head and pulled away from Low, reluctantly flashing an apologetic smile as he answered.

“Yeah, Dax.” He dragged Low back to his side with one hand, kissing his temple. “Okay, I’m on my way.” He ended the call, and cupped Low’s chin, tipping his head up and kissing him. First on his nose.

Then his lips.

Tender.

He’d never taken Renzo Vega for the gentle type, but his lover was a man with so many hidden depths.

“Thank you,” Renzo murmured against his mouth. “For last night.”

Yes, he blushed again, gaze dropping as Renzo chuckled.

“And thank you, Low, for this, here. Now.” He kissed Low again, this time, using his tongue to part Low’s lips, deepening their lip lock.

“Hmm.” Low moaned for him. “Anytime. Anytime.”

“I love you.”

Those three words, so earnest, made him quiver. “I love you, too.”

Renzo finally broke the kiss, because really Low had zero willpower when Renzo’s tongue was in his mouth. If given the option he’d stay here, leaning into Renzo, sucking on his tongue all fucking day.

“Dinner later?” Renzo lifted an eyebrow. “When you finish with your family, we’ll have dinner. There are some things I need to tell you, and I’d like to make some plans.”

Low squinted. “What kind of plans?”

“Plans for us, baby.” Renzo pinched Low’s chin with a wink as he stepped away and grabbed his phone. “You told me you loved me, you better believe I’m locking you down.”

“Uh...”

But he disappeared out the door before Low could articulate anything more substantial.