“Playing in public isn’t my thing."
Landon looked to the hillside beyond Rapture and sighed. “I know.”
The silence stretched between them and it grew into this tangible thing that made Gregory feel uneasy—his leathers suddenly too warm, his skin suddenly too tight. The weight of his life painfully heavy upon his shoulders.
“Why did you do it?” Landon finally broke the silence with a quiet yet terrifyingly important question.
Gregory pulled his head back and huffed out an incredulous sound from the back of his throat. “Why did I do what?”
“Why did you leave me?” Landon asked, resignation coating his words.
“Long distance wasn’t the plan, Landon. Florida was the plan.” Gregory gestured with his arm as though Florida was right there in the parking lot with them.
“Are we really going to do this again?”
“Apparently so if you still think that I was the one who fucked this up.” Gregory gestured again, between them this time.
Landon’s eyes widened and his palms connected with Gregory’s chest, shoving him hard into the side of his car.
“Fuck you, Gregory.” The way Landon sneered his full name made his insides twist in knots.
“Excuse me?” Gregory raised his voice and pushed his shoulder blades away from his car. “Are you living in an alternate reality where you weren’t the one to change our plans and go to a college I didn’t apply to?”
“My parents made me do it, Greg. You know that. If I wanted to go to college, that was it. Columbia or bust.” Landon threw his hands in the air with a dramatic flourish.
“It wasn’t that easy,” Gregory said with a helpless shrug.
“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” Landon shoved him again. “You come into the businessIown, after fucking breaking up with me when we went to college after you said you wouldn’t, and then you act like I should just fall on my fucking knees for you? Resume some fucking games we used to play when we were horny teenagers? Fuck you, Greg.”
Landon was angry, and he’d dropped so much in those few sentences, Gregory didn’t know what part to focus on first.
“Games?” His eyebrows slammed up into his hairline and his blood boiled. Apparently, he was going to start from the back and work his way to the beginning, which was appropriate since they were apparently rehashing their history from now to then. “You think the things we did were fucking games?”
Gregory stabbed a finger in the air toward the front door of Rapture. “You built a fucking business off thosegames, so don’t think for one second I buy that excuse. Are you out of your mind, Landon? You moved to New York, for fucksake. What did you expect from me? Did you really think our relationship would survive over one-thousand and twelve miles?”
Landon’s lip twitched and he narrowed his eyes. “What did I expect? Oh, that’s rich.” Landon turned away from him, then spun to face Gregory again, and his eyes shone with wetness. “I expected you to be there for me, and take care of me, and fucking protect me! Like you always had done. That was the roleyouwanted. So don’t talk to me about what I think is a game or not. This is my life! Rapture is my fucking life, and you didn’t care enough about my life to follow through on the things you promised me then, so you don’t get to care now!”
Landon shook his head and turned to go, but Gregory countered their positions and was the one to shove Landon this time, pressing him against the driver’s door of the car. He held his palm flat against Landon’s chest, and it trembled. Landon’s skin was cold, and the leather of the harness he wore was smooth. Gregory wondered if Landon could feel his hand shaking.
“I may have moved to New York for school, but you’re the one who abandoned me,” Landon whispered, looking toward the light pole in the corner of the parking lot.
Gregory could feel Landon’s heart slamming around in his chest, erratic and quick beneath his palm.
“You abandoned me,” Landon repeated. The light of the parking lot reflected a tear that slid from the corner of Landon’s eye. He ignored it, so Gregory did, too.
“Landon.” Gregory curled his fingers around the leather that crossed Landon’s chest and tugged to get his attention. “We were eighteen.”
Landon shook his head and refused to meet Gregory’s eyes. “Sorry, that’s not a good enough excuse.”
“Jesus, Landon. I’m thirty-five now and I wouldn’t even know how to Dom you from across the country; how did you expect me to do it then?” Gregory raised his voice, desperate for an answer to a question he’d asked himself every day for almost half of his life.
“You should have figured it out,” Landon said, his voice petulant and defeated. “You should have just fucking figured it out.” He turned his stare back to Gregory and his eyes were laced with contempt, and pain, and…
Gregory pulled Landon’s harness until they were chest to chest and he slammed his mouth against Landon’s lips. Landon shifted and struggled, but Gregory swallowed the sounds of his protests until Landon’s body softened and he parted his mouth on a sigh. Gregory cupped his other hand around the back of Landon’s head and kept their mouths together, his tongue diving deep and reacquainting itself with what used to be its second home.
Landon bumped against him and returned the kiss, his tongue dueling with Gregory’s and fighting for purchase in the space between their parted lips. Landon pushed his chest against Gregory’s and sank his teeth into his bottom lip. Gregory winced and could have sworn he felt Landon laugh against his mouth, but as soon as he thought it, Landon was on him again, attacking and devouring every part of Gregory’s mouth he could reach.
He pushed Landon back against the car and boxed him in, breaking the kiss and trailing his mouth down the side of Landon’s neck to his shoulder where he bit down then bucked his hips forward. This was safe, this was something he knew. Not a confrontational argument that would take them in circles with no break in sight. This was a way they could communicate their hurt and their need with each other—like they used to.
