Not wanting to be a passive participant, Niko moved out from under the two of them and slid down the bed urging Vidar to turn onto his side. He ran his hands down Vidar’s chest while he mouthed at the bulge fighting to get out of the black material. Easing down the waistband, he pulled down until Vidar’s cock sprang free, flushed and hard, and pointing straight up to his belly. Niko nearly groaned at the sight, leaning in to run the flat of his tongue from the base to the tip. Somewhere in the back of his brain, he was afraid this was going to be his only chance to ever touch and taste and be with Vidar like this. He didn’t want to waste it.
Strong fingers threaded through his hair as he licked and teased the tip before sealing his lips around the head and sucking hard.
“Goddamn, Niko.” Vidar’s voice sounded like gravel, and the fingers in his hair spasmed. He met the blue eyes looking down at him. Vidar had pulled off Rocco’s cock, but was stroking him with rough looking twists of his wrist. Roc stared down at him as well, pupils completely lost in the ring of his blissed out eyes. A sudden, powerful feeling welled up in his chest. Now it was him holding these two men hostage. The desire in their gazes spurred him on. Keeping his lips in a tight ring, he lowered his mouth as far as he could and began sucking hard and fast. He used his hand to make up the difference, alternating pressure and trying to learn all the little sounds Vidar was making. Somewhere above him, Roc let out a strangled groan. Vidar’s cock swelled against his tongue. Vidar tugged at his hair, but he only sucked harder, held on tighter.
Vidar came with a deep grunt while his cum hit the back of Niko’s throat. Niko hummed around him, sucking gently until Vidar started to soften. Hands reached for him, gripping under his armpits and hauling him up the bed. Vidar flipped him, setting him between Roc’s spread thighs and pressing his back to Rocco’s chest where Roc was leaning against the headboard. Vidar leaned in, pressing a sloppy kiss to Niko’s lips before he swooped down and swallowed Niko to the root. Niko came with a shout, the sensation of Vidar’s throat massaging him blowing his mind and emptying his balls.
He let his full weight rest back on Roc. Roc’s hands trailed patterns all over his chest and arms as he pressed kisses along Niko’s throat and shoulder. Resting his head on Niko’s leg, Vidar ran his hand up Niko’s body, finding his hand and twining their fingers together.
Niko caught one of Roc’s hands with his other and hoped that he’d get to hold on to both of them from now on.
Chapter Ten
Niko’s back hit the mat with a thud. Luca landed on top of him, quickly moving to a side mount position, kneeing him in the side in the process. Rory chuckled from his place beside the mat, arms crossed, looking down at them, his sweat-soaked red hair sticking straight up. He’d just finished going a few rounds with Andre, and Niko wasn't convinced that he hadn't had Luca and him take over a drill just so he could catch a break.
"Nice takedown, Luca," Rory said, squatting down, balancing on the balls of his feet and placing his elbows on his knees. "Now, hold him there and try to get control of one of his legs so you can maneuver over to a full mount."
Niko grunted, shifting his hips to the side to counter the move his brother was trying to make, but he wasn't fast enough. Luca scrambled, throwing his leg over, completely bypassing Niko's attempt at guard, and gaining full mount position. Since that had been the point of the exercise, Niko went limp beneath him, and Luca threw his arms up in victory. It made Niko smile because there was a time not so very long ago that regardless of how well Luca performed a drill or won a spar, he would never have celebrated, not even a little bit. So while Luca’s arms dropped back down quickly, and he didn't make a sound—not a shout of victory or a word of good-natured trash talk—Niko was still proud to see him taking that little bit of pride in himself.
"Great job, Luca," Andre said as he stepped back beside Rory, water bottle in his hand. Andre was new to the gym and had come to seek Rory's training after losing two professional MMA fights. It was hard for Niko to imagine him losing a fight, even though he watched them both on TV—one against Harbor and the other against some Gregor guy—because Andre in the cage or on the mat was amazing to see. Niko was still surprised by the grace and power that the fighters exuded every time they stepped onto the mat, and while he didn't have delusions that he would ever be as skilled as they were, he couldn't help but take some pride in himself, as well, for putting in the time and training to learn how to move his body like that.
Luca climbed off him and offered a hand to pull him up. Niko clasped it and used his brothers sturdiness to haul himself to his feet. He leaned in close and gave Luca a little smile. “Good job, Bub."
Luca met his eyes and smiled back. "Thanks. Want to go to Mabel’s for lunch today? Ollie was saying he and Dagen and some others were going to go if we want to join."
“That sounds good.” Niko nodded and noticed how Luca’s eyes drifted from his face to a spot over his shoulder. When Luca kept staring and didn’t acknowledge that Niko had responded, Niko glanced back, catching sight of the hottie detective Luca had been stealing glances at ever since he’d joined the gym earlier in the month.
“You want to go say hi?” Niko asked quietly. The guy’s name was Clark. Niko remembered from when he’d signed the gym contracts just after Vidar started advertising the discounted membership for police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and any first responder. Niko was also pretty sure that Clark was old friends with Vidar and Rocco as he’d seen him speak to both in that familiar way old friends do.
“‘What?” Luca started, and turned wide eyes back to him. “No.” He shook his head, maybe a little too rapidly.
Niko held in his sigh. He’d never rush Luca, never push for him to go faster than his own pace, but he wanted all the good things for his brother. If the look Luca got on his face when Clark was in the gym was any indication, getting to know Clark could be a very good thing. “Okay. I mean, you obviously have at least one thing in common with him, and maybe even some common friends. It wouldn’t be weird to just say hi and introduce yourself.”
Luca swallowed hard, looked for half a second like he might be thinking about it, then deflated before Niko’s eyes. “I know you’re right...but I can’t. I’m going to go upstairs and shower.”
“Okay.” Niko watched him walk across the gym. He wondered if Clark was even gay or bisexual. He thought he’d noticed the detective sending a few of his own appreciative glances Luca’s way during some of their training sessions, but there were a lot of bodies moving around the gym, so sometimes it was hard to tell.
He wondered how close of friends Clark and Rocco might be. Perhaps a little test was in order, and he knew just what to do. It would confirm whether Clark was interested in men and would also give Luca the chance to speak to his crush without any pressure at all.
Walking toward the door to Open Wounds, he smiled to himself. He pushed the glass door open, turning his smile on Kayla where she sat behind the front desk.
“Hey, Nik, how’d training go? Luca just rushed through here like his ass was on fire,” Kayla said, sounding both amused and concerned. Niko had liked her from the moment they’d met. She was fun, smart, brutally honest, and a really good boss.
“Hey. Training was good actually, but you know who is out there today, so I may have prodded Luca a little.”
“Ooooh.” One of Kayla’s dark eyebrows lifted. Her black hair was down today, flowing like silk over her shoulders, and Niko could see the edges of her full-sleeve tattoos under the long-sleeved Open Wounds t-shirt she wore. “Didn’t go well, I take it?”
“Not as bad as I expected, actually. He looked for a moment like he might someday consider speaking to him.”
“Hey,” Kayla said, her green eyes lighting up. “That’s progress!”
“What’s progress?” Vidar asked, stepping out from the hallway that led back to the tattoo rooms.
Just as it had been all week, Niko’s reaction to Vidar’s proximity was visceral—palms going swe
aty, heart jack-hammering in his chest. They hadn’t spoken much since Sunday morning. To Niko’s dismay, Vidar had gone back to being his distant, taciturn self with only the most random touches sprinkled into their everyday routine, but not one kiss. For his part, Niko refused to treat the morning they’d shared like it was a one-time thing, and although the disappointment of Vidar’s continued distance stung, Niko was determined to wear him down.
It didn’t help that Roc had caught another case. Surveillance on someone’s cheating wife this time, and he’d barely been around all week. He was supposed to be wrapping that up this afternoon though, as he’d found all the evidence a wronged husband could ever need, and Niko couldn’t wait for him to get back. He wanted them to do an entirely different type of wrapping up, and he wanted Vidar there for it.
“Can I talk to you?” he said suddenly, completely cutting off whatever Vidar and Kayla were saying to each other. A flush crept up his face, but he held his ground and didn’t move his eyes from the intensity building in Vidar’s blue ones.
“Sure,” Vidar said. “Let’s go to my office.”
Niko followed him back, the sweaty palm situation only getting worse with every step down the hallway. As soon as they were through the door, Niko shut it and flipped the lock with a decisive click.
“Look, Nik—”
Not willing to hear excuses or to deal with the distance between them, Niko took one big step forward, grabbed Vidar’s shoulders and jumped. Just like he knew they would, Vidar’s hands gripped his ass, catching him as he wrapped legs and arms around his stubborn Viking.
“You look,” he said, staring straight into Vidar’s eyes. “If you don’t want me, don’t want Roc, that’s...well, that will suck, but we’ll deal. But I need you to tell me. I’ve been floundering all week wanting to be close to you, wanting you to be there when Roc and I lay down at night. You should be, you know?”
Vidar sighed, adjusting his grip on Niko as he walked over to the couch and sat down. Niko shifted so that he was straddling Vidar’s thighs, but kept his arms looped around Vidar’s neck. “I noticed his car has been here every morning.”
Niko lifted one shoulder. “We’re dating. I like having him close. And it’s the only time I’ve really gotten to see him since he picked up this case.”
“That’s done today, isn’t it?” Vidar had his hands rested on Niko’s hips and gave them a little squeeze.
“Yes.” Niko watched him from inches away. “Where have you been all week? I noticed you didn’t agree to not wanting me or him, so what is it?”
“I’ve been home.” Vidar stopped there, and for a moment, Niko didn’t think he was going to continue. “I’m not sure what you want me to say. I think it’s obvious I’m attracted to both of you, but that doesn’t automatically translate into a relationship.”
Niko narrowed his eyes. “Are you being mean on purpose? Or do you think I’m stupid? I get that attraction doesn’t equate to wedding bells, but are you really going to say that you don’t feel anything at all for Roc?”
“Roc and I are complicated. There’s a lot of history there.”
Groaning, Niko scrubbed his hands over his face. “That neither of you will tell me! If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been ending up squished between the two of you on a fairly regular basis.” When Vidar opened his mouth, Niko cut him off. “That wasn’t a complaint. Being the middle in your hot man sandwich is basically my favorite place to be, but that’s not all I want it to be. Do you get that? I want you and I want him.” Taking a deep breath, Niko bit his lip in an attempt to keep the rising tide of emotion from cresting right up and out of him. “And I want you both to want me the same way I want you.”
A muscle in Vidar’s jaw ticked, but Niko didn’t think he was mad. There was something else going on behind those blue eyes. Silence settled between them, then Vidar was tugging him closer, pulling Niko down until he was pressed flush to Vidar’s chest with his face tucked against the side of Vidar’s throat.
When his words came, they were quiet. “I do want you. Which you have to know shocked the shit out of me because it’s always been Roc. Since we were in junior high. Even when I thought I’d never see him again.”
Niko brought one hand up and fisted his fingers in Vidar’s shirt. “What happened?”
Tension thrummed through Vidar. Niko pressed a kiss to his chest.
“We were fifteen. One day after school, Magnus and I thought it’d be fun to sneak Rory and Roc over for the hour we were home alone before Mom got home from picking up Harbor and Dagen. Roc and I were in my room, fooling around when the door burst open and my dad comes storming in. He grabbed Roc first, by the back of his neck, and drug him out into the living room.” Vidar paused, his chest rising and falling with the force of his breath. “I was right behind them, yelling at my dad to let Roc go. He raised his hand like he was going to hit Roc, and I grabbed his fist, pulling back with all my weight, then kicked him in the back of the knee.”
Niko raised his head, needing to see Vidar’s face. There were shadows living in the depths of his blue eyes, like he could see it all happening as it did then.
“Of course, that only pissed my dad off. He was a big man. Not quite as tall or broad as Dagen, but close. Roc squirmed out of his grip, and I put myself between them. Dad was screaming all kinds of bullshit obscenities at us. I don’t really remember the words. Just the rage. Rory and Magnus were in the room by then, and I yelled at Rory for him and Roc to get out of there. They didn’t want to go, but I knew if they stayed it’d be worse. Rory finally grabbed Roc and ran for the back door. When Dad moved like he was going to go after them, spewing some bullshit about them trying to turn his sons gay, Magnus and I got in front of him. Tried to talk to him.” Vidar swallowed. “He hit Magnus, sent him head first into the wall, then went after him again. I couldn’t let that happen.” Vidar met Niko’s gaze with dry eyes and the most detached look on his face Niko had ever seen. “He beat me until I could barely walk. Mom coming home is probably the only reason I’m still alive. She left him that day. Packed us each a couple changes of clothes, piled us in the car, and drove to Rory’s. We stayed with his family for a few days until Mom found us a little apartment. I never saw my dad again.”
“And Roc?”
“His parents didn’t like the thought of having a gay son either, so they shipped him off to Italy to stay with his grandmother. I didn’t see him again until a couple years ago. He tried to keep in touch with me at first, but I wasn’t in any kind of headspace for that.”
There was a knock on the door, followed by Roc’s low, “It’s me,” from the other side.
Chapter Eleven
Roc didn’t like being on the other side of the door from the conversation happening inside Vidar’s office. He’d never heard the events of that day from Vidar’s perspective because they’d never talked about it. Not once, in all the years since. His first instinct had been to make his presence known, but he’d decided not to interrupt and let Vidar get the words out without worrying about how Roc would feel hearing them recounted.
God, that had been a terrible fucking day. His whole life had changed in a matter of hours; ripped away from Vidar, ripped away from his home, made to feel disgusting and unworthy of love. In the end, the joke had been on his parents, though. Grandma Zanetti was a strict woman, but she had loved him, just as he was. It didn’t matter to her that her grandson had been caught making out with a boy. He missed her more than he could say, and he hadn’t spoken to his parents in a long time. They still lived in their big cookie cutter house in one of the city’s suburbs, but since Grandma had passed, he hadn’t quite mustered up the energy to keep trying to have a relationship with them beyond a couple of phone calls a year with his mother.
When Vidar’s words got back around to what had happened to Rocco after he and Rory had fled, he knocked on the door. “It’s me.”
A moment later, the door opened and Vidar stepped back to let him pass before shutting it a
gain. Niko was on the couch, sadness written into every line of his face. Roc tried to smile at him, but it felt like more of a grimace, like he was trying to deflect a blow. He turned to face Vidar, who was still standing in front of the door, arms crossed over his chest. Stepping into his space, he took Vidar’s face in his hands, leaned in, and kissed him softly.
“Hey,” he whispered, the hairs of Vidar’s mustache catching on his lips. It took a couple more kisses, but the tension in Vidar’s body drained away and he lowered his arms to wrap them around Roc’s waist. “You okay?”
Vidar nodded. “You hear all that?”
“Enough.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t keep in touch.”
One side of Roc’s mouth lifted. “That’s okay. We’re here now, aren’t we?”
Blowing out a slow breath, Vidar pressed his forehead to Roc’s. “I don’t know how good I’m going to be at this.”
“We’ll figure it out together.” Roc slid one hand down Vidar’s arm, pulling it away from his body so he could lace their fingers together and tug him toward the couch. Vidar went easily and they settled on either side of a tear streaked Niko—who immediately climbed into Roc’s lap and hugged him tight.
“Hey,” Roc said, rubbing a hand up and down Niko’s back. “It’s okay, baby. Look at me.”
Niko raised up just as Vidar pressed himself fully against Rocco’s side so Niko could look at both of them. “I’m so sorry you both had to go through that. And it makes me love Stella even more now.”
Roc smiled. “Stella is amazing.”
“That she is,” Vidar agreed. “I’m sorry I pulled back this week without saying anything.”
“It’s okay as long as you don’t do it again,” Niko said, leaning in and pressing a kiss to each of their lips.
“Are we really going to try to do this?” Vidar looked between the two of them.
Open Wounds: The Boxed Set Page 42
