The Home-wrecker (The Goode Brothers)
The Home-wrecker: Chapter 44

I break all my rules for Caleb. Or rather, he breaks all my rules for me.

As we stand here, our hands coated with a mixture of our releases, I realize how royally fucked I am if I think I’m going to be able to walk away from him or Briar.

“I can’t get enough of you,” I whisper, placing my forehead on his shoulder.

“The feeling’s mutual,” he replies.

After a moment, he pulls away. I show him to the sink, where we both get cleaned up. It’s so weird to see Caleb in this environment. It was different when he and Briar were here together. That was under much different circumstances.

But now, he’s here for just me. And I’m not used to it.

Relationships don’t end well for me. So I don’t bother trying. The first one was a disaster because of Caleb, so it’s ironic to me that now he’s the one vying for my heart.

After we’re cleaned up, I take his hand in mine and pull him deeper into the room. “Lie with me,” I say, but his feet freeze when I reach the bed. He stares at it ominously.

“You’ve been in this bed before,” I say, glancing back at it.

“Have you been with someone else tonight?” he asks and lets out a huff of frustration.

“Not that it should make any difference, but my only client tonight was a Dom/sub appointment. We didn’t have sex.”

“But you have sex with other people here,” he mumbles sadly.

“I had sex with you here!”

He stares at me with a melancholy expression on his face, and it kills me. Letting out a heavy breath, I tug him toward me again. “Just lie with me so we can talk, okay?”

Feeling my hands against his chest, he seems to relax a bit. We each slip off our shoes first. Then I help him out of his shirt and pants as he does the same for me. We’re not hurried, and it’s not a sexual thing. It’s more comfortable and emotional than that.

For me, I just want to feel that intimacy with Caleb that I miss with everyone else. We’re in our underwear as he climbs in first, and I climb on top of him, resting my head on his chest and draping one leg over him. He holds me close, even though I understand that this is still so new for him.

Caleb told me he loved me today, and that was huge for both of us. I need to find a way to convey my feelings back to him while making him understand why things can’t be as perfect as he wishes they could.

“I never come with my clients,” I mumble, running my hand over the patch of hair on his chest.

He tenses and looks down at me with confusion. “Never?”

“Not in a long time,” I reply. “I used to, but then something inside me just broke. That night in my apartment was the first time in months that I was able to finish.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

He’s so fucking stubborn, and something about it makes me smile. “This is my job, Caleb. It’s not like I have feelings for these people.”

“They have feelings for you,” he replies.

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s impossible not to,” he says, and my smile grows wider.

“Well, that’s on them. It doesn’t change anything for me. I just do my job, and I come home.”

“So, even if you do move into the house, you’ll still work here?” he asks, and I feel myself wincing at those words.

“Caleb…”

“I can learn to live with it. It’ll take me some time, but I’ll try.” The pleading sound in his voice hurts.

“I can’t move into the house. You know it’s not going to be that easy,” I say, pressing my face into his neck.

“Then we’ll take it slow.”

Letting out a huff, I reply, “How slow? And for how long?”

“Whatever it takes, Dean. I’m serious.” He presses his fingers under my chin and lifts my face until I’m staring at him. Gently, he kisses me, savoring the tender moment.

When we finally pull apart, I get the nerve to ask what I’ve wanted to know. “When did you realize you were into guys?”

He stiffens at my side. At first, I think he’s going to avoid the question, but after a sigh and looking a little uncomfortable, he answers. “Probably…college. Before Briar, I wasn’t really interested in anyone. I looked at guys the same way I looked at girls, but somewhere in my head, I think I knew I’d never act on any of those feelings. Then I fell in love with her, and I was actually…relieved. I know that’s wrong, but it meant I never had to face those feelings. I could just forget about them.”

“Did you…forget about them?”

He turns and faces me. With a smirk, he replies, “Of course not. Instead, I started to feel really bitter and frustrated.”

“I understand.”

“And Briar was always enough for me. I never needed anyone else, but I underestimated just how hard it is to be myself in this world.”

Pride fills my chest as I stare at him, seeing how far he’s come. Leaning in, I press my lips to his again. When I open my eyes, he says something I didn’t expect to hear.

“I’m sorry about what happened with Isaac, but that was a long time ago, and I’ve changed.”

Hearing him bring up Isaac sets my blood on fire. I rise from his chest, moving into a sitting position. My back is to him as I let those memories come flooding back.

“Why would you bring that up?” I ask.

“Because I don’t want you to hate me anymore,” he replies, sitting up against the headboard.

With a wince, I reply, “I don’t hate you.”

“You did.”

“I was mad,” I argue. “You pushed me out of his life,” I mutter. “Out of all of your lives.”

He leans closer, touching my shoulder. “I did it to protect my brother.”

Spinning on him, I stare into his eyes. I hate that we’re digging this up now. It feels like the one conversation we’ve avoided and maybe because it was so long ago and we’ve changed, but I’m still harboring more scars from what happened than even I know.

“Protect him?” I reply, appalled. “It was because of you that your dad kicked him out.”

He looks as if I’ve punched him. “Because of me? I would never hurt my brother.”

When he stands from the bed and paces the room, I watch him with confusion. “Caleb, you told me that day that…I had to leave Isaac alone. That I wasn’t good for him. I thought you…told your father.”

“I did that to protect him from my father,” he argues, staring at me with shock. “I regret what I did to you that day, but I would have never outed Isaac. Ever. I was terrified our dad would send him to a conversion camp or something. I just had to keep him safe until he was old enough to move out.”

Standing from the couch, I ask, “So how did your dad find out?”

Caleb freezes. “Isaac told him.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, when he was seventeen, he just…came out. My dad was furious. He waved the Bible in his face and told him he was going to hell. Isaac just…took it. The next day, Isaac was gone.”

“Where did he go?”

Caleb shrugs. “For a while, he kept in touch but never let me know where he was. Then he just disappeared. A few years ago, I started digging around, and I found out he lives in Nashville now. He’s actually doing pretty well. A country music singer.”

A chuckle slips through my lips. He actually did it. He ran away.

Meanwhile, I’m still here.

I let out a heavy sigh as I drop back down to the mattress. “All this time, I assumed you just…hated that your brother was gay. I assumed you were the one who told your dad. You broke us up, and he found out anyway.”

“I did what I had to, Dean. I was young and stupid and scared. But Isaac…was never scared.”

“Yes, he was,” I mutter to myself. “When I knew him, he was.”

When he kneels on the floor between my knees, it takes me by surprise. “Is that what you’ve thought of me this whole time? That I was a homophobe who sent my kid brother away? That I was like my father?”

Did I? Before I moved into that apartment, that’s exactly what I thought. It was a theory I’d built in my mind for years. I was so bent on hatred and revenge that I never bothered to ask questions or have doubts. I wanted to hate Caleb Goode because it was easier than facing the truth—Isaac let me go.

Even when he ran away at seventeen, he never looked back, and while part of me was waiting for him and hoping that chapter of our lives wasn’t over, he’d already closed the book.

Raising my eyes, I stare at Caleb. “It doesn’t matter what I thought,” I reply.

“It matters to me.”

“I was wrong,” I say, holding him by the back of the neck.

“So was I,” he says as he presses his lips to mine. Our bodies meld together as we hold each other there, him kneeling between my legs and our arms wrapped around each other. “I’ll tell everyone you’re our boyfriend, and I don’t give a shit what they say. I’ll tell my father and my brothers and everyone. Just like Isaac did. And if they don’t like it, they can fuck off.”

He’s mumbling into my neck, and I can’t help the smile that stretches across my face. When he moves to stand, he pushes me back onto the bed, draping his body over mine. Then, he kisses me with all of the tenderness and passion I want from him.

For a long time, we just lie here and kiss, taking our time with each other. I think for Caleb, this is his chance to prove to himself that he’s not afraid anymore. He’s not hiding. He’s accepting who he is and celebrating that acceptance with me.

When his kisses trail down my throat, I feel my heartbeat start to pick up speed. Then he reaches my abs, and I nearly stop him.

“You don’t have to do that,” I whisper.

“I want to,” he says as he continues to make his way down my body. As he reaches my groin, he stares down at the rigid length hiding behind my tight black underwear. After easing the waistband down to reveal my cock, he smiles up at me. “I can’t promise I’ll be any good at it.”

Biting my bottom lip, I run my fingers through his soft brown hair. “Are you kidding? Just the sight of those lips anywhere near my cock, and I’m happy.”

His mouth opens, and his tongue peeks out, grazing softly along the underside of my cock. The hesitation on his face turns me on, especially as he kisses the tip of my dick. His warm, wet lips suck gently on the crown, and I hum with pleasure.

Wrapping his fingers around my cock, he strokes me softly, gently uncloaking the head of my cock as he takes me into his mouth. I glide along the length of his tongue until I reach the back of his throat. When he gags, I have to remind myself to breathe.

“Yes, just keep doing that,” I say with a grunt.

He does it again, closing his lips around my shaft as he bobs his head up and down, getting lost in the desire to suck me off. He is relentless, exploring my dick as if it’s the first one he’s seen. Sucking, licking, and even gently biting until I rise off the bed and grip his hair until it hurts.

For a long time, I let him practice. And I watch as he works to perfect his technique, studying what makes me groan and tense. Before long, he has my climax at the tips of his fingers.

“Here’s your warning,” I say with a gasp. “I’m about to come, baby.”

He continues to suck on my cock as my body seizes with ecstasy, but just before I shoot my load into his mouth, he pulls away and continues stroking, so I spill the mess all over my own chest.

I’m still recovering when he starts to curse himself. “Fuck, sorry. I panicked.”

A laugh bubbles out of my chest. “I don’t care. Expecting you to swallow on your first blow job would be too much.”

“How was that?” he asks, desperate for me to grade his performance like I’m not lying here staring at the ceiling and waiting for my ears to stop buzzing.

Lifting my head, I smile down at him. “Are you fucking kidding? That was incredible.”

His head cocks to the side. “Don’t patronize me.”

My laughter gets louder. “I’m not! You can’t take a compliment. Once you got the hang of it, it was great.”

There is a deep wrinkle forever indented on Caleb’s forehead from his permanent scowl, so when he frowns at me now, it only makes me smile. He clearly thinks I’m just blowing smoke up his ass, but the blow job was phenomenal for a first-timer.

When his gaze lands on the cum pooling in the divots of my abs, he leans down and sticks his tongue out. I watch with my mouth hanging open as he licks up one spot to taste me.

Bringing his tongue back into his mouth, he swallows down the small amount and takes a moment to consider how he likes it.

Then, to my surprise, he leans back down and licks his tongue across my entire stomach and chest in one long stride. I gasp as he cleans my body with his mouth. My fingers are in his hair, and by the time he brings his face to mine, there’s not a trace of cum left on my skin.

“Holy shit, that was hot,” I whisper before hauling his mouth to mine. The salty taste on his tongue has my cock twitching, even though I know it’s spent for the night. Or at least for the next twenty to thirty minutes.

And as I wrestle him onto his back, I think I know exactly how I’ll pass the time.