Chapter Thirty-Seven
Leo
“Leo!” My door rattled on its hinges as someone hammered on the outside.
I rolled over and checked my phone for the time, groaning at the early hour. After a couple of hours at the gym yesterday, the tension beneath my skin refused to dissipate, making it feel tight and itchy. Once home, I’d instantly muffled up, this time ensuring there was no chance of me becoming a human popsicle, and headed back out, thinking a walk along the beach might distract me and help get rid of my restlessness.
I’d wandered between both the larger bay, where most of the tourists visited, and the smaller, more private bay, frequented by the local residents, for a few hours. I morosely enjoyed the bitingly cold air numbing my face, with only the crash and boom of the waves along the shore interrupting my introspection. Determined, I tried to keep my gaze fixed on the ebb and flow of the surf, but time and again, my eyes returned to the rows of beach houses lining the top of the bluff, wanting, yet not wanting, to know which beach house was Gabe’s in case I caught a glimpse of him and did something daft, like plead with him to take me back.
As the sky turned from a molten gray toward black, with the night rolling in, I’d made my way back to my apartment and spent the rest of the evening on the couch watching crap TV. But I was unable to get comfortable, as I didn’t have Mitch’s firm and warm chest to lay my head on, or Gabe’s hand running gently up and down my leg.
Sleep barely came at all without two hot bodies to wrap myself around. When I did eventually manage to doze for a bit, I kept waking up cold and confused—until I remembered why I had an empty bed.
The hammering on my door repeated.
“G’way.” I buried my head in the pillow and tried to block them out, hoping they’d eventually give up and leave me in peace.
“Leo! It’s Mitch. Let me in.”
“Mitch?” Christ, I was so tired I hadn’t even recognized his voice.
I reluctantly slid out of bed, padded the short distance to the door, and turned the locks, before I appreciated what a bad idea it was.
Mitch looked like crap, and I had to fight down my natural instinct to invite him in and take care of him. His clothes were rumpled, as if he’d slept in them all night, which was entirely possible judging by the smell of alcohol wafting off his breath.
Holding on to the jamb with one hand and the front door with the other, I effectively barred his entrance. “What do you want, Mitch?” I tried to keep my tone neutral but couldn’t prevent a slice of bitterness wrapping around my question.
Probably knowing he wouldn’t get a warm welcome after the way he dumped me yesterday, he winced, and at least had the good grace to look guilty.
“I…um. Can I come in? I’d like to talk to you.”
“Oh, so now you want to talk?”
“Please, Leo.”
Such a proud man, I hated him feeling he had to beg.
“Only for a minute.”
A part of me wanted to slam the door right in his face, but annoyingly, a bigger part of me wanted to listen to what he had to say for himself. I grudgingly stepped aside, allowing him to enter, the air tinged with the familiar scent of fire smoke and pine as he passed me by to stand awkwardly in the middle of the room, his large frame seeming to entirely fill the space of my crappy, shoebox-sized apartment, if you could even call it that—a single, medium-sized room with a sofa against one wall, an armchair to the right, with a TV unit opposite, and a narrow coffee table separating them. Beyond that, sat a full-size bed. A small kitchen with a two-burner stove was situated to the right of the main door, and a tiny bathroom with barely enough room to turn around in was on the left.
Basic was too good a word for the dated, slightly musty-smelling room, but after being fired in Boston, this was all I could afford. And since I quit being my stepfather’s emotional punching bag yesterday, which had been incredibly satisfying, by the way, and after he’d finished bad-mouthing me to all and sundry, I’d likely never work in Melrose Bay again. Meaning, I’d not be able to afford this shitty hole for much longer either.
I stood a few feet away from Mitch, crossed my arms for some semblance of protection and to create a barrier between us, then waited. He remained quiet, merely standing there, seemingly at a loss for what to do next.
“You wanted to talk, so talk.”
His eyes widened slightly at my harsh attitude, but I ignored him. He’d left me crushed yesterday, and after my showdown with Malcolm, I was all out of fucks.
“I…um…wanted to talk about us, to—”
“Us?” I scoffed. “There is no us . You left me standing on the sidewalk yesterday, remember? Like a piece of garbage you couldn’t wait to dispose of.” I pinned him with my stare. “No discussion, no goodbye, no…” My voice gave out as my mind replayed him driving away without a single glance.
“I know I did,” he said, about to take a step closer.
I shook my head at him to stop. If he got near me, the pathetic barriers I’d erected to restrain my emotions would shatter completely. That might make me weak, and I was where he and Gabe were concerned, but no matter my flaws, I still had some remnants of my battered pride left intact.
As usual, I’d been found wanting, and I’d had enough.
“Leo.” He sounded so pained, so desperate, I almost caved but steeled my heart and stood my ground.
“Why are you really here, Mitch?”
“I had to see you.”
“Why?”
He took in a lungful of air, his already massive chest expanding even more. “I had to see you to apologize for how I acted, how I left things.”
I released a bitter laugh. “Oh, please. Didn’t Gabe say we’d done enough apologizing already? It’s all we ever seemed to do. Doesn’t that tell you anything about how toxic we are together?”
“Actually, yes, it tells me a great deal about us.”
I shook my head at him. I hadn’t had anywhere near enough sleep for this shit. Shoving past him, I made my way over to the couch and flopped down. Laying my head against the cushions, I tried to ignore the hulking presence of Mitch as he stood there awkwardly. He eventually sat down on the coffee table in front of me, his heavy weight making the thing creak loudly.
“Probably best if you sit in the armchair.”
He didn’t. Instead, he moved to sit with me on the sofa, scant inches away. The heat from his leg so close to mine—it wouldn’t take much movement at all to have them touch. A small shuffle on my part, and we’d connect.
It took all my resolve not to do it.
He didn’t talk. Instead, he sat there quietly, the tense silence stretching my nerves to breaking point. His last words rolling around my head getting louder and louder until I might explode.
“Fine,” I snapped. “I’ll bite. What does our destructive relationship tell you?” I expected him to appear smug at having made me curious to hear his reply, but he remained stoic.
“It tells me we care about one another.”
“Hah! It tells me , we don’t give a shit about one another if we keep hurting the other and need to apologize all the time.”
“You’re wrong. The fact you do apologize reinforces the fact you care. If you didn’t care, why apologize? Why not ignore the situation and walk away?”
Flabbergasted, I stared at him. “Because I was stuck at your place, with no way to escape, remember?”
“Is that what you want to do now?”
I couldn’t answer him.
“Leo,” he prodded gently. “Do you still want to escape?”
Did I? I’d been through the ringer emotionally this last week, with the glorious high of finding two people so perfect for me and falling in love, to then experience the hellish low of both of those men rejecting me, casting me aside as if I meant absolutely nothing to them. If I had to do it all over again, would I have changed anything? Would I have missed out on loving Mitch and Gabe, however briefly, if I’d realized the pain and hollowness I’d feel once they were gone? No, no, I wouldn’t.
I wanted nothing more than to have another chance with him, with Gabe, but so much bitterness existed between us, so much animosity between Mitch and Gabe, I had no idea how we would ever work. In reality, we hardly knew one another at all. Stuck together in the cabin, confined in the small space due to circumstances beyond our control had been extremely frustrating. We’d been strangers and had to hastily learn about one another and adjust to the others’ quirks and personalities.
How we went from adjusting to fucking I’d no idea. And how I went from fucking to falling in love with them both remained an absolute mystery to me. But we did and I had. Totally. Irrevocably.
Until it all went to shit. If by some miracle we did get back together, wouldn’t we just end up going the same way again?
“So, what are you saying exactly?” I replied, not answering his question.
Mitch laid his hand on my thigh, stroking up and down. I lifted my head to stare at the movement, my heart misfiring as tingles of heat made their way along my legs right to my balls. I hated that he affected me so much, but I couldn’t help it. I yearned for his touch, craved for his fingers to caress my bare skin instead of my jeans, even though I shouldn’t want such things any longer.
“I want another chance with you.”
My gaze shot to his, my mouth going dry. “Why?” I whispered.
“I received this earlier.” He leaned forward and pushed his ass out slightly as he reached around to his back pocket. The instant image of his bare ass as Gabe and I had licked his hole made me flush to boiling hot.
He pulled out a wad of papers folded in half. Unfolding them, he smoothed them on his thigh and passed them to me. “Sorry. They got a bit creased.”
Taking them from him, I felt the residual heat from where they’d been nestled against his butt cheek. A quick glance at the image at the top of the letter informed me who they were from. Dread pooled in my belly at what the documents might mean. I rapidly skimmed the contents, my jaw dropping when I understood what they contained.
I looked at Mitch, who sat watching me like a hawk. “He’s giving you everything.” I’d worried about what might happen to him and what Gabe would decide to do with his half of the property. I should have expected he wouldn’t keep it. In the end he’d want what’s best for Mitch, and to sever any ties he had to the place.
“He is.” He reached back into his pocket, then pulled out and handed over a separate piece of paper.
Unfolding it, my jaw dropped again, as my gaze snapped to Mitch. “That’s a lot of money.”
He nodded, his expression serious.
“That’s good, right? You never wanted to sell and now you don’t have to. You own every square acre and can do whatever you want with it. And with so much cash, you’ll be able to complete all the renovations and finally get the business you and Katie dreamed of up and running.” I stared at him intently when he didn’t respond, my brow furrowing. “Mitch? That’s what you wanted, right?” I failed to understand why he wasn't more enthusiastic.
“No, it’s not.”
What? Now, he’d totally confused me. “I thought—”
“So did I.” His free hand moved up to cup my neck, his thumb sliding along my jaw to rest on my pulse point, the beat increasing rapidly at his caress. I shouldn’t have allowed him to touch me, but the heat from his calloused fingers against my skin just felt so right.
“So?”
“Not like this. Not without you. Not without Gabe.” He leaned in confidently, and I automatically tilted my head, submitting to him and his beautiful lips as they trailed kisses from my shoulder, along my neck and jaw, to stop a hairsbreadth from my parched lips. “I’m so sorry, Leo,” he whispered. “Yesterday, I got too scared about how both of you made me feel. Trying to reconcile these new and incredible feelings with my past relationship and Katie’s death, I allowed my guilt to override everything else, and I panicked.” He leaned his forehead against mine and let out a deep heartfelt sigh. “When you left,” he swallowed. “When I threw you away and returned to the cabin, the reality of what my life used to be, hit me hard. I wasn’t living, only functioning, and without Gabe and you there, all I saw were empty days and empty years stretching into the future.”
I reached up and, pushing off his cap, ran my fingers through his thick hair. He sighed again and relaxed.
“I don’t want to be alone anymore, Leo. I want to take a chance on our relationship because I deserve to be happy, and so do both of you, and together, I think the three of us will be amazing. Please say you’ll forgive me one last time and give me a final chance to make things right.”
I closed the small gap between us until my mouth feathered lightly over his. The beautiful sensation caused me to release a tortured sigh at the simple yet intimate connection and was all the answer Mitch needed. His hand around the back of my neck, he held me in place and took over the kiss. His mouth firmly covering mine, the shock of his teeth biting my lower lip made me groan as the slight twinge of pain turned to full-on pleasure. He eased away a little to glide his lips over mine again and again until they tingled, creating a sensual counterpoint to his beard scratching along my stubble, catching in the short hairs, linking us.
His tongue slid over mine, tangling, tasting, thrusting into my mouth. I clung to his biceps, matching his ardor, determined not to be a meek participant. I needed him to see and prove to myself I was as strong and as willing as him.
We parted, panting, gulping in air. He touched our foreheads, keeping us connected. “I love you, Leo, and I’m sorry that even though I said the words, I didn’t truly understand their meaning until you were gone.” He kissed me again, sweetly and sincerely.
“What about Gabe?” I asked, heart in my mouth, unsure what would happen if he no longer wanted to be a part of us.
Mitch’s smile stretched from ear to ear. “We’re going to win him back.” I quirked my eyebrow at him. “Trust me. It’ll need both of us, but I’m sure together we can persuade him we’re worth a final chance.” I didn’t feel anywhere near as confident as him we’d achieve his goal. Gabe would be a tough nut to crack, but I’d try anything possible if it meant we got to have him in our lives again.
*
It took us a while to find his house, but Melrose Bay wasn’t a big place. With so many people knowing each other, and after knocking on a few doors for directions, we managed to get a specific address. Night had fallen by the time we got there, but we eventually arrived at Gabe’s beach house. I couldn’t see too much, but the porch light glowed brightly, as did a light in the left side front window, and a fainter one coming through the front door, giving me hope he was inside.
Getting out of the truck, the sound of Christmas tunes drifted in the air along with the voices of people chatting and laughing and generally having a good time from the house next door. I’d nearly forgotten today was Christmas Eve, and the thought of Gabe sitting alone, thinking about his exes while he heard other people being happy, made my heart break for him.
Mitch waited for me to round the hood of his truck, his hand out expectantly. Once at his side, I placed mine in his and his fingers automatically curled around mine, holding me securely. Looking down at where we were linked, I loved the feeling of security and possession our display evoked.
I’d never held a boyfriend’s hand in public. It felt liberating, as if Mitch’s simple act declared to the world I was someone special to him, and he didn’t give a shit who knew about it. I hoped I’d be holding hands a lot more in my future.
He pushed the lighted button on the door and a bell chimed somewhere in the house. A few minutes later, the door opened and so did my mouth. A big and muscular body filled the doorway. Who the hell was this guy, and why was he practically naked? We’d obviously gotten him out of the shower, as his skin and chest hair were sprinkled with water droplets. He wore the tiniest towel known to man, pulled tightly around his waist, highlighting the bulge of his cock, and barely concealing its impressive length as the material just about reached to the middle of his thighs.
He crossed his arms, and when I finally managed to pull my gaze from his massive biceps and chest to look into his face, he looked resigned.
“I need to make up a damn sign,” he growled unhappily.
“What?” I asked, unsure what he referred to.
“The party is next door, not here. Can’t you hear the music?”
“Oh, sorry, no it’s—”
He cocked his head to the side, his rich chocolate eyes stared at us, waiting.
“Gabe,” Mitch blurted. “We’d like to speak to Gabriel.”
“Gabriel?” The guy frowned, making my stomach drop and pain spear my heart. Had he and Gabe hooked up? What other explanation was there when a nearly naked man answered the door to your lover’s house?
Fuck. Were we already too late?
Towel Guy smirked. “ Gabriel’s next door.”
“Wh-what?” I stuttered, my mind playing all sorts of tricks on me about what they’d been up to.
“He’s with everyone else at the party next door.”
Oh, thank God.
“Now, if you don’t mind, and hell, I don’t care if you do. I’m gonna go get some clothes on before I fucking freeze to death.”
“Sorry. Yes, sorry. Thank you.”
He grunted, and rapidly shut the door.
“Not a particularly good start,” I remarked sourly.
“At least we know he’s still here and hasn’t left the Bay.” Mitch squeezed my hand. He hadn’t let go of me the whole time. “Come on. Let’s go crash a party.”