Chapter 19

four months later

Bryce sank onto the couch, so exhausted he didn't think he could move. Struggling to take in so much information at the police academy might just kill him before he was done. Having Gray teach a tactics class today—and rag on him incessantly—hadn't made things easier. The bastard. Admittedly, Gray would have been just as much of an ass to Jack or Mason, not that it was really any comfort.

Bryce let a few classmates talk him into going out after classes even though he was exhausted. He should have come straight home and gone to bed. He hadn't slept more than a few hours a night for days between studying and keeping up with two very demanding lovers. He doubted he could stay awake long enough to get undressed and get into bed. Maybe if he just lay down for a few minutes, he'd re-energize.

"Bryce! Bryce, wake up!"

Why was someone shaking him? He tried to tell whoever it was to go away, but no actual words came out so he turned over and pretended not to hear.

"I know you're awake." Toby's voice. "What are you doing on the couch?"

Good question. Why was he on the couch? "Too tired."

"Aww, are the mean old police instructors wearing the poor little baby out?"

Bryce sat up and scowled at them.

"At least he's sitting up now," Matt said. Bryce could hear laughter in his voice. They were fucking mocking him.

"Are you two asking for trouble?"

"Do you want trouble?" Toby asked.

Bryce considered the idea. What he wanted most was to sleep for several more hours. Was it really after eight in the morning? It must be if Toby and Matt were home. If he couldn't sleep anymore, then his cock was definitely interested in trouble.

"No, no, no. You both promised," Matt said.

"Promised what?" Bryce didn't remember promising anything.

Matt glared at him. "That you'd go house shopping this morning."

Ugh. Bryce had only promised because he'd figured Matt would be too tired after his shift. "Don't you want a nap first?"

"Yeah," Toby said. "A ‘nap'." He winked at Bryce.

Matt shook his head. "We've put this off long enough."

"All right." Toby sounded defeated. "But I want trouble after house hunting."

Bryce sighed. "I've got to study."

"What we've got to do is find a bigger place so we're not driving each other crazy."

Matt was right. Toby and Matt's lease had come up for renewal and they'd given up their place, which, lovely as it was, wasn't big enough for the three of them. They'd moved into Bryce's duplex, which wasn't a hell of a lot bigger, with the intention that they'd search for a new place for the three of them. So far, they hadn't found anything they even remotely liked.

Bryce pushed off the blanket he'd pulled over himself sometime in the night and forced himself to stand. "Let me get a shower, and we'll go."

Matt frowned at him. "You never even got undressed last night."

"I was too tired."

"Gray must have really worked you hard," Matt said.

"He's a fucking ass."

Toby laughed. "He's got a cute ass. That's for sure."

Bryce swatted Toby's rather fine rear end as he walked by. "I'll remember that later."

"Please do."

Bryce frowned as he poured himself a bowl of cereal. He'd been slacking on his cooking duties because of his classes. Matt and Toby hadn't complained. Much. But he was getting tired of cereal and Pop-Tarts for breakfast.

Matt walked into the kitchen and grabbed his jacket from one of the hooks by the door. "Hurry up. We're meeting the rental agent in ten minutes."

"We have an appointment?"

"Yes, weren't you listening when I told you this yesterday?"

"Um… maybe."

Matt rolled his eyes. "I got us an appointment to see two houses I noticed on my run a few days ago."

"Okay, I'm ready," Bryce said, pushing his chair back from the table. He wanted to be enthusiastic about finding a house, but they'd looked at what felt like hundreds of apartments and rental houses and something had been wrong with all of them. Not wrong like a few details weren't to their liking, but I-wouldn't-rent-that-if-my-life-depended-on-it wrong. Turning the light on at one place had sent a large colony of roaches fleeing for cracks in the walls. Another was less than half the advertised size. Yet another had rotten floorboards and mildew-covered walls. Bryce had started to think they should just get some tents and take to the woods.

The first house they saw that morning was okay, but while the square footage was a little bigger than Bryce's current house, the bedrooms were both too small to hold his king-size bed and the floor plan sucked.

As they followed the agent to the second house, Toby sighed. "I don't know how many more suck-ass houses I can look at."

"The last one wasn't bad," Matt said.

"No, but it wasn't right either."

"Maybe this one will be better." Bryce wasn't optimistic, but he didn't want Toby hurting Matt's feelings.

When they got out of the car, Theresa, the rental agent, was standing on the porch wearing a God-I-hope-you-rent-this-house smile. The outside was freshly painted, and there were boxes of pansies in the windows. It was promising. Could it be the one?

The moment Bryce stepped inside, he knew they were going to rent that house. The downstairs had an open floor plan with living room, dining area, and kitchen, and the numerous large windows made the space feel even bigger than it was.

"The bedrooms are all upstairs?" Bryce asked, although it was obvious.

"Yes, would you like to see them now?"

Bryce glanced at Matt and Toby. "Yes, ma'am," Toby answered.

The three of them followed her up the carpeted stairs. They would be a pain in the ass to clean, but the carpet was plush and comfy. It would feel great under cold feet in the morning.

Two of the three bedrooms were tiny, but the master bedroom was large and as full of light as the open space downstairs. "It's big enough to fit a king-size bed," Matt observed.

"Oh, yes, most definitely," Theresa said, though she looked surprised that one of them would have one. They hadn't bothered to correct her assumption that they were roommates. Bryce was tempted to say, "What the hell else would we all fit in?" but he behaved himself.

The upstairs bathroom wasn't amazingly spacious, but it was adequate, as was the one downstairs, and both were full baths, which wasn't easy to find in his neighborhood.

When the agent finished her spiel, Bryce looked at Matt and Toby to see if they were as into the place as he was. Toby grinned and gave him a thumbs-up while the agent was answering a question from Matt about average utility bills. Trust him to come up with the practical questions. Like Bryce, Toby was probably more interested in the fact that they could set up the third bedroom as a playroom. It might not fit a king-size bed, but it was sure as hell big enough for the spanking bench he'd been planning to build.

"So what do you gentlemen think?" the agent asked.

Bryce wanted a chance to discuss it with Matt and Toby without Theresa listening in. "Could we have a few minutes to look around on our own?"

The agent hesitated, as if deciding whether they'd do any damage if she left them alone. They must have passed muster, because she said, "Of course. I'll be on the porch when you're ready."

Once they heard the front door close, Bryce glanced at Matt and Toby. "Do you like it as much as I do?"

Matt nodded. "This is it. The place where we start over. Together."

Toby pulled Matt to him in a one-arm hug and kissed his cheek. "You're right. This is just the place to start a new life. Open, bright, roomy."

"Roomy enough to get into endless trouble," Bryce added.

"And endless punishment," Toby said as they stepped into the hall and took another look at the other bedrooms.

Bryce chuckled. "That can be arranged."

"It's perfect for a playroom, isn't it?" Toby asked, stepping into the extra room. "I can just see a spanking bench here." He gestured to one corner. "And some cushions for kneeling over here." He turned to face the opposite side of the room.

"Who said you get cushions?" Bryce asked.

Toby shuddered dramatically. "Oooh. You're soooo bad."

"Are you sure?" Matt asked, interrupting Toby's silliness.

"About the house?" Bryce asked.

"About all of it."

Bryce pulled Matt and Toby close. "I'm more than sure. I didn't think I could handle all this at first, but now I know I made the right choice. I couldn't be more excited about my prospects both at work and with you."

"Then let's go tell Theresa we'll take it," Toby said.

Bryce grinned at Toby. "You eager to get out of here for some reason?"

"Nope. I just want to have this settled."

"And to get back home?" Matt asked.

"Well that too. Bryce did make me a promise."

"What I said was that I had to study."

"And then you said you'd get me back for liking Gray's ass. You shouldn't put that off."

Bryce grinned. "I won't."

They signed a rental agreement and fixed a date three weeks down the road to take possession of the new place. Bryce prayed he'd find someone to sublet his house by then. He had three months left on his lease. The landlord wouldn't let him out of it, but if he found someone to take over those months, that person could have dibs on the place when the lease ran out. One of the guys in his class was considering it, and Mason had another prospect for him.

Renting a home together shouldn't have been such a big deal, but it did feel like a new start, something truly theirs in a way his house couldn't be. The changes at work hadn't been as bad as they'd feared. Matt and Toby were on the same schedule so they all got to see each other even though Bryce was in class for long hours and had a lot of studying to do. His police training wouldn't last forever, though. Then he'd make another new start. New job. New home. A life with the men he loved.

"We need to celebrate," he said when they were all settled in Matt's car.

"Mmmm. Definitely," Toby answered, closing his eyes and dropping his head back as if imaging what that celebration might entail.

"Do you ever not think with your dick?" Matt asked.

Toby frowned at him. "What kind of celebration were you thinking of?"

Matt shook his head and looked at Bryce for support. "He's hopeless."

"Seriously," Toby said. "Don't you want to go home and fuck?"

"I didn't say that, but I thought we might celebrate by going out somewhere special or maybe shopping for something for the new place."

"We could do that after fucking," Toby said.

"Don't you have to study?" Matt asked, looking at Bryce.

"I do, but it's not every day the men I love and I rent a house together."

Matt grinned, and Bryce knew he'd said the right thing. "Let's go to that hipster place on Ninth Street, the one with the awesome cocktails."

"Those things are dangerous." Toby sounded like he knew from experience, a very bad experience.

"I probably don't want to know, do I?" Bryce asked.

Matt shook his head. "Obscene acts with pool cues were involved."

"Wow."

"But they also have that appetizer with the egg and the fried pickles," Matt said.

Toby sighed. "It's sooo good."

Bryce wasn't so sure about this. "Are you really going to make me eat weird food?"

"The chef is a genius. It's weird, but you won't even care."

Matt was right. He wouldn't. As long as he was with Toby and Matt, he'd be happy.