Love, Never-Ending_Flash Me Photos Portfolio 1

by Michele Notaro

  Tanner smiled at me, then gripped my neck. “We’re all here now.” Then he pulled me into a slow, sweet kiss.

  Symon whispered, “I don’t think I’ll ever get over how hot that is.”

  Tanner and I both laughed, and he gripped Symon’s neck, pulling him back down. “Come ‘ere.” He kissed Symon. I smiled as I watched them, and Tanner rubbed the back of my neck.

  Symon broke their kiss, then smiled at me and leaned over to kiss me, too. I melted into him a little, and Tanner didn’t stop rubbing my neck.

  The three of us spent the next half hour kissing and touching. We kept it sweet and meaningful, not really with a purpose of having sex even though it was clear that we would. I could feel how much they both cared—not just cared, loved—me in every single kiss, every single touch. And it was perfect.

  When things finally did change, and our kisses and touches became more forceful, I reached into Symon’s underwear to brush my finger over his hole, but my doorbell rang. We all broke away from each other, breathless.

  Symon asked, “Who’s here? Are we expecting someone?”

  I shook my head. “No, I have no clue who that is.”

  They knocked again and Tanner sighed as he ran his hand through Sy’s hair. “We better go see who it is.”

  The three of us reluctantly got up and hurried to put on t-shirts and sweatpants, then we headed out to the living room. Sy answered the door and I was surprised to see my sister standing there—why the hell is my sister at my boyfriend’s house? I moved in front of Symon and stood in the doorway so she couldn’t get past me. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  She flinched. “I knew you’d be here since you weren’t at home.”

  “What do you want, Julia?”

  She hesitated and looked over my shoulder. I followed her line of sight, seeing Tanner and Symon standing together; Symon leaning against Tanner’s side with Tan’s arm over his shoulders. Julia looked back at me. “I want to apologize.”

  “Julia, you lied to me for five years. Five. Years.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You hid letters from Tanner for five fucking years. How the hell am I supposed to forgive that, Jules?”

  “I-I…” She stepped closer. “I thought I was protecting you from him. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “That wasn’t your decision to make. It was mine and you took that away from me. Do you realize that’s exactly what I was pissed at Tanner for doing? Everyone makes all these decisions concerning my life without even consulting me. It’s so fucked-up that I can’t even wrap my head around it!”

  She closed her eyes. “I know, but…”

  There was really nothing she could say. She was a fucking liar. And I fucking hated liars. “Why did you keep the letters, Jules?”

  She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “I thought you might want them one day. And… at first, I kept them because I was going to give them to you, but after I waited for so long, I thought you’d be pissed, so I just threw them in a shoebox whenever they came.”

  “You kept a shoebox full of letters addressed to me! Isn’t it illegal to tamper with someone else’s mail?”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “Please listen to me, Jax. I didn’t do it to hurt you or Tanner. You were such a mess when he first left. You quit school, moved into an apartment by yourself, started working at some shop I’d never heard of. You cut me off; you cut your friends off. You were a completely different person. I was afraid that giving you the letters would make all of that worse!”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. It wasn’t like she was wrong. I did do all of those things. “I was grieving, Jules. Can you understand that? It was like he died, okay? How do you know giving me those damn letters wouldn’t have helped me, huh? You could’ve at least tried!”

  “I know that. And I’m sorry. I regret it, but there’s nothing I can do but tell you I’m sorry and hope you’ll forgive me.”

  I blew out a breath and closed my eyes. “I don’t think I can. Not right now, it’s too… fresh. But maybe… maybe I’ll forgive you, I just… can’t right now, okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay. Just know I love you, little brother.” She stepped up and hugged me around my waist. She was so much shorter than me, it was kinda funny. I’d never forget the day she realized her younger brother was taller than her. She’d been so pissed.

  I sighed and reluctantly hugged her back. “I love you too, sis.”

  She smiled up at me. “Bring your guys over for dinner if you can forgive me, or at least tolerate me. My kids miss their favorite uncle.”

  I snorted at that. She told me and Tommy that we were her kids’ favorite uncle whenever she wanted to get away with something. “Okay, I will.”

  She waved over my shoulder at my boyfriends, then walked back down the hall. I closed the door behind her and rested my forehead there. After a few deep breaths, I felt a hand on my back. I took one more deep breath, then turned around, finding both my guys standing there with worried expressions on their faces. Tanner had been the one rubbing my back. I sent them both a small smile, and they sent tentative smiles back.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked them.

  “I could eat,” Tanner said.

  “You can always eat,” Symon said with a smile aimed at our guy before he looked at me. “I’m a little hungry. Want to go out for something or order in, maybe?”

  “Or I could cook,” I said with a shrug.

  Symon looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then shook his head. “Nope. Today is a day for snuggling on the couch together. All three of us. We all have the day off for once, so we need to take advantage. You’re not wasting our day cooking.”

  I smiled a little at that. “Oh yeah? Are we going to order food for every single meal today?”

  “Yep.”

  I looked at Tanner. “You’re okay with this plan?”

  “Yep.” He grinned at me. “If it means I can keep you in my arms all day, then yes. Most definitely.”

  Symon

  “I’ll order something,” I said, grabbing my phone and walking into the kitchen. I looked at the takeout menus and picked one. Jax and Tanner weren’t very picky, so I just ordered a pizza. We could get something else later if they wanted. I walked back out of the kitchen and found my boyfriends standing really close together.

  When Tanner pulled Jax into a kiss, I smiled. When we’d first started this thing, I’d been afraid that I’d be left out, but I never felt that way at all. In fact, I loved seeing my men together.

  They broke their kiss and I asked, “You guys ready to watch that movie we picked out last night?”

  Jax smirked. “Sure, but I can’t guarantee we won’t get distracted and miss the whole damn thing.”

  I laughed and pecked his lips.

  Tanner kissed my cheek and walked over to the couch, plopping down in the middle. “I call the middle spot.”

  “Hey, no fair,” Jax said with a frown.

  “I got here first.” Tanner grinned up at him, and I bit back a smile.

  “Why do you get the middle? I want the middle.”

  I laughed. “How about we take turns. We’re gonna be here all day.”

  Jax looked between the two of us. “Promise I’ll get a turn?”

  I laughed again. “Yep. And you can even go next.”

  He smirked. “Perfect.” He sat on Tanner’s right, and Tanner immediately put his arm over Jax’s shoulder.

  I sat on Tanner’s other side and snuggled up beside him, bringing my knees up and hugging his arm to my chest. Tanner put his hand on my thigh and pulled me even closer to him. I hit play on the movie and after a few seconds, Tanner wrapped his arm around my shoulders, too. I looked over and smiled at Jax, and he reached over to run his thumb over my cheek.

  When the movie ended, we sat at the dining room table to eat our takeout, and I suddenly remembered something. Shit. “So I promised my mom that I would have her over for dinner so she could meet you guys. She was a litt
le pissed at me when she realized that I’ve met both your parents—well, saw your dad, Tan, but I met both your families, so she’s pissed she hasn’t met you yet.” I bit my lip nervously. I wasn’t sure how the guys were going to take meeting my mom. She was sorta bossy and kinda out there sometimes. I loved her, obviously, and she was a good person, but I’d never had a good experience with her meeting my boyfriends in the past, which was why I’d kept her far, far away from Jax and Tan. Every time I’d introduced her to one, she’d ended up with her feelings hurt somehow and every one of my exes ended up pissed at me. I really didn’t want to expose Tanner and Jax to her and have them hate me because of it.

  Tanner grinned at me. “We get to meet your mom?”

  I blew out a relieved breath. “Yeah. When can you do it?”

  Jax said, “I have off on Sunday, so do you guys, right? Maybe that could work. Did you want to cook or go out somewhere?”

  “Um, I think it would be better if she just came over here.” In case there’s yelling.

  He nodded and Tanner said, “We can all cook something together. We’ll just have to spend the night Saturday to make sure we have enough time to get everything ready on Sunday.”

  I snorted at that and Jax grinned widely as he said, “I like the way you think.”

  My smile diminished when I thought about my mom coming over and meeting them. “Just so you know, she’s not exactly the nicest person to my boyfriends.” They both made faces and I knew what they were thinking. “It’s not because you’re guys, it’s because you’re with me. Trust me, she could care less about the fact that I’m gay. But… I’m a little worried she’s going to be an asshole to you guys.”

  “We can take it,” Tanner said.

  “Agreed,” Jax added. “It’ll be fine, pumpkin.”

  “You guys won’t hold it against me if she’s a total jerk, will you?”

  Jax stood up from the table and walked over to kiss my forehead. “Of course not. You can’t control what someone else says or does.”

  Tanner nodded. “And if you think she’s bad, I’m sure she has nothing on my dad. And we already dealt with him. So this will be a breeze.”

  “Fabulous,” I mumbled as I leaned into Jax’s side.

  Jax wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kissed my hair. “It’ll be fine, pumpkin, I promise we’ll get through it.”

  ***

  When I walked into the house, I headed toward the kitchen with a million bags in my arms and stopped dead in my tracks. “Do I even want to know what the hell you two are doing?” I tilted my head and examined the scene in front of me. Tanner was standing on one side of the counter, shirtless with a jar of chocolate syrup in one hand and a jar of peanut butter in the other. And Jax was lying on the counter—also shirtless—on his back with his head hanging upside down in front of Tanner. There was probably fifteen cans and jars opened and spread out all over the counter surrounding Jax.

  Both of my boyfriends looked over at me and started cracking up. Tanner laughed so hard he fell onto a stool to keep from falling on his ass, and Jax sat up holding his hand over his—apparently—full mouth.

  I shook my head at them, unable to keep from smiling, and set my bags on the table while the two of them calmed. I’d run out to the store for groceries, but I’d insisted they stay home—well, in my home, but whatever. I hadn’t wanted them to leave. Eventually, Tanner laughed and said, “Jax said he could eat anything upside down, so I thought we’d test that theory.” Both of them started laughing again.

  I snorted out a laugh and shook my head, looking at all of the food everywhere. “I don’t even want to know how that came up in conversation. I can’t decide if it’s sad or not that this doesn’t surprise me.” They both grinned at me, and I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I was to have them both in my life, even when they were acting like fools. “Did you find anything he couldn’t eat?”

  Jax laughed. “Not yet.”

  I grabbed the bags with the cold food in them and carried them into the kitchen. “Did you try peanut butter on crackers? That’s dry as crap, so it might be a challenge.”

  Tanner grinned at me. “I just got the peanut butter out, so we haven’t tried it yet.”

  “Maybe we should. I bet he can’t stay upside down while he chews it.”

  I set the bags on the floor, and before I could open the fridge, Jax wrapped his legs around my waist without getting down from the counter and pulled me over to him so he could wrap his arms around my shoulders and kiss my cheek. “Does that mean you’re gonna play with us?” He waggled his eyebrows. Such a nerd.

  I smiled up at him and kissed his cheek. “Only if you promise to brush your teeth. I don’t know what the hell you ate, but it couldn’t have been good.” He laughed and playfully shoved me, making me chuckle as Tanner walked around and placed a little peck on my lips. “Hey, big guy.” I kissed his lips again. “I’m glad you guys stayed.”

  He pulled me into a hug. “Me too.” He started helping me put groceries away while Jax cleaned up their mess. “Don’t put away the chocolate syrup, Jax, I have plans for that.”

  “And what kind of plans might that be?” Jax asked him with a smirk.

  Tanner laughed. “I meant for ice cream, but that could work, too.”

  “Wait!” I yelled. “My mom’s coming over in like two hours.”

  “Oh shit, I totally forgot about that,” Jax said, jumping down from the counter. He grabbed the chocolate syrup bottle. “We really need to clean this up and get started on dinner.” He smirked. “But first…” He quickly stepped forward and squirted a big glob of syrup on Tanner’s chest.

  “What the hell?” Tanner laughed.

  “Jax, come on.” I pouted at him, but he just smirked back at me and shrugged.

  “I wanted some chocolate syrup.” He smiled, then grabbed Tanner’s hips and leaned in, licking the syrup off Tanner’s chest, making sure to pay extra attention to his nipple.

  Tanner groaned and huffed. “You better make this up to me later.”

  Jax stood and leaned in to brush his lips against Tanner’s in a smoking hot kiss, then breathlessly said, “You know I will, baby.”

  I groaned a little at the sight of them together, but turned away and took a deep breath trying to get my erection to calm. Jax stepped in front of me and grabbed my face, pulling me into a long kiss that tasted like chocolate and Jax with a hint of Tanner. When he broke the kiss, he whispered, “I love you, Sy.”

  I smiled. “I love you too.” I pushed him back a little. “Now clean up your mess before my mom gets here.”

  He gave me a salute, then pecked my lips and started cleaning up the disaster that he and Tanner had made. Tanner brought the rest of the groceries over and helped me put stuff away before he started cooking. I was not the cook around here unless you wanted ramen or macaroni and cheese. I could help if given exact instructions, but the way Tanner and Jax both just guessed and added spices to the food they were cooking, yeah that wasn’t me. So I followed Tanner’s lead and helped prep some food with him while Jax cleaned up the living and dining rooms. Luckily, the apartment was pretty clean already and just needed to be straightened up.

  When we finished getting ready, Jax hugged me and kissed my forehead, then repeated the same thing he’d said a hundred times since we’d found out my mother was coming over for dinner. “It’s going to be fine, pumpkin.”

  An hour later, it wasn’t fine. It so wasn’t fine. My mother was being such a bitch to my boyfriends, and they were being polite and kind despite her bad attitude.

  “Mom,” I chastised. “Will you please drop it. Jax is a fantastic photographer and he loves doing it. It’s none of your business how much he makes!”

  My mother looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Well excuse me for wanting to make sure my baby will be well taken care of.”

  I huffed out a breath. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m doing fine on my own, great in fact. I have my own apartment, I pay for m
y own food and utilities and everything else. And I’ve been doing it for years, Mom. Jax and Tanner do not have to take care of me. Jesus.”

  She rolled her eyes again. “It’s still nice to know that you won’t be footing the bills alone. I’m sure having three grown men living together will be expensive. Think of all the extra electricity and water you’ll use, and the food you’ll have to buy! I just want to make sure you won’t be taking care of them. They should be taking care of you!”

  I sighed. “Mom, seriously, what the hell are you talking about? We’re not even living together. And even if we were, no one would be taking care of anyone else. We’d be working together, as equals.”

  She shrugged. “I was merely curious how much he makes, honey. You don’t have to get so worked up about it.”

  I closed my eyes and huffed an annoyed breath out of my nose. For fuck’s sake. What is wrong with that woman? When I opened my eyes, Jax was staring at me with amusement in his gaze. Well, I’m glad someone’s having a good time listening to her bullshit. I shot him a glare and he smirked, then winked at me.

  Apparently, my mother couldn’t leave well enough alone. “I thought you said you were serious about them. If you’re so serious, why aren’t you living together? Why aren’t you showing some kind of commitment?”

  I took a deep breath to answer, but Tanner came to my rescue. “We haven’t discussed all the details, ma’am, but we’re talking about it. Hopefully we’ll be living together soon.”

  My eyebrows shot into my hairline. That was news to me. I mean, I’d thought about asking them. I’d thought about how wonderful it’d be to know they were home waiting for me every night. I’d thought about how amazing it’d be to fall into bed every night with them, or knowing that Jax would be coming home to my bed when he had a late shoot. But I’d never voiced these things out loud. So unless Tanner and Jax had discussed it without me—which I highly doubted—then Tanner was just bullshitting her.

  Jax winked at me before saying, “We’re trying to decide if Sy’s apartment is big enough for all three of us or if we want to get a new place. All three of us are in our own apartments right now, so we have a lot of furniture and things, so it might be better to get a bigger place, decide what we want to keep, then either sell or get a storage unit for all the extra furniture. So we have a lot of little things we need to figure out first.”