“Talk to you later, Matt.”
Bryce killed the call, dropped the phone on the pile of his clothing on Tom’s bedroom floor, and slid back under the covers beside Tom. “Sorry about that,” he said.
“You needed to take it,” Tom said. “What’s going on out there?”
“Jax has rolled over on Steadman,” Bryce said, filled with grim satisfaction. “And once she heard he was talking, it seems that her ego got the better of her common sense because they now have a confession from her, justifying what she did as being for the greater good. She basically says that the rest of the Council are a bunch of vainglorious fools whose stance on integration will plunge the shifter community into disaster. Apparently only her leadership and vision can save us.”
“I can’t disagree with the fools part,” Tom said frankly. “But I think she’s overstating the position just a bit. She’s a politician to the bitter end, obviously.”
“You think shifters are going to be okay, then?” Bryce was profoundly glad that she would be punished for the things she’d done, terrible things that were somehow made worse because of the way she seemed truly to have believed that her good intentions justified them, but his stomach had clenched at her predictions of what lay ahead for shifters in this country.
“Bennett’s not a complete numbskull,” Tom said, “though don’t ever quote me on that. He can read the political runes as well as anyone. And in the meantime, his allies are dying off—literally, at their age—and a new generation’s coming through, voted in by people like Tristan who don’t remember the bad old days and who don’t automatically see all non-shifters as the enemy. It’ll be okay.”
There was certainty in his voice, and Bryce’s anxiety faded as he snuggled happily closer to Tom under the covers. They’d spent the last hour kissing, and holding one another, and talking, and then kissing some more, in between Bryce sliding slow and easy all the way into Tom until he was gasping Bryce’s name. Bryce had been speechless at Tom’s capacity for forgiveness. For love.
“I’m sorry,” he said, as regret welled up inside him again. He pressed a kiss against Tom’s warm shoulder. “I’d give anything not to have hurt you like that.”
“Don’t.” Tom’s voice was serious. “If this is going to work between us, you can’t spend the rest of your life apologizing for one mistake. It’s not fair to either of us. I need to know you’re with me because you want to be, not because you feel guilty.”
Bryce drew in a sharp breath. He hadn’t seen it that way. And somehow, Tom’s quiet command only made Bryce wanthim more. That strength was part of what had pulled him in from the start.
“So, our second date?” Bryce said, recovering his balance. “I hate to be clichéd after you went to such effort today to show me a good time, but I was thinking dinner and a movie. As long as there’s more of that chaste kissing at the end.”
“Yeah, quite a day, wasn’t it?” Tom said, and sighed. He lay looking up at the ceiling, and Bryce didn’t know what to make of the expression on his face.
TOM
Thoughts tumbled around inside Tom’s head. So much had happened, and the ground had shifted so many times beneath his feet that he scarcely knew how to make sense of it all. The one thing that did make sense was the man lying beside him, quietly waiting for him to work out what it was he wanted to say.
“Bennett asked me to head up the temporary security detail until things get resolved,” he said at last. He rolled over and propped himself up on one arm to look at Bryce. “I don’t know that I want to keep working for the Council,” he confessed. Because he used to believe in what they stood for, but he’d never be able to trust any of them again.
“I can understand that,” Bryce said.
Which wasn’t particularly helpful of him, not expressing an opinion either way.
“There’s no rush to decide though, is there?” he added, when Tom said nothing.
Tom relaxed. Bryce was right. It would be wrong to make a life-changing decision too quickly after today’s events. Perhaps he’d take some vacation time and visit his family and pack in Maine. He missed them, and every shifter needed to feel part ofa pack. But then he realized that spending time in Maine would mean leaving Bryce, and he didn’t want to do that.
“You know you’ve always got a home in Elk Ridge, but that doesn’t mean we have to live there,” Bryce said, almost as if he’d read Tom’s mind. “We can go anywhere, do anything you want.”
Except Tom had some idea how much that pack meant to Bryce, and he to them. Maybe some sort of compromise would be possible and they could split their time between DC and Elk Ridge. Perhaps they could get a place together in DC.
It would be somewhere the exact opposite of this apartment, though—somewhere warm and possibly a bit shabby, butcomfortable.Somewhere they could spend hours making out on the couch if they wanted, and it would feel right because it was their home.
And then he realized just what couch his mind had conjured up—dark brown leather, a little beat-up, and strangely enough,exactlylike the one back at the ranch house. It dawned on him that perhaps they already had a home and wouldn’t need to sign the lease for a DC apartment after all.
The thought settled in him with unexpected calm. He’d given years to this work, to what he thought heshouldbe. Even being with Zack—he’d believed that was the life he was supposed to want. The polished partnership, the politics, the ambition. He’d let the role define him.
And maybe that was the problem. It had never really been a fit. Not for who he was.
He traced his fingers over Bryce’s chest, the touch grounding him. Letting go didn’t feel like falling—it felt like freedom. Freedom to choose something better.
“Tell me,” he said, and there was a smile in his voice, “are there many job opportunities for an ex-National Council aide in Elk Ridge?”
BRYCE
Bryce’s breath caught as happiness bubbled inside him, so intense it seemed to seep out of every pore, filling the room, the entire city, with joy.
