Page 9 of Three's A Crown

I nod in agreement. “This isn’t going to change things between us, is it?” I ask him, staying glued to the dorm room door. I don’t want to lose my best friend over Spin the Bottle.

“Never, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” he says, looking up from whatever held his interest on the carpet. Those brown eyes shimmer with something I’m not sure what, but maybe I want to find out what it could be.

“I liked kissing you, Grey,” I confess quickly before looking back down at the ground again, embarrassed at the confession to my male best friend that I liked the feeling of his lips against mine.

“You did?” he asks before silence falls between us again.

Shit, have I messed up? I should have left it in my mind, never to be spoken about, only enjoyed in private.

“Forget it, Grey, I shouldn’t have said anything,” I say to him, wishing the ground would swallow me whole.

“I can’t,” he says quietly, catching my attention as I turn and look into those familiar brown eyes. Standing up, he slowly walks toward me. “Not now that I know you liked it as much as I did.”

My mouth falls open in surprise, and the next thing I know, Greyson grabs my neck and kisses me passionately.

It wasn’t long after that kiss that we moved on to sleeping with each other, discovering what it was like being with a man, and as much as I loved being with Greyson, I still had thoughts about the girls in our school.

Things came to a head when one day Greyson walked into our dorm and found me fucking Celia Young; she’d been after me for months and I finally gave in. We had a huge argument about that, it nearly broke us. Eventually, once we got over our stubbornness, we sat down and discussed what was happening. Both of us still craved women as much as we did each other. You could say that was the moment we had our sexual epiphany, agreeing that we loved sleeping with each other, but we also desired other people. We were young, too young to settle down into anything serious between the two of us, and so for the next fifteen years, Greyson and I have happily been in an open relationship. I’ve never fallen in love with anyone like I have Greyson, he has my heart while others have my dick, and it works for us.

Until now.

That’s why I’ve fought for so long to postpone the inevitable, but after my thirtieth birthday last month, it means my time is up as far as my father’s concerned. It’s the age we both agreed upon that I would finally marry—I just didn’t realize it would come around so quickly.

“Okay, give me five. I need to get changed, and I’ll meet you outside,” I tell Joss.

He nods in acknowledgment and closes the door quietly behind him.

I give Greyson a look that tells him I would rather eat nails than attend this meeting with my father.

“You knew the day was coming, Auggie.” Greyson’s face softens as he looks up at me, reading the storm brewing beneath my calm exterior.

“Still doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”

Greyson pats the space beside him, and I willingly go to him. “We’ve been together half of our lives, Auggie. What I feel for you isn’t going to change. It never did when you were dating others.”

“You know I had no choice in that, Grey.” I pout as he reminds me of the many years when I had to put my heterosexual cap on for the media and my family because people were starting to ask questions about why I never had a serious girlfriend on my arm. Probably because I never saw myself with one of them; the only person I ever saw myself living happily ever after with was Greyson. “And you dated people, also.”

Greyson chuckles at my jab. “You didn’t mind joining in.”

I give him a smirk; we both had some fun over the years. The easiest way for us to be together was usually with a woman between us; she didn’t mind when we were having sex, and Greyson was sucking my dick while I was eating her pussy, or if we both entered her together or any other position we could find where we still got off with each other, and she did as well. We both have a long list of conquests—male and female—sometimes we shared, sometimes we didn’t, but we were never jealous because we both knew nothing could ever tear us apart.

Except now.Marriage. Wife. Kids.

Greyson reaches out and wraps his hand around my neck, pulling me closer. “It was always you.” His lips touch mine in the briefest of kisses. “It will always be you, Auggie.” As our kiss intensifies, I lose myself in it, in him. “I know I will never have you publicly. You’re not a normal man, and things are expected of you. Whatever happens today with your father know this. I will always be by your side for however long you need me and in whatever capacity that needs to be,” Greyson says. His brown eyes shimmer with emotion as he declares his loyalty to me.

I know I don’t deserve this man.

“You will be by my side forever, and no one is going to change that. No matter what my parents want. No matter what my country dictates.” Now it’s my turn to grab his face and kiss the hell out of him. Greyson’s stubble scrapes against my freshly shaven skin and my dick tightens in my sweatpants, reminding me of the feeling of the prickles rubbing against my thighs earlier this morning. We’re both panting when we reluctantly pull away from each other.

I walk into my closet, grab a gray suit, and quickly get dressed. The king does not like waiting for people, even his own son.

“How do I look?” I ask Greyson.

“Fucking hot and you know it.” He chuckles; maybe I do. Greyson does love this suit. He says it makes my ass look bitable.

“I will make sure whoever they pick for me accepts that you are part of my life. That is non-negotiable.”

Greyson gives me a nod, but he knows I’ll probably lose that fight with my father. “No one is more important than your country and its citizens, Auggie. Not even me.”

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