“Taxi.” He sighed. “Not good to drive drunk, but I didn’t have my phone. Somehow, I remembered your address, though. Don’t ask me how.”
I laughed softy. “Well, I’m glad you remembered it.”
“And I’m proud of you for remembering not to drive drunk,chibi,” Kip praised as he leaned back against the kitchen counter. He crossed his arms over his broad chest, watching us. “Maybe we can reward you for that tomorrow when you’re sober and rested.”
Corvus opened his eyes, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “A reward?”
Kip smiled. “Mm-hmm. A reward,chibi.”
Corvus made a small noise in the back of his throat then tucked his face against my shoulder shyly, surprising me. He was so goddamn perfect. I just wanted to wrap him up in a weighted blanket and cuddle him all fucking day and night long, just to keep him this sweet and needy.
“Someone likes the sound of that,” I murmured.
Corvus just made a small noise again then tentatively wrapped his arms around my waist. When I didn’t say anything, just continued holding him, he relaxed completely, sinking into me and allowing me to really take care of him like I wanted.
I looked up at Kip. His eyes were soft and warm, and a small smile played on his lips. And I knew right then he was right, as usual. Corvus had come to us. We would take care of him andkeep him safe. And then, we’d figure out who put him into such a state and handle them accordingly.
Chapter Eleven
Corvus
I snuggled closer to the warm body next to me, my heart flipping in my chest when muscular arms tightened around my waist. Kip lightly brushed his lips over my shoulder, which was still covered by the t-shirt he’d let me borrow the night before. Michelle stroked her fingers up and down my thigh, and her leg had slipped between mine sometime during the night.
After eating fries and drinking another cup of coffee, I’d crashed into bed, sandwiched between them. And I’d felt the safest I had in alongtime. Probably ever. And for once, I didn’t have flashbacks of seeing Hudson bleeding out and dying on Kreed’s living room floor. I hadn’t felt this well rested inmonths.
“You awake, bub?” Michelle asked, her voice low and soft. Soothing. Her voice always wrapped me in this weird metaphorical security blanket.
“Mm-hmm,” I mumbled, pressing my face into her neck and inhaling the scent of her—something citrusy with a hint of coconut. It was quickly becoming one of my favorite smells.
“We need to talk about last night,chibi,” Kip said from behind me, his voice also soft.
I groaned, shaking my head. I didn’t want to talk about any of it because itreallymeant my parents were trying to get in touch with me, and it meant they wouldn’t stop until they got what they wanted from me. Which wasalwayssome monetary gain…no matter how they had to go about getting it.
Just a reminder of the pain I’d woken to the last time I’d caved to them made my stomach roil with nausea.
“Yes,” Kip countered. “You can’t just show up here a drunken, crying mess and expect us to not worry and want to know what happened.”
“I’m not ready,” I mumbled, my voice muffled by Michelle’s throat.
Michelle leaned back and gripped my chin in her small fingers, tilting my chin so I was looking at her. Her brows were furrowed low over her pretty dark eyes, and concern lingered in their depths.
“Holding it in won’t make anything better either, bub,” she gently told me.
I blew out a soft breath through my nose and closed my eyes, feeling sick to my stomach.
“It’s a lot,” I warned them, refusing to open my eyes. I couldn’t spill all this and look at them. I was a grown man, and I still caved to my parents. I knew they’d hurt me. I knew they’d let other people hurt me. They’d been doing it foryears, but the few months of peace I got from giving them what they wanted outweighed the pain for me.
I just wantedpeaceand to be left the fuck alone. Was that too much to ask?
“We’ve got time,chibi,” Kip said gently.
“I don’t sleep well,” I started, figuring it was easiest to start there. “I found my best friend bleeding out on the livingroom floor because of how much he loves Kreed. Hudson was destroying his mother’s marriage to Kreed just so he could finally have him. Hudson’s own mother tried having him killed so he’d no longer be in her way. I have flashbacks of finding him. Of how pale he was. I can’t stop seeing all that fucking blood. On the floor. On him. On me. My fucking hands.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Therapy isn’t helping, despite Kreed forking out hundreds of dollars for each session.”
“Do you have anyone aside from your therapist to talk to about it?” Michelle asked.
I shook my head. “It was a really hard time for all three of us. I don’t want to drag it back to the surface. Especially not for Hudson, who it literally happened to. And Kreed—fuck, he thought he was losing the love of his life that day. It’s not fair to either of them. I don’t want to burden them.”
“It’s also not fair toyourselfto keep all this bottled inside,” Kip gently reprimanded. I sighed. He stroked his hand over my belly. “But we can talk about all of that later. Keep going. You’ve been living with that for a while now. It wouldn’t send you off the deep end.”
