“You’re afraid of fish,” I said dryly as I kept my eyes on Brennan and Tristan who weren’t even trying to hide their amusement.
“Yeah…I mean, I’m okay with like goldfish and stuff, but if the fish don’t look like Nemo or Dory-”
I hung up on Cain and tossed the phone on the dresser.
“Nice,” I said to both men as I approached the bed.
“Problem?” Tristan asked as he and Brennan untangled themselves.
“I suppose we could always go by ourselves-”
I didn’t let Brennan finish his statement because I was on him and Tristan before they could scramble away. I pinned them both to the bed straddling their lower bodies, but in reality, they didn’t seem to be eager to escape me. Fuck, they were going to be the death of me.
Each one of them ran a hand up my bare chest and thenBrennan dragged me down for a kiss. Tristan was next and by the time we were done, we were all panting heavily. I forced myself to climb off of them and said, “I’m not cleaning any fish,” before I went to finish getting dressed.
So much for not getting too comfortable with them.
Chapter 19
BRENNAN
I couldn’t stop staringat them despite telling myself not to. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing was real. But it was and it was all because of Tristan.
I’d had my doubts when he’d woken me up this morning after Memphis had left in the early morning hours. Our impromptu lovemaking session had left us both drained, me probably more so than Tristan and Memphis since it had felt like Memphis had fucked me within an inch of my life and I’d had the added excitement of feeling Tristan’s taut, naked body beneath me. I’d fallen asleep within minutes of Memphis cleaning me off with a damp washcloth and I hadn’t even realized he’d left until Tristan had woken me with tender kisses an hour later. I’d seen the worry in his eyes and it had taken me several long minutes and more than one drugging kiss to get him to tell me what was bothering him.
He’d admitted to me that his plan the night before had been to leave, but that Memphis had stopped him and then asked him to let him hold him. I’d both been upset with Tristan for walking away when he’d told me he wouldn’t, and hurting for Memphis, knowing the level of pain that had to be living inside of him, but Tristan hadkissed me before I could lay into him and then he’d asked me a simple question.
Did you mean what you said about wanting to figure things out between the three of us?
When I’d said yes, he’d told me his plan and I’d felt the hope inside of me grow. We’d spent another hour just working through the details of how we would get Memphis to see that he needed us both and then we’d gone into the living room to wait. Because no matter what, we knew Memphis would never come to us. That meant we would have to go to him and then we’d have to stick by him until he saw that a relationship between the three of us could work. It had to work.
The fishing trip had also been Tristan’s idea and he’d been the one to ask Phoenix for his help. Cain had been a potential sticking point since we had no idea if he’d go along with us, but Phoenix had promised he’d take care of Cain. The look on Memphis’s face as he’d spoken with Cain had been priceless, but the fact that he hadn’t been angry with us for how we’d manipulated the situation had just been proof that Tristan had been right.
Memphis was ours – we just had to fight a little harder to show him that.
We’d headed to Tristan’s fathers’ island house after calling Beck to see if he was interested in tagging along, but he hadn’t answered his phone and a call to Cade had proven that Beck wasn’t up for the trip. We knew what that meant since the young man’s battle with depression was an ongoing thing and we could only hope that things would soon start looking up for our friend. Cade had said we could come visit later in the week if we were interested and we’d readily agreed, since Tristan’s bruise would be healed by then and his finger could easily be explained away by the lie that he’d fallen off his bike.
The fishing trip had gone better than either of us could have even hoped for even though it had taken Memphis a little while to relax and enjoy himself. But as soon as he had…
There were just no words for how different he looked when he smiled, when he laughed. I’d been in awe of him and I’d been in awe of Tristan for the natural way he seemed able to drawMemphis out. And not once had I felt even a spark of envy because Tristan’s gift to draw people to him was one of the many things about him that I’d fallen in love with so long ago.
We’d fished for hours and had caught nearly a dozen smaller fish, but our prize had come near the end of the day as the sun had started to set and Memphis had reeled in a salmon. The excitement as he’d hauled the fish on board had been infectious, and I’d actually had to look away at one point so I wouldn’t burst into tears at the sight of therealMemphis – the one who took such great pains to hide himself away from the world and us.
But the best part of the day had come as I’d been driving the boat back to Logan and Dom’s beautiful secluded home on the northern tip of the island. Memphis had been standing at the front of the boat taking in the view when Tristan had joined him. They hadn’t spoken to one another, hadn’t even touched at first. Memphis had merely looked down at Tristan and then without preamble, he’d pulled Tristan in front of him and placed him so that his back was to Memphis’s front. And then Memphis had wrapped his arms around Tristan and held him that way until the dock had come into view. I’d been sure things couldn’t get better than that, but when I’d gotten off the boat, our catch in one hand, I’d been stunned speechless when Memphis had taken my hand in his for the short walk back to the house. He’d put his other arm around Tristan’s shoulders and tugged him against his side and for those few brief moments, I’d had a glimpse of what we could be together.
And now I had another one because while I was frying up our catch for dinner, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Tristan and Memphis as they set the table. They teased and laughed at one another as they argued over what the proper place setting should look like and Memphis finally won out by grabbing Tristan and kissing him senseless.
“You’re going to burn those,” Memphis said as his gaze shifted to me and I forced my attention back on the fish. I hoped like hell my staring at them hadn’t ruined the moment, but I knew all was good when Memphis came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I forgot about the fish entirely as his lips skimmedmy neck and then his mouth was on mine. The kiss wasn’t nearly long enough, but the feel of his cock against my ass had me imagining what it would be like if he bent me over the kitchen counter while Tristan knelt between my legs.
“Not in my dads’ kitchen,” Tristan said with a gentle slap on my arm to get my attention and then he was smiling and pushing both me and Memphis out of the way so he could take over the cooking. I’d been surprised that Memphis had agreed to spend the night at Dom and Logan’s house so that we could cook the fish and not have to worry about trying to catch the last ferry to the mainland.
I turned in Memphis’s arms and languidly kissed him as Tristan finished cooking our dinner, and only managed to tear myself away from the other man when I heard the alarm on Tristan’s phone go off reminding him to take his medicine. I automatically began searching out the pills when Memphis said, “Already got them,” and held up Tristan’s pill storage container.
It took just a few minutes to get the food on the table, but I actually didn’t relax until Tristan took all of his medicine. But if he noticed the extra attention, he didn’t say anything. I couldn’t help the worry that was going through me as my thoughts drifted to what it would mean if Tristan’s test results in a few days proved it wasn’t just a blip and that the HIV in his system had started to multiply despite the antiretroviral therapy that had been controlling the disease for most of his life. I was surprised when I felt a hand on my knee under the table and I turned to see Memphis watching me with understanding. I dropped my hand to grab his and squeezed hard in response to his silent message. Yes, we would handle it, no matter what happened.
“Memphis,” Tristan said after he swallowed down nearly his whole glass of milk. “I have to know – did your parents name you Memphis because you guys lived there or something?”
Memphis released my hand and at first I was worried that the question bothered him, but he simply picked up his knife and began eating with gusto. “No, my parents were living in England when I was born.”
