“Tell me what happened.” Dillon settled into the chair next to him.
He took in a deep breath and let it out with a loud sigh.
“You two don’t need to hear my crap.”
“Yes, we do. Tell us,” Luke urged.
“You remember what happened on the mission last week?” He smiled at Luke, but asked the question of his brother.
“You argued with Zane about a kiss,” Dillon said.
“Today he tells me he’s bi.” He curled his hands tightly around the hot mug. “Shit! I shouldn’t have shared that.”
“What’s said here stays here,” Luke assured him.
He’s bi and I’m sitting here without him. That was all he’d ever wanted, a shot with Zane.
“So, Zane’s bi,” Dillon encouraged when the silence grew.
“Yeah, but he’s not out. I think he’s struggling with it, and I’m not helping,” he whispered and closed his eyes. He shouldn’t have lost his temper.
“What’s his story?”
He popped open his eyes and gazed blankly at his brother. “I don’t know. Shit. I didn’t ask.”
“Does he have feelings for you?”
“I believe so.”
“I know Zane, he’s had it in his head for so long that he was straight. This may be his first feelings for a man, and it sounds like he hasn’t fully accepted it.”
“Maybe, and I didn’t help,” he repeated.
“How so?”
“I think I made things so much worse.” He explained about the locker room and how he’d lost his temper.
“That’s nothing new,” his brother grinned.
“Fuck you.” He gave a half laugh.
“Give him some time.”
“I don’t know if that will help.” He dropped his head to his hands.
“Come on,” Dillon said and helped him out of his chair. “You’re staying the night. Good food and conversation.”
Dillon winked at Luke, who smiled and ushered them out of the kitchen.
His heart ached at the conflict between him and Zane, and he wanted nothing more than to make things right. Because while he was angry that he’d been shifted to Fury, he didn’t want to lose Zane.
He needed to make it right between them, no matter what that looked like.
Zane
It took him twenty-four hours to get up the nerve to stop by Isaac’s place.
He parked his jeep in the street outside of Isaac’s home and sat there staring at the closed front door.
His phone rang, jerking his attention from the house.
“Gannon,” he clipped out abruptly.
“You still coming up this weekend?” Diesel asked. His brother had been the first person he’d called after the forced leave.
“Yeah, I just need to make a quick stop and then I’ll be leaving in the morning.”
“I can’t wait for you to meet them,” Diesel boasted like a proud papa.
“I can’t either, bro.”
The twins had arrived and Diesel and Triton were anxious to introduce their Uncle Zane.
They talked for a few more minutes before Diesel ended the call.
Zane wiped his palms on his jeans, slid out of the jeep, and approached the front door. He knocked and then angled his face up at the warm morning sun. He should have come yesterday, and not let this fester.
“What are you doing here?” Isaac squinted at him when he opened the door.
God, he couldn’t take his eyes from his face. Even though Isaac’s eyes appeared wary, hesitant, and filled with tiredness, they were still so damned beautiful.
“Can we talk?”
Isaac’s fingers turned white from where he squeezed the door.
“Please.”
Isaac stepped back from the door and swept his arm inside. He left him to close the door.
When he stopped in the entryway, he found Isaac leaning against the wall a few feet away, arms folded against his muscled chest, eyes hooded.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“About yesterday,” he started doggedly and then stopped.
“Which part?” Isaac’s face was wary, but Zane could swear there was a hopefulness in there somewhere.
“The kiss in the locker room.” Zane cleared his throat and rubbed a hand at the back of his neck wondering how the hell he’d fucked this up so badly.
“Ah yes, the kiss heard around the base. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry. Consider it no big deal,” Isaac said, the words rushed through.
“I don’t think that’s an accurate description.” His heart pounded harder when Isaac’s eyes ran over him.
“You don’t?” Isaac’s voice was a bare whisper when their eyes locked.
“I don’t,” he said and stalked closer.
He had no plans. He really didn’t have anything else in mind except to be closer to Isaac and maybe, just maybe this ache would go away. But he doubted it.
He advanced and Isaac gave a quiet gasp, but didn’t back away.
“Let’s try this again.” Crowding closer, he cupped Isaac’s cheeks and then lowered his head to kiss him.
His gut exploded and he devoured Isaac’s mouth. Isaac arched into him, pressing his whole body close. Zane drew his hands down the sides of Isaac’s neck, across his shoulders, and over arms that were now wrapped around his neck.
Lips pressed into his and the scratch of Isaac’s stubble against his own had him sucking in a deep breath.
“I want you,” he groaned.
“Slow down,” Isaac warned him and he backed off immediately.
His wrist firmly caught, Isaac stalked into the den with him in tow and shoved him down to the brown linen sofa.
“Sit.”
He sat on the sturdy piece of furniture and stared up until Isaac dropped down facing him.
“So, it wasn’t my imagination?”
“What wasn’t?”
“You watching me at the safe house like you wanted me.”
He shook his head. “No. I’d been hiding my feelings for you for so long, but being in that safe house alone with you made me think of all the possibilities.”
“And I ran, leaving you that shitty note.” Isaac’s mouth pulled down.
“True, but I’m the one that’s been running all these years,” he admitted.
“Not now though.”
“No, not now.”
“Because you’re bi?”
“If I had to put a label on it, but I honestly think I’m more attracted to the person than I am with what’s in their pants.”
“How do you know?”
He shifted in his seat and rubbed his hands on his jeans. “What do you mean, how
