My insatiable need for him flows like lava through my veins spurring the ache, one I know, soul-deep he’s the only one capable of sating. Seconds pass as he recognizes what I’m not saying. I look up at him, imploring him not to exploit my weakness, but what’s mine, he claims is his own.
“It hurt,” I confess.
“Your dream?”
“Yes.”
He frowns. “Ce qui te blesse, me blesse.” What hurts you, hurts me.
“Do you mean that?”
He places my hand to his chest to let me feel the truth. His heart hammers against my palm as my own heart toes the ledge, carefully peeking down at the endless stories below and weighing the risk before shaking its head at me.
Not yet.
It’s trust we need, and it’s all backward, but that’s our nature, and if I’m honest, it’s all we lack. Well, that and the thousand other secrets he’s not letting me be privy to. Those matter.
So even if my heart is playing masochistic daredevil, my head is doing its best to keep me above water.
He lifts from me, easing my comfort, and in turn, I cradle him between my legs. We’re filthy, in need of another shower, but I wouldn’t trade a second of this stolen moment, because I can feel the reckoning coming. And we’ve put it off for far too long.
“Ask me anything,” he whispers, pressing his thumb into the corner of my mouth before tracing my lip as his cinnamon coated hair hangs between us. “Ask me, and I’ll tell you.”
“We’re not business anymore,” I whisper, partly a declaration part question. We’re chest to chest as he slowly shakes his head.
“No, we’re not.”
I can’t bring myself to ask him, and so I don’t. Instead, he leans in and presses his lips to mine before he speaks. “You warned me not to fall in love with you. You said you wouldn’t make room for me.”
“You told me you wouldn’t,” I remind him, my soul soaring with his confession.
He leans in close, his nose brushing mine. “Then I guess that makes us both lia—”
“Well, brother, would you take a fucking look at this? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Tobias tenses before going ramrod straight, his expression sobering as he pulls himself to kneel a second before I jackknife, my pulse skyrocketing as I turn from where I sit on the ground and lift my gaze to meet the livid eyes of his brother.
Beside Dominic stands Sean, and at the sight of them, I’m thrust into a reality of the worst kind. I stagger to my feet as I dart my disbelieving gaze between the furious eyes of two men, that not long ago, I pledged myself to. Two men I swore I couldn’t, never wanted to live without. Two men that ceased to exist after leaving me begging for them in the street as they drove away.
Dominic’s gaze drips acid, peeling me away layer by layer as he takes the two of us in, dr
essed in nothing but unmistakable guilt. Sean’s expression is equally as damning, his jaw set, his eyes blistering us both with rage.
Tobias stands and takes a step away, distancing himself from me, but it’s way too late. Trembling, filled with dread, I face them both speechless as they collectively batter the two of us from where they stand, their posture threatening in a way I’ve rarely been privy to.
Dominic is the first to speak. “So, I would say we should catch up, brother, but I can see what you’ve been up to. Or should I say who you’ve been into.”
“Where have you been?” I rasp out, my eyes drifting from one to the other, soaking in the changes. Dominic’s hair is cropped close to his head, his physique bulging with new muscle. Sean’s hair is tucked under a ball cap and he’s bulked up just as much. Even their demeanors seem different. And judging from their collective expressions, it looks as if they’ve survived hell and just been refused the chance to tell their story.
Dominic leers at me from feet away, his silvery gaze laced with disgust as if it pains him to look at me. My heart lurches in every direction as I sink into the ground, stunned by their sudden arrival.
“Where have we been?” Sean hisses before he darts his gaze over my shoulder. “Want to answer that for her, Tobias?”
He takes a menacing step forward, fisting his hands at his sides, opening and closing them as he shifts his stare between us as if he’s not sure which of us he wants to strike first.
I turn toward Tobias. “What’s he talking about?”
Tobias closes his eyes as Sean speaks up. “I guess it’s a good thing we caught that early plane, isn’t it, Dom?”