Chapter 5 #2
Vincent sighed and rolled on his back. His hand came up to absently stroke over his chest. At least, it looked like just a casual move, but as I watched his fingers glide over his pecs and down his muscled abdomen before moving back up, I had to wonder if he wasn’t doing it on purpose.
“Don’t worry, Nate, people will buy it,” he said as he turned to look at me. That damn hand kept up its movements and I struggled to keep my attention on him and not those calloused fingers.
“Buy what?”
“Your story. Good ol’ Southern boy goes against the grain and stands up to his rich, conservative daddy.
You spout off all the right bullshit to get the votes you need…
gays, minorities, immigrants…promise them exactly what they want to hear, and then fuck ‘em the second you sit down in that fancy office on Capitol Hill.”
“You think that’s what I’m doing?” I asked in disbelief. His words had done what my brain hadn’t been able to do and taken my attention off his roving hand. I was completely focused on him now.
“That’s what you do,” he said simply. The inflection as he said “you” had me realizing he really wasn’t talking about me at all.
“So, it really is all politicians, then,” I murmured.
I barely noticed him stiffen. He reached back over to flip the lights off. Before I could even think to turn them back on, he growled, “Turn them back on and see what happens.”
God, the guy really was an ass.
I went to drop the pillow on the floor, but then thought better of it and tossed it on the bed. Fuck him if he thought he had me all figured out. And why the hell should I be uncomfortable all night long? He’d already made it clear that he had no interest in me sexually.
Which didn’t bother me, by the way.
No, not in the least.
Right.
I let out an internal curse as I crawled under the blanket.
Yeah, when I’d been younger I’d believed that bullshit I’d been fed about gay people trying to lead good Christians astray with the lure of their bodies, but I most certainly didn’t believe that crap now.
And contrary to what the asshole next to me thought, I did believe in equal rights for everyone.
Sure, it had taken me time to figure that out, but it wasn’t just some elaborate scheme to get votes.
Hell, I’d practically been assured of the Senate seat under my father’s tutelage.
After all, South Carolina was and had been a red state for a long time, which meant I was fighting an uphill battle as a Democrat.
I’d managed to win the primary in a surprise landslide, but the general election was a whole different thing.
I was going up against the incumbent who’d held his seat for more than thirty years.
His original plan had been to retire so I could take over the reins, but when I’d changed parties, he’d decided to run for another term.
As I lay there waiting for sleep to come find me and get me the hell away from Vincent for a few hours, my thoughts inevitably drew me to the exact subject I was trying to escape.
I’d met plenty of people who were skeptical of politicians and I couldn’t really say I blamed them, but Vincent was downright hostile about the subject.
Of course, he didn’t seem like the most open-minded of guys.
Hell, what did I know? The man was a complete enigma, and I knew next to nothing about him.
Except that he was dangerous.
And moody.
Unpredictable.
Disinterested.
I could have gone on with the negative characteristics, but I kept going back to one thing.
He was also the reason I was still breathing.
Because Vincent felt a certain loyalty to his friends. Enough that he’d risked his life to save someone who wasn’t even directly linked to them. He’d saved me for Beck Barretti so that the young man wouldn’t have to watch my brother suffer through losing me.
I’d met Beck only once, but I’d found myself drawn to the young man, especially after I’d seen him with my brother and their other lover, Quinn.
To discover that my brother was in a threesome had been a shock, to say the least. As I’d made my way to Montana to talk to Brody, I’d fully prepared myself to find him with a boyfriend.
But two? No, there’d been no preparing for that.
I hadn’t even known that was a thing…I’d heard of polygamy as part of those weird religions where a guy had multiple wives, but from what I’d seen of Brody’s relationship with Beck and Quinn, it wasn’t anything like that.
For starters, I hadn’t seen even a wisp of jealousy between the three.
While my knowledge of men with multiple wives was limited to some news articles and shows I’d seen, I’d always gotten the sense that the relationship revolved around the husband.
The wives were there to serve him and give him children, but they weren’t in a relationship with each other, at least not a romantic one.
And I certainly never saw stories about a woman having multiple husbands in the same context.
I couldn’t throw my support behind a relationship that was based on the needs of one member of the family being met while the needs of the remaining ones were ignored.
I could get behind Brody’s relationship, though, because he’d finally found what he’d been looking for his entire life.
He finally fit.
I’d seen that in the few minutes I’d spent with my brother. I’d felt it in the way Beck had hugged me when he’d thought I was Brody. I’d seen it when Beck and Quinn had looked at Brody with concern and fear in their eyes.
I was happy for my brother.
Beyond words.
But inside, deep down where it wasn’t dangerous to acknowledge, I was envious, too. I’d never have what he had.
I’d accepted that a long time ago.
But I could make sure that my brother and people like him had the right to love whoever they wanted. Vincent could believe whatever the hell he wanted, but I knew the truth.
Thoughts of my brother had me wishing I could hear his voice again.
“Vincent,” I said quietly as I stared at the ceiling above me…the ceiling that had a fucking mirror on it. I would have laughed if it didn’t feel like my heart was bleeding inside of my chest.
There was enough light coming from the parking lot through the gap in the curtains to see the outline of Vincent’s body in the mirror above us. He was lying on his side, his back to me.
“What?”
“Never mind,” I muttered when I heard the grumpiness in his voice. No way he wouldn’t be a dick about what I wanted to ask him.
“What?” he repeated. I wanted to believe his voice held a slightly gentler edge to it, but I knew it was wishful thinking.
“Is there a way to get my brother’s messages off my phone without risking it being tracked?”
Vincent was silent for so long, I was certain he wasn’t going to answer. But he surprised me by flipping onto his back. I couldn’t actually see his eyes in the reflection, but I sensed them watching me via the mirror just the same.
“Does your phone sync to a cloud account?”
I shook my head. “No. Preston said it wasn’t a good idea to keep recordings on those kinds of sites…leaves them open to hacking by rivals.”
“Of course it does,” Vincent responded snidely.
I shook my head. “Just forget it,” I muttered, and flipped onto my side so I wouldn’t have to look at him anymore.
I felt the bed shift and assumed it was him turning over again, but to my surprise, I felt his hand on my shoulder. Even through the fabric of my shirt, the contact burned and I tried to quell my fluttering stomach.
God, this could not be happening to me.
Not now.
Vincent pushed me onto my back and I held my breath in anticipation of what was coming. I had no idea why I wasn’t getting my ass out of the bed.
Except I did know.
I just wasn’t brave enough to admit it.
Even here, in the darkness of this room.
Vincent stared at me for the longest time and I had to wonder if his night vision was somehow better than mine, because I had no clue what he was thinking. He just hovered there, braced on one elbow.
Not touching me in any way at all.
Even though it felt like he was.
All over.
“We can’t turn the phone on, Nate,” he finally said. “Not even long enough to get the messages off.”
I nodded in understanding, even as disappointment and humiliation went through me. I began rolling back over, but Vincent put his big hand on my shoulder again, and this time he held it there. The weight of it felt so fucking…good.
“Most phone providers store their customer’s voicemails and texts on their servers, sometimes for up to six months. I can’t let you access the account the normal way, but I can probably get the messages for you without anyone knowing.”
I felt Vincent’s fingers press into me for the briefest of moments before he said, “Tomorrow, okay?”
I nodded. “Thank you,” I whispered. “I know it doesn’t make sense…”
I was shocked into stupefied silence when Vincent’s thumb came up to press against my lips to silence me. “Get some sleep, Nate.”
I could barely breathe as he caressed my mouth briefly. Then he was pulling away and turning back over. I couldn’t move as I tried to make sense of what had just happened.
“Good night, Vincent.”
He didn’t respond.
Not for several long seconds.
And when he did, it was simply to stun me with a few quiet words.
“Happy Birthday, Nathan.”