Sinners On Tour 04 Wicked Beat (28 page)

Rebekah took a deep breath and knocked on Isaac’s apartment door. She knew she probably shouldn’t show up unannounced. He might not even be home. She wanted to clear the air between them now. She didn’t want anything to weigh on her thoughts while she was having dinner with Eric. Or while they picked out her engagement ring.

A minute later the door swung open, and Trey Mills stood in the doorway in nothing but a pair of black satin boxer shorts. “Hey, Rebekah,” he said with a devilish grin. “What brings you here?”

“Uh…” Why was Trey in Isaac’s apartment? Maybe they’d hit it off after she and Eric had left the evening before. Okay. That made sense. But why was he almost naked? “Is… is I-Isaac h-here?”

“Yeah, he’s here. Why don’t you come in?”

Trey stepped to the side, and Rebekah entered the apartment. She could smell dinner cooking. Garlic, oregano, parmesan. Isaac had always been an excellent cook. Italian cuisine was only one of his specialties. Trey shut the door behind her and pressed a hand to the small of her back.

“Don’t be too hard on him, okay?” he said quietly. “He’s happy, but scared.”

“About what?”

“I’ll let him tell you.”

Isaac stepped out of the bedroom, drying his hair with a towel. He was wearing gray lounge pants, but was shirtless and barefoot. “I was thinking,” he said, a huge smile on his face, “maybe I should get my tongue pier—” He noticed Rebekah, and his smile faded. He dropped the towel around his shoulders.

They stared at each other wide-eyed for what seemed like hours.

“Isaac,” she said finally. “What’s going on?”

Isaac’s eyes flicked to Trey. Isaac looked like a caged animal ready to dart as soon as a break presented itself. “What did you tell her?”

Trey shook his head. “Nothing.”

“We need to talk,” Rebekah said.

Isaac nodded. He turned and went back into his room. She didn’t really want to go into his bedroom, but she supposed since Trey was there, they needed someplace private to have their falling out.

Rebekah entered his room and closed the door. The lamp on the bedside table glowed softly. She couldn’t help but notice the empty condom wrappers. So he claimed to love her but had slept with some other woman? Not that she cared. It just added to her confusion about how Isaac had been treating her lately.

His back was to her. His head hung low. He was obviously feeling guilty about something.

“I know what you did to my cell phone,” she said.

“I’m gay,” he blurted.

The words registered, but the implications behind his statement were difficult to grasp. “You’re…
what
?”

“Gay. Homosexual.”

She blinked and shook her head slightly. “You’re…
what
?” she repeated.

“I like guys, okay?” He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m gay. Is it that hard for you to understand?”

Yes, it
was
that hard for her to understand. They’d been in love. Engaged. Had sex. Granted, it had been passionless, sorta icky sex, but it had been sex. Infrequent. Lights off. Boring. Tedious sex. But it had been sex, by God.

Isaac’s gay.

The reality struck her so hard that she laughed. “You’re gay?”

He nodded, avoiding her gaze.

Her eyes darted to the empty wrappers on the bedside table. “You had sex with Trey?”

He flushed and did this cute eye-rolling thing that not only told her he had done it with Trey, but it had been phenomenal. Not icky. Not boring. Not tedious. It had been full of passion. And the lights had definitely been on.

“I need to sit down,” Rebekah said. She sat on the edge of his bed and breathed through her lightheadedness.

He sat beside her. After a moment, he took her hand and gripped it in both of his. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For trying to come between you and Eric. I know you love him, but I needed you to marry me.”

“I’d like to say I understand, Isaac, but I honestly don’t.”

“I need a wife,” he said. “For appearance’s sake. You know my father will disown me if he finds out I’m gay. I might as well kiss the family practice good-bye. You and I get along so well. You can’t have kids anyway, so no one would be suspicious if we adopt. It just makes sense that we stay together.”

“So I’m supposed to give up my chance at happiness so you can pretend to be something you’re not.”

He ran a hand over his face. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. I love you, Rebekah. I do. I always have. I’d be a great husband. Treat you well. Take care of you forever. Give you anything you could ever want or need. It’s just the thought of having sex with you makes me physically ill.”

As if she could forget how unattractive he’d made her feel. “But that’s not because I’m not sexy or because my body feels weird inside, it’s because…” For the first time, she realized her body wasn’t the problem. It never had been. She jerked her hand out of his and jumped to her feet to glare at him. “How could you do that to me?”

“Do what?”

“Make me feel so sexually unappealing! Talk about a major mind fuck, Isaac. If it weren’t for Eric, I’d still think I had nothing to offer a man in the bedroom. I thought there was something
wrong
with me. That my body was disgusting.”

“I thought there
must
be something wrong with you. I wanted to be attracted to you, Rebekah. I just… wasn’t. And I couldn’t… I couldn’t force myself to have sex with you after the surgery. I tried. Mentally, I had convinced myself that I needed to. Physically? I couldn’t even maintain an erection. I really did think it was because of your surgery.”

“It never occurred to you that
I
wasn’t the problem?”

“Did that occur to you?” he asked.

She lowered her eyes. “Well, no, actually. You’ve always been so… so… well,
perfect
.”

“That’s a pretty hard label to live up to.”

The turmoil in his eyes made her cringe. She wasn’t even mad at him anymore. She emitted a loud sigh. “You must be struggling to come to terms with this. When did you realize?”

“Last night.”

“Thank you for confiding in me. I’m sure that wasn’t easy.” She sat beside him again and wrapped an arm around his back. He leaned against her for support, and they sat there for a long while, silently offering strength to one another. He’d done this so many times when she’d been sick. Just offered his presence so she never felt alone. She was happy to offer him this bit of comfort in return.

“Rebekah?” he said quietly. “I need to ask you a favor. Will you do something for me?”

She stroked the loose waves from his forehead with one hand. “Of course.”

“My father is having a big dinner party next week. All the physicians from the clinic will be there. The entire staff too. He didn’t say specifically, but I think he’s going to ask me to join the practice full time. In front of everyone.” He took her hand and clung to it. “I was hoping… would you go with me? We could pretend…”

“Isaac…”

“We could pretend that we’re still a couple, and then after he makes the announcement, I’ll tell him about…” He took a deep shuddering breath. “I need time to come to terms with this, and if you’re there, I won’t get all the regular questions.”

“The regular questions?”

“When are you going to settle down, son? Are you ever going to get married? I already had two kids by the time I was your age. Don’t you think you need to start having a family?” he said in a pretty good impression of his father’s deep voice. “You know. The regular questions.”

She understood exactly where he was coming from, and she was tempted to say yes, but she wasn’t sure how Eric would feel about her pretending to be Isaac’s woman. Even if it was only for one evening. “I have to ask Eric,” she said.

Isaac cringed. “He hates me. He’ll never go for it.”

“You have been acting like an ass lately,” she said. “Can you blame him for not understanding how we can be friends?”

“Sorry.”

She kissed his temple. “I forgive you. This time.”

“You’re good to me, Reb. Sometimes I wish… Sometimes I wish you were a guy,” he said.

Rebekah laughed. “I’ve always been sort of a tomboy. Maybe that’s why you thought you loved me.” She glanced at the clock radio beside the bed and her heart sank. “Oh crap, I was supposed to meet Eric an hour ago. He’s probably worried.”

She pulled out her phone and found that it was turned off. She tried to turn it on, but the battery was dead. “Shit. He’s probably been trying to call me. Can I use your phone?”

“Of course.”

She climbed to her feet and kissed him on the temple. “I’m here for you, you know. Just like you were there for me when I needed you during my treatments.”

He groaned and fell back on his bed. “Stop being so nice to me. You’re making me feel like a complete jerk.”

She chuckled. “Good. Maybe you’ll remember that the next time you act like a selfish asshole.”

He chuckled. “When did you become so blunt?”

“Recently. And I like it.”

She let herself out of the bedroom and went into the kitchen to use the phone. Trey was sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar still in nothing but his boxer shorts. He was fiddling with his smart phone. He looked up and grinned. “Did he tell you?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded. “Good.”

“Are you going to break his heart?” Rebekah asked.

“Who, me?” His look of innocence wasn’t fooling her.

“Let him down easy.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Trey assured her.

Rebekah dialed Eric’s number and hoped he’d answer. He probably wouldn’t like seeing Isaac’s number on his caller ID. He answered after several rings. “Is Rebekah okay?” he asked breathlessly.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Sorry I’m late. I’m getting ready to leave now. I’ll tell you what’s going on when I get to the restaurant. Are you still waiting there?”

“Yeah. I think I’ve eaten twenty or thirty complimentary breadsticks. I tried to call. You didn’t answer.”

“My battery is dead. Go ahead and order for us both. I’ll hurry.”

Rebekah gasped when Trey cuddled against her back. “Come on back to bed, Rebekah,” he said near her ear and phone receiver. “Isaac and I aren’t finished with you yet.”

Rebekah elbowed him in the stomach, and he chuckled.

“Is that Trey?” Eric asked.

“Yeah, he thinks he’s funny.”

“There’s nothing funny about how hot you look in this deep sea diver getup,” Trey said, making sure Eric would hear. His bangs tickled her cheek as he leaned close to the receiver. She giggled. “Have you seen the oxygen tank and flippers on this woman?” he continued. “Lord have mercy. Hot.”

“What is he talking about?” Eric asked.

“He’s just teasing,” Rebekah assured him.

“Isaac, hand me the snorkel. I’m going down,” Trey said. “I won’t be coming up for air for a while.” Isaac leaned against the opposite side of the counter and quirked an eyebrow at Trey.

Rebekah snorted as she tried not to laugh. “Stop it, Trey.”

“Yeah, stop it, Trey.” Eric sounded out of sorts. “Why are you at Isaac’s house? And what is Trey doing there?”

“I’ll explain as soon as I get to the restaurant.”

“It will probably be at least another hour, Sticks,” Trey said and made obnoxious kissing noises against the back of Rebekah’s neck.

Shoulders scrunched, she laughed again and slapped Trey until he finally backed off. She lost her train of thought when Trey leaned over the counter, holding Isaac’s gaze in a sensual stare and kissed him tenderly. The only thing Rebekah could do was gape, heart thudding with… She couldn’t identify the feeling exactly. Curiosity? Excitement? She wasn’t sure, but she kind of liked watching them kiss.

“Rebekah?” Eric said into her ear, drawing her attention away from the way-too-hot guys totally trying to out-kiss each other at the moment.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she promised. “Love you.”

“Me too,” Eric whispered and disconnected.

She hated to interrupt the festivities. It was interesting to see how passionate Isaac could be when he was actually turned on. He’d never kissed
her
the way he was kissing Trey. Um… “Isaac, I’ll call you tomorrow about the party after I talk to Eric.”

He peeled his lips off Trey’s and said, “Thanks, angel. I appreciate it.”

“Party?” Trey said. “What party?”

“You wouldn’t be interested,” Isaac assured him, eyes wide with what Rebekah could only construe as abject horror.

“I’m always interested in a party,” Trey said.

“No,” Isaac said emphatically.

“I’ll see you guys later,” Rebekah said.

Trey grabbed her and hugged her. “Thanks for introducing me to your ex-boyfriend,” Trey murmured into her ear so Isaac couldn’t hear. “He’s way fun to fuck with. Mmm, and fuck.”

Poor Isaac. He had no idea who he’d gotten himself tangled up with here.

Trey released her and offered a lopsided, ornery grin. He winked. Rebekah’s heart skipped a beat. On second thought. Lucky Isaac. He had no idea who he’d gotten himself tangled up with here.

“You should totally mess with Eric when you see him. Make him think you were doing something with me and Isaac. It will drive him insane.”

She shook her head. “No way. We’re still in the making-up phase.”

“He wouldn’t hesitate to do it to you, you know.”

Probably true, but she’d already kept him waiting for over an hour and needed to put the poor guy out of his misery. “Bye, Isaac.” She waved at Trey and let herself out of the apartment.

By the time she arrived at the restaurant, guilt was eating her alive. The scowl on Eric’s handsome face didn’t make her feel better. She kissed his cheek and slid into the chair across from him. Her salad was already waiting. He’d finished his.

“I’m really sorry I’m so late.”

“I think you have some explaining to do.”

She stuffed a bite of salad in her mouth and held up one finger while she chewed and swallowed. “I went to Isaac’s apartment to confront him about his behavior—reprogramming my phone for one thing—and Trey answered his door. I never did get to tell Isaac off properly. He told me… He told me that he’s—” she lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned across the table, “—gay.”