Chapter Fourteen
Kaiden found himself lonely this last week.
Alone and lost in his thoughts, with only work serving as a reprieve from the anxiety in his life.
Home had become a battlefield of expectations from his family.
He pushed back, and they collectively pushed back harder until they’d shoved him to the ground.
The gym had turned into a chore, no longer an escape of endorphins.
Worst of all, he kept dodging Dylan and Rus.
He was unsure what to make of things, but he knew the second he leaned on them, they could very well push back just like his family had.
Kaiden knew that wasn’t true, simply an irrational fear eating away at his thoughts.
Dylan had proven himself time and time again, and Rus hadn’t been in Kaiden’s life long, but he’d already shown himself to be a true friend.
Still, not knowing how things were with his friends seemed so much safer than finding out.
Kaiden could only handle so much devastation in his life at a time.
“Is this what you do all day at work?” Rus asked, startling Kaiden. “Doomscroll and avoid group texts?”
Kaiden blinked a few times, baffled by Rus and Dylan’s arrival. They’d pranced right into Slayer’s Brush, walking through the empty gallery and all the way to the counter in the back near the door to the stockroom.
“What’re you doing here?”
“We had a meeting of the minds,” Dylan replied.
“And of the hearts,” Rus added with a twinge of a playful smile growing on his face.
He always looked so much softer, sweeter when he smiled. Though he certainly rocked the default stern scowl he had most of the time.
“You’ve been avoiding us,” Rus continued.
“No.” Kaiden stuffed his phone into his pocket, then went back to reviewing documents on his computer. “It’s just been hectic lately.”
“So, about our little make-out session,” Rus said, bluntly moving them right into the awkward conversation Kaiden had tried his best to avoid.
“We’ve been talking about what happened between us the other night,” Dylan said, standing oh so close to Rus.
Kaiden could practically feel the chemistry oozing off them, the sizzle of their barely tamed passion, and he knew they’d shown up at his job to break the news to him.
They were into each other. It was so obvious.
In fact, Kaiden couldn’t believe it’d taken him this long to realize Dylan had a thing for Rus.
Well, usually Dylan didn’t dance around feelings.
He just sort of made a move on someone and then moved on. Clearly, Rus was special.
Who was he kidding? Of course, Rus was special. There was this passionate and powerful energy constantly flowing off him. Kaiden would be jealous if he weren’t so entranced.
“I already know you two have a thing,” Kaiden said dismissively. “I’m not trying to avoid you because of it. I really have been busy, but also, I didn’t want it to be weird between us. The whole kiss-off thing. It was fun. But it was just—”
“We like you,” Dylan and Rus blurted in unison.
Kaiden paused, confused and concerned. They liked him? Why? Were they messing with him? Was he misinterpreting the meaning? Like could mean a million different things. Positive for sure, but not necessarily attraction.
“We all needed a little time to process our feelings,” Rus said. “Figure things out, see where we all stood.”
“Uh-huh.” Kaiden blinked.
“It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway,” Rus said with a smirk. “We’re friends. We want to stay friends. But now we find ourselves in this potential entanglement.”
“Meaning?” Kaiden needed Rus to just spit it out, say what he meant, what they meant. He looked to Rus, then Dylan, then the precarious space between them.
“We want to date you,” Dylan said. “Assuming you want to date us.”
“Huh? How in the hell would that even work?”
“Poly,” Rus said rather aloofly.
“I’m sorry, but we’re all supposed to date at the same time?”
“Yes,” Rus said. “Of course, that is only if there’s a mutual attraction toward us.”
“Wait, what?”
“We don’t want to pressure you,” Dylan said. “But we didn’t really have much choice since you’ve been dodging us.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I was confused.” Kaiden grimaced. “Still am, sort of. Mostly.”
They both skirted around the counter, easing their way to the same side as Kaiden, removing his buffer.
“Okay, I get you guys wanting to date, I really do,” Kaiden said, gesturing to and between them. “And I kind of sort of get why you’re trying to include me.”
“Oh?” Rus cocked his head.
It was not a curious tilt but a confident one. He already had some annoying rebuttal to whatever Kaiden planned to say. Kaiden could feel it in his bones. The most irritating part was that Kaiden wasn’t even sure what his next words were going to be, so it made Rus so damn smug.
“You don’t want to ruin our friendship,” Kaiden said, stumbling over his own thoughts. “I get that, really, I do. So, you’re trying to include me as you guys pursue your thing. But I’ll be fine, honestly.”
“If we liked each other and didn’t like you, don’t you think it’d be easier for us to just not include you?” Rus asked.
“Well, yeah, but we already kissed, like the three of us, so you need a cover.”
“Why not just pretend we’re all friends?” Dylan asked, then pointed to himself and Rus. “And we could just secretly date.”
“Well, yeah, there’s that too. But maybe I’d be suspicious.”
“So, in your mind, the only plausible way for us to date each other,” Rus explained, referring to himself and Dylan, “is for us to pretend to want to date you too?”
“Yeah, obviously.”
“Is us liking you that hard to fathom?” Rus asked. “Dude, who the fuck tanked your self-esteem?”
“His family,” Dylan said with an angry edge.
“No, it’s not that,” Kaiden protested. “It’s just…I’m me, and you guys are you.”
He couldn’t put it into words. But Dylan was bold and charming and aloof all at once.
And Rus was assertive and captivating and sweet, all wrapped together.
Whereas Kaiden… Kaiden was anxious and meek and lost. They were both gorgeous men, but Kaiden had a million flaws with his body.
No matter how hard he worked, he could only do so much to fix them.
“How would all of us dating even work? Like kissing? I mean, we sort of made that work. Ish. But that was also like exploratory. How the hell does kissing with all of us work? Do we tap out? Are there timed sessions? Should I…I don’t know, play on my phone or something when it’s not my turn? Are there turns? Is that weird?”
Dylan rushed into Kaiden, the suddenness of their chests pressed together made Kaiden’s heart patter.
The way his hand brushed against Kaiden’s face as he cupped it around the back of Kaiden’s head made his cheeks burn.
Then the swift smack of Dylan’s lips against Kaiden’s twisted his stomach into knots. Nervous and excited all at once.
The tension in his back eased, the stress carried in his shoulders faded, and suddenly the knots in his stomach released into a flutter of eagerness washing over his skin.
“Relax,” Dylan panted between kisses. “We don’t need all the answers right now.”
“That’s the point of dating,” Rus said, appearing beside Kaiden.
They’d pushed him away from the safety of his counter and toward the wall.
Rus slipped in, lips rougher than Dylan’s, but his tongue was so much sweeter.
Kaiden ran his hands along each of them, unsure what to do, but loving the feel of muscles in his grip as he kept kissing Rus.
Soon, Dylan’s teeth grazed Kaiden’s neck, nibbling and teasing his skin.
Hands caressed him, hips bucked against him, mouths moaned with satisfaction.
Kaiden pulled away long enough to watch them kiss, to taste each other, to entertain him with their beautiful expressions lost in the ecstasy of this embrace. But neither offered Kaiden a long reprieve, drawing him back into these sweet kisses.
If his corset vest didn’t pinch against his lower back from the awkward press of his body pinned to the wall, Kaiden would’ve sworn he’d fallen into a dream.
No way had this happened. The two most amazing guys in his life wanted him.
No, they had him. Completely. Entirely. He’d surrender himself here and now without a moment of hesitation.
It simply didn’t seem real to believe he was on the verge of losing every comfort in his life, to suddenly having more than he could ever have hoped possible.
Passion swept through him. Kaiden licked Rus’ neck, running his tongue along the silly bi goose tattoo while Dylan kissed Rus. Kaiden’s hand slipped under Dylan’s crop top, fingers gently tickling the hairs of his stomach, of his chest, and the slightest caress as he reached the nipple.
Dylan growled, snatching a handful of Kaiden’s hair and swallowing the yip Kaiden released as he kissed him. Bit him. Tasted his excitement. Rus didn’t surrender Kaiden so easily, pulling his gaze back down and tugging on his lower lip before aggressively kissing him.
“Okay, okay, okay…” Kaiden pushed Dylan away, gripping his shoulder with one hand, then moving his other hand to block Rus, who readied himself to fill the space between the pair. “We seriously have to stop. If Alison checks the cameras to see me making out with two dudes, she’ll probably fire me.”
“She’ll probably promote you,” Dylan said, noting her very sex positive attitude.
“Well, I can’t exactly gamble with my income right now.”
“What’s going on?” Dylan asked, eyeing Kaiden up and down and in a way that just made the words pour right out of him.
“My mother started charging me rent,” Kaiden said.
“Seriously?” Rus scoffed. “Did she finally give you a full room?”