Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-four
brYCE
“I have to go—we’re due at another TV studio.”
“Talk to you later, Matt.”
Bryce killed the call, dropped the phone on the pile of his clothing on Tom’s bedroom floor, and slid back under the covers beside Tom. “Sorry about that,” he said.
“You needed to take it,” Tom said. “What’s going on out there?”
“Jax has rolled over on Steadman,” Bryce said, filled with grim satisfaction.
“And once she heard he was talking, it seems that her ego got the better of her common sense because they now have a confession from her, justifying what she did as being for the greater good. She basically says that the rest of the Council are a bunch of vainglorious fools whose stance on integration will plunge the shifter community into disaster. Apparently only her leadership and vision can save us.”
“I can’t disagree with the fools part,” Tom said frankly. “But I think she’s overstating the position just a bit. She’s a politician to the bitter end, obviously.”
“You think shifters are going to be okay, then?” Bryce was profoundly glad that she would be punished for the things she’d done, terrible things that were somehow made worse because of the way she seemed truly to have believed that her good intentions justified them, but his stomach had clenched at her predictions of what lay ahead for shifters in this country.
“Bennett’s not a complete numbskull,” Tom said, “though don’t ever quote me on that.
He can read the political runes as well as anyone.
And in the meantime, his allies are dying off—literally, at their age—and a new generation’s coming through, voted in by people like Tristan who don’t remember the bad old days and who don’t automatically see all non-shifters as the enemy. It’ll be okay.”
There was certainty in his voice, and Bryce’s anxiety faded as he snuggled happily closer to Tom under the covers.
They’d spent the last hour kissing, and holding one another, and talking, and then kissing some more, in between Bryce sliding slow and easy all the way into Tom until he was gasping Bryce’s name.
Bryce had been speechless at Tom’s capacity for forgiveness. For love.
“I’m sorry,” he said, as regret welled up inside him again. He pressed a kiss against Tom’s warm shoulder. “I’d give anything not to have hurt you like that.”
“Don’t.” Tom’s voice was serious. “If this is going to work between us, you can’t spend the rest of your life apologizing for one mistake. It’s not fair to either of us. I need to know you’re with me because you want to be, not because you feel guilty.”
Bryce drew in a sharp breath. He hadn’t seen it that way. And somehow, Tom’s quiet command only made Bryce want him more. That strength was part of what had pulled him in from the start.
“So, our second date?” Bryce said, recovering his balance. “I hate to be clichéd after you went to such effort today to show me a good time, but I was thinking dinner and a movie. As long as there’s more of that chaste kissing at the end.”
“Yeah, quite a day, wasn’t it?” Tom said, and sighed. He lay looking up at the ceiling, and Bryce didn’t know what to make of the expression on his face.
TOM
Thoughts tumbled around inside Tom’s head.
So much had happened, and the ground had shifted so many times beneath his feet that he scarcely knew how to make sense of it all.
The one thing that did make sense was the man lying beside him, quietly waiting for him to work out what it was he wanted to say.
“Bennett asked me to head up the temporary security detail until things get resolved,” he said at last. He rolled over and propped himself up on one arm to look at Bryce.
“I don’t know that I want to keep working for the Council,” he confessed.
Because he used to believe in what they stood for, but he’d never be able to trust any of them again.
“I can understand that,” Bryce said.
Which wasn’t particularly helpful of him, not expressing an opinion either way.
“There’s no rush to decide though, is there?” he added, when Tom said nothing.
Tom relaxed. Bryce was right. It would be wrong to make a life-changing decision too quickly after today’s events.
Perhaps he’d take some vacation time and visit his family and pack in Maine.
He missed them, and every shifter needed to feel part of a pack.
But then he realized that spending time in Maine would mean leaving Bryce, and he didn’t want to do that.
“You know you’ve always got a home in Elk Ridge, but that doesn’t mean we have to live there,” Bryce said, almost as if he’d read Tom’s mind. “We can go anywhere, do anything you want.”
Except Tom had some idea how much that pack meant to Bryce, and he to them. Maybe some sort of compromise would be possible and they could split their time between DC and Elk Ridge. Perhaps they could get a place together in DC.
It would be somewhere the exact opposite of this apartment, though—somewhere warm and possibly a bit shabby, but comfortable. Somewhere they could spend hours making out on the couch if they wanted, and it would feel right because it was their home.
And then he realized just what couch his mind had conjured up—dark brown leather, a little beat-up, and strangely enough, exactly like the one back at the ranch house. It dawned on him that perhaps they already had a home and wouldn’t need to sign the lease for a DC apartment after all.
The thought settled in him with unexpected calm. He’d given years to this work, to what he thought he should be. Even being with Zack—he’d believed that was the life he was supposed to want. The polished partnership, the politics, the ambition. He’d let the role define him.
And maybe that was the problem. It had never really been a fit. Not for who he was.
He traced his fingers over Bryce’s chest, the touch grounding him. Letting go didn’t feel like falling—it felt like freedom. Freedom to choose something better.
“Tell me,” he said, and there was a smile in his voice, “are there many job opportunities for an ex-National Council aide in Elk Ridge?”
brYCE
Bryce’s breath caught as happiness bubbled inside him, so intense it seemed to seep out of every pore, filling the room, the entire city, with joy.
“Well, I hear the sheriff’s going to be up for re-election,” he said, capturing Tom’s wandering hand with his and raising it to his lips to place a gentle kiss against it. “With his stellar interpersonal skills, I’d say he needs a damn good campaign manager.”
“That could fit with my skill set,” Tom mused. “Any perks go with the job?”
“Rumor has it that one of the deputies is a sure thing for hot ex-National Council aides called Tom Barrington,” Bryce said, pulling Tom close so that he could feel the way Bryce’s cock was beginning to harden.
“Really?” Tom said teasingly, and leaned in to kiss Bryce.
“Oh, God, really,” Bryce said breathlessly several minutes later when Tom’s hand was wrapped around both their cocks and he was jacking them slowly, expertly.
And then they were moving together, Bryce dipping down to kiss Tom as they squirmed against one another until Tom was gasping as he came. Bryce buried his face in Tom’s neck as he groaned out Tom’s name, his hips stuttering helplessly.
When he opened his eyes again, he wondered idly if he was crushing Tom. When he wasn’t pushed off, he decided to stay there until he was. And if that meant he stayed there the rest of his life, hell, he was in favor of that.
God, he had to get this under control before he went home, because right now he was making Tristan and Colby look restrained.
“What’s going on with Matt and Jesse?” Tom prompted at last, which Bryce reluctantly took as a signal and moved off him.
He lay down beside Tom, but couldn’t stop touching him, trailing his hand over Tom’s chest as he spoke.
“Well, the world’s kind of stunned at the news, apparently.
Once Matt and Jesse have given some interviews, they’re heading home and no one except pack is allowed on the ranch.
The shifters covering the story know exactly what that means and have kindly explained it to the non-shifter journalists, who may have turned a little pale. ”
Which was a shame, because it would be good for Karl to be able to take out some of his recent ill humor on trespassers.
But even being here with Tom wasn’t enough to counteract the knowledge of how Jesse’s life would be now the world knew about him. How all their lives would be.
“You know they’ll still be waiting for Jesse to leave the ranch every day. Even if he won’t talk to them, they can gossip about his dress sense and the state of his relationship with Matt, and God, I hate it.”
Tom’s hand covered his, reassuring and firm. “But there’s no real story there once they’ve heard about Jesse’s background, is there? He’s got a mate, so they can’t breathlessly follow his love life. Which means once another story comes along, he won’t be the focus anymore.”
“Yeah, but what the hell kind of story could knock an Argent off the front pages?” Bryce asked.
“Another Argent,” Tom said.
Bryce blinked at him. “Except there aren’t any.”
“Aren’t there?” Tom arched an eyebrow in pure innocence. “I seem to remember you mentioning one in Florida. Or was it Rhode Island? And there were those two in Nebraska I kept meaning to report. Plus I’ve heard Yosemite’s full of them.”
He waited an instant, and then Bryce got it.
“You’re going to start planting sightings,” he said, awe blooming into laughter. “You’re going to set the media chasing its own tail, hunting bullshit stories until they forget about Jesse.”
“Well, if it’s a choice between protecting him or letting the press eat him alive, I’m comfortable doing my civic duty.”
Tom’s eyes were sparkling with mischief and happiness, and Bryce couldn’t resist—he leaned in to kiss him yet again.
“You, Tom Barrington, are a very devious man,” he said.
“You’re just discovering this now?”
Bryce looked at him, suddenly serious, aware of the layers and depths in Tom. “I think I’m still going to be discovering things about you when we’re both old and gray,” he said, his voice thick.
Although Tom said nothing, Bryce heard the way his breath hitched and knew he’d understood the strength of Bryce’s love for him. Bryce still wasn’t sure how the whole mate connection worked, but one thing he did know—it was impossible for him to know Tom and not to love him.
As the hours passed, Bryce showed him that in every way he could. Tom held him close in return and murmured words deep into the night. Words like love, and you, and always.
And when the sun rose the next morning, those words didn’t disappear with the darkness, but stayed there between them, bright shining promises of all that was to come.