Three Rings and a Rose (10 page)

“You were drunk, and I have to say it was adorable.”

“So? Why didn’t you correct me?”

“Do you actually remember that night?”

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She glowered at him, and he knew that she didn’t have any recollections of that night, but she gave no other response to his probing question. Instead, she clamped her jaw shut and said nothing at all.

“Fine,” he said, “I’ll fill you in on the rest then you’ll know exactly why I didn’t tell you that night.”

“Fine.” She crossed her arms in overt irritation. The movement drew his attention to her beautiful, bountiful breasts, and he had to recite multiplication tables to calm his suddenly raging libido.

When he finally got his body back under control, he said, “I tried to correct you, Ella. Really, I did.” And he had. It just hadn’t worked.

“But you told me that you didn’t want me to fall in love with you.

You said that you didn’t want to live with a man who would be attracted to you or want to spend his life with you. You felt strongly about us not having any sort of romantic relationship.” Shuffling his feet back and forth, he stared over her shoulder. He feigned interest in an empty, old building where Katie-Anne Jacobs used to run her jewelry store before it had been vandalized. “At the time, I needed a place to stay, and I figured that I wouldn’t live with you for more than a few months or maybe a year. I loved Jon. You and I were just
friends. So it was easier to let it go.” He cleared a nonexistent speck of dust from his throat. “After that, I didn’t know how to tell you. Jon and I broke up. I fell in love with you, and I was…” He knew exactly what he was. He knew what he wanted to say, but, for some reason, the words stuck in his throat.

“Scared?” she asked, obviously filling in the blank for him with the exact word he’d been thinking.

With a jerky nod, he admitted, “Petrified. I didn’t want to lose you, Ella.”

“You wouldn’t have lost me,” she replied in a clear voice. The naked truth lay bare in her vulnerable tone and her moist eyes.

Averting her gaze, a blush started in her neck and crept up into her face. “I loved you when I asked you to move in.”
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It was his turn to screech, “What?”

“I–I–I,” she stammered. “I already loved you, and I wanted to be with you. But since you were gay, I figured it was better to be your friend than to not have you at all. That’s why I asked you to move in with me. I wanted to be with you.”

Oh, my God
. Speechless, he just stood there like a bump on a log.

However, she didn’t. She spun around and gave him her back. “If you’re bi, why haven’t you dated any women?” He knew the answer to that one without a doubt in his mind or a reservation in his soul. So he answered her with an honesty that should have appalled him but somehow didn’t. “Because they weren’t you, Ella.”

She gasped. “Please don’t say that.”

“But you love me,” he replied simply. “And I love you.”

“I know, but this is about more than me and you,” she murmured, the tears making themselves known in her husky voice as she stepped away from him. “I’ve dreamed of this moment, of you telling me those words, Micah. Every day for as long as I’ve known you, but I c–

c–can’t do this right now. You and Caedon are confusing me. I just…I need to go home and think and be alone for a little while.” Hearing her voice crack and watching her leave, panic settled in his arteries. The ice-cold feeling was too much for his chest to take, and he lost his breath momentarily. “Ella,” he finally managed to say.

“Please don’t go.”

Ella didn’t stop. She continued to walk, drifting further and further away from him. With each step she took, his heart throbbed for her. And he was willing to beg her to stay with him yet he didn’t.

He knew it wouldn’t work. For whatever reason, she was going to go, and there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say that would change that fact.

As she left him in the middle of the street by himself, she said over her shoulder, “I have to. I need to…process all of this.” Then she added, “I’ll see you sometime.”

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Micah opened his mouth to respond but immediately stopped when a woodsy cologne drifted under his nose. A mere second later a giant hand touched his shoulder, and he jerked away knowingly.

Fuck. Caedon.

* * * *

A piece of Caedon’s heart broke when Micah pulled away from him abruptly, the harsh movement saying more than words ever could. Micah didn’t want him anymore. And it wasn’t just his love or lust he was rejecting. It was his friendship, too.

Overlooking his personal pain, Caedon told Micah, “Let her go.

She needs time.” The sound of his voice echoed off the buildings in the now-desolate street, and he cringed. This was a personal matter, not one he wanted to be heard in a public place.

With his career choice, Caedon always considered the possibility of paparazzi hiding in some nook or cranny while snapping pictures and recording his words. Scanning the area, he glanced down the street then switched his attention to the upper part. He checked the buildings surrounding them and peeked at the few alleyways nearby.

But he thankfully saw nothing and no one. They were alone
.

Whirling around, Micah charged at Caedon, his bloodthirsty expression nearly knocking him over. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’ve been here. You haven’t. And hell, you’re the one who came here
today
of all days and fucked everything up—again. I was going to tell her. I was going to break it to her gently. But you took that away from me. I had to win her over before you did. So now I bungled it all to hell and back.”

Another chink fell from Caedon’s heart. This wasn’t a mad Micah in front of him. He was a hurt one. And Caedon hated to see him like that. Whether or not he loved Micah—which he could certify that he did—Caedon always felt uncomfortable when he saw the cracks in Micah. The strong self-assurance he carried around was one of the
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things that Caedon respected most. To see him in any other light was excruciating.

“Micah, I was trying to help you”—halting, Caedon pointed at Ella, who’d made it to the end of the street and had just turned the corner—“and her.”

“I’m sure you were,” Micah muttered in a sardonic tone that would have normally pissed Caedon off. If he weren’t so damn worried about him, he’d have probably lit into him. “Fucking over the opposition gives you what you want—in this case, Ella.” Micah didn’t give Caedon a chance to respond before he stalked through the night. He walked toward The G Spot with long, deliberate strides.

Following behind Micah, Caedon snorted. “Do you really think I’m going to get the girl
now
? She won’t have me. She wouldn’t have me before. Even if I hadn’t messed up, she wouldn’t have ever been mine—not completely.”

Micah didn’t pause, but he did shake his head in obvious confusion. “Then why are you here?” he asked as he came to a halt in front of the door to The G Spot. Retrieving keys from his pocket, Micah locked up Ella’s store without going back inside and turning off the lights, grabbing her belongings, or anything else.

“Hell if I know,” Caedon replied with a shrug. “I guess I wanted to see if I could work everything out with Ella. I wanted to see if you and I could be”—he hesitated, unsure of what to say—”friends again.

But it’s obvious to me that isn’t the case. She doesn’t want me because of you, and you hate me.”

“So that’s it?” Micah asked as he whirled to face Caedon. His gorgeous face changed before Caedon’s very eyes, the angry expression he’d been wearing earlier disappeared, and a thunderous one replaced it. “You’re just going to leave again? You came here and upset Ella. You screwed everything up for me. Now you’re going to hightail your ass out of here. I don’t think so, asshole. I won’t let you go anywhere, goddamn it. Not this time.”

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Micah’s eyes widened as though he hadn’t meant to say what he’d just said. But it was too late. Caedon had heard him—loud and clear.

Mr. Blunt appeared to have spoken before thinking, and Caedon now knew that he didn’t want him to leave.

Thank God.
Caedon breathed a tiny sigh of relief then informed Micah, “I didn’t say that either. I’m not going anywhere, jackass
.
Just because you two are on a different page than I am doesn’t mean I can’t turn it for you.”

A small smile appeared on Micah’s sexy lips before he extinguished it, his expression hardening again. Only it was fake.

Anyone with eyes could see the begrudging laughter in his baby blues.
My writer wouldn’t make a very good actor.

Micah scowled and asked “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that I can fix this…we can fix it—together.” Cocking his head to the side, Micah’s curiosity appeared to spring to life as his probing eyes met Caedon’s. “How?” Caedon smirked. “She doesn’t want me without you, and you hate me because I am trying to keep you from her. Correct?” Micah looked at him skeptically then shifted ever-so-slightly.

Leaving one foot planted on the ground, he dragged the other across the sidewalk then lifted his leg and kicked a random rock. “I don’t
hate
you, Caedon. I never have,” he said in a tone that left no room for argument. He might be pissed at Caedon, but he obviously still cared. That was enough for Caedon. It would have to be—until he could convince him their friendship was salvageable.

Caedon watched Micah carefully, never taking his eyes from him, as he declared, “I say we share her.”

Micah’s jaw came unhinged, and the damn thing dropped until it couldn’t open any more. Caedon wanted to laugh at his dumbfounded expression, but he managed to keep his amusement under wraps—

barely. He figured it would be an extremely bad idea to rub Micah the wrong way right now. After all, Caedon
was
pretty partial to his pearly-white teeth.

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“What the hell is wrong with you?” Micah inquired, openly gaping at Caedon. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“We should share her,” Caedon repeated, enunciating his words carefully so there was no confusion. “Or at least, we should
try
to share her.”

Caedon hated saying the word
try
. It would be so much easier if he knew for sure they could share her without their jealousy tearing them all three apart. But he didn’t know, and he wouldn’t lie about it until he did.

Honestly, he couldn’t really believe he was saying the word
share
at all. When he’d left Los Angeles, he hadn’t believed that they could live in an unorthodox relationship like that. But after talking to Addy and then Brooklyn, he had started to see the truth—that sharing was the answer, the only answer. The handful of happy couples he’d caught a glimpse of in Serenity had cemented his decision. Now he just had to convince the two people he wanted in his permanent ménage.

Blinking at him, Micah snapped his jaw shut. “You and I used to get jealous as hell over her.”

I get jealous over you, too. I just hide it better.
He considered saying it, but he didn’t. Right now, he needed to focus on Ella and not Micah. Nothing was going to happen between him and Micah anyway.
Only because he doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do
him. If he did, I would share him in a heartbeat.

Caedon groaned inwardly, the surge of pain rising in him like a tidal wave then crashing through his aching heart. Overlooking his agonized emotions, he asked, “Do you have any better ideas?” Micah appeared to deliberate, his eyes clouding over as though he were working a calculus problem. Finally he grumbled, “No.”

“I don’t know if it will work or not,” Caedon admitted, sticking to his honesty policy. He had to be truthful about his idea. Going in with their eyes open gave them a better chance at succeeding. Or he hoped it would. “But we have to try. Otherwise, we’re all going to be
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miserable. She won’t have me without you, and she won’t have you without me. It’s the only solution that I see.”
It’s the only solution I
want to see. It’s the way I get to keep both of you—forever.

Micah eyed Caedon then gulped visibly. “We could fight over her.

Many friends have dueled over a woman.”

“We would both lose each other
and
her.” Micah shook his head, but Caedon saw the resentful acceptance in his blue eyes. “What if we can’t do it? What if she doesn’t want to?”

“What if we can? What if she does?”

Arching his eyebrow, Micah pinned him with a penetrating stare that he felt to the depth of his soul. “I don’t know about this.” Caedon couldn’t help the annoyance he felt at Micah’s resistance.

He lived in
Serenity
, for Christ’s sake, and he hesitated in sharing the woman he loved? Something was wrong with this picture. The voice in his head awakened with a vengeance, asking a question that cut Caedon to the core.
“Maybe it’s not the sharing that disturbs him.

Maybe it’s sharing with you.”