Chapter 36
HUNTER
Finn cried on my lap for almost an hour, which was more than all the times I’d ever seen him cry in his entire life put together. He gathered his composure on his own, shaking free of the careful way I’d been carding my fingers through his hair and downing the cold coffee left in his mug.
“Better?” I asked.
He swiped the remaining tears off his lower lash line and nodded, standing up from the couch and walking into the kitchen.
“Just let me wash my face.”
“There’s washcloths in the bathroom.”
But he was already bent over the sink, splashing cold water onto his cheeks. Finn returned with the coffee pot, topping both of our mugs off. Back to the kitchen to return the carafe to the warmer and he was on the couch beside me again, this time upright.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I’d prefer you tell me something interesting,” he said, staring straight ahead. I opened my mouth, and he leveled a scathing look at me. “Not dinosaur related.”
I made a show of snapping my mouth closed and scooting a little closer to him on the couch.
He let me lean into him without much more than a grumbled protest. I wanted to tell him something good, something that mattered…
something that would make a difference. In the end, the only thing I could offer him was hope.
“It won’t be like this forever,” I told him.
Finn sucked his tongue across the front of his teeth, eyebrows raised. “No,” he agreed. “I imagine not.”
He didn’t say anything after that, but he did reach across me for the remote.
I sipped my coffee while Finn flipped through the channels, finally settling on a show about aliens.
I supposed there wasn’t anything that needed to be said between us.
Finn didn’t want to talk, but he didn’t want to be alone.
There was a distinct difference between the two, and while I was happy to give him both, I couldn’t force it on him.
Just like Lincoln, Finn had to come around to his own wants organically.
I was curious to know what appeal he found from being involved with a married couple, but that was something he would have to tell me on his own time.
The credits on the episode didn’t even finish rolling before the programming segued into a fresh episode about different aliens, only punctuated by the sound of a key in the door and the rush of hallway air that always filtered in after the door was opened.
“I have Silas with me!” Lincoln called from the doorway.
Finn tensed but was quick to paste one of his usual, casual smiles on his face.
He dropped his head against the back of the couch to better see the hallway, watching the two of them walk in together.
Silas held a fishbowl protectively against his chest, and Lincoln had two boxes balanced in his arms.
“Where should I put my stuff?” he asked.
“Hi, Finn,” Silas interjected, shrugging a shoulder in greeting. “Hunter.”
“Gentlemen,” Finn answered back, returning his attention to the TV. His smile faltered but held.
“Wherever you want,” I answered, getting up and coming around to meet them at the end of the hallway. I took both of the boxes out of Lincoln’s hands, relieved to find they weren’t heavy. “The guest room maybe so you have time to go through it? Or my…our bedroom. Whichever.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. Before he could say one way or the other, I took the boxes into our bedroom and set them down in front of the dresser. The two of them followed me in, and Silas looked around before setting the fish down on one of the nightstands.
“Do you like the light here?” he asked the fish.
“He doesn’t care,” Lincoln answered.
Silas shot a sharp glare at Lincoln before turning the bowl a quarter turn. That seemed to please him more, and he joined us on the other end of the bed.
“I don’t know what I expected your apartment to look like, Hunter, but it’s not this,” he said.
I looked around at what I owned excited at the promise of how it would all look to see Lincoln’s things interspersed with mine.
“Did you expect something more boring?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat and looked at Lincoln. “Do you want to go get the rest of your boxes?”
“Yeah.” Lincoln smiled up at me. “Do you want to help us? Less trips.”
“Of course. I’ll get Finn.”
My brother was already shoving his feet into his sneakers in the entryway.
“I’m gonna go,” he said when we all came back to the living room.
“You’re gonna help,” I corrected. “One trip and then you can go.”
Finn grumbled a protest but went along with it. It took the four of us one trip down and back to get the rest of Lincoln’s boxes, which was considerably quicker I think than Lincoln had expected it to take. He dusted his hands off on the front of his thighs.
“I just need to take Silas to my apartment to get his car,” he said. “Then I’ll be back.”
“I can take him,” Finn offered. “Unless you live in the valley.”
“He lives here,” I muttered.
“Hollywood,” Lincoln advised.
“Better than not,” Finn said. “Barely out of the way.”
“Are you sure?” Silas asked, bracketing his hands on his hips. He’d met all of us, save for Andrew, but he hadn’t really spent any time with us.
“Yeah,” Finn assured him, wrapping me in a tighter than normal hug. I slid my arms around his waist and held him until he was ready to let go, giving one last squeeze before pulling away. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Can’t wait.”
Lincoln and Silas said their goodbyes, then Finn and Silas were gone, leaving Lincoln and me in the apartment alone. It was oddly quiet, the TV show on mute since they’d arrived with Lincoln’s things.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
Lincoln toed off his shoes. “Good, I think. There’s still a lot at the apartment, but I don’t know if I want it.”
“We can hire movers,” I suggested.
“I don’t know if I want it,” he repeated.
“Well, when you decide.”
Lincoln was next into my arms, a completely different sort of hug than the one my brother had given me. Lincoln curled his arms around my waist and pressed his face against my chest. I looped my arms around his neck and rested my chin on his shoulder, brushing a kiss against his ear.
“Do you want to shower?” I asked.
“Do I smell?”
“Like cum and sweat probably,” I teased, breathing him in. “Like sex.”
“Then no.”
“God, have I told you today that I love you?”
Lincoln laughed and shook his way out of my hold. “I don’t think you have.”
He walked backward down the hallway and crooked his finger for me to follow.
I made it two steps before he tutted his tongue against the roof of his mouth and shook his head disapprovingly.
The warning sent a shock of pleasure up my spine, and when he pointed to the floor, there was no hesitation before I went to my knees.
“Crawl, Daddy,” he whispered, and I did.
One hand in front of the other through the apartment until we were in the primary bathroom.
Lincoln stripped out of his clothes, kicking them to the side, and then he made a show of touching himself, sliding his hands all over his thighs and his stomach, tweaking his piercings and tugging on his cock.
I rocked back onto my heels, feet together beneath my ass and my knees spread wide.
“Let me have you,” I rasped.
Lincoln turned on the shower and tested the water before stepping in. Seeing the droplets rain down and slick his hair, chase each other down the swell of his shoulders and his hips…it was cruel and unusual punishment.
“Not yet,” he whispered, shaking his head. “After lunch with your brother, when we’re getting ready for your very fancy party.”
The thought of Lincoln in very fancy clothes was almost enough to make me come all over the floor. Just one touch of my fingers against my hole and I could easily see this through to the end right there. “Tell me more.”
“You wanted me full of cum when I met your business partners,” he reminded me, as if I could ever forget. “So, you’ll have to make sure to make good on that.”
“Oh, I will.”
“I think if you come right now, you won’t have enough later to make sure I’m full.”
The way he drew out the syllable had me trembling so hard against the tile floor my knees ached. My cock throbbed aggressively in time with my heart, and I was helpless but to watch Lincoln drag soapy hands all over his body, cupping his balls and sliding through the crack of his ass.
“I’m sure I would.”
He laughed at that, rinsed himself, and stepped out of the shower to get a towel. I watched as he dried himself halfway off, wrapping the towel low around his waist and knotting it below his navel.
“Your turn,” he murmured, brushing past me and out of the bathroom.
Fuck, Lincoln was so hot when he wanted to be in control.
The dichotomy of his moods and his needs would never get boring, and I was the luckiest man in the world to get to explore them both.
The odds of us ending up together were stacked from the start, and if I had been any other man…
his history with Smith might have been a dealbreaker, his casual affection with his friends, his work…
my work. The stars had absolutely aligned for the two of us in the most unexpected ways.
“Shower, Sir!” he called out from the bedroom. “It’s almost time for lunch.”
The warning was a wakeup call, and I crawled the rest of the way to the shower, not quite sure my legs were going to carry me.
I did manage to get washed and rinsed, dried and dressed without any further interruption.
Lincoln had just settled himself on the counter in the kitchen with a reheated mug of coffee when there was a knock on the door indicating Andrew’s arrival.
I hesitated, rubbing my hands together before drying them off on my jeans.
“Are you nervous?” Lincoln asked, not leaving his perch.
“A bit,” I admitted.
“Don’t be. Do you want me to answer?”
“I can do it,” I said, willing my legs to carry me to the door.
There was a flash of trepidation on Andrew’s face when I opened the front door, but it was gone in a breath. It was the most Finn type of expression change, and I didn’t think I’d ever stop being surprised at how much the five of us were alike.
“Hey,” I greeted, stepping out of the way to let him in.
“Hey,” he said nervously. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Lincoln blurted from behind me. He’d tucked himself under my arm and stretched his hand out for Andrew to shake. “I’m Lincoln.”
“You’re not another brother, are you?” Andrew asked, the question dry and biting.
“That would break several laws,” he said with a smile. “I’m Hunter’s boyfriend.”
At the announcement, Andrew relaxed, if only slightly.
“Did you want to come in?” I asked, letting Lincoln drag me a little way out of the entry. It was a relief Lincoln had come home in a dominant mood because he took control of the situation like the absolute boss of a man I always imagined myself to be.
Fuck, this was hard.
My other brothers all assumed it was easy for me to be the contact person, that I enjoyed it, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Andrew found me because of my work and my ties to some of the contracts our father had been working on recently.
It was not my preference to be the unofficial Covington brother spokesperson, but I was the best suited for it.
Much to my dismay.
“You have a gorgeous home, Hunter,” Andrew said once we were all inside. Finn’s alien show still played silently on the TV, and Lincoln walked me to the couch and all but shoved me down into my seat.
“Did you have an easy drive?” Lincoln asked, sitting on the coffee table so Andrew could take the other spot on the couch.
“Yeah, I came up a few hours ago. Paid for early check-in at the hotel.”
“That’s good.” Lincoln smiled, and as if on some magical cue, his stomach growled. “So, boys, what do we want to do for lunch?”