Chapter Twenty-Seven
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
LEENA
C olton still has his shirt off. Why is it still off? Doesn’t he own another one? I know he does. He has an overnight bag in his room.
The guest room, I mean.
Because he doesn’t live here. He’s just an employee and a good friend.
My best friend.
Ugh, I shouldn’t have said anything. I thought my little story would make him feel uncomfortable. Instead, he’s just sitting there, with his fucking shirt off and his perfect fucking abs and tattoos on display, eyeing me down like I’m the most fascinating thing on the planet.
He sees too much, notices too much. That’s his problem. A normal person would have been embarrassed hearing about how Luke and I fucked outside while Sebastian watched.
But not Colton Fisher, goddammit.
I need him out of this house. That’s what I need.
It was fine when I could pretend I wasn’t attracted to him, pretend I didn’t know what was under that shirt. Because clearly, I have a fucking type. And he’s it. Muscles and tattoos, same as my men.
But then I think about the reality of him leaving. Does that make me sad? I think it does.
Okay, it definitely does.
Why does that make me sad? I’m not with him, I have two men. Not one, two. I am more than perfectly happy with them, I don’t need anyone else.
I guess it’s fine to just have friends.
Ones that look like that .
And that spend the night.
God, this is fucking with me. At least the half naked man in my living room is sort of taking my mind off of things for the moment. Whenever I stop to think about it too long, I’m overwhelmed with this nagging guilt that I get to celebrate the holiday while my sister is being held captive. She would have loved staying up late playing games with us.
I take a deep breath, pushing back the thoughts that keep crowding my mind, because I know the guys are right. There’s nothing I can do about it tonight. There weren’t any flights available, and we weren’t about to ask the team to work on Christmas, or skip out on seeing Luke’s family after we already missed Thanksgiving. The day after tomorrow, when we get back, the entire team will hit the ground running. I know they will do everything they can to help get Kathryn back.
So I bring myself back to the present, reminding myself what tonight really is.
It’s our first Christmas together.
I want to do everything I can to make it perfect. But when I look around, I realize that it kind of already is. I watch the guys, all joking and laughing together. I smile at the tree they hauled up here. It’s way too big, and the haphazard ornaments make it seem incredibly out of place considering the modern decor of our penthouse, but it was so sweet of Sebastian and Luke to surprise me with it, to make time for us to decorate it together. The whole room is scattered with the fairy lights they bought me and Colton helped put up, because I like them better than gaudy multicolored holiday decorations, and my very favorite people are here with me in this room. For the first time in a long time, I realize that I’m not just getting through the holiday this year.
I’m spending it with a family. My family.
—
I lost count of how many games we’ve played, how many mojitos Luke has made for me, and how many shots of tequila the guys have gone through. Needless to say, we’re thoroughly drunk.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m not about to get into the new bottle of wine that’s sitting on the table behind where we’re all sitting around the coffee table.
I stare out the large glass window, watching the lights of the city sparkle, blanketing the world below. I’ll never get tired of this view. Or this city.
Because it’s so far from the one I left behind.
“Hey, it’s already past midnight,” Luke says, glancing at his phone.
“Then you have to open your presents!” I say, my excitement growing.
“Time for you to open presents. Get over here, sugar,” Sebastian says, tipping his head toward the tree and sitting on the floor beside it.
And there’s just something about Sebastian being barefoot, wearing sweatpants and a giant grin on his face as he sits next to a tree covered in twinkling lights, that warms my heart.
I snuggle up close beside him and he plops a present in my lap. Luke comes to sit beside me, wearing my favorite gray sweatpants of his that he, apparently, finally stole back from Colton.
My eyes flash over to him, but I quickly look away so I don’t have to watch the abs and biceps of a shirtless, barefoot Colton flex as he sits cross-legged in front of us.
Is this heaven? It might be.
Or, that might be the lingering alcohol talking.
I blink, bringing my focus back to the present in my lap and reading the label.
“To Leena, from your favorite.” I nearly snort out a laugh, recognizing Sebastian’s handwriting immediately. “I don’t have a favorite. And I’m very impressed by the wrapping job,” I say, narrowing my eyes as I study the gift. I cannot for the life of me picture Sebastian wrapping a present.
“Oh, your actual favorite wrapped all the presents. And that’s from the both of us, asshole,” he says, directing the last word over my head toward the man grinning beside me.
That makes more sense.
“Again, no favorites.” I smile, tearing off the paper to find a flat box. When I open the lid I’m… confused. I hold up the little keychain, admiring the intricate design, weaved together to form a whale tail. It’s absolutely beautiful, and even though I love it, I feel like I’m missing something.
“Open the envelope.” Sebastian points into the box, and I carefully take out the thick paper, reading the words on it.
That’s when I start sniffling, my chest tight from the feelings washing over me. I’m unable to speak.
“What is it?” Colton asks, leaning over to try and see it, but Luke begins to explain.
“It’s one of those save the ocean places. We made a donation, and–”
“We adopted a whale! Her name is Sasha!” I blurt out, finding my voice after-all.
“You bought her a whale?” Colton chuckles.
“Adopted,” Sebastian corrects.
“Where are you gonna put it?” Colton asks, looking around our home. I chuckle while Sebastian is busy rolling his eyes.
“You give a donation to help the ocean and take care of the whale. We picked one out to support,” Luke says, sliding an arm behind me and holding himself up with it as he leans in to point at the remaining slip of paper in the box. “You can download the app and follow where she is by her tracker. They give you updates on her health, and there’s a photo gallery.” Luke points out and I turn into him, clutching at my tiny keychain as I kiss him.
“So you like it?” he asks, barely breaking our contact.
“This is the best present, thank you.” I nearly sob, but find myself kissing his smile again instead.
The fact that my men know me well enough to buy me something this personal, this thoughtful, has me absolutely overwhelmed.
I turn to Sebastian. “Thank you for our whale baby.” I beam up at him.
“Your whale baby,” Sebastian huffs down at me.
“Don’t pretend your name isn’t on the adoption certificate, Sebastian Herman Chase. You will love our child just as much as Luke and I do,” I scold. Colton and Luke both let out loud bellows, and I can’t help my smile.
“I already regret this,” Sebastian grumbles.
We spend the next hour exchanging presents and when we’re nearing the last of the gifts, I’m all happy and cozy, wrapped in the fuzzy blanket Colton had custom made for me. I run my fingers over it, where my name is scrawled across it in fancy embroidered lettering.
My cheeks hurt from smiling, and from laughing, because on top of the thoughtful presents and the practical ones, Sebastian and Luke also managed to slip in a few joke gifts for all of us. I nearly stopped breathing at the confusion on Colton’s face when Luke opened a giant box of our leftover yarn from our Nerf war along with a variety of knitting needles, and when Sebastian found himself staring at a little wooden animal figurine like the ones he hated so much in the safehouse. The two of them got Colton a box of teeny tiny condoms, which he is now busy blowing up like balloons, and I am sucking on a giant lollipop that’s shaped like a dick.
I’m sitting next to Colton, sucking on said dick, making a variety of popping noises whenever it leaves my mouth. He glares at me, but I don’t look over at him. No way I’m looking at him while I’m enjoying my suggestive snack.
We watch as Sebastian and Luke start to open the last couple of presents. There’s a pile of discarded paper and ribbons on the floor between us. And holy hell are my men adorable when they’re this happy, this relaxed. But I guess we’re all feeling pretty good from the alcohol and from being together tonight.
When Luke opens a new crewneck sweater that Sebastian picked out for him, I watch a wave of emotion pass over his face. This isn’t their first Christmas together, not even close. But it is the first one where they’ve been “together.” I can see that this time spent with each other, and the presents they exchange, mean something different now.
“Thanks, Seb,” Luke says softly, barely glancing up at him so as not to clue Colton in to the emotion there. I watch Sebastian’s jaw clench, watch him steady his breathing before speaking.
“You’re welcome,” he nearly chokes out with the same “not looking at each other ” maneuver.
Then Luke takes his shirt off. Fuck me.
I put my lollipop back in its wrapper, I can’t look at him with my lips around it. Not when the new lacy underwear I’m wearing are already soaked completely through from that display alone. Oh well. My guys will probably just tear them to pieces in their brutal impatience anyway, just like they always fucking do.
Then Luke tosses his shirt over to Colton, and what does he fucking do?
He puts it on.
On the one hand, I’m happy the man sitting beside me is finally covered up so I don’t have to keep track of where my eyeballs are settling. On the other hand, now he smells like Luke. It’s my favorite smell in the fucking world, tied with Sebastian’s cologne, and now Colton is all wrapped up in it. Fantastic.
I look back at Luke, enjoying how his muscles and tattoos move as he effortlessly slides his new sweater over them. It fits him perfectly, and it’s so fucking hot, I kind of want to crawl over and run my hands up under it just to feel how soft he is under there. Sebastian must be having similar thoughts, because his jaw is doing that clenching thing again.
“This from you, Lu?” Sebastian asks, already tearing at the wrapping on his present.
The last present of the night.
“Yeah,” Luke responds quietly.
My body goes still, I nearly forgot.
I watched Luke wrap this gift. It’s nothing special, just a shirt he found and knew Sebastian would really like. What has my breath stalled is the hand-written note I watched Luke set on top of it.
A note that says, “I love you.”
He didn’t even sign it, but he doesn’t need to.
Sebastian knows his handwriting, just like he knows mine.
When Sebastian opens the box, his smile slowly fades as he stares inside.
He furrows his brows, looking down at it for a long moment. Then his gaze snaps up to Luke, who is giving him a small, heart-stopping smile, looking all confident and content in his new sweater. But I can feel the tension between them from all the way over here.
The corner of Sebastian’s mouth ticks up almost imperceptibly, then he grows serious again as he continues to stare at the man sitting just a few feet away. Sebastian drags a hand over his face, making some sort of distressed grumble, looking at the note again. He stares so long that Colton glances over at me, no doubt a little concerned by his friend’s change in demeanor. But I keep my eyes on Sebastian.
I don’t like seeing him wrestling with this. How much it’s hurting him.
Apparently, he doesn’t like it either.
“Fuck it,” he growls out, looking up at Luke. “Come here,” he rumbles, reaching out to grab Luke’s ankle, dragging the man across the floor toward him.
Luke’s smile is so wide he’s nearly laughing, but then Sebastian’s hands are gripping either side of his face and he’s kissing him so deeply there isn’t any more room for laughter.
My heart is so fucking happy for them that my eyes start to well with tears. I watch their lips move together in a possessive sort of way that is so beautiful to watch. I can’t drag my eyes away from it.
I’m vaguely aware that Colton is frozen solid beside me, no doubt in shock, or maybe horror, who knows. But I don’t care at this point. Right now, I’m watching my men take a huge step.
And it melts my fucking heart.
Sebastian spears his fingers into Luke’s blond hair and they let out groans of pleasure as he takes their kiss deeper.
I take a steadying breath, needing to pull myself out of the trance they have me in. I look over at Colton, his shocked eyes are wide as he continues to watch them.
“Colt?” I say quietly, trying to get his attention.
“Huh?” he says, quickly glancing over, then back at the guys for a second before shaking his head and focusing on me. “Fuck, sorry.” He shakes his head again. “I mean… holy fuck.” He runs a hand over his jaw and takes in a deep breath. I watch him carefully, trying to determine how he feels about this. Because I honestly can’t tell.
“Are you… okay?” I finally just say it.
“How long has this been going on?” he asks.
“Since the safehouse,” I say slowly, trying again to judge his reaction. And I get it, this is a lot to learn about your two best friends. And it certainly wasn’t the most subtle way for them to bring it up.
“Shit,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck and shaking his head. He lets out a breath as he looks back at them, blinking slowly as if they might disappear if he does that for long enough.
His reaction is driving me fucking insane. Because I can’t tell what’s going through this man’s head. I love my best friend… but what if he doesn’t support this? Fuck.
I have to ask.
“So… are you okay… with this?” I watch his face carefully, and his eyes whip back to me. He quirks a smile, studying my face right back. It makes me shift just a little, because he’s not usually this direct with me, this… intense. Me being this turned on while he’s wearing Luke’s shirt is not helping the underwear situation.
“Didn’t they tell you?” He smiles wider.
I’m hopelessly confused at this point, so I stare at him until he answers.
“Leena, I fuck men too. And I really fucking enjoy watching.” He smirks, quirking one eyebrow.
And now it’s his turn to study my reaction.
I try to be cool about this new information, try to keep my face neutral, to keep my mouth from dropping open, but holy fuck.
My mouth is definitely open.
I did not see that coming. Not one single bit. I figured Colton wasn’t vanilla by his constant suggestive remarks and how I saw him with two women after our last job. But I’ve never seen him show interest in a man. Or maybe I have, and I just didn’t recognize it as that. Colton is just… Colton, with everyone.
I stare at him, realizing how much I don’t know about him.
“Leena, I fuck men too,” I replay his words. Why is that so goddamn hot? I mean, clearly, I’m into that. But now I’m suddenly picturing Colton…
“Fucking hell,” Colton grinds out in a long breath from between clenched teeth, his eyes back on the men in front of us.
When I look over at them, I find that Luke has managed to get Sebastian out of his shirt. Sebastian quickly retaliates, grabbing both of Luke’s wrists, then straddles him so he can slam them to the floor above Luke’s head. Sebastian lowers, sliding against Luke’s heaving body in a way that shoves up his sweater. Their muscled abs press against each other as Sebastian pins him to the floor. They smile at each other for a moment, before their lips are crashing together all over again.
Okay.
My underwear are completely ruined at this point.
Without looking at each other, I feel Colton lean over, speaking to me quietly.
“Leena, get the wine.”