“Together, little lion. You’re in control,” Carlos says.
Wow. I’ve never held someone's hand before. It's like something from a super hero movie, where he is transferring his power and support into me by just holding my hand.
“I fucking knew you two were screwing,” Aaron shouts and runs over.
“No hugging,” I say to him, as he is way too excited.
“About damn time,” Jules says, and I know my face is changing color with embarrassment.
“Good choice, Si. Well done, Carlos,” Ivan says, just as a jealous Tyler slaps him in the chest.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner, Simon?” Kai asks and I’m not sure how to answer.
“I wasn’t ready, I just didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Well you sucked at that as we all fucking knew,” Ivan says, laughing like he’s a comedian.
“Yes I’ve been told.”
“Enough staring and gossiping, lets go see these properties. We better like them, Tyler, otherwise it will be a trip to the holding pen,” Lev says, and Tyler’s face pales. The holding pen is the Koslovs’ name for their torture room that’s in the basement.
“He’s joking, Ty. You need to stop being so naive,” Aaron says as he walks on out to go look at the houses in the garden.
When we arrive in the back, I’m stunned at what Tyler has managed to pull off. The properties look amazing, all three of them beautiful, but so far away from each other there is enough privacy, and it still looks like a garden.
“Which one is mine?” I ask Dima.
“Will you still need it?” he asks.
Carlos squeezes my hand like a warning, but I like to push his buttons.
“Yeah. If I’ve had a long night in the pen and I'm too tired to drive home,” I say.
“Then I’ll hire you a driver. No nights away from me, Simon.”
“That’s right, Carlos. You tell him,” Ivan shouts and pats my shoulder as he walks by.
I’m a minority here. Then again, I never thought anything of it when the others were being claimed. I found it amusing. It’s amazing how it’s different when it’s happening to you.
“We’ll find a use for it, maybe another guard or something,” Dima says.
I move in close to Carlos, when the others have moved away, looking around their new homes.
“Be afraid to sleep tonight, Carlos, because I’m gonna cut your balls off and have a special velvet box made for them to put in your trophy cabinet.”
As usual, it has the opposite effect that I want.
“I love it when you tease me, little lion. I’ll have you purring later for me. You’ll forget you were even mad.”
After everyone has fawned over their new homes, I accompany Carlos to his office before we head back to his place. As we drive through the frozen streets, it finally hits me that I kind of came out to the guys, and I didn’t die. We even held hands and nobody commented.
I did it.
I finally fucking did it. The curtain has dropped and they all saw me. And the biggest thing. Carlos never let go of me once.
44
SIMON
