We Have Till Dawn

I smiled like the love-sick idiot I was. “It’s a date.”

He flashed me a quick smile in return but was full steam ahead mentally and had already moved on to the next topic. It was easily noticeable when he forgot to react to something.

“I’ve also been looking at real estate in Brooklyn,” he said frankly. “Your brother chose well. Park Slope is lovely and has great schools.”

He didn’t understand the magnitude of what he was saying. To me, it was the most reassuring thing in the world. This was legit. He was serious about us. And Brooklyn? Fuck me twice, just that he was considering living there… I had no words for it. He could pick whatever neighborhood he wanted.

“You realize Park Slope has nothing I can afford, right?” I had to throw that out there.

He furrowed his brow and wiped his hand on a tissue. “I do realize that. It’s on my list of things I’d like to have a veto on. Or rather, things I’d like to be in charge of completely.”

This oughta be good…

“How long is this list?”

“Only three items, so far,” he assured. “One, I don’t want any money talk. The life you’re giving me—and the life I want us to give each other—can’t be quantified and price-tagged. I’d rather we toss all our strengths and weaknesses, assets and so on, and just mix it all together and call it ours.” He paused and leveled me with a serious look. All while holding a lubed-up dildo in his hand. “I genuinely believe this will cause the least amount of arguments.”

There would be some arguments about it, ’cause two months weren’t enough to build a foundation on, in which I suddenly possessed half of his wealth. Life didn’t work that way.

“We can negotiate the terms,” I bargained, “but you can decide where we live when that day comes.”

“I’d really prefer if you just agreed with me.”

I let out a loud laugh and scratched my stomach. “I’m sure you would, papito. But that’s not why you’re dating me. As much as it’ll frustrate you, you know I’ll do the right thing and slow us down a little so we can enjoy dating properly, meeting up frequently and fucking our way through our most intense honeymoon phase, spoiling each other rotten with thoughtful little gifts, and texting too much how we miss each other when we’re at work. No one’s getting unnecessarily overwhelmed on my watch.”

He opened his mouth to respond, only to close it again and smile softly. “I like that vision.”

“So do I.” I extended a hand to him, wanting him close, wanting…fuck. Everything. I had to let him know that I was serious too. Taking things slowly in the beginning was good, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want everything he’d talked about, including a home together and a good school district. “Come kiss me.”

He grinned and crawled over to me, and I pushed myself up on my elbows and met him in a deep, languid kiss.

I didn’t even know where he’d gotten the chocolate from this time, but he definitely tasted of it.

“I love you, Gideon.”

He broke away from the kiss and flicked his gaze to meet mine.

I stroked his cheek.

“Are you certain?” he asked.

I chuckled. “I’ve never been more sure.”

He kissed me again, harder this time, and it wasn’t an awesome kiss, because he couldn’t keep from smiling, which sort of made it the perfect kiss instead.

“I love you too,” he said and backed away. “I didn’t think you were there yet, but it’s on the list.” He reached for the nightstand and plopped down on his stomach, dildo still in hand, and he flipped through the pages of the notepad. “Now I can cross it off. That’s always satisfying.”

I rubbed a hand over my mouth and tried to withhold the laughter, but I fucking couldn’t. He was too much sometimes, in the best ways; there was an innocence in his behavior that I loved more than anything. It was reassuring and comforting, to be honest. He wasn’t the kind of man to play games or have hidden agendas.

But yeah, I’d totally lost my hard-on.

“Hon, I think we’re gonna have to get dirty another time.” I smirked and smacked him on his ass.

“Nonsense. I’ll get you hard in a minute,” he said dismissively, returning the notepad to the nightstand. “You just need some Daddy-time and a big cock.”

I sucked in a breath.

Okay, that would work.A few weeks laterI took a sip of my coffee and threw a cursory glance at Gideon’s phone, and I couldn’t believe it. I almost choked on my beverage.

“How the fuck have you passed me already?” I asked incredulously.

He raised a brow but never actually looked away from his screen. “Presumably because I’m better at this game than you are. It’s very easy.”