by Willa Okati
Nathaniel sighed as only a younger brother could, heavy enough to ruffle his bangs. “You really can’t see it yet, can you?”
“See what?” Dennis asked from the doorway. “I hope you’re thirsty. I brought beer. Though I get the feeling I’m walking in on the middle of something. What’s going on? Anything good?”
Given the direction of Cade’s voice, Dennis could tell he’d wedged himself into a corner. Shame. Not enough room to join him there, but if he propped himself against the table boxing Cade in, it’d be close enough for comfort. He held out one of the frosty bottles, its sleek sides starting to drip beads of condensation, and grinned, pleased, when Cade took it with a small sound of appreciation. He did like a man who knew his brews.
Both Cade and Nathaniel had otherwise shut up. Cade had the excuse of tasting the lager, though, but Nathaniel didn’t. Dennis replayed the last few seconds of conversation he’d heard and pinpointed the key phrase.
“You said he can’t see it,” Dennis said, punctuating himself with a hearty swallow of chilly nectar. “See what?”
As he’d hoped, the question egged Cade into a response. “My kid brother’s playing matchmaker.”
“And what if I am?” Nathaniel asked. He sounded serious as a judge on a seventh Sunday. “You can’t see it. I can.”
Dennis screwed up his face dubiously. God bless the kid, but as Dennis understood, he was newly mated. Natural enough to see hearts and flowers at every turn, but… “I think you might be barking up the wrong tree,” he said as kindly as he could. “Don’t get me wrong. I like your brother just fine.”
“Cheers for that,” Cade said.
“And I’m not so bad myself, is that it?”
“You’re in the general neighborhood of correct.”
Nathaniel groaned. “Oh my God. Is it like this all the time, or are you two a very special shade of stupid?”
“Hey now,” Dennis protested, indignant. “Mind your manners.”
“I’m sorry.” To his credit, Nathaniel did sound genuinely apologetic—but also stubbornly determined. Rustling fabric from his direction indicated he’d sat upright with the force of his convictions, and a quiet huff from Cade’s position suggested amusement at his brother’s expense.
“You’re sorry, but…” Dennis prompted. He’d had enough alcohol to incline him toward generosity with the little librarian.
“Actually, I’m not going to tell you. I’m thinking now it’d be more fun to watch the two of you figure it out.”
Cade snorted ripely. “Come off it, Nathaniel. I know what you’re driving at, and I’m sorry to disappoint, but this isn’t the movies. People don’t find their soulmates at the drop of a dime.”
“Isn’t that ‘the drop of a hat’?” Dennis asked.
“Possibly. Doesn’t matter. Do you have a hat?”
“A fedora, actually. And a trilby.”
“No kidding? Mind if I try it on?”
Nathaniel made a small, pained sound. But at the same time, he was laughing. “This is going to be good,” he said. “Carry on. If you need me, I’ll be out front handling the sound system. A night like this needs a decent soundtrack.”
“This guy likes Squirrel Nut Zippers and The Who,” Cade said. “Does it get more decent than that?”
“I can’t imagine it, myself,” Dennis said. He grinned at Nathaniel as the boy passed, his aura nearly glowing with mirth. Ah well, why not? Let him have his fun. He raised his half-empty longneck to Cade. “Here’s to incurable romantics.”
“May they occupy themselves with someone else,” Cade replied. “I’m stealing the settee he left unguarded. Care to join me?”
Dennis wouldn’t mind if he did. He picked his way over to Cade, saying, “One condition—that you help me think up a way to apologize to Nathaniel. You’ve got me teasing him now like he’s my own brother. I never had a brother before. It’s interesting.”
“You’re more than welcome to borrow either of mine. Here, I’m making room for both of us. It’ll be a narrow fit.”
“I’ve shared it before,” Dennis said. He did have to balance carefully to keep from tipping off the edge, but Cade wasn’t bad at all when it came to getting close and cozy. His shoulder was the perfect height for Dennis to prop his chin on.
“Sounds salacious.”
“The stories I could tell you…” Dennis nestled the point of his chin deeper. Perfect.
“Would curl my hair, I’m sure. But I bet I could top you. It’s the damnedest thing. I hate disappointing him so much that…”
“That the urge is there to try to please the kid,” Dennis agreed. “How does he do that?”
“God knows.” Cade’s arm landed sturdy and warm around Dennis’ shoulders, and proved even better to lean into. He smelled wonderful. Savory, clean, and spicy. Dennis wouldn’t have minded nibbling at him, if he hadn’t been extremely sure it would have sent the wrong message. No matter what Nathaniel wanted, Dennis couldn’t think of Cade as being made and meant for him. They got along, sure. He enjoyed every moment of extended foreplay, absolutely.
But it wasn’t like he’d been told it would be, with Cade. No sense of absolute certainty, or the mad need to cling onto the man as if he were life itself. No wonder or worry about what Cade thought of him.
He was simple, and easy to be with.
Dennis sighed quietly as he toyed with a lock of Cade’s hair. “No. I think he’s got the wrong end of the stick. I know myself, Cade. I have to, inside and out, because that’s how I make the world work for me instead of letting it overwhelm me. I learned that lesson young. And I’ve been truly careful, because I don’t particularly want a soulmate. No offense. I like being my own man. I prefer my life the way it is, and it’s plenty full already.”
“None taken. I’m not exactly looking, either. I’ve seen it happen plenty of times. Occupational hazard of bartending. Seems like people fall in love easy as falling off a log, but no matter how times I’ve watched it happen, I don’t get it.”
Dennis lifted his head. “You too?”
“God, no. Nathaniel says he’s happy with his soulmate,” Cade said. Skepticism layered the words like a citrus vodka drizzled on a pineapple cake, tart and dry. “But I can’t wrap my head around it. My older brother? When it happened to him, it was like watching someone willingly fling themselves in front of a speeding train and think they wouldn’t get splattered into jelly.”
Dennis winced. Sounded as if his older brother had had just about as much fun finding his mate as Ivan had.
“I’ve wondered sometimes if there’s something wrong with me,” Cade went on. “To care about someone that much… I don’t know. How can anyone be worth that?”
“Spoken like a man who’s never been in love, but that’s all right. I haven’t either.”
“Wouldn’t that make life interesting?” Cade hooted. “Okay, I’m calling it. Enough of the soulmate talk. Melancholic introspection is not my thing, except when Nathaniel gets his claws in and makes me start taking shit seriously. Other people enjoy relationships? Good for them. I’m not going to let it slow my roll. How about you?”
“I could get behind that.”
“You could. I’d rather you got behind me.”
Dennis swallowed his last mouthful of beer rather than spraying it, but it was a near thing. He raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, what were you saying earlier about ‘the gangster of love’?”
“Not too smooth, eh?”
“I’ve heard better.” Dennis held his thumb and forefinger a whisper apart. “Luckily for you, I’m a man who’s willing to give you a second chance. At least you didn’t suggest we should put some space between us for the sake of not breaking Nathaniel’s heart.”
Cade scoffed. “He’ll pester me gently for a while, but he’s better emotionally balanced than the pair of us put together. I call him ‘baby’ brother, but he’s twenty-one years old, and he’s fully used to me disappointing him.” He sounded more like himself.
; Good. Dennis preferred him that way.
“I think I’ll keep you.”
“Oh, really? Who says you’re the one who gets to do the keeping?”
“Feel free to turn the tables. I wouldn’t mind living in a deluxe apartment in the sky.”
“It’s not that great.” Dennis leaned back and stretched his legs in front of him. Even at full extension they weren’t quite as lengthy as Cade’s. He tapped his foot against Cade’s shin. “I don’t spend that much time here. The quiet tends to get to me. I’d rather have some noise and some life around, you know? I’m headed down to Key West next week. God, now there’s a group of people who know how to throw a party.”
He could feel Cade perking up. “I’ve heard stories, and most of them make me wish I’d learned how to save for vacations. Do you go to the drag shows?”
“Sometimes.” Dennis hummed in appreciation of good memories. “Dancing until dawn. Then sleeping it off on hot white sands. Now that’s living.”
Cade laughed quietly. “I’d drink to that, if I had any beer left. As I don’t, can I offer you another dance?”
Dennis crinkled his nose at Cade. “I imagine you could if you put in the effort. Try it and see for yourself.”
Cade stood by his statement—he truly didn’t want a soulmate. Not as such. Though if he were to acquire one, he wouldn’t mind if they were like Dennis.
Only then, though.
Cade took the bottle from Dennis, who gave it over willingly enough, and planted it between two pots that looked—and smelled—like rosemary and basil. God help him, he’d never be able to look a spice rack in the eye again without getting half hard, would he?
Not that Cade considered that to be a bad thing.
“You’re thinking strange and X-rated thoughts about my herbs, aren’t you?”
“Not telling. Why do you have so many?” Cade asked.
“For the smell, and for cooking.” Dennis tucked his hair behind his ears. “I like food that bites back. Indian. Thai. Curries that make you cry. I’ll make you my version of Phaal sometime. If you’re not begging for mercy by the end of the meal, I’ll give you a raw Scotch Bonnet for dessert and you can have activated charcoal instead of a mint.”
“Fair warning that I will take you up on that.” Cade took Dennis’ hand and helped him to his feet. “Soulmate or not, I think we’re going to have a good time together, you and I.”
“Damned right.”
Outside, the music skipped as it cut from one song heavy on the thumpa, thumpa, thumpa to another. The opening chords very nearly gave Cade flashbacks to the skateboard parks he’d frequented in his mostly misspent youth. When he recognized the tune, he groaned and rolled his eyes. “Don’t Fear the Reaper. Nathaniel thinks he’s cute.”
When Dennis laughed, his nose crinkled and fine lines popped up at the corners of his eyes. “He is cute. You’re definitely brothers.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Cade said, and bent his head to kiss Dennis the way he’d wanted to all night—hard, fast and deep, not slowing down once for breath. Dennis drew a startled inhale, but he didn’t protest. Instead, he twined one arm around Cade’s neck and held on, parting his lips and drawing Cade closer still. Winding his fingers into Cade’s hair, he rested his hand on Cade’s nape and used that leverage to direct him. He left no doubt about who was in charge.
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
Cade found the hem of Dennis’ jersey, artfully ragged where his own would have been worn from use. He liked the feel of the expensive fibers sliding through his fingers. He liked better still the bare skin beneath it once he’d peeled the shirt off the man and cast it aside. Then, he found he liked best of all the crisp, curling dark-blond hair thick enough to pluck at. Cade fitted his hands to Dennis’ hips and pulled him nearer. His hands fitted exactly so in the hollows of flesh and bone.
“You’re not too bad at this,” Dennis said in Cade’s ear. He kissed the way he teased, and drank, and danced, holding nothing back. He’d gone hard in his jeans and wasn’t in the least shy about showing it. Far from it, he took Cade’s hand and guided him down into a firm, cupping grip. “In case you hadn’t noticed.”
Cade should say he’d noticed. He was too busy noticing everything, actually, to stop and comment on any one thing in particular. He nipped Dennis’ full lower lip to shush him, and slid a hand around to see if Dennis’ ass fit his hand as well as his hip.
It did. He was the right height too, to rock against Cade in time with the music, mouths slanted over mouths, hands finding holds that suited them only for a chord or three before moving on to the next, finding it even better.
Dennis helped Cade slide his loose V-necked tee over his head, and splayed both hands wide on Cade’s chest the second it’d cleared. In the interest of fair being fair, Cade bent his head further to lay his mouth over the pulse beating in the side of Dennis’s neck. Mmm. God, he liked the taste of the man. Clean and crisp, and it made him wonder what he’d taste of elsewhere—
The whirr and click came half a second before the flash made Cade jump half out of his skin. “Thor on a pogo stick!”
“What the hell?” Dennis parted to ask. He looked dazed, glassy, and it made Cade lift his chin with pride. “Oh God. Tell me that wasn’t the sound of a camera phone.”
Grateful that he’d had his back turned to the door, Cade turned at the waist to glower at Nathaniel, who’d had to prop himself up to keep from falling down with laughter. “I will murder you.”
“Just documenting the occasion,” said unrepentant Nathaniel. He stowed his phone. “And reminding you that you aren’t actually alone here. You were about to give the assorted guests a heck of a show.”
Dennis thumped his head onto Cade’s chest and groaned—but he was laughing, too. “Okay, that’s it. I would say I’m not normally this easy—and actually, I’m not, but what the hell. I have a bedroom, and my bedroom has a door, and that door has a lock. Want to move the party elsewhere?”
“Depends. Are you talking about a party of two?”
“No one allowed but you and me.” Dennis shook his tangled hair back again. “Are you in?”
For the fun of contrariness, Cade rumpled that hair into a thorough mess. “Give me a few minutes and I think I can be. Lead on, MacDuff.”
“Still not smooth.”
“I’m a work in progress,” Cade said, and paused just long enough to kiss Dennis until he nearly forgot he had any reason to get a move on.
Only almost. Cade wanted to see what kind of trouble they could get themselves into now. He and Dennis.
Hopefully, the very best sort.
Chapter Three
Must be my lucky night.
Case in point—Dennis’ bedroom wasn’t far at all to travel. A quick hop, skip and jump down the corridor, and with a satisfyingly heavy door that could indeed be shut and locked. Cade walked backward, tugging at Dennis when Dennis allowed it. Which was only so far, and no farther, but not a bad thing for all that.
Dennis knotted his fist in Cade’s shirt tails and held him back when they’d closed the door. He licked his lips, soft and red from kissing. The dark glasses he wore sat slightly askew on his nose before he reached up to fix their perch. With his arm around Cade’s waist, he was solid and sturdy and so very fucking hard.
Cade bent his head to set his mouth hard to Dennis’ neck. Dennis groaned and tipped his head obligingly to one side, letting Cade have his way. He didn’t stand by and let Cade have all the fun, God no. He took Cade by the nape and directed him, showing him where he liked it best. He tasted like—Cade didn’t even know.
Dennis slipped both hands behind Cade and fitted his palms to Cade’s ass. His hands were as good or better than the rest of him, strong and sturdy. “The bed should be right behind us. Thing is, I don’t know if I can bother stopping long enough to move either of us there.”
No kidding. But— “Oh, I think I can make you move.” Cade had discovered they were just t
he right height for him to slip a knee between Dennis’, then his thigh. He shifted forward, and with one hand at Dennis’ hip moved him up, together against Cade. He couldn’t remember ever being this hard. It hadn’t been that long since he’d gotten his rocks off, had it? Nor had he connected quite so strongly with anyone in… Ever, come to think of it.
He wondered if that should concern him more than it did.
Never mind. Doesn’t matter. And Cade forgot what he’d been thinking about when Dennis laughed, low and rolling, and took him by the hips to match his movement.
“Maybe you can, at that,” he said, giving Cade a firm tug to the belt loops. “Unless you want to put on a show. You know there’s people outside with their ears pressed to the door.”
“Let ’em.”
Dennis drew him back in by sliding his hands beneath Cade’s belt. He made a throaty, purring noise, as if he quite liked what he found there, and gripped tighter. His hands shook, and he raised his own hips to grind tighter to Cade. “Sure about that?”
“Try me and find out.”
Cade let Dennis push and pull him, not minding the manhandling since Dennis was willing to do the work. He had a flash of imagination, a picture of himself and Dennis spread out and naked filling his head. He’d look like a fallen angel laid out on cool white sheets, shadows and slats of night-time city lights from the windows barring him with stripes.
He had to get his hands on that.
Dennis’ jeans were new, the fastenings stiff, and he wore a leather belt so well cared for the buckle hadn’t tarnished or dented. Cade managed all the same, and though Dennis laughed at him, he stopped laughing pretty darn quick when Cade wrapped his fingers around Dennis’ cock and laid on the pressure.
Cade decided he truly did not care about their audience. Nathaniel had blackmail material enough to last for ages already. What was a little more? Besides, anyone wanting a front row seat would need to have ears like a bat to make anything out over the stomps and shouts and cheers that rattled the walls from time to time. Cade could have shouted if he’d wanted, and he would have liked to hear Dennis raise his voice—to see what kind of words he could drag out of the man—but he couldn’t spare the time.