Page 94 of Reactant

“The cameras stay,” Jericho said flatly. “They aren’t in anyone’s apartment. Don’t you wish we’d had them the first time you visited this place to get fucked by two hot studs? Then maybe none of this would have happened.”

Sebastian grabbed his laptop bag and slammed the door shut like a petulant child. It didn’t make him feel better.

He was tempted to duck around the building and get lost in the crowds. He was getting sick of being treated like a damsel in distress that needed constant protection. Maybe he couldn’t handle a weapon like the rest of them could, but that didn’t mean he was incapable of protecting himself.

He had no idea where all of these “cameras” were as he went up the stairs instead of the elevator. If he knew, he would have given Jericho the finger. It probably wouldn’t have made him feel better, either, but it was better than passively going along with this “handover.”

He banged on the door, resisting the urge to kick it with his foot. Petulant was his favourite word for the day.

A crash sounded from inside, a voice that sounded distinctly like cursing, and then Will flung the door open, flushed. He beamed when he saw Sebastian, and Sebastian felt his annoyance fade under the bright smile. It was impossible to stay mad when Will looked at him like that.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” He peered over Sebastian’s head and checked the hallway. “Where’s Jericho? I thought you had a shadow?”

“The shadow is watching from the cameras,” Sebastian said acerbically. He gave the finger to a random upper corner of the hallway. It was a one-out-of-four chance that he got the right direction. Jericho would see it, regardless. He did feel a bit better after that, actually.

“He’s what?” Will asked. He stepped to the side and waited for Sebastian to get inside before he closed the door, locking it securely.

“Doesn’t matter,” Sebastian said. He pulled the strap of his laptop over his head and put it on the small round dining table.

“Peyton’s not here,” Will said as he ducked out of view into the kitchenette and then came back up with an empty mixing bowl. That must have been what had fallen.

Sebastian paused, his jacket hanging down his arms, midway through getting rid of it. He shrugged it back on instead of taking it off, distracted. “What?”

“Peyton. Uh, he’s at dinner with his parents. And Parker. You met Parker. He—” Will gestured at his eyebrow.

“Hit me in the head with his phone? Yeah, I remember. We saw him the night we played poker, as well.” The fact that he and Peyton were identical twins was hard to miss too.

“Oh, yeah! I forgot.”

“Why does it matter if—” Sebastian paused. “Did you think I was here to see him?”

Will shrugged, averting his gaze in a way that felt deliberate. He put the cake tin into the roasting pan and then pulled a silicone spatula from a drawer.

Sebastian circled the bench and took hold of the wrist holding the spatula. Will still wouldn’t look at him. Definitely deliberate.

He gently took the spatula and put it on the bench. “You think I wouldn’t want to be here if he isn’t here as well?” he asked.

“I love Peyton, and I know how alluring he is,” Will said. “I want to see him all the time, so why wouldn’t you?” He turned and smiled, nothing bitter in his gaze. The insecurity was as bright as his smile, however. Sebastian understood it because he was intimately familiar with it. That fear of never being enough, of having something to live up to, and worrying that it was impossible to reach for.

“For sure,” Sebastian agreed. All three men—four now because he wasn’t sure that he could think of them and not think of Jericho as well, the prick—were beacons, in different ways. And it was obvious that Will, as beautiful and kind-hearted as he was, would burn the world down without a second thought for Peyton. Peyton would do the same for him. The connection they had was unique, and special, and Sebastian was humbled and privileged to be allowed so close to it. To be allowed to touch it and stand beside it. To build his own connections with them in the spaces they had opened for him.

“So are you, William.”

The surprise in Will’s eyes caused a dull ache to set up shop in Sebastian’s heart. He knew that it wasn’t coming from any of them. Peyton had never once tried to hide just how much Will meant to him or how attractive he found him.

No, this was something deeper. Instinct that didn’t always have reason. Despite all the evidence to show just how much they all wanted him, Will was still unsure of his own worth. Of his own allure. Of how unbelievably perfect he was, in every way.

Sebastian tangled his fingers with Will’s. He slid his free hand up Will’s shirt and then used the neckline to tug him down slowly. Their lips met in a soft caress, a whisper of touch that caused shivers to roll across his skin. There was always a gentleness to Will’s touch that was unlike anything he’d ever felt.

Will let out a sigh and increased the pressure as his fingers tightened imperceptibly around Sebastian.

“When I was in the club,” Sebastian murmured against his lips. “The night we met? It was you I saw. It was you that I wanted.” He’d seen Will across the floor and known immediately that he had to have him under him, over him, any way that he could get him. He’d been expecting to take him home alone, and he would have been more than satisfied with that. Would have thought of it pleasantly forever.

There was something special about Will that Sebastian wanted him to see. Needed him to see. “Peyton was an unexpected bonus that I appreciated very much,” he said. Peyton was beautiful. They all were. “But I wanted to takeyouhome, William. You were my goal.”

Will whimpered, and Sebastian licked across his bottom lip in a slow slide. He pulled Will closer, keeping the kiss light, focused on needing Will to listen to his words, not just pay attention to his actions.

“Shit,” Will said, pulling away. “I need to get this in the oven.” He twisted around without letting go of Sebastian and flicked the kettle on.

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