by Ana Ashley
"Mateus didn't believe me when I said I'd had no idea. I still don't know why Dri didn't tell me he was raising his nephew as his son. You see, Dri was bisexual, something he told me when we met. He'd been with women before, so I'd assumed Mateus was the fruit of a previous relationship."
"I understand that's why you couldn't forgive me for keeping from you that I knew who you were. I lied, too."
"Tiago, why did you go to Porto?"
I gasped. How did he know I'd been to Porto?
25
Vítor
"I didn't know you'd been to Porto at first, if that's what you're wondering. I thought it was strange that Dri had two bouquets of daisies, but I thought Mateus had stopped by and left them."
"How do you know then?"
"My son told me."
"Mateus?"
"David."
Tiago's eyebrows shot up in confusion.
"David came to see me in Porto, and we had a long conversation. That's when I realized he was my son. Trust me, it took me by surprise as much as it did him. But we can get to that later. I want to know why you went to Porto."
He looked down, almost defeated, so I angled his head up so his eyes met mine, and I kept my hands where they were.
"I went to fight for us and for your family. I realized there were a lot of things about them you didn't know, so while I did lie to you, I didn't want you to live the rest of your life without knowing how they felt."
"And us?"
He tried to look away again, but he was unable to, so he closed his eyes instead. A small tear escaped his eyes.
I placed my lips on his gently, and he let out a cry but thankfully didn't try to stop me. I deepened the kiss when his hands came around my waist and gripped my shirt. He tasted like warmth and sunshine, and it was just what I wanted to wake up to every day for the rest of my life, so I reluctantly stopped the kiss so I could tell him.
His cheeks were flushed and the fear he had in his eyes was now replaced with lust. Good.
"Baby, I am tired of living in the past. There are many wonderful things in the past I want to remember, cherish even, but I don't want to dwell on the sad times or the missed opportunities."
I took the small bouquet of dried flowers from my jacket pocket and placed it back in Tiago's hands. He looked at me inquisitively.
"This bouquet was given to me by an old Gypsy woman. When she stopped me on the street, I thought she wanted some money, but all she did was give me these dried flowers and an insight into my future, which at the time I chose to ignore. She told me that I can have more than one great love in my lifetime. Later that day, I met you. I don't know if there is more significance to the bouquet or if we were always meant to meet, but I don't care. I love you, and all I want is to spend the rest of my life loving you and letting you love me, if you feel the same way."
"But the kiss… I saw you with a guy. You two looked so comfortable with each other like you belonged together."
"Luís has seen me drunk more times than I care to remember, he babysat Mateus whenever we needed some time off, he's been there through my grief more than any of my friends, and even when I was determined that what me and you had wasn't that strong, he still told me I needed to see you. He's my best friend and a brother. What you saw was a comforting kiss. We've done it so many times I don't even think anything of it, but I can stop it and ask him to not do it anymore."
"No, don't do that." Tiago's hands rested on my chest, and he got on his tiptoes to match my height.
"He can kiss you like this." He placed a small kiss on my lips. "But he can't kiss you like this because I love you, and you're mine."
His arms came around my neck and the rest of the world disappeared when his lips touched mine again. This time, he had a different intention. I opened my mouth to let his tongue in so I could taste him again. Our tongues dueled for dominance, danced together, and spoke louder than any words we could have exchanged.
"Okay, okay, that's enough tongue. One of you is going to get pregnant at this rate if you don't stop."
I stopped the kiss reluctantly to face David who was standing by the door holding a box.
"How long have you been standing there?" I asked.
"Oh, you know, a minute or ten. Enough to need to bleach my ears when I get home or ask Joel to replace the mental image with a better one." He winked.
Tiago buried his face on my chest, and I could see the reddened tips of his ears. David ignored my subtle sign to leave us and came even closer.
He put his arms around both of us and said, "This is great, my dad and one of my best friends. Can I be a page boy at your wedding?"
"Aren't you a little old to be a page boy?"
"Fine, I'll make the cake then. I guess Luís beat me for the best man spot already," he said.
"I could have three best men."
"Wait a second." Tiago put his hands up, his eyes flicking between David and I. "What are you talking about?"
"Our wedding, baby. I'm not asking you yet, but I will, and I hope when the time comes, you'll say yes." I placed a kiss on his nose and felt him melt even further into me.
"Right, that's my cue to go. This box is full of pastries. You might need the energy. Now go home to get the sex out of the way so you can meet the family at dinner later, and I'll keep an eye on the center," David said and then turned to me. "See you both later." And then he gave me a hug.
When David left, I noticed Tiago staring at me.
"What?"
"You are an amazing person; did you know that?"
"I know. I have good taste in men, too," I said, kissing him and then lowering my voice in his ear. "Shall we go home and do the sex?"
He nodded fiercely, his lips trapped between his teeth. This man was going to be the death of me, and what a death it would be.
"Wait," he said, "what's that on the wall? Did you make it?"
"That, baby, is the house I designed for us. Do you like it?"
"I love it. And I love you, Vítor."
"Love you, too, baby. Now let's get home."
The short drive home wasn't dissimilar to the time when we'd traveled back from Porto. Tiago had spent the whole time teasing me over my clothes, and after nearly a month away from him, I was just about to combust or come in my pants.
"Baby, you're forgetting I'm not thirty anymore."
He giggled from the passenger seat.
"I'm counting on you coming very shortly after we get home so I can spend the rest of the day working you up."
"I'm so fucked with you, aren't I?"
I looked at him briefly and saw his grin. This was the real Tiago; the funny, sexy, wonderful man I'd fallen in love with. There would be no more tears in his life, not unless they were happy ones.
As soon as he'd unlocked the door, he pulled me into the bedroom, placed the dried flowers on the chest of drawers, and took us into the bathroom.
He pushed me against the sink and placed my hands behind me. His eyes told me to keep them there, so I did. His gaze burned my skin as he undid the buttons of my shirt one by one, placing kisses and little bites as he moved south.
"Shall I undo your pants, too, or shall I touch you like this until you come?" His hand roamed the front of my pants, gripping my cock and rubbing up and down my length. I groaned in frustration.
"Can we get naked, please?"
"Since you ask nicely…" Instead of reaching out for my pants, Tiago took a step back and started undressing himself. Shirt first, then jeans, socks, and underwear. His cock stood hard and thick, pointing in my direction. I didn't realize I'd licked my lips while I was staring at him until I saw his eyes dark with lust looking back at me.
He tugged on his cock and said with a gravelly voice, "On your knees."
I did as he said, and he stepped forward. His cock was at the perfect height, so I took his head in my mouth, tasting his sweet flavor as I teased the slit with my tongue.
"Fuck, Vítor. That feels so good."
&nb
sp; I wrapped one hand around his cock and placed the other on his back to urge him to fuck my mouth as I tried to take in as much as I could. The sounds he made were like a song to me, and I cursed that I still had my pants on. I could already feel my underwear wet where I was leaking just from being on my knees for my man.
He put a hand on my shoulder to stop. I let him go with a pop, and he came down on his knees to kiss me.
The tiles were cold on my heated skin as he pushed me back to lie on the floor and finally took pity on my trapped cock. Everything came off at once, my pants, underwear, and my sanity when Tiago put his mouth on my cock and deepthroated me until his nose touched the hairs at the base of my cock.
My orgasm came without any warning. I shouted Tiago's name as he swallowed every last drop of cum before he lay on top of me to kiss me, allowing me to taste myself in his hot mouth.
"Fuck me, that was hot," he said into my mouth.
"Mmm, it sure was." I placed kisses all along his neck, feeling goose bumps appear on his skin. He moaned and flexed his hips against mine. My cock needed a rest before I could take another orgasm, if I was lucky, but his hardness between us still felt amazing.
"I think the one of us that is still hard should get to fuck the one of us that isn't hard," he said, and fuck me if my cock didn't twitch at his words.
"The one of us that is now growing hard wants that very much, but if we're not making it into the shower, can we take this to the bed?"
His laugh was like a balm to my heart. He got up and took my hand in his, pulling me back to the bedroom.
"We can have a shower later. Let's get dirty first," he said.
I laid down on the bed and pulled him on top of me. Tiago rested his head on my chest and took a deep sigh.
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Is this really happening? I mean, have you thought it through? Moving to Lisbon permanently, and how about Mateus?"
"Hey, where is this coming from?" I stroked his hair gently, feeling his chest rise with each breath.
"I don't know. I think I'm just afraid to believe I'm getting you as well. It feels like too much luck for one person, and I'm scared something will go wrong."
"Baby, you had me that night at the bar. I just didn't know it then. When I went back to Porto, I was shattered. I confessed everything to Dri at the cemetery like I was confessing to having committed a felony. It wasn't because I'd kissed another man. I confessed because of what that kiss meant to me."
He lifted his head to look at me.
"Vítor, I want to make love to you."
I smiled and nodded.
When I finally felt him inside, it was as though we were getting to know each other for the very first time. This was the Tiago I should have seen all along. Not that he'd been faking his feelings before. I knew he hadn't, but now he'd freed himself from the self-imposed chains around his heart, and he was finally allowing me to go in and make myself at home.
His cock felt amazing inside me, and every time he withdrew, I pulled him back in because the thought of not having him there was too hard to bear. He managed to draw another orgasm out of me with his slow, steady movements followed by rapid thrusts. I shouted his name for the second time in less than an hour, except this time, I heard him shout mine back as I felt his hot release deep inside me.
We lay in the same position with him on top of me for what felt like hours. His warm skin against mine was bliss.
His words brought me back to reality.
"Are you nervous about seeing Mário again?"
"Yes," I confessed, "but I'm also excited."
"Let's grab a shower, then. From what David said, we're in for a family dinner tonight."
"Sounds like perfection to me."
"I love you, Vítor."
"Love you, too, sweetheart."
Even though it had all been planned with David, I was still a bundle of nerves as we drove south to Caparica to meet my brother and sister-in-law.
A lot had changed in the area in the last twenty-eight years. More buildings, shops, better roads, but in a way, it didn't feel that different because the same old buildings were still there; the bakery my mom used to get the daily bread from, the pharmacy where we went to get our vaccinations, and the small supermarket that always had a large display of fruit outside the bead curtain-covered door.
Tiago touched my hand. I saw his worried expression and smiled to reassure him. I hadn't even noticed we were parked.
"I'm okay, just reminiscing."
I realized once we got out of the car that I had no idea where we needed to go, so I linked my hand with Tiago's and let him take the lead toward David's Café Lima.
David had told me all about the business Paula had started up and how he'd carried on working there with Teresa and Mário. I was so proud of him and what he'd achieved. I couldn't wait to see it.
As we walked down the street, Tiago pointed out where David and Joel lived, as well as Bruno and Filipe, in the apartment opposite theirs.
My pulse raced as we walked into the café, and I came face-to-face with my brother for the second time in twenty-eight years.
"Mário," was all I had a chance to say before my brother pulled me into his arms in a tight grip. My throat was tight with emotion, and I didn't fight the tears when they came. Neither did my brother.
"I never thought I'd see you again," he said.
I pulled away to take a good look at him. He was older, his skin gathered in the corners of his eyes, and his hair, like mine, was more gray than black, but he had the same expression I remembered. Had we bumped into each other anywhere in the last twenty-eight years, there was no doubt I'd have recognized him.
"Vítor, my dear." I heard the voice of my sister-in-law as she approached us from a door on the other side of the café.
I hugged her tight, smelling her flowery perfume, the same she'd worn all those years ago.
"Oh my beautiful Teresa. You haven't aged a day. I thought you'd have upgraded him for a younger model by now," I joked, winking at my brother.
"Nah, I'm too old to train another one. You look really good, too."
She pulled back and told us the rest of the family would arrive shortly, but we had time to go for a walk.
I took it as my prompt for some alone time with my brother. Tiago offered to help out setting the table so Mário and I walked out of the café in the direction of the beach.
"Where do we start? It's been so long," he said, and I smiled because I felt exactly the same way.
"I don't want to focus on the past anymore, but I know we still need to put it to rest."
He agreed, so we each told our version of the events of my twenty-first birthday and subsequent days.
By the time we finished, we were at the beach. We stopped before we got to the sand.
"Do you remember when we all used to come here at the weekend?" Mário asked.
"Oh yeah. Do you remember Paula's picnic meals?"
"Man, I lived for her marble cake," he said.
"What happened to her after I left?"
My heart broke as my brother recounted how Paula had built her business and had looked after our son with the help of her family, and then her fight with cancer, one she'd eventually lost, but not before she'd made sure David would be okay without her.
"I have a great debt to you and Teresa for raising David. He told me things haven't always been easy between you, but you were there for all his important moments, and that matters more than anything."
"It was a privilege seeing him follow his and his mother's dreams. I still can’t believe he’s your son. He told me your story. It made so much sense then. How Paula would never have a bad word to say about you, or her baby’s father whenever. David also said you're an architect."
We walked back to the café, catching up with more recent events.
"So, you and Tiago, huh?"
"I don't know what he sees in me, but I love him, and if he'll have me, I will love him for the r
est of my life."
When I was young, I'd always dreamed of being able to talk to my brother like this, and I had to pinch myself because I still wasn't sure this was real.
Everybody was seated at the long table in the café by the time we got back. The teasing grumbles about having to wait for dinner made my heart soar with happiness. I looked for Tiago and sat next to him, stealing a kiss that left him with the cutest blush.
26
Tiago
"Can you see them?" Vítor asked.
"No, not yet."
"For goodness’ sake, how long does it take to ask a question?" Vítor's frustration was so cute I had to turn around in his arms and kiss him. It also served as a good distraction. His excited tension disappeared as he melted against me.
"Thanks, Tiago," Mário said from his place under the gazebo, "I was just about to throw an orange at his head."
I gave Mário the thumbs up without needing to stop kissing Vítor, because if I had my way, I'd never stop kissing him.
Mário chuckled and Teresa told him off.
Considering how long the brothers had been apart and how much hurt had been caused by their father, I was surprised at how they'd settled back into their roles of younger and older brother.
In the last two months since Vítor had come back to me and they'd reunited, Vítor had spent a lot of time with his family. It took more than one family dinner to catch up on twenty-eight years, of course. Sometimes I'd join them, others I'd stay at home reconnecting with my own brother.
We'd also spent many nights wrapped around each other with Vítor asking me questions about David and telling me everything he'd learned from his brother.