Just a Bit Wrecked (Straight Guys #11) - Alessandra Hazard Page 0,59

gave him a hard, possessive kiss, his strong hands cradling Andrew’s face gently. “Boyfriend, huh?” he said, breaking the kiss and leaning their foreheads together. “Thanks for letting me know.”

Blushing, Andrew laughed, wrapping his arms around Logan’s neck and melting into him.

He didn’t care that Logan’s entire family was looking at them. He was happy. He felt whole, safe, and wanted.

He was where he wanted to be.

Epilogue

Three months later

Derek Rutledge stood on the terrace of his house, nursing a glass of wine and watching the guests milling about the garden. The formal part of the evening was over, and the journalists were gone. Thank fuck.

He loosened his tie with one hand, his eyes searching for his husband. Shawn was nowhere to be seen, which was fucking priceless, since the whole thing had been his idea.

A party in celebration of the one-year anniversary of the partnership will show everyone that there’s no bad blood between us and Ian Caldwell, Shawn had said, looking at him with his annoyingly pretty eyes. The little shit knew exactly the effect they had on him: that they got Derek to agree to the most inane ideas.

To be fair, Shawn’s idea had some merit. Despite their best efforts to keep their conflict quiet, people still talked. One of the lawyers Derek had consulted must have spilled the beans to the press, which had resulted in a lot of media scrutiny. Not to mention that it had somewhat hurt the business, since people were wary of dealing with a company that had unstable leadership at the top.

So here he was, pretending to be best friends with Ian Caldwell and his people. Not that they were enemies, per se. Caldwell’s attitude had thawed quite a bit ever since Derek had spoken to Caldwell’s sister and told her the truth. It had been the most awkward conversation of his life, but Derek had to admit it had been long overdue. It’d helped. He and the Caldwells were quite civil these days, but some things weren’t easy to forget, and Derek doubted they were going to become best friends anytime soon.

His lips twisting at the thought, he eyed the crowd in search of Shawn.

Caldwell was still there, his arm around Miles. The sight of them used to make Derek uneasy. He hadn’t been sure Caldwell wasn’t just using the kid to get to him, but by now even he had to admit that Caldwell seemed genuinely gone on Miles—which was clearly mutual. Miles was grinning at Caldwell right now, his hand touching the older man’s chest in a rather proprietary manner. Neither of them seemed to care that they were in public, their eyes only on each other. Derek had to give it to Caldwell: for a formerly straight man, he didn’t seem to mind being out and proud with Miles, uncaring what anyone else thought of him.

Though, Caldwell’s openly homosexual relationship wasn’t as surprising as Andrew’s.

Derek shifted his gaze to his former brother-in-law and eyed him in slight bewilderment. Truth be told, he could barely recognize him as the man who had been his sister’s husband. Vivian’s husband had always acted like he had a giant stick up his ass. He had always looked at Shawn and him with a barely hidden sneer on his lips, his homophobia obvious. He had been a good husband to Vivian, which had been the only reason Derek had tolerated the man.

So now, seeing Andrew all but snuggled up to another man in public was surreal. All right, “snuggled up” might have been something of an exaggeration, but still. Andrew was gazing at Logan McCall in a decidedly besotted manner as McCall said something to him before kissing the corner of Andrew’s mouth. Andrew grabbed McCall’s tie and pulled him closer, changing the kiss from innocent to needy, and never mind that there were plenty of people around. It seemed as though he’d forgotten that they weren’t alone—or didn’t care.

Shaking his head, Derek looked away from the couple and continued looking for Shawn among the guests. His gaze passed over Raffaele Ferrara, who stood by the pool nursing a drink. Ferrara had a beautiful woman on his arm, but he didn’t seem to be paying her any attention, his black eyes fixed on something else, his body language faintly irritated.

There were footsteps behind him, and then arms wrapped around his waist.

Derek didn’t turn.

“It’s rude to hide from your own guests, Mr. Rutledge,” Shawn said with a smile in his voice, pressing his cheek