I looked up toward the land side of the beach to see Dominic walking toward me.

“Why ?!” I whispered yelled to the sky above.

“You crying?” He asked with a condescending tone.

“I really don’t want to talk to you right now.” I turned back the direction I’d come and continued walking. But of course he followed behind me because why wouldn’t he?

“What’s the matter? You and that trollop already call it quits?” Hearing him insult Vincent like that angered me beyond reason.

“Do you have any room to be calling my boyfriend a trollop when you’re the one who tried to call me this morning to pick you up when you were stranded by your one night stand?” I snapped back without stopping to look at him.

“Hey. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. And until you’re ready to be with me again, I have to get my rocks off with shitty lays.” He replied like that was supposed to be any sort of decent reasoning for his own sluttiness.

“I seriously don’t understand you! What on earth gives you the idea I would ever come back to you?! How many times do I have to say, ‘I can’t stand you’ until it gets through your thick skull?” I shouted at him.

“Awe, don’t be like that. You know you miss my tight ass.” He chuckled indifferently.

I gave an unbecoming snort of a laugh, “How could your ass possibly be tight when you constantly let every guy you meet fuck it? You’ve probably got the loosest hole in all of Monterey.”

“Why do you always say such hurtful things to me?” Dominic sounded genuinely hurt.

“Because. I. Can’t. Stand. You.” I said each word as clearly and slowly as I could.

“God Roy. Ever since you met Vincent, you’ve been literally the meanest man I’ve ever met.”

“Not true. I was wholly dedicated to our relationship even after meeting him. It was when I found out that you were spreading your legs for any man who asked for a taste of you, that I started hating you.” I whipped around to shout in his face, “You have absolutely NO respect for anyone. You treated our relationship like it was just a fucking game. I wanted to trust you, Dominic. At the time, you were someone I thought I could be happy with, and I thought you were the one I wanted to love. And you went a betrayed my trust with every fucking man you met. You have no fucking idea what I’ve been through in my life, you don’t know one god damn thing about me. Because all you ever care about is yourself! I needed to be able to trust someone again. You have no idea what your betrayal did to me! I can’t fucking stand you because I’m standing here, shouting at you about the pain, and hate you filled me with, and all you fucking care about is that I said something mean to you and hurt YOUR feelings.” I ranted on. The look in his eyes was fear. I’d never been this angry with him before. Ever. His eye’s darted past me over my shoulder, then back to my face and then he smirked like he didn’t hear a single word I’d just shouted at him.

He reach out toward me and cradled my cheek in his hand, “I –” He started, but he was cut off quickly by a smack across the face from an unexpected third party. Or at least, he was unexpected to me. I could guess the reason Dominic touched me was because he saw who was approaching from behind me.

“Kneel, sweet boy.” Vincent’s voice demanded as he turned he full attention on me. Despite our minor spat earlier, I obeyed without hesitation, kneeling in the sand away from the waves so I wouldn’t get wet. “That’s enough shouting out of you now. Does is feel better to get some of that off your chest?” He asked, looking down at me and ignoring Dominic’s presence.

“A little bit, yes.” I answered, looking back at him.

“May I speak freely to him about a few things? I won’t divulge any of the darker details.” He asked me. The idea of Dominic knowing anything about me angered me, but I knew I needed to trust that Vincent knew what he was doing… So maybe I could start now.

“Yes, Master.” I answered with a slight fear spreading through my chest.

“See, Dominic. The thing you don’t understand about Roy is that before he was a dom-top, he was a sub-bottom. Markus was actually the one who trained him in the beginning.” He started. Dominic rolled his eyes in disbelief, “Oh what? You don’t believe me? Call the Old Man. Ask him yourself. Go on. I’ll wait.” Vincent gave a devilish grin.

“Fine.” Dominic growl, pulling out his phone. “Hey Old Man. I have a question. I’m with Vincent and Roy and –“ he stopped talking abruptly to listen to whatever it was Markus was saying. “Seriously?! How have I never known that?” Dominic raised his voice just shy of what I would consider shouting. He went silent again as he listened to whatever it was Markus was saying to him. The look on his face told me it wasn’t anything kind.

“Is that the reason he acts like such an asshole now though?” Dominic asked, lowering his voice significantly.

Vincent snatched the phone out of Dominic’s hand, “Hey Old Man, I’ve got that much covered. Roy doesn’t want him knowing the details, so please don’t ever answer that question.” Vincent said in a polite tone, then hung up the phone. I smiled to myself because that was the first time that I’d ever heard Vincent speak with actual kindness toward Markus.

“My god. The suspense is killing me. So fucking tell me already!” Dominic shouted in aggravation.

“I don’t really think you deserve to know. Let’s leave it at he’s got PTSD from a certain life event that you know nothing about because you never cared enough about him to ask, and you only made it worse when you couldn’t keep your legs shut.”

“Yeah right. What on earth could give him, of all people, PTSD?” Dominic laughed it off like it was a joke. See that right there is why I can’t stand him. Vincent is telling him I have a trauma and he’s laughing it off like it’s nothing!

I gently grabbed at the hem of Vincent’s shirt to get his attention, “What’s the point of explaining any of it to him? I don’t really care for him knowing my personal shit, and he probably wouldn’t believe us anyway. Let’s just go.” I said.

“One last thing. Roy stand up and take your shirt off.” Vincent ordered. I did, not understanding why he’d make me strip any article of clothing in front of Dominic. “Face me, sweet boy.” He said gently.

“You guys are annoying. What are you even doing?” Dominic groaned.

“Hey, you self-centered hussy,” Vincent snapped, “why don’t you use your eyes instead of your fucking trap for once in your life!” He shouted.

“What are you –” I felt Vincent’s hand trace the scars that were peeking out through my shorts. He played with the waist band of my shorts, teasing the idea of folding down the waist band. I instinctively flinched away from his hand giving him an apologetic glance. He gave a gentle smile in return.

“To stunned for words? Let me guess, even though you two dated, you never thought to look at his back? Or while you’re at work together, you’ve never seen his back then? Come on Dom, you can’t tell me you were THAT self-absorbed, were you?!” Vincent teased him in a patronizing, fake-shock-like way.

“There’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed that! You couldn’t have had that when we were together, I would have seen it!” Dominic sounded genuinely shocked.

“It happened almost a decade ago. Before he became a dominant top. Before he met you.” Vincent answered in a very stern tone. Vincent asked me to put my shirt back on before addressing Dominic again.

“By the way, why are you even here with him anyway? How’d you know he was out here?”

 I hadn’t even though about that. Dominic always had a knack for showing up randomly, and I had never had the mind to think about that.

“It was just a coincidence.” Dominic answered in a very suspiciously unconvincing way.

“No seriously. How is it that you always seem to know where my boyfriend is at any given moment, huh?” Vincent clearly didn’t believe him either.

“I guess my heart just knows where his daddy is all the time.” Dominic shrugged smirking at Vincent.

“He is not your daddy.” Vincent barked back.

“Nor have I ever been. I want to say you should know I’ve never had any desire to be a daddy, but how would someone like you ever know that?” I snapped back.

“Could you guys please stop calling me selfish! I get it already, you think I only care about myself. But I don’t.” Dominic snapped angerly.

“We don’t think you are selfish, we know you are. I mean come on, you had no idea Roy’s back looked like that until now! Dominic you seriously need help. You’re a fucking stalker and it’s unnerving. Get it through your head already, ROY DOESN’T WANT YOU! So please, for the sake of his sanity, just back the fuck off already!” Vincent shouted. I don’t know about anyone else, but to me, when a cute shortie like Vincent gets explosive anger, he suddenly becomes like ten feet tall. Dominic stepped back in shock from Vincent’s loud voice. I guess he’d never seen Vincent this angry either. I think Dominic and I were both just too stunned to speak now.

“Let’s go, Roy. Now.” Vincent demanded in an aggressive way. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him.

----

A/N: Well that was dramatic... but the drama does not end there...