Chapter 16

WHEN I helped him to his feet, I was surprised to see blood on his mouth. “What the hell?” I questioned him worriedly, wiping it from his lip with my thumb.

“I didn’t want to scream,” he confessed, looking at me like he was drunk. “You can still kiss me, it doesn’t hurt.”

“Ian—”

“Kiss me.”

I leaned in, pressing my lips to his tenderly, and he melted against me, arms wrapped around my neck, molding his body to mine. I had missed the neediness in him, and now he was finally confident enough to let me see it.

“Don’t stop,” he begged when I eased free, needing air.

“Come with me.”

He didn’t want to shower, but I shoved him in anyway, quickly washing away sweat and drying cum, and then poured him onto the sofa sleeper where he was fast asleep moments later. I went back to my computer and finished the report for Kage, making sure it was as thorough as I could possibly make it before saving it and closing up. Then I tidied up our belongings, got Ian’s computer from his pack, logged in as him, and reopened the shared document and read it again, putting myself in my partner’s headspace and thinking about what to add. When the bedroom door opened, I glanced up to find both Drake and Cabot looking at me.

“It’s safe.” I snickered. “Sorry ’bout before, but it’s new with us and still a little volatile.”

They both rushed forward and took seats at the table, staring at me expectantly.

“Yes?”

Cabot cleared his throat. “I—we—” His eyes flicked to Drake and then back to me. “—have questions, if it’s okay.”

I stopped typing and sat back, crossing my arms over my bare chest. “It’s okay, g’head.”

Drake cleared his throat. “Do you top?”

“Yes.”

“But he’s so—” Cabot coughed, glancing over at Ian and then back to me. “—scary.”

“Does the fact that I fuck him make him less scary?”

“Oh hell no,” Drake answered quickly.

I stared at Cabot. “If you like Drake topping, that’s great. But if you want to try, you need to tell him.”

He looked startled, how wide his eyes got and how quickly his mouth fell open. “And you,” I said, giving my attention to Drake. “If you want him to top, ask him. It doesn’t make you any less of a man if you let him.”

“Okay.”

“The only reason not to trade places is if he doesn’t want to and you don’t want to. But if he wants your ass, and you think that sounds hot, then go for it. It’s your bed; nobody else gets a say about what goes on in it.”

They nodded in unison like trained seals.

“How did you…” Cabot began, inching closer to me, “get someone like him to trust you enough to let you do that to him?”

I thought for a moment. “We were friends first, and that’s important.”

“How did you get to be friends?”

I grinned wide. “You ever feed a stray cat?”

“Yeah,” Cabot said, smiling at me. “You put the food out every day. Same place, same time. You have to be consistent.”

“Yes. You never stop, even though the cat hisses at you and maybe even scratches you, and there’s always the posturing, like, ‘I don’t need this food. I’m perfectly good out here all alone in the dark.’”

Drake looked over at Ian sprawled out on the bed, his broad, muscular back on display, as were the scars that covered it. “I would have never guessed that he was gay.”

“Why?” I asked pointedly. “What does gay look like?”

He turned back to me. “Not like you or him, that’s for sure.”

“Like me,” Cabot offered. “I look gay.”

“You’re beautiful,” I assured him. “But that doesn’t automatically make you gay. Once you guys get to Chicago, you’ll see. Gay and straight comes in every imaginable variety.”

They were eager to talk to me; it was all over them.

“Tell me how you guys met?” I prompted.

Drake cleared his throat and leaned forward as Cabot put both elbows on the table and stared at him with so much adoration that it almost made my teeth hurt with how sweet it was. “I was hired this last summer right before school started, by Mr. Jenner,” Drake explained. “I was supposed to take care of Cabot’s horses. He does dressage.”

“You guys had never met before?”

“No. Cabot was away at boarding schools this whole time, but he got kicked out.”

“Drugs?” I asked.

“Grade tampering,” Cabot informed me. “Born hacker, what can I tell you?”

“Not a very good one, if you got caught.”

“No, I’m good,” he defended himself. “The guy who was fucking me at the time, he messed up and I covered for him.”

“Why? You love him?”

Drake was suddenly very interested in the answer.

“No. I wanted to leave Prague,” he answered, reaching across the table for Drake.

Taking the small fine-boned hand in his, Drake held it tightly. “And the first day I saw him, riding up over this rise toward the back of the property… I knew I was gay.”

I laughed softly. “Nice.”

“He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” Cabot chimed in, his eyes all over Drake. “I wanted to climb him like a tree.”

“Okay, thank you for that,” I said, chuckling as I went back to my report.

“He seduced me,” Drake said, patting my leg to get my attention.

“In the stable?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“You had lube and condoms in there?”

Nothing. No sound.

Lifting my gaze up from my computer screen, I took in the curious looks.

“You guys get tested?”

Cabot shook his head and Drake shrugged.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I grumbled. “As soon as we land in Chicago, you guys are going to get tested, but in the meantime, you need lube.”

“We use spit.”

“Oh God, no,” I said putting the kibosh on that, getting up and going to my bag. Pulling out the lube I’d used earlier, I tossed it to Drake. “When we get to Chicago, we’ll go to the place where I buy the one I like, but in the meantime, use that.”

“We tried one,” Cabot said, making a face. “But it was thick and gross.”

“Well, that one’s actually really slick and not as thick as I would have liked. Try with that.”

They were surprised.

“Now? Just go in and have sex?”

Lord. “Sure. Do I need to put on some Sade to put you in the mood?”

They both squinted.

“Get away from me,” I said disgustedly.

Cabot started laughing, and Drake walked over and patted my shoulder.

“We’re both so glad we get to have you and Ian watching over us.”

I sighed heavily. “You guys need to be really sure that together is what you want.”

“Will we enroll in school?”

“Yes, and we’ll get you both into college, too, if that’s what you want.”

“That’s what we want,” Drake said.

“We’ll do all that when we get to Chicago.”

“And go lube shopping,” Cabot reminded me.

Good God, what had I done. “Yes.”

Drake bit his bottom lip. “Can I… is it okay?”

I was making a huge mistake, but I opened my arms for him.

Rushing forward, Drake hugged me tight, his head down on my shoulder. Cabot was there quickly, waiting.

“It’ll be okay,” I promised.

Drake inhaled deeply, calming himself before I heard the sniffling. As soon as he stepped back, Cabot shoved his way between us, wrapping his arms around my waist, pressing his cheek to my chest and clinging even as he let out a deep breath.

I made them both feel safe, and for that I was pleased.

When Cabot was ready, he stepped back, and Drake took his hand, led him back to their bedroom, and closed the door behind them.

They’d taken the lube.

Back at the table, I added to the report, caught a strangled scream from the bedroom that I tried to ignore, and then submitted it. When I was done, I realized I wasn’t tired, though it was eight and we’d had a hard couple of days. I was actually hungry again, my inner clock all out of whack. I turned on the TV, put it on mute, and flipped channels from the armchair beside the bed. Normally, to keep from eating, if I wasn’t tired, I would go out for a late run, but Ian was dead to the world, so I had to stay there and protect everyone.

“Why’re you up?”

Turning, I found Ian, one eye open, one closed, scowling at me. “Can’t sleep.”

“Why not?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Order room service.”

“It’s too late and the boys ate all the dessert they ordered.”

“You don’t eat anything but pie anyway.”

It was true.

“If you’re really hungry, go get something or order pizza.”

“This isn’t Chicago.”

“Oh, I am aware.”

“City snob,” I teased.

“Shut up.”

“Go back to sleep.”

“Why’re you on the chair?”

“I don’t want to crowd you.”

“For crissakes, M,” he mumbled, moving the sheet on the sofa sleeper that was going to render us both paralyzed by the morning. “Crowd me, be all over me.”

I smiled.

“Come here,” Ian ordered.

I turned off the TV, put the remote down by the lamp before I flipped the switch, and crawled into bed beside him. “Oh wow,” I said, snorting out a laugh. “You can feel every spring in this, can’t ya.”

He chuckled, sliding a hand around the back of my neck, drawing me down beside him, into his waiting arms.

I settled over him, parting his legs and lying between them, my head over his heart. His fingers trailing through my hair was so soothing, my eyes closed in seconds.

“From now on, just assume that I want you right next to me.”

“Okay.”

“Good,” he whispered, slipping an arm across my back, holding tight as he continued petting me.

I smiled as I exhaled out the last of my day, more content than I ever remembered being.