29. Landon

Edits completely buttoned up, I took an entire week off to empty my head of the plotline I'd fucked up but had managed to fix. Cyn had loved the changes, claiming it was my best work to date.

Callum and I had celebrated sending the manuscript off to the formatter only a couple days late with a bottle of wine on our back deck before fucking long into the night. Joy flooded me along with his cum, but a part of me still ached. We'd shared my bed ever since we'd returned from the island, and while we clung to each other at night and loved the growing connection between us, a vital part of our whole was missing.

One we heartily agreed we both longed for desperately, regardless of how much our love for each other deepened with every passing day.

Neither of us had spoken about our desires that final morning Zack had been in bed with us back on the island. Callum and I had lain spent and entwined, watching Zack pull on his clothes as he readied to return to his room to pack. His flight left a few hours before ours, so we hadn't needed to climb from between the soiled sheets until closer to lunch.

There had been no lingering kisses goodbye, no promises to see each other in the future.

Callum told me later that he'd bitten his tongue to keep from asking Zack for more, and I'd admitted to doing the same.

Zack had tucked himself behind his walls after they'd taken me together, and although we'd all gotten off a few more times in the hours that had remained to us on that final day together, he'd lacked emotion while doing so.

He'd made his wants clear, shutting himself off to anything but the physical pleasure we'd gorged on.

While part of me was elated at having Callum's focus in ways I'd never considered once we'd arrived back at home in Rhode Island, the other half of my heart ached, sometimes overshadowing delicious sparks from the newness of our relationship.

I curled on our couch with a throw blanket over my legs, staring out the window splattered by rain that warped the reality beyond as Callum took care of some things in his office. The view was as clear as the jumble of feelings inside me. A complete watery mess, which often caused tear tracks to line my cheeks like the rivulets running down the glass panes.

My chest ached with intense longing I couldn't force away or ignore. Even worse, I knew I wasn't the only one suffering, and I was powerless to lessen Callum's heartache as well.

A shuffle of feet reached my ears seconds before he rounded the couch. More than the usual sadness filled his widened eyes. Face pale, he worked his throat.

I pushed upright so fast my eyesight went dark. My blood sugar was low—I needed to eat more than I'd been able to since our return. "What?" Blinking twice brought him back into focus.

Without a word, he held his cell out toward me. His hand shook, and my breath left in a rush.

Callum always kept his cool. Fucking always.

I clenched my fingers into a fist rather than taking his phone from him. With how badly I suddenly trembled, I would have dropped the phone to the floor.

The image on his screen was one of me in profile, clearly recognizable from a fellow vacationer on the island. And the moment captured in time and posted on social media that had gone viral according to the number of likes and comments?

I held both Zeke and Callum's hands as I'd dragged them toward our hotel intent on experiencing double penetration.

"Oh fuck," I whispered, my past crashing down atop me and making my heart pound in my ears.

"There's speculation about us being together," Callum whispered as though he strained beneath the weight of my so-called mistakes, as Father had called them. "They've yet to identify Zack."

My voracious need of dick has been caught on camera again.

"I'm so sorry, Lan—I shouldn't have booked that vacation. Should have protected you rather than?—"

"It's not your fault." I cut Callum off with barely any tone to my voice as my chest caved inward, and every ounce of energy in my body faded.

"But had I not?—"

"No, Callum." I shook my head adamantly, refusing to let him take the blame for the firestorm sure to resoil the reputation I'd attempted to tidy up by hiding away from society.

My cell rang, and I didn't need to look at the flashing screen to know Father called me. But, I didn't give him a chance to light into me about more bad choices.

Not that I saw being with two men as such.

I swiped to answer but didn't offer Father a chance to speak. "Did you give Zack money then kick him out?"

"What?"

"That night when you thought he'd attacked me."

"Landon—"

"Answer me!" My voice hovered on the edge of hysterical.

Callum sat beside me, gathering my free hand in his, and I clutched at him with a death grip, barely able to exhale with how harshly my heart pounded.

"Yes," Father replied without a hint of regret in his voice. "I asked that boy to go rather than stirring up a mess that would have tainted my abilities to be reelected."

A muscle in my jaw ticked along with my thundering pulse.

"All this time, I thought Zack abandoned me, and I've lived with underlying fear believing I would do something to make Callum leave me too! Because of what you did, I've had issues with love and acceptance. Both were conditional in my mind, thanks to you." I spewed the truth of my sorry existence. I'd been a selfish brat, and Father's hope to keep our family name as clean as possible had only worsened the consequences.

"About Callum, Landon," Father stated sternly, "the picture running rampant on social media shows you're more than friends as you've led us to believe and that there's another man in the equation." Clear disappointment coated his voice, making me right in assuming why he'd called in the first place. It'd been months since I'd spoken to either of my parents. While he'd never been a physically mean bastard, his silent, judgmental looks and well-barbed words of negativity wounded as deeply as any fists thrown could.

I'd tried for years to gain his affection after the mistakes I'd made during my cum dump days, but now?

Fuck that.

I had the love of one of the best men I knew, and he gave me more than my parents ever had. "Callum and I are together now, and yes, we enjoyed vacationing with another man who also happened to share our bed."

"Landon." Disapproval lay heavy in his tone.

"I've feared letting you down again, but I'm done hiding behind closed doors as though my heart's desires are something to be ashamed of. I'm going to live my truth aloud."

"You're aware of how this will affect my run for local government. My reputation has only begun to be seen in a better light since your regrettable decision that ended up smearing our family's name."

As if I'd had a choice in the making of a video taken behind my back—literally—without my knowledge.

"Quite frankly, I don't give a damn," I snipped, my heart still racing. "It's my life I need to focus on. And my happiness! Call me selfish, disown me, I don't care. I love Callum and Zack, and nothing and no one is going to make me feel as though these emotions are wrong."

Father didn't speak for a moment as I attempted to regulate my breathing, and I could imagine him pinching the bridge of his nose. Sure enough, an exasperated sigh came through clearly over the line. "That third man was him? Zackary Briggs?"

"Yes."

"It's been fifteen years. How—never mind. I'd rather not know. Perhaps we can work this in my favor to draw in the LGBTQ community though."

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. Everything was always about him and attaining his goals. He might have found the perfect submissive wife to act as pretty eye candy on his arm while fundraising his attempts to rise to power, but his only son?

I was gay and madly in love with two men.

And I would flaunt my truth for all to see regardless of what they thought. They were free to love, so why shouldn't I have the same right?

"Say what you want, but I refuse to be used to further your agenda with any voters, Father. I will not support your run, nor will I agree to take any part in your campaign."

I readied myself for more discussion of my failures.

"It's your duty as a Matthews?—"

"Sorry, Father," I cut him off to make excuses when I wasn't sorry in the least, "but I've got to go. Tell Mother I've finally found the love I've always longed for—if she ever even cared." I hung up before he could say another word and powered my cell down.

Callum wrapped me up in his arms, pulling me onto his lap.

"Did you hear what he said?" I asked, burrowing into his neck.

"I did, baby." He kissed my forehead, and I gave in to the emotions wrecking me, soaking my faithful lover with my tears.