44. East

FORTY-FOUR

east

I WAS RICH, bitch.

The universe had realigned and the world finally made sense again.

Thank. God.

For a moment there—a very brief moment—I'd been contemplating how I was going to afford a good therapist to help me understand and process how to live a life I was unaccustomed to.

But there was no need for that now. Not with the gift my grandparents had so graciously bestowed upon me, and it was a gift. Something I wouldn't have appreciated a week ago but now realized I was incredibly grateful for.

Maybe this was some kind of life lesson. To teach me what not to do to piss away the millions of dollars in my bank account. Though I'd think not being a dirty cheat would be common sense for staying out of jail.

Well, that and not being caught.

"Okay, so where are we going to celebrate?" I said as Manhattan's skyline came into view. There was no way I was staying in tonight, not with the news I'd just received and after a week of TV watching and drinking my sorrows away, I was antsy for a night out.

I looked out at the city, wondering what West and the rest of the guys were up to tonight, but instead found myself curious as to how I could get the two in the car to come with me instead.

"We?" Zac, of course, was the first to try to make me see sense. "Not sure how that's going to work. It's not like we can just rock up somewhere and all have a meal." He looked over his shoulder to me. "The paparazzi are just waiting for you to reappear on the social scene. How do you think it's going to look when your first appearance is hanging out with a professor from Astor and his TA?"

I batted my lashes at Zac's all-too-serious expression. He was being a total downer right now. "Like I'm furthering my education."

King's deep chuckle filled the vehicle as his eyes found mine in the rearview mirror. "Yes, I'm sure that would be a completely believable story."

"I mean, it would be, if you weren't so fuckin' hot."

"Am I supposed to apologize for that?" King responded.

"No, but maybe we could dress you in a tweed suit and a bowler hat to lessen suspicion that I'm spending every night in your bed."

Zac snorted, and I turned his way.

"And you? You need to stop looking at the both of us like you're remembering the way you fell asleep between us—naked."

Zac's cheeks colored. "I don't do that."

"Yes you do."

Zac looked at King and licked along his bottom lip.

"See? You're doing it right fucking now. God, you have the worst poker face."

"How about this," King said, reaching across the console to squeeze Zac's thigh. "You two go out, and East, invite your friends. I have a place, Limitless, and it's?—"

"Only the hottest club in the city right now." I shook my head, still not used to the fact that Professor Kingston was actually the head of TerraKohr, and owner of practically every hotspot in New York—not to mention around the world.

"That's right. I can get you in privately and have them set up a space for you and your friends. No press, no prying eyes. You'll be taken care of from the second you walk in."

That all sounded pretty damn amazing, except for one thing. "You won't be there?"

"I don't think that's very?—"

"Smart?" Zac and I said in unison.

"Exactly. But your friends, they know about Zac. It won't be too much of a shock to see him there with you."

I raised a brow at Zac. "So? Are you down for a night of debauchery with me?"

"And the rest of the Park Avenue Princes?"

"I didn't realize you were part of our fan club."

A slow, sexy smile curved Zac's lips. "I might be a fan of yours."

"Might? Is there anything I can do to tip your vote?"

"Yes, but you won't want to do that in front of your friends."

"On the contrary, Zacharius , that's exactly the kind of debauchery I prefer to get into."

"EVERYONE OPEN WIDE." I stood up on the VIP table and held up the bottle of Mandala Tequila. "Caleb, don't be a pussy—get your ass over here."

"You're a bad influence," he grumbled, but made his way to where my friends were all gathered around. "But just this once."

"Can't stop, won't stop," I said, grinning wide as I went down the line and poured the liquid into each of their greedy, waiting mouths.

It was a shame King wasn't here to celebrate, but that might've proven too much of a shock to the guys' systems. As it was, they hadn't yet seen that Zac was there too, having disappeared behind the bar before they arrived. I didn't know what he'd gone to do, but if he didn't hurry back, he was going to have to play catch-up, because I was already feeling the tequila's effects.

I poured a mouthful for Gavin and then tipped the spout into my mouth to finish off the bottle.

"Looks like I arrived just in time." Zac's words met my ears before I saw him, and someone in the group cursed.

"You've gotta be shittin' me." That was Travis.

Zac held up a couple more bottles of tequila and winked. "Mind if I join you?"

"Yes," Daire said automatically.

"When you bring me gifts like that, I suppose I can't deny you." I jumped off the table to lift the VIP rope. "But first, you have to pay the toll."

"The toll, huh?" The mischievous glint in Zac's eyes told me we were both on the same wavelength, and he proved that point when his lips crashed down on mine.

"Dead," Donovan said from somewhere behind us. "I'm dead. Hell has officially frozen over."

"I knew there was some hate fucking going on," Travis added.

Preston snorted. "Bullshit. You didn't have a clue."

"Hello? I'm the master of hate fucking turned into relationships. Have you met Caleb?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, ‘relationship'? This is East we're talking about," Gavin said. "Say that word around him and he'll break out in hives. Clearly they're just hooking up."

"Wanna put a bet on that?" West replied. Of course his mind had gone right to using his inside knowledge to get a leg up.

I gave one final nip to Zac's lower lip and pulled away to open the rope. "Toll paid in full. You may enter, you sexy fucker. I'll take these." I plucked the bottles out of his hands and set them on the table. It wasn't until I looked up that I noticed the way the guys had all gone silent and stared between me and Zac like we'd both grown three heads."Admiring the view?" I asked.

"We might," Travis said. "If we knew what the fuck we were looking at."

"I always questioned your intelligence when you went back to Caleb. But the rest of you lovesick idiots should be able to tell when someone has a new man in their life."

Their deer-in-headlights expressions were extremely satisfying after my having to put up with their nauseating displays of affection over the last year or so. It was about time I was disgustingly over the top with the PDA, and the alcohol wasn't helping to restrain me.

"Oh? Is that what I am?" Zac said by my ear.

"Is that a problem?" I whispered.

"Definitely not."

"Good, because I'm sick of keeping you a secret."

Zac's eyes darkened and just when I was about to suggest he take me somewhere private, I heard, "Are we sure he gave us a shot of tequila and not absinthe? Because I could've sworn East just confessed to being in a relationship with Zac."

"That I did, Young Truitt," I said, turning back to face my shell-shocked friends. "I'm told that's what one becomes when you stop and talk to each other after having a really great fuck."

"Oh my God." JT buried his face in West's neck.

"I'm sorry, Golden Boy, was I suppose to say we recite poetry to each other?"

Zac snorted and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "Your mouth is?—"

"One of the things you like best about me?"

"That, but I was going to say ‘out of control tonight.'"

"Nah." West chuckled, eyeing his friend. "He's just back to his usual self. Gotta say, I kind of missed him."

"You're the only one," Daire grumbled from the back of the group. Then, like they were in some kind of trance, each and every one of my friends turned in the direction of the bar.

"Is that—" Donovan whacked JT's arm, pointing.

"It looks like?—"

"Fuck." Travis shifted to his toes to look over my shoulder. "What's Professor Hardass doing here?"

Wait, did he just say ? —

"King's here?" West said it like a question for the benefit of the others, but I took it for what it was—a heads-up.

King was here.

My inebriated brain tried to play catch-up with the new information I'd just been given, but it wasn't making any sense. There was no way King would be here . Not when he knew Zac and I were going to be. He'd told us point-blank that it wasn't smart.

But when Zac and I turned around, there was no mistaking the sex god who'd just walked in the club.

Fuck. Me.

King exuded the kind of sex appeal most men only dreamed of. His presence alone commanded one's attention as he scanned the club searching for the two he'd come for—or would later. He was dressed tonight in tailored black pants and a black jacket fitted to his broad shoulders, and as he stood beside Preston's man, Archer, he had every single person in the club's attention—including my drooling friends.

"Please tell me I'm not dreaming." Travis was the first to regain use of his horny brain cells. "Because I've imagined that man out the classroom more than I'd like to admit."

"Hey." Caleb whacked him in the arm. "I'm standing right here."

"Come on, you can't tell me he doesn't make your dick twitch."

I was about to tell them he better not be making any of their dicks fucking twitch when King's eyes locked on to me and Zac and his lips tugged into a small smirk.

"Jesus," Zac whispered by my ear. "Did he text you he was coming?"

I shook my head, but as if King had told us we couldn't speak, we said nothing else as he made his way through the crowd that was parting like the Red fucking Sea for him. King had this animal magnetism about him that all but paralyzed a person in place, and when he set his sights on us, there was no way we were going any-fucking-where.

"Preston, you and Daddy Filth stepping out with a third these days?" Donovan said, but I didn't hear Preston's answer if he gave one. The blood in my ears was making a quick detour south. So much so that I had no hope of hiding the hard-on throbbing between my thighs when King came to a stop in front of the VIP rope.

The guys had fallen unusually quiet behind us as King ran his eyes over the crowd no doubt gawking at him, and damn, he looked even better up close.He crooked a finger and angled his cheek for us.

The same force that had kept our feet rooted to the ground was the same one that pulled us toward him now. Both of us planted a kiss on him where he indicated, though the temptation to run my tongue down his chest, bare beneath his jacket, was strong.

"God damn you know how to make an entrance," I said. "You look…"

"Sexy as hell," Zac finished. "Like I almost don't give a shit we're being watched right now."

King raised a brow. "Oh? Are we?"

"Only if my friends haven't stroked out and hit the floor." I glanced behind me to where I could count every one of their jaws on the ground and smirked at King. "Told you."

"We thought you couldn't make it," Zac said.

King's hands went to our waists possessively. "Archer talked me into it."

I looked over at where Archer was whispering something in Preston's ear, and when I caught my friend's eye, he winked at me.

That sneaky little fucker. He'd already known about us?

"Will you be joining us?" I ran my fingers down the lapel of King's jacket and intended to slide them a little lower, but he chuckled and stopped my hand.

"I think you have some celebrating to do with your friends first, but don't worry. I have plans for you later." With his hand covering mine, he casually slid them over his erection, and I moaned.

"Are you fucking kidding?"

His sinful smile said it all. "Zac, would you care to join me at the bar while East resuscitates his friends?"

"Damn right I will."

"Not so fast, you two." I turned around to grab one of the bottles Zac had brought from the bar to find someone had already switched out the cap for a spout.

I had the best friends. Or maybe that was my good mood talking.

"You have to do celebratory shots with me before you lust after me from afar."

"Uh oh. We may all be stumbling out of here, King," Zac said.

"As long as it's into my bed," King replied.

"That." I pointed to King. "Let's toast to that." I lifted up the bottle to come up with something on the fly.

"Wait, we need glasses." Zac started toward the table behind us, but I hooked my finger in the waist of his pants and tugged him back.

"This isn't that kind of shot," I said with a wink, and held the bottle up again. "Cheers to you and you and me, and cheers to crazy-hot fuckery." I tipped the bottle back, letting my mouth fill with tequila, and then pulled Zac toward me. He cupped my head and angled himself so he could swallow it all down, and as wolf whistles sounded behind us, he swept his tongue against mine in a kiss that made my head fuzzy and my cock throb.

"Shit, " I said when I pulled away. "That mouth."

Zac answered with a twist to his lips, and I had to shake my head clear before pouring another round into my mouth and reaching for King.

But he grabbed hold of me first, practically inhaling both the tequila and me and stealing my breath on top of it. Other than the curses and gasps that were white noise in the background, it was like we only existed in a bubble for that too-quick moment in time.

My body was boneless by the time our mouths parted, but his firm grasp on me kept me from busting my ass.

"Have fun," King said by my ear once I regained my balance, and then he lifted the rope for Zac to join him. King looked past me and gave a cheeky nod to all my friends. "Enjoy your night, gentlemen."

And then they, along with Archer and Preston, headed to the bar.

"Am I having a heart attack right now or have we entered some alternate dimension and my body's still catching up?" Donovan was the first to speak, but every one of them still looked stunned, their attention bouncing between me and the two who'd just left.

"No, I know what's happening." Gavin took the tequila bottle from me and sniffed it. "East made sure they slipped a little something in here and we're all hallucinating. That's the only explanation."

"Is it?" I could feel the self-satisfied smile tipping my lips. "Or maybe you're just now realizing what a great fucking lay I am that I have two men I can call mine while you could only handle one."

Travis's eyes almost popped right out of his head. "Oh my fucking God. So they're your boyfriends? Boyfriends? "

I wrinkled my nose. "Do either of those two men look like boys to you? They're mine, and that's all you need to know."

"That's impossible," West said. "Hooking up in secret? Yes. Yours? Are you shitting me, East?"

Travis rounded on West. "Wait, you knew about King too and you didn't say anything?"

West held his hands up. "Don't turn this around on me. East is the one having some kind of identity crisis."

"Identity crisis?" I wrinkled my nose and looked over my shoulder to where King and Zac stood, looking so damn fine. "More like a sexual awakening. And yes. You should be so fucking jealous."

"But you told us threesomes were too much work," Gavin pointed out. "I swear to God you said that."

"He did." Nothing I said ever seemed to faze Daire, but he was looking at me right now with confusion marring his brow. "And old people." He gestured toward the bar with his drink. "He's old."

"Old er , but so fuckin' hot," Travis said, and collapsed onto the couch before falling dramatically into his boyfriend's lap. Caleb shook his head and laughed as he threw his arm over his waist to keep him where he was.

"And Zac? You've always hated that guy," Donovan said.

"Some of the best sex I've had is because I hated that guy." I walked over to Travis to pour some tequila down his throat. Soothe the jealous ache and all that. "Although hate's such a strong word."

"Is looove a better one?" JT said from where he sat on West's lap. Little Golden Boy looked awfully smug over there.That just wouldn't do.

"I don't know what that exactly feels like," I winked at him. "But maybe."

JT's mouth fell open, and that was the perfect opportunity for me to go over and fill it with more liquor.

When he swallowed, I narrowed my eyes on him. "I just want you to know, this group turned soft when you turned up."

JT looked over to the bar, where Preston was all but hanging off Archer, then back to me. "I don't know." He bit at West's jaw line. "I'm pretty sure you all finally got hard for a special some one —or two—when I showed up."

"No one likes a braggart." I looked at my best friend, who just grinned at me. "Shut him up, would you? He's killing my buzz."

"My pleasure." West captured his boyfriend's lips in a wicked kiss, and for the first time ever, I didn't feel that dry-heaving sensation that usually overcame me at the sight of their love-fest. Instead, my eyes drifted back to where King had his arm around Zac's waist and was whispering something into his ear, his eyes on me. He winked, and I almost melted into the fucking floor.

"Look," Donovan said as he perched on the arm of the couch Kelly had taken up residence on. "I know we've all been watching our tongues because you've been going through…things. But how did this even happen?"

"Who cares?" Travis said, sitting up. "The guy's been fucking not one but two of his professors."

"Zac is not a professor, dumbass."

"Well, he's the professor's something… I've been drinking too much to keep this straight."

"Teacher's assistant," Gavin said, shaking his head. "He used to get up East's ass all the time about his work."

"Now he's up his ass for a different reason." Daire's comment was so unlike him that everyone in the lounge looked his way. "What? The joke was right there, assholes."

"I don't want to hear jokes ," Travis said, waggling his brows. "I want to hear how it was. I mean, we're talking King here. King . We need all the dirty details. He's a total dom, right? At first I thought Zac might be spanking your ass, but after watching the two of you with him, I'm calling it—total fucking dom."

"Let's just say"—I swung the bottle in my fingers and shrugged—"King's the only person I'll ever let punish me."

"I knew it." Travis grabbed the bottle off me and took a swig.

Caleb snorted. "Of course you need two people to handle you."

I rolled my eyes, happy to know I still had a like/hate relationship right here whenever I felt like sparring, because the only kind of fighting I wanted to do with Zac these days was wrestling his clothes off him.

Speaking of which…

My eyes wandered back to the bar, my attention now solely focused on the two I knew were waiting on me, and I decided it was time to peace out. I'd come, I'd celebrated—no, I'd celebrated, and now I wanted to come. And I had not one, but two hot men to seduce. What the hell was I doing standing all the way over here?

"All right, you lushes, drink up and tell 'em to put it on my tab." I clapped West on the shoulder and started to leave when I remembered, "Oh wait, I'm rich but not for, like, another month. Whoops. You're all good for it, right?"