Twin Ties 1: My Brother's Lover (37 page)

Alek took him by the hand, and gave him a level look.

“Hey, don’t sweat it. You’ve already met these guys. They’re cool. It’s no big deal,” Alek assured him.

Evan rolled his eyes. Their linked hands felt like a big, neon sign announcing his status as Alek’s bottom boy. But he was also wholly unable to find voice to protest or bring himself to pull away. Evan let Alek lead him inside.

The house was fairly quiet. A TV was playing somewhere nearby. There was a low, unidentifiable rustling, possibly accompanied by muffled voices.

“Hey! Anybody home?” Alek called, hanging his keys up on a hook by the door. With an incline of his head toward the living room, he guided them deeper into the house.

Someone answered, “Alek? That you?”

There was no one in the living room when they got there, but Carter appeared behind them in the hall.

They turned toward him and Alek said, “Hey. What’s up? Carter, you remember Evan?”

Evan noticed the quick once-over Carter gave him, head to toe, like he was making note of absolutely everything from his and Alek’s linked hands to the hang of Evan’s clothes on his frame to the size difference between him and Alek. Smiling politely but awkwardly, the most Evan could handle was a muttered, “Hey.”

“Of course I remember. Nice to see you again, man,” Carter said, extending a hand.

Thinking it would be too weird to shake Carter’s hand while holding Alek’s, Evan slipped free of Alek and gave Carter a firm, manly grip. Undeterred, Alek draped an arm over Evan’s shoulders and said, “Yeah, I think we’re just gonna hang out here for a while. That cool with you?”

Horribly, Evan felt himself blushing, his face getting redder by the second as his hands found their way back into his pockets. It was the most innocent conversation in the world, but it just seemed to him like Alek was declaring his status as the owner of Evan’s ass. And, the more Evan blushed, the more it seemed like Carter was smirking at him.

“Sure. It’s your house, too. Hey, I think the Mets are playing the Phils. Not sure what time, though. I was gonna check it out. Grab some beers.”

“Awesome. Hey, is Presley here?”

“Yeah, he’s um... sleeping.” Carter tucked his long hair back over an ear and unintentionally revealed a large, fresh hickey on the side of his neck.

A few minutes later, Evan had been left blessedly alone with the television and remote while Alek and Carter had gone into the kitchen to go over the monthly utility bills. Evan was still trying to figure out how to navigate the satellite’s menu when he felt the couch shift as Presley flopped down next to him.

“Evan, right? What’s up?”

“Oh. Hi. Yeah. Alek, um... I’m just here because... I mean, we’ve been spending a lot of time at my place, so Alek thought... I can’t really figure out how to change the channel.”

Presley took the remote from Evan and flipped through the stations. “What’re you looking for?” “Anything besides this infomercial, pretty much.”

Presley flashed Evan a smile. “So you and Alek, huh?”

“Yep.”

“How’s that goin’?”

“Uh, good? Goin’ good. He’s a good guy.”

Shooting Evan a no-holds-barred, are-you-shitting-me look, Presley prodded him with, “But you guys are together, right?”

Evan pressed his lips together and bit at them. “Yeah. We are.”

“I mean, it’s not like a secret, right?”

“No,” he scoffed, wanting to curl in on himself and die, but trying to man-up and act cooler than he felt. “It’s not.”

“Hey, I’m not trying to freak you out or nothin’. I was just curious. Alek’s not really one to bring a boyfriend home to watch TV, if you know what I mean. So
you
are just kind of... interesting.”

Smiling shyly and ducking his head, Evan glanced over at Presley then back at the screen. It was the Discovery Channel and they were doing some sort of experiment with rockets.

Perfect,
Evan thought.
More phallic symbols. Not awkward at all.

“Have you met Luka yet?”

For a second, Evan was bombarded with the very vivid memory of lying in bed that morning, naked, with Brennan, and Luka standing in the doorway, watching. Then he got another flash of the night before. It was hazy but clear enough to jolt him—Brennan sucking his dick and Luka watching that, too.

Clearing his throat loudly in an attempt to cover a small, sharp, breathy exhale, Evan said, “Yeah, you could say that. I was pretty surprised that Alek has a twin. But Luka’s cool.”

“Yeah, he’s cool all right.” Presley gave Evan a sidelong glance as if he was thinking about how close the Popovic brothers were, and what that might imply for someone like Evan. Unsure whether it would be less questionable to meet that sort of look head-on or to simply avoid it, Evan stared right back at Presley for a long moment before his conscience won out and Evan dropped his gaze.

Silence fell between them. Evan wondered if Presley was speculating what sort of kinky shit he and Alek had gotten up to. It made him want out of there, and he almost got to his feet when Presley said, “I’m a little closer with Luka than Alek. He’s my boy, you know? We go back. He’s got some uh, interesting personal boundaries, which you may have discovered already, but that’s all surface. Both Luka and Aleksy—they’re good guys to have on your side. When they like you, and I mean,
really
like you, then you’re pretty much golden. They’ll go out of their way to get your back. You feel me?”

“Yeah,” Evan nodded. He smiled genuinely and truly relaxed for the first time since leaving the truck. Presley wasn’t judging him, Evan realized. Presley not only seemed to understand, he was actually trying to make Evan feel more comfortable. And it was working.

Digging a fresh piece of gum out of his pocket, Evan muttered, “I’m trying to quit smoking. It’s not really going well.”

“Well, I think I might have some nicotine gum. You’re welcome to it. It works a little better than that shit,” he gestured to Evan’s spearmint gum. “Trust me.” “You quit too?”

Presley nodded, “I did. Carter asked me to, so I couldn’t say no. Said he was concerned about my health. Then I started feelin’ all guilty and, well, you know how it goes.”

Astonished by the confession, Evan’s eyes widened subtly.
He’s confiding in me
, he thought.
He’s telling me stuff he might not even tell Alek.

“He must care about you a lot,” Evan observed quietly. “I could see it at the bar too, when that dude punched you. Carter looked freaked.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s complicated.”

“Hey, I know from complicated. Believe me. I think complicated is my middle name.”

Chuckling, Presley stood and, for a second, gripped Evan’s shoulder. “I’m gonna grab you that gum.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” Evan replied, smiling to himself.

Brennan, slouched down beside Luka in his truck, folded and refolded the receipt from the health clinic. It was a relief to know both he and Luka were disease free and he hadn’t unwittingly given anything to Evan or Luka or Alek.

I’m supposed to be smarter than that
, he berated himself.
I’m supposed to be good at taking care of people, and especially the ones I love.

“I’ve been really selfish, haven’t I?”

“You’ve been going after what you want,” Luka clarified. “And now you kind of have it, so you’ve gotta step up to your responsibilities if you want to keep what you have.”

“I know. I’ll try. I really will. But there is this one thing that I keep thinking about, something Evan can’t know.”

“What is it?”

Brennan sighed. “Charlie’s trying to come down for a visit.” He looked right at Luka, eyes open and aware. “What the hell do we do if Charlie shows up? I mean, avoiding Jimmy is one thing, but—”

“You need to talk to Evan. There’s gotta be boundaries, ways to deal with this stuff between you while you figure it all out. Alek and I went through the same thing. You need to be brothers first. The rest of it you might need to keep to yourselves.”

“We’re going over there, aren’t we? To your place?” He knew Luka spoke to Alek on the phone again, and that something had been decided between them.

“Yeah. We need to talk. All four of us. No more games. No more secrets.”

Brennan nodded, frowning slightly. Luka reached across the space between them and took his hand. “Okay. No more secrets.”

Meanwhile, inside the house and in a heated debate over the superiority of classic Fords versus classic Chevrolets, Carter and Evan went back and forth arguing their points. Whenever Alek or Presley tried to chime in or change the topic they were met with only a vehement shushing from Carter. It was a little annoying at first but quickly became endearing as Carter guarded Evan’s attention carefully, wanting it all for himself.

“Are you kidding?” Evan gaped. “Any Ford built before 1984 is ridiculous, unless you give the engine a complete overhaul. The transmission’s for shit, the cooling and oiling systems are a mess.”

“Well, Mustangs are a hell of a lot better than the Camaro.”

“On what planet? Maybe if all you’re using it for is to pose in front of and look pretty. Some of us like to drive something with a little horsepower under the hood.”

It went on and on. Once in a while, Alek and Presley shared an amused look before returning their attention to the game. This was why no one seemed to notice right away when Luka and Brennan wandered in through the front door and appeared in the hall adjacent to the living room. Brennan had an arm comfortably looped behind Luka’s lower back and leaned against him. Running his fingers back through his blond tresses, he watched Evan, took a curious look at the roommates and waited for Luka to introduce him. Luka cleared his throat loudly when there was a lull in the conversation, holding Brennan snugly to him in a one-armed embrace.

Finally, Presley noticed them. He gawked, glancing between Brennan and Evan, “You’ve gotta be kidding me. This? You two with the... how in the
world
did you two find another set of gay identical twins?”

“It was totally unintentional. I swear. These things just happen sometimes.”

“No, Luka, these things don’t just happen. Unless you’ve made a pact with the devil or some shit. You got somethin’ you wanna confess?”

Carter, who was halfway through making a salient point having to do with aerodynamics, stuttered and his mouth snapped shut. He glanced from Evan to Brennan to Evan to Brennan to Alek and sighed, “Seriously?”

Alek shrugged with a smirk that only lingered for a brief moment. Becoming somber, he turned to Luka to ask, “You guys make out okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied shortly. “Everything’s good. Hey um, Presley, Carter, this is my boyfriend, Brennan Holt, Evan’s brother.”

“Very nice to meet you,” Brennan smiled, coming forward to shake each of their hands. “Luka has told me so much about you guys. I think it’s great that he has such good friends around him.” Pausing by his brother, Brennan murmured to him, “Evan.”

“Bren. How was the run?”

“Exhausting. But good. Really good.”

For a long moment they held one another’s gaze, tuning in to each other and saying a lot more than their words were able to. There was evident heat there but it was buried beneath layers of concern, questioning, peaceful contentment and just a hint of tense trepidation.

“Wait a minute. Brennan, did I see you at the gym the other week?” Presley asked as Luka migrated back over to Brennan’s side, taking his hand. There was not a hint of Evan’s bashfulness in Brennan, and he stared right at Presley, almost in a challenge. It was probably why Luka seemed to be the better match for Brennan, and how, in their own, quieter ways, Alek and Evan suited each other as well. “Ooh!” Presley pointed at Brennan, sitting up straighter and bouncing a little on the couch with his excitement. “The blond pescetarian without any clothes on!”

“What the
hell
are you talking about?” Carter asked him.

“Yeah, that’s where Luka and I met,” Brennan said. “You two work there together, right?”

“Yeah, we do.” Presley shook his head and looked at Evan, saying, “Damn. I
knew
you looked familiar.”

“I hate to cut this short,” Luka interjected. “But Alek, Evan, can we talk to you guys upstairs? Carter, Pres, you don’t mind, right?”

“Naw, man. Go right ahead.” They could see how solemn Luka was, and knew how rare it was for him to act so reserved. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” he retorted coolly, probably rousing their suspicions even more.

Once in Luka’s room, Brennan and Evan sat side-by-side on the bed, so close their thighs touched. Evan was the one to sit down first, and Brennan sidled up to him. Slipping a hand around Evan’s knee, Brennan grasped it, his fingers sliding down into the warmth between Evan’s legs. Evan folded his arms, hugging himself and trying not to scratch nervously at his skin. He would have killed for a cigarette and the craving was making it hard to sit still. Luka and Alek slid the padded weight bench in the corner over so they could sit across from Brennan and Evan.

The more fidgety Evan got, the more tightly Brennan grasped him.