Chapter Twenty-Seven Declan
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Declan
Two days until the wedding
The rain won’t stop. The forecast is calling for a major storm this weekend. Not just rain, but gale-force winds and possibly even hail, in July.
On top of that, Colin’s ankle is sprained. He’s been instructed by the doctor to stay off of it all day. He and Pierce were supposed to have their photos taken today, but with the roads too dangerous, the photographer canceled. Which means everyone is just stuck in the house together.
Colin’s parents are staying at a resort in the city, so thank God for that.
“I heard rain was good luck for a wedding,” Blaire says to Colin as she serves him tea in the parlor. With nothing to do, he and Pierce are bored to tears. Pierce seems to be keeping busy with work on his computer and apparently practicing his lines.
And I keep finding reasons to go into the room they’re in.
“Thank you,” Colin says to Blaire with a warm smile. “I hope that’s true.”
“Don’t you have an indoor gym or something?” Pierce complains. “We can’t just sit stationary all day like this.”
“Colin is supposed to be stationary today,” I reply flatly, earning me a glare from the American.
“Fine,” he says, closing his computer. “We can just use this time to plan our bachelor party tomorrow night.”
“Pierce,” Colin says in a warning.
“What? We obviously need a bachelor party, and we decided we were going to have one together.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rise as I glance back and forth between the two of them. I have a feeling this has to do with the argument I heard them have yesterday. I was hoping I just heard it wrong, or they would let it blow over without bringing it up.
“Pierce,” Colin says again, this time sitting up on the couch as if he’s going to stand.
“Okay, okay, relax,” he says, putting his hands out toward Colin.
Since there’s not much reason for me to be in the room, I turn to leave, but Pierce immediately calls me back. “Please, for the love of God, don’t leave.”
“What can I do for ye?” I ask.
“Why don’t you tell me some more stories about my Colin when he was younger? I’m bored to fucking tears, and I need something. Apparently, he can’t fuck with that sprained ankle either, so I’m begging you. Entertain me.”
My eyes narrow with my back to the man. I don’t like that I find comfort in the fact that Colin told him no to sex and blamed it on the ankle.
“Okay,” I reply as I go to the bar in the corner and pull out three glasses. Then I pour whiskey into each and deliver them to the two men, keeping one for myself. “What would you like to hear?”
I drop into the chair opposite Pierce and watch him over the top of my glass as I take a sip.
“We’re all adults here. Let’s not beat around the bush,” he says with a mischievous grin. “How long did you two fuck?”
“Pierce!” Colin nearly flies out of the armchair he’s sitting in. His bad foot is resting on the ottoman, but he lets out a wince of pain as he tries to move it. I put my hand up to stop him.
“Sit down,” I say to Colin. Then I turn toward Pierce. “This is a conversation for you and your partner.”
“He’s already told me you’ve slept together. I just thought it would be fun to hear the dirty details. He won’t tell me those,” Pierce says with a wink.
“Then neither will I.” My tone is dry, and my expression is flat. Everything about this guy rubs me the wrong way. He seems to think he is at the center of the universe, and Colin and I are mere satellites in his orbit.
I can’t wait until this weekend is over and I never have to see him again.
“Oh, come on!” Pierce begs, taking his entire glass of whisky in one shot. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a jealous man. In fact, I think it’s incredibly hot, and I just want to hear what you two were like.”
“Don’t you see how personal that is?” Colin asks as he rubs his forehead.
“Personal?” Pierce asks, sounding offended. He looks at me and then back at his fiancé. “You told me it was just sex.”
My gaze snaps over to Colin as I wait for his response. He looks up sadly as he says, “It was.”
That really should not hurt as much as it does. Being served a dose of my own medicine. Isn’t that what I once told him? It was just sex.
It was never just sex.
I wish I could scream that at him right now. But he’s using those words against me, and I know it. I can’t argue with him, not here and not in front of Pierce, but if he wants to know how it was never just sex, I’ll tell him. Let his bloody fiancé hear how just sex it was.
“Oh, come on, Shakespeare,” I say. “Did you tell him how I was your first?”
Colin shoots me a surprised expression.
“Here we go,” Pierce says with an excited smile.
“Yes, I did,” Colin replies softly.
With a crooked grin, I continue. “Did you tell him about that night in the gymnasium when we were running from those rugby pricks?” I ask, never taking my eyes off Colin. His eyes are warm as he waits for me to continue.
“The night you put your mouth on me for the first time. I never would have believed you were inexperienced. Or the night in Dublin when you let me crawl into your bed. How you begged me to call you mine. Do you remember that night?”
“Of course I do,” he mumbles. His tongue darts out to lick his bottom lip before tugging it between his teeth.
“How many times did we have just sex in Amsterdam?” I ask to make a point. Colin tries to bite back a smile, but I see it fighting to come through. “Twice a day, was it? No, maybe more.”
“Definitely more,” he says with a blush to his cheeks.
“We were both quite inexperienced, weren’t we? But we learned together.”
“Yes, we did,” he says. The connection between us is visceral, and I wonder if he can feel it too. “The houseboat wasn’t the only thing docked that week.”
A cackle flies out of my mouth, and he snickers to himself at his little pun.
This is dangerous. I don’t know why I’m doing this, reliving old memories and bringing up how good we used to be together.
“I bet you two were hot,” Pierce says, and it’s like being doused in ice-cold water. Suddenly, I realize he’s here, and it shakes me out of my reverie.
Standing up, I go back to the bar and pour myself another. Neither Colin nor I speak for a moment because we both got caught up in our memories. And Pierce thought we were sharing those moments with him. I would never invite him into those memories.
“Sounds like us when we first met,” Pierce says, and the saccharine-sweet tone of his voice makes me sick. “Fucking like rabbits all day. I had you collared so fast, didn’t I?”
I nearly spit out my drink. “Collared?”
My Colin…collared?
“How fast?” I add, turning toward them with scrutiny. Pierce smiles proudly, but Colin looks like he’s trying to fold in on himself.
“What was it, baby?” Pierce asks. “Two weeks?”
“Two weeks?” I repeat, this time glaring at Colin.
It’s wrong of me to feel so surprised.
What the fuck did I think was going to happen? That Colin and I would share a moment, and Pierce would just fuck off? Obviously not. That’s his fiancé. Not mine. I can’t speak about another man’s lover and expect it not to take a turn.
But this? To hear that he let someone else take such intimate, devoted control of him after only two fucking weeks? Colin can feel my disappointment, because he won’t look at me. He’s ashamed of letting someone else take his trust without earning it. I taught him better.
“Did you ever have him collared?” Pierce asks with arrogance, and I’d like to punch him. Collaring is intimate and significant, and he’s treating Colin like a show dog who’s changed owners. I could wring his fucking neck for the way he’s looking at my Colin right now.
I don’t bother answering his question because the next time I open my mouth, I will certainly spew brutal honesty at this insincere prick.
I can’t stand to be in this room anymore. Frankly, I don’t care if Pierce is bored or if I’m supposed to keep them entertained. I can’t take another fucking minute of hearing about them together.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I say brashly. Turning on my heel, I walk briskly out the door, feeling Colin’s eyes on me as I go.
I’m marching toward the kitchen when I hear the harsh click of Pierce’s shoes behind me in the hall. I let out a groan when he calls my name.
“Barclay.”
I stop in my tracks, letting out a disgruntled sigh before turning around to face him.
“Can I help you?” I ask with as much forced enthusiasm as I can muster, as if that last twenty minutes didn’t happen. As if we didn’t just openly discuss my sex life with his fiancé like it was nothing.
He smiles as he approaches me and wraps an arm around my shoulders, and I find it disgustingly annoying just how charming he is. Everything about him feels fake, like a viper luring me to my death.
“Hey, don’t sweat it,” he says cooly. “If you think I was bothered by that conversation, I promise you I was not.”
“I’m relieved to hear that,” I mutter through clenched teeth. In reality, I couldn’t care less about his feelings. That has nothing to do with my sudden disgruntled mood.
“You do realize I’m not one of those uptight, jealous types, right? In fact…” He glances back toward the room where we both just left Colin. “Listen, can I be frank?” he asks as he pulls me to the end of the hall.
“Of course,” I mutter with hesitance.
“Watching the two of you together is hot. I can see the history you have, and there’s clearly some chemistry there. And he’s assured me that it was always just physical between you too.”
“What is your point?” I ask with a grunt.
“Well, you should know that Colin and I have a special relationship.”
“Special?”
“How do I put this?” he says as he crosses his arms. “I love my fiancé very much. I think he’s fantastic. He’s sexy, smart, and beautiful. Everybody wants him.”
My spine stiffens as I listen to him talk about Colin this way. My Colin.