26. Luca
CHAPTER 26
LUCA
Mav met my eyes as he scooped up a limp Brooks. We had a quick unspoken conversation, and I nodded that I would take care of Skye while he brought Brooks to the leather, oversized couch that was perfect for aftercare cuddles. I rubbed Skye’s back slowly, using the grounding touch to shift him out of subspace.
“How’re you doing, darling?” He smiled goofily at me.
“Good, Boss. Little loopy.”
I laughed. “Understandable. I’m going to free you now. Just stay still until I get you completely unhooked.”
“Okay.”
He kind of flopped onto the surface of the bench, his head hanging limply in between his arms. I started with his arms, rubbing them as I went to help get circulation in them. I moved shakily to his legs, since I was a little out of it myself, and went through the same process.
Once he was free, I went back to the front and helped him stand. “Gotta work with me, Skye. I can’t carry you all on my own.”
“Not fair. How come Brooks gets the princess treatment?” he said, but he was grinning ear to ear. I got my body under Skye’s arm, and we somehow made our way from the bench to the couch.
“‘Cause I’m always the princess,” Brooks informed him matter-of-factly from where he cuddled in Maverick’s lap.
I smiled at my boy. Fuck. I couldn’t believe my dumb ass had pushed him away for so long. He was so responsive, so sweetly submissive, with just enough of a mischievous side to keep it interesting. I’d been a fool.
I helped Skye get settled into Maverick’s side, who immediately wrapped his free arm around him and kissed the top of his head.
“You two cuddle with Mav for a minute. I’m going to find something to clean us up.”
“Need another shower,” Brooks mumbled as he burrowed his head in Maverick’s pec.
“When we get back inside,” he told him. “Let Luca clean you up for now. You won’t be happy if all that cum on your legs dries up.”
Brooks’s nose wrinkled. “Eww.”
Kai and Martinez had really set this place up, and there was a working sink with a stack of clean washcloths in a rack next to it. I quickly grabbed two dry towels next to it, and then a couple bottles of water before I hurried back to my men, anxious to cuddle. Usually, Maverick did the cleaning part because I needed immediate touch, but shit happened, and it hadn’t made sense for him to transfer Brooks to my arms.
Soon, though, the two of us got everyone wiped down enough that we wouldn’t get crusty. I scooted Skye up so I could sit right next to Maverick and then pulled Skye back down on my lap. He wasn’t really lap-sitting size, hell neither of our boys were, but we made it work. He settled into my chest and idly played with my hair while we relaxed.
I passed out the water bottles, and Mav and I managed to get both of them to drink some. Brooks dozed off for a bit, looking sweet as fuck in Maverick’s arms. I’d loved seeing him in the cock cage and wondered if he’d be up for exploring that a little more long-term than a session. Something to bring up during our discussion.
I rubbed my hand up and down Brooks’s arm, wanting the connection to him as well. Skye and Brooks had somehow entwined their legs around each other, so they were also touching and also a bit in both of our laps. It was perfect, and I enjoyed the post scene glow contentedly.
Eventually, we all started to get a little antsy, and I knew we’d have to get up, clean up the playroom, and make the trek back to the main house to shower. And work. I had so much to do before we went out tomorrow. We had to check the address Diego found, see if it was legit and then go from there.
“Why don’t you take the boys into the house? I’ll clean up out here,” Maverick said after a while, sensing that I was ready to leave the stables but not ready to separate from Skye and Brooks yet.
“Yeah, okay, thanks, babe.”
He tilted his head for a kiss that I was happy to oblige. “Love you,” I whispered.
“I love you too.”
Sighing heavily, he lightly tapped Brooks’s thigh. “C’mon, brat. Go to Luca for a bit. I’m gonna start cleaning up.”
“Okay, Sir.” Brooks seemed to still be in subspace a bit, but he slid off and fell into me happily enough.
It took a little bit of doing to get us all up and in enough clothes to be outside without catching charges. With Skye on one side and Brooks on the other, each of them holding my hand, we left Maverick and walked back to the house.
Unfortunately, there was no bathtub in the house. By the time I got them in the shower, Brooks could barely stand up and his eyes kept closing.
“C’mon, trouble. Just a little bit longer and then you can take a nap.”
“’M’ sleepy.”
I kissed him. “I know, sweetheart. Quick shower, I promise.”
The stall wasn’t big enough for the three of us at the same time, so I pushed Brooks and Skye in first, cleaned them off as quickly as possible, then left Skye, who was a little more present, to dry Brooks while I jumped in and rinsed off. I’d probably need a better wash later, but I didn’t want to take too long now.
Maverick was coming in around the time I had both men out and wearing towels around their waists to the bedroom. Technically, their room was down the hall, but I wasn’t letting them sleep down there.
My room here was the master, and the standard king would be a tight squeeze, but we’d fucking make it work.
“Let’s go,” I pushed gently. “Into bed. It’s been a long day. I think we could all use some rest.”
Brooks looked at me with wide, hopeful eyes. “All of us?” I kissed his forehead.
“Yeah, trouble, all of us.”
He didn’t need to be told twice, immediately dropping the towel and jumping into the center of the bed. Skye followed soon after, practically launching on top of Brooks so they were a pile of tangled limbs in the center. Maverick shook his head as he watched them fondly. “I’m going to shower. I’ll meet you back here.”
I kissed him. “Okay, don’t take too long.”
“I won’t.” Before walking out, he headed to the bed and kissed both Brooks and Skye. Skye tried to drag him into the bed, but Mav wouldn’t budge. Eventually, he got out of his hold and went to the bathroom while I climbed into the bed on the other side of Brooks.
My arms wrapped around him, and without much effort, Skye’s hand found mine, and I grabbed it over Brooks’s naked body. Brooks relaxed easily in our hold, happily getting smothered by our bigger bodies.
It was only a few minutes later when Maverick joined us, though by then, Brooks was sound asleep. Like the rest of us, he hadn’t bothered with any clothes and just climbed under the covers on the other side of Skye.
A wave of contentment washed over me. I hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time. The only thing that would make it better was if Wes and even Diego were here. I hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know Diego well, but I knew he meant the world to Brooks, and he and Wes were getting very close as well. Which meant he was part of our little wild poly family as much as the rest of us. Soon, though, all six of us would be together again.
Shortly, Mav and Skye were both asleep as well, Mav’s soft snores acting like white noise to relax me even further. Yet, I still couldn’t settle down. Careful not jostle Brooks, I managed to twist around and grab my phone. I lowered the light to not disturb my men, checking my secure messages first. Diego had sent one like an hour ago to let me know he had built a profile on Damian Larsen, the man who was supposedly tasked with keeping Matthew safe here in Finland, and would be ready to share it with us first thing in the morning. I thanked him and flipped to my messages with Wes.
The last one was letting him know we’d arrived safely, which he’d responded to with a heart and thumbs-up emoji.
Fingers hovering over the keys, I decided to message him again.
Luca: I miss you
I didn’t expect a response anytime soon. But surprisingly, the three bubbles popped up almost immediately.
Wes: I miss you too. How’s everything over there?
Luca: Good. Had some bonding time with Brooks and the others.
There was a pause before Wes responded with a laughing face emoji and two eggplants. Wes: Bonding time?
The whole exchange had me wanting to laugh, and I probably would if I didn’t have the guys sleeping next to me.
Luca: You’re spending too much time with the Gen Zers. Since when do you do emojis, let alone the eggplant?
Wes responded with the shocked face emoji. Wes: Hey! I keep up with the times.
I rolled my eyes. Luca: You didn’t get a smart phone until three years ago, and that was only because your boss threatened to take you off the team if you didn’t get rid of that fucking Razr.
Wes: I fail to see the correlation there.
Fuck, I wished he were here right now. I couldn’t wait for him to finally fully come on board, and then we’d never have these periods away from each other again.
Luca: I fucking love you
The response was almost instant.
Wes: I love you too.
Wes and I spoke for a little bit longer, until the exhaustion finally took over and I told him goodbye. It didn’t take much longer for sleep to overtake me.
Noise on the staircase had me smiling to myself as I flipped the bacon. My men were finally up. Well, besides Skye, who had gotten up even before I’d managed to roll out of bed to get a workout in.
I had woken up feeling relaxed and peaceful. All was right in my world. I was also horny as fuck, but that was probably because Brooks’s naked ass had been rubbing against my dick all night. I’d been so tempted to just push in that tight, little hole and get some relief, but somnophilia was one of those things you needed to talk about first. A discussion that would happen today, job be damned. I needed things settled with my boy.
Speaking of, Brooks stumbled into the kitchen, still looking half asleep. His bleached hair stood in all different directions and he still had marks on the side of his face from the pillow. He must’ve stopped in his room because he had on a pair of hot pink boxer briefs with little axolotls on it. That was it—that was all he was wearing. The underwear was so tight, I could see the imprint of his piercing through it. Holy fuck.
“Morning, sweetheart.”
“Mornin’. Did we bring any energy drinks?”
I ignored that because we hadn’t, and as long as things went the way I hoped they would, I planned to limit his consumption of those things. I pointed the spatula toward his bulge. “Are you trying to drive us all crazy first thing?”
He tilted his head, looking confused. “Huh?”
“That underwear, if we can even call it that. We’re never going to get anything done with you walking around the house like that.”
Brooks’s eyes sparkled. “Is that a bad thing?”
I lowered the heat on the stove and walked around the table to where Brooks was standing. I boxed him in against the counter and lowered my face so it was inches away from his. I leaned forward so our bodies were touching and pressed my partially hard dick against his front. “If we want to get paid for this job, then yes.”
Brooks’s teeth caught in his lip ring. “You’re rich, right? We’ll be fine.”
A laugh escaped me, and I bit that jutting lip a lot hard than he was. “No wonder Maverick calls you brat.”
Brooks just sucked in a breath, looking ready to combust. I reluctantly stepped back.
“No more distractions, trouble. I ought to spank you for teasing me like this.”
Brooks just beamed. “I don’t see the issue.”
I rolled my eyes. “Go set the table. We need to eat, and then Diego should be calling us with an update in about an hour.”
At the mention of his brother, Brooks jumped up and went to the cabinet to grab some plates. “Yes, sir! I wonder how Diego did last night. He doesn’t sleep well alone.”
“If you want to speak to him for a few minutes privately before we get to business, you can. I know you two aren’t used to being separated.”
“Yeah, it’s weird. Even sleeping in the middle of the best puppy pile ever, it felt like something was missing last night. Which is even weirder because D doesn’t cuddle, but still.”
“It makes sense. It’s been just the two of you for years. But we’ll be back together soon.”
Brooks frowned. “Yeah, I just hope D lets Wes be there for him.”
I snorted. “Wes doesn’t give up easily, sweetheart. He won’t let Diego fall.”
Brooks seemed to consider that as he finished setting the table and then poured himself some juice. I had just placed the food down when Maverick and Skye wandered in. Both of them were wet, like they’d showered, and had that after sex glow about them. I grinned.
Brooks, of course, caught on as well and pouted at me. “That’s not fair. How come they got to fuck but you wouldn’t touch me? I even wore my favorite underwear.”
Mav’s eyes trailed down Brooks’s mostly naked body, eyes locked on the threadbare fabric. “That’s not underwear, brat. It’s obscene.”
Brooks grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “I know, right?”
I shook my head and slumped into the seat next to Brooks. “Eat, trouble. We’ll have plenty of time for play later.”
He sighed heavily but picked up his fork and shoveled in a big bite of eggs.
Maverick and Skye took their places at the table, and soon we were all busy eating. Breakfast was nice and easy. After we were done, the dishes cleaned up, we gathered all in my office, getting ready to call Diego.
Brooks had hung back to talk to him first so they could check in on each other. My boy had been worried, and I hoped that talking to his brother without us hovering would alleviate some of his concerns.
About ten minutes later, Brooks joined us, still caught up in his conversation.
“Holy shit, is Wes there? Wait, is Wes in his pajamas? Did he sleep there?”
That got all our attention as Brooks bounded in the room. He had changed into real clothes now, black jeans and a long-sleeved baby-blue T-shirt with a color blocked pattern in the front. Despite it being August, it was chilly in the mornings here, so we’d packed warmer than we would wear at home.
I couldn’t see Diego, since the screen wasn’t facing me, but I swore I heard his eyes roll. “You already knew Wes slept here. He probably will be most nights while you’re gone. You made him my babysitter, remember?”
“Yeah, but he was sleeping on your office couch! Don’t lie. I saw him! Holy shit, was Wes your bed buddy last night?”
Brooks was practically bouncing with excitement and hopped up on the desk in front of me, his legs dangling in between mine where I was sitting in my desk chair. Maverick and Skye had both pulled chairs around and were lounging nearby, watching Brooks with curiosity and hunger.
“Shut up. I’m pretty sure that’s not your business.”
Brooks pouted. “Why not? I told you all about my bed buddies last night.”
Diego laughed. “Is that what we’re calling them now?”
Brooks opened his mouth to speak, and I had a feeling things were about to go off the rails so I pinched his thigh, getting his attention.
He frowned at me. “What was that for?”
“You’re getting distracted, trouble. Meeting first, then you can interrogate Diego.”
“Okay!”
“Ready, then, D? There’s a big ass monitor here. I’ll transfer you over.”
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
Brooks made the switch and we all turned to the monitor mounted on the wall. “Hi, Diego,” I greeted him. “How’s everything back home?”
His cheeks were bright red and he looked down at his keyboard. “Good . . .” Oh, that was an interesting response.
Skye leaned over and whispered in Brooks’s ear loud enough for me to hear, “Oh, Wes totally was his bed buddy.”
“Mm-hmmm.”
I ignored the troublemakers and focused on the task at hand. “You said you have news on Damian Larsen?”
“Oh, yeah.” He started to pull up stuff onto the screen. “So here’s the run down on what we already know, but I don’t think it would hurt to have a recap. Damian Larsen, thirty-five years old. Born in Helsinki where he lived till he was twelve. He spent three years in Paris living with his grandparents before moving to the United States. He went to Yale for international relations for two years, and then he all but disappeared until two years ago, when he showed back up eighty miles away from where he was born.”
Diego pulled up some photos, a U.S. passport picture, a Finish driver’s license, and what looked to be a much younger Damian in a high school graduation picture holding a Yale pendant.
“CIA?” Skye asked the question we all were wondering. Usually, when someone went off the grid like that, a three-letter agency was responsible. Diego just shrugged.
“It’s possible, but I can’t prove anything.”
“How did he get involved with Convington and all this?” Brooks asked.
“I also don’t know that. There are no phone records, no emails, nothing traceable that connected the two of them. All I can find is what Covington gave us, like the connection came out of thin air. I’m running some other angles; something is bound to pop up.”
“We confirmed that the house Covington set up for them is empty, completely abandoned, so I started to look into the address that was on the bank statement I found. It’s a post location that offers regular addresses instead of a P.O. box. I did some digging, and somebody comes in and picks up Larsen’s mail every Wednesday at the location. If it’s Larsen himself, I’m not sure, I haven’t accessed any kind of security camera yet.”
I nodded “It’s still worth a shot to check it out. It looks like it’s a small fishing village only about an hour away from here. It’s odd that he’d go through the trouble of cutting ties with Covington, but didn’t go very far.”
“Yeah, though it seems like he has connections in the area, so maybe he wanted to stay close by?”
“Makes just as much sense as anything. Okay, so Skye, Brooks, I want you two to go and check out this post office, stake it out till Larsen’s mail gets picked out. It’s old school, but it’s our only angle for now. Diego, keep searching, maybe we can get an actual address or visuals.”
“Got it.”
“Thank God it’s Tuesday so we don’t have to wait long,” Skye added stretching, “What time is the mail usually picked up, do you know?”
Diego looked down before answering, “Between 11 and 11:30 am.”
Brooks lips twitched. “Very prompt.”
We chatted for a few more minutes, solidifying everything we knew. Wes popped on to inform us he had some contacts that might know more about the mercenaries that had attacked Diego and Brooks house, so he was going to work on that, while we focused on Matthew. He also agreed to work with Leo and the others to try and track down Bradley, Matthew’s bio father, since it seemed like he was at the root of all of this.
Diego hung up shortly after that, and I turned to my men. “Well, it looks like we now have the afternoon to ourselves. How are you feeling, Brooks? Up for going over some checklists and having a chat about us?”
He jumped off the desk, brimming with excitement. “Fuck yes! I mean, um, yes, sir I’m up for it.”
Rolling my eyes, I took his hand in mind. “Good. I can’t wait to make this official.” I tipped his chin and kissed him lightly.
He licked his lips and rocked back on his heels. “Me too.”