Page 43 of Five Days

Chapter 17

Callum

I was too wired to drift off as easily as Landon did.

Zack appeared to feel the same, considering how we stared at one another over Landon’s head from where he pressed his face against Zack’s neck.

“I’m sorry for betraying your trust,” Zack murmured.

While I wanted to still be pissed, I couldn’t be, considering how things had turned out. But would Landon be willing to give Zack up at the end of this? I hoped he would be free to love me and yet…

“I forgive you,” I offered what Zack hadn’t yet gifted to Landon, hoping that while what he’d done to me didn’t compare to the pain Landon had caused him, that axe could be buried if both parties were willing.

Zack slid his hand from Landon’s back to entwine his fingers with mine where they rested on our boy’s stomach.

My heart stuttered, and I swallowed hard, wishing I could read what went on in Zack’s head. Specifically what he thought about the three of us and how seamlessly we seem to fit even though

“Tell me about yourself,” I whispered something less intrusive.

Zack slowly exhaled. “What do you want to know?”

“Why do you volunteer at that homeless shelter you mentioned the other night?”

Our eyes remained locked, a comfortable steady gaze I had no wish to glance away from. Let him see what I felt. The desires he’d roused to life inside me in less than forty-eight hours.

“It’s where I stayed after I left Rhode Island and had run out of money,” he admitted quietly.

Considering the surface shit we’d talked about when we first met, I hadn’t expected such honesty.

Zack felt safe here with me and Landon, and that truth tightened my throat and made the desire stronger to nurture that feeling in him and draw out more of who he was. But first, I wanted to deepen our connection.

“I spend a few hours every week at a local LGBTQ club for teens,” I told him rather than delving into his past, which might shut him down again. “While not a shelter for the homeless ones who often visit, it’s a safe place where everyone is accepted and loved.”

A hint of a smile curved Zack’s mouth, appreciation in his eyes over our shared passion, exactly as I’d hoped for.

“Is Landon aware you lived on the streets?” I asked, hoping I didn’t push too hard.

“No.” His lips pursed, and I let the matter rest, choosing to prod from a totally different angle.

“On a scale of one to ten, where does what we did tonight rate? I can imagine you’ve had dozens of threesomes.”

“I’ve had a few, yeah. But this…”

“It feels like something special,” I filled in when he trailed off, my fingers crossed in my mind.

“Yeah. Kinda does,” he admitted quietly, surprising me once again.

“You’ll stay until our contracted time is up?” My heart attempted to stall out while I waited for his reply. He’d already agreed to stick around—but when we’d been discussing vacationing, not exploring what the three of us might have found.

“Yes,” Zack eventually answered. “Whatever you desire, Callum, it’s yours.”

More time, I thought to push. All of your hurts, your hopes, and your dreams.

Way beyond mere fucking when two days ago, I’d set my mind on freeing Landon from Zack so he might be open to loving me someday.

But there was something about Zack, a connection between us as though our inner selves reached out for the other, innately recognizing another soul we could lean on. Zack was the sort I could share my burdens with, a man with sturdy enough shoulders to prop me up so I didn’t always have to be the strong one, like I was for Landon.

Even more, I yearned to give Landon his fantasy, the poly relationship he tended toward when writing happily ever afters.

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