Chapter 105: Double Kiss.

Dave stared at Bryce in silence for several seconds.

His gaze remained fixed on him as though he were weighing whether to say what had been troubling him, but instead, he turned toward Vincent.

His eyes rested on him for a moment before returning to Bryce.

"Okay, I’ll say it," Dave finally said. His voice remained calm, almost unnaturally so, but there was nothing calm about him. "I don’t think I want to be here."

"You don’t want to be here?" Bryce asked. His breath seemed to catch, refusing to move properly through his lungs.

Dave gave a bitter chuckle. "I don’t know, Bryce. You tell me. Should I be here at all?"

Bryce said nothing.

"You said we should wait while you think everything through, but I can tell that you’ve already moved on. So what am I supposed to think?" Dave continued, his voice still controlled despite the emotion beneath it. "Are you trying to punish me for being an asshole to you by making me stay here?"

"What?" Bryce asked, his disbelief spilling into the single word.

"I came here with you because I couldn’t just refuse to come or tell you I wanted to leave once we got here. Because then you would’d think I don’t care anymore. You’d think I don’t actually love you."

Dave’s expression tightened, his eyes remaining on Bryce.

"But even you know the truth. You just refuse to acknowledge it. And I can’t help wondering if the reason you refuse to acknowledge it is because you’ve already moved on. Maybe you already know what you want."

Dave blinked rapidly, as though trying to force the tears threatening to gather in his eyes back before they could show.

"I’ll say it one last time," Bryce said, his voice tight with emotion. "Stop putting words in my mouth or deciding that you know what I actually want, because you don’t!"

His voice rose slightly, but he forced it back down before it could become louder.

"You’re so ready to leave. How do you even expect me to believe that what you’re saying is actually true?"

Dave rubbed his temples as though a throbbing ache had settled there. He did not answer. He simply sat there, his expression drawn and his silence becoming more oppressive by the second.

Vincent remained seated nearby, saying nothing as he watched them.

"Fine," Bryce said at last. "You want to know what I’m thinking? What I’m deciding?"

He pushed himself to his feet.

The movement immediately caught both Dave’s and Vincent’s attention.

They looked at him with sudden alertness, and for a fleeting moment, something resembling panic crossed their faces, as though whatever Bryce was about to say would finally bring them to the moment that they had both been dreading.

"No, I actually don’t," Dave said.

He rose from the chair and started walking away, clearly unwilling to hear whatever Bryce was about to say, but Bryce reached for him and pulled him back.

The movement was firm enough that their bodies brushed together. Dave stopped, and Bryce looked up at him. He rose slightly onto his toes and pressed his lips against Dave’s.

Dave froze.

For several seconds, he was so stunned that he could not respond to the kiss, even if he had wanted to.

His entire body seemed to lock in place beneath the suddenness of Bryce’s action.

And then, the scrape of a chair against the floor beside them broke through the haze of the kiss, making Bryce draw back as his heartbeat quickened.

He turned toward the sound and found Vincent already on his feet, his chest rising and falling heavily as he stared at the two of them with an expression Bryce could not decipher.

Hesitantly, Bryce moved toward Vincent as well. Vincent watched him approach with anticipation he made no attempt to conceal, his gaze fixed entirely on him.

He was taller than both Bryce and Dave, forcing Bryce to rise fully onto his toes to reach his lips.

He pressed his mouth firmly against Vincent’s, immediately feeling the same stunned stillness that had taken hold of Dave.

When Bryce finally pulled away, he could no longer bring himself to look at either of them. His gaze shifted restlessly around the room, settling on anything that would spare him from meeting their eyes.

"There. You got your answer," he said. "You can judge me if you want, but I’m not going to lie to myself and pretend I actually want one of you while I don’t want the other."

Dave’s tears finally spilled over.

He immediately pressed a hand firmly over his mouth, as though trying to contain the sound threatening to escape him. His shoulders trembled faintly as he struggled to steady himself.

"Why would I judge you for something like this?" he muttered, "I actually thought I’d lost you."

His voice faltered, but he continued.

"I haven’t slept even a blink for some time now, just thinking about how I’d actually lost you. Now I realize how much you love me, and I’ll never take advantage of it again."

Dave’s response left Bryce momentarily speechless.

There was no rejection in his words, no hesitation over what Bryce had just admitted he wanted.

Instead, Dave was standing there in tears, telling him that he still loved him and that he finally understood how deeply Bryce loved him in return.

The realization sent something through Bryce that he struggled to put into words.

Relief came first, followed by an overwhelming rush of emotion, but beneath both was something more instinctive, something his body seemed to recognize before he could fully process it.

The possibility he had been afraid to voice was no longer merely a fantasy.

Dave had not turned away from it, and although Vincent had yet to say anything, the fact that at least one of them had not rejected the idea was enough to keep Bryce hoping.

Now he could only wait for Vincent to give his answer, hoping it would turn the fantasy he had been Carrying into something real.

The thought alone intensified the desire already burning inside him, pushing it beyond what he had been able to contain.

Heat began to gather beneath his skin again, gradually intensifying until the warmth he had managed to quiet returned with startling force.

His breathing changed, and the scent he had spent so much effort trying to control began to seep into the room once more, growing richer as his emotions and desire became harder to contain.

Vincent was affected almost at once. The scent reached him with enough intensity to make him feel light-headed, and his attention sharpened on Bryce as he moved closer.

"Why is your scent leaking again?" Vincent asked, almost breathlessly. "Are you releasing it intentionally?"

Bryce’s expression changed at once.

"Releasing it intentionally?" he repeated, disbelief cutting through his voice. "I don’t even know how to do that. And what do you even mean by asking if I’m doing it intentionally? You think I’m doing this so I can force you into a desire that will make you accept my suggestion?"

His voice grew more heated with every word.

"Not everyone is as manipulative as you seem to think, Vincent. I can’t believe you even thought I would do something like that."

He stared at Vincent, his hurt and frustration now impossible to hide.

"And even without it, don’t you want me the same way?"

Vincent’s question changed Bryce’s mood. Whatever warmth had been returning to him was overshadowed by the sting of Vincent’s suspicion.

He turned away and stormed off, only for Vincent to move after him and step directly into his path.

"That’s not what I meant. I’m sorry. It’s just that it suddenly disappeared, and then it suddenly came back. I was only trying to understand why."

His voice was low, his earlier question now carrying none of the accusation Bryce had heard in it.

"I’m sorry," Vincent repeated. "Even without it, I know I still want you. And I want to be with you."

Bryce barely heard anything Vincent was saying.

His first "I’m sorry" had already been enough to dissolve the misunderstanding that had arisen between them, and as Vincent continued explaining himself, Bryce found his attention drifting further from the words.

There was only one thought occupying his mind now, growing clearer with every passing second.

He wanted them.

"I can’t stand this anymore, fuck," he muttered. "I just want you, and... him."

He stepped back, then moved with his power-driven speed, swiftly pulling Dave toward him until the three of them stood together, Bryce positioned between them.

Almost as though they had silently counted to three, both Vincent and Dave reached for him at the same time.

Dave’s hands settled against Bryce’s back, one moving over him in a tender caress before settling around his waist as Dave stepped closer, leaned in and pressed a kiss against the back of Bryce’s neck.

Bryce shivered faintly.

How he had missed those hands and lips on him.

The first hands to touch him with romantic and sexual intent, the first hands that had made him feel wanted in that way.

There had always been something uniquely affecting about Dave’s touch, something in the way he held him that he had never been able to put into words.

And then there was Vincent.

Bryce could not even begin to explain what Vincent’s touch did to him.

His hands moved across Bryce’s chest, gradually traveling upward until they reached his breasts and gently squeezed them, sending a shudder through Bryce at the contact.

Before he could gather his thoughts, Vincent leaned toward him and pressed his lips against Bryce’s.

He remembered those hands from the very first time it had happened, and those lips, too. He remembered the way Vincent had made him feel completely satisfied that night, how naturally Bryce had surrendered to the comfort of his touch.

He could not wait to experience it again.

Neither could he wait to feel Dave after such a long stretch of chaos that had kept them from being this close to each other.

Now that both sets of hands he had been craving were on him, Bryce could hardly believe how badly he had underestimated what it would feel like to have them there again.

The reality was far more overwhelming than anything his imagination had managed to construct.

Every touch carried a familiarity he had missed, while the combination of them left him struggling to hold on to a single coherent thought.

Vincent began moving without breaking their kiss, guiding Bryce backward toward the hallway that led to his room.

Bryce followed instinctively, with Dave falling into step behind him just as instinctively.

Bryce could not wait any longer to reach it.

With his patience already exhausted, he summoned his power and willed all three of them there at once.

The world shifted around them, and in an instant, they were inside Vincent’s room.