Page 126 of The Fishermen

“Your hole,” I agreed laboriously, body taxed but still backing onto his massive cock and into his cruel palm.

“I love you,” he said, landing strike after strike. “God, I love you, Leland.”

“Then don’t stop making me pay,” I said gutturally, loving his unmerciful torture.

The festivities didn’t end when the sun broke through the clouds. And not after he’d fucked his full length to the back of my throat, making me gag and cry. Not even after he’d then wiped my tears while demanding I ride him hard until we came. It ended when we were both too spent to see straight, and when the inside of my ass and his belly were too full to consume another drop of his seed.

I lost the battle to sleep in our final sexual position, straddling his hips, my chest on top of his from where I’d fallen forward after fucking his cock like I’d been trying to escape something, like only the speed and force of his dick could save me.

I woke up groggy, in need of at least ten more hours of sleep, and still sprawled over Franky on the half of the mattress still on the bed frame.

Franky snored softly beneath me, and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why I was awake. I turned to the bedroom doorway and suddenly knew what had woken me up. The two figures, with matching expressions of betrayal, looming there.

“What. The. Fuck,” Cole whispered.

Chapter 39

Franklin

Leland and I showered and dressed separately—at his insistence—before meeting Cole and Jasper downstairs. The candles had burned out, but the place still resembled a botanical garden. Nothing like the crime scene upstairs.

Cole stopped his pacing of the foyer to scrutinize his friend, gaze narrowing on the bruises surrounding his neck. Leland drew his collar up self-consciously.

Jasper stood protectively next to his fiancé, his anger reserved and calculating compared to Cole’s. From the look on Cole’s face, his anger was a thing that couldn’t think or reason. His mind would likely be too clouded by it to see past the obvious.

Of the two, Jasper’s quiet rage was the one to be frightened of. It saw far more than Cole’s did.

“Did you take advantage of him while he was in your care?” Cole’s question for me sounded more like an accusation. “Did you?” he snapped, a strand of hair slipping out of place.

“He wouldn’t—” Leland interjected, but paused when I rested a hand on his forearm, a silent request that he let me handle this. Cole didn’t miss the gesture, and some of his anger gave way to confusion.

“I would never take advantage of him, Cole.”

“Well, then maybe he’s the one taking advantage of you,” he said, then turned his attention to Leland. “So you’re fucking my father now? Is the whole of Manhattan not enough for you? Do you not haveanyboundaries or self-control?”

Leland flinched from the insults hurled at him, and I had to remember that Cole was my son when everything in me screamed to physically defend Leland’s honor.

I looked at Leland, and written across his face was everything he believed he was about to lose and have a hand in destroying. I’d never seen him so terrified before. Not even when I’d walked out on him all those years ago.

“How long has this been going on?” Jasper asked, leveling a shrewd stare at me.

“Isn’t it obvious,” Cole said. “They barely knew each other. It had to have started after the accident.”

“No,” Jasper said. “This feels…older. It’s always been this way between you two.”

“Maybe we should all have a seat and talk this out more rationally,” I tried.

“Have a seat where?” Cole asked, motioning around us. “You’ve turned this place into a fucking conservatory.”

“Alright, well, give us a couple of hours and we’ll come to you.” My heartbeat threatened to strangle me, and I couldn’t bring myself to meet Jasper’s burning gaze. He’d see it all if I did. He’d see the truth, and I didn’t want to have to deliver, or confirm, it like this.

Cole continued with his litany of questions as if he hadn’t heard me. Thankfully, it seemed he was too upset to have heard Jasper either. While Leland attempted to calm him, I swallowed and chanced a glance at Jasper. He watched me like I was a puzzle piece he was trying to make fit, and I saw the terrifying moment it did.

“This goes further back than the accident, doesn’t it?” Jasper asked, and that snagged Cole’s interest.

“We don’t have to do this now,” I said, unable to do anything to staunch the guilt in my tone. “Let’s go to our separate corners, cool off, and meet again with clearer heads. You’ll be more receptive then.”

But Jasper was a dog who now had his bone, and he had no plans on relinquishing it. “It’s been right in front of us,” he said. “The way you two stare at each other when you think no one’s looking. The tension has been there since Franklin showed up for Christmas,” he said to Cole, then angled his head at Leland. “And then you pulled away… Did this start while you were both in Seattle? After you and Cole met?”

---