by Willa Okati
“Nathaniel…” Dennis started. He stopped, not knowing how to go on. “He has a life of his own. I have a life of my own. It’s not as easy as snapping your fingers to make those two mesh. Would it help if I said that if I was going to settle down with someone, I would have picked a guy like Cade? It’s not a no. But it’s not a yes, yet.”
“That might help,” Nathaniel replied after a long beat. “If you told him that, and not me. And if you accepted that whether or not you’re ready, the right time picked you.”
Okay, now that was too close to the bone. Dennis bristled. “Now listen here, you little—”
THUMP-bump-bump. Clunk.
Dennis winced. Oh hell. That’d sounded like his shoe polishing kit toppling from a significant height. Possibly worse.
“Ow, fuck!” Cade roared. “Your closet is trying to eat me!”
“For the love of…” Dennis covered his face and groaned. He didn’t dare try to get up. Not with a hard-on like the one that’d tormented him since he and Cade left the bedroom together to begin with. “Nathaniel, you want to give him a hand?”
“Oh no,” Nathaniel said. He took a quick step back. “My brother, closets… No, sorry. I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole.”
“Helpful, aren’t you?” Dennis grumped.
Nathaniel hummed, both noncommittal and excessively unhelpful. Figures.
Dennis flicked the side of the young man’s head, then used the chair arm to lever himself to his feet. He knew what he must look like—flushed, fidgety, and no-disguising-it-hard. At least Nathaniel didn’t snicker or point. He even turned the music back up a few clicks.
If he were to have a brother-in-law as well as a soulmate, he could do worse than Nathaniel. Dennis tossed him a backward wave. “If someone comes along with their own key and unlocks the front door, don’t worry. It’s just the friend I mentioned before. Ivan.”
Cups rattled with a percussive clatter as Nathaniel fumbled the bag. “Wait, what?”
Dennis would have answered if he’d been able to focus on anything besides Cade, Cade, bedroom, Cade. God, but this wouldn’t be easy. He mentally crossed himself, and put his best foot forward.
He’d taken perhaps two steps into the bedroom before Cade crowded him hard against the wall, and set his mouth to the pulse beating fast-fast-fast in Dennis’ neck.
Dennis would have liked to think of himself as having enough moral fiber to resist, but he didn’t. Oh fuck, but he didn’t. He hissed between his teeth and bent his head, giving Cade all the room he wanted. Cade’s lips were hot, firm, and his mustache tickling. Though it wasn’t easy to hear over the pulse pounding in his ears, Dennis picked up shades of, “I’d started to think you’d never get in here.”
“Bad idea,” Dennis said —but with his arms, he wound Cade in tighter and closer. Even brought one leg up to hook around the back of Cade’s, widening his stance, letting Cade in. His cock ached, repressed tension bursting his seams, and when he put his hand on Cade, well. Cade wasn’t any better off.
Dennis couldn’t make himself let go. He didn’t want to. Only managed to push his hand inside the denim of Cade’s jeans for a better hold, and when Cade’s length surged slick and hot into his palm, he knew he’d lost that battle. Not that he’d had a prayer to start with.
“Oh fuck, yeah. Like that, just like that,” Cade muttered over and over again, grinding into Dennis. He had his hand down the back of Dennis’ jeans and kneaded his ass, quick and eager. “Thought I’d embarrass myself right out there, but you, you…”
“Me, me,” Dennis said, though he barely had the breath to speak. He’d caught Cade by the nape and held him there. He set his mouth over the artery thumping away in Cade’s neck, right where he’d teased before… Before he knew.
Cade stilled for a shocked second. His exhale broke against Dennis in waves, toe-curling slivers of heat slipping under his skin.
Slowly, slowly, he knotted a hand into Dennis’ hair and bent his head further. He thrust into Dennis’ hand, no less hard, but drawing it out.
Bad idea, bad, so bad… Why was it bad? Mate. Mine. Dennis bit, and tasted copper. Not much. Only enough to break the skin, and holy shit, if this was what Cade had felt before—like the fist of God hammering him one in the solar plexus. Like he was made of iron, and been melted in a forge’s furnace. He dug his hand into Cade’s hip lest he do real damage with a spasm of the fingers, and panted quick gasps over the bite he’d left in Cade’s flesh.
He couldn’t tell who came first, or most. Only that they both did, and that it rattled him down beyond his bones. Shattered his world, and sent him reeling.
He tasted Cade on his lips and tongue when he drew his next breath. Under his skin, indeed. And always would be.
Cade shuddered in his arms, still breathing too fast.
And Dennis wanted to ask—really, truly did— would it be so bad, you and me? I don’t know you, but I think you could be a good man. Nathaniel wouldn’t adore you so if you weren’t.
And maybe I could make room for you, or you could make room for me—
He might have asked. Had his mouth open to do exactly that when his ears pricked up at the sound of a key in the lock.
“Dennis?” Ivan called. “Are you in here—? Nathaniel? What are you doing here?”
“Oh no,” Nathaniel moaned. The bedroom door gave a jarring thump as Nathaniel’s slight body landed against it, very nearly as hard as Dennis had before.
“Nathaniel? What are you hiding?” a deeper, chocolate-mellifluous baritone rumbled.
Cade froze.
“Robbie, I can explain. Oof! You don’t have to shove me!”
“Dennis?” Ivan asked, much closer now, and deeply suspicious. “What’s going on?”
The doorknob rattled.
“Shit,” Dennis swore, slapping at Cade to get him to move. Or to breathe, even. Breathing would have been ace. “Shove off. Hurry up, they’re coming in—”
Chapter Five
The door swung open, outward. Leaning on it with almost all his weight, Dennis would have lost his balance and fallen—simple physics—if Cade hadn’t caught him quickly around the waist and steadied him on his feet. Dennis covered his hand in quick, silent thanks for the assist. Then he flicked finger and thumb to Cade’s wrist in a stinging snap.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“I was trying to tell you that’d happen,” Dennis said. “Listen to me next time, would you?”
Silence from the peanut gallery, and from the group of three standing on the other side of his bedroom door. The first time there’s a line to my quarters… Not exactly the stuff of dreams, is it? Dennis readjusted the set of his dark glasses and made a brief, vain attempt to tidy his hair before giving it up as a hopeless task.
Three men. One he knew to be Ivan. One would be Nathaniel, slighter and shorter and vibrating with tension. The other must belong to that decadent baritone. Dennis offered that one his hand. “Are you Ivan’s husband?”
A strong, dry hand that reminded him somehow of Cade’s took his in a firm shake. “Robbie,” the man confirmed. “Husband and mate. And that would be my brother who’s got his arm around you like you’re a stripper pole.”
Cade gave an indignant yowl—but didn’t let go. “You never told me you knew Dennis.”
“I know a lot of people. What should I do, start a list and tick them off one by one?”
Dennis ignored their bickering. An uncomfortable notion nudged at his mind. If Robbie was Ivan’s mate, and Cade and Nathaniel were Robbie’s brothers, then… “You’re Ivan’s brother-in-law,” he said to Nathaniel. “No, wait, you’re not that brother-in-law.” He jolted, and slapped Cade’s hand. “You’re ‘that’ brother-in-law?”
Cade dropped his arm and stepped back as if Dennis had landed the slap to his face, not his hand. “Maybe I am, and maybe I’m not. What’s he told you about me?”
“Nothing that isn’t true,” Ivan butted in. “What’s going on here, really?
I— Oh.”
Belatedly, Dennis clapped a hand over his soulmark. Behind him, he heard Cade blatantly fail to do the same. He could feel his mate bristling with indignation.
Dennis let go of the soulmark, and covered his face instead while he counted to three. Then to ten. He gave up rather than go for twenty, and directed his focus toward Nathaniel. “Did anyone just fall down dead, or were they struck by lightning? Anything like that?”
“Not as far as I can tell,” Nathaniel said.
“Mm-hmm.” Dennis sighed through his nose. “They’re all standing and glaring at each other like we’re in the O.K. Corral at high noon, aren’t they?”
“Pretty much,” Nathaniel confirmed. “Mostly. Robbie’s trying not to laugh. I don’t think he’s going to manage it for much longer. Ivan’s rolling up his sleeves—Ivan, no —”
“Ohh, I’ve been waiting for this,” Ivan said happily
Though the swing didn’t come near him, Dennis ducked. Cade didn’t.
“Are you happy now?” Robbie asked.
“More or less, yeah,” Ivan replied. He stood next to Robbie, chafing his fist and making ow faces. “Come on, I owed him for the uppercut he gave me when he caught me kissing you at the coliseum.”
Cade blinked up at his older brother and brother-in-law. Ivan reached down to give him a hand up off the ground. He didn’t take it, too busy boggling at how fast the trip from bipedal to no-pedal had happened, then with checking to see if Ivan had split his lip. He rolled his head to check out Dennis, who looked…blank. Surprised or dismayed, Cade couldn’t tell, but his mate damned well kept his hands to himself.
Robbie must have noticed. His gruffness softened in the way Cade remembered from when he and Nathaniel were younger and came home with skinned knees after being warned not to roughhouse or skateboard down city streets. He bent to give Cade a better hand up. “Fine, but that wipes the slate clean. Separate corners for you two.”
“Fine by me if it’s fine by Cade.” Ivan shook out his hand and offered Cade a rueful half-smile. “No hard feelings?”
“The floor was plenty hard enough.” Cade checked one last time and found his lip starting to swell. That’d be fun to deal with. “Although if you’ve marked me…”
Ivan tousled his hair. “Man up, kid.”
Cade rolled his eyes and flipped Ivan a half-hearted bird. He couldn’t gauge Dennis’ reaction to the kerfuffle, and that bothered him.
Nathaniel tugged at his sleeve. “Let’s go to the sunroom. It’s private enough for what Robbie wants.”
Cade considered digging in his heels. Not so much for himself, but just in case Ivan got fist-happy again, he didn’t care to leave his mate alone with the man. “What Robbie wants, for what? With who?”
“To patch you up, you idiot,” Robbie said, fully embracing his Eldest Gruff persona. There’d be no saying no to him now. “And to find out exactly what the hell is going on. Ivan, you stay with Dennis. Get his side of it.”
Cade hesitated. “Dennis?” he asked.
Dennis shook his head and kept his mouth shut.
Not good. Damn. Cade didn’t like leaving Dennis behind… But what choice did he have, when Dennis made no move to come with him?
* * * *
The sunroom smelled of rich vegetal pollen and honey. It’d be a hell of a pretty sight during the day. By night, with no Dennis in there, it felt abandoned.
“The trouble you get yourself into,” Robbie said. He lifted Cade’s chin to study his face. “You’ll have a fat lip, and probably a bruise, but I think that’s the worst of it. Want to tell me why you’ve earned it?”
Cade tilted his head to show Robbie the bite Dennis had left on him, and angled his arm to give Robbie the best look possible at his elbow. “I would have thought that was fairly obvious. Exhibits A and B, Your Honor.”
Robbie flicked his ear more gently than Dennis had swatted his hand. “That’s not what I meant and you know it, smartass.”
Nathaniel said nothing, but huddled closer to Cade’s side on the matching set of footstools he’d stolen from Dennis’ den. Cade resisted the urge to cuddle him. Sweet little brother. “If you’re asking why Ivan punched me, I know the answer to that. Fair’s fair.”
“So do I. Try again,” Robbie said, implacable but gentler, as he’d become since Ivan reentered his life.
Cade cast a glance out into the den, where Dennis had come out trailed by Ivan. Dennis shook his head as Ivan spoke too quietly for him to make out the words. He didn’t look shocked anymore, but neither did he look happy.
He’d always told himself mates weren’t worth the trouble, and yet still he’d always wondered.
“What do you want me to say?” Cade asked. “He’s my mate. The three words that changed a world. And he wants nothing to do with me now. You saw what happened. He couldn’t distance himself fast enough when he found out who I was.”
“He was Ivan’s roommate for years,” Robbie said. “Worst case scenario, he’s heard every single bad thing he can about this family, and possibly precious little of the good.”
Cade blinked. “That…doesn’t sound like you’re getting ready to tear a strip off of me for getting my dirty paws all over Dennis.”
“Nathaniel, would you slap him on the back of the head for me?” Robbie didn’t wait for Nathaniel to obey or demur. “I’m not going to shout at you for finding your mate. God knows I’m sure you didn’t go looking for one, and I know as well as anyone how you’re never actually given a choice. It happens. Life happens. You go along with it, or you get mowed down. Either way, you’re never the same after.” His mouth tipped. “I could wish it’d been someone besides a friend of Ivan’s, but you’re probably wishing that already yourself.”
“I didn’t know.” Cade rubbed at his mouth. “I didn’t want a mate. I never have. I’m not going to be any good at this.”
Nathaniel made a small sound of protest.
“Come on, you know it’s true. Look around you.” Cade gestured with broad strokes at the neat, tidy apartment, with everything set out in orderly lines. Well, except for the dirty laundry in the cupboard, but anyway. “He’s got his life together, but my toast never lands butter-side-up. I’ve tended bar since before I was legal, and done odd jobs to fill in the corners. I’ve been inventing ways to get out of doing the laundry since before I was old enough to tie my shoes.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
Cade stopped Nathaniel before he could go any further. “You’re a good kid for trying,” he said. “But don’t, okay? I know myself. I’m Mr One-Night Stand, not Mr Forever.”
“Until you met the right one,” Nathaniel said, his chin stubborn. Robbie watched them both in silence. “Here. Look at this.” Nathaniel slipped his phone out of his pocket, poked at the screen then handed the unit to Cade. “I took that picture before the party broke up. I’m pretty sure you remember.”
“Don’t I just?” Cade grumped. He scowled at the phone, and the picture displayed. Nathaniel had captured them from behind, himself and Dennis, right after the shirts had come off and they’d been lost in each other. He squinted to make out detail in the low-quality snap. “What am I supposed to be looking for? Besides proof that I look good on camera.”
Nathaniel did bop Cade gently on the back of his head then.
“What?” Cade rubbed his head, and thrust the phone at Robbie. “If it’s that obvious, you tell me. What do you see?”
Robbie barely glanced at the picture. He grinned, small and pleased, but put Cade out of his misery before Cade could do more than growl at him. “The soulmark was already starting. You must not have noticed until it’d fully developed.”
Cade peered at the screen. He could sort of see a faint smudge on his elbow, yeah. In the snap, it could as easily have been a bruise, and barely the size of a quarter at that.
“But that’s not what I meant, and I think it’s not what Robbie meant either.” Nathaniel crouched down beside Cade and pointed at the picture. “
It’s your face. I’ve never seen you look at anyone like that before.”
“Like how?”
“Like they hung the moon,” Robbie said, quiet and gruff but with something so affectionate that Cade almost wanted to hide his face. “Like they’re the gift you always wanted, wrapped up in a bow and left under the Christmas tree.”
Cade let out a long breath. Now it’d been pointed out to him, he couldn’t un-see it. Nor could he stop himself feeling it, deep beneath his breastbone.
Dennis emerged from the bathroom with his hair wet. Ivan trailed him like a puppy, barely two steps behind. He spoke quietly to Dennis, but Dennis didn’t reply. He had a face like stone, and he didn’t check in Cade’s direction once. Might as well have had a No Trespassing sign mounted to his forehead. Cade Keep Out.
Cade bit his lips. It didn’t matter if he wanted to try to make a go of things, did it? Hell, he didn’t even have to ask himself what he should do. Not when he already knew. Dennis did not want a mate. Cade might have changed his mind, but that wasn’t Dennis’ problem.
All right, then. He’d do the right thing for once if it killed him.
Cade thrust the phone back at Nathaniel and stood. “Enough. It is what it is, brother, and it’s better this way. It won’t break my heart.” Lie. “I don’t want a mate.”
* * * *
“Feeling better now?”
“Some. I feel like I should be asking you that.” Dennis shook the damp length of his hair out of his face, and slid the dark glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. Ivan had been right—he did feel better after a quick cleanup. A full shower would have been better than sticking his head under the sink and swiping all the vital bits with a damp cloth, but the idea of leaving Cade unattended for that long made his nerves crinkle. “Did you have to hit him?”
“I really, really did,” Ivan said, reverence in every syllable. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the little bastard. He knows that. But damn, payback is sweet.”