Ink Reunited (3 page)

She shook her head, those blue
streaks in her hair waving wildly. “No. What we had? That was great when we
were younger. Things like this, a triad, it only works when the stars are
aligned and people don’t give a fuck about what others say.” She looked at Ian
with a sad smile then at Rafe. “Y’all had so much to lose if we kept it up, and
frankly, it didn’t work because sure, we tried, but it wasn’t enough. We were
kids who wanted to have fun and now we’re older and need to move on.”

It hurt to hear the lies
coming out of her mouth but he kept his face level. She was lying to herself
just as much as to them. Sassy had to know they knew it as well.

“We’re older, sure, but that means
we know what we want.” He nodded to Ian. “I’ll let Ian talk about his own
feelings and I’ll talk about my own. We were kids, yeah. We were best friends
from three walks of life and fell in love. Don’t lie to me about that. Yeah, we
fucked, made love, and had best sex of my life, but we also loved each other.
Whatever we do from here on out, don’t take that away. It wouldn’t hurt so much
now if it hadn’t meant
everything
back then.”

“Sassy, we’ve all made choices
we regret,” Ian said. “My biggest one is that while I wasn’t the one to walk
away physically first, I was the one who left emotionally.”

Rafe sucked in a breath,
shocked as hell that Ian would admit that. The man who never showed weakness as
a young man had grown up.

Thank God.

Sassy growled then shifted
away so she could stand. “No. Don’t do this. I might’ve been the one to leave
the two of you, but that was because y’all had already left me.”

Tears streamed down her face
and Rafe stood, unable to hold himself back anymore. He brushed her cheeks, and
she pulled away.

“Don’t,” she whispered.

“I never left, Sass. No matter
what you think, I never left.” He’d deal with Ian in a moment, but right then,
she had to know where he stood. He cupped her face and took his heart in his
hands by lowering his head. His lips brushed hers ever so slightly as he fell
into the memories of what they’d once been.

She tasted of sugar and spice,
and he craved her more now than he ever had before. She pulled away again and
sniffed.

“You have to leave. Both of
you. I’m…I’m sorry I left the two of you before and broke everything, but I
can’t do this. I’ve moved on, and I know the two of you must have as well.
Please. Just let me live my life without the two of you. I’ve done it for ten
years, I can do it again.”

Ian stood and moved to their
side. “We’ll leave you alone tonight.” Rafe opened his mouth to speak and Ian
shook his head. “No, we’ll leave, Rafe. Sassy’s been through enough tonight. It
was a shock to see us. However, darling Sassy, we
will
be back. Or if
you want to see us again before then, we’re in my old loft.”

Sassy’s jaw dropped.
“You…you’re back?”

Ian smiled, but it wasn’t
nice, more of a determined promise.  “Rafe and I are both back in New Orleans
for good. We might have stayed away for our own reasons and were apart from
each other for even more, but now? We’re home now and we want you with us. Take
your time. Think. But know that this isn’t over.”

With that, Ian laid a gentle
kiss on her lips and walked to the door. Rafe gripped her chin and forced her
gaze to his.

“I know it hurts, but we have
to talk and tonight wasn’t the time for more than just a few words and tears.
I’ve missed you, my
cariña
. Don’t run away. You’ll only make me chase
harder.”

He kissed her once more then
followed Ian out, leaving a stunned Sassy in their wake. It hadn’t gone as well
as he had hoped, but he came away with far more than he bargained for.

The foundation had been laid,
and it was time to see what happened. He’d come back to New Orleans for his
future, and if he had anything to say about it, that future would include Ian
and Sassy.

Rafe lost them before…he
didn’t want to do it again.

“Jesus, I can’t believe we did
that,” Ian Steele mumbled again as he took a sip of his coffee. He’d slept for
shit the night before, and combined with the fading adrenaline of seeing Sassy,
his body needed the extra boost of caffeine.

He and Rafe had come back to
Ian’s home after leaving a fragile Sassy alone to find her strength—or at least
that was what he hoped she was doing. Rafe had a place of his own in town, but
both men had decided if they were going to find what they had before, they
needed to remain together and learn who they were now.

Rafe had slept in the guest
room, neither of them ready for anything more, and both had an unspoken
agreement that they needed Sassy to come back to them first.

“You know, that’s the tenth
time you said something like that since we left her place last night,” Rafe
said as he sat down on the bar stool next to him.

“I’ll keep saying it until it
sinks in.” He downed the rest of his coffee since it had grown cold while he’d
been sitting there thinking and stood up to get another cup. He lived on the
black elixir when he was at work so he knew today would be at least a half-a-pot
day.

Ian looked at the man who had
once been his best friend, lover and potential future, and sighed. He had no
clue how he’d ended up here, but damn, he liked it.

Or at least he would when
things worked out.

If
they worked out.

Rafe grinned at him, that sexy-as-hell
smile just as alluring as it had been when they’d been younger.  The man had
full arm tattoos that seemed edgier than Sassy’s had been. Both sets of tattoos
were new to him. The last time he’d seen Sassy and Rafe, the two had some shoulder
and back ink, but that was then.

Time moved on and the ink had
been laid.

Ian had a full back piece, but
he’d gotten that after he left Rafe and Sassy. They hadn’t seen his ink, and
for some reason, he was nervous about that. He told himself he’d gotten the ink
to remind himself that he was moving on, yet in retrospect, it was so he would
never forget those he’d left behind.

Rafe stood up and walked
behind him, careful not to touch, and Ian felt the pang in his heart at that.
As much as the two of them had fallen into an easy rhythm since they’d come
back to New Orleans, it had been so long since they’d seen each other that the
barriers between them seemed monumental.

They’d been so fucking young
when they’d met and thought they could handle a new and exciting relationship.
At twenty-five, with the world at his fingertips because of who his family was,
he’d thought nothing could touch him.

He’d fallen for Sassy, the
bright and fiery woman with secrets he’d never been able to fully uncover, and
Rafe, the man from a different world than his in almost every way that
mattered.

While Ian was from old money
and sophistication, Rafe had been in juvie as a kid even though he’d had a more
loving family than Ian’s. They’d met when Ian had gotten a flat tire and for
some reason, didn’t have a spare in his trunk. He’d never felt like such an
idiot before that moment. His mother later confessed to borrowing his car,
getting a flat, and not mentioning it to him.

He’d forgiven her quickly
because he’d met Rafe that day. They had struck up a friendship, and when he
walked into the tattoo shop and saw Sassy manning the reception desk, he’d been
lost. He and Rafe had truly wanted tattoos when they walked into Midnight Ink.
That hadn’t been a lie. It had been a reason to get there, but it wasn’t the
real one.

Rafe had shown up in Ian’s New
York offices after ten years of not seeing or speaking to each other,
surprising the hell out of him. Rafe and Sassy had been on his mind more than
usual because Ian had been planning on moving back to New Orleans again. Rafe
had come with the proposal that they try again for Sassy.

There really hadn’t been a reason
to say no.

In fact, it had taken
everything in him not to walk around his expensive desk, slam Rafe into the
wall, and sear their reunion on both of their minds.

He knew it had taken immense
strength for Rafe to come to Ian after so long, but Ian had a feeling if the
other man hadn’t come to him, Ian would have found Rafe as soon as the move to
New Orleans was complete so they could find Sassy.

It had been long enough.

When they had been younger, the
three of them had been as thick as thieves and had fallen into bed quickly. It
had never really occurred to him until much later that what they were doing was
unheard of in most circles. They had simply been in the moment. He and Rafe had
always been bisexual though they both preferred women and it had seemed like
the next logical step to share each other as well as Sassy.

It hadn’t seemed wrong then.

It hadn’t
been
wrong
then.

Ian, though, had been a
fucking idiot and had let second and third thoughts about what they were doing
take over his life. He’d let his family’s and his own prejudices pull him away
emotionally from the relationship that had been one of the only truly good
things in his life.

They might have been young,
but they had it right.

And he’d ruined that.

Rafe cupped his face and
turned his body so they were standing chest to chest. Though they were both
wearing shirts and sleep pants, Ian could feel the heat radiating off of the
other man. They were practically the same height with Rafe being only an inch
or so shorter than him. That meant Ian could stare into those honey colored
eyes and sink into them fully.

He’d never thought of himself
as a romantic. No, that had always been Rafe. Rafe with the warmth and smile
for everyone he cared for, even with the badass persona he carried with him
like a shield for others.

Ian on the other hand had been
cool, remote. He’d always been that way because it was how he’d been raised. He
was the only son of the Steele Empire and had the billions to prove it. He
didn’t even need to work and could let the Board do everything for him, but he
liked the control, the power from making his own decisions and finding ways to
make more out of what he had.

“Where are you,
mi corazón
?”
Rafe asked, his voice that sexy rasp Ian had loved once and was starting to
again.

Ian let out a breath and
rested his forehead on Rafe’s, needing the comfort even if he wasn’t ready for
the next step.

“Thinking about the past and
what the hell we’re doing now.”

Rafe pulled his hands away and
wrapped his arms around Ian’s waist. Ian only hesitated a moment before doing
the same. He rested his head on Rafe’s shoulder, inhaling that spicy scent that
had always been a dangerous drug to Ian.

“It’s been a weird couple of
weeks, that’s for sure,” Rafe mumbled into Ian’s ear and Ian couldn’t hold back
his grin.

“What the hell are we doing?”
Ian asked as he pulled back and leaned against the counter.

Rafe took a deep breath and
shook his head. “I thought we covered this before we went to see Sassy.”

“Then let’s cover it again
because we just shattered her peaceful world, and I feel like a fucking asshole
about it.”

Rafe narrowed his eyes. “This
wasn’t all me. I might’ve gotten the ball rolling, but you were right by my
side.”

Ian ran a hand through his
hair and sighed. He needed to get a fucking hair cut but had been too out of
his mind with worry about what he was about to do with his life to deal with
it. Plus, he knew Sassy and Rafe liked it long.

“It’s been ten years, Rafe. We
both moved to New York when Sassy left us, and yet for all that time, we didn’t
speak to each other. Why was that?”

Rafe leaned against the other
counter and folded his arms over his massive—and sexy—chest. Damn it, he needed
to stop thinking with his dick and start thinking with his brain or he’d be in
trouble.

Again.

“You never contacted me
either, Ian. We wanted to cut ties when Sassy left, though you left us long
before that.”

Ian ignored the slice across
his heart since Rafe wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t known already.

“I…you don’t know how sorry I
am for putting that distance between the three of us,” Ian finally said after a
moment of strained silence.

Rafe’s eyes widened. “I never
thought I’d hear you say that.”

“What? You don’t think I feel
sorry? You don’t think I can admit it when I make mistakes? I fucking acted
like I was better than the two of you, like I was ashamed of what we had. Because
fuck it all, I was.”

Rafe looked like Ian had
punched him in the gut and Ian cursed. Damn him and his big mouth for speaking without
thinking first.

“Shit, that’s not what I
meant.”

Rafe held up a hand. “You said
it, and you never say things you don’t mean on some level. You’re ice, Ian. We
both know that.”

Ian ran a hand through his
hair in a swift, jerky, motion. “Fuck.  Yes, I was ashamed of what we had but
not because what we had was wrong. Hear me out. You know that a triad in real
life is almost unheard of. People don’t see it as a legitimate relationship. They
think of it as something for the bedroom, and even then, it should be behind
closed doors—never spoken of. People don’t understand that there are real
feelings involved—at least there were for us.”

“And by people, you mean your
family,” Rafe said dryly.

Ian grimaced. “Yeah, them and
everyone else in my life who weren’t the three of us. I was a fucking idiot and
we both know it. Sassy knows it too. Jesus, if I could turn back time and fix
what I did, I’d do it. I hurt the both of you because I was too scared to
figure out what the hell I was feeling and deal with it. I loved you both, you
have to believe that.”

Jesus, he’d never laid it out
like that before, but damn it, he wasn’t going to hold back like he had before.
At least he hoped he wouldn’t.

Rafe’s features softened
somewhat but he didn’t smile. Ian missed that smile already, and because of
that feeling, he knew he was already in deep. Did he care? He didn’t know.

“Plus, Rafe, even ten years
ago being in a relationship with you alone would have been cause for scandal in
the world I grew up in. Things have changed for the better in that respect in
the past decade, but back then it would have taken a strength I didn’t possess
to be honest with myself and you both. I’m so fucking sorry, Rafe, so very sorry
I hurt you by pretending I was better than what we were and pulling back. I’m
sorry I never introduced you or Sassy to my family and friends from that circle
of my life. I’ve only ever been truly ashamed once in my life and it wasn’t
because of what we were, but how I handled it.”

            Rafe
closed his eyes, his body tense and unmoving. Had Ian said too much? He knew
that whatever happened from the point where Rafe had come into his office in
New York to talk about their future that things would be beyond difficult.

He just prayed it would be
worth it.

It
had
to be worth it.

“Again, you leave me
breathless,” Rafe whispered. “You should have talked to Sassy and me back then.
You know it. I know it. And I’m pretty sure Sassy knew it. We were stronger
together than we ever were apart. You pulled away and Sassy got scared and left
us before we could hurt her. But you know, the truth is, we hurt her anyway. I
might have been the one left behind by the both of you, but I made mistakes
too. I never fought for you, never fought for Sassy. I just let it all happen
and ran to New York with my tail between my legs. I didn’t know what the fuck I
wanted to do with my life, so I took a chance and ran away.”

Ian cupped Rafe’s face,
startled that he’d taken the initiative this time. He had always been the one
in control in the past, yet it had been a long time, and he didn’t know where
he stood. It would take a lot of trial and error between all of them to find
their footing.

Ian was oddly intrigued about
how that would all work.

“We’re a couple of guilt-ridden
wrecks, aren’t we?” Ian asked, his voice a deep rasp. “What the hell are we
doing, Rafe?” he asked again.

“We’re trying to build a
future,” Rafe said after a moment. “We were young when we found and then broke
each other just the same. We’re older and hopefully wiser now, Ian. We each
have our own lives, you with your business, me with the shops, and Sassy with
the family she seems to have made. We’re going to have to figure out how to fit
into each other’s worlds while building our own together at the same time.”

“I came to New Orleans to make
a life,” Ian said. “I grew up here and in New York because of where my parents
had homes. I made New York my home when I left here because that’s where I
thought I could do the best business…and I couldn’t stay here after what had
happened.”

“And I’ve always had my family
here, but I’m here for good now because I was tired of running. Tired of trying
to be happy with what I had when I knew I used to have better.” Rafe grinned.
“Plus my mother wants grandbabies and wants them near her so coming home only
made sense.”

Ian choked. “Grandbabies?”
Jesus. Were they at that stage? He hadn’t even spoken to Sassy other than a few
words and none of those had been the true apology she’d deserved.

Rafe threw his head back and laughed.
“Grandbabies as in what all mothers—especially
my
mother desire most of
all. You and I both know we are nowhere near ready to even think about that.
Though, you know, we aren’t getting any younger.” He said that last part with a
wicked grin on his face and Ian rolled his eyes.

“Let’s take this one thing at
a time, shall we?” He moved away from the counter and went back to his stool.
Rafe followed after he poured them each coffees.