Monty sat in Kendrick’s lap dressed in Rue’s T-shirt, whereas Kendrick remained naked, looking flushed and sexy.
“What time is it?” Rue’s voice was rough like sandpaper as he glanced at the closed curtains, rubbing at his eyes.
“Look, he lives,” Monty said, giggling. “I thought we’d killed you the way you passed out.”
He shuffled a little closer, sliding a hand over Kendrick’s thigh and touching Monty’s knee when Monty didn’t conceal all his worry. “You just fucked my brains out, is all. Maybe you both did.”
“Kendrick sure gave my butt something to think about for the next few days,” Monty stated dramatically as he shifted and winced on Kendrick’s lap.
“I know that feeling.” Rue grinned at Kendrick. “I think next time we should be the ones pounding Kendrick’s ass. What do you say, Monty?”
The light that appeared in Monty’s eyes left Rue catching his breath and his cock twitching. When he glanced at Kendrick, Rue lost his ability to grab hold of his thoughts. The man looked positively wicked as he grinned at him over Monty’s head.
“I think that can be arranged… if you’re up for thechallenge!”
Rue did not know what was going on inside Kendrick’s head, but fuck, he wanted to find out. “We should invest in some full-length mirrors to surround the bed so none of us miss out. What do you think?” He wasn’t sure where that came from, and he blushed at the eyebrow raise Kendrick wore.
“Jeez,” Monty groaned, hand dropping onto the T-shirt, pressing down on his cock, “my ass can’t take another pounding, but talk like that makes me wanna try.”
Rue’s rumbles of tired laughter met Kendrick’s booming chuckles. “Mirrors, you say? I believe I can organize that. But would that be before or after your parents' visit?” It was asked with humor, yet Rue didn’t miss how the light of amusement disappeared from Kendrick’s eyes.
His own narrowed, searching for answers, but finding none in Kendrick’s guarded expression. “They’re staying at Vaughn Winery for their anniversary. Do you want me to invite them to stay here?”
There were three spare bedrooms, except Rue didn’t think that was what Kendrick was getting at. More, it was about their relationship, the dynamic.
“The winery is much nicer for an anniversary,” he replied noncommittally.
Rue nodded in agreement. “It is.” He didn’t look away from Kendrick, but he sensed Monty’s gaze on him. “I was going to ask whether you wanted to go to dinner, both of you, with my parents.” He’d planned on discussing this tomorrow—it was already tomorrow. “I know the winery has a restaurant that’s supposed to be good… if you fancy it?” Did it sound lame?Come officially meet my parents?Was he being presumptive?
“Count me in,” Monty said when Kendrick remained silent, staring at him, a furrow developing between his brows.
“Great,” Rue responded, his heart rate tripping fast enough he felt his hands tremble.
“I’d… love to,” Kendrick murmured softly. “It would be my pleasure toofficiallymeet your parents.”
There it was—the flash of love. It took out all Rue’s self-control. He rolled onto his side and rested his cheek on Kendrick’s knee, blinking back the tears and sucking in a breath.
“And mine,” he whispered.And mine.
Chapter Thirty-One
Monty
Monty was only half paying attention to Ethan as he stamped across the carpet complaining about… he wasn’t sure what. His focus was Rue, who was tapping at his laptop, nodding occasionally to what Ethan was saying.
The weekend had been… this was why he couldn’t concentrate. After last Thursday, where Rue had lost it and revealed what haunted him, he’d beendifferent. Yes, they’d lived together for a couple of weeks, could essentially call themselves a couple—throuple—but it hadn’t felt truly real until the weekend. Was it declaring his love for Rue? Releasing himself from the fear of letting it slip out unintentionally. Kendrick orchestrating him topping Rue where he’d epically lost control? He still couldn’t quite believe Rue had passed out. Monty didn’t know, not for sure, which, if any of these things made the difference.
Kendrick had been different, too. There’d been a tension about him that hadn’t been there before Thursday. Monty had given this a lot of thought, and he had to wonder if it was because of hisdeclaration of love for Rue. Had Kendrick felt excluded? Monty sure would, he didn’t need an in-depth soul searching for that. The guilt left him conflicted because he did have deep feelings for Kendrick, he just wasn’t ready to declare it as love because wasn’t it too soon? It had taken months of knowing Rue before that realization happened. Could he trust himself when the sexual chemistry clouded everything? When Kendrick was near, everything seemed brighter inside Monty, his skin hummed with it. Was that love or sex? Could it be both?
“—what do you think, Monty?”
He blinked Ethan into focus and chewed his thumbnail, searching for anything to give him a clue about what he was talking about.
“Can you repeat that,” he asked, feeling his skin warm when Ethan chuckled and Rue made a snorting noise like he was swallowing back laughter even though he was still tapping at his laptop. The man could clearly multitask where it would appear Monty couldn’t.
“The omegas getting jobs outside of the ranch. Good or bad idea, what do you think?”
“Do they want to? What does Oakland say about this?” Monty had spent time with them every day after the visit to Cassidy the first week. Rue had encouraged this because they seemed more relaxed with him. As far as he could recall, there was no mention of them saying anything about a job off the ranch. He believed Oakland would never approve, and possibly Ethan, the way he hung around a certain omega. Then there was Brier…
