Page 90 of The Broker

After the year they all had, they needed a vacation.

Isaac’s brother, Declan, was still locked in Matteo’s dungeon, receiving daily visits from Isaac or Özgur. They enjoyed many hours together, getting to know one another and exploring Declan’s various pain thresholds. Jared was beginning to worry that Isaac was enjoying this torture thing a tad too much. Although he hated to admit it, he kind of liked watching Isaac’s asshole brother squirm and cry out in pain. Eventually, Isaac would have to figure out what to do with his brother. He couldn’t spend the rest of his life torturing the man. That was just… insane.

Sawyer had been handed over to the police two months after the takedown—but only after Matteo had a private lawyer and team build an iron-clad case against the man. Matteo wanted to make sure that the case was solid and would not be thrown out of court on a technicality. The team even created fictitious evidence to support the claim that Sawyer had escaped the initial takedown and had been located by Matteo’s private security team two months later, hiding out in a drug den in Belgium. No one believed Sawyer’s outlandish claims that Matteo had held him captive in his own private “dungeon” all those months. Who would believe that story coming from a junkie found in a drug den?

As for Ares, the man was a damn legend. His bullet wound healed in less than three days, and he had been kicked out of the château in less than four. There were a few close calls over the four days that Ares was held at the mercy of Matteo, one in which Jared had actually stopped Matteo from adding rat poison to Ares’s tea. He reminded Matteo that he was classier than that,and if he really wanted to kill a man, he would do it in such a way as to make it seem like an accident or natural cause. That night, Matteo came home with a bag from the pharmacy. Isaac snuck into Matteo’s room and disappeared the bag… just in case.

“Did you boys have fun?” Chase asked as they approached the group.

“Oh, yeah! Loads of fun! And look,” Isaac began lifting his foot out in front of him. “I still have all my fingers and toes!”

The group chuckled, except for Jared, who just scowled.

“Here, I got you your favorite,” Jared said, passing Isaac a passion fruit mojito.

Isaac’s face lit up as he took the drink. “See, this is why I love this man!”

He wasted no time in downing his drink. Isaac placed the empty glass down on the table and took a seat in between Jared’s spread legs. He leaned back against Jared’s chest and began retelling the group about their adventures underwater.

Thirty minutes later, Isaac was in the middle of acting out how he and Levi had defended themselves against a school of emperor angelfish when he suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

He stared at the group, then down at the massive boner jutting out of his swimsuit.

“What the fuck?” he said, quickly using his hands to hide his inappropriately timed hard-on.

“Wow, drinks and a show,” Levi quipped.

“Now we know why Jared was walking weird the other day,” Diesel joked.

“Hey, I’ve never taken one up the ass before, not even with my sweet cuddle bear, Issy, here,” Jared noted, sending his lover an air kiss.

“Don’t call me Issy,” Isaac huffed, pressing down on his cock, trying to make the damn thing deflate.

“Babe, don’t be embarrassed. Getting a woody is a natural thing, especially at your age. And especially when you have a hot ass boyfriend like me sitting right in front of you,” Jared added. “Here, have another mojito.” Jared held up the glass and gave him a wink.

Isaac stared at his boyfriend, not trusting the evil smirk on his face. “You little…” Isaac began before jumping onto Jared’s lounge chair and beating his fists against Jared’s chest.

Jared chuckled. “Babe, stop. You’re going to make me drop this drink I specially made for you,” Jared said in between laughs.

“Yeah? A specialViagra passion mojitojust for me?” Isaac shouted as the rest of the group burst out laughing.

This was Jared’s payback for all the times he had teased him or played pranks on him over the years. What was love if you couldn’t play and laugh with your partner?

Isaac stared down at the wonderful man he had fallen in love with and wondered how he could ever live his life without him by his side.

He couldn’t.

The two of them belonged together. Forever.

It was at that moment, with both of their eyes locked together, that they said in unison, “Will you marry me?”

The world went silent around them as they both stared into each other’s eyes and waited for the other to respond.

Then they clued in. They had both just been proposed to.

“Someone say something,” Levi spoke, breaking the silence around them.

Isaac and Jared both chuckled.

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