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It was trust I would never take for granted.
CHAPTER 8
Noah
It was a rough morning. After our dinner at Theo and Thomas’s house, I hadn’t been able to sleep worth a wink once we got back to Danny’s apartment. Danny had finally succumbed to his own exhaustion around three A.M., but I’d just laid awake in his arms all night until the sun began to rise over the city. By that point, I knew sleep wasn’t coming, and I slipped out of bed, started coffee, and took a quick shower before getting ready for our day.
I knew Danny was concerned about me, but he also knew I would just play it off. Hence why he was currently watching me like a hawk as I juggled Thomas’s coffee in one hand and a stack of paperwork in my arms that the head of the finance department had pawned off on me instead of bringing it up to Thomas himself, like he was told to do. And I was too nice of a human being to tell the man to do his job himself.
“Do you need—” Danny started, rising out of his chair.
I screeched when I tripped, the scalding hot coffee spilling all over my white shirt and burning my chest. I dropped everything in my arms, tears springing to my eyes from the stinging pain. Danny was rushing away from his desk immediately, and both Thomas’s and Theo’s doors were flung open, both men rushing out to see what happened.
And I lost it. The finance guy being lazy and spilling hot coffee all over myself, as well as ruining my shirt on top of no sleep was just too much.
Tears slid down my cheeks, and before Danny could even begin to console me, Thomas swept me up into his arms and cradled me against his big, broad chest. Danny rushed in after us, Theo hot on his heels. I swiped at my cheeks as Thomas gently set me on his desk. Immediately after, his fingers made quick work of my white button-down before he pushed it off my shoulders.
“Here,” Theo said, opening up a first aid kit beside me.
I hiccupped just as Danny began running his fingers through my hair, doing his best to soothe me. I sucked in a sharp breath when Thomas began to gently rub cooling ointment over my hot, red skin. He looked up at me from beneath his lashes. “I’m sorry, baby boy. I’m not trying to hurt you.”
I shook my head, a blush staining my cheeks. I hadn’t gasped because it hurt. Thomas was touching me. “It wasn’t…”
Thomas grinned at me, catching my meaning, and my cheeks only darkened even more. Danny brushed a kiss to my cheek, and I turned my head to look at him. He sighed, brushing a thumb under my eye, a frown tugging at his lips. “Did you sleep at all last night?”
I ducked my gaze from his and shook my head. He tightened his fingers in my hair and gently tugged my head back so I was looking at him again. “You need to sleep, Noah. You know you’re clumsier when you’re tired.”
“Why didn’t you sleep?” Theo asked as Thomas wiped his fingers of the ointment before packing the first-aid kit back up.
“My mind was running a mile a minute,” I mumbled, unable to look at him.
“Raise your eyes, Noah baby,” Thomas gently ordered. Instantly, as if my brain was hard-wired to obey him, I raised my eyes to his. “Good boy,” he praised. Tingles erupted along my skin. I was such a praise slut. He cupped my chin. “One, you will take a nap today on my couch. Understand?” I nodded instantly. “Two, why did you have all those papers when I only sent you for coffee?”
I swallowed thickly, not wanting to get someone else in trouble, but I also knew Thomas expected full honesty from me.
“The head of finance, Mark, gave me those papers to bring to you to save himself the trip,” I quietly explained.
Thomas clenched his jaw before releasing my chin and walking to his phone, pressing a couple of buttons. I cringed. I really didn’t want to get someone else in trouble. “Yes, sir?” Mark asked. “How are you today?”
“I was great until my assistant spilled coffee all over himself because he was tasked with something you are supposed to do,” Thomas growled.
Silence rang on the other end of the line for a moment before Mark stiffly cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean?—”
“It is not Noah’s job to bring me your paperwork and files, is it, Mark?” Thomas asked, cutting the other man off.
“No, sir, it’s not,” Mark said, sounding properly chastised. Danny rubbed the back of my neck, loosening my tense muscles. He could always sense when I was distressed. It was like we were hard-wired to each other.
“Since you decided a moment of laziness was worth this mess,” Thomas scolded, “you can reprint all of those papers and bring them to me before lunch since they were ruined by coffee.”
With that, Thomas cut the call off. Danny’s desk phone started ringing, and he sighed. After pressing a quick kiss to my lips, he slipped out of Thomas’s office, and I heard him answer his phone a few moments later. Theo pushed my dark hair back from my face before pressing a kiss to my brow.
My cheeks flushed, and my cock hardened. Fuck, it was a simple brush of his lips to my face. Why did these men make my body react like this?
“Get some rest, boy, you hear me?”
“I will,” I assured him.
He pressed a tender kiss to the corner of my lips, and embarrassed squeak crawled up my throat. He chuckled and brushed his thumb over my cheek before slipping out of Thomas’s office as well, shutting the door behind him. Thomas scooped me off the desk like I weighed nothing more than a piece of paper. I wound my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, clinging to him, my chest cooled from the ointment he put on me.
