“When you’re all out of them.” I rubbed the lotion over a couple thicker welts near his spine.
It all felt so fucking wrong. We couldn’t protect him if he was in goddamn Denver.
Now I missed Archie. I needed to vent and be comforted by his presence, his warmth, his commitment to me.
I was home at three in the morning. Thankfully, I’d showered in Mclean before driving home, so I spent a couple minutes with the dogs, let them out in the yard—because I was going to sleep in tomorrow—and then I headed straight to my bedroom, where I found Archie fast asleep.
I’d lost steam the past couple of hours, so the venting would have to wait.
After shedding my clothes, I crawled under the duvet and plastered myself to his soft, warm body. I squeezed him to me, kissed his shoulder, and felt him stir.
“You’re home, Owner,” he whispered groggily.
I hummed and breathed him in. “I missed you tonight. It’s the last major event I attend without you.”
If we couldn’t get a babysitter, I’d stay home too. Smaller events, fine. Or, actually—no, fuck that. If we couldn’t find a babysitter, at least I wanted Archie and Kyla in my cabin. With the door closed, it was basically another world from the rest of the property in Mclean. Nobody had to know, and Kyla was too young to know where the hell she was. My cabin might as well be out in the woods or in some touristy summer town somewhere. Nothing about it screamed “We’re into whips and chains here.”
Archie turned in my embrace and kissed me softly. “I signed us up for the next munch. Sloan too—I texted him. He said he was free that Sunday.”
That was something to look forward to. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d arrived with someone else.
“Good.” I nuzzled our noses together and slipped a hand down to his ass. “What else did you do tonight?”
He smiled against my lips. “I looked up day care centers in Winchester.”
God, he made me so goddamn happy. We were really doing this. I could fucking burst—and I had to echo my previous thought. “You don’t know how happy you make me, pet.”
He stretched out lazily, then rolled on top of me and smiled down at me in the darkness. “If it’s half as happy as you make me…”
I drew a long breath and just gazed up at him.
It was a heavy feeling, an absurd inner conflict, to have a heart rushing into love while the brain went, yeah, slow your roll, buddy. But it was a wild ride I was going to enjoy, nonetheless.
CHAPTER 13
By the time I got off work on Tuesday, I was so ready for Sloan and the kids to move in to my house that I contemplated showing up on our date with handcuffs and chloroform to make sure they couldn’t escape.
The kids had their excuse; they were spending the week with Carol, but Sloan was coming with us tonight, end of fucking story.
Contrary to how I’d steamrolled over Archie and Sloan to move in with me, I’d played it cool with my family. They knew I was dating Archie, thanks to the relationship status changing on Facebook, but that was it. They didn’t know he was days away from changing his address, and I hadn’t given them the satisfaction yet of being right about Sloan and me. And at this point, it was safe to say they were dead on the money. Fear of losing him had buried a shit-ton of feelings that were roaring to the surface now, and I didn’t wanna spend another night without him.
I took a shower at work before changing into a pair of nice slacks and a fitted button-down. I was tucking the shirt into my pants when my brother walked into the changing room.
He let out a low whistle and opened his locker. “Someone’s got a date. That why you worked overtime?”
Yeah, I wasn’t gonna head home and then drive toward the city again to make it to our eight-o’clock reservation.
“Damn right.” I grinned faintly and folded up my sleeves. I’d brought my nice leather shoes and belt and everything. “Do you still talk to Ma on your way home from work?”
He nodded and lifted a brow in question.
“Good. Feel free to tell her my date’s with both Archie and Sloan.” I figured that would give her twelve hours to get through her initial reaction before I spoke to her in the morning.
“Get the fuck out,” Ben laughed. “You and Sloan? They’re gonna be smug for years to come, bro.”
Didn’t I fucking know it.
He was thoroughly amused. “I guess it makes sense. You always were slow on the uptake when it came to relationships.”
“Excuse me?” The fuck did he mean by that? I sat down on the bench to put on my socks and shoes.