Page 80 of Peyton's Price

“No.” Liam slowly shook his head. “Never. I’ve wanted her for a long time.”

“Buthow?” His brother looked lost, as if the entire foundation of his life had been realigned.

Liam went over to the sideboard, pouring them both a drink. “Here.”

Trick accepted the glass, but he set it on the table untouched. “I don’t understand how this happened.”

Shit. This was harder than he had imagined it would be. Talking about his feelings wasn’t something Liam did, not even with his brother.

With one recent exception. “I told Peyton I loved her.”

Trick’s eyes widened. “So did I…when she left. But I guess you and I don’t mean the same kind of love.”

“Fuck, I hope not.” Liam snorted. “Especially since you’re happily married.”

Rising, he pushed the glass of whiskey at his brother with a meaningful glance. Sighing, Trick picked it up and took a large sip.

Liam sat back down. “I dolovePeyton. I love her so much it hurts. And I mean the way a man loves a woman. I know that doesn’t make sense, but I was in denial about it for a long time. You don’t know how close I came to fucking it all up. But there were complications…”

Trick whistled. “Damn, your gift for understatement is surreal. I take it you are referring to Matthias Raske?”

“Yes. He’s a part of this…like one-third of it.”

Trick inhaled, scrubbing his face. “And you and he arebothsleeping with Peyton? I wasn’t having some sort of twisted Freudian hallucination?”

Liam swallowed. “We are,” he said, barely managing the words over the weird lump that had taken residence in his throat.

There was more he wanted to say, but explaining it properly felt utterly impossible.

“But, Liam, how can you do that? Youhatesharing. When we were kids, you used to break your toys rather than let me use them.”

Liam closed his eyes, laughing as he remembered what a little shit he’d been before his parents had passed.That’s not you anymore.Well, it was, but there was way more to him now. At least, he hoped there was.

“I don’t just share her. She shares me. And we share Matthias.”

“Huh?” Trick stared without comprehension.

Liam put his hands under the table, clenching and unclenching his fists several times. “I’m bisexual,” he said shortly. “I was involved with Matthias a few years ago. Right after we met, then for several months after.”

“Oh.” That was all he got. Trick lapsed into silence, apparently at a loss for words.

“But I’m not gay, no matter what Calen says,” he said.

“Calen knows about this?” His brother’s expression grew irritated. “You told him about Matthias, but you didn’t tell me?”

Liam put up a hand. “Actually, he was around when Matthias and I met. Caroline introduced me to him a couple of years ago at the launch of one of Calen’s European clubs. Long story short—Calen is too fucking observant. He put two and two together when I started spending all my free time with Matthias. Things were intense between us. But we ended our relationship after a few months…”

He stopped, rubbing the back of his neck. He didn’t like recalling the last fight that had ended their affair. Both Liam and Matthias were cutthroat in arguments. They had said things that were hard to forgive. Or so he had thought at the time. But now he knew them for the excuses they were. His resolve to walk away had been based on his insecurities about being with a man.

“After it was over, there didn’t seem to be any point in mentioning it to anyone else,” he said after a minute. “I thought being with a man was a one-off. I’d never been attracted to any others—not in any way I’d recognize. Calen didn’t think it was an isolated incident, though. He kept pushing me to come out of the closet.”

“Except you are in love with Peyton,” Trick supplied. “Youarein love with her, right? I don’t have to kick your ass for getting her involved in this, do I?”

“No, you don’t,” he said repressively. “My feelings for herarereal. Although I didn’t call it love back then. But I was in some hardcore denial. My focus was on our business and building an empire. Then I stumbled into something with Matthias, and it was surprisingly great…until it wasn’t. For a long time afterward, I thought there was something wrong with me. I felt wrong. Dirty. Definitely not clean enough for Peyton.”

“Wow,” Trick croaked. “So when she ran off with Matthias, that must have been hell.”

“I deserved it,” Liam conceded. “I did everything wrong. I cut Matthias off, or at least I bottlenecked our communication to almost nothing. And I ignored my feelings for Peyton until I drove her away. I almost married a woman I didn’t love for fuck’s sake. I’m just lucky that when Peyton ran, she ran to Matthias—and that he was willing to give me a second chance to make things right.”

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