Kings of Hearts (An M/M/M Romance Novel)

by Candice Blake

  “He was in my poker club,” Dominic said.

  I scoffed, trying to hide my shock of not knowing that Adrian had been living with my former stepbrother. “You still run that thing?”

  “Of course,” Dominic said. “Unlike you, I actually care about people.”

  “You care about no one but yourself,” I said.

  Adrian interrupted. “Dominic saved me six months ago by letting me join his club. I…would’ve been in deep shit had he not taken me in.”

  I took a breath. “The club you run is illegal and harmful to young men who don’t know any better.”

  “That’s what you think,” Dominic said. “You don’t know the number of winners I’ve created over the years.”

  “I’m confused,” Adrian said. “Were you guys friends at one point?”

  Dominic and I looked at each other, staring directly into each other’s eyes. He was standing close, and I could feel the heat coming from his chest.

  “We were family at one point,” I said.

  “Former stepbrothers,” Dominic said.

  Through his eyes, I could see everything I didn’t want to be. Everything I had avoided my whole life to not end up like him.

  “Are you boys playing a game tonight?” Dominic asked.

  Adrian nodded, with a smirk. “Going to be the last game potentially for months. I’m guessing you’re here to play as well.”

  “I wasn’t planning to. I came here…looking for you,” Dominic said. “I need you back in the club.”

  “Dominic…you kicked me out,” Adrian uttered. “I’m not going back with you.”

  I clenched my fists, realizing the real reason why I found Adrian curled up on a park bench that night. It was by the hands of my former stepbrother.

  “You can back off, he’s not going back to your club. We’re playing one game tonight. Just one, and he’s coming home with me to focus back on academia.”

  “Back to the boring life you tried to escape in the first place?” Dominic said to Adrian, in a deep seductive voice. It was the voice of the devil.

  Adrian looked up at him, unsure.

  “It’s a slippery slope, kiddo,” I said. “Don’t be like him, he’s no good for you.”

  Adrian looked up at me with his eyes that changed colors under the chandeliers.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Adrian said. “I really don’t.”

  Dominic smirked. “Well, if you boys are playing, I’m definitely going to play tonight. Hell, had you told me that it was going to be a reunion, I would have dressed up for the occasion.”

  “Good luck,” I smirked. “You’ll need it. You always have.”

  Dominic put both his hands behind his head, to purposely flex his biceps.

  I could smell his strong, musky scent, and out of everyone in the room, he was the only one who showed absolutely no fear to play.

  The thought of winning this game mattered so much more now that Dominic was here.

  It wasn’t even about the money, it was about proving to Adrian and Dominic that I was still on top. After the downward spiral I was in after Sarah died, I needed to prove that I was still on top.

  I looked at Adrian, sensing his excitement to play. We all felt the same addictive rush before a game. I could see it in their eyes--the dilating and constricting of their pupils. The rush that was as deadly as it was powerful.

  “I have an idea,” Dominic said. “If I win, Adrian you’ll come home with me, back to the club. If Sawyer wins, you’ll go back with him.”

  “What if I win?” Adrian asked.

  Dominic paused. “Well, you get to decide where you want to go. Is that a fair deal?”

  I thought for a moment, and I was confident that I’d beat him even after all the years of not playing.

  “Sounds fair to me,” I said.

  Adrian nodded with a smirk on his face.

  There was so much more at stake to win now. I had known how valuable Adrian was. But now that I knew my former stepbrother was competing to win him back, I was more determined to be on top.

  Adrian, at nineteen, was still impressionable.

  I wanted to show him a life where he could practice his math for good in the world. There was more to life than the seductive lure of gambling.

  I had been in his shoes at one point. I had lost everything and had to build it back up.

  I couldn’t believe that Dominic still ran his club, where he exploited young men for his own gain. His dirty grin and his false promises drew young men in to play this game for him. It was one of the many reasons I had hated him.

  Dominic left briefly to sign up to play the midnight elite game with us. It was minutes before the deadline when the double doors to the main poker room would open.

  I thought I had been able to escape this life, but I had managed to be drawn back in.

  Had I known the stakes, I would have brushed up on my game before going to the casino that evening. I hadn’t touched a set of cards in forever.

  I looked at the other people who were playing.

  I felt bad for them. I knew that between my former stepbrother and me, they had absolutely no chance of winning.

  I was curious to see what Adrian had in him.

  The double doors opened into the circular room with a poker table in the center. Around it were windows on all sides that gave a panoramic view of the Falls.

  It looked out into the darkness of the ocean. I could hear the sounds of the rushing waterfall below.

  The seats were picked at random.

  There were eight men and one woman who were playing that night. They were calm and focused, Adrian wasn’t. He was moving around in his seat like he always was, and his usual focused energy wasn’t there.

  Dominic casually strolled into the room with another drink in his hand. He made everyone else wait for him like the selfish person he was.

  He took a seat directly across from me.

  I took in a deep breath and looked him in the eyes, trying to read his energy.

  He was focused on Adrian, I wondered if he’d be distracted with him there. I wondered what kind of relationship they’d had in the club, and why he was so adamant to win him back.

  I was sure that he was aware of Adrian’s talent with calculations. But just how much money did Adrian help him win? And why did he kick him out?

  I hated how I was once again fighting with Dominic over something.

  After so many years estranged, I thought I’d never have to see his face again. We no longer needed each other. We were leaders in our respective fields.

  He was still the villain in my life. But as fate would have it, we reunited that day to revisit the game that would decide it all.

  I needed Adrian, more than anything, I needed him for my research. But I also wanted to show him a different side of the coin from this dark, dark world.

  The only way of doing so was to win.

  The dealer walked in and closed the door. It was just ten people in the room, and everyone was now seated at the table.

  The room was silent, the air was thick.

  The rushing sounds of the waterfall whispered outside.

  Dominic fiddled around with his chip stack. It had always been a nervous tic of his, and it was funny to see that nothing had really changed after all those years.

  I suppressed my racing heart by taking deep breaths to slow down my heart rate. It was a trick I learned when I was young.

  We were dealt the first hand.

  My method of playing was patience. I understood the odds of the game better than most, and I knew when the right time to strike was.

  My first hand was Ace, Queen, suited.

  I decided to play that hand. Unsurprisingly, Dominic played that one as well.

  I looked him in his eyes, but I couldn’t read him. He was even calmer now that game had started. He was so still that I couldn’t even see or hear him breathing.

  This was his life, it was here that he felt the most powerful. But I was
n’t going to give him the satisfaction of winning with Adrian in the room.

  Other people folded until it was Dominic and one other gentleman left.

  I came up empty-handed at the flop. The three cards turned gave me nothing except for Ace high.

  The gentleman went all in, which surprised all of us. Dominic and I looked at each other, and I could tell he had a trick up his sleeve.

  Dominic had always played strong early to show his dominance. He wanted to eject the gentleman from the game who’d had the balls to go all-in on us.

  To face off against each other, we would first have to eliminate everyone else at the table. Dominic folded but showed his cards doing so, revealing what he had.

  He wanted to give me some information, knowing that I’d be able to calculate the odds of beating the other guy. Seeing his cards, I knew there was a ninety-percent chance that the gentleman was bluffing.

  “All in,” I said.

  Immediately, I saw a bead of sweat roll down the gentleman’s forehead.

  We both flipped our cards up, and he had absolutely nothing. The dealer flipped the rest of the cards.

  I had won the first round and managed to kick out the gentleman at the same time. I was now leading the pot and had double the chips of everyone else.

  “Good play,” Dominic said.

  “Thanks,” I said, organizing the chips that the dealer had pushed towards me.

  I was confused about why he would do that.

  Yes, we were all one stage towards the end, but Dominic had given me a huge advantage now. Maybe he was that confident to believe he’d be able to win it in the end.

  At the same time, we could use that strategy to boot out the other players quickly to what was really at stake.

  Chapter Eleven

  Adrian

  I had been questioning my sexuality for a long time now.

  Ever since joining Dominic’s club and being surrounded by other guys, I’d been wondering what it’d be like to be with another man. I’d only ever been with girls in high school. It was easy, girls fell for my charm, and I could use my smarts to my advantage.

  Finding out that Dominic and Sawyer were once stepbrothers changed everything.

  I was more confused now than ever before, seeing two handsome and tall men fighting over me like I was some trophy. It was kind of erotic the way they were talking about me, and the tension between them put pressure in my jeans.

  I couldn’t concentrate all game.

  They barely looked at me, they were staring at each other, sizing each other up, hand after hand. It was sibling rivalry at an elite poker level.

  The other people in there knew they didn’t stand a chance.

  I could smell the powerful scent of the brothers’ musk coming from opposite ends of the poker table. It was the smell of dominance.

  My heart raced faster than any other poker game I’d ever played. I contemplated throwing the game just to see which brother would end up on top.

  I didn’t want to choose who’d get to take me home. Maybe the best way was to let them fight for it.

  The two men stole glances at me once in a while. Dominic’s intense stare had always made me shake.

  Despite how much emotional control I had, his gaze at the table was capable of breaking me instantly. I felt naked, vulnerable, like he could sense every insecurity I had.

  Sawyer’s gaze was quite the opposite, it was soft, his blue eyes were bright.

  But it was equally as deadly. His eyes were inviting, sending my body into a trance, letting me know that everything was alright. I knew that he’d be able to read me once I softened up to him.

  It was obvious that they were stepbrothers because they were both equally as good at the game in different ways. And together, they were a force to be reckoned with.

  I was cocky, thinking I’d learned all that I could about poker.

  But playing live made me realize how little I knew about the game. I had yet to master the non-verbal cues, the social aspect at the table, and my own insecurities.

  I could learn a lot from the two brothers. I could feel the other players lose confidence. One by one, they dropped out of the game.

  I won a few hands, but most of the wins went to either Sawyer or Dominic. They alternated wins. They always revealed their cards when they folded. It let the other brother do the mental calculation to figure out if they could win that hand.

  It was genius, and not many people could do the math in the split-second to use it as an advantage.

  Even though they hated each other, they knew that they had to work together to win. I was in awe of them, and I wished that I could bring them together somehow.

  I’d known Professor Baldwin since he taught me, and I had been coached by Dominic. Had they worked out their problems, they would have been an unstoppable force. I could only imagine how much more successful they’d become with each other’s help.

  I started to wonder why they’d lost touch with each other in the first place.

  The other players lost one by one until it was just the three of us left in the room. The dealer got us to sit next to each other across from him.

  I was sandwiched between Dominic and Sawyer. At five-foot-eight, they were both much taller than me.

  I nearly suffocated between the strong heat coming from their bodies. All I could smell was the musk that emitted from the two men’s pits. It was breaking me from my concentration.

  “Good luck, gentlemen,” Dominic said, knowing that this was when the game truly mattered.

  The dealer dealt us a hand.

  I had pocket queens, so I decided to play that hand. The professor folded. But Dominic stayed.

  I was facing off against the man who taught me so much about poker. The dealer presented the first three cards. I was still only at one pair.

  Suddenly, I was surprised to feel Dominic’s large warm hand on my lap, and I nearly jumped, not expecting it. He was using it as a tactic to make me break.

  I held my breath as he ran them up and down from above my knees until just before he touched my groin.

  Dominic was playing dirty. I swallowed the lump in my throat. I didn’t want to say anything, as my cheeks started to get red. The way he caressed me felt good and it made my cock pitch a tent in my pants.

  Dominic was trying to break my concentration.

  With him touching me, I couldn’t zone into my calculations as easily. I began to sweat, and when I looked next to me at the professor, he was glancing down and witnessing what Dominic was doing.

  With only the dealer in the dark room, only the three of us knew what was going on.

  I thought the professor would say something. But instead, I felt his hand move from his lap to mine, grabbing onto my other thigh.

  The two former stepbrothers had crooked grins their faces, as they ran their large warm hands simultaneously up and down my leg. It was a game within a game.

  “What’s your move?” The dealer asked.

  I snapped out of my daze. “Ch-check,” I said, trying my hardest not to moan.

  “Get it together, and focus,” Dominic snapped, still smirking.

  “I’m…trying to,” I uttered.

  I glanced over into the Sawyer’s and Dominic’s laps. They both had their hand on their lap, covering their own hard-ons, while mine was exposed for the both of them to see.

  My thighs started to sweat from the friction of their rubbing. Dominic’s hand was rough as he kneaded my quads. While the professor’s hand was more gentle and tender.

  I bit my lips and closed my eyes, feeling a wet spot on my crotch.

  Fuck, I was actually that turned on. The two guys knew they had an upper hand over me.

  My concentration kept breaking from the aching in my pants, and the caresses of both men.

  They were that competitive that they were willing to play dirty to win. I knew this game was probably less about me, and more about each other. In the crazy world of poker, the act of winning sig
nified alpha dominance.

  After the river card was turned, and we both checked, we revealed our cards and saw that Dominic had beat me with two pairs.

  He withdrew his hand off me, and the professor did the same. They were now both in on getting me out of the game.

  I excused myself from the next round to go to the bathroom, walking in a weird way to hide my hard-on.

  I went to the private washroom and unbuttoned my pants to release the pressure. I swiped against the sticky substance on my underwear and rubbed it between my fingers.

  I couldn’t believe I had leaked that much pre-come after what had happened. Neither of them had touched my cock, but I was leaking like a waterfall.

  I squeezed my shaft, letting some of it drip onto the white marble floors. I’d never felt my heart race so quickly, I’d never been so turned on by two other men.

  They had read my insecurities and capitalized on them, leaving me exposed.

  There wasn’t even a point in playing anymore. They were that good and I had no chance of winning against them.

  I may as well let them win. I wished I was better at hiding my arousal.

  How did they know that I’d be into it?

  They both knew that I was too timid to say anything. They knew that I wouldn’t want to shake it off either because I’d enjoy it.

  I tucked my cock back into my pants and went to the tap to splash water on my face to get me out of their spell on me.

  I headed back out, where they were waiting for me to start the next round.

  “Jesus, what were you doing in there?” Dominic asked. “Jerking off?”

  The professor smirked and scoffed. For former stepbrothers who hated each other, they sure had quite the chemistry.

  “You wish, I would’ve invited you to watch because I knew you’d be into it,” I said.

  I sat back into the seat between them. The pre-come had soaked through my trousers and both of them were looking down at my crotch.

  The beat of my heart started to accelerate again. There was too much tension between them, and I wanted to get out of there before I broke into pieces.

  My chip stack was tiny compared to the two stepbrothers’. I had very little chance of winning, and knowing how good they were, I decided to go all-in my next hand.