GIDEON

I picked him up from the edge of town.

His town, not mine.

He hesitated to tell me his home address, and I didn’t want to push him for it, so I offered to pick him up from there.

From the things we spoke about over the past couple of days, I understood why he may not have wanted to be spotted with me. At least by picking him up from the edge of town, there would be no possibility of anybody from his personal life spotting him there. And since this was a completely different town to mine, there would be no possibility of anybody from my personal life spotting me there either.

There was always the possibility of that one person spotting me…

Shaking that thought out from my head, I lower the windows and let the cool breeze flow into my car. We’ve returned from a lovely meal, and now we’re on our way to a hotel.

We sit in peaceful silence as I continue driving and once we’ve reached the hotel, I park my car as both Victor and I unbuckle our seat-belts before we both step out from my car.

As I shut my car door and make my way over to Victor’s side, I offer him my hand as he takes it with a smile. Together, we walk from the car park and into the hotel.

My fingers tighten around his as we step inside and my eyes scan the rest of the people that are here with us. There’s a few others standing around the entrance, and some staff members. I catch the eye of the receptionist as I nod at him, before tugging Victor closer as we continue walking.

I already arranged things with the staff here so that I’d receive the hotel key card for our reserved room prior to our arrival.

Just as we’ve made it out of the waiting area, and we’ve walked past the lifts, I spot a familiar face.

“Shit.”

I mutter out when I spot him walking towards us.

Victor turns to look at me, but I’ve got my eyes locked on the person who’s making his way here.

Axel Devant.

The twin of an associate in my town, and a man I have some level of history with.

Fuck.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again with a man.”

He tells me as he stops in front of both of us, his eyes immediately going to Victor.

Clearing my throat, I introduce the pair to each other.

“Victor, this is Axel. Axel, meet Victor.”

They both nod at each other in acknowledgement and I don’t miss the way Axel practically undresses Victor with only his eyes. Not that I can blame him. As he licks his lips, he turns to look over at me.

“You open to sharing this one?”

He says with a pointed look at sweetness.

I tug Victor behind my back as I take a step forwards, blocking him from Axel’s line of sight. Axel chuckles as he puts his both hands up, and I shake my head at him.

“Fuck no, Axel.”

With a smirk, his eyes move from mine to behind me as he looks over at Victor.

“I’m guessing you’re the one who’s managed to get this old man out of his shell, huh?”

I scoff at him.

“Old man, my ass. You’re two years my senior, meaning you’re the old one here.”

He grins.

“We could be a pair of old men with a lovely thing like Victor between us, if you’d like that?”

Behind me, sweetness laughs as I glare at the man in front of me.

“Axel, stop.”

He shrugs the warning off with a laugh of his own as he tells me he’s only messing around.

He better be.

The last time he and I were together with a third between us, I was the one who had to get married.

Not that I would mind if things developed between sweetness and me…

“I heard your daughter got hitched?”

That gets my full attention.

“Yeah, she did. I heard your niece is looking to get married?”

His jaw visibly clenches as his nostrils flare.

Interesting.

Axel has always been around, ever since he and Elijah had moved to our town, he has always been around.

But since his twin had married a widow from our town, he was rarely ever seen. I wondered whether it was because of his twin’s new marital status that made him take a few steps back away from our town.

I wouldn’t know how to deal if I went from having my brother’s entire attention to me, to then having to share it with two strangers.

“She’s my step-niece, practically a stranger to me.”

“Marriage is marriage, and she’s related to you through it. Besides, it’s not like Mia’s a complete stranger, I’m sure you’ve met her prior to Elijah marrying her mother.”

He shakes his head at me.

“My brother is stupid for marrying her. It doesn’t matter though, it’s his life. He can live it however he wants to now.” He lets a deep breath out before he looks between both Victor and I. “I’ll see you both around.”

I nod at him as he begins to walk away, and from behind me, I hear Victor speak.

“Bye, Axel.” He says with a little wave to my old friend. “He seems nice.”

We both continue walking in the direction of our room as I shake my head at him.

“Axel is nice, but he easily becomes a headache when he wants to be.”

That gets a laugh out of sweetness and it makes me smile.

When we finally reach the room I’ve booked, we both step inside. Victor turns to face me as he opens his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it.

“Tell me how you want me, sweetness. I’m yours for the night.”

If he’s surprised, he doesn’t show it.

With a grin that slowly appears on his face, his hands are all over me, and he takes the lead.

I’ll be sure to make him feel like the client tonight.