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Michelle’s soft brown eyes are brimming with tears, but her voice is steady as she asks, “But when we got together, you were both still married?”
“Technically, yes,” Tom answers bluntly. “But we’ve both been separated from our partners for almost a year now.”
“A year?” Michelle repeats, processing the information.
“Yes. Divorce proceedings can take a long time, especially with assets at our level. It took a lot of effort and time to work through that.” Tom looks at Michelle carefully before he proceeds. “We always loved coming home to you, and I’m sorry if it looks like we were stepping out. I promise you, whenever we stayed overnight in the city, it wasn’t about Victoria and Sarah. Hell, the women have their own apartment now,” he says with a sigh. “It was about work, and really that’s all.”
I hope that Michelle can hear the earnestness in Tom’s voice and know that he’s telling the truth. I watch our curvy girl, looking for any indication of how she might be feeling now that all of our cards are on the table.
“We don’t wish Victoria and Sarah any harm,” my brother states again. “In fact, we wish them nothing but happiness, but frankly, their happiness isn’t ours. You are our happiness, sweetheart. You, and no one but you.”
Unfortunately, I’m still not sure that we’re making any progress, despite our bold proclamations. The pretty brunette stares blankly at the wall for several moments, perhaps processing everything we’ve just explained to her. When she finally speaks, her tone is distant, and almost icy.
“I don’t know what any of this means for me.” She looks from me to Tom. “For us. So much has happened, and some of it … well, it’s just crazy,” she says. “This entire situation is crazy, and I don’t know what to think.”
At those words, I feel my heart pound hard in my chest, fearful that our blunder may have cost us what we each want most: this woman.18MichelleAs I think, I observe first Tom and then Gabriel’s face fall. As handsome and kind and generous as the brothers are, I suddenly find myself confused by what they’ve just shared and how it makes me feel.
There’s no doubt in my mind that I am in love with both Tom and Gabriel. But there is doubt about how we can make our strange relationship blossom into something more, especially knowing that they’ve been lying to me for so long.
They were married, I can’t help but repeat, and they didn’t tell me. Not once. Not one peep.
I bite my bottom lip as I ponder how each man explained their marriage. It sounds like they really were over their wives. Certainly, their wives are over them, if Victoria and Sarah are in a lesbian relationship now.
“Do you have any more questions?” Gabriel asks hesitantly. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard hesitancy in his voice, and it makes my heart turn over. He’s being deferential to me, his plaything that he purchased.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” I ask, still feeling betrayed by the brothers.
“We didn’t want to hurt you,” Gabriel says slowly. “We’d been separated from our wives for a year by the time our relationship started, Michelle. There was no love lost between them and us.”
“And it didn’t seem necessary, given our arrangement,” Tom adds.
Our arrangement. I feel my tears building up again. I guess that’s all this was to them then – a temporary transaction.
I swallow my tears. Didn’t they say that they loved me just now? But everything is so confusing, and my thoughts feel blurry.
“Our arrangement, right,” I say slowly. “So I guess it’s over then.”
“Over?” Tom and Gabriel both look bewildered.
“Yes, over. Here,” I grab a pen and scribble on the back of a receipt. “It’s an IOU for fifty thousand dollars. I know that’s nowhere near what you’ve spent on me, but now I’m free.”
“Free?” Tom’s deep voice asks in the tiny space.
“Yes!” I say stoutly. “I’m free.”
The silence rings in my ears.
“You were never not free, sweetheart,” Gabriel says, a pained look in his cobalt eyes.
“But do you want it to be over?” Tom asks, his own face etched with something I can’t read. The turmoil in me surfaces and I literally begin to pull at my hair.
“I don’t know what I want,” I wail while standing up. I walk to my small dining table, my only intention to try and think, to figure out what I want and how to get it.
“Well, I do.” Tom growls, a low throaty sound that makes my heart thud and my head spin.
In one short step, Tom is in front of me. He cups my face between his two massive hands and plants his lips on my own. Deftly, he uses his tongue to pry my lips open, assaulting my mouth over and over with a deep, needy kiss.
