Hudson's face drained of color, and for a moment I was worried the giant man would topple over. Somehow, he regained his composure, cleared his throat, and looked me straight in the eye. After what felt like forever, he finally opened his mouth.
"Yes, I'd love to be your fake date, Liam."
Chapter Five
HUDSON
I stopped myself before I opened the wood-panelled front door to Porter's house.
Since Steel and Stirling now had their boys, we had come up with a new monthly tradition. Every last Thursday of the month was family night, the original quad squad, plus the two boys. We all took turns hosting, and this month it was at Porter's house.
I turned and leaned against the heavy door frame. I'd have to tell them about Liam. There was no way I could avoid it. But what exactly was I going to say?
In the three days since his personal training session, his presence had drifted in and out of my consciousness like waves gently lapping at the shore. He was always there, sometimes more present, sometimes just in the background. But always there nevertheless.
In some ways, I still didn't feel like I had a good read on the guy. He was as nice, charming, funny, and cute as I had imagined he would be. Okay, maybe the cuteness was in overdrive; not even my wildest imagination could have come up with that.
Which was all well and good, but it was only surface-level stuff. There was something deeper to him as well, I could tell. Although his first time at a gym in his adult life probably wasn't the best time to be asking him deep questions, judging by the way he'd avoided answering them.
I couldn't help it. I was a deeper-level kind of person. Whereas someone like Stirling was quiet because that was just who he was, a quiet guy, I was quiet because I didn't really do that great with chitchat and small talk. It bored me because it was all so inconsequential and ultimately, dull. Real talk fascinated me, but it was hard to go deeper with Liam.
I had been holding back with him too, so that could have had something to do with it. I barely got a wink of sleep the night before our training session. My entire body had been flooded with adrenaline, knowing that I would be training one-on-one with Liam Wright.
I had to bite my tongue—as in I would literally bite down on it—at least two dozen times during his workout, to stop myself from fangirling like some crazed fan.
I sighed as I looked out at Porter's impressive front yard and driveway. I was stalling, but not getting any clearer in my head about what I would tell the guys. Screw it, I'd just wing it and see what happened. Maybe with Nick and Mikey there, the guys would be a little more restrained.
And by the guys, I meant Porter.
I opened the front door, let myself in, and headed to the sunken living room where I assumed they would all be sitting. I was right. I could hear Porter's voice ringing out. He was excited, and it sounded like he was wrapping up a very long-winded and explicit sex story. I inched toward the edge of the room. Judging by the looks on the guy’s faces, I was right.
“So you see, with my ankle on guy number two’s shoulder, and with guys one and three standing beside each other, that’s how I managed to get three dicks in my ass at the same time. My first ever triple penetration.”
The pride in Porter’s voice was offset by the stunned silence in the room. It was like all the air had been sucked out of it.
Great time to make my entrance.
“Hey guys,” I said.
“Hudson,” Mikey leaped off the couch he was sharing with Stirling and ran over to me, although I figured he was actually running from Porter’s story. I gave everyone a quick round of bear hugs—Stirling, Steel, Nick, and finally Porter.
"Did I miss anything?" I asked with a low laugh. "That sounded like quite the story."
I made my way over to sit beside Steel and Nick on the couch.
"I was just talking to the guys about geometry," Porter said.
My eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"That didn't sound very geometrical to me," I said.
Porter huffed and raised his glass.
"He really does look like Samantha from Sex and the City sometimes, doesn't he?" Nick said, gently rubbing his elbow against me.
"Looks, talks, and acts like a Samantha. A total Samantha," Steel said as we all broke out into laughter.
"Well I don't mind," Porter said, giving a very Samantha shimmy and shrug. "I'm not going to apologize for finding a sexual application for geometry."
More laughter followed, with Porter joining in. He always pretended not to like our ribbing and Sex and the City references, but the truth was...he was a terrible actor. He always ended up laughing at himself and the silliness of it all.
He was as much in on the joke as the rest of us were.
"So how’s everyone else doing?" I asked, looking around at my friends. "Geometrical discoveries aside, I mean."
Surprisingly, Stirling was the first to respond. He filled me in on the renovations he and Mikey were doing to his place. Mikey had moved in with him a few months back.
He had changed so much in the almost twelve months he had been with Mikey, and as someone who had known him for nearly twenty years, it was so good to see. He had come out of his shell. Mikey activated his protective and caring instincts, which allowed him to access parts of himself that he had never allowed himself to explore before. He was happier, lighter, and more talkative than I had ever seen him.
"What about you two?" I said, glancing over at Steel and Nick sitting beside me on the couch.
They both looked at each other, then Nick looked at me, back to Steel, then back at me. All the while, his mouth was pressed firmly shut.
Even though he was Mikey's best friend, I'd only really known the guy since he'd been with Steel, which was about six months. I did, however, know him well enough to realize that his mouth never stayed shut for this long. Was something up between them?
Before I could plunge into any further psychoanalysis, Steel finally spoke.
"We are good," he began, choosing his words carefully. "We’re just at an... experimental stage of our relationship."
Porter's eyes lit up as they always did whenever the conversation took even the slightest detour into something sexual.
"Ooh, do tell," he said, rubbing his hands together in delight as he settled back into his chair.
"There's not much to tell," Nick said. "At least, not yet. But...I think...I think I might be a little."
The words were obviously hard for him to get out. He leaned into Steel's side, and Steel instinctively wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
"Hey, that's great, Nick," I said. "It's always fun and exciting to explore new parts of yourself."
"That's right," Porter added. Thankfully, that was all he added. I was surprised at his restraint, but given how vulnerable Nick looked, I very much appreciated it.
The conversation turned light for a while, but I knew it was only a matter of time until the discussion swung back around to me. Rather than wait for it, I decided to bring up the topic of Liam myself.
"So I have some news," I said. They all turned to look at me. I grinned, planning to tease them for as long as I could. "You'll never guess who walked into the gym the other night."