“I prefer not to work in front of an audience,” Seth grumbled.
Not that he’d had to work all that much magic on Liam. It was just one of those serendipitous moments where they were attracted to each other and looking for the same thing—a string-free fuck.
“You gonna see him again?” Dom inquired.
Seth’s mouth fell open and he gawked at his friend. “Has it been so long that you’ve forgotten the definition of a hookup? No, of course I’m not. We had a good time together for one night, and that was it.”
Dom shrugged, completely unbothered by Seth’s tone. “A hookup is nice, I guess. It’s even better when you can go home to that slice of awesomeness and sexiness night after night.” He grinned at Abe, and the older man smiled back.
“So I’ve been told. Frequently. Not everyone feels the need to be tied down.” Seth winced and looked over at Abe. “No offense, Abe.”
Abe chuckled. “None taken. A relationship isn’t for everyone. You’ve got to do what’s right for you.”
Dom scoffed and wrapped his arm around Abe’s shoulders, pulling him closer. “Whatever.”
Luckily, Dom decided to redirect their conversation to other things like recent jobs and random stuff happening around the city. Summer was just kicking off, and the concert season was looking to be fantastic. Not the easiest thing to plan for since Seth never knew when he was going to be on a long-term assignment or a trip out of town, but he usually managed to grab tickets to a few fun events before colder weather reclaimed the area.
Applause broke out across the gathering of people, and Seth turned to see the two happy grooms stepping onto the terrace. They were going for a low-key, informal ceremony. An arch was decorated with white roses at one corner of the terrace with the best view of the city. From what Sven had told him, the plan was for Sven and Geoffrey to mingle with their guests for a little while, and then an officiant would conduct the brief ceremony. Afterward, they would move inside for dinner and dancing.
Seth was hoping to sneak out before the dancing started but after dinner. Rumor had it that Geoffrey had gotten Rialto to provide the meal, and no sane person passed up a meal made by Ian Banner and his cooks.
As a server strolled by, Seth placed his empty flute on the platter and snatched up a new one. It was his first wedding where one of the grooms was a millionaire. Geoffrey had not spared any expense when it came to his special day with his man.
He’d just lifted the glass to his lips when his eyes fell on the one person he was sure he would never see at this wedding.
Holy fuck! It was Liam.
Seth gasped, sucking the bubbling alcohol the wrong way down his throat. He choked, trying to catch his breath. Seth twisted around, and Dom immediately started pounding on his back. Seth coughed, his eyes watering. Jesus. He was going to end up with bruises from Dom.
“I’m fine,” he wheezed.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Wrong way.” His voice was broken, but he was at least breathing normally again.
Slowly he turned to where he’d seen Liam and wished he hadn’t. The man was smiling and laughing as he stood right next to Sven. His coworker then wrapped an arm around Liam and pulled him in for a bear hug.
They looked alike.
Holy fucking shit. They looked so damn alike.
Just. Like. Brothers.
Oh no.
No. No. No. No. No.
He could not have…
Gritting his teeth, Seth leaned a little closer to Dom and asked in a low voice, “Who’s that guy with Sven?”
Dom’s head jerked up and it took him only a second to smile and reply, “That’s one of Sven’s brothers. Um…I think that’s Liam. Maybe. Or is it the oldest one, Kristoffer?”
“That’s Liam Larsen,” Abe confirmed. “Kristoffer is over there with their sister, Alida.” Abe pointed to the other side of the terrace and Seth saw yet another tall blond man who looked very similar to Sven, but his eyes almost immediately snapped back to Liam.
Oh, fuck.
He’d slept with his friend’s older brother.
No, he’d had insane, hot, sweaty, mind-blowing sex with his coworker’s brother.
There had to be rules against this shit. Against some kind of code.
Of course, his brain was trying to figure that out while he stood there with a coworker who was dating another coworker’s father-in-law…sort of.
Seth halted those painful mental gymnastics and swallowed all the champagne in his glass, but it wasn’t nearly enough. He needed something a hell of a lot stronger than this bubbly wine circulating around the room. And a lot of it.
“You okay, man?” Dom asked.
“Yeah, fine,” Seth bit out, fighting to look yet again in Liam’s direction.
“I don’t know. Your face is all sweaty and blotchy.”
Seth wanted to say it was from choking on the champagne, but Dom was already looking back in Liam’s direction, his brow furrowing in thought. Seth sucked in a breath to say something, anything, to derail Dom’s current train of thought. But it was already too late. Dom’s eyes widened, and Seth could practically see the dots connecting in his brain.
Dom somehow managed to say, “Liam?” around his ridiculous grin.
Seth grabbed Dom’s dark-blue silk tie, holding his friend in place. “Don’t,” he snarled. “Not a fucking word.”
“You slept with Liam last night,” Dom said in a laughing whisper.
“I had no idea he was Sven’s brother. We didn’t exactly exchange family histories.”
Dom snorted. “Or last names, apparently. I’m sure you exchanged plenty of other things.”
“I’m fucking serious, Dom. You can’t say a word to anyone. Especially Sven. Liam didn’t know who I was, and he might not want his brother knowing about his hookups.”
“But—”
“Not. One. Word.”
“Dom,” Abe said evenly.
Dom’s shoulders slumped as if they’d just taken away both his Christmas and birthday presents.
“If not for me, then do it out of respect for Sven’s brother,” Seth pressed.
“Yeah, yeah,” Dom muttered. “I got your back. But the second that Sven finds out from someone other than me…”
Seth waved his hand while at the same time praying that day never came. “Of course. Let rip all the teasing and jokes.”
Thankfully, Quinn and Gidget, two of the three IT geniuses at Ward Security, wandered over to distract Dom and Abe from Seth’s current conundrum. He chanced a look in Liam’s direction to find that the man had spotted him through the crowd. Even from the distance, he looked as thunderstruck as Seth felt. Yeah, what dumb fucking luck.
Seth managed a smirk and lifted his empty glass in Liam’s direction in a kind of mocking salute. The too-sexy blond gave him a little nod and turned to his brother.
The wedding festivities kicked into high gear a few minutes later. People shuffled over to the rows of little white chairs in front of the altar. Seth dutifully kept his eyes on the happy couple at the end of the aisle, refusing to let himself search for where Liam might be sitting. Probably on Sven’s side of the room, in the front with the rest of the Larsen family. Seth had selected a chair at the rear of the gathering, but he was flanked by coworkers.