Family Man (15 page)

Vince couldn’t take it anymore. He stood and took Trey’s arm, forcing the boy to turn and face him.

“What?” Trey asked in confusion.

What?
Did he really need to ask that? Vince couldn’t get past his disbelief and his rage enough to speak. He wanted to accuse Trey of making the whole thing up, but he could tell he wasn’t. He was being forced to see Mindy in a whole new light, and it wasn’t pretty. He had the urge to go downstairs and scream at her, ask her how she could have done something so selfish.

“You’re shaking,” Trey said, sounding more confused than ever. He took Vince’s hands, stilling them, and at last Vince found his voice.

“You have got to be shitting me. She
waited for you
so she could fucking drunk-drive you around Chicago?”

“She worried she’d have a panic attack, and she figured I could drive her home in an emergency.”

“Jesus Fucking Christ! How old were you?”

Trey seemed confused about where Vin was going. “I don’t know. Thirteen. Fourteen, maybe?”

“What about a goddamned cab?”

“They were too expensive. Besides, then people would know.” Trey blinked, looking almost wary. “Vinnie, why are you so mad?”

“Why am I mad? Fucking hell, Trey. I’m mad because your mom put you through that in goddamned
middle school
. I can’t believe your Gram let her do that!”

Now Trey was defensive. “Gram has nothing to do with it. She didn’t know.”

“That doesn’t make it any better. You shouldn’t have had to do that.
Nobody
should have to do that, ever, but you damn well shouldn’t have been your mother’s back-up plan when you were barely a teenager.”

He thought his rage would make Trey feel better. That it would somehow validate Trey’s own anger, but he’d be damned if Trey didn’t retreat more every time Vince told him what he’d been through was wrong. “I was fine. I mean, it wasn’t great—”

“It was fucking wrong in every way something can be wrong,” Vince said, no room for argument in his tone. “I don’t care that you got through it. Thank God you’re as smart and strong as you are, but that doesn’t make it any better. It shouldn’t have happened.”

“I’m not smart and strong, not really. And it wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t more than I could handle.”

What the hell was with him being so stubborn? “It wasn’t what you deserved. It wasn’t what you needed. If one of my siblings or cousins did something even half as bad as that, the family would be down on them so hard—”

“Don’t you get it?” Trey was angry again, but there was hurt in his voice that wasn’t there before. “I don’t have family like that. I hardly have any family at all. I have Mom and Gram, and Gram was still grieving Grandpa and working full-time and trying to keep us—”

“
I don’t care.
” Vince gripped Trey’s shoulders, all but shaking him. “You deserved family. You deserved to be taken care of.”

“I just told you, I didn’t—”

“Why the hell won’t you hear that you should have had help?” Vince all but roared at him. “Is it gonna break you in half or something if you admit you got a fucked-up deal, that you had to grow up too soon, that when someone should have been taking care of you, you were taking care of them instead?”

Trey didn’t answer, but his nostrils flared, and his pale blue eyes filled with angry tears.

Too late Vince realized that yes, admitting it would break Trey in half, or at least break down the safe, protective walls of
I’m fine
he’d built up while he’d sat in that car watching his mom get herself blitzed. Admitting how fucked up that had been was almost worse than living through the shit in the first place. It was enough to have to deal with his drunk mother now,
today
, sitting on the couch downstairs. Dealing with an entire lifetime of hurt and disappointment wasn’t even an option.

One day at a time. That was the saying, right?

Vince blew the last of his fury out as best he could and slid a hand up to cup the back of Trey’s head. He massaged his hair as he searched for an apology, trying to acknowledge what he’d sussed out without exactly bringing it up. To tell him that maybe he’d been in a pile of shit all alone then, but he sure as hell wasn’t now.

It turned out there weren’t words for that sort of thing. Vince bent down and kissed him instead, a soft, sweet and lingering kiss across his lips.

Trey made a quiet choking sound that broke Vince’s heart.

“I’m sorry,” Vince whispered into Trey’s hair. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m fine.”

Vince almost laughed. Trey said those words so often, like a mantra, like by saying them enough, he could make them true. “What do you want me to do?” Vince asked.

Trey tilted his head back, and although his cheeks were red and his eyes moist, he smiled flirtatiously up at Vinnie. “How about if you distract me?”

Vince was happy to oblige.

He pulled Trey to the bed, kissing him gently, trying to comfort him, but it soon became clear Trey wasn’t interested in being coddled. It was like someone had unleashed a wild animal, if a wild animal pressed people into beds and fucked them with their tongue while shoving their legs apart and grinding hard against their groins. Trey was several inches shorter than Vince and not nearly as big around, but he had pent-up rage and something else Vince couldn’t quite identify coursing through him. Vince couldn’t have gotten away from him that moment even if he wanted to.

Mother of God forgive him, but he didn’t want to.

Vince went slack under Trey’s assault, bearing him up so he didn’t tip over, lifting his legs to create a cradle for his lover, but otherwise he lay there and let Trey have his way with him. Trey’s kisses were so hard they were almost brutal, the kind of kisses Vince had dreamed about every time he’d seen Jimmy Valente in the locker-room shower in high school. Rough kisses full of teeth and thrusts that made him shiver and ache. Deep kisses that gave him goose bumps and made his cock swell against Trey’s own.

God, but it felt like high school, like the wicked moments he’d had with girls when they’d snuck him into their bedrooms, except this time he felt like the girl. Actually, no. Those girls were almost vicious. Vince felt like the virginal shy flowers he’d been taught girls were. Vince felt like a vessel, an open place for all the emotions Trey was pouring into him. More than anything in the world, he wanted Trey to break the kiss, sit back on his dick and strip his shirt away. He wanted Trey to take his shirt off too, and his pants, and he wanted Trey to turn him over and—

He shut his eyes tight, not letting that line of thought go any further.

He focused on Trey’s mouth instead, and his hands, and the incredibly sexy way his hips ground against Vince, making his cock so hard it hurt. Trey’s cock was hard too, hard as a goddamned rock inside his jeans.

Vince wanted it in his mouth.

Trey suddenly broke their kiss, ducking his head into Vince’s chest. “I’m sorry,” he panted.

“Don’t apologize. Just keep going.”

Trey’s cheeks were flushed. His lips were swollen and red. The naked arousal in his eyes was the sexiest thing Vince had ever seen. “I want to,” Trey said. “I really do. But not here.”

“Fair enough.” Vince caught his bottom lip with his teeth, tugging on it gently. “Split the difference.” When Trey looked down at him in lust-filled confusion, Vince winked. “We got first base down pat. Wanna try for second?”

Trey stared at him a moment longer. Then he smiled a wicked, beautiful smile and shoved Vince’s shirt up to his armpits.

The first brush of Trey’s fingers on his nipples made Vince suck in a breath and swell so hard against his zipper he thought he’d hurt himself. “Holy shit,” he whispered, then cried out as Trey pulled gently on the taut nub of skin.

“Is this what you want?” Trey whispered, and tugged again.

Vince arched into his touch, precome dampening his briefs. “I want you to do whatever you want to do.”

When Trey’s mouth closed over his nipple, Vince bucked with so much force he almost knocked them off the bed.
Holy Mother of God.
He had no idea that could feel so good. A couple of girls had teased his nipples a little, but never like this. Nobody’d ever sucked him. He clutched at Trey’s head, trying to keep him there, gasping and all but crying.

Trey licked around his areola, one of his hands trailing down Vince’s stomach. “I want to touch you. I want to touch your cock.”

Fear threatened to shut Vince down, but there was too much want, too much yearning. “I want to touch you too. I want to hold our cocks together in my hand and jack against you until we both come.” The terror bit him sharp, but he pressed on. “I want to lick it all off your belly and suck you until you get hard in my mouth and come again.”

Trey’s fingers bit into Vince’s side.

Then they traveled down, very insistently, to his fly.

The doorknob rattled. “Trey?” Sophia called through the wood.

Vince and Trey moved apart like they were on fire. Trey flashed him an apologetic, shaky smile. “Yeah, Gram?”

The doorknob rattled again, and the door opened. Vince tugged his shirt down and grabbed Trey’s pillow, shoving it over his crotch.

Belatedly he realized this was about as dead a giveaway to what they’d been doing as he could give, but Sophia played it as cool as a cucumber. “Oh hello, Vincent. I was wondering if you were here, and I see you are. Should I set an extra place for dinner?”

Trey smiled at Vince, lust still banked in his gaze, and Vince nearly came in his pants.

“No—” Vince’s voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “No. I gotta get back.” He had to get home and jerk the hell off, that’s what. “But thank you.”

“The steps look wonderful.” Her eyes might have been twinkling. “You’re certainly spoiling us around here, with all your projects.” She glanced apologetically at Trey. “I was going to ask you to set the table, but I don’t want to interrupt.”

Christ.
Vince stood, taking his pillow with him. “No. Really. I gotta get going. Really.” He hesitated at Trey, then gave in and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll call you later.”

He remembered halfway down the stairs to drop the pillow.

Chapter Eighteen

I hadn’t told Josh, Tara or Dillon about Vin. I’d kept news of my relationship quiet in part because I didn’t want to out Vince before he was ready, but mostly because of the sheer nosiness of my friends. They knew I was saving myself for “The One”, and I wasn’t ready to be interrogated on the state of my virginity.

I also didn’t want to hear their opinions on the wisdom of teasing myself with a closeted man more than ten years my senior.

It couldn’t stay a secret forever, though. Vinnie was around me so much, people had noticed. He was practically a Full Moon morning regular, and he might have been trying to be down-low about why he was there, but nobody bought it.

One day we all stopped by the shop together, and when Dillon was ordering and Josh and Tara were in some heated discussion beside me, Sara smiled at me over the espresso machine and said, “No boyfriend today?”

Josh and Tara went stone silent, and Dillon turned around to stare open-mouthed at me, his order forgotten.

“Shit,” I swore, but the proverbial cat was out of the bag. There was no escape. They were ruthless. They blocked me into the corner and badgered me until I’d spilled the whole story.

“He’s a good guy,” I insisted when they made a face at how old he was and that he was still in the closet. “His family is amazing, which you already know—he’s a Fierro.”

“The restaurant,” Josh said, looking impressed.

Tara wasn’t so easy. “I don’t care if he’s from the fucking First Family and comes with the Good Housekeeping Seal. If he’s using you, I’ll kick his ass.”

I wished Vin could see this. Family? Hell, I had it in spades. Whoever said blood was thicker than water hadn’t met my friends.

It was Dillon who asked the question I’d been dreading. “So, have you done it yet?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but we haven’t done anything.” I thought of how he’d come apart in my arms when I’d sucked on his nipple and blushed. “Much.”

“How come we haven’t met him then?” he challenged. “Why are you letting him keep you as his dirty little secret?”

“You haven’t met him because of how you’re acting right now.” Except I couldn’t really be mad at them. Nuts as they were, I did love how protective they were being, and I kind of wanted to hug them all. “I’ll talk to him about it, okay?”

Dillon and Josh looked mollified, but Tara still had her arms folded over her chest. “You’ve been ditching us for weeks. Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been? Dillon was all about giving you space, letting you come to us. I thought maybe your mom was bad again.”

Now I felt guilty. “She is, actually. But that’s not—” I sighed. “I didn’t mean to ditch you. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Dillon snorted. “You weren’t thinking. Not with your big head, anyway.”

Tara whacked me on the arm, and I winced. “I’m sorry, I really am.”

Josh smiled a soft, knowing kind of smile. “Ignore them. They’re just sore because I was right. They thought something was wrong because you were acting funny. Smiling like a dork for no reason. Running into walls because you were checking your phone. Missing half of conversations because you were staring off into nothing.” His smile grew wider. “I told them you were acting like someone in love.”