Still, I leave the camera behind because there’s no way in hell I’ll need help remembering the look on her face when she said those three words.
26
Celeste
Maddox’s elevator clangs to a stop down below, and Leo lets out a low rumble of a laugh. “I admire the man’s endurance but don’t envy him. That had to be torture.”
He turns to me, and his humor softens into tenderness that makes my heart swell. I smile sleepily and nod, though if he knew the true source of Maddox’s inner demons, I’m not sure he would be making jokes about it. Strangely, I feel no guilt about my whispered confession in front of the camera. It wasn’t a lie, and neither does it diminish my feelings for Leo.
“He cares about us,” I say, my way of introducing the topic even if I’m skirting around it. I don’t want to divulge Maddox’s true secret. I just want to gauge Leo’s feelings on the issue without giving them away.
“I forgot you two have history,” Leo says, his brows creasing as if he really did just remember that detail, though I have no idea how he knows—I didn’t tell him. He sees my surprised look and adds, “He told me you were his first kiss when you were kids.”
My surprise grows, and I nearly laugh but silently bless Maddox for keeping the story tame for Leo’s benefit.
“It was a long time ago.” I will have to tell him the truth eventually, but now isn’t the time.
Leo leans in to kiss me, and I snuggle close. The bed is just as comfortable as I remember. Even in the short time we stayed, it felt like a sanctuary from my real life. I can pretend I’m just a girl lying next to the boy she loves, and nothing else in the world outside us matters in this moment. But the scent of the bed’s owner surrounds us and I can’t not think of Maddox and the fact that I love him too and probably always have. Am I being unfaithful to Leo now by even admitting these feelings to myself? By actually speaking them to Maddox while Leo was inside me?
How did my mother reconcile loving two men? The answer to that is obvious: they shared her and must have cared about each other enough that it worked. If there was any question about my paternity, they must have been extremely close too. Until they weren’t.
Leo clears his throat, jolting me out of my musings. “Was it weird for you to do that in front of him?”
“Did it seem weird for me?” I offer a suggestive smile.
He laughs. “Ah, only if you being hotter than ever while we fuck is weird. I’m tempted to call him back up here and go again.”
“I take it that means it wasn’t weird for you either. You know he’s bisexual, right?”
It isn’t a stretch to ask because Maddox told me Leo knows, though the topic has never come up between us before.
His brow furrows, and he shrugs, his gaze directed at some fascinating section of weave in the blanket that covers us. “Sure, he told me. It’s no big deal.”
“You’ve never gotten hard again so fast,” I point out. “Do you think it was him watching that did it?”
He looks introspective for a second before nodding slowly, but his answer isn’t quite what I hoped for. “I think the idea of being on camera, of performing for an audience, is what did it. Coupled with seeing how hot you got, and . . .” He trails off as if catching himself.
“And what?” I prompt.
“And that’s it. It was sexy as fuck, and I can’t wait to see the photos.”
I shove his shoulder. “There’s more you were going to say. Just say it. No secrets!” I’m such a hypocrite, but what happened between Maddox and me before Leo was just that: before Leo. Except for my little confession a few minutes ago, anyway.
Leo sighs and fiddles with a tassel at the edge of the blanket. “Christ, woman, you are a tyrant for honesty.”
“And I love how willingly you share, most of the time. I don’t want you to stop just because you feel ashamed of something.”
That gets him. His eyes narrow and flash with irritation. “I’m not ashamed. I got off seeing how fucking turned on he was watching us. The man is packing. Maybe I’m a little envious too.”
“You don’t have anything to worry about,” I say, grinning as I reach down between us to cup his half-hard cock.
“How do you know? You couldn’t see his dick any more than I could.”
I smile slyly and stroke him until he shudders. “No, but I know how perfect you are.” The fact is that Maddox might actually be bigger than Leo, but I haven’t seen him naked since we were teens. The couple chances I had to feel him through his jeans only made me want to see more though.
“You do know how to stroke a man’s . . . ego,” he breathes, smirking as I begin to stroke him.
“So you were thinking about Maddox’s dick while we were having sex. Is there something you need to get off your chest?” I tease. He’s fully hard now, his eyes glassy with renewed lust. He groans.
“I can appreciate another man’s physique without it being gay. I work out too. We used to talk about our routines.”
“I never said it was gay.” I give him a squeeze, and his fingertips dig into my side as his eyelids flutter closed. “Besides, sexuality is a spectrum. Maddox is in the middle. I might be closer to the middle than I know. I’ve never tried kissing a girl, but I might like it.”
He hums in interest, but I think at this point,
