So he held her face in his palms and kissed her like he meant it, and he didn’t let go for a long damn time.
NINETEEN
“I think we should go out.” Ren plopped into the armchair across from Hayes and took a sip of his beer.
Hayes looked up from his spot on the couch where he was going through Cora’s notes yet again. A rollicking Friday night. “What?”
“Out. The three of us. Take a break from all this stuff and have some fun. Well, fun outside the office. Apparently, I missed a hot make-out session yesterday afternoon.”
Hayes set down the highlighter he’d been using on the notes and rubbed his brow, trying to process Ren’s request. “You want the three of us to go out? Like on a date?”
Ren shrugged. “Why not?”
“Uh, maybe because you don’t date. And we’ve never taken a woman we’re sleeping with out unless it was to The Ranch.”
Ren tilted his head in a come-on-now way. “Are you actually going to sit there and pretend Cora is just another sub we’re doing scenes with? Like you’re not secretly over there doodling hearts around her name and trying to figure out a way to get me out of the picture now that you know she’s Lenore?”
Hayes snorted. “Get you out of the picture? Wow, is the great Ren Muroya insecure? Someone call the media to document this. The world is ending.”
“Fuck you, Fox,” Ren said, his tone offhanded but the line of questioning ridiculously transparent. “I’m just saying, you’ve typically gravitated more toward women. And she’s—”
Hayes sat up, reached over and grabbed Ren’s shirt, and kissed him like he liked to fuck him, rough and deep and without coming up for air. When he was done, he shoved Ren back into the armchair and sank back onto the couch, adjusting the front of his jeans where his cock was perking up for the party. “You’re not my consolation prize, dickhead. As some wise Japanese dude pointed out recently, I’m in love with you. And apparently, I’m stuck with that affliction. I fear it’s lifelong. So be worried. You’re not getting rid of me.”
Ren eyed him and took another pull of his beer, but his shoulders visibly relaxed and the corners of his eyes creased—a hidden smile. “Only you could manage to call me a dickhead in some grand romantic speech.”
Hayes reached for his own beer. “What can I say? I have a way with words.”
“And for what it’s worth, I like that you’re into Cora, that she’s your Lenore. I don’t know her the way you do yet, but I want to. I don’t remember things ever clicking quite like they did in the office yesterday, even with you not touching her yet. It felt . . . natural. Easy.” He stared down at his bottle, a wrinkle in his brow. “I just . . . well, I guess I’ve never had anything at stake when we’ve shared a woman in the past. Now it feels . . . bigger. Complicated.” He let his head fall back against the chair, closed his eyes, and sighed. “This love thing is kind of a pain in the ass.”
Hayes laughed and lifted his bottle. “Ain’t that the fucking truth.”
Ren’s eyes blinked open but his gaze remained on the ceiling. “So we should go out. People who are trying to have some kind of relationship go on dates. Plus, we haven’t had a chance to just hang out with Cora and have a good time. Now that you can feel comfortable with her, what’s stopping us?”
Hayes frowned. “I do feel comfortable with her. But that doesn’t mean I feel comfortable going out in public. Can’t we just invite her over?”
“Yes, because that’s not an asshole move. Let’s follow up a quickie at the office where we sent her back to work with an offer of Hey there, we really don’t feel like doing the date thing. Want to come over and we’ll order pizza? Maybe tie you up and fuck afterward?”
Hayes sniffed. “Yeah, okay. I see your point.”
“Come on. You can go over all those notes on Monday. Cora’s locked up the system. The guy who’s after you can’t get to you that way anymore, so we don’t have to spend every waking moment on the hunt. And you shouldn’t have to be scared to go in public. Aren’t you stir-crazy? Work. Home. Work. Home.”
Hayes grunted.
“Plus, look what we’ve got at our fingertips. A gorgeous woman who’s dying to try more kink and who for some unknown reason is into us both. And we have each other. I feel like I’ve opened all these awesome Christmas gifts, but then no one’s letting me take them out of the box so I can play with them.”
Hayes’s lips twitched into a smile at that. “You’ve taken me out of the box plenty this week.”
Ren flipped him off.
“Christmas presents, huh? Are you going to pout now? Maybe throw a fit.”
“You know I could. I was a nightmare of a child,” Ren said. “I still have it in me.”
Hayes sighed. “You know I’d love to take you both out, but it’s . . . hard. Being out. If people recognize me—”
“Then let them look. So the fuck what. We’ve got nothing to hide.”
Hayes ran a hand over the back of his neck, but he couldn’t seem to say no to Ren. And the thought of all three of them just going out for a night of fun did hold a hell of a lot of appeal. They’d done all of this ass-backward. Cora deserved better than that. “Fine. But something low-key, all right? Dinner, a movie, something like that.”