Twin Ties 1: My Brother's Lover (30 page)

Brennan got a quizzical stare at that and using Alek as bait seemed to work. Evan perked up and seemed to shake off whatever he’d been preoccupied with thinking about. “What do you mean?”

“He was quiet. It’s weird, because he looks so much like Luka, but wow. Totally different. It was just so apparent out there. I could tell he was really unguarded and not putting on an act like he seemed to be when he dropped you off last week.”

“But different how? Just because he’s not as, like, bubbly as Luka, or what?”

“No. I mean, you’re right about that too, but Alek’s just more... I don’t know how to put it. Sensitive?” Brennan struggled to explain himself better, looking for the right words. “Like if something’s up he really takes it to heart and fights with the idea of stuff he can’t change. Luka lets things go pretty quickly and moves on. He doesn’t let himself get bogged down; he either reacts or dismisses it. Not Alek, though. You could see it in his face that he had a lot on his mind he was trying to come to terms with.” Evan’s lips pressed together and he stared off into space, giving a halfhearted effort to mask his reaction. But Brennan could feel Evan’s reaction—no words or expression needed. Simple nearness allowed sadness and realization to radiate from Evan, soaking into Brennan with ease.

Giving Evan a leading look, trying to pull him out of his head, Brennan added, “He seemed upset.”

Remembering how haunted Alek’s eyes were, the signs of sleep lost and tears shed, of being plagued by some harsh reality all were there for Brennan to see, and easy enough to recognize for someone personally well acquainted with such things. As he ate breakfast, Brennan kept a wary eye on Alek who, like Evan, kept staring off into space, or falling perfectly still like he forgot what he was in the middle of doing or talking about.

“You told him what you did. Didn’t you,” Brennan said quietly. There was a measure of accusation there, but also understanding.

“Yeah,” Evan nodded after a pause.

“How’d that go?”

“How do you think? He got upset.” Evan shifted down lower on the bed, drawing his knees farther up. His gaze slid back over to the duffel, like he needed to make sure it was still there and not in the backseat of Alek’s truck, on its way back home. “But it got more intense as the night went on, after I explained what happened specifically and why. We went to this lookout spot and were lying down, watching the sunset. After we talked, things got a little heated and we... um.”

“Had sex? Made love?” Brennan supplied. Instantly, Evan bit bashfully at his lower lip and tugged uncomfortably at the sheet. Brennan smiled.

“Yeah,” Evan agreed reluctantly. “Alek held me after that for, like,
hours
. And kept telling me he loves me, and that he wants to take care of me, and show me how to look at stuff in my life in more of a positive way.”

“Evan,” Brennan sighed, touched. “I’m so happy for you. So it was a good date?”

“It was a good date,” Evan nodded, smiling despite himself.

“They’re out cutting the lawn, by the way.”

“What?!” Evan’s legs fell flat to the bed and he shot upward a few inches in his surprise.

“Well, the grass
is
kinda long and after Alek did the dishes and took out the trash he grabbed Luka and recruited him to tame the yard.”

“Why the hell would he....”

“Because he loves you,” Brennan finished, smiling.

They locked eyes. A lot was said between them in that moment, with no words at all. It was as if Evan really believed, maybe for the first time, that Alek did care about him. It was more than simply wanting it to be true, it
was
true, and that truth was reflected in Alek’s restless, urgent attempts to somehow be useful to Evan, to make things easier on him. Even if it was just cleaning the kitchen, or making breakfast, or doing yard work, Alek really was trying, because it was all he knew how to do in this situation. If he couldn’t fix Evan’s psyche, at least he could make a tangible impact in other ways.

Evan exhaled sharply in a rush. Brennan countered the glimmers of disbelief he saw in Evan, letting him know with unwavering confidence what he was saying was indeed true, and it was okay.

Evan started breathing a little more roughly, his chest rising and falling. Brennan glimpsed small love bites on it, and immediately got flashes of mental images of Alek sucking those marks to Evan’s freckled, tan skin. It was a tempting fantasy, but reality and discomfort yanked him back to the present. Brennan didn’t evaluate what he was doing or how Evan might read into it as he shifted so he could lie beside Evan. Evan moved over to accommodate him, but frowned with confusion and alarm.

“What are you doing?”

“More comfortable to lie down right now,” Brennan admitted, resting on his side, facing Evan.

Evan’s eyes grew wider. “Oh. Yeah. That was....” He glanced in the direction of Brennan’s bedroom. “Extreme. At one point it sounded like you were actually killing him.”

There was a second of silence before Brennan and Evan both erupted into laughter at the same time.

When they both settled down a little, Brennan sighed in agreement, “Yeah.” Then they laughed even louder than before, snorting and feeding off each other’s amusement.

After they’d stopped and fallen quiet again, Brennan asked, “So, you thought it was hot?”

There was no response at first. Evan looked to be doing everything in his power to not have a reaction to that question, which was a response in itself, Brennan decided. So he went with honesty and said the first thing that came to mind. “
I
thought it was hot when Alek put that toy in you last night, how he just made you take it, and the way you sounded when you moaned. And just thinking about how you’d never played with sex toys before. Yeah. It was hot.”

He expected Evan to get embarrassed again, so when Evan turned to look at him instead, his gaze skittering all over Brennan’s face like it didn’t know quite where to land or what to look at first, Brennan felt it like a tickle that went all the way to his gut. Evan was lying with his head cradled on a pillow, and Brennan was propped up on his elbow. They were mere inches apart. When Evan’s gaze finally settled on Brennan’s lips, Brennan took it as an invitation.

As he leaned in, Evan reached up and brushed his fingers lightly back around behind Brennan’s head, cradling it and pulling him in. He was ready and kissed back as soon as Brennan’s lips press gently against his. For the first few seconds, it stayed innocent, just soft, warm lips touching lips. But then the tip of Brennan’s tongue touched the seam of Evan’s lips and Evan made a soft, plaintive sound. He sighed out a sharp breath, gripped tighter at the soft strands of Brennan’s hair and let his lips part at the same time. Evan tilted his head and Brennan teased his tongue back over the plump swell of Evan’s lower lip. When Evan’s tongue touched his, Brennan hummed softly and dove in. Quickly, Brennan became hard, and not for innocent reasons at all.

The tempting expanse of bare skin before him was too much to resist any longer. Brennan touched, then caressed over Evan’s abdomen, over taut skin and smooth ripples of muscle. He felt Evan suck in his stomach in his surprise, then relax into it, too distracted by the ever-deepening kiss to pay much attention to where Brennan’s hand was. Fingertips dragged up and down the center line of Evan’s abs then up farther to his chest, tracing the muscles of his pecs before rubbing in small circles over and around the peaked nub and silky areola of Evan’s right nipple.

Exhaling roughly, Evan gasped, “Bren.”

Evan’s eyes squeezed shut just as Brennan’s popped open wide and watchful, taking in every detail as he brushed back and forth with the pad of his index finger over the erect flesh, feeling it get steadily harder. Gripping it between his fingers, he tugged and twisted. He was rewarded with an anguished, breathy whimper. Sucking lightly on Evan’s lips, he pinched harder. It got Evan arching up into his hand and pulling gently on Brennan’s hair.

“Bren,” Evan whined more sharply.

All of Brennan’s self-restraint tumbled away. All he wanted, all that mattered, was making Evan fall apart, getting him to let his carefully erected walls down and provoking even more of those lusciously wrecked sounds. Each one was like a jolt of electricity surging right to Brennan’s dick, making him harder—his whole body buzzing. He realized he was panting and overheated. The light exercise pants and t-shirt he was wearing were too bulky, too heavy. His ass still throbbed from the rough sex with Luka that morning, but his cock throbbed even more. Needing in the most primal way to know if Evan was as hard as he was, Brennan’s hand slid fast, stroking firmly down the front of Evan’s body and grabbing on to the steely line of his erection, disguised poorly by the bed sheet. Brennan squeezed it once, stroked down and over Evan’s balls then back up, tracing the outline with questing fingers before simply grabbing onto it again and tugging.

Evan shivered, his eyes opening at last as he gaped, choking off a jagged, thunderous moan.

“I’m so fucking hard,” Brennan rasped, nuzzling Evan’s neck.

Something, possibly his willpower, or his sanity, snapped in Evan then. He rolled them both with a lusty growl. Swarming in Brennan’s head were arguments, voices that sounded like Jimmy or Charlie, telling him it was wrong, that it was forbidden. But then Evan was on top of Brennan, molding their bodies together from the hips down and trapping their erections between them. Brennan’s hands were grabbing at and squeezing Evan’s ass and Evan was thrusting against the proof of Brennan’s desire, rutting desperately into it. Brennan wrapped a hand behind Evan’s neck and yanked him down closer, latching on to a spot under Evan’s jaw and sucking hard on it. Both of Brennan’s legs were wrapped around Evan to hold him there. Undulating up off the bed, Brennan rocked into Evan’s thrusts. Wanting to untangle Evan from the damned sheet, wanting to push his own pants out of the way and rub their cocks together without any barrier between them, Brennan realized there was no time. It felt too good, just pushing, pushing,
pushing
.

“I-I’m gonna come... Evan... oh
fuck
....”

Evan moaned and grinded down even harder, his cock sliding and rubbing alongside Brennan’s and he was so close to the edge of release, it hurt. Brennan found Evan’s mouth again and kissed him as he whimpered through his orgasm, twitching, pinning Evan so tightly to him that Evan would probably have the bruises for days afterward.

Keening, Evan kissed Brennan breathless. Three more hard thrusts and he lost it. He shot his load and suckled on his brother’s tongue.

“Wait, I need to....” Brennan rolled them again, so that he was on top. Evan, still coming and completely dazed, stared up at Brennan with flushed cheeks. Brazen and wild, Brennan finally pushed the sheet out of the way and wrapped his bare hand around Evan’s come-soaked shaft, stroking him through the aftershocks. “I need to touch you.”

Evan’s hips snapped, bucking into Brennan’s hand, his lower lip quivering and head falling back. It was more than physical contact; it was Evan letting him in, deeper, maybe, than anyone had been before, even Alek. It felt like victory.

An hour later, they hadn’t moved, and were still entangled and sticky. Evan had dozed off and awoke to find Brennan lying on him still, his head nestled in the crook of Evan’s neck.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” Evan said quietly as Brennan stroked gently over Evan’s chest.

“Then why do I want to do more?”

“Don’t say that,” Evan ached.

“Too late.” Brennan’s nose nudged Evan’s cheek. His eyelashes tickled against Evan’s skin. His hand lay hot on Evan’s skin, their bodies a perfect fit, the contact soothing and comforting. “I love you so much. I just want to... you know... keep loving you.”

Sighing, Evan wrapped an arm around his brother. His hand came to rest on the small of Brennan’s back and his fingers slipped down under the waistband of Brennan’s drawstring pants, grazing the top swell of Brennan’s backside. They crept lower. Palming the muscle of Brennan’s ass, Evan stroked his thumb back and forth over the skin. Brennan moaned very quietly and nuzzled against his brother’s neck, asking, “Let’s just stay here for a while, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You look how I feel.”

“Hmm? You say something?”

“Exactly,” Luka nodded, planting his hands on his hips. “Just provin’ my point.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Alek looked blankly at Luka. They were standing in the backyard, beside an old lawnmower they’d pulled from the shed but had yet to actually do anything with. It seemed like Alek was paying attention, but Luka knew Alek was only just barely humoring him; he was really far, far away, pondering whatever it was he was pondering and causing his deficit of attention.

“What’s up? You look like horse shit.”

Alek blinked. “Wow. Yeah, don’t hold back on me, Luka. That’s great. Thank you.” He rubbed a hand roughly over his stubble-covered jaw, bloodshot, puffy eyes and sallow skin. Then he bent down to pull the cord and start the mower up.

“I think we all know
my
excuse for feeling like I just got my ass soundly kicked. Because I did. By a sweet little blond Cupcake who was sent to me by God as retribution for all of my whoring around.”

Alek smiled at that, surprised into sudden amusement. He flipped his hair back out of his eyes and shot Luka a knowing look. “Yeah? What’s the verdict?”

Luka clutched dramatically at his chest and feigned a heart attack, nearly falling over backward, his face contorted with glorious anguish.

“That good, huh?”

“No,” Luka said seriously, with emphasis. “Better. So much better. Aleksy, he’s like,
way
outta my league. I don’t deserve him. At all. He’s such a sweetheart and funny and sexy as fuckall, and good Christ I keep picturing him in a nurse’s uniform and really, that’s not helping at all. What do I do? I’m gonna fuck this up. I know it. I always do.”

Alek got the mower’s engine started and clapped him on the shoulder. “If you want it that bad, you’ll figure it out,” he shouted over the din before striding away, guiding the lawnmower in a broad path across the grass.