“Excuses,” Ellis growled, laughing as he leaned back on the railing to catch his breath. He ruffled Zach’s bangs when he padded by, smearing the snow in Zach’s hair into his scalp, then chuckling when Zach sputtered. “Just like a little brother.”
Alone on the deck, Zach stared through the open cabin door at Gibson standing up from the table to punch his brother in the shoulder because Ellis hit him in the face with a handful of snow. In the fading sunlight, poised against the blue-green smokiness of the frost-shrouded mountain, the cabin and the men inside of it became home. It was an unexpected reaction, a swell of emotions Zach didn’t have the experience or understanding to sort through. He’d come to expect the dread of leaving the cabin every evening, then fighting not to be overwhelmed with an odd, quirky happiness at the thought of driving up the winding road to the Keller homestead where Gibson waited for him, holding Zach’s heart in his soul.
“Fuck me,” Zach whispered to himself. “I’m not just in love with this place. I’m in love with Gibson and everything he comes with. How the hell did that happen?”
THE POT roast was not only edible, it was possibly the best thing Gibson had eaten in nearly two years. The meal was fragrant and savory, eaten with a crusty white bread slathered with fresh butter and frosty beers from a local brewery. With a full belly and Zach taking care of the dishes, he’d pondered if the meal hadn’t simply been just okay but made memorable by their easy conversation and laughing at Ellis picking the carrots out of his food.
As days went, it’d been a good one. His morning with Ellis doing stretches and resistance exercises went smoothly, without his brother getting resentful or angry. Then he’d gotten nearly five thousand words done, and most of them he intended to keep. When Zach and Ellis returned from their afternoon hike, he’d been wrapping up his day’s work and intending to check on dinner. Hearing his brother tease Zach stopped Gibson in his tracks.
The banter was a bit rough around the edges but definitely lighthearted, something Zach had admitted he needed to get used to, but for Gibson it was as if he was finally hearing echoes of his brother’s soul returning to the body he inhabited. Ellis met his gaze when he strolled through the cabin’s front door, a bit of wickedness in his amber-flecked gray eyes. The wolf left his mark on his brother’s human form, but Ellis was now closer to the person he’d been before the world forced him inward. He’d smiled back at his brother, sharing in the delight of teasing someone they both were fond of. It made his day. Hell, it’d made his life.
He came crashing back down to earth when Zach picked his car keys up out of the bowl sitting on the table by the front door. It was always the part of their day he hated the most, watching a piece of himself leave. The man Ellis drove into the lake out of sheer boredom and mischief had found a place in Gibson’s heart, and every time he left, it felt as if he was breaking out of the warmth Gibson felt for him.
Following Zach outside, Gibson snagged Zach’s fingers, capturing him, then pulling him in close. It was cold—God, it was cold—but he needed just another minute, another second of Zach being near him, of Zach’s scent filling his senses and the touch of Zach’s skin on his.
“You’re going to freeze your balls off standing out here.” Zach pulled up the collar of his jacket to protect his neck from the icy wind. “Give me a kiss and go back inside. You’re going to need all of your fingers. There are still at least ten chapters to go, right?”
“I have better things to do with my fingers than type. And most of them include you,” Gibson growled, snuggling Zach’s length against him in a tight embrace. “I just haven’t had the chance.”
“Well, we’ve been a bit busy,” he pointed out. “And well, as much as I love Ellis—”
“I’m not sharing you with my brother.” The very whisper of it in his mind drew up Gibson’s hackles, calling up the wolf sleeping inside of him. It rumbled, stirring from its slumber, agitated by the idea of Ellis’s hands—actually, anyone’s hands—on Zach’s long, lean body. Zach was his. No one else’s. And as primitive as his reaction was, he couldn’t ignore the truth in it. “I am not sharing you with anyone. Not like that. Not ever.”
When he heard himself, Gibson winced, finding the brutish tone in his words offensive. He opened his mouth to apologize, to find some excuse for letting his animalistic instincts take over even just for a brief moment, when Zach smiled.
“I know what you meant,” he whispered, sliding his hands around Gibson’s body so he could tuck them into his back pockets. “I know that you don’t believe you own me and are probably just as frustrated as I am. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about the Keller boys, it’s that they run with their emotions, and sometimes that means you end up eating your own words.”
“Yep,” Gibson replied, glad for Zach’s warmth when a flurry struck them. “It’s the Keller family motto: Why eat a steak when you can eat crow or your own foot? I am sorry. I just—there’s no excuse. You’re not an object. Not something I can keep in a box and only take out when I want to play with you. Not that there’s anything wrong with playing with you, it’s just that I haven’t been able to do a lot of it—or any of it—and it’s kind of driving me crazy.”
“Right now, we’ve got to keep our focus on Ellis,” Zach reminded him. “He’s doing well, and let’s face it, we both really need him to feel comfortable inside of himself. Not just because I want to be able to rent a hotel room someplace and make sure you can’t walk the next morning, but because… we both know he probably hates being dependent on us.”
“It’s like you know him.” The cabin’s windows were slightly fogged, condensation hitting the cold air and scattering frost on the panes. Inside, Ellis was standing in front of a bookcase, skimming over the spines with his fingers. “I think today was the first time I realized how much he’s accomplished. I’ve spent so much time staring at what’s right in front of me, pushing him to take the next step, that I haven’t given him some space and looked at what he’s done, what he’s become. I couldn’t have helped him go this far without you. I hope you know that.”
“I know,” Zach teased, then yelped when Gibson nipped at the tip of his nose. “I’ve got to go before it gets too dark. Well, it’s already dark, but—I’ve got to go.”
“You could stay.”
“We talked about that. The loft is open, and well, having sex where your brother can hear us is not going to happen. It’s his house. I know it sounds stupid, but I just feel weird, and I can’t see us sharing a bed just for sleeping, so we’re not going to do a slumber party.”