Outsider (55 page)

“The
propeller technique,” he said, still spinning the doll in circles. “Yes, Kiki,
just like that. Suck and spin. Suck and spin.”

The
guys around the table were laughing so hard, Trey thought they might pass out,
so he clutched the back of Kiki’s head and pretended to blow the biggest load
of his life into her mouth before returning to his seat. He propped Kiki back
on his knee and then dabbed at the corner of her mouth with his fingers. “You
let a little get away from you there,” he said. “And after telling me you
swallowed.”

After
a second round of laughter died down, Jace dealt the next hand.

Ethan
leaned in and whispered, “I think we might have to try that out for real
sometime.”

Just
the mental image of Ethan spinning around him had Trey gasping for air as he laughed.

Guys
were now cramming into the room to watch the game. Jace lost the second hand
and had to demonstrate doggie style on his Love Ewe. Eric made sheep baa-ing
noises the entire time. Jace lost the next hand as well. Missionary with a
sheep looked dangerous—what with the flailing hooves. When Jace lost his third
hand in a row, he started to get suspicious, but he cow-girled the hell out of
that poor sheep. Trey could honestly say that Jace pretending to get it on with
a blow-up sheep while Eric made very inappropriate baa-ing noises was the
funniest thing he’d ever seen. Even funnier than imagining Ethan as his dick
propeller.

“Jeez,
Jace, you suck at poker,” Jake said. “But you do know how to fuck a sheep
properly.”

Jace
stole the blow-up doll off Jake’s lap and forced him to take the sheep. Jace
seemed prepared to show that he could do a fake woman as well as he could bone
a plastic sheep, but Sed lost the next hand. He was all sorts of serious as he
pretended to get it on with his blow-up doll on the surface of the table. Trey
didn’t know whether to laugh or get turned on by the deep, rhythmic thrusts of
Sed’s hips.

“This
brings back memories,” Eric said, watching Sed’s demonstration like a State
Fair judge.

“You
are taking this way too serious, Sed,” Jace said, blowing out an uncomfortable
breath.

“I
can go all night,” Sed told him.

“I’m
sure you can,” Jace said. “Trey, hurry up and deal.”

“We’ll
finish this later, babe,” Sed told his plastic partner before he pulled her off
the table.

Trey
attempted to stack the deck so Ethan would lose. He so wanted to see how Ethan
would handle his demonstration. Unfortunately, Trey stacked it wrong—he’d never
learned to cheat properly—and all the shitty cards he’d meant for Ethan ended
up in his own hand. When Trey’s seven high lost to Ben’s king high—yeah, his
hand sucked
that
bad—Eric immediately called for Trey to demonstrate a
threesome.

So
maybe he’d get Ethan out of his chair in another way.

“Not
sure if I’m talented enough to demonstrate a threesome,” Trey said with a
crooked grin.

“Threesome,
threesome, threesome!” chanted the guys watching the game.

Ben
tried to hand off his blow-up doll for Trey’s threesome, but Trey just laughed.
“Wrong kind of threesome, bro.”

Ben
scrunched his brows over a pair of blue eyes so similar to Sed’s, the two men
could have been brothers. “Huh?”

Trey
rose from his chair, pressing Kiki’s back close against his front with one hand
gripping her unlifelike boob. Were there really guys out there who could get
off with one of these things? “I’ll do it, but I need some help.”

Ethan’s
eyes widened when Trey took his wrist and attempted to pull him to his feet.

“I’ll
help,” Brian said in a deep, slurred voice. “Just like old times.”

Trey
turned and lifted an eyebrow at Brian. Yes, they’d participated in multiple
threesomes in the past. Come to think of it, Trey had once fucked Brian’s wife
in the ass, not long before she’d finally agreed to marry Brian. Trey had even
stolen a kiss from the sensual guitarist that day—as it had been Brian who Trey
had really wanted. Had always wanted. In Trey’s mind, Myrna had simply been the
glue between them, the puzzle piece that allowed Trey to be as close to Brian
as he’d allow.

Trey
glanced down at Ethan, who had slumped into his chair as if relieved.

There
wasn’t any danger in Trey demonstrating with Brian. Trey didn’t have an
uncontrollable, insatiable need to touch him anymore. He was surprised that
Ethan wasn’t more jealous, however.

“Kiki
really likes anal,” Trey said, grinning at the crowd, “So I’ll get her worked
up.”

Trey
wasn’t quite as serious as Sed had been, but he didn’t spin her around like a
propeller this time as he bounced the doll’s unlifelike rear hole on his
crotch.

“Slow
it down a little,” Brian said, shifting to stand in front of Kiki.

“You
don’t actually
touch
each other, do you?” Ben asked way loud.

“Just
a little,” Brian said, his hand splaying over Trey’s back.

Brian’s
intense brown eyes held Trey’s gaze as they moved together in a familiar rhythm
with nothing but a blow-up doll between them.

Why
is he staring at me like that?

Brian
had never held Trey’s gaze when they’d shared the company of a woman. If he
had, Trey would have been enraptured. But his feelings had changed. Now he just
felt uncomfortable. What was Brian’s deal? When Brian was drunk, he was always
super horny and had incredibly poor judgement, but he’d never once looked at
Trey the way he was looking at him now.

“They
get the idea,” Trey said, stepping back and releasing his hold on Kiki.

Unsteady
on his feet, Brian crashed hip first into the table, and Trey had to grab him
to keep him upright.

“I
think someone needs to sleep this off,” Trey said. “How many beers have you
had?”

“All
of them.” Brian closed one eye and tossed a hand out for emphasis, which made
him careen into the table again. “And I washed them down with some whiskey.”

Something
was eating at him deeply. Brian never got that sauced unless he had a problem
he didn’t want to deal with.

Brian
stumbled backward, almost sitting on Sed’s lap, before he found his feet again.
He then swallowed hard, his face going instantly white.

“Are
you going to throw up?” Trey asked.

Brian
shook his head, blinked hard as if overcome with dizziness, turned another
shade paler, and then nodded. He rushed toward the half bathroom off the living
room. Trey darted after him in case he needed help.

“Hey,”
Eric called after them. “It’s my job to hold Sinclair’s hair when he pukes.”

And
he was definitely puking. At least he’d made it to the toilet.

Ethan
came to stand next to Trey outside the mostly closed bathroom door. “Need some
help?”

“Once
he’s done puking his guts out, I’m going to put him in bed. Let him sleep this
off.” And find out what was eating at him.

Ethan
showed none of the jealousy he usually did when it came to Brian. Maybe he’d
finally figured out that Trey was over him.

“Let
me know if you change your mind,” Ethan said. He glanced over his shoulder before
he leaned in and offered Trey a deep, searching kiss. Passion surged between
them, and by the time they pulled apart, Trey was breathless with excitement.
Catching movement over Ethan’s shoulder, he shifted his gaze and focused on
Brian, who was standing in the doorway with an odd expression on his face.

“I
feel better now,” Brian murmured. “But I should probably go home.”

“You
are home,” Trey said with a chuckle.

Brian
glanced around at his opulent new home. “Oh, yeah.”

“I’ll
help you to bed.”

“You
sure your boyfriend will be okay with that?”

Trey
shrugged. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

After
a brief, soul-searching look into Trey’s eyes, Brian turned away, flushed the
toilet, and then rinsed out his mouth and washed his hands in the pedestal sink.
He leaned heavily on Trey as they went upstairs to the master bedroom. After
insisting that he had to brush his teeth, Brian let Trey tip him onto the
king-size bed in the center of his enormous room.

Trey
pulled off Brian’s boots and tossed them into the walk-in closet before helping
him out of his jeans.

“You
don’t look at me that way anymore,” Brian said.

“What
way?” Trey asked, pulling back the covers.

“The
way you look at him.”

“I
love him,” Trey said, tucking a sheet around Brian’s shoulders.

“And
you don’t love me anymore,” he whispered.

Trey
brushed a long lock of Brian’s hair from his face. “Of course I do. Just not in
the same inappropriate way I once did.”

Brian
shook his head and then closed his eyes. “It was never inappropriate. I was out
of line for never acknowledging it. Not even to myself.”

“Yeah,
well, that’s in the past. Don’t let it eat at you.”

“I
miss you, Trey. For as long as I can remember, you were always there, always taking
care of me.”

“And
who is taking care of you now?”

“You.
In Myrna’s absence.”

“You’re
happy with her, aren’t you? And with baby Malcolm?”

“Absolutely.”

Trey
grinned at him and shook his head. “So what’s with the jealousy, Bri? Is that
what this is? Are you jealous of Ethan? Of Reagan?”

“Why
didn’t you ask me to be your best man?”

“Uh.”
Trey’s heart sank low in his chest.

“I’ve
been your best friend for fifteen years, and—”

Trey
covered Brian’s mouth with his fingertips. “I should be marrying him, Brian.
Not just Reagan, but Ethan too. Asking him to stand beside me as my best man
was the only way I could think to involve him. And that’s nowhere near enough to
show how important he is to me. To both me and Reagan. Not even close. I actually
wish you
were
my best man instead of Ethan.” Trey straightened, drawing
his fingers from Brian’s lips. “I wish you could stand beside me as I married
them both, but the world just doesn’t work that way.”

“You
want to
marry
the guy?” Brian asked.

Trey
smiled. “With all my heart.”

“Then
why did you ask Reagan to marry you?”

“Because
I want to marry her.”

“I
don’t understand how you can love two totally different people at the same time
enough to marry them both. The sex? Yeah, I get that. I know from experience
that it’s awesome. But the commitment? I can’t wrap my head around it no matter
how hard I try.”

“Which
is why you and I never would have worked out. And I’m okay with that.”

Brian
stared deeply into Trey’s eyes for a long moment and then nodded. “Me too.”

“Good,”
Trey said. “Now the next time something is bothering you that much, try talking
it out
before
you reach for the booze.”

“I
probably won’t remember any of this tomorrow.”

“I
won’t let you forget,” Trey said. He crossed to the door, but paused with his
hand on the light switch. “Hey, Brian?”

“Yeah,”
he murmured, his eyes already closed.

“Will
you be my
second
best man at my wedding to Reagan next Saturday?”

“I
thought you’d never ask.”

Ethan
was on hold. Again. Every time he called
American Inquirer
’s main office
in Seattle and tried to reach Bianca Aimes-Brennan, he was put on hold and left
on hold until his patience wore thin and he hung up. Maybe someone else would
have more luck reaching the woman. While he sat listening to the elevator
rendition of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” he clicked his pen in agitation. He’d wanted
to give Reagan the answers she sought as a wedding gift, but he was starting to
think that he’d never get through to the head editor of
American Inquirer
.
Maybe he could reach her sister, Susan Brennan, or rather, Tamara.

He
hung up the landline and reached for his cellphone, dialing the
American
Inquirer
office again, this time from a different number.

“You’ve
reached the main offices of
American Inquirer
. Our office hours are eight
a.m. until six p.m.—”

With
a frustrated groan he hung up on the recording.

Standing
behind Ethan’s chair, Trey leaned against his back and kissed his ear. Trey’s arms
tightened around his chest, and Ethan lifted a hand to press Trey’s hands
against his thudding heart.

“Find
out anything?” Trey asked.

“No,”
he said. “It’s as if they’re intentionally avoiding my calls.”

“I’m
sure they are. Why do you care so much anyway? You can’t stop them from
printing their stories. Unless they publish blatant slander, they’re protected
by the first amendment.”

“I
don’t really care.” Well, he sort of did. Unsolved mysteries drove him crazy.
“I’m trying to figure this out for Reagan.” He peeked behind Trey and found him
unaccompanied. “Where is she?”

“Still
in bed,” Trey said.

The
night before, they’d stayed at Sed and Jessica’s reception until it had
completely ended—long after the newlyweds had left for their honeymoon. Reagan
and the guys of Exodus End had kept the party rolling far past the allotted end
time. She’d been exhausted when he’d carried her into the house and tucked her
into bed hours past midnight.

Ethan
had kept to himself most of the evening. Even though some of the guests knew
that he, Trey, and Reagan were a thing, most of them only knew about the Trey
and Reagan side of the triangle. He’d worn his professional bodyguard look as
he’d watched the two of them interact, hoping no one could tell how much he
wished he could be a part of their good time.

“Now
that Sed’s big day is over, I suppose I should concentrate on mine,” Trey said,
scooting into the chair across from Ethan. “I know we still need to get rings.
What else is there left to do?”

Reagan
had her dress, and they had their tuxes on order. The all-inclusive wedding and
hotel package was already booked in Vegas. Reagan had sat them down for about
an hour to pick from the available colors and ceremonies and music-type stuff.
Ethan shrugged. “Can’t think of anything.”

“How
did Jessica spend six months planning a wedding?” Trey said. “It boggles the
mind.”

“Did
you get the cake?”

“Included
in the Vegas deal.”

Ethan
nodded, remembering that it was one of the options they’d had to decide on with
their package. “License?” he asked.

“Included.”

“Transportation
to the chapel?”

“We’ll
have the car since we’re driving there from Los Angeles.”

“Bachelor
party?” Ethan said.

“Sed’s
was enough for me, thanks. I guess we just have the rings to worry about,
then,” Trey said. “Should we go with six or just three?”

Ethan
cocked his head at Trey. “You just need two.”

“You
don’t really think I’m letting you out in public looking the way you do without
a ring on your finger.”

Ethan’s
heart overflowed with love, and he produced a short laugh. “Well, seeing as I’m
not getting married . . .”

“You
don’t want to wear a ring to symbolize our commitment to each other?”

“I
wouldn’t be against it, but I don’t see why it’s necessary.”

“Because
I want everyone to know you’re taken,” Trey said.

“And
you always get what you want,” Ethan said, his heart warmed by Trey’s
insistence that he be included in the exchange of rings, even if Ethan put his
on with no witnesses and without the privileges—and ramifications—of a legal
marriage.

“Always.
So do we get six rings or three?”

“Why
would we need six? Are we adding several more people I don’t know about?
Keeping up with you and Reagan is enough of a challenge without adding three
more to our mix.”

Trey
rolled his eyes. “I mean one ring from me to you and a second from Reagan to
you. And one from you to me and second from Reagan—”

“Oh,”
Ethan said, feeling like a total moron. Each of them would wear a ring from the
other two. Duh. “That would be best, I think.”

“I
think so too. Let’s go wake up Reagan and remind her how thoughtful we are.”

“How
thoughtful
you
are,” Ethan said, taking Trey’s hand and linking their
fingers. After watching Trey erect that huge bro box to thwart Brian’s advances
at Sed’s bachelor party, Ethan felt closer to Trey than ever and trusted him to
never betray him. Maybe Ethan was finally comfortable enough to show his
affection for Trey in front of others. The guy did turn him into a warm puddle
of lovesick goo.