On Your Knees, Prospect (Kings of Hell MC 3)

“And then, a partner is also there for us even when we don’t want them to. In this one, I side with Laurent,” Nao said with a smile to her voice.

She clicked through to the last photo where Beast was cowering on the couch from Laurent, who attempted to put cream on his arm.

Red-faced but laughing and holding Beast’s hand, Laurent looked so tiny next to his hulking husband. The wedding was an uncommonly elegant affair in comparison to all other events Jake had witnessed at the clubhouse. Even Beast complied with Laurent’s wishes and wore a suit. He’d had to get it tailor-made and had complained about it several times, but never when Laurent was around. It was both strange and sweet to see the man Jake had always known as tough and silent, bending to the wishes of a boy who wasn’t old enough to legally drink alcohol, and five foot seven at best.

Their age gap made Jake’s thoughts drift to Vars, as they seemed to always do lately. He used to think the thirteen years between Beast and Laurent were pretty steep, but now that he was enamoured with a guy almost twenty years his senior, he no longer had an opinion. King had been even older than Vars, but it had been just fucking, while the past two weeks made it very clear to Jake that for all intents and purposes, Vars wanted to be Jake’s boyfriend. Exclusively. Jake wanted that too.

But how would their life look in the future? What would happen in ten, twenty years, once their difference in age would start becoming more pronounced? Did it even matter? Was Jake overthinking it because Vars was his first boyfriend? It wasn’t like they were getting married. Most relationships didn’t even last a decade. He and Vars were just having the most intense sex Jake had ever experienced and shared each other’s deepest, darkest secrets. No biggie.

Their life was breakfasts in bed, watching movies together, going on bike rides. They’d even shopped for suits together and gone out for some food, which had felt suspiciously like a date. It had felt so right, so effortless, as did the kisses they’d shared in the shadows of a narrow alley on the way between the store and the restaurant. He’d lie if he said he didn’t notice Vars’s maturity, but the point was that it didn’t bother him in any way. And it wasn’t like Jake had a fetish for older guys, because there were many younger ones he found attractive. It was rather the confidence Vars exuded, his experience that had drawn Jake in, straight into the trap of Vars’s strong arms, which he never wanted to leave.

But because Brecon was so small, he sometimes wondered how a former classmate would react if they saw Jake holding Vars’s hand in the street. Or what Jake’s parents would think for that matter. Would they even care? Would they find the age gap distasteful? Think that Jake was just a silly boy who let an older guy seduce him? Jake knew in his heart that this wasn’t the case, but how would he cope with the inevitable mocking, were someone to find out? Even Beast and Laurent had their share of dumb jokes hauled at them. They were all meant as good-natured, but still…

Maybe Jake and Vars could make it official once they got their patches.

If Vars really wanted that.

The reception was held in a large room where an element of the ceiling had collapsed last year, hurting Davy’s leg and pushing him into an early retirement from regular club life. Davy himself occasionally visited the clubhouse and didn’t seem to mind celebrating a wedding in the place where his life had changed so drastically. Sitting at one of the tables with his wife and son, Lizzy, he was probably too drunk to have flashbacks anyway.

With most of the lights temporarily off, the glow of the projector licked the collection of smiling faces. Neither Laurent nor Beast had much family they could have invited, but the people who’d come to celebrate with them despite the dreaded requirement of formal wear (which some of the guests had taken lightly anyway), weren’t here only because they were blood releatives of the couple. They were here because they had chosen to be Beast’s and Laurent’s extended family. There was something incredibly touching about this after discussing his own family with Vars earlier.

Jake discreetly glanced Vars’s way, and the man’s broad smile made something twist inside Jake’s chest when he realized how alone in the world Vars was. He’d again been uprooted to a part of the country where he was a complete stranger, with no family to keep in touch with. It made the guilt over contacting Damon and trying to kick Vars out even heavier. All Jake could now do about it was prove that he knew he’d made a mistake. He could be the one person close to Vars, the person to make Vars feel welcome and at home with the Kings of Hell MC.