Page 17 of Burning Up

Bryce wasn’t sure how much time had passed, exactly what they’d talked about after his confession—he was pretty sure baseball had been involved—or how many drinks he’d had. There was a second bottle on the table now. When had that happened?

He polished off the amber liquid in his glass and looked over at Toby and Matt. They were sharing the chair across from him, and Matt had his arm slung around Toby’s shoulders. “So you’ve been together since high school?” he asked, drunk enough to have lost the filter on his mouth.

Matt answered first. “We’ve been friends since then, but not?—”

“My family adopted him,” Toby said.

Bryce hadn’t been expecting that. Apparently Toby came by his instinct to care for everyone naturally.

Matt sighed. “My family kicked me out when they caught me with another guy. I called Toby, because I didn’t know who else to call. I thought maybe he’d help me, loan me some money, give me some food to get me through a few days. But when he told his parents what happened, they insisted I live with them, so I did for the last year of high school and the years we spent at community college trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.”

Now their inseparableness made a lot more sense. Toby had truly been a lifeline for Matt.

“I wanted him like crazy,” Toby said. “But he was living in my house and seemed to think we were brothers, so I tried to respect that.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “He had no clue I’d wanted him for ages. He’d become the focus of my fantasies way before I moved in with him.”

“So finally, one night we were studying for one of our Academy classes and?—”

Matt smiled. “We finally figured it out.”

“Well, kind of. We started fucking then, but we still didn’t let on about how we felt, not for a long time. I thought Matt had just realized that I was…”

“Convenient?”

Toby snorted. “I was a hell of a lot more.”

So they truly were together. Had they been exclusive all this time? Neither seemed jealous enough to be worried about a three-way. Did they just want Bryce to be a fuck buddy they played with occasionally? Could that even work? Maybe he was just too old-fashioned to understand twenty-two-year-olds or too drunk. He wasn’t too old-fashioned to fuck them, though, if that was what they wanted. He also wasn’t smart enough to stop himself in his current state.

“So do you play with others?” Holy God, he really was drunk to be asking that.

“Only other men we both want. Like you.”

Matt sputtered and scowled at Toby.

Toby made a dismissive gesture toward Matt. “Ignore him. Has he told you I’m the best kisser ever?”

Was Toby actually as drunk as Bryce was, or had he just decided it was time to make a move? Bryce imagined the two of them kissing. That simple act was hotter than the nastiest porn.

“Show me.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them, at least as much as his alcohol-fogged brain would allow. “Forget that. I shouldn’t have…”

Toby straddled Matt, cupped his face, and leaned down. But instead of kissing Matt right away, he hovered over him, lips less than an inch from Matt’s. Matt dropped his head back and took hold of Toby’s hips, pulling his lover tight against him, all reservations about what they were doing seemingly gone. Just before Toby moved the final inch to claim his mouth, Matt looked at Bryce and licked his lips.

Bryce’s cock went from semi-hard to I’ve-got-to-fuck-somebody-right-this-minute. Toby kissed Matt like he was dying and Matt was his only hope for salvation. Matt groaned into Toby’s mouth and arched up, grinding their crotches together.

Bryce rubbed the heel of his hand over his dick, desperate for friction. He shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be doing this, but he was too drunk to go home and even a saint couldn’t turn away from the sight of Toby kissing Matt.

A few seconds later, Toby sat back and turned to face Bryce, his fingers fiddling with his bangs. “Join us.”

His voice was low, sultry, and so tempting, but Bryce knew he was nervous and trying to hide it.

“I shouldn’t. We…” He moved toward them as he spoke. Why the fuck wasn’t his body listening to his brain?

When he was within reach, Toby grabbed his arm and pulled him down before his fuzzy brain registered what was happening. Then Toby was kissing him and it was unbelievably good. Later Bryce couldn’t say precisely what it was Toby did that made him the best kisser ever—the way he moved his tongue, the perfect variation in pressure, the so-sure-of-himself way he held Bryce tight while plundering his mouth—but Bryce would easily award him that title.

Several seconds later, Matt joined the kiss. Bryce had never even thought about a three-way kiss. He wouldn’t have believed it would work, but oh God, did it ever. The heat of their mouths, their tongues lapping at his lips, pushing their way inside, the taste of both of them. He wanted more, a lot more.

Matt pulled back. “Please say we’re going to do this.”

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