Page 44 of Trouble in Love
Elias was another matter.
“Now that your bowels have settled, your tics have calmed, and you’ve stopped smiling at me like an idiot, I’d like you to call Elias. He is very much looking forward to speaking with you. The more I get to know him the more determined I am for you to marry him. His mother is the same. I think he could make you truly happy, Plop.”
Happy.Like a movie montage, the memory of Luca’s eyes, the way he smiled as we lay on the floor of Dad’s office filled my mind. His affection had been contagious, my own grin irrepressible under its weight. But there was no time to bask in its glory before the scene shifted, fast forwarding to the contemptuous frown he wore as he left me at the drive-thru. The night and day of Luca’s expressions, the shadows they left behind, sent my stomach lurching into my rib cage. Why was I twisted over a guy I barely knew? Why were my eyes misting over? This had to stop. “Okay, Mum. If it makes you happy, I’ll call him.”
She coughed in disbelief, patted my hand, and passed me a pair of knitting needles. “That’s a good girl. See? You do as I say, and we’ll have you happily married with beautiful babies before you know it.”
The dagger that fate plunged into me twisted. “Mum, you know I can’t—” I stopped, bit my lip, and considered my words. This was something new for me. She was never going to get it, and I was never going to be happy. By marrying Elias, at least maybe one of us would be. “I can’t wait.”
Luca
“I’m here for you, Luca. Answer me. My dude. My bro. My homie—”
Fighting laughter, Asher slapped the back of Teddy’s head. “You’re basically sitting on his back, speaking into his ear and feeling up his arm. He knows you’re talking to him, Ted.”
“Oh, right, yes.” Teddy released my bicep, propped his elbow on his knee and rested his chin on his clenched fist. “Talk to me. Tell Uncle Teddy what’s wrong.”
“Us.” Asher added. “Tell us what’s wrong, ‘cause I’m here too.”
“Thanks, bud.” Raising my head, I tossed Ash a wink before burying my face back into my pillow, where it had been for the last few days when I wasn’t training, stretching or eating. “Honestly. I don’t know. Actually, I do know, I just don’t want to think or talk.”
“What about dance, ‘cause Taylor’s new vault tracks are banging, and I’ve several new routines I’ve been working on.” With an oomph, Teddy jumped to his feet and busted into somesort of hybrid worm-electric slide, a giant smile on his face as he moved.
“For fuck’s sake,” Asher muttered, once again fighting back chuckles as he sat beside me on the bed. “Just ignore him. He’ll wear himself out eventually. In the meantime, tell me what’s going on with this Polly.”
My eyebrows knotted together. Asher Kim had been a closed book for the majority of the time I’d known him, which was almost my whole life. I knew he’d changed, but talking about feelings was something we’d never done.
“This is weird right? You wanting to talk about … anything.”
“I know it’s weird coming from me, but Ted’s helped me open up and stuff. Take advantage while you can.”
With Teddy grooving in the background, I spewed my tale of woe, my hands mindlessly tapping against my thigh, my feet stretching out to avoid a cramp I’d been fighting since my morning run. “You remember what a manipulative ass Dad was? How he played Mom the fool for years? I hated him and what he did, but is that why I’m still so attracted to her when I know what she’s like?? Is there some fucked up biology at play here?”
A contemplative frown formed on Asher’s handsome face. “I don’t think attraction works that way. You can know or think you shouldn’t want someone, but your dick doesn’t always listen. Look at me and Disco Stu.” He pointed to Ted who was then attempting a moonwalk. “I tried to stay away from him, and I couldn’t. Even with all … that.”
Teddy’s ridiculousness failed to raise a smile. “That was different. You were trying to protect Ted, to do the right thing by the guy you loved. Polly is deliberately malicious. Did and still does horrible, horrible things to truly good people, yet I look at her, and I can’t breathe.”
On a scoff, Asher gripped my foot, bringing a halt to stop it’s insufferable shaking. “Luca, I don’t think you understand whata deliberately hurtful bastard I was, not just to Ted either. Years of pain and inadequacy had festered into pure assholeness I took out on everyone. Who knows? Maybe Polly’s the same.”
There had always been a haunting sadness, a vulnerability in Polly’s eyes, but still. “Is any type of pain an excuse to be that horrible?”
Ash released his grip of my ankle, pushed his hands into his thighs and stood. “It’s not an excuse. But it might be a reason.”
Asher’s pep talk got me up, out of bed and soaking up the sun, sand and surf. In some ways it helped. In many, many more it did not.
Everywhere I was, Polly was. At the beach. In the supermarket. Jogging past me in those tight black shorts and crop top on her way to Byron’s iconic lighthouse. Despite the seed Asher’s insightfulness planted, each time I saw her, distaste over her behavior bloomed. Her actions made me sick, but her body brought me to my knees. As Teddy put it, my conundrum was a right kerfuffle.
There was only one thing I was sure of. The mere idea of a road trip to the Gold Coast with three deliriously happy couples was nauseating. Especially after seeing what I had last night.
It was late, but also the first night of daylight savings. The sun had only just set over the ocean, a teasing breeze carrying its scent into our little beach home that was oddly peaceful after Teddy and Asher had gone into town.
Unable to rest in the. stillness, I let myself in the always open and unlocked front door of the main house, expecting a, ‘Hey Mate. Wanna beer?’to hit me in seconds.But I heard nothing. No children were squealing or crying. No laughter permeatedthe air. Not until I wandered deeper into the house, passing through the kitchen, its sink stacked high with dishes. Baby bottles bubbling away in the sterilizer. When I came to the base of the stairs, just by the laundry room, it hit me. The distinct sounds of pool-based tomfoolery. Perhaps the Austen-Myers crew were enjoying a late-night dip. I had the pool part right, just not the family.
Evie and Nate were alone, the fading light just strong enough to show their naked forms. I should have walked away, not edged closer step by step. She was on his lap. Her arms around his neck, as she ground up and down while he licked and sucked the tender flesh just below her ear. “Nate.”
Leave.I told myself.Leave right now.But I didn’t because fuck, they were so damn hot. Instead, I watched, picturing myself and Polly, palming my aching cock as Nate lovingly twisted his wife’s limp body in his arms, pressed a series of tender kisses down her spine, and lay her over the edge of the pool. While she writhed and whimpered beneath him, he entered her from behind in one solid thrust I felt in my zing from balls through to the tip of my leaking cock.
I listened to her short, sharp panted breaths. To his deep, rumbling, needy grunts, “Fuck, Gidge. Take me. Take all of me.” My hips pumped into my hand, my fingers tickling my balls till I came, and they took each other to a place I’d never been. To completion with the person they loved more than anything else, and who loved them back all the same.
