The Silk Tie (Erotic Threesome Romance) (21 page)

Nadia’s
solicitor put his hand on her arm. “I really would advise that you don’t spread
libel, it could go—”

“Get
the fuck off me,” she said, a drop of spittle landing on her chin. “It’s not
libel, it’s true and I’ll tell the world.”

“Go
ahead,” Brent said. “Do your worst and see if it bothers me.”

“I’ll more
than bother you, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born,” she said.

“No,
you can’t hurt me any more, Nadia. You’ve done too much of that this last year.
You’ve put me through hell, what can be worse than that?”

“You
wait, I’ll show you what’s worse than that. I’ll go to the papers, the news,
and tell them that you’re gay and a cheat.”

“You do
realize that you have no evidence,” Gabe said.

“I
don’t need evidence when it’s the truth. I’ll find this man, this Samuel, and
I’ll pin him down, put a gun to his head, whatever it takes to make him tell me
the truth. I’ll get it out of him even if I have to hire some heavies.”

 “Gun
to his head? Heavies? Mmm…” Gabe said, glancing around the room. “You have
quite a lot of witnesses standing here listening to your threats. Thank you for
that, it will be very useful when I see you in a criminal court.”

“Oh,
fuck off,” Nadia said. “What are you, his new bloody boyfriend or something?”

I
stood. This woman had pushed it too far. I snapped my suit jacket straight and
walked up to the Brent and linked my arm with his. “It’s time to go. This
session is over,” I said and looked at Gabe. “Come on, we don’t need to stand
and listen to his crazy woman any longer.”

Nadia
stared at me with hate pouring from her eyes. “And who the hell are you…?”

“I
really advise you to say nothing,” her solicitor said again and folded his
arms. “Your now ex-husband is free to see whoever he wants and of either
gender.” His face was stern. “And if you ever need a lawyer again…”

“I
won’t be picking you,” she said, wrinkling her nose and sneering.

“Thank
goodness for that,” he said and held out his hand. “Gabriel, see you around.”

“Yes,
take care, Harold, enjoy that new car of yours,” Gabe said, shaking the other
lawyer’s hand.

He
grinned. “I will, don’t you worry.” He walked off.

“Nadia,
come on.”

I
turned. A man in dusty jeans, clumpy work boots and a dirty t-shirt stood at
the doorway of the courtroom. He was chewing gum and had an unlit cigarette
behind his ear.

“Dave,
I told you not to come here,” Nadia said, reaching for her purse. “Not in that
state…”

“Well,
I have come in this bloody state so get your arse out here, woman. I’ve only
got an hour and I have to be back on site. My boss is a right bastard if I’m
late.”

Silence
rang around the courtroom.

Nadia
turned, threw one last Medusa-like glare at Brent then stalked off. Now I
wasn’t sure if she was more furious that she’d lost everything or if she was
mad that her new man, who wasn’t a speck on Brent, had shown up.

“Well,”
I said, when she’d gone. “From a legal point of view that couldn’t have gone
better.”

Brent
rested his hand over mine. “Yes, thanks to you two, but…” He frowned and shut
his eyes.

“Hey,
are you okay,” Gabe said, stepping closer to us and resting his hand on Brent’s
shoulder.

“I
think…I think I’d like to be alone for a while. Maybe take a walk or
something.”

“Of
course,” I said. “We understand.”

“Yes,
go, clear your head,” Gabe said. “I’ll sort out here.”

I reached
up and pressed a kiss to Brent’s cheek. “And well done, you did great.”

He
didn’t reply, just gave me a sad smile then walked away.

Gabe
and I watched him leave.

I felt
as though with every step he took some part of me left too.

Gabe
slipped his hand around my waist and pulled me against his side. I wondered if
he felt the same.

I
suspected he did.

“Give
him time,” Gabe said. “He’ll be okay. He’s made of strong stuff.”

“Yes, I
know, but I hate to see him in pain.”

“Me too.”
Gabe kissed my temple. “Me too.”

Gabe
finalized the details of the Dawson versus Dawson case then we walked out in to
the sunshine.

“Where
do you think he’s gone?” I asked Gabe.

“From
here…probably toward St. Paul’s. Shall I call him?”

“No,
let’s see if we can find him first.” I glanced up at the blue sky dotted with
only a few small fluffy clouds. “It’s a nice day, it’s not often we have time
together on a Friday afternoon.”

“No,
you’re right.” He reached for my hand and linked our fingers.

We went
in the direction of the cathedral. There were some nice spots to sit within the
grounds and it was likely where Brent would have headed from the court.

“Nadia
is a right case, isn’t she?” I said.

“Yes,
bloody awful. Thank goodness he never has to see her again.”

“I
couldn’t stand the way she spoke to him, it was with such hate.”

“Hard
to imagine them in love.”

“Yeah,
she doesn’t seem his sort,” I said.

“No,
she doesn’t have a…” he lowered his voice, “dick.”

I
grinned. “And she doesn’t give blowjobs.”

“Shh…”
Gabe said, biting his lip and holding in a smile.

I
nudged his shoulder. “Hey, let’s get an ice cream.” I gestured to a shop that
had a sign outside with pictures of various ice lollies on it.

“Er,
okay.”

“What,
big hot-shot lawyers can’t enjoy an ice cream?”

“I
didn’t say that,” Gabe said. “But shouldn’t we find Brent?”

“We can
eat and walk.”

“Well,
okay then.”

We
wandered into the shop and purchased a raspberry ripple ice lolly each.

I
walked out, licking the sweet, cold surface, and wondered if we should have
bought one for Brent. No, it might be a while till we saw him and mine was already
starting to drip.

Gabe
fell in step beside me. “So what do you think he’s working through right now?”

“I
don’t know. I guess it’s the end of an era for him. The end of something he
thought he’d have forever.”

“We
have it forever, don’t we?”

“You
know full well we do.” I turned to him and smiled.

“You’re
beautiful, you know that?”

“Why
thank you.” My smile broadened. He told me that often enough but I’d never tire
of hearing it.

“It
wasn’t enough for him the other night, you know,” he said.

“What
do you mean?” I knew exactly what Gabe meant and my heart rate increased at the
mention of the other night.

Gabe
glanced around; we were on a quiet backstreet now, there was nobody about.

“When we
were in bed, the three of us,” Gabe went on. “It wasn’t enough for him.”

“He
seemed pretty happy.”

Gabe’s
expression turned serious. “You know what I mean, Hayley, I know you do.”

“I
don’t want to say the wrong thing, Gabe, you’d best explain yourself.”

He
slowed, as if not wanting to reach any destination until we’d had the
conversation I knew had been brewing all week—except I’d thought I’d have
to be the one to instigate it.

“I know
I said that you could touch him and I didn’t want him to touch you and all that
but…”

“But
what?” I dropped my lolly stick in a bin and took his hand.

Gabe
stopped. “But that’s not fair of me. I know that, it’s just…”

“It’s
okay, tell me.” I touched his cheek.

“It’s
just I don’t know how I’d handle seeing him fuck you. Part of me thinks I might
be consumed with jealousy, another part of me actually thinks it would be
really fucking hot to see the two people who make me so damn hard together.”

“Okay…”
I drew the word out long and slow as a hundred thoughts went through my mind.
Gabe was coming round to the idea of us being a proper threesome. I wouldn’t
have to persuade him to let Brent and I sate our needs.

“Plus,
there’s more to it, isn’t there?” He looked me in the eye and I held his gaze.

He was
referring to the fact that we both had feelings for Brent. I suspected that
Gabe’s were running pretty deep and that’s why he’d had a shift in what he
wanted—how he wanted us all to work this out together. The week of
thinking, being together yet apart, had done him good as well as me.

“Yes,”
I said, “I think there is. It’s gone beyond a shag, a fantasy, we both care
about him.”

Gabe
nodded. “I care about him a lot. He’s got in here.” He tapped his chest the way
he had before.

“You’ve
known him longer than I have—”

“But
nothing happened between us. Not until you were there.”

“I
know, I really do, but that’s more time for you to have built up a
relationship, fallen in love.”

“Love.
Fucking hell.” He looked away and shifted from one foot to the other.

“That’s
what it is, Gabe, if he’s in here.” I touched his chest.

“But I
love you, endlessly, completely, with everything that I am.”

“I know
you do and I love you but…” I sucked in a deep breath.

“But
what?”

“But
perhaps we have room in our hearts and our lives for Brent too.”

“As in
a permanent threesome relationship?”

I
shrugged and started walking again. “Come on, we really should find him.”

Gabe
hesitated for a second then caught up with me. “You want him too, the way he
wants you, the way I want him.”

“I
think we can safely say we all want each other, Gabe.”

“Yes.”

“And
it’s clear both Brent and I can handle seeing you with each of us so it’s just
you who needs to cross that last hurdle. Decide if you can cope with seeing us
two together intimately.”

“I
think I can.”

“Are
you sure?” I turned to him and frowned.

“Yes. I
want you to both be happy, to have what you want.”

“It has
to be about you as well.”

“It
is…the threesome fantasy…it’s pretty obsessive at the moment. It’s all I think
about, it’s like having a heavy package to carry around that I’m not allowed to
open but I’m desperate to.”

“I can understand
that.”

“Because
it’s swirling around your head as well?”

“Yes,
and my dreams…” I sucked in a deep breath. “I want him and I want you and I
want to be there, in the middle of you both, us all making love, touching,
fucking, kissing, no barriers, no rules about who can touch who. Because that’s
something neither Brent nor I can live with.” The words had tumbled out of me
not at all how I’d rehearsed them in my head.

“You’ve
spoken to him about this?” He looked a bit perplexed.

I
thought back to that day in my office when Brent had come to see me. He hadn’t
actually said a word. I’d just known what he wanted, what he needed, it had
been instinctual.

“No, we
haven’t actually spoken about it.”

“Ah, okay.”
He paused. “But how will it work? We’re so established as a couple, will it be
weird?”

“We
won’t know unless we try,” I said.

“That’s
true.”

“But
one thing we do know is that we’ll regret it forever if we don’t even give it a
go.” My vision fogged a little. The thought of not giving it a shot with Brent
as a third person in our lives made me sad just to think about.

“So
what do you suggest?” Gabe asked.

“That
we find him and tell him how we feel.”

“Yes,”
Gabe said, picking up the pace. “And first, a stop in there.”

He
pointed to a shop across the street. It appeared to be a hardware store and had
the word Timpson written in bold black lettering on a yellow sign.

“Why?”
I asked, hurrying to keep up with him.

Gabe
reached for my hand at the same time as he pulled his keys from his pocket and
jangled them in the air. “Because we should get him a key cut. Give it to him,
tell him that our home is his home.”

I
grinned. “That sounds the perfect idea. It will show him that we’re serious.”

We
hurried into the shop and Gabe handed over his front door key. Three minutes
later and four pound coins lighter we walked out holding Brent’s new key to our
home—and possibly our hearts.

We
turned a corner and suddenly majestic St. Paul’s Cathedral loomed before us.
Its beauty and size never failed to take my breath away no matter how many
times I visited.

“There’s
the small gardens at the other end,” I said to Gabe. “Maybe he’s there.”

“Well,
it’s a long shot, he could be anywhere. We don’t even know if he’s come here.
If he walked in this direction.”

“If
he’s not you can call him.”

“Okay.”

We
ambled with the tourists. I was trying not to rush or feel panicked, but
suddenly I had a desperate need for us all to be together.

After
slipping through a gateway in the huge black railings that surrounded the
grounds, I scanned the area. A group of school children were sitting in a large
circle, all dressed in blue and white and with a teacher in the center talking
to them.

Most
benches were occupied, manly by workers in suits, grabbing a late lunch or an
afternoon snack. A couple sat on the grass eating ice creams the way we just
had.

But I
couldn’t see Brent.

“He’s
not here,” I said, my shoulders sagging.

“Yes he
is, look.” Gabe pointed to an archway set into the wall. It held a bench,
dappled in shade from a large oak tree, and on it sat a lone figure.

“Oh,
thank goodness,” I said.

We
hurried to him. He sat with his knees apart, elbows resting on his thighs and
his head hanging low as if studying his feet. For a big man he seemed small.

When we
reached him we sat either side. Gabe rested his hand on Brent’s back and I
touched his arm.

“Brent,
are you okay?” I asked quietly.

He
sighed. “I’ve had better days.”

“Do you
want us to leave you in peace?” Gabe asked.

Brent
lifted his head and looked at Gabe. “No, I want you here…” He turned to me. “I
need
you here, both of you. I just had to have a moment to mourn, I suppose.”

“That’s
understandable.” I gave his arm a squeeze through his suit jacket. “It’s a
momentous day when you get your decree absolute.”

“I know
she’s a complete cow and you must be wondering what the hell I saw in her but
she changed, or at least she showed me her real side as soon as I caught her
cheating.”

“Well,
she probably thought she’d be able to have her cake and eat it,” Gabe said.

“Don’t
we all, though,” I said, stroking Brent’s hair.

His
eyes were a little glazed and I couldn’t resist pulling him in for a hug. He
pressed his face into my neck, breathed deep and melted against me.

I
wrapped my arms tighter around his shoulders and touched my cheek to his soft
hair.

Gabe
caught my gaze, drew his eyebrows together and rested his hand between Brent’s
shoulders. “You’re not alone in this,” Gabe said. “You have us.”

“We’re
here for you,” I added. “Both of us, however you need us.”

He
lifted his head, looked steadily at me then turned to Gabe.

“Yes,”
Gabe said. “You heard right, and I probably shouldn’t be saying this on
hallowed ground, but if you want my wife, if you want her in every sense of the
word, I’m willing to share.”

Brent
swallowed. “Really?”

Gabe
nodded. “Just please, I need to be there, to start with, at least.”

“Of
course…” He glanced up at the imposing cathedral. “And I think God understands
lots of different types of love.”

“Love,”
I said, reaching over Brent’s legs and holding Gabe’s hand. “Starts off small, like
a ripple in a pond, but it can grow, get bigger and bigger, it just needs
time.”

“I
can’t hold it in any longer,” Gabe said. He clenched his jaw.

“What?”
Brent asked quietly. “Tell me.”

“I’m
falling for you, falling in love with you, Brent. I love Hayley with an
intensity that scares me sometimes, but you…I love you too.”

There
he’d said it. Admitted what I’d known. I felt lighter for him now that it was
out in the open.

Brent
swallowed. His eyes were sparkling with emotion. “I love you, Gabe, have done
for a while now, but I didn’t think it would be allowed to have room to
breathe, this love, I thought it was only going to be one weekend together.”

“We
want more,” I said. “We want you in our lives, in our relationship,” I said.
“Let’s see if what we have, between us, Brent, me and you, will turn into love
too.”