- BLAIR -
“Why are you trying to cock-block me?” I asked Hunter.
“I’m not,” he lied. “I just really want a beer.”
“Okay, I know he’s lying,” Sara said. “That’s his lying voice.”
I laughed. “Man, you are so screwed. Your girlfriend knows when you’re lying.”
“I’m not lying,” Hunter said.
“What I want to know is why—”
My life, which was constantly on a tilted axis, finally righted itself for the first time in three months when he walked through the doors of the bar.
I was frozen to the spot, still standing next to our booth when Garrett approached.
He didn’t acknowledge the others. Not even his brother.
“Blair Rhodes, as I live and breathe.”
I cleared my throat. “Don’t you live in Sydney?”
“Not anymore. I’m back. For good.”
Here we go again.
“More specifically, I’m back for you.”
My mouth went dry. I glanced around at the two tables where my friends sat, staring. All of them were in a state of shock except two: Hunter and Gage.
Hunter knows? With the way he was grinning, I’d say he more than knew.
“If you’ll have me?” Garrett said, bringing my attention back to him. His arrogant smirk was in place, but his eyes were vulnerable.
Garrett’s out? Did everything I want for the last five years just fall into my lap?
“I … I …” I couldn’t talk.
Garrett smiled. “You’re freaking out. Okay, understandable.” He turned to the two tables. “Little announcement, ladies and gentlemen. Turns out, I’m not so much of a manwhore. Turns out, I’ve been hiding the fact I’m gay for the last five years. And it turns out, I’m in love with Blair Rhodes, and I’ve probably just given him a heart attack.” He faced me. “A lot of twenty-seven-year-olds have heart attacks, right?” He winked and then went back to the others. “Any questions?”
“About time you two got your shit together. I swear to God,” Gage said.
“You knew?” Pip whined and shoved him.
“Umm, no?” He winced, prepared for another shove.
“Liar,” she said with a smile.
“But … you’re … and you …” Sara started. “I’ve seen text messages where you’re all”—she lowered her voice to imitate a guy’s voice—“‘Come on, bro, let’s find some pussy.’ I mean, this was only a few months ago when you came to visit.”
“That sounds like Garrett.” I laughed.
Garrett smiled. “All for show, honey.”
Her brow creased and she shook her head. “Trippy.”
“Anything else? Have I stunned the rest of you into a catatonic state?” Garrett asked.
I grabbed his arm and turned him to face me. “Are you really here? Like, is this really happening right now? Did you just come out?”
He took a step towards me, not even caring that we were in a crowded bar and anyone could see. This wasn’t the Garrett I knew. He was confident, and there was no fear in his eyes. “Oh, it’s happening,” he whispered.
“Derek …?”
He shook his head and spoke low. “Broke up with him months ago. I was going to tell you the last time I was home, but I didn’t want you to think I was there for a rebound fuck. I didn’t want to fall into our old routine when I was trying to put my life together. I’ve spent the last few months working on it so I could come home and be with you. I’m out. My parents know, and I came out to Ryan this afternoon—”
“That’s what was so important,” Cole said. “I thought you were dying. Or got gonorrhoea. One or the other.”
Garrett snorted. “No wonder you and my brother are friends.”
Hunter grinned. “I said the same thing. Well, not the gonorrhoea part, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind.”
“So, this is actually happening?” I asked again. I couldn’t fathom it. It wasn’t sinking in.
“I love you, Rhodes.”
I didn’t know which girls it came from, perhaps all of them, but there was a collective feminine “Aww” that came from the direction of the tables.
“You don’t have to say it back. All I want is a chance.”
I reached up and flicked the side of his head and laughed. “I’ve always loved you, you doofus.”
Before I knew it, his mouth was on mine—soft, with that perfect amount of stubble.
The kiss was quick, broken up by wolf-whistles and cheering. Not only from our friends but the whole bar.
Garrett pulled back, but he was smiling. Surprisingly. “I forgot we’re in public,” he whispered.
Old Garrett never would’ve had the guts to even touch me in public. Yet there he was, kissing me and not even caring that anyone was watching.
In a perfect world, no one would’ve batted an eyelid at two guys making out. No one cheered when straight couples did it, but I had to remind myself that cheering meant the world was at least headed in the right direction. I just wished we could get there faster.
When we pulled apart completely, our friends were standing from the booth.
“This calls for drinks,” Hunter said and left for the bar.
Reece whined. “Stupid baby.” She pointed to her growing belly. “I’m super happy for you guys, but I’m so frickin’ exhausted. I actually don’t know if this is happening right now or if I’m in a sleep-deprived hallucination, but if it’s real, I’m totally happy for you guys … I already said that, didn’t I? Ignore me. Crazy pregnant lady needs to go home to sleep. And check on Cody. We left him with Spencer’s niece.”
Spencer rolled his eyes. “Hailey’s perfectly capable of looking after an eight-year-old, but come on, I’ll take you home.” He leaned in to me and gave me a man-hug. “So, he’s the bro-code-breaking, complicated mess?”
“Been understating our relationship, Rhodes?”
“Something like that,” I mumbled and looked down at my feet.
“Spence,” Reece whined from the doorway.
“I better go,” Spencer said.
Garrett laughed. “So you had a one-night stand and knocked up your friend’s ex-wife, huh? And people thought my reputation was bad.”
Spencer smiled. “You should know that nothing is as it appears to be.” He turned his head to Reece, and then he leaned in to us. “There’s way more to it than that.”
Garrett turned to me. “You’re right. This group is way too incestuous.”
Pip bounced up beside us. “So, Gage just told me you’re coming back to work with us? That’s awesome. You were always fun to have in the office. I swear Gage only knows how to be serious.”
“Heard that,” Gage yelled from the booth.
I turned my head towards Garrett. There was something about his eyes I’d never seen before. It was the first time he appeared truly carefree. There was no more fake Garrett. He was no longer scared and no longer hiding.
I grabbed his hand and headed for the exit, pausing to call out over my shoulder, “We’ll be back in a few. There’s some stuff I want to talk to him about without you nosy fucks listening in.”
Garrett laughed. “You’re already starting to talk like me. In my experience, it’s not nice to call people fucks. Especially at places like Parsons’ Media. Do you know they send HR to talk to you about shit like that? I’m surprised my old firm didn’t fire me before I walked away. I actually named one of my co-workers Dipshit because I couldn’t be bothered to learn his real name.”
I shook my head. “Please tell me HR told you to be more sensitive. That would’ve gone down well.” We made it into the alleyway behind the bar. “And speaking of going down …” I reached for his belt and tugged him towards me.
“Why’d you pull me out here?”
“Like I said. I have stuff to say.”
“Are you having doubts? Because I totally get it. I’ve screwed you over so many times and—”
I smiled. “No doubts. Okay some, but that’s not what I brought you out here to say. I was thinking more along the lines of I need your cock in my mouth, like, right now.”
“Fuck. Here?” His eyes darted around.
“Not ready to be that out?” I chuckled.
“What if someone walks by?”
“Come fast.” I wiggled my eyebrows up and down.
He slammed his mouth on mine and pulled me against him. His tongue darted out, and I couldn’t hold in my groan.
His kiss was needy and claiming, the complete opposite to the soft, loving one he’d given me minutes ago.
This was how I remembered Garrett: the firmness of his mouth, his demanding tongue, and the burning of him branding me.
“On second thought, maybe this was a bad idea,” I grumbled.
“Because?”
“Because now all I want to do is take you home and fuck you instead. Do you think our friends will notice if we don’t go back in?”
He kissed me again, just as frantic and needy. “If you hurry up, we can totally pull off BJs in an alley, have a few drinks, and then fuck when we get home.”
“I love how your brain works.” I pulled him farther down the alley and into the shadows so someone walking towards the bar couldn’t see us.
I backed him up until he was pinned against the wall of the pub.
“Fuck, I’ve missed you.” He pulled me closer and his mouth was back on mine.
“Missed me or my mouth?” I murmured against his lips as I undid his fly.
“Both,” he said with a grin. His hands were all over me, exploring, down my chest, over my abs, sending heat to every part of my body. I didn’t know if I’d survive long enough to make him come.
Sinking to my knees on the dirty concrete ground, I was in too much of a hurry to take my time. My hand pulled his hard length out of his boxers. I couldn’t even bring myself to admire the view of the glistening head before I gave his velvety skin one hard pump and then buried him to the root in my mouth.
“Fuuuuck.” His hips bucked.
I moaned, savouring his taste under my tongue as he moved in and out.
“Goddammit,” he choked out.
Shit, I was close to coming and he hadn’t even touched me. My dick was agonisingly hard behind my zipper.
I sucked Garrett down with hollowed cheeks as I reached for my own cock, freeing it from the confines of my jeans. Stroking lazily, I tried to ease the tension building in the base of my groin, but touching only made it worse. I leaked into my hand and moaned again.
“Blair,” Garrett breathed. He was close. “Gonna …” His whole body trembled as he spilled into my mouth. “I fucking love you.” He kept thrusting until he had nothing left, finally pulling himself out of my mouth as he sagged against the wall.
I stood and blanketed his body with mine, kissing him and sucking on his tongue with the same amount of fervour as I had on his cock.
His hand went to the back of my head as his tongue met mine thrust for thrust.
“Your turn,” he rasped.
“Seriously going to come in less than a minute,” I whispered. I was so painfully hard, all I wanted was release.
“Bet I can get you there in thirty seconds.” He crouched down where he was, taking me into his mouth.
I leaned my palms on the wall in front of me as I tried to control my breathing.
His mouth was wet and eager, driving me crazy, and sending me close to the edge almost immediately. He delivered on his promise, deep-throating me like a fucking pro and having me coming down his throat in what was probably only thirty seconds.
When he stood, his smug grin made me smile.
“We better get back in there,” he said.
I nodded, tucked myself away, and zipped up my fly. “Ten bucks says one of the first questions they ask is who bottoms.”
“You’re on. I think I have more faith in your friends than you do. They wouldn’t ask that … would they?”
“You’re sweet. Naïve. But sweet. They haven’t got the whole PC thing down yet. But they’re trying.” I stepped forward and kissed him again, softly this time. When I pulled away, I pursed my lips. “This isn’t real. You’re not here and you’re not out of the closet. You’re still living with Derek in Sydney, and I’m still a miserable asshole.”
He laughed. “If I’m not really here, blowing yourself in an alleyway is a fucking talent.” He wrapped his arm around me and brought me against him, bringing his lips close to mine. “You cared about me when I thought no one else ever would. It took way too fucking long for me to get over myself, and I’m so sorry for that. But I’m here, Blair. This is real.” His mouth closed over mine, and the kiss held more meaning than anything else I’d ever experienced.
With flushed cheeks and a satisfied grin, I led Garrett back into the bar and pulled him into the booth next to me. We were all squished around the one table now Reece and Spencer were gone.
“Did you guys just—” Hunter started but then held up his hands. “You know what, I didn’t want to know about my brother’s sex life when he was straight, and that’s not going to change now. Never mind.”
We laughed.
“Which one is the top—” Paige started.
Cole nudged her. “Not appropriate, Shortcake.”
“Boom. Pay up,” I gloated to Garrett and then turned to Paige. “Although, I wasn’t expecting that to come from you. You seem so innocent.”
Cole snorted.
“If anything, I was expecting that question from Pip,” I added.
“Are you guys going to get married now?” Pip asked. “See, I can ask normal questions.”
I laughed. “Considering we’ve officially been together for”—I checked my watch—“oh, fifteen-ish whole minutes, I’m going to go with no.”
“Naw, come on,” Garrett said. “It’s really been five years in the making, right? I reckon we could civil ceremony the fuck outta this relationship.”
“Well, with that romantic proposal, how could I resist? It’s not even legally recognised here.”
“We could fly to New Zealand and do it,” Garrett said.
“We could,” I said. “Or maybe we could wait until you’ve been in a relationship for more than a few months. See if you make it a year.”
He spoke low. “I’m not going anywhere this time, Rhodes. I promise.”
I wanted to believe him. So bad. But that didn’t stop the small part of me that stayed wary. I’d give everything to Garrett, and I’d give us a fair shot at a real relationship, but I wasn’t sure it’d be enough to keep the worry away. I hoped time was all I needed to build that type of trust. Maybe everything would be easier now he was out.
“Where you going to live now you’re home?” Hunter asked his brother.
“Well, I can’t exactly kick my boyfriend out. Guess he’s just going to have to put up with me.”
“Live together?” I asked.
“I drank the Kool-Aid while I was at Cole and Hunter’s place earlier. I’m tellin’ ya, commitment is in the water over there.” He smirked.
“Shit. I better stop drinking it then,” Paige said, making us all laugh.
Cole wrapped his arm around her. “Don’t mind this one. She’s a commitment-phobe.”
“Am not,” she protested.
“Move in with me then,” he retorted.
Her eyes went wide and she didn’t answer.
“Just as I thought,” Cole said and then pointed to her. “Commitment-phobe.”
“You want to live with me?” I asked Garrett, again with the same shocked tone I’d used since he arrived at the bar.
“I want everything with you. And I get you’re going to be hesitant because I’ve ran off so many times before, but I promise it’ll be different this time. No more hiding, no more sneaking around, and definitely no more watching you date girls.” He shuddered.
“What about guys?” I joked.
“Not on your fucking life.”
Yeah, I could live with that.