Authors: Tymber Dalton
Tags: #Romance
“It’s true.” Marcus heavily sat on the bed and looked at him. “I did reconcile with Jean-Claude when I returned to Brussels. We had many good years together. But I always regretted walking out your door that night. Not grasping the chance to stay and be with you. I was scared to take the risk when I had familiar comfort waiting for me at home. It seemed like all the signs were calling me back. A chance to work for the semester and receive in essence double pay, a chance to return to Jean-Claude, all of it pulling against what I felt for you after having just met you. Although I realize, in retrospect, you had no way of knowing how I felt. My actions certainly didn’t reflect my feelings.”
Stunned, Tyler couldn’t respond.
Marcus smiled, but gone was the predatory charm. It looked like the sad smile of a regretful old man who’d finally realized the past had not only caught up with him, but passed him by. “He died last year. Cancer. He was only a year older than you. He died way too young.” He looked down at his hands.
“I’m sorry,” Tyler whispered. He was too shocked to manage any other volume.
“I spent our life together making it up to him, for leaving the way I did. I admit it.” He heavily sighed. “I was still a young, stupid man, even in my middle age. I hurt not only the man who loved me, but I hurt a man I quickly came to love. Caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea, I chose the Devil over seeing if I could swim or not. It was a safe choice, although I’m not sure it was the best one for all involved.”
Tyler knew he had to breathe, but it felt damn near impossible with that emotional sucker punch.
Marcus turned the full force of his steely gaze on him again. “Yes, I admit it. Part of me hoped beyond hope before meeting your wife at the auction today that I would meet with you tonight, take the tongue-lashing I well deserved, then be able to pick up and possibly move forward from there. With you.”
“You’re mad!”
“No, I’m lonely. Don’t think I don’t know what the rest of my life looks like.” He kicked off his shoes. “I spent the past five years taking care of him, through surgeries and radiation and chemo. We had a running joke about him having a doctor’s note to top from the bottom without repercussion.” He studied his hands. “He never threw it in my face, what I did with you. I was honest. I told him about you when I returned to Brussels. He forgave me and I didn’t deserve him. He was as devoted to me as your bo—” He caught himself and took a breath. “As devoted as your husband seems to be to you.”
“I spent a lot of years hating you.”
“Apparently, so has your husband.” He rubbed his jaw again. “Tell him I’m sorry, by the way, for that. And I’m sorry for forcing you up here to talk. I would not have had him arrested, even if you’d refused to talk with me.”
Tyler’s heart hardened even further. “Then why couldn’t you have been honest down there?”
“I was too startled. You wouldn’t have talked to me any other way. Your husband wouldn’t have let you talk to me. Admit it.” He stood and walked over to the minibar. “You don’t have to stay the entire time. I just wanted a few minutes of your time.”
“If you met Nevvie this morning at the auction, then you knew bloody well I was married. Why still go through with this charade? Or bloody hell, if you followed my career, didn’t you see I was married and poly?”
He shrugged as he took a pull from a beer he’d removed from the minibar fridge. “I’m a foolish man. What can I say? I had no idea if that was real or fiction on the website. Until I met your wife this morning. I’m also desperate not to die alone. I’d always thought it would be the other way around, Jean-Claude taking care of me.” He sadly smiled. “You’re a damned lucky man. Not one, but two people who love you. And children. You’ve come a long way from the man I knew.”
“I haven’t been that man in decades, thanks in no small part to what you put me through.”
“When did you reconcile with your father? I met him earlier, too, with your wife.”
Tyler reddened. Why was he even having this conversation? He could walk out the door. “Nevvie tracked him down and engineered a surprise meeting after I recovered from my heart attack. It turns out my mother lied about why he left.”
“When I knew you, you were a desperately unhappy man. Have you finally found happiness?”
“It took a while and another failed marriage after you left, but yes, I did. I met Thomas. Then Nevvie came into our lives.”
“She would kill for you, too, I have no doubt.” That sly smile again. “Obviously Thomas knows who I am. I wondered if when I met her if she knew who I was, but you haven’t told her anything about me, have you?”
“No. I never had a reason to tell her. She knows nothing about that period of my life.” He turned to the windows again as the silence lay between them. “You could have contacted me, apologized to me for leaving. You had my number. You could have gotten in touch with me at any time through Terry and Bob.”
Marcus laughed without humor. “No, I couldn’t. I know you didn’t tell them exactly what happened, because they said you didn’t. The way you acted, however, apparently spoke volumes. Terry told me how disappointed he was in me to have obviously hurt you. From that point on, he had no contact with me and suggested I not contact you, either.”
That was news to Tyler. The fact that his friends chose him over Marcus warmed his heart in a vengeful sort of way. “You could have contacted me through the university. They would have passed me a message at my office.”
“Why? I knew you hated me. Or, I suspected you did. I was too busy feeling guilty over that and over what I did to Jean-Claude. I decided it was best to leave it alone rather than compound everyone’s misery.” He took another pull on his beer. “As I said, I’m sorry. That is less than inadequate, but it’s all I have to offer. You deserved better than the treatment I gave you.”
Tyler nodded. “Thank you.” To leave, he had to turn and face Marcus one more time, to pass by where he stood, to try to ignore the damned cologne he still wore, the cologne that had haunted him for years, the one he couldn’t buy for Tom because it was too painful a reminder and dredged up memories of a deep bass beat and the noise of the other club goers at the Blue Coconuts. He finally steeled himself to do it.
“I wish you the best, Tyler. You’re a damned lucky man.”
When Tyler turned, he saw not the nightmare from his past, but a man without hope. An old man sagging under the realization of his truths as they tumbled on top of him. “Thank you. I hope you find happiness.” He hesitated as he passed Marcus, paused, and stuck out his hand. If he couldn’t be this magnanimous, then he was spitting in the face of good karma and the life he enjoyed. “Be well.”
Marcus looked at his hand for a moment before he finally shook with him. “Thank you.”
Tyler started to go, then reached into his pocket and found a business card. He grabbed a pen off the dresser and scribbled his private e-mail address and phone number on it. “We won’t be home for several weeks, but send me your information and I’ll pass it on to Terry and Bob.” He took a deep breath. “Or if you ever want to just say hi. As a friend.”
The other man nodded as he took the card. Did Marcus’ eyes look red? “Thank you. That’s very generous of you.”
Tyler left without further comment. As he heard the door close behind him, his soul felt lighter. Generosity, the last thing he ever thought he’d feel toward Marcus.
It felt good because he knew it meant the demon had finally been exorcised for good.
* * * *
Marcus’ room was on the seventh floor while their rooms were on the sixth. Tyler opted to take the stairs. When he opened their room door, he saw Thomas sitting on the bed. Nevvie stood in front of him, hugging him to her. Both looked startled to see him walk in. They rushed over to him, tightly embracing him.
Tom buried his face against Tyler’s neck. “Jesus Christ,” he whispered. “I’m so fucking glad to see you! I was afraid we’d never see you again.”
Surprised, Tyler held Thomas back at arm’s length to look at him. “Why?”
Tom’s sweet brown eyes looked red, like he was close to tears or had been crying. He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter now.”
“Yes, it does. Remember your promise to me that night?”
Nevvie crossed her arms. “What. The.
Hell
? Would you two
please
tell me what is going on?”
The men didn’t look at her, just continued holding each other’s gaze for a long moment. Tom’s finally dropped. “I couldn’t help it, Ty. I’m sorry. The thought of him… I know how much it hurt you, okay? And you’re not the only one with issues.”
“I’m going to bean both of you jerks in a minute,” Nevvie snarked.
Tyler grabbed her hand and gently squeezed. “Just a moment, angel. I promise. I owe you a full explanation.” His gaze never left Thomas. “Love, did you honestly think I would ever even consider it?” he gently asked. “You told me years ago that you wouldn’t even share space with him in my head, remember? And I’ve stuck to that.” He leaned in and kissed Thomas. “Come on, love. Let’s change clothes, order a pizza, and you and I can tell our angel the story. I suppose it’s long overdue.”
Nevvie tried to get him to fess up sooner, but he refused, wouldn’t be rushed. Once their pizza arrived and they were cuddled together in bed, Tyler in the center, he kissed Thomas, then Nevvie, and told her the story.
“I was young. He was a friend of Terry and Bob’s, staying with them in the States for a few months on sabbatical from his teaching job at a university in Brussels. He was older than me, and I was just out of my divorce from Erin. He quickly sensed what buttons to push. I was more than willing to let him.”
He took a deep breath. Some of this, even Thomas hadn’t heard. “He introduced me to a new lifestyle. He was the first man I ever went all the way with, as it were.”
Nevvie’s face darkened. “
That’s
the son of a bitch? If I’d known that, I would have taken a whack at him myself!” Tyler had only told her in the most vague of terms that his first time with a man had been anything but loving and gentle.
“It’s more than that.” He proceeded to tell them about the whole thing, the four evenings with Marcus that ate up a chunk of his self-esteem, along with most of his trust, for several years. The first night when Marcus took Tyler to a BDSM club and introduced him to the Dominance and submission dynamic.
Everything. He even told them about his short-lived interlude with Ray and Oot, how they helped him realize more about himself, only in a positive way.
At the end of Tyler’s story, Tom looked stunned. Nevvie seemed close to tears. Tyler rested his head on Tom’s shoulder. “You have no idea how well you healed my soul, love,” he whispered as he laced his fingers through Tom’s. “You were everything he wasn’t, and even more, you were all that I needed. You loved me for myself, allowed me to take care of you, and in return, you took care of me, too.”
He kissed Tom before he turned to Nevvie. “And you, my darling pet, you were the most angelic of blessings to ever grace our lives. You completed me in ways you could never possibly comprehend. And you’ve made Thomas happy in a way I never could have, even though he would have been content to live only with me for the rest of his life.”
She snuggled tightly against Tyler’s side, reached across him, and found Tom’s other hand. “So we’re basically three…what are they called? Switches?”
Tyler laughed. “Yes, love, it would seem so.” He nuzzled Tom’s head. “How have you put up with me for so long?”
Tom sat up and draped an arm around Tyler’s shoulders. “Because you’ve put up with me, sugar. I got the better end of the bargain. You just haven’t woke up and realized it yet.”
Nevvie cleared out the remnants of their dinner and they snuggled together again.
“Would you mind if I made a request, loves?” Tyler started.
“What’s that?” Tom asked.
Tyler looked at Tom, then at Nevvie. “How about I put myself into both of your hands for the evening? Perhaps it’s far past time I took my turn at being the little slave boy.”
Nevvie pouted. “You said I’d always be your little slave and you’d always be my Master.” They both looked at Tom.
He grinned. “Cool. I get the driver’s seat tonight!”
* * * *
Before they did anything, Nevvie went next door to check on the boys. She stayed with them while Andrew took Harley downstairs for a walk. When she returned to their room, she found Tom had pinned Tyler down on the bed, his body stretched out over him, kissing him.
“Mmm. You started without me. That’s not fair.” She quickly stripped and joined them.
“No,” Tom said, “we were waiting on you. I haven’t started fucking him yet.” From the way his rigid cock stuck out from his body, she knew it’d happen sooner rather than later. “Baby girl, get up there at the head of the bed and spread ’em. Ty, you roll over and show our girl a good time.”
He got up off Tyler. As Tyler rolled over to do it, Tom smacked him on the ass. “You’re going to be the filling in the sandwich tonight buddy.”
Tyler wore a grin as he climbed up the bed and kissed her. Then he dropped down between her spread legs and used his thumbs to spread her labia apart.
“Mmm, you’re already wet, love.”