Page 54 of The Moon & His Tides
I pulled my hand from his sweaty grip and turned on my heel, filled with rage and aching with confusion as I stalked back toward the car.
“It’s Oscar,” he called after me, uncaring of the people filing in and out of the studio behind us. “Oscar Hampton. Ask them about me, and you’ll see I was only trying to help you, poor sod.”
I slammed the car door behind me and peeled out of the lot in the town car, cranking up the radio on an Italian station. Umberto Tozzi filled the car's interior as I sped through the streets toward my meeting with Andrea.
I didn’t want to let Oscar’s words sink into my psyche without first asking Adam or Savvy about them, but it was hard to close myself off from his remarks. They were too pointed to be all lies. It was obvious Oscar was close enough to them to know they liked to bring a third into their marital bed, but did that mean everything else he’d said was true?
I felt sick thinking about being kicked out of their bed and their home. Not because of what it might mean toBlood Oath––I thought Andrea was invested enough to continue with the project anyway––but because of what such a separation would do to me.
Drop me from such a great height I’d shatter at the bottom.
It was only now that the threat of our tryst’s inevitable end seemed so tangible that I realized how happy the Meyerses mademe.
The way Savannah made sure there was good grappa in the house and Italian staples like buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto in the fridge and double 00 flour in the pantry in case I had the taste for authentic homemade pasta. The way she bought me clothes—not because she was ashamed of me but because she loved to spoil me. Gift giving was obviously her love language as much as acts of service.
The way Adam bought me a fancy laptop with all of his favourite films loaded onto the movie player so we could discuss them together. The way he knew I loved football, so he made a point to invite the great Spanish player Iker Ferrera over onenight as a surprise. The way he listened to every thought in my head as though he could learn something from me.
They always touched me in the dark cover of night, as if I were living art they wanted to worship with teeth and tongue and fingertips. They made themselves vulnerable to me in a way they never did outside the sanctuary of their bedroom.
I was falling in love with them both.
It was painfully obvious it had been happening almost from the first moment I’d met each of them, and I couldn’t even be angry with myself for not trying harder to resist it.
She was just such a woman, and he such a man; how could I ever have hoped to resist their gravitational pull?
But Oscar had thrown into stark relief just how tenuous our situation was.
I was their temporary lover, a guest in their marriage who would inevitably wear out his welcome. There was no permanency, and I was a man who longed for such a thing because I’d never really had it.
It was a lose/lose situation at this point, though.
If I left on my terms, I’d be breaking my own heart, and when they eventually asked me to leave, they’d do the breaking instead.
Either way, I’d be shattered.
Maybe, if I’d been a different man, I would have accepted the unavoidable conclusion of either path.
But I’d been raised to fight.
To bare my teeth at the enemy no matter how much more powerful they were than me and stand my ground like I had a real shot of winning the battle.
It had worked with one of the most fearsome criminal organizations in the world, and it had helped me secure a spot at Finborough Theatre despite my inexperience and the obstacles stacked against me.
Maybe it had given me an overblown sense of courage in the face of adversity, but I had just enough gumption to think I could change the outcome.
Because what if there was a third option?
What if I could convince Adam and Savannah to fall in love with me, too?
What if none of this had to end at all?
The stage was perfectly setwhen the Meyerses arrived home that evening. I’d done the bulk of the work, but Chaucer had helped me procure a couple of extra things and choose a bottle from their cellar that they wouldn’t mind drinking for a casual dinner at home. If Chaucer thought it was strange that the chauffeur had taken it upon himself to cook the lord and lady of the house dinner, she didn’t mention it or even cast me a sidelong look. She was efficient in the extreme. After being Adam’s personal assistant for the last half decade, I was sure she’d seen worse than an Italian man hankering to cook one of his regional dishes.
In fact, Adam and Savannah seemed entirely more shocked than she had, when they walked into the kitchen and saw me at the stove with a black apron tied around my waist, stirring a sizzling pan of sauce. Jazz played softly in the background because it was Adam’s favourite genre, and we usually listened to Savannah’s classical instead. After Chaucer left, I’d lit candles all over the island and the cozy table by the corner of windows instead of in the formal dining room.
I’d never attempted to do something romantic like this in my life. Girls in London were usually happy to go for a pint at the pub and then back to my place for a casual romp beforedisappearing from my life. It wasn’t that I only wanted casual sex, but I’d been so busy with the play and focused on my career that I hadn’t made time for romance.
Now, I had plenty of toe-curling, insane orgasms and the kind of comradery with Savvy and Adam I’d always wanted, but I knew it wasn’t enough. I’d become greedy for more, and I had the sinking feeling that nothing would be enough of them, short of absolutely everything.
