“No shit,” I grumbled to myself. “You just turned my life upside down.”
I crawled out of bed and padded around the empty apartment in my boxers until I found my robe thrown behind the curtain in my bedroom. I tugged the scratchy wool around my shoulders, then threw myself onto the bed. I grabbed an old cup of coffee that was sitting out and took a sip of the cold, bitter liquid.
What the fuck was that all about?
I rubbed my face in my hands and groaned. Emotions surged through my body as I thought about the night before.
It was so fucked up. Touching Rip was always like this special kind of electricity. His fingers just found my nerves and pressed the parts of me that needed to be pressed. And even though I had barely touched Clark, for some reason, his body was instantly familiar. I knew just the things to do to make him unravel, and it gave me a surge of pleasure whenever he whimpered or quivered.
But together? The two of them together? Shoving my cock into Clark’s greedy, puffy mouth and having Rip rubbing his dick against my shaft?
Fucked up.
Things weren’t supposed to feel that good. I wasn’t supposed to feel the fucking lightning storm of Rip’s grip and the wet warmth of Clark’s mouth at the same time.
I wasn’t supposed to feel a part of something so big.
I chugged the rest of the coffee, then forced myself to get going. I jumped into a pair of black denim overalls and a thermal shirt and threw some bacon on the stove while I glanced at my social media. There were a few messages inquiring about appointments, and an alert that one local tattoo artist with a lot of followers had reposted my picture.
I made myself hustle all day to keep my mind busy. Anytime I paused, those emotions would surge through my body. I felt pissed at Rip for some reason, but at the same time, all I wanted to do was to see him. I thought about the two guys leaving together in the morning and then almost drove to the comic book store to see Clark, right then and there.
I was a fucking maniac about it, basically. And even when I drove to do a couple of piercings and posted some new photos to my feed, my mind wasn’t far from the night before.
Rip texted me toward the end of the day and asked me to meet him up at the camping spot from a few weeks ago. I was eating a burger at the drive-in when I got the message, and the second I washed down the milkshake, I drove my truck straight toward the spot. With my sleeping bag already in the back and a full belly, nothing else seemed to matter, just getting there.
Rip showed up just as quickly, thank fucking god.
The sun was setting behind the tall trees and casting big shadows across the rocky cliffs when Rip pulled in and parked his old car right by my truck. I was in the back of the truck with a can of beer open, and I took a swig from it as I swung my legs, hitting my boot against the tire. “What’s the matter?” I asked, gesturing to the view behind me. “You need a bunch of mountains to talk to me now?”
Rip pulled the back of his hand across his lips, then nodded. “You going to make this hard on me?” he asked.
I sighed, then extended my hand. Rip grabbed it, and I pulled him beside me on the truck bed. “What am I supposed to say?” I asked. “It’s not like you’ve hooked up with a guy I was dating before.” I chuckled and shook my head. “Hell, everyone in Detroit knew, once you hooked up with one of us, the other was off-limits forever.”
“Is that what it felt like to you?” Rip asked, squinting. “Like me and Clark were hooking up?”
I clenched my jaw together, then sighed. “No,” I said. “It was different than that.”
Rip grabbed a beer from the case, then flipped it open. “That’s not why I’m here to talk about, though.”
I laughed, then swung my boot against the tire again. “Oh yeah? You want to have a casual chat about the news or something?” I thought about it for a second longer, then gritted my teeth. Heat rose up in my chest, and anger flickered in the edges of my vision. “What the hell else is there to talk about right now, Rip? Something more important than Clark?”
“I’m here to talk about us, Mars. You and me.”
I released the breath I had been holding. “What do you mean?”
Rip stood up and turned to face me. He laid his hands on my knees and leaned forward, almost like we were going to kiss. With our bodies squared, he kept his eyes focused on me, then nodded.
“I love you, Mars. Do you know that?”
My mouth went dry. The wind rustled through the trees, and the world seemed to spin around us. I opened my mouth, then shook my head.
“No. Yes. You love me?”
“I do,” Rip said. “I love you, and I’ve always loved you.”
Tears stung the corner of my eyes, and an ache tore through my chest. “What?” I asked, shaking my head back and forth. “I mean, I love you, too. Of course I love you, Rip. You’re my best friend.”
“Not like that,” he said. “Like this.”
