“I need time to regroup. As long as we have this love, I’ll always chase you and come back for you, but it still costs something. Everything has a price, Ethan. Everything. We both have seen that in action.”
Oh, he was aware.
Coming back here had a price too, and Ethan could feel it. Instead of telling him that, he rested his forehead against Gene’s.
“I’ll pay the price,” he admitted. “Because you’re worth it, Gene. Please know that you’re worth so much in this world. Know that I don’t deserve a man like you, but I’m grateful I’ve been given him. I am hearing how you felt, and I’m sorry that I made you experience it.”
He held him.
“Just give me time to trust again. I don’t know if I’ll be the same man I was. For a whole day, I lost my soulmate. It changed me. I don’t know if I can just slip back into submissive Gene again. When something threatens what is mine, I get feral. I never expected this.”
Ethan understood.
Honestly, after being abducted by David Neives, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to be dominant again. They might just have to run with this new thing, and see what happened.
“We’ll work through it together,” he admitted. “I should have trusted you. I should have stayed where I was or gone to our home instead in DC. I should have waited for you. I’m learning how to do this too. Coming back here…”
Gene let him talk.
By allowing Ethan the opportunity to explain himself, it was giving Gene the ability to calm down over this whole situation. They balanced each other, whether Ethan knew that or not.
“It’s not easy.”
Gene knew what Timothy told him.
“I know, Baby. Trust me, I know. We’ll be okay. I know it to my soul.”
He was glad someone knew because Ethan truly believed that Gene wasn’t going to find him. It was clear that his man loved him.
“Thank you,” he said, cuddling against him.
As Gene held him, he left kisses on Ethan’s neck, as he was still wearing the rosary.
Yeah, it wasn’t coming off.
Not until he replaced it.
“There’s no need to thank me. I know if I lost my goddamn mind and ran for it, you’d come after me.”
Thankfully, Ethan knew that would never happen.
EVER.
He couldn’t picture a day when Gene turned and walked away. Then again, he was difficult to love, so that might happen. If it did, there was no doubt that fear would likely paralyze him in place.
Ethan was curious.
“Are we really going to dinner at my grandfather’s?” he asked.
He nodded.
“Yes.”
Ethan knew that he had to be upfront with Gene about what went down. He owed that to his man.
This might be his kink, but it might not be Gene’s.
“My brother just watched us have sex. As you were being bossy, I saw a shadow in the window. He was likely coming home after work.”
