This was always meant to be a marriage of convenience. It just wasn't supposed to involve two grooms.
Julius Rivier didn’t object when his parents arranged his marriage along with his career. All right, he wasn’t exactly happy about the prospect, but he accepted marriage with Genia Lang as part of the new partnership between their families, just one more step in the pursuit of money and power. He had never intended to come out, and love was a fairy tale for children, anyway. But his prospective bride thought otherwise, and now Julius has been sent out of town to avoid scandal while the families sort things out. Along with his new husband.
Teo Lang loves his sister. He’s happy Genia escaped the loveless marriage their parents planned. He just wasn’t expecting to get stuck taking her place at the altar! Now he’s on honeymoon with the hot but surly Julius, who seems determined to dislike Teo. A week on a private island leaves the two men with little to do but get to know each other. Too bad they have nothing in common except for the fact that they’re both keeping secrets.
Teo looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign language. Then his expression cleared. “Oh, well, it’s probably different when you’re old.”
“I am not old,” Julius snapped.
Teo looked unconvinced. “You act old. What are you, like thirty?”
Julius gritted his teeth. “I’m twenty-eight,” he informed his legal spouse. “My birth date was on the marriage license, which you just signed.”
Teo side-eyed him. “What’s my birthday, then?”
Julius didn’t know. He had noted Genia’s on earlier contractual documentation. She was twenty-three, and she was the elder Lang child. “You’re twenty-one,” he guessed, wincing mentally at the thought of being married to this barely-adult.
“Twenty-two,” Teo corrected. “And yes, I finished college, in case you were wondering. I’m working on a master’s and I have a job.”
Julius hadn’t known either of those things. “Working for your father?” He made it not sound judgmental, because of course he technically also worked for his father, even if he was extremely good at his job.
Teo sighed. “Yeah. I was supposed to work with Genia once the two of you -- you know. The new company.” He refilled both Champagne flutes.
Julius watched his throat as he swallowed. His cheeks were faintly flushed. It occurred to Julius that this might be a good time to get information, while Teo was a little drunk and already talking. “You and Genia are close?” he asked.
“Yeah, we have been our whole lives. Even though she always bossed me around. Sometimes people thought we were twins. This wasn’t even the first time I’ve dressed up in her clothes. When she started college I’d visit and she’d doll me up and take me to parties and let me drink and make out with older boys. Oops,” he added, his eyes wide. “Um, you’re not homophobic, are you?”
“No,” Julius said, tone carefully even. How to get the conversation back to Genia and her whereabouts? He didn’t need to know about Teo’s sex life, especially not when they were lying in bed together. When they were about to spend the night in that bed, together.
Julius had never spent the night with another person. Even in college he had been too cautious to linger after sex. None of the men he had intercourse with were out, either. A reserved friendship had been the closest emotional relationship he had permitted himself.
“You weren’t worried about your parents finding out?” he heard himself ask. It wasn’t the question he had intended.
“Worried? Well, kind of. I was glad they didn’t, especially while I was living at home. But I figure they’ll find out eventually. When I ... Oh. I guess I’m not meeting someone I’m serious about, am I? I’m married to you.”
Julius felt compelled to comfort Teo, which was something that hardly ever happened to him. “We won’t be married forever. Just until things are sorted out.”
The lawyers could come up with an alternative if they had to, surely. Maybe the parents could come to an arrangement before Genia was found. In that case he wouldn’t need to marry anyone. Suddenly Julius felt more cheerful about his situation.
It occurred to Julius that if it had been Genia here beside him he might have been expected to man up, literally, and consummate the marriage. If not tonight, eventually. Their parents expected grandchildren. Suddenly he was almost grateful to Miss Lang for leaving him with this easier sham.
He let himself turn and look at the curved back of his husband, who had either fallen asleep or doing a good job of pretending to be. His thin shirt had ridden up, revealing a hand’s breadth of pale skin and a couple of vulnerable vertebrae.
Julius resumed working, trying to find the calm that usually came from being good at his job, being in control. It wasn’t happening tonight, although he was more tired than he could remember being in a long time. He closed the laptop and gave a last glance at his husband’s bare back before pulling the spare blanket over Teo and turning out the light.
He lay awake and imagined reaching out to touch Teo, stroking that smooth, fine-grained skin and slipping strong hands under his clothes. It was just a fantasy. He wouldn’t have done it even if he thought Teo would welcome his attentions. But knowing he had been with other men made him seem ... possible.
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