Page 100 of Piece Us Together

“I’m a patient man, Nolan. I’ll be here when he’s ready.”

He doesn’t point out that Maison might never be ready. Neither do I.

We don’t want to think about the kind of ending that would be for any of us.

Chapter Twenty-One

Nolan

I wake up to only Hunter in the bed beside me, the man still fast asleep. It’s sort of amusing that he looks just as calm and in control now as he does when he has me on my knees or Maison blushing under his attention. The man just exudes dominance. Between that and his startlingly good looks, he’s a walking sex dream.

A walking sex dream that’s mine.

Well, mydom.

Well, notmydom, but myalmostdom.

I gently turn away from him, ignoring the sudden ache in my chest. The sun hasn’t risen yet, though the sky is beginning to lighten. Something heavy settles in my stomach as I realize Maison probably had another nightmare, this one likely waking him up.

I don’t want to wake Hunter by rifling through the duffel bag for my clothes, so I pull on my underwear from last night and steal Hunter’s sweater. It’s only slightly too big and still smells like him. The ache gets a little harder to ignore.

I find the man I love—one of the men I love?God, this is getting messy—sitting on the rug in front of Hunter’s fireplace. His eyes are locked on the flickering flames as he sits with his knees drawn up and his forearms resting on them. There’s a mug of coffee by his hip. It’s not steaming, which means he poured it a while ago.

I come at him from the side, not wanting to startle him. There’s a blanket on the couch I grab on the way.

“Hey you,” I say before lowering myself to the spot beside him.

He blinks before turning to give me a tired smile. “Hey, baby.”

“It’s early. You should come back to bed.”

“Not in the cards today.”Definitely a nightmare, then.

He scoots closer to me before stealing the blanket and wrapping it around our shoulders. It’s almost like the fabric is a time machine. For just a second, I feel like we’re back at the safehouse, everything between us fragile and new and exciting. Now the fragile, new, exciting thing is Hunter, and I have no idea how to acknowledge that.How much longer are we going to pretend this isn’t happening? How much longer before the wordlovemakes a necessary appearance?

I rest my head on Maison’s shoulder, smiling at the sigh of relief that leaves him at the contact. I always love seeing my effect on him. I like that I can make him feel as safe and happy as he makes me feel.

I just wish I could convince him to let Hunter do it too.

“Why are you awake so early?” he asks.

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I just woke up randomly. When I noticed you were gone, I didn’t want to try to sleep again without finding you.”

“I’m sorry. I can come lie down if you want me to.”

“No. This is nice, actually.” I move his right arm until it’s where I want it, then lace our fingers together in a gentlehold. His thumb immediately starts stroking the stretch of skin between my thumb and pointer. “I wish we got more of this.”

“Just us?” he asks.

He could mean just us without the guys in the house.

He could also mean just us without Hunter.

“Just…quiet,” I decide on. I like this moment, just us, but I’d love to have Hunter here too. It’d be perfect then. Right now, it feels like we have a piece missing. I don’t know when that started. I don’t know how to make it stop.

“Quiet is nice. It’s been a lot of years without quiet,” he murmurs. He tilts his head, resting his cheek against my hair. “Hunter makes things quiet. Have you noticed?”

My eyes close in relief. “Yeah, I have.”

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