Storming Love Blizzard Kimo & Mike (4 page)

“Come on, Chris, let’s get that cut taken care of,” Mike said, and he and the other two guys led Chris down the hall toward Vinnie and Phil’s bedroom.

Jenny and I sat down on the couch. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I can’t believe I did that,” she said. “I’ve never hurt Christopher before.”

I had seen a lot of domestic abuse cases, and I knew that they rarely just sprang up like that, but I didn’t push her. “Want to tell me what happened?”

“He’s such an ice cube,” she said. “He has no human feeling whatsoever.”

“Whereas you’re the exploding volcano?” I asked. “Fire and ice? Opposites stop attracting?”

She smiled. “I guess I was being kind of volcanic,” she said. “It’s just that there are things wrong in our marriage and I can’t convince Christopher to focus on them.”

“Have you tried counseling?”

She nodded. “The counselor says we need to talk more. But every time I try, Chris shuts down.”

“Do you still love him?”

“What’s love got to do with it?” she asked.

“Well, Tina Turner,” I said, and she smiled. “If you still love him, then you keep trying to make things work. If you don’t, then you give everybody, including your kids, a break, and you move on.”

She started to cry again, and I put my arm around her shoulder and held her close.

When she stopped, she said, “I do still love him. I think that’s why I get so mad at him. If I didn’t care I’d have walked out a long time ago.”

From what she’d told me about their financial situation, I doubted that. “Then you have to keep on trying,” I said.

Mike came into the room. “How are things here?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” Jenny said, and she stood up. “But I want Chris to sleep out here tonight.”

That wasn’t exactly the way I would have “tried” to make my relationship work, but at least it meant the rest of us could get a good night’s sleep.

Jenny went into the room she had been sharing with Chris, and Phil helped Chris make up the sofa bed. Mike and I went back to our room. “Too much drama,” he said.

“Hey, they’re your friends,” I said.

“I want them to be yours, too,” he said.

“Vinnie and Phil, maybe,” I said. “But I’ll pass on Chris and Jenny, at least until after the divorce.”

“Is that what she said to you? That she wants a divorce?”

I shook my head. “The opposite. But I can see the signs. Did Chris say that she’s hit him before?”

Mike shifted uncomfortably.

“She has, hasn’t she?” I said.

He nodded. “Chris didn’t want to say, but eventually he did. She gets excited, and she throws things, she hits him. Once she even cut him with a kitchen knife.”

“It’s hard for guys to admit stuff like that. But men can be abused, too.” I looked at him. “We argue and fight sometimes, but you never feel like I’m abusing you, do you?”

Mike smiled. “You mean like last night, when you forced your dick into my ass?” He reached his hand out to me. “No, K-Man, I never feel like you’re abusing me. I know that I can take anything you dish out, and you can do the same.”

I took his hand and squeezed. “Maybe they’ll go home tomorrow,” I said. “Then we can enjoy the rest of the trip.”

“Maybe not,” he said. “Have you looked outside lately? It’s a real blizzard.”

It was so comfortable snuggling up next to Mike in bed, warm and cozy, while the snow raged outside. It snowed all through the night, and when we woke the next morning the lifts and slopes were closed and we were stuck in the condo.

Someone, maybe Chris, had cleaned up all the broken glass and pottery from the living room. All six of us gathered around the gas fireplace after breakfast. “I’ll pay for the damages,” Chris said to Vinnie. “You just let me know what they charge.”

“I’m very sorry that happened,” Jenny said. “I let my temper get the best of me, and it wasn’t polite to do that in front of all of you.”

“Polite?” Chris said. “That’s a mild word for it. You embarrassed me in front of my friends. How am I supposed to feel like a man around them when you treat me that way?”

Here we go again, I thought.

“You aren’t any less of a man because your wife got angry at you,” Phil said.

“She might as well cut my dick off,” Chris said. “She’s a controlling, castrating bitch, and I’m done.” He turned to her. “I want a divorce, and I want custody of the boys. I don’t want them anywhere near you and your toxic attitudes.”

“You bastard!” Jenny screamed, and she launched herself at Chris.

I grabbed her, and she scratched my arm as she fought against me. Chris seemed to want a piece of her too, so Mike and Vinnie had to hold him back.

While we all tussled, Phil was on the phone. By the time we got Chris and Jenny calmed down, Phil said, “We got lucky. A couple who were due in today couldn’t get in because of the storm, and their unit is free.” He looked at Chris and Jenny. “It’s number two fourteen. Pack your bags and get out. I won’t let you ruin Vinnie’s vacation.”

“Phil,” Vinnie said.

“I’m with Phil,” I said. “Mike and I spent a lot of money to come out here for a fun trip, and I’m not going to let a pair of bitchy breeders spoil things for us either.”

Everybody began arguing. Mike insisted that it wasn’t my decision to make. Vinnie pled with Phil that Chris was his friend, that they could work things out. Chris and Jenny blamed each other and refused to share a unit together.

“This unit is registered in my name,” Phil announced, over the racket. “If Chris and Jenny don’t get the fuck out of here, I will call the police and have them removed.”

I had always assumed that Vinnie was the boss in their relationship, because he had the more macho personality, because he was bigger and stronger and dominated conversations. But it was clear from that encounter that Phil was the one in charge.

“I’ll find a hotel room,” Chris said, and he stalked back toward the bedroom he had been sharing with Jenny.

“I want to talk to you,” Mike said to me, and he nodded toward our room. I followed him down the hall.

“You had no right to speak to Chris and Jenny that way,” he said, once we were inside, with the door closed behind us. “They’re my friends, and it should be my decision whether I want them to stay or go.”

“Funny how yesterday you wanted them to be
our
friends,” I said. “Here’s a concept, sweetheart, which you should have figured out by now. I will do everything I can to protect you and make your life better. That’s what I do. Protect and serve.” That was the motto of the Honolulu Police Department, where I had worked my whole adult life, and I had taken it to heart in many ways.

“I don’t need you to protect me,” Mike said. “I’m an adult. I can take care of myself.” He walked to the door. “I’m going to help Chris pack. You can stay here.”

He stalked out, careful not to slam the door behind him. A few minutes later there was a timid knock on the door. “Come in,” I said.

It was Phil. “Mike pissed at you?” he asked. “Vinnie is about ready to blow a gasket.”

“Come on in. We’ll commiserate.” We sat at a pair of chairs by the floor-to-ceiling window that looked out at the slopes, which were blanketed in white. The lift gondolas rocked gently in the wind but there was no one out on the slopes. The snow kept falling.

“I wanted Vinnie to have a fun vacation,” Phil said. “He’s been under so much stress lately. Our management is cutting back on health and wellness, and he’s afraid he might lose his job.” Vinnie managed an employee gym for a big company, where Phil was a marketing executive.

“I feel the same way,” I said. “Mike lost touch with his college friends until your wedding, and I was happy to see him get back together with Vinnie and Chris and the other guys. I didn’t want to come here, but Mike wanted to so badly that I gave in.”

“Chris and Jenny are really toxic,” Phil said. “I don’t mind Chris so much, but put him together with Jenny and I want to run screaming from the room.”

He looked around at our rumpled bed. “Speaking of which,” he said. “Everything comfy cozy in here?”

I saw him notice the big bottle of massage oil. “Just fine,” I said.

“Maybe once the breeders are gone we can all relax and have some fun,” Phil said, and there was no mistaking his meaning.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Mike and I are pretty traditional. Monogamy and all that.” I didn’t need to tell him about that vacation incident.

“Vinnie and I are open to most anything,” Phil said. “He has a raging libido and I know he’s had a crush on Mike since college.”

“Really? Mike says neither of them knew they were gay.”

“Vinnie knew. He just figured Mike was too confused to do anything. He missed his chance by not trying to jump Mike’s bones before they graduated.”

Mike appeared in the doorway to our room. “They’re both gone,” he said.

Phil jumped up. “I’d better make sure Vinnie is okay.” He strode out of the room, leaving Mike and me alone together.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve been feeling unbalanced on this trip, and I acted too quickly.”

Mike sat in the chair beside me. “It’s what you do. You act before you think.”

I started to protest, even though I knew he was right.

“But that’s what I love about you,” he said. “You see something that needs to be fixed and you jump right in. I feel bad for Chris, though. We could have just kicked Jenny out and let Chris stay.”

“Whatever’s wrong with them is both their faults,” I said. “Next time, if Chris is divorced, he can come on his own.”

Mike nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s going to happen. I didn’t want to say anything to him, but I wouldn’t stay with anybody who hit me.”

“Really?” I thought back to the times we had argued so much we’d punched each other in the arm, wrestled, and so on.

“What we do is just roughhousing,” Mike said. “I have never once felt that you were acting violently toward me.”

“Same here. And the best part of fighting with you is making up afterwards.”

Mike raised his eyebrows. “Well, we did fight earlier, didn’t we? And we’re stuck inside as long as that storm rages outside.”

We stood up at the same time, and Mike wrapped his arms around me and kissed me hard on the mouth. I put my hands on his butt and returned the kiss. As we pressed our bodies together, my dick stiffened and his did too.

“Is this a private party, or can anybody play?”

We looked up to see Vinnie and Phil in the doorway. Mike and I pulled apart, and I was sure that the guys could see we both had hard-ons. The next move was Mike’s, though I’d go along with whatever he wanted. This was his vacation, and I was determined that he enjoy it, even if it meant sharing him with his college crush and the crush’s husband.

“Sorry, private party,” Mike said. He walked across the room to the door. “Vin-meister, I had a major hard-on for you in college, and I wish like hell we had fooled around back then. Might have helped me short-circuit some of my problems. But all that crap in the end led me to Kimo, and he’s all I want. Now and forever. So you guys will have to find some way to amuse yourselves while my partner and I fuck our brains out.”

He closed the door as they both smiled, and then turned back to me. While the storm raged outside, we made our own heat, and we spent the rest of the trip enjoying each other’s company, on and off the slopes.

About the Author

NEIL PLAKCY is the author of
Mahu
,
Mahu Surfer, Mahu Fire, Mahu Vice, Mahu Men
,
Mahu Blood
, and
Zero Break
about openly gay Honolulu homicide detective Kimo Kanapa’aka. His other books include the
Have Body, Will Guard
series, the
Golden Retriever Mysteries
, and numerous stand-alone works of romance and mystery. His website is
www.mahubooks.com
.

Trademarks Acknowledgment

The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

UC Santa Cruz: The Trustees of the California State University

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