Waiting for Them

by Alie Nolan

  After game night the night before, I’d come home with Max, and then told him I was heading out with Wyatt for a bit. I hadn’t been sure I was going to stay the night at Caleb and Elliott’s so I hadn’t told Max whether he should expect me home or not.

  He sighed.

  I followed him back into the lounge, and he pointed to the sofa. “Sit.”

  I felt like I was about to be told off.

  “Where were you, really?” he asked. “I know you weren’t with Wyatt, because I went to the pub after you left, where I ran into Wyatt, who seemed to have absolutely no idea where you were.”

  Bollocks.

  “I… I was…” I couldn’t seem to come up with a better lie.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I retrieved it, hoping that looking at whatever the notification was would give me the time to think of a better lie.

  It was a message in Elliott, Caleb, and my group chat. I opened it and an obscene photo popped up in the feed—Caleb on his knees, his gorgeous lips wrapped around Elliott’s thick erection.

  I had to stifle a moan that tried to escape me as I looked at the photo.

  I would definitely be wanking to that photo later.

  I felt my face heating the longer I looked at the photo, and then I remembered I was sitting on the sofa next to Max.

  I looked up to find him watching me expectantly.

  “Holy fuck,” he exclaimed. “You’re seeing someone!”

  “N-no, I’m not,” I said hurriedly.

  “Liar!” he insisted. “You’re seeing someone. Someone that just texted you something naughty. Your face is as red as a tomato right now, and I swear you nearly moaned a minute ago. Who is it? Who are you seeing?”

  I didn’t say anything. I was neither going to confirm nor deny it. Mostly because I wasn’t sure what information might slip out if I opened my mouth.

  Literally, three hours ago, we’d agreed that we were going to keep our relationship a secret, and I was five seconds away from fucking that up.

  “I need to piss,” I blurted, and all but sprinted to the toilet.

  I opened my contacts on my phone and pressed Caleb’s name because his name came up before Elliott’s alphabetically. I didn’t care which one of them I spoke to, I just needed help from one of them.

  “Did you enjoy the picture that much, you wanted to have some fun over the phone?”

  “What?” I said dumbly, and then realised what he was referring to. “Shit, the picture, yeah, it was hot as fuck.”

  “What’s wrong?” Elliott asked.

  “You’re on speaker,” Caleb said.

  “I’m under interrogation from Max, and I’m about to cave. He’s already guessed that I’m involved with someone, and he is demanding to know who. We said we were going to keep it a secret, so I’m freaking out, but he knows me too well. I know he’s going to see through every single lie I try to tell him.”

  “Calm down,” Caleb soothed. “You can tell him, it’s fine.”

  “Are you sure?” I checked. “That wasn’t the plan though.”

  “Things rarely go to plan, baby,” I could hear the smile in Caleb’s voice. “It’s fine, honestly. Plus, I’m sure he’ll understand why we’re not ready to tell everyone yet.”

  “Elliott, thoughts?” I asked, needing to make sure he was on the same page as Caleb.

  “I’m with Caleb, baby, tell him.”

  If they both kept calling me ‘baby’ my brain was going to turn to mush before I even got the chance to talk to Max. Hearing the endearment from one of them, let alone both of them in the same conversation, had a kaleidoscope of butterflies fluttering around in my stomach.

  After we ended the call, I took a few deep breaths and tried to psych myself up in the mirror, before heading back to the lounge.

  I dragged my feet as I walked, trying to move as slowly as possible, hoping to delay the conversation as long as possible.

  What if he judged me for dating two men?

  What if he thought it was a bad idea to get involved with someone who was, at one point, like a family member?

  Out of all my worries, him telling anyone wasn’t one of them. I knew he’d take a secret of mine to the grave. We were two of the few people in our family who didn’t spread gossip like it was butter on toast.

  I sat back down next to Max.

  “Spill,” he smirked.

  “I’m dating Caleb and Elliott,” I blurted.

  “You’re what?” He shrieked. “Say that one more time, I’m sure I heard you wrong.”

  I shook my head. “You didn’t. I’m dating Caleb and Elliott.”

  “Caleb and Elliott, as in married couple, brother and brother-in-law of Jake, Caleb and Elliott?” He asked.

  “Those are the ones, yes.”

  “Both of them?”

  “Both of them,” I nodded.

  I launched into a brief rundown of everything.

  From flirting with them at our birthday party, to them asking me out, to my talk with Wyatt, to us agreeing that we were in a relationship now.

  Max sat quietly and listened as I spoke, the concern that had appeared on his face when I’d first told him, slowly easing as I continued.

  “You’re happy?” he asked.

  “I am,” I answered, a big grin splitting my face.

  I knew it was still really early days in our relationship, but I truly was happy to be with Caleb and Elliott.

  He nodded his head. “As long as they treat you right, then that’s all I can ask of them. I’m not going to pretend I’m not taken aback though. You’ve never dated anyone, and now you’ve jumped into dating two people. That was not what I was expecting.”

  “Can you keep this just between us?” I pleaded. “We’re not sure how to tell Jake yet. We don’t want everyone else finding out and it getting back to him before we have a chance to talk to him about it.”

  “Of course.” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me into a hug. “I won’t tell a soul, I swear. I’m happy for you, Matty.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I want to hang out with them, just us, away from the family. Get to know them as my brother’s boyfriends, rather than my cousin’s brothers… fuck that was a weird sentence to say.”

  “Yeah, don’t think about it too hard, it starts sounding like an episode of Jeremy Kyle if you overthink it.”

  Max laughed and hugged me again before standing and moving towards the door.

  “Oh, one more thing,” Max said.

  “Shoot.”

  “You and Caleb, you two were together when we were kids, weren’t you?” he asked.

  “Um… yes, we were. How did you know?”

  “I could feel how heartbroken you were when he left,” he smiled sympathetically. “More so than anyone else was. I never brought it up, because I assumed if you wanted to talk about it with me, you would have done.”

  “We were too young to make anything real work. Looking back, with the family situation and everything, us being together wasn’t right for us back then.”

  “But it is now?”

  “Yeah, it is.” I said it with utter confidence, not a doubt in my mind.

  TWENTY

  Elliott

  Caleb and I walked into the bar we’d agree to meet Matty and Max at for a few drinks.

  The bar was only about a twenty-minute walk from our house, but neither of us planned on having more than a drink or two, so we’d decided to drive to the bar instead of walking.

  We held hands as we made our way further into the bar, squeezing past people and scanning the crowds in search of the two brunets.

  Caleb spotted them at a table on the far side of the room and pointed in their direction.

  There was music playing, but not too loudly that the four of us wouldn’t be able to have a conversation.

  I felt flutters of nerves in my stomach as we approached the table. This was the first person in Matty’s family that knew about our relationship, and whil
e we’d interacted with Max several times, this was the first time we would be hanging out with him as his brother’s boyfriends. I didn’t want this to go badly.

  As we reached the table, I wondered whether I should greet Matty with a kiss or not. I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about kissing around Max, since this was all still so new.

  He took the decision out of my hands though, because he sprang out of his seat and flung his arms around me, kissing me swiftly before doing the same to Caleb.

  “Hi,” he greeted us.

  “Hi,” I smiled.

  Max stood and gave Caleb and I each a hug, before we all sat down at the table.

  I sat next to Max, and Caleb and Matty sat next to each other on the opposite side of the table. I was glad I’d chosen to sit opposite them, because it meant I got to watch them both.

  Caleb rested his arm across the back of Matty’s chair, and Matty pressed himself against Caleb’s side. It was such a casual level of intimacy, that I couldn’t help but smile. They were both so beautiful, I could happily do nothing else with the rest of my life except stare at them from across a table.

  I noticed Max watching us intently, observing all three of us with eyes like a hawk. Like he was sizing us up and analysing the way we interacted with Matty.

  I didn’t blame him. I already felt a deep-seated need to protect Matty, like I did Caleb, and I imagined Max felt that on an even stronger level for Matty.

  He was just being protective of his brother.

  I was surprised he hadn’t launched into a ‘so what are your intentions with my brother’ speech the moment we’d sat down.

  “Jake told us you own a bakery,” Max said to me, and I wasn’t sure whether it was a question or a statement.

  “We do,” I smiled.

  “I go to Portridge every once in a while, and I’ve walked past a few times, I think.”

  “Next time you pass by, you should pop in and say hi.”

  “I will,” he nodded.

  “So, what do you do?” I asked.

  “Construction,” he answered. “My grandad started a construction company decades ago, and my dad worked for him, and now I work for my dad,” he chuckled.

  “You and Matty both followed in your grandfathers’ footsteps then? Matty mentioned that your other grandfather used to be a vet, and that’s what made him want to be one.”

  “Yeah, we did,” he grinned. “And your bakery, that’s a family business too, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” I smiled. I no longer felt sad when I thought about my dad, or the fact that our bakery had once been Dad’s. I’d only been nineteen when Dad died, and I’d done my best to run things how he would have wanted. I knew he’d been proud of me, if he could see me today. I was looking forward to Caleb and me having children one day, so I could pass it on to one of them… if one of them wanted it, that was.

  I glanced over at Caleb and Matty, and briefly wondered whether Matty wanted children one day. Children had always been part of Caleb’s and my plans, but with Matty being in our lives, I wasn’t sure what our plans were now.

  After more chatting and a drink, the four of us seemed to be feeling a lot more comfortable with one another, and we talked and joked.

  “My round?” Matty asked, as he stood from his chair. “What does everyone want?”

  The three of us told him our drink orders, and he walked off in the direction of the bar. Caleb’s gaze followed him as he left the table.

  I continued to talk to Max, but after a few minutes, I noticed a scowl on Caleb’s face, so I followed his line of sight and saw a man talking to Matty at the bar.

  He was standing a little too close for my liking—and Caleb’s if his expression was anything to go by, he felt the same—and Matty seemed to be leaning away from him, trying to regain some personal space.

  Matty shook his head, and looked in our direction, but the man continued to tower over Matty, and the second he put a hand on Matty’s arm, Caleb and I both shot out of our seats and strode over to them.

  “Excuse me,” Caleb growled and sidling up close to Matty.

  “Can I help you?” The man spat.

  “You can help me by fucking off,” Caleb spat back. “He clearly isn’t interested in your advances, so back off.”

  The man’s expression hardened, as if he were about to argue with Caleb.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

  I stepped up to Matty’s other side, but positioned myself so I was standing a tiny bit in front of him, and wrapped my arm around his waist.

  “We’re his boyfriends,” I said, pride puffing up in my chest. “And, like my husband just told you, we’d really appreciate it if you fucked off.”

  Surprise and confusion mixed on the man’s face, but he backed away and disappeared into the crowds of people.

  “You okay?” I asked Matty, running a soothing hand up and down his bicep.

  “I’m fine. That was…” he searched for the words. “Fucking hot,” he chuckled. “You two are really fucking hot when you go all caveman over me like that.”

  I kissed him.

  I was glad he hadn’t minded me and Caleb getting possessive over him, because he could have just as easily found it insulting, like we thought he couldn’t take care of himself. It wasn’t that at all though, we just wanted to be there for him when he needed us.

  Matty deepened the kiss, this tongue diving into my mouth, as his arms wrapped around my neck. Caleb came up behind Matty and wrapped his arms around him. Sandwiching Matty between us.

  “Can we go?” Matty asked breathlessly.

  “Of course, but we came here to bond with Max,” I smiled.

  “Fuck Max,” he chuckled. “I need one of you two inside me.”

  My cock pulsed in my jeans.

  “Are you sure?” Caleb checked.

  Matty nodded enthusiastically. “So sure. Your display of possession made me ridiculously turned on,” he smirked. “And I want my two cavemen to own me right now.”

  A groan slipped free of my lips and I saw Caleb’s pupils dilate, to the point that his green eyes were almost all black.

  The three of us hurried back to the table, and when Matty told Max that we were planning on heading out, he laughed and rolled his eyes playfully at us.

  “You’re not coming home tonight, I take it?” Max asked Matty.

  “No, I’m not.” He looked to Caleb and then to me. “That’s okay, isn’t it?”

  “More than,” I smiled.

  “Perfect,” Max said, and I watched as he opened the Grindr app on his phone.

  We said our goodbyes to Max, and as I hugged him, he asked, “You really care about him, don’t you?”

  I looked at Caleb and Matty, holding hands and deep in conversation with one another, and smiled. “We do.”

  Max nodded, and a soft smile spread across his lips.

  I got into the driver’s seat of my car, and expected the passenger door to open, but it didn’t.

  I laughed when I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw they’d both chosen to sit in the back of the car.

  They were wrapped around each other the second they had their seatbelts fastened, sharing heated kisses.

  My hands trembled as I gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying desperately to keep my focus on the road as I drove, and not on my rear-view mirror.

  I heard one, or both, of them moan, and my heart rate sped up… as did the car.

  I was driving safely—I would never put either of my men in danger by driving erratically—but I was trying to get us home as quickly as I could.

  The desire to pull the car over and join them in the back was almost too much to bear.

  My eyes met Matty’s in the mirror and I watched as he lowered his hand between his and Caleb’s bodies before Caleb’s head fell back onto the headrest and his lips parted on a silent moan.

  Fucking hell.

  “Are you two trying to kill us all?” I joked.

  “Not particularly,�
� Matty smirked at me in the mirror. “I’d like to live long enough to get back to yours.”

  “Same,” Caleb breathed, and Matty’s arm began working up and down.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Caleb

  Confident Matty was my favourite Matty.

  I’d got into the back of the car with the intention of kissing Matty the entire drive home—mostly to wind Elliott up while he drove—but then Matty had taking things into his own hands… literally. He had my cock in his hand.

  Our cavemen performance in the bar had clearly pressed all of Matty’s buttons, because he seemed far more confident than he had the last time we’d fooled around. This time he was in control, which was exactly how I wanted it to be, especially if he really was up for having anal sex with us tonight. He needed to take the lead. I never wanted to feel like I—or Elliott—pressured him into anything he didn’t want.

  Matty continued to stroke my erection, and I was just about to tell him if he didn’t stop, I was going to come, when Elliott pulled the car into our driveway and stopped it abruptly.

  Without a word, the three of us rushed out of the car and into the house, all but running to our bedroom.

  The fly of my trousers was already open—thanks to Matty in the car—so as I kissed Matty, Elliott slowly slid them down my legs. I stepped out of them, not breaking the kiss, and Elliott did the same to Matty’s.

  We broke apart to take our shirts off, and Elliott quickly undressed too, leaving the three of us standing, huddled together, naked and wanting.

  All three of our lips met in the middle, sliding together in a kiss that made my entire body reach boiling point, and made my erection—which hadn’t calmed in the slightest since the car—jut out further from my body, seeking someone’s attention.

  We parted, and I went to the bedside table to grab the bottle of lube—we’d all gotten tested the previous week, after we’d discussed it, and had texted each other our results a few days ago, which meant no need for condoms.

  Thank fuck, because if I was going to finally get to experience what it was like to bury myself inside Matty’s body, I didn’t want anything between us.

  “Do you still want to do this?” Elliott checked in with Matty.