Unrequited Read online

  “Don’t do that,” Vic requested softly.

  Shane pressed his lips together and frowned thoughtfully.

  “I’m too old and set in my ways to be fucked around,” he finally

  said evenly, and he inclined his head slightly, waiting for Vic to

  counter.

  “Nobody’s fucking you around,” Vic said softly, his eyes

  leaving Shane’s briefly to look down at where his hand

  remained planted against Shane’s bare chest.

  “Oh, come on, Vic,” Shane snarled with a shake of his

  head as he stepped back and broke the contact. “You’ve been

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  head over heels for him since nearly the moment you laid eyes

  on him. I’m not stupid enough to think that a few kisses from

  me are going to change that now.”

  “A few kisses?” Vic asked incredulously. “It’s been much

  more than that, Shane. So much more,” Vic said pointedly, his

  voice still soft and calm.

  “What?” Shane asked, tilting his head as if he hadn’t heard

  correctly.

  Vic didn’t answer, instead stepping closer and sliding his

  hand behind Shane’s head, tangling his fingers into his wet

  hair as he pulled Shane toward him and kissed him hard.

  Where before their kisses had been slow, sensual, and gentle,

  now it was demanding and brutal, and Vic loved every second

  of it. When they pulled apart breathlessly, Shane looked at Vic

  dazedly.

  “What?” he asked again stupidly.

  “Stop talking,” Vic whispered, smiling at what had become

  a little joke between them and leaning in again. “I want you,”

  Vic told the other man, his mouth moving against Shane’s

  slightly parted lips. “You,” he emphasized. “Right now. I don’t

  care what’s coming tomorrow.”

  Shane was curled around Vic’s naked body, nuzzled under his

  chin and practically purring as he slept, when the doorbell

  rang and startled them both awake.

  “Hmm?” Shane groaned and nuzzled closer.

  “Hey,” Vic said in a hoarse voice. “When did it get to be

  morning?”

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  “Morning?” Shane asked as he raised his head and looked

  around. “Shit,” he groaned as he let his head flop back down

  onto Vic’s chest. The doorbell rang again and Vic squeezed

  Shane to him.

  “That’ll be Owen,” he whispered.

  Shane tensed slightly in his arms, and then the man

  nodded and rolled over, coming to sit on the edge of the bed

  with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. Vic

  looked at him worriedly. They had never actually gotten around

  to talking about Owen.

  “Jesus, Shane, your back,” Vic said in a horrified whisper

  as he looked at his lover, completely forgetting anything else

  he’d been about to say.

  “Hurts,” Shane grunted. “What’d I do to it? Is it burnt?”

  “I scratched the shit out of you,” Vic murmured as he

  rolled onto his side and ran his finger lightly over an unmarred

  portion of Shane’s back. He hadn’t realized his short nails

  would do so much damage. It had to have been the sunburn.

  “You’re also burnt,” he added sympathetically just before the

  doorbell rang again. “I’ll put some aloe on you,” Vic said as he

  rolled out of bed and cast about for his clothing. “Damn it,” he

  murmured when he couldn’t find any.

  “Other room, remember?” Shane mumbled as he rubbed

  his face and gingerly flexed his shoulders.

  Vic nodded as he remembered that they had never moved

  his stuff from the other bedroom, and he gave Shane one last

  worried glance before going to find his clothing. He was dirty,

  not having ever made it to the shower after coming inside, but

  they were at the beach. Who really took a shower in order to go

  sit in the sand anyway?

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  He dressed slowly as the doorbell rang again, trying to

  order his thoughts. What would he say to Owen? What would

  he do? He supposed he shouldn’t be worrying about it until he

  heard what Owen had to say.

  When Vic opened the door, he was greeted by Owen much

  more sedately than he had expected. Usually you got anything

  from a shake of the hand with a slap on the back to a full-out

  tackle in which Owen picked you up off the ground and let

  your feet dangle as he crushed your ribs with a bear hug. But

  this morning Owen simply smiled tentatively and stuck out his

  hand to shake Vic’s.

  Vic smiled in return despite himself. Then his brow

  furrowed in confusion as he looked at their joined hands,

  confused by the sedate greeting.

  “You said you were burnt,” Owen explained with a more

  confident smile. “Didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “I’m not that burnt,” Vic told him wryly, and Owen

  responded immediately by embracing Vic warmly and kissing

  him on the ear. He had probably been aiming for a cheek, but

  Owen rarely worried about aim.

  “Hey, Shane!” he called happily as Vic stepped aside and

  let him in.

  Vic turned to look back at Shane worriedly as the other

  man stood there uncomfortably and refused to meet Vic’s eyes.

  He was obviously dreading what Vic would do now that Owen

  was here. Owen practically bounded toward him, oblivious to

  Shane’s discomfort.

  “I am that burnt,” Shane said apologetically with his hand

  held out to stop Owen in mid-pounce.

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  Vic watched from behind as Owen deflated briefly at the

  cold greeting, but then he took Shane’s hand in his own and

  shook it with a snicker.

  “Poor baby,” he said fondly.

  “Yeah, I know,” Shane grumbled as Vic pushed the door

  shut and watched them awkwardly. Shane was definitely

  uncomfortable around the younger man, where before he had

  never seemed to be, and Vic knew it was his fault. Damn them

  for falling asleep without talking about this first. Now they

  might not get the chance before it exploded in their faces.

  Despite them having been awoken by Owen’s arrival, it

  was not early in the morning, as Vic had at first thought. It was

  almost noon, and Vic realized that Owen must have left

  Charlotte in the middle of the night to get there. He offered to

  treat them both to lunch, but to Vic’s dismay, Shane turned

  down the offer, saying that he was going back to bed to sleep

  off more of the burn.

  Vic watched helplessly as Shane turned away, heading for

  the bedroom with his apologies. He didn’t want to let on that

  anything was going on between them. Not yet. So he just let

  Shane slink off to bed without any argument, and found

  himself alone with Owen.

  He looked at the man with a degree of apprehension. So

  far, he was holding his emotional ground. He was glad to see

  Owen, but not for the reason he usually was. Maybe it was

  time to finally get some things off his chest.

  “Hey,” Owen greeted again, hi
s voice more intimate than

  his first greeting had been.

  Vic stared at him, trying to formulate a plan. He had stood

  in front of juries and delivered closing arguments that hadn’t

  made him this nervous. Finally, he cleared his throat. “You

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  said you wanted to talk to me about something,” he reminded.

  “Something so important it couldn’t wait,” he murmured.

  Owen inhaled deeply and nodded. Vic had never seen the

  big man look nervous, but this was probably as close as he got.

  He was fidgeting and frowning as he looked around the

  bungalow.

  “Wanna take a walk?” he asked as he gestured toward the

  beach.

  Vic licked his lips and nodded. “Yeah, okay,” he agreed.

  He moved toward the doors, glancing back at the bedroom

  door uncertainly as he followed Owen out.

  When Shane awoke, Vic was sitting beside him, looking down

  at him with a smile. Shane jerked in surprise then smiled

  groggily at him.

  “Hey,” he said hoarsely.

  “How’s the back?” Vic asked him as he handed him a cold

  beer.

  Shane raised one eyebrow as he pushed himself up to sit

  beside Vic. He took the sweating bottle and eyed Vic

  suspiciously. “You two talk?” he asked evenly.

  “Yep,” Vic answered with a curt nod. “We took a walk. He

  said he’d realized what an asshole he’d been all these years

  when I went missing. He was afraid it was because of him.”

  “It was because of him,” Shane pointed out with a small

  frown.

  “He doesn’t need to know that,” Vic argued with a smile.

  “What else did he say?” Shane asked hesitantly.

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  Vic shrugged. “That was about it,” he said in confusion. “It

  felt kind of like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t,” he

  related to Shane. “He asked if he could stay a few days,” he

  added.

  Shane nodded. “What’d you tell him?” he asked before

  taking a long gulp of the beer Vic had brought him.

  “I told him he’d have to ask you,” Vic told him with a

  shrug.

  “Do you want him here?” Shane asked softly.

  “I don’t know,” Vic answered honestly. “But I do know he’s

  your friend. And whatever has gone on between me and him

  shouldn’t influence how you would treat him.”

  Shane nodded again and looked away with a sigh. “If

  you’re okay with it,” he finally decided with a shrug.

  Vic nodded wordlessly and went to tell Owen he was

  welcome to stay.

  The next few days would be uncomfortable at best. But all

  Vic had to do was keep an even keel and everything would work

  out. A sort of peaceful feeling had fallen over him, a weight

  lifted from his shoulders, like he’d finally rid himself of a

  burden he’d been carrying.

  It was a wonderful feeling. Now all he had to do was

  convince Shane of that and he was golden.

  Owen was practically vibrating, he was so anxious to get out

  on the beach and finally get some peace and quiet, and by the

  time Vic and Shane got into their bathing suits and hunted

  down the sunscreen, Owen was standing out on the deck in the

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  only bathing suit he’d packed with his arms spread wide and

  his face turned up to the sun.

  Vic stood at the door and watched him fondly. His lust for

  life had always been intoxicating. He was a hard man not to

  like.

  Cold plastic touched the tender skin just above Vic’s hip

  and he yipped and jumped, spinning around to glare at Shane

  as the sunscreen was handed to him. Shane smirked at him,

  but then his eyes traveled over to Owen in the distance and the

  smile faded.

  Vic popped the cap on the lotion and looked at it

  thoughtfully.

  “You know,” he said in a low voice. “This probably would

  have worked better than the body wash.”

  Shane snorted and glanced at him, trying not to smile.

  “Just be careful with those gashes back there, Counselor,” he

  said haughtily as he turned his back to Vic.

  Vic looked over the shallow scratches guiltily. Normally

  they would probably already have faded, but on sunburned

  skin, they were lingering. They looked like they hurt pretty

  badly. Vic hadn’t known he could do that.

  “What are you gonna tell Owen?” Vic asked as he carefully

  applied the lotion one fingertip at a time, partly because he

  didn’t want to irritate the scratches, but also because he

  enjoyed touching the other man. The slower the better. Shane

  was silent, and Vic worried that perhaps that had been the

  wrong subject to bring up. “Unless… you want to tell him the

  truth?” Vic ventured carefully. He wasn’t sure how Shane felt

  about that, but Vic knew he himself liked the idea. Or aspects

  of it anyway.

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  Either Owen would be thrilled for them, or he would be

  jealous. Considering that he had never been particularly

  possessive before and didn’t demonstrate any sort of feelings

  other than friendship and the occasional desire for a fling, Vic

  presumed it would be the former. Even after what Owen said to

  him on their walk, that he realized how he’d treated him and

  was sorry to have done that to a friend, he’d never mentioned

  any stronger feelings. Vic couldn’t help but think he’d wanted

  to say something more, but he doubted a profession of love had

  been on the agenda.

  “I’ll just tell him I got rolled around by a wave, if he even

  asks. He may not,” Shane answered with a frown, and Vic bit

  his lip to hide his disappointment. He had no illusions that this

  was a permanent thing—not yet anyway, but he could certainly

  hope. And he would until Shane told him to do differently.

  “Okay,” he responded evenly.

  When he was done, Vic handed the lotion over and had

  Shane rub him down as well. He had no desire to get burnt,

  and Shane’s hands, still so gentle even though it was obvious

  that Shane was troubled, felt amazing on Vic’s sore back.

  “Old age slowing you two down?” Owen called teasingly as

  soon as Shane had tossed the lotion aside.

  Shane snorted and started forward, but Vic reached out

  and caught his arm as they watched Owen toss all three beach

  chairs over his shoulder and then leap down into the soft sand

  and plow his way down the beach. Shane laughed and Vic

  snorted at the folly of youth.

  “He won’t be so keen to do that after a night on that

  mattress,” Vic murmured, his hand still tight around Shane’s

  elbow. He looked at Shane seriously then and said, “I want to

  talk about this. I do. Just know now that I’m not jerking you

  around.”

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  Shane looked at him blankly for several tense moments,

  and then his face softened and he smiled a little. “You’re a big

  boy, Vic. And so am
I. You do what you need to do, and I’ll be

  okay with it.”

  Vic blinked in surprise and he released Shane just as

  Owen’s voice traveled back to them.

  “Hey! Will someone grab me a beer?” he called.

  “Got a cooler,” Vic called back as he watched Shane grab

  the cooler and walk down the short walkway. Vic was not

  happy about this situation, mainly because Shane wasn’t being

  very open about much of anything, and despite the rush of new

  emotions Vic had been experiencing, he had been right in

  predicting that five years of attraction wouldn’t just vanish.

  He had himself a very real problem now. He wasn’t certain

  what he would do if by some miracle Owen came up to him and

  told him he loved him, or even cared for him beyond the

  friendship and occasional fucks they had shared. He wasn’t

  sure if he would abandon the fledgling relationship that had

  begun with Shane in favor of a spark of hope from Owen. He

  hoped he wouldn’t, simply because not only would he lose

  Shane as a friend, but also because he wouldn’t like himself

  very much after doing the very thing he’d sworn to himself he

  wouldn’t do. Not very much at all.

  He watched Shane straighten up and turn around to look

  at him. He smiled and licked his chapped lips unconsciously as

  he looked at Vic, and Vic smiled in return. He sincerely hoped

  Owen would continue on in his blissful ignorance of Vic’s

  feelings and give Vic time to let them fade. He didn’t want to

  lose Shane, in any form. He didn’t want to prove himself a fool.

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  VII

  Vic sat in his chair and watched as Owen stood at the edge of

  the water with his hands on his hips, looking out at the waves

  and periodically pacing back and forth. His feet were just

  barely in the water, and he shivered perceptibly whenever a

  wave touched him. Vic smiled fondly, knowing that Owen was

  desperate to get in the water but just couldn’t force himself to

  endure the cold yet.

  Vic felt eyes on him suddenly and he turned to look at