Three Part Harmony (The Road to Rocktoberfest 2024)

4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Mike

Griffin didn’t stay long. He gathered the basic information about my daily routines and typed it into his phone and before I knew it, he was out the front door. The second the door closed behind him, I found myself wishing he had stayed. I hardly knew him, and yet, whenever he was around I felt incredibly calm and found it easy to be open with him, like I really could talk to him about anything—as we had tonight. For fuck’s sake, we were talking about the frequency of our jerk sessions. Sure, I joked around with my close friends about shit like that, but not someone who was still sort of a stranger. Griffin seemed to pull that openness from me, though, and it was exhilarating.

After that night Griffin became a regular at the house. He picked us up every morning to drive us to practice and dropped us off at the end of the day. Every time he was there he went through the functions of the security systems. He was like a broken record about it, but I knew there was a real purpose to it and our safety was no joke. Not only was he teaching, but he was also getting to know the whole band and in just a few weeks it felt like he was one of us.

Once in a while he’d stay for dinner after he dropped us at home and occasionally he’d accept my challenge of a video game. Typically it was me and him playing by that point, since my band brothers would usually disappear once the game controllers came out. We were becoming good friends and I totally enjoyed his company. The strange thing was, he seemed to feel the same way. It wasn’t something we talked about. It just felt like a natural progression for us but where we were headed, I had no fucking clue.

I still had crazy fantasies about Griffin all the time, even though I was well aware nothing could ever happen between us. It pissed me off but it was out of my control. Instead I did my best to completely switch my attention to hooking up with Oliver and Sebastian, thinking that would get my mind off who I really wanted to be with.

Griffin .

It was fun being with Oliver and Sebastian, and hell, the sex was incredible, but it wasn’t anything like I thought it would be. A handful of hook-ups with them and each time was great. I spent time with Oliver and Sebastian separately and also as a three-way. It was entertaining whether we were hanging out in their hotel rooms or hitting a few clubs in LA. But I’d be lying to myself if I ignored there was something major missing between us. I can’t explain what it was but I sure as hell felt it every time we were together after our cum comas faded.

The one stable element to the whole sordid mess was Griffin. He was the one stuck driving me to meet them, babysitting me if we went into a club, and hanging near the hotel where we’d be hooking up on the off-chance I might need him. He said it was part of his job but I wasn’t exactly sure. It warranted a proper conversation, though. I had a right to ask him why he had to spend so much time with me. I mean, didn’t these guards have a second shift or something where another team would replace the guys working during the day? When were they expected to rest or sleep?

Nonetheless, the subject was never discussed and I continued to ignore it until his constant presence around me just felt…normal. The only thing that kept the question of this situation in my head was Fletcher. Every once in a while Fletcher would flat-out ask why Griffin was always hanging around. I didn’t have an answer for him because I was wondering the same thing. Only difference was, I was terrified to ask Griffin for fear he’d stop coming by so often and I definitely didn’t want that to happen .

“You want to fuck him,” Fletcher said. “Is that why you’re always hanging on him?”

“What the fuck are you saying?” I bellowed into the living room. “I do not hang on him! That would be crossing far too many lines that I know are inappropriate. He’s a friend , Fletch, so kindly fuck off about there being more to this when there never can be.”

“But you want more?” Fletcher pushed but in a softer tone.

I looked at my best friend and our gazes held. He knew me better than anyone. He knew the meaning behind every one of my moods and facial expressions. He could detect when I was lying, when I was hiding the fact I was sad or pissed off. Nothing got past Fletcher when it came to me, so there was no point in even trying to sneak a tiny fib by him.

I nodded first and then said, “Look, I know I’m not supposed to acknowledge my attraction to him, but it’s there. I will also say that I have never once crossed an unprofessional line with him, nor has he, and we’ve never come close either. We’re simply good friends. That’s where it begins and ends.”

“Friends who want to bone,” Fletcher added.

“I have no idea what he thinks when it comes to me,” I said. “It’s not something we talk about.”

“Well maybe you should ask him, because to me it’s obvious as hell that you two want to fuck each other blind,” Fletcher said.

“Speaking of fucking, how’s Dallas?” I asked him to take the focus off me.

Fletcher shrugged one shoulder. “Meh. We’ve been arguing a lot lately,” he said .

“But that leads to great make-up sex, right?”

“Nah, we haven’t seen each other much,” Fletcher explained. “He keeps saying he needs space to think about the direction of his life.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Right? I have no idea where his head is at these days but every time we talk it sounds cryptic as fuck.”

“Well, remember. Communication is key to a good relationship,” I offered.

“Coming from the one who won’t even discuss the relationship he’s in with the man he’s in it with.”

“I know, I’m a hypocrite but you know what I’m trying to say here,” I said.

“I do, but be mindful of your own situation before it blows up in your face,” Fletcher said and left the living room in favor of the solitude of his bedroom.

Two weeks later we had a weekend off and I got the brilliant idea to visit Oliver and Seb in San Francisco. I told Griffin about it and he got the trip approved with Fizzbo, the understanding being that Griffin would accompany me north and make sure I made it safely back to LA once the weekend was over .

Griffin and I flew up together and checked into the hotel—separate rooms, of course. He shadowed us to a restaurant for dinner and then babysat us at two different clubs afterward. Then he brought us back to the hotel, so the three of us could enjoy dessert, in bed, while Griffin spent his Saturday night alone in his own hotel room. I don’t know what part of that felt right to me but when I made the plans it made all the sense in the world.

We were barely there for thirty hours, tops, and it really was a ton of fun—for the most part. But something odd happened just before dawn. I woke up in Oliver’s hotel bed with the need to take a leak. I rolled my head on the pillow to face the two men I’d spent the night with and when my eyes came into focus, what I saw ripped at something inside my chest. They were wrapped up so tightly in each other, with arms and legs ribboned together like comfortable shoelaces. It was as if even being separated by so much as one inch was too great a distance for them to bear. I studied their slumbering forms, so perfectly woven, and wondered where I fit into this with them. They were on one side of the big bed sharing a pillow, while I was on the opposite side alone on my own.

It was a stupid reaction to have, and a weird detail for me focus on, considering what the three of us had done in this very bed over the last however many hours. After the things we did together I guess I expected the three of us would be twined much like they were but sometime during the night they’d found each other to cling to—and not me.

Was I jealous? I didn’t think so, because we’d all hooked up in two-way combinations before and one other time it was as a threesome, but none of us had had a problem. With our schedules as busy as they were, it was difficult to get us free at the same time to be a throuple. Besides that, it was nice to be able to get to know each other by occasionally doing one-on-one dates. For me, we felt more complete as a triad, since we each brought something unique to the relationship. I’d like to think I brought the ingredients to solidify us together, like glue, but apparently I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. If I was succeeding I wouldn’t be waking up feeling utterly alone in a bed with two other people.

Honestly, the first crack in my triad fantasy came when I arrived in San Francisco at Oliver’s hotel room to find Sebastian already there—and it appeared he’d been there for hours, if not days, before I got into town. It was almost like they’d planned a separate and more private meet-up without me. I say that because when they answered the door it looked like I’d pulled them out of bed—and not because they’d been napping.

Like I said, I knew we weren’t exclusively a throuple. We were free to see other people, although we hadn’t had that particular conversation yet. Judging by the feeling I had rolling in my gut after seeing them together, it was clear we needed to talk about this situation before things totally went south.

I sure as fuck wasn’t new to the dynamic of threesomes, so I was pretty sure what I was feeling wasn’t the green-eyed monster . I had nothing to envy since the three of us had incredible chemistry. I’m not debating that, and fucking them both had been amazing. Until I saw them this morning on the other side of the bed nestled like they shared the same beating heart. But pinpointing the name of the emotion clogging my throat still eluded me. I just felt kind of empty, like the hours that led up to this moment weren’t as special as I’d thought they’d be. It was like having a bucket of cold water poured over my head—one of the harshest kind of wake-up calls.

So, I made the only adult-like decision I could think of which was to leave them sleeping in the room as a twosome and move on. It was obvious the three-way thing between us wasn’t going to work. Certainly not like the throuple relationship I had envisioned. It wasn’t anything one of them said or did, it was something churning in my gut, like a warning bell.

I rolled out of the bed slowly, so as not to disturb Oliver and Sebastian from slumber, and grabbed my clothes and backpack from the floor. Then I quietly slipped into the bathroom to shower and dress before I sent a text message to Griffin.

Me: Are you up?

I managed to dress and walk out to the living room of Oliver’s suite before Griffin finally responded to my text.

Griffin: I think the better question is, why are you up?

I scratched my head while I contemplated my answer.

Me: I’m restless. Feel like hanging out or maybe getting some breakfast?

Griffin: Shouldn’t you be getting ready to pound out round three or four with your boys?

Me: Nah, they’re still sleeping and I need to get out of this room. Can I come to yours or are you with someone?

Griffin: I’m on duty, which means I am alone. Story of my life. Room 554.

Me: A life you chose. Remind yourself of that.

Griffin: I do, every single day.

Me: I’m on my way.

I found Griffin’s room and knocked on the door. It swung open quickly and I was greeted with a shirtless Griffin wearing only a pair of loose pajama pants that were barely clinging to his narrow hips and bed-hair that looked like a dozen people all took turns tugging on it. I’d never seen Griffin half-dressed like this and it was a sight to behold. He had miles of sun-kissed skin with the perfect amount of dark hair dusting his chest and stomach that disappeared behind the waistband of his pajamas. I also noticed a few inked designs scattered over his chest and arms that I’d never noticed before now. My gaze dropped lower and that’s when I noticed the thick outline of Griffin’s cock, ever-so-slightly expanding the front of his unimaginably thin pajama pants .

And just like that, my fantasies with Griffin having a starring role were back at the forefront of my brain.

Fully dressed he was smoking hot but almost naked like he was now? My gaze raked over his body like it was my job and my cock was half-hard in an instant. Between his ridiculously corded muscles that seemed to wrap around and over impressively broad shoulders, washboard stomach, and his sinfully tight hips, I was teetering on the brink of insanity. But seeing Griffin like this, first thing in the morning, knowing he was fresh from bed and standing so close I could smell the intricate layers of his natural, manly scent, well…it stirred something inside of me.

I thought I’d worked through the “Griffin situation” in my feeble mind and accepted the fact he wasn’t an option for me, but apparently I still had some unresolved…desire for him. Who was I kidding? He is still a constant visitor to my jerk sessions in a number of ways—and positions.

Besides, Griffin and I were good friends. Did I really want to risk ruining that for a quick one-and-done? No, because I was really coming to depend on him being a positive force in my life. Griffin kept me grounded and calm when my head wanted to spiral out of control and other than Fletch, no one else in my life had been able to do that for me. My conversations with Griffin flowed easily and I was completely comfortable confiding in him. Maybe it was the fact Griffin was a few years older than me, almost like a big brother, and that’s what made me feel calm and settled when he was near me. Who knew, but I loved being around him—especially when it was just him and I hanging at our band house .

In actuality, Dagger owned our house, a fairly non-descriptive place in North Hollywood with four bedrooms, a fireplace and sunken living room, and a fenced-in private backyard. I’m pretty sure it was built in the 1970s and I’d been told the structure resembled the Brady Bunch house, where the television show was filmed. I didn’t know a lot about the show, since it was before my time, but I loved the fact we could all live under the same roof like a family. Unlike our old living arrangements, with me and Fletcher sharing a dilapidated apartment in an old Victorian house. Potter was just about couch-surfing at friend’s houses, while Dixon rented a room downtown barely big enough to fit a twin-sized bed. All in all, this place was a palace compared to where we came from and we loved having all this time together—more or less. We occasionally fought and rough-housed like brothers do, but for the most part we loved living together.

But Griffin, he and I just clicked. Even when we couldn’t be in the same room we were still connected through text messages. Back and forth all day we’d send silly thoughts or memes because we thought it would make the other laugh. He was so much more than my guard now, and I guess glossing it over hadn’t hidden that fact. No matter how hard I tried, I always seemed to find my way to him, like a moth to a flame.

And that’s why I was standing outside Griffin’s hotel door at the ass-crack of dawn, knowing that he’d let me in and settle my restless soul once again. Watching him swing the door open lifted an enormous weight from my shoulders and it was like I could suddenly breathe again. The relief I felt at seeing him made my heart stutter for a few beats. I schooled my emotions and immediately made light of what seeing him did to me.

“Wow, Griff. I had no idea you were packing so many layers of muscle under your work shirts,” I commented. I followed my remark with an awkward chuckle that sounded like it came from the mouth of a psychopath. Griffin gave me a sleepy smile that I felt all the way to my toes before he stepped aside to let me into his room. He locked the door behind me and rubbed at the longer hair on top of his head.

“This is what you get when you wake me up at the butt hole of dawn,” he said. “You’re lucky I was able to quickly find a pair of pajama pants to pull on, otherwise you would have gotten the full Monty instead of this.”

I tilted my head to the side a bit in curiosity. The full Monty he was describing sounded pretty fucking sweet to me. But then my brain stumbled over another detail he’d let slip. He had to look for something to wear which meant…

He slept naked.

Griffin had inadvertently planted a whole new visual for me to obsess over during future spank sessions. I should still be fully blissed-out from last night’s three-way, but apparently, I wasn’t satiated—at least not enough, because Griffin was suddenly looking like a breakfast buffet.

“Pick your tongue off the floor and I’ll go put on some real pants and a shirt,” Griffin said before he shuffled into the adjoining bedroom to get dressed .

His comment had me wondering if he’d known all along how much time I spent thinking about him. Fuck, my jumbled thoughts were leaping all over the place and there was no justification for it. I needed to sort out the situation with Oliver and Sebastian. That’s why I wanted to talk with Griffin this early in the morning in the first place.

I stood waiting in the small living room when Griffin came back dressed. This time the only skin on display were his forearms and bare feet and my face morphed into disappointment. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt but hadn’t bothered with socks or shoes. He sat in the same wide, pillowy chair to my left and got comfortable before he finally glanced my way.

“Okay, so like I said earlier, shouldn’t you be waking up pressed between two men this morning?” he asked, scratching the beard scruff along his jawline.

I sat on the couch instead of answering Griffin. I wasn’t quite sure how to start the conversation I wanted to have or exactly what I wanted to say. Countless words kept spinning around inside my head with not one of them managing to slip through my lips. But Griffin had already detected something was off about me and knew just how to get to the root of my problem.

“Are you in trouble?” he asked, his body seeming to go rigid as if suddenly on alert. “How bad are we talking? Is it, I-need-to-call-my-boss kind of bad—or hide-a-body-for-you kind of bad? ”

“Hide a body for me?” I asked incredulously. “Jesus, you’ve been watching far too many crime shows.” I shook my head and then smiled at him. “Holy shit. Would you actually hide a body for me?”

“It was a figure of speech,” Griffin said and chuckled.

I watched him relax into his seat again and nodded before scrubbing a hand over my face. Then I cleared my throat and said, “I’m not sure where to begin.”

“How about you start by telling me what went wrong last night?” Griffin questioned.

“It wasn’t so much what went wrong,” I said. “It was more about what was… missing .”

“What do you mean, missing?” Griffin asked. “You literally had two of everything to play with. How could anything be missing from that scenario?”

I was about to answer him but Griffin held up his hand to stop me. “Wait. Judging by your body language, I’m thinking this is going to be a serious conversation and we’re both going to need coffee for that. Let me order a gallon of that. I’ll also get us some food and have DoorDash deliver it to the room.”

Griffin went back to his bedroom to use his cell phone to order but he wasn’t gone long. I remained seated where I was on the couch still trying to get my head on straight. When he returned to the living room his hair was neatly combed and he smelled like toothpaste and a hint of lavender, vanilla, and sandalwood. I wasn’t sure if the scent was from aftershave, cologne, or bodywash but I liked it—a lot. I liked the way it wrapped around me like a hug. The aroma was familiar and intriguing which I’d come to associate with Griffin. The fragrance was also tempting and made me want to lick it off his skin.

“I’m ready. Hit me with it. What the hell happened”? he questioned.

“How much do you want to hear?” I questioned.

“Well, you probably don’t need to give me the gory details, since I have the general choreography of what played out already in my head,” he said and twisted his face up in mock disgust, like the mere idea of what went down in Oliver’s room was somehow disturbing. “Maybe just give me the highlight reel to explain what’s got you in a funk on a morning any other man would be grinning from ear to ear.”

“Have you ever had a threesome?” I boldly asked Griffin. This was a big moment for us because I didn’t ask him personal questions like this. I steered away from it at every opportunity because of the way I felt about him. The less personal shit I knew, the better. It was the only way I knew to protect myself from being hurt. Maybe I was crossing a line with this question or maybe this was just a way to deepen our growing friendship. Either way, his answer would give me a glimpse into how he felt about me invading his privacy.

Griffin’s expression filtered through several emotions in the time it took me to take a breath. First came a look of shocked dismay and then a quick flash of suspicion. Then he seemed to rein in his feelings and released an awkward sounding chuckle before sliding farther into the back of the plush chair. “Yes, I’ve been fortunate to experience one or two in the past,” he finally said .

“Can I ask what the combination was?” I asked. “Two girls, two guys, one of each?”

“A girl and a guy, every time,” Griffin answered. “Why does the combo matter?”

“Were you with both of them?” I pushed again. The phrase ‘go big or go home’ zipped through my brain. I very well could be pushing Griffin too far with what probably felt like an interrogation to him but these were things I really wanted to know.

In all the time I’d known Griffin we’d had many long conversations about life, work, families, and everything in between, and Griffin had done a fair amount of sharing about himself. But, in all our talks, Griffin had never mentioned current or past relationships, hook-ups, or confirmed his sexuality. I had no idea which way he went and I was definitely curious to know, although it really wasn’t any of my business. I also knew I had no real reason to have this information and Griffin was under no obligation to share his private life with me. All that being said, I still wanted to know where Griffin stood on the fluid scale of sexuality.

He might be a skilled security guard hired to watch my back and keep me safe from people and situations that could cause me harm. But in this moment, it felt like I was talking to Griffin my friend—not Griffin the protector. But his hesitation to answer my invasive question had me wanting to backtrack and let him off the hook. I was about to say something to change the subject to a safer topic when he started talking instead.

“What are you really asking, Mike?” Griffin asked in a softer tone than he’d used just a few moments ago. His steely, all-knowing gaze gripped mine and I felt laid bare. “Are you trying to figure out how I identify? Is that it?”

“I mean, you don’t talk about anyone and I’ve never once seen you with a date, a hook-up, or even so much as a friend—besides me. And I do hope you consider me a friend. After all this time of basically being conjoined twins, I guess I’m curious about you. That’s all, but if you’d rather not tell me I’m cool with that, too.”

“You know, it’s been said that curiosity is what killed the cat,” Griffin teased with a half-grin.

“That’s hilarious, Sir Laughs-a-lot,” I scoffed in mock indignation.

A knock at Griffin’s door forced us to pause our discussion. I knew it was likely the food delivery guy and waited patiently while Griffin answered the door. A moment later, Griffin returned with a bag of food and a tray holding two large coffees. He brought everything back to the oval table in front of the furniture and I helped him spread it out over the surface. Once I had a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich in my hand and a coffee cooling for me to sip, I dug into my breakfast.

We ate in silence for a moment before Griffin finally cleared his throat to talk, “I’m bi.”

I did my best to school my surprise but I’m not sure I accomplished it. “Bi like me,” I simply replied with a subtle shrug of one shoulder.

I continued to eat as if what he’d shared with me didn’t change things on some molecular level inside my head. It’s not like this new information would change our situation. The issues that came along with us becoming involved still remained, regardless of his sexuality. He still worked for me and in the eyes of the private security company who employed him, us being together was likely a big fucking problem. In no way did I want to mess with his employment status because I knew how much Griffin loved his job.

“Yes, just like you, Mike, although without the messy, Olympic-level sex marathons you fall into, and the ultra-obvious love bite souvenirs you go home with every few days,” Griffin chuckled.

“That’s not true and you know it,” I argued companionably. “You know exactly how often I get laid because you’re practically there in the room when it happens.”

“If I were in the room…never mind,” Griffin began to say and then shut himself down.

“What? If you were in the room…finish your damn thought, Griff.”

“No, I won’t because it doesn’t matter,” he explained. “You and I both know I’ll never be in the room while you’re…doing whatever you do when hooking up with a rando.”

His words came out in a nervous rush which made me laugh a bit because this topic of conversation had obviously rattled my big, bad-ass security guard. The hint of pink I saw heating his cheeks also gave him an air of innocence that dramatically contradicted his natural rough exterior. I had to say, I liked the two extremes of Griffin he was showing me right now. This softer side warmed my core and I was worried about that. My feelings for Griffin were ebbing beyond a crush and if I wasn’t careful, I could possibly lose having him in my life all together.

“Hmmm, so that’s how you’re going to play this,” I commented then took another sip of my coffee.

“Yep, so finish eating. We’ve got enough time left before our flight for me to take you to Fisherman’s Wharf,” he detailed. “We can walk around Pier 39 for a while before we head to the airport.”

And just like that, Griffin was done talking about himself. He grabbed his breakfast trash and carried it to the canister in the kitchenette of the suite while I remained seated on the couch and watched his delectable retreating form.

Yeah, I was definitely in trouble where Griffin was concerned. No doubt about it.