Heartache Spoken Here Read online

  “Would you like me to order you not to go home to see them?”

  “No, Sir. It’s not necessary.” His smile looked tight, drawn. “I’m not even sure that’ll be an issue when I tell my parents. I’ll do that over the phone, take the easy way out. If they pleasantly shock me, terrific, I misjudged them. I don’t think I did, though.”

  “Want to take bets they’ll claim you moving to Florida turned you gay?” He’d meant it as a joke, but Stuart’s tight smile didn’t loosen any.

  “I already thought about that. Multiple times. I won’t take that bet because I’m not at all sure that’s not exactly one of the things they will say.”

  * * * *

  When they reached Brandon’s house, Stuart walked him to the front door. “Come on in for a minute,” Brandon said. He wasn’t quite ready to say goodnight to Stuart yet.

  Jeff got to spend more time with him than he did, so he’d take this little bit of time and savor it.

  “Are you sure? I thought Emma’s home.”

  “She is. And I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t mean it.”

  “Okay. I mean, yes, Sir.”

  Brandon smiled. “You’re so cute.”

  Emma had locked the front door, fortunately. Nice to see she was remembering things like that. One less worry on his plate. “Want something to drink?”

  “No, that’s okay, Sir.”

  Brandon pulled him in close, kissing him. “Bet I know what you do want,” he mumbled.

  “Mmmhmm, yes, Sir.”

  Except he couldn’t do that. Not tonight, with Emma there. It’d be too hard to explain, and he didn’t want to have that conversation with her right now.

  That’d be a chub-killer for sure.

  Still, Brandon kissed him again, reaching down to palm Stuart’s hard bulge through his jeans. “No jerking off when you get home, boy,” Brandon whispered. “You hold that load until I can help you take care of it this weekend.”

  Stuart whimpered. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good boy.” He grabbed him by the back of the head and kissed him, hard.

  The sound of Emma’s bedroom door opening hit Brandon like a splash of cold water, but he didn’t think they’d stepped away from each other quickly enough before she stuck her head into the hallway. “Dad?”

  “Um, yeah. I’m home.”

  Instead of going back into her room, she stepped out and stormed down the hall, fury on her face. “Do you know what time it is?”

  “Uh, yeah. I have a phone. It keeps great time. You should be in bed.”

  She stared at Stuart for an uncomfortably long moment. “Where’s Jeff?”

  “He’s home tonight. Honey, this is Stuart. Stuart, this is Emma.”

  Instead of reaching out to shake hands, she crossed them over her chest and sent the chilly glare of death Stuart’s way.

  Good thing she couldn’t use the Force, or he suspected Stuart would be dead on the floor right where he stood.

  He could almost read Darth Emma’s thoughts. I find your lack of monogamy disturbing.

  “I thought when you said you were going out that you were going out with Jeff. You know, your boyfriend?”

  “I’d better go,” Stuart softly said, turning his back to Emma but winking at Brandon.

  Whew. Hopefully that meant Stuart wasn’t upset. “Thanks for tonight. I had a good time.”

  “Me, too, Si—um, me, too.”

  Even knowing Emma was watching, Brandon still gave Stuart a quick peck on the lips before seeing him out the door.

  Trying to delay the inevitable, he closed the door and slowly locked it, resting his forehead against it.

  That’s when Emma’s voice ripped through the living room like a tsunami. “What is going on, Dad?”

  Brandon struggled to maintain his composure as he turned to face her. “What are you talking about?”

  She pointed at the front door. “That guy! Who is he? What about Jeff? Oh, my god, you’re not cheating on Jeff, are you?”

  “No! Of course I’m not.”

  “Then explain that guy! You kissed him! I saw you kissing him!”

  “I don’t owe you any explanations, young lady.”

  “Uh, yeah, you do, Dad. You’ve always made a big deal about being honest with people, having integrity, and you’re cheating on poor Jeff? How could you?”

  This was not a conversation he’d wanted to have. The good news was, at least, she seemed to be indignant on Jeff’s behalf, so that must mean she liked him. Right?

  “I’m not cheating on Jeff with Stuart. Jeff’s dating Stuart, too.”

  Her jaw gaped. “Jeff is cheating on you with him?” He really needed to get some throw rugs or something. Her voice echoed through the house, rattling off the concrete floors and bare walls.

  “No one’s cheating on anyone! Will you please calm down?”

  She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Then you want to explain it to me? I’m not stupid.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and forced himself to say it. “His name’s Stuart Powell, and Jeff and I met him the same night we met each other when we were out with mutual friends. Jeff and I are dating each other…and Stuart. The three of us are all dating each other. We all know about it, and we’re all okay with it. Plus they’re now roommates. Stuart’s renting a room from Jeff. I was going to wait until next week to introduce you to Stuart and tell you about the three of us.”

  She blinked, staring at him. “What?” Then she let out a gasp and clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, my god!” she mumbled from behind it. “You’re like Kyle’s family!”

  “Kyle?”

  “A friend of mine at school. His dad, Darryl, and his step-mom, Susan, and his step-dad, Grant. Darryl’s married to Susan, but the three of them live together. Is that what you’re doing?”

  Oh, shit.

  He knew them, now that Emma had put things in context.

  He’d had dinner with them that Saturday night at Sigalo’s when he’d met Jeff and Stuart. Plus, he’d seen them at private parties before and at Venture.

  Trying to decide if this was a good development or not, he took a moment to compose himself. “Right now, we’re just dating,” he carefully said. “And I hope it goes without saying that this is none of your mother’s business. Or any of your friends’ business.”

  She dropped her hand and grinned. “Heck, no.” She walked over and hugged him. “I’m just glad you’re not cheating on Jeff. I really like him.”

  He hugged her back. “I really like him, too. And we both like Stuart. And, hopefully, Stuart still likes both of us, if a mouthy teenager didn’t just ruin my chances with him.”

  She winced. “I guess I owe him an apology, huh?”

  He stared down at her. “Um, yeah, I think so. Next time, how about saving the evil child act until after you’ve talked to me first, instead of defaulting to it, huh?”

  “Sorry, Dad. But I thought…” She sighed. “Never mind. I’m sorry. I should have trusted you. But even you have to admit it was hard not to make that assumption.”

  “Thank you for the apology. And yes, I can see that. I think it’s time you head to bed, is it not?”

  “Yeah.” She did just that.

  With that sorted, he headed to his bedroom to call Stuart. “Sorry about that,” he immediately said when Stuart answered. Then Brandon explained.

  A nervous laugh escaped Stuart. “It’s okay. I’m glad you sorted it out. I guess that means we don’t need to hide things from her, huh, Sir?”

  “Um, well, the Sir stuff. Let’s be careful with that. Okay? I’m not ready to have that conversation with her yet.”

  “Yes, Sir. I mean, sure.”

  Brandon laughed. “You’re fine. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.” He sighed. “Now if I can just get my house finished so we can spend time here and be comfortable, everything would be great.”

  “I don’t mind helping you, Sir. We’d both be happy to. It’d give Emma a chance
to get to know us, too.”

  It would at that. “Let me think about that. I don’t want to use you for free labor.”

  “Think of it as a vanilla way for us to get our kink on by serving you, Sir.”

  Hmm. “You have a way with words, boy.”

  “Thank you, Sir. I try.”

  With things smoothed over on both ends, that left Brandon free to finally relax and get ready for bed. Except…

  He found his mind constantly roaming back to that first night together at Venture, the three of them playing.

  How…perfect it felt, even though that was a word he hated to use lightly.

  It had felt right.

  Like the three of them absolutely belonged together.

  Tonight, not having Jeff with them had almost felt a little sad. Last night not having Stuart with them had left him feeling the same way.

  At least Emma’s okay with it.

  Honestly, that’d been his major sticking point, how to explain it to her.

  But if she was already used to that…hell, he didn’t really have any valid objections left to worry about, did he?

  Maybe he could get his happily ever after with Jeff and Stuart.

  It was worth taking the chance.

  They were worth taking the chance.

  * * * *

  With the secret out, Brandon didn’t have to worry about Jeff and Stuart both being at the house and Emma seeing how he interacted with them.

  Which was a huge relief when IKEA called the next day and let him know his kitchen was being delivered the day after that. While he’d love to have a lot of other things done in the house, the kitchen had to be a priority. Especially if he had extra sets of hands willing to help him put it all together and get it installed.

  It took them two evenings, but they got it assembled and put together. For the first time in several months, they now had a functional kitchen.

  And Emma pitched in, helping, apparently comfortable around Jeff and Stuart.

  Fortunately, she still liked both men.

  That’s when Brandon knew he needed the three of them to take things to the next step.

  Brandon walked the men out to Jeff’s truck and kept his voice low. “Let’s plan to go to dinner and spend Saturday night together, okay?”

  “The club?” Stuart asked.

  “No.” He reached out and stroked Stuart’s cheek. “Let’s go to your place. I’ll arrange something for Emma, to either get her to go to Tracey’s or a friend’s house.”

  “If you can’t,” Jeff said, “we can wait.”

  “I don’t want to wait. Not anymore. Life’s too short, and I want to see where this will go.”

  He kissed them both goodnight and watched as they pulled out of the driveway and drove off.

  He was tired of waiting. Tracey hadn’t waited, even while he’d stood back and been the responsible father. If Emma was still a little kid, that’d be different.

  It was time for him to start putting himself first, in some ways. Because he only got one life, and he wanted to live it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  By the time the next Saturday rolled around, Brandon was eagerly looking forward to fucking his two boys’ asses. He’d wanted the whole night with them, but Emma still refused to spend the night at Tracey’s. Then she had asked if she could spend it at Grace’s house.

  After talking to Grace’s mother, he agreed.

  At some point, he hoped his daughter and her mother could work something out. Tracey had called him last week to talk to Emma since Emma was sending all her calls to voicemail.

  Which Brandon couldn’t fault her for, but he did tell her to quit putting off talking to Tracey, because that wasn’t helping the situation.

  He knew they loved each other, but it seemed that they’d finally hit too divergent a fork in the road between them in terms of mutual understanding.

  Not that he could blame Emma for how she felt, but he did understand a teenage girl wasn’t exactly the most reliable narrator out there when it came to recalling events, no matter how damned smart she was.

  Except in this case, he suspected Emma was telling the truth.

  Or more of the truth than Tracey was.

  After taking Emma over to Grace’s, he came home and showered. He must have changed shirts three different times before finally realizing it wasn’t necessary.

  Whatever happened tonight, it either would or wouldn’t happen, and what shirt he wore would play zero role in the outcome.

  He still couldn’t believe this was actually going to…happen. It’d taken them a month to get to this point, their logistics hampered a little by having Emma now living with him.

  But they’d finally hit a point where Brandon knew he wanted more from both of them.

  Stuart and Jeff were so fricking adorable. Both of them. They each had their strong points. And they weren’t going to force him to choose between them, because they liked each other.

  It was like…this was almost too perfect or something.

  Then again, it’s not like we’d be the first triad in the area.

  Far from it. There were even a few quads, from his understanding, although they usually had a woman in the mix somewhere.

  Thank goodness they were able to do this at Jeff and Stuart’s place tonight. Nothing killed the mood faster than trying to get comfortable on patio furniture while every sound they made echoed through the house.

  He studied himself in the mirror. He wasn’t half bad-looking for forty-one. A little grey in his hair, sure.

  He sucked in his stomach and felt ridiculous. Not like he had anything to be ashamed of.

  Besides, they’d seen him the way he was.

  If he wasn’t enough for them, well…then that would be that.

  Still fighting his case of the nerves, he gathered his wallet, keys, and phone and headed out to meet them at the restaurant. All the way there during the drive, he tried to give himself a pep talk.

  I can do this. They’re great guys.

  They’re also younger than me, Stuart by sixteen years.

  How am I supposed to keep up with not one but two younger guys?

  Okay, for crying out loud, he wasn’t marrying them tonight. Hopefully tonight they were going to have some fun. Beyond that…the future still lay wide open and full of possibilities.

  He already knew the men would be driving over separately. Jeff had taken an extra shift at work today to cover for another guy, and then had to help his parents knock out a quick chore at their house. He’d be coming straight from there. When Brandon reached the restaurant, Stuart was there but Jeff hadn’t arrived yet. Stuart greeted him with an eager hug and a peck on the lips.

  “Jeff’ll be here in a minute, Sir. He got hung up in traffic. He texted me.”

  Brandon wondered why Jeff hadn’t texted him as well, when he looked at his phone and realized Jeff had texted him—except his phone was on silent.

  Stuart’s green eyes, even in the waning light, bore flecks of hazel and gold that gave them a sweet, earthy quality.

  “Any second thoughts?” Brandon asked him. “You can always say no.”

  He smiled. “No, Sir. No second thoughts. I kind of wish we could skip dinner.”

  “I’d say yes to that, except I’m starving.” They spotted a truck pulling into the lot and it was Jeff.

  Brandon studied Stuart’s expression as he watched Jeff park. “Not jealous?”

  Stuart shook his head. “Maybe if we weren’t all doing this together. But…I can’t explain it.”

  Jeff walked up, long and lanky, jeans and a short-sleeved button-up shirt and his hair still damp from the shower.

  “Sorry I’m late, Sir.” He stepped in for a kiss from Brandon before leaning in to kiss Stuart.

  Yeeesss. That was the natural dynamic they seemed to fit into. Jeff his Alpha subby, and Stuart the beta.

  I’m going to have sooo much fun with them.

  * * * *

  Stuart had felt nervou
s all day, but especially so now that he was here, with these two men.

  While he’d initially cursed his luck at getting catfished, he also realized if that hadn’t happened, he might never have met Brandon and Jeff. Or, at the very least, he might not have had the courage to approach them.

  Yes, he was damned lucky.

  He was also about to do something that he’d never dreamed possible, and hoped this was the start of a long-term relationship.

  At least he knew if things didn’t work out between them he had found a strength deep inside him to stretch outside his comfort zone, and it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

  Right now, it was only the beginning.

  Especially since he had a growing cadre of friends to emotionally support him if things ran off the rails. He’d never felt such a sense of belonging in his life.

  Certainly never from his own family.

  Brandon opened the door and motioned for them to walk in first. Stuart followed Jeff’s lead and stood aside so Brandon could then walk ahead of them to the hostess’ station.

  “Three, please. Booth, if you have it.”

  “Certainly. Follow me.”

  She grabbed menus and led them to a booth toward the back of the restaurant. Initially, Stuart wondered who’d be the one who got to sit next to Brandon when he settled the question by motioning for him and Jeff to sit on one side, together, while Brandon took the other. Jeff let Stuart go first, putting Stuart by the wall.

  Alone with each other and their menus, Brandon smiled across the table at them. “Any topics of discussion we need to cover that we haven’t already?” He loved the way Brandon’s blue eyes crinkled at the outer edges, the slate-grey flecks in them, the smile lines etched in his face.

  Stuart shook his head. “No, Sir.”

  “We even remembered to clean the bathroom,” Jeff said, smiling.

  “Sorry my house isn’t in the best shape right now,” Brandon said.

  Stuart glanced through the menu. “Trust me, it’s not an issue for us.”

  Brandon reached across the table and patted his hand. “Nervous?”

  Why lie about it? “Yeah.”

  “Remember, you can always safeword for anything. No expectations.”