We’ve been walking for what seems like hours, and I’m starting to feel it in my ankle now. Whatever I strained falling down that ditch has decided that it doesn’t like the uneven terrain, but I’ve kept quiet because Corey looks like he's enjoying himself. He seems lighter today like he hasn’t got the same worries in his head, and I wish I could stop imagining the reason he feels relaxed. I don't want to think about Niko fucking him into oblivion last night.

I drop a little further back so that I can fight my erection in more privacy. Running my hand discreetly over the front of my jeans satisfies me that nothing is noticeable, but I continue to walk behind the two men. I’ve been watching them a lot since we started our trek and the sight of them together still makes my pulse race. Individually Corey and Niko are the sexiest men I’ve ever seen, but seeing them together, they are fucking perfection. They aren’t always overly obvious in their attraction to each other, but I think that makes it even hotter to watch. Seeing the little touches and the looks of love between them, it all adds up to create a reaction in my body that I'm fighting to control.

“Why are you limping?”

I look up in time to see Niko glowering at me. Something has been up with him today, something more than me trying to leave last night. He had seemed fine when we got back to the house this morning, and he even spent some time showing me the emails he’d received. The hate in the words written had shocked me, but I promised to get Sam to look into it to see what he could find out. After leaving his office, I contacted Sam and told him everything I’d found out and sent him on the trail of the emailer.

When I returned to the kitchen, Niko had looked relaxed with his arms around Corey, but then in a fraction of a second, his body went tight with tension. When he left the kitchen in a rush I'd been confused, but he genuinely looked like he needed a moment, so I let Corey keep talking about all the scenery around the cabin. When he came back from the bathroom, his eyes were red, and my heart broke because there was no way to hide the fact that Niko’d been crying. I’m not going to ask him about it because something tells me that he wouldn’t appreciate the question. The speed at which he put his sunglasses on, hiding his eyes from Corey, only confirmed that he was hiding what had happened.

“Grant, why are you limping?”

It takes me a second to remember that Niko had asked me a question. “Just my ankle. I had a fight with a deer remember.”

This makes Corey laugh, but Niko’s face doesn’t change.

“Do you want to head back?” Corey’s question is sweet, but I don't want to be the person that ruins the day.

“Don't be daft. I’m perfectly happy to keep going. No deer will keep me down.”

We continue for about another hour, and even though my ankle is niggling, it’s not anything that I couldn’t handle. We’d circled back towards the car and have about fifteen minutes of walking to go when the world literally moves beneath my feet. I'm laughing with Corey as he tells me a story about when he was in high school, and he was caught spying on the gym teacher having a shower. I’m fully invested in the story, so much so that I don't see the loose rock until it’s too late. I step on it and go over on my ankle again. I cry out in pain and then curse my stupidity as I sit on the ground holding my ankle.

Corey and Niko are at my side in seconds, Corey touching my leg to see where I’m hurt. When he presses the top of my foot, I hiss as pain screams through my leg.

“Fuck. I can’t believe I did this again.”

Corey looks at me sympathetically, and I hate it. I don't want to be someone who always needs to be looked after. “It's okay, Grant. Can you stand?” He takes my hand and pulls me to my feet. I find I can stand, but there’s tightness in my foot and calf.

“I should be okay. I might have to walk slowly though. Thank God we are nearly at the car. I'm sorry, guys.”

“It’s fine, honestly. We’ll have a little stroll to finish up the day. It will be nice.” Corey puts his arm through mine and helps me limp towards the car. It’s slow going, but Corey doesn’t complain once. Apparently, Niko isn’t as patient because within a few steps he passes us and abruptly faces me. He catches my eye for the briefest of seconds, and then I'm lifted off my feet and thrown over Niko’s shoulder. I call out in surprise when I'm left looking at the ground as Niko storms towards the car. I want to believe that my manhood is still intact, but when I hear Corey laughing behind us, I know it’s not.

“Kind of familiar dontcha think?”

My mind instantly goes back to what Corey means. To the afternoon I first met Niko and he carried Corey out of the kitchen in the same way. As soon as I think it I wish I hadn’t. Unfortunately, the memories don’t stop there, and within seconds I'm thinking about the noises Corey made when they vanished into their bedroom. Stop thinking about it. The more I try to not think about it the more my mind gets stuck on it and in less than a minute I have a serious problem going on. I've spent the day half hard, but there is no way to hide this one since Niko is carrying me and my hard on is currently rubbing against his shoulder. When his hands tighten on my thighs I know, he's noticed.

When we reach the car, I’m lowered slowly to the ground, Niko taking most of my weight, so I don’t land on my injured foot. The slide down his body is more enjoyable than it should be and I close my eyes, silently moaning at the contact. It’s not until I open my eyes that I realise I wasn’t as silent as I thought I’d been. Corey is staring at me, but instead of the shock I expect, all I see is lust. I’ve met guys at nightclubs that make it clear that they want to fuck me, but their attentions have nothing on the way that Corey is staring at me. I look up at Niko who is still standing closely in front of me, but it isn’t me he's looking at. His attention in entirely on Corey and his jaw is tight, the muscle twitching slightly with the tension.

“Let's go.” Niko voice breaks the silence, and it makes me jump. My heart races as he goes to the driver’s side of the car and get’s in. Corey takes the passenger seat, and I stand outside the car a minute to try and compose myself.

This whole day has been a whiplash of emotions, from the panic when I found out that Niko knew who I was, to the worry when I saw him leaving the bathroom and now I have the bone-deep embarrassment of telling both guys that Niko turns me on. I suppose it’s only fair since I practically threw myself at Corey. At least it shows that I'm equal opportunities when it comes to making a complete arse of myself. I take a deep breath and climb into the back seat behind Corey, praying that I can make the journey back without doing anything else stupid.

* * *

I sink into the water and let the heat soothe my aching body. I moan quietly when the water covers my shoulders, and I continue to lie down until it reaches my chin. I wiggle my toes, and they appear through the mass of bubble that covers the top of the water. I might have gone a little overboard with the bubble bath, but the smell is worth it. The room is filled with the scent of Corey, and I close my eyes and just enjoy the whole experience.

The whole day felt like a clusterfuck from beginning to end, but now that I'm lying in here, it doesn’t feel as bad as it did while it was happening. The drive home was quiet but not completely awkward. Both men have been kind enough not to bring up my mishap, which is the name I'm giving my pornworthy moan.

A knock on the bathroom door causes me to splash some of the water as I sit up. What do I do? Do I invite them in or stay quiet? I roll my eyes at myself for being so fucking stupid. Why would I stay quiet? They both know I'm in here, hence why they’re freaking knocking. There’s another tap, and I realise that I'm taking far too long to answer.

“Yeah?” I expect whoever it is to reply through the door but what actually happens is Niko opens the door and walks in. My eyes widen as he gets level with the bath and I’m suddenly more than happy with my decision to use too much bubble bath. At least I know that my erection will be fully covered from his prying eyes. He hands me a bottle of beer, and when I take it, he walks to the toilet and sits on it.

“Did you manage to get in touch with your friend?”

I look at the bottle in my hands and try not to think about how surreal this is. Not only am I completely naked with a fucking hot guy watching me, but now he wants to talk about the secret we’re keeping from his boyfriend. “Where’s Corey?”

“He went into town to pick up our mail from the post office. I offered to stay with you.”

I nod and sip my beer. It makes sense I suppose since I haven’t had a chance to speak to Niko in private since this morning when I offered to help. “I called Sam, and he’s on it. I’ll check in tomorrow to see if he’s found anything. He said he would trace the emails so don't go into your account in case he has something set up.”

“Clay says he can’t find anything from the emails.”

“I don't mean to sound cocky, but Clay isn’t Sam.”

The edge of Niko’s lip twitches. “I’ll let you tell Clay that yourself. See how well that goes down.”

We sit in silence for a few minutes, and I can’t seem to make eye contact with Niko, not after what happened this afternoon. I lie back until I'm leaning against the end of the bath again. I risk a glance at Niko and see his eyes roaming down over my body. I swear I can feel every inch of it on my skin and the ache in my balls intensifies. I cough to clear my throat, needing to do something before I embarrass myself by coming from Niko’s stare alone. “Why haven’t you told Core who I am? I thought it would have been the first thing you did when you found out.”

“Why do you call him Core?”

“I don't know.” The question takes me by surprise because it’s not something I’ve consciously thought about. I just called him it one day, and it seemed to stick.

“I'm the only person that calls him that.”

Shit. This is a lesson straight from how not to make friends and alienate people. I’ve taken something that was personal and tried to make it my own. “I'm sorry, I’ll stop.”

Niko looks at me, and I wish I hadn’t chosen now to look him in the eye. “Don't,” his voice falters like he’s not sure what to say, but he takes a breath and carries on. “I like it.”

Holy shit. There goes my heart racing like I’ve run twenty miles. I need to get my body on board with the whole trying not to lust after Niko and Corey thing, but it’s just not willing to listen to me. “Okay.” Not only is that an idiotic response to what's he's saying, but the word comes out on a breathy exhale which makes me sound like some nineteen-forties damsel. Way to keep your man card jerk head.

“Do you know when Sam will get back to you?” I mean to answer him but when he takes a drink from his bottle, I lose all the ability to speak. Watching his mouth around the smooth glass and his throat as he swallows steals all thought. I want to run my tongue along the front of his throat and feel it as it moves. Holy shit, he looks like fucking sin.

“Why did you work at Blue Diamond?” I’ve thought about asking Niko this ever since I met him and I haven’t seemed to find the right time. Apparently, my brain feels while I'm naked in the bath is the perfect time to discuss it.

“I needed money, and I wasn’t opposed to hurting people to get it. I’d done some jobs for a guy I knew before Ryden hired me.”

“But didn’t you feel guilty hurting people?” I sit up but make sure the essential parts of me are still covered. I wish we weren’t having this conversation while I was naked, but since it was my bright idea to bring it up, I can’t change it now.

Niko stares at me like he's having an internal battle and I suddenly realise why.

“I promise I'm only asking because I want to know. I'm not a police officer anymore. I'm just a guy sitting naked in your bath.”

Thankfully Niko laughs, and his body loses some of the tension that was in his shoulders. When he stands I get nervous, sure that he's about to leave, but instead he sits down with his back against the side of the tub. He isn’t looking at me now, and I think he’s done it on purpose. I lean forward on the side of the bath and cross my arms, resting my chin on top of them. I'm close to Niko’s shoulder, but I make sure that I'm not touching him.

“I started working for Ryden because I’d given up caring about anything. I didn’t feel guilty about the things he wanted me to do because guilt is an emotion and I was numb.” He drains the last of his beer, but he doesn’t put the bottle down. Instead, he uses his nail to pick at the edge of the label.

“Why were you numb?”

“Give me a second.” He gets up from the floor and leaves the bathroom, returning a few minutes later with a bottle of tequila. He sits in his spot on the floor again and opens the bottle, taking a drink and then offering me one. I shake my head no because I want to keep a clear head when I finally hear his story.

“Two years before I started working for Ryden my sister went missing. She was on holiday with a friend. Nowhere exciting, just a girlie weekend at a holiday village, but she never came home. She was taken from the hot tub while her friends were inside getting drinks. It was the last time she was seen alive.” He takes another long pull from the tequila. When he offers me it this time, I ease the bottle from his hand and take a giant mouthful. I have a feeling I’m going to need some liquid courage to get through what I'm about to hear.

“We spent weeks searching for her, and the not knowing what happened was the worst part. My parents went completely off the rails as you can imagine. They blamed me for what had happened even though there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. The shitty thing was I started to believe them, and soon I was drinking to cover the pain. I spent so long trying to find peace at the bottom of a bottle that I nearly missed all the clues.”

“What clues?” I'm sitting up further having twisted my body, so I'm looking at Niko. I’m so caught up in his story that I don’t notice that I'm showing more body than I should.

“Emails.”

I gasp when I realise where this is going. History seems to be repeating itself, and it explains why he's so protective of Corey.

“I received three hundred and sixty-two emails before I found my sister, and him. She wasn’t alive when I got to her, and he wasn’t alive by the time I left. Losing my sister killed a part of me that I will never get back, I buried it in that grave with her, and that’s why I was numb. The things I did at Blue Diamond never registered on my moral compass, not until I met Corey.”

“I'm so fucking sorry, Niko. I don’t know what to say.” I take a large swig of tequila and hand the bottle back to him as the tingling feeling in my cheeks starts to spread. I want to tell him I know how he feels, let him know I share his pain, but it’s not the same. The sister I lost never really lived. I mourned the idea of having a sister, not one I’d spent my life loving.

“It’s okay, I can’t change the past, but I can prevent the future. I can’t let the same thing happen to Corey because losing him will finish me.” He turns his head, and I can see the truth of his statement in his eyes.

I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or something else, but I reach out and wrap my arm around his chest before leaning my head on his shoulder. I expect him to push me away, but he doesn’t. Instead, he leans his head against mine. “I promise to help you protect him, Niko. I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing happens to Core.”

“Thank you.” It’s all he says, but he reaches up and grips my arm. I don’t know how long we sit like this that but neither of us hear Corey enter the house. When he comes into the bathroom, I sit up until I'm no longer touching Niko. Corey stares for a few moments, and I think that I'm about to be asked to leave. He shocks the shit out of me when he comes across the room and sits on the floor next to Niko. He presses his leg against Niko’s, but he’s facing me, a smile playing on his lips as he grabs the bottle from Niko’s hand.

“I can’t believe you two were having a party and I wasn’t invited.” He takes a hefty chug and hands the bottle to me. His eyes rake over my chest and heat builds on my skin. The whole thing is surreal, but I go with it, taking the bottle from his hand and having more tequila.