Limitless Love: A Polyamorous Charity Anthology

Chapter 7

Samuel stumbled after Pauli, not that he had much choice but to follow him. The punishing grip on his bicep matched the anger that had coated his friend’s words and Samuel would be surprised if there weren’t bruises left behind. And it would be a first too, for Pauli to mark him like that. In all the years they’d known each other…been as close as brothers, Samuel had never once been on the other end of Pauli’s anger. No exchanges of fists along with the no swapping of spit and cum… although maybe that last one was about to change. Pauli couldn’t deny what had happened between him and Lorenzo last night when Samuel had woken to his arms wrapped around his best friend.

Hurt too.

Hurt knowing that it had been Lorenzo who’d unlocked a side of Pauli Samuel had long given up hope on it existing.

Hurt even more that Pauli had come here believing he had a right to demand Samuel leave with him.

“Why did you fucking come here, Pauli?” Samuel hissed, yanking his arm free from Pauli’s grip, and crossing his arms over himself.

“Why did I come here?”Pauli shook his head while chuckling softly. “I can’t believe you’re even saying that, Samuel. You fucking left without a word!” he yelled, throwing his arms wide. “Did you honestly believe that I wouldn’t come looking for you?”

Samuel shrugged. Half of him had hoped Pauli would come after him…his arms open wide and declarations of love on his lips. The other half almost had him convinced that Pauli wouldn’t remove his dick long enough from the women who paraded through his room each night to notice.

“I left for a reason, Pauli.”

A strangled laugh tore itself from Pauli’s throat. “Would’ve been nice if I’d known what that reason was, Samuel. Better than simply discovering you’d disappeared from the city…without saying goodbye. And what the fuck did I do to deserve being the only one who had no idea where the fuck you’d gone?”

He winced at that because maybe it had been wrong to leave without even saying goodbye to Pauli, to not give him the courtesy of an explanation. But then, Samuel’s brain…his whole being had simply been focused on easing the ache in his chest that only worsened the longer he was around Pauli. Falling in love with your straight best friend wasn’t advisable… although whether Pauli could call himself straight or not now was another question.

“Maybe because the reason…was you!”

“Me? What the hell, Samuel? If you had an issue with me, you could’ve just said something instead of… fucking off out of the city,” Pauli roared. “But guess what? You’re fucking stuck with me… and I’m not leaving here without you.”

“No, I couldn’t tell you… and you might as well bugger off back to the city, Pauli, because I’m staying here.”

“You’re staying? Like fuck!”

“You don’t get a say in it. Don’t have to like it either. Because this decision has got nothing to do with you,” Samuel snapped back. “I want to stay here, and so stay here I will.”

He watched as Pauli shoved his hands through his hair while pacing back and forth. “It’s because of them, right? That’s why you want to stay here.” Pauli dropped his hands to stare at Samuel with a look caught between pity and jealousy. “But you know that whatever romantic notion you’ve gotten caught up in isn’t real. They don’t want you. Not forever. How could they when it’s always been just the two of them.”

“Romantic notion?” Samuel laughed. “What do you know about romance? Besides, where else am I going to find it? It’s not like you’re available for me to romance.” Pauli’s jaw dropped, his skin turning pale while also being stained with red. Samuel hadn’t thought it possible for a person to both burn with embarrassment and go pale with disbelief. “You’re straight, and I don’t do straight boys… and they”—gesturing toward the kitchen where Andretti and Lorenzo waited—“are more fucking romantic than you’ll ever be.”

“You don’t need them,” Pauli snarled as he stalked forward, the colour that had been stolen from his skin returning with vengeance.

Samuel stood stock still, bewildered by his friend’s drastic change in mood while also hopeful that this was going where he wanted it to. He still wasn’t prepared to leave the vineyard to return to Melbourne. Samuel liked it here, the peacefulness of it, the greenness, and it reminded him of those times when his family would stay out at the vineyard that now belonged to Ryland. Family get-togethers that were spent racing amongst the vines and trying not to trip over the piles of freshly dug earth. And Samuel liked the life he’d started with Andretti and Lorenzo even if it wasn’t what he”d intended to find when arrived here. But now that he had, Samuel wasn’t willing to let it go.

He didn’t want to let them go.

Not for his brother.

Not for Pauli.

Not for anyone, ever.

* * *

“You don’t need them!”The words falling from his mouth before Pauli could even register what he’d said. Not that he’d take them back. Samuel was his. Had been his since…

Hell, it wasn’t like Pauli could put an exact date on it. Samuel had always been there next to him, along with the expectation that Pauli would support him… protect him. Being separated from Samuel these past few weeks had felt like a part of him had been missing…and it only made sense that Pauli wanted to get it back. Yet this possessiveness toward Samuel surprised him. Frightened him too, not that he’d openly admit that.

And it wasn’t the only thing in the last twenty-four hours that Pauli didn’t want to admit to having happened. He didn’t expect Samuel would leave that matter alone either. Hard to when Pauli had woken during the night to find himself naked and surrounded by the warmth of Samuel and Lorenzo. Memories of what Lorenzo had done the moment Pauli had been allowed inside their house had flitted through his mind then too. None of them were coated in layers of regret but there was no ignoring the confusion swamping him. Pauli knew he could’ve clambered out of the bed and sought another one, yet he hadn’t wanted to…although he could’ve done without the waking to an empty bed this morning.

“What the fuck? Where do you get off saying that? Are you planning to share my bed like they do? Fuck me? Kiss me?” Samuel snarled, his words erupting into the air with enough vehemence that Pauli wouldn’t be surprised if their cousins heard their argument despite him dragging Samuel out of the kitchen for a little privacy. “Have you gotten so bored with women, that you’ve decided to try your hand at fucking men…at getting fucked by them too?”

Pauli flinched as he stumbled back from Samuel, the weight of his best mate’s hurt slammed into Pauli’s chest. Hurt and not anger. Although it existed too, lingering in the background of Samuel’s despair, mingling with it on the edges until the emotion began to take on the appearance of betrayal. What had he done to make Samuel feel as though Pauli had betrayed him? Wasn’t it Samuel who’d betrayed Pauli by leaving Melbourne without explanation? Without saying goodbye or even giving Pauli the opportunity to leave with him.

“I don’t think I need your permission as to who I fuck, Samuel,” he hissed. “And if I wanted to find solace over your disappearance by getting my dick wet in some chick’s cunt, then that’s my fucking business. Because not only did you fucking leave Melbourne without me… no one would tell me where you were, not even your damn brother!”

Samuel groaned. “We’ve already gone over this. I didn’t want you to know where I’d gone. And did you want a bloody medal for not letting your bed go cold?”

“No, I don’t want a fucking medal.” Pauli dropped onto a nearby chair with a heavy sigh. “I just want you to come back to Melbourne with me.”

“How fucking typical it is that you want my life to fit in with yours… to be something that is acceptable to you.”

“Your life is in Melbourne, Samuel!”

“Not anymore, it’s not.”

Pauli narrowed his eyes at Samuel unable to believe that his friend’s words were true. “There is nothing here for you but rows and rows of grapes. Why would you want that?”

Samuel groaned and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Have you stopped to consider that I want to stay…for them.” He gestured at the kitchen where Lorenzo and Andretti possibly still waited. “That maybe I’m falling in love with them.”

“And?”

“What do you mean, ‘and’? I’m not giving up my happiness simply because you’ve demanded I return to Melbourne.” Samuel strode across the floor to where Pauli sat. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve deftly avoided answering my question.”

“But I did. Answer your question, that is.” He wrung his hands together while staring at a point on the wall behind Samuel’s shoulder, not wanting to meet his best mate’s gaze.

Snorting, Samuel shook his head. “No, you answered part of it. You were quite happy state that you didn’t need my permission to fuck anyone… but you made no comment on the being fucked part, nor the gender of those partners. Arse play isn’t restricted to gay men, Pauli.”

“My hole’s still virginal, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Red stained his skin, bringing with it an uncomfortable heat that saw it bead with sweat. Pauli didn’t want to talk about what happened last night, even less when he knew that Samuel had been getting fucked by Lorenzo’s partner, Andretti, while it happened.

“Good… good to know,” Samuel replied. “Because if anyone is going to fuck that hole first, then it’s going to be me.”

Pauli wondered if self-combustion was really a thing because right now Pauli reckoned, he’d die of it. This wasn’t a conversation he’d wanted to have with Samuel. Had hoped they’d be on their way to Melbourne already with the events of last night forgotten. Buried deep like the roots of the grapevines and never brought to light.

“But you did get fucked last night, didn’t you, Pauli? Spilled your fucking cum all over the place…swallowed Lorenzo’s… And you can’t fucking deny it either because he wouldn’t have brought you into bed with us last night if you hadn’t.”

“You think I wanted last night to happen?”

“I think you wanted last night more than you’d ever have fucking admitted to… and maybe I should’ve pushed you for it before now.”

Pauli’s breath hitched as Samuel slide a hand through his hair, fingers curling into the long strands on top and twisting tight. Painfully so. Arousingly so. Lorenzo had done that last night too before sending Pauli to his knees and feeding him his cock. He hoped maybe that was where this was going, that he’d soon find himself swallowing down his best mate’s cock…which didn’t repulse him like Pauli had thought it might. His fingers itched to unzip Samuel’s pants and trace his fingers over the hard shaft he’d never once considered as being something he’d desire.

Yet another part of him, the same one that had resisted everything Lorenzo had offered him, screamed loudly that cocks weren’t meant to be on his menu of sexual desires. Years of nothing but fucking women and never having his head turned by the beauty of a man should’ve meant something…

Except maybe the reason wasn’t because Pauli was straight, but that Samuel had always been his.

He’d just never realised it.

Never opened his eyes to what was in front of him.

And now it wasn’t only Samuel who turned Pauli the fuck on.