The elevator jerked to a stop. When it did, the man in front of him swung his briefcase, hitting the folder out of Mateo’s hand. Or hell, maybe Mateo just dropped it because he couldn’t hold onto anything right now. Didn’t even want to.

The guy glanced down but then took a step forward, making Teo’s insides freeze up as he fought not to say something and risk causing problems for Tristan. Mateo obviously wasn’t good enough for the man to acknowledge what he’d done. As everyone else filed out of the elevator, Tristan grabbed the guy’s arm and nodded toward Mateo. “You dropped his things.” There was nothing but ice in his voice.

The suit stood there stunned for a minute. Mateo, too. His body tense, But...fuck, the nausea started to slip away at the same time. His father would consider him weak for this but he didn’t care. Teo was always the one taking care of others, sticking up for people—well, Josiah at least. He wanted that. Needed to be the one to take care of Jay and make sure no one fucked with him. But he’d never had someone do that for him until this moment.

The man jerked his arm out of Tristan’s grasp but Tristan didn’t back up. All Teo had to do was bend down to pick up the folder, but he didn’t. Couldn’t. Not when Tristan did this for him.

The people outside the elevator watched. The suit with gray hair stared hard, confusion and anger in his eyes. He glanced at Mateo, disdain there, because to him, Teo wasn’t worth it. And maybe Teo wasn’t, but what fucking mattered was that Tristan thought he was.

Tristan didn’t speak, but the guy bent down, picked up Mateo’s folder, and handed it to him. Without another word, he walked out of the elevator, Tristan right behind him. He didn’t turn back.

Maybe to most people, this shouldn’t matter. It was something so fucking small. Teo probably wasn’t worth the effort Tristan had just put out for him, but it meant something to Mateo. It meant everything to him.

That’s all he thought about as he scraped old food and washed other people’s dishes all night. As he cleaned up in the bathroom, because tonight, he didn’t want to go home looking like he spent all night at a sink. As he took the bus home—his home, their home.

His pulse twitched, maybe his whole body did, but he couldn’t shut it down. He felt primed, excited, needy to claim the way he wished he’d been able to earlier today.

As Mateo pushed open the door to their apartment late that night, Tristan held a plate as he walked through the living room toward the hallway.

Mateo’s footsteps were quick, heavy, determined as he made his way to Tristan.

“I’m taking this to Josiah. Do you want anything?” Tristan asked.

He didn’t answer, just stopped in front of Tristan, his chest inflating and deflating deeply.

“Call Jay to come here,” Teo told him. He needed his men, needed to prove they were his, even if he couldn’t do it publicly.

Tristan didn’t take orders when it came to sex. Mateo knew that. But still, he didn’t take back the words. Tristan turned to the hallway, about to do exactly as Mateo said, when Josiah’s words broke through the room.

“No. Just the two of you. I want to watch you together.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Josiah

Josiah stood at the end of the hall, watching his men. Tristan had his back to the wall, plate in hand, and no shirt on. He loved it when Tris was relaxed like this, in sweats and nothing else, shedding the man he showed to the rest of the world.

And then Teo, dark skin and dark hair. The scar on his neck peeking through the top of his shirt, his body tense as ever. What had happened today, he wondered? Whatever it was, it weighed heavily on his quietly noble man who wanted to take care of all those around him.

Josiah knew when he’d heard Teo come in, when he saw the two of them standing together, that this was the moment he’d been waiting for. The one Tristan and Mateo needed. Hell, Josiah needed it, too, because there was nothing more beautiful than the two men in front of him, and he wanted to experience that beauty from the outside. Seeing their contrast—so different, yet both so similar, moving together and taking pleasure together.

No one deserved it more than they did.

When they looked Josiah’s way, he said, “I want to watch Tristan fuck you. I want to see you take some of the bad away from each other the way you do for me. Just you. I need this.” They all needed it, but they would listen more if they thought it was only for Josiah. Because as equal as they all were, and even though he didn’t doubt the love all of them shared, it couldn’t always be about Josiah between them, with them. They kissed and touched each other without Josiah but they both held back from completely opening themselves to each other except to share whatever pain they bonded over nights spent in Tristan’s office.