LOGINTYING LOOSE ENDS.DOMINIC The drive to the old house took forty-five minutes. It felt like forty-five years.Cyrus drove. His hand was on my thigh. His thumb moved back and forth. He wasn't trying to calm me down. He was trying to calm himself down. I could feel it in the way his leg bounced. The way he checked the rearview mirror every few seconds. The way he kept looking at me like he was afraid I would disappear."You're quiet," he said."I'm thinking.""About what?""About the last time I was in that house.""When was that?""Seven years ago. Almost to the day."He glanced at me. His eyes were soft he looked like he was really Worried. "Do you want to talk about it?""I had just told them," I said. "About being gay. About you. About everything.""You told them about me?""I told them I was in love with someone. I didn't say your name. I was too scared. I thought if I said your name out loud, they would find you. Hurt you. I couldn't let that happen."Cyrus's grip tightened on my
DOWN TO TWO OPTIONS DOMINIC The doorbell rang at seven in the morning Not the polite buzz of a delivery person it was a long, insistent ring. I was still in bed. Cyrus was draped across my chest, dead to the world. His hair was in my face. His leg was hooked over my hip. He was warm and heavy and I didn't want to move. The morning light was soft through the curtains. The apartment was quiet. Everything felt safe.The doorbell rang again.Cyrus groaned. His face pressed deeper into my neck. "Who the fuck is that at this hour?""I don't know.""If it's Festus, I'm going to kill him.""It's not Festus. Festus texts first.""Then who?"The bell rang a third time. Longer this time. More insistent."Stay here," I said. "I'll get it.""No. Stay.""Nothing is important before coffee," I said, echoing his words from a hundred lazy mornings. But my voice didn't sound right. Even I could hear it. Tight. Strained.Cyrus lifted his head. His eyes were still half-closed, but he was looking at
JERK ME OFFDOMINICDinner was supposed to be normal.Cyrus made pasta. I made salad. Festus brought wine. Timone brought bread. We sat around the table like four normal people who hadn't spent the last year surviving scandals and fake pregnancies and the collapse of our families.Cyrus sat across from me. His knee touched mine under the table. He did that now. Always touching. Like he was afraid I would disappear."I can't believe you two waited so long," Cyrus said, looking at Festus and Timone."Waited for what?" Festus asked."To admit you're in love with each other. It was painful to watch." Timone choked on his wine. "What do you mean?""I mean the longing glances. The way you looked at each other when you thought no one was paying attention. It was embarrassing.""It was not," Timone said."It was," Cyrus said. "Remember that party last year? Festus, you stared at Timone for three hours. Three hours. I counted."Festus's face went red. "You counted?""Someone had to."We laughe
BEND OVER TIMONEI woke up to sunlight and the weight of Festus's arm across my chest. He was still asleep.His face was pressed into the pillow. His hair was a mess. His lips were parted. He looked younger like this. Softer. The hard lines of his jaw were relaxed. The tension in his shoulders was gone.I watched him breathe.Last night came flooding back. The confession. The kiss. His mouth on my cock. My mouth on his. The way he held me after, like he was afraid I would disappear.I hadn't disappeared I was still here.His arm tightened around my chest. His eyes were still closed."You're staring," he said. His voice was rough with sleep."You're supposed to be asleep.""I was. You woke me up.""How?""Your heartbeat. It's too fast."I laughed. "You can hear my heartbeat?""I can feel it. Right here." His hand pressed against my chest. "It's racing.""That's your fault." He opened his eyes. Looked at me. His eyes were dark. Soft. The same eyes I had been drowning in for four years.
OUR SHARED BONDTIMONEI had been in love with Festus for four years.Four years of watching him from across the room. Four years of memorizing the way he laughed, the way he frowned, the way his hands moved when he talked. Four years of telling myself it would pass, that it was just a phase, that I would wake up one morning and feel nothing.It hadn't passed. It had only gotten worse. Every day, the want dug deeper into my chest like a splinter I couldn't pull out.Tonight, I was sitting on his couch. His apartment. His mess. His smell. He was in the kitchen, making drinks, and I was trying not to stare at his back. The way his t-shirt stretched across his shoulders. The way his jeans sat low on his hips. The way his hair curled at the nape of his neck."You're quiet," he said without turning around."I'm always quiet.""No. You're always thinking. There's a difference."He walked over. Handed me a glass. Whiskey. Neat. The way I liked it. He remembered. Of course he remembered. He r
ITS ALL OVER. DOMINIC The lawsuit was filed on a Tuesday.By Friday, Phoebe was blowing up our phones.I watched the notifications pile up on Cyrus's screen while he was in the shower. Seventeen missed calls. Twenty-three text messages. Each one more unhinged than the last. You think you can do this to me? I'm your wife. I was your wife. You owe me. I'll destroy you. I'll tell everyone what you did. I'll tell them about the affair. I'll tell them how you left me for him. Cyrus came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. Water dripped down his chest. He looked at me looking at his phone."She's spiraling," I said."Good.""She's going to do something stupid.""She already did something stupid. She faked a pregnancy. She committed fraud. She defamed us. Now she gets to deal with the consequences."I handed him the phone. He read through the messages. His face didn't change."She's threatening to tell people about the affair.""Let her. Everyone already know
A PROPER DATE.CYRU'S POV.I didn’t even feel my legs carrying me. Just one minute I was on the running, adrenaline still clinging to my skin, that fucking voice still crawling down my spine, and the next I was half-running down the room heart hammering against my ribs like it wanted out.I needed
SECRETS OF THE NIGHT.CYRUS POVI slammed the door hard enough that the whole frame shook and something clattered off the wall behind me. My breath was stuck somewhere between a ragged sob and a fucking scream, jaw clenched tight enough I thought my molars would crack. My fist was still balled up f
A LOOKALIKE LOVERCYRU’S POV I should’ve gone home. Should’ve gone straight to the kitchen, stuffed my face with leftovers, taken a long shower, and ignored every fucking impulse crawling under my skin like it was trying to eat its way out. But instead, here I was—sweaty from the jog, chest still
A HOT SEXY EMPLOYEE.CYRUS’POVSleep hits differently when you cum hard enough to forget your own name. Still, I didn’t look at my sheets when I got up. Just peeled out of them like they were crime scene evidence and tossed them in the corner. My body was sore in places I didn’t want to admit. I di







