North nods but holds up a hand. “Wait. Make it early afternoon.”
I could cry with relief.
We exchange another quick goodbye, and then Easton jogs over to a car, and I realize right then he’s called an Uber to take him back to the station. We should have offered him a ride, but North looks dead on his feet, so maybe the extra stop would have been a bad idea.
Climbing into the truck, I wait for him to start it, but he doesn’t put it into reverse right away. Instead, he turns toward me and heaves a small sigh. “So. That was my family.”
“No,” I tell him quickly. “That was a bad moment involving your family. We all have shit, okay?”
He nods, swallows thickly, then licks his lips before reaching for my hand. His fingers tangle with mine. “I’m so in love with you.”
The words rise. Then they fall. And he looks like he might cry again, and I’m not about to let that happen. I pull his hand to my lips and kiss his fingers, his wrist, then his palm.
“I’m in love with you too,” I murmur, so soft I can barely hear myself. But he doesn’t miss it. His body gives a single tremble before going very still. “I’m afraid that admitting that will tempt the universe to take you from me, but it’s worth the risk because I need you to know that you’re everything to me too. And some things might scare me, but with you, I feel brave.”
He reaches for me, tracing a touch down my jaw before pinching my chin and kissing the breath out of my lungs. “Let’s go home,” he says when he pulls back.
Home.
I know he means I’m part of it, and that is all I will ever need.
North groans loudly, writhing beneath my touch, though my hand is nowhere near where he wants it to be. Pressing down against his lower back, I watch his hips thrust against the mattress.
I allow it, but only for a moment before grabbing him and pulling him up and away from the friction he’s seeking.
“Fuck, why?” he gasps as he gets onto shaking knees and forearms. He turns his head to look at me, eyes wide and wild with desperation.
“I want to take my time with you. Be good for me,” I murmur.
His cheeks explode in a pink flush, and he tips his head down. “Okay.”
Leaning over, I kiss the side of his hip. “My good boy.”
He shudders, and I hear his swallow click in the back of his throat. We both need those words sometimes—the quiet, honest praise. A reminder that our fucked-up past doesn’t define us.
That we are worthy of this.
And North has been so fucking brave and strong through everything. He stayed back and let his sister handle his mom, offering advice only when she called and agreeing not to try and see her until she was ready.
He accepts that might be never. He understands that his mom is mostly racked with guilt on her more coherent days, where she can reflect back on everything she did and all the mistakes she made.
It’s been a week and a half since the incident at her apartment, and so much has happened.
I got my settlement for the house, I got the all clear to walk normally again, and it’s time for me to make a decision about what my future is going to look like.
But first, I’m going to do this.
First, I’m going to fuck the man I love. I’m going to be the first cock inside of him, and I’m going to make it so, so incredibly good. I’m going to eclipse and erase every bad memory he’s ever had of being touched by anyone who didn’t deserve him, and he will forget every other time he was ever rejected for being himself.
“Spread your legs a little,” I say as I reach for the lube. His cock hangs heavily between his legs, still a little spit-slick from where he let me suck him to the edge, and I can see him fighting the urge to reach up and stroke himself.
Instead, he obeys me, and I reward him with a wet, biting kiss on the right side of his ass.
“Fuck, baby,” he moans, head pushing down into his pillow.
I grin. He uses those little names for me. Sweetheart. Baby. My love. I can barely tell him I’m in love with him still, and I’m working my way to those casual little pet names that I want to use on him. But for now, a well-timedgood boydoes all the work I need it to.
I kiss him again as I stroke my fingers down the cleft of his ass, then pause over his hole. It twitches, almost begging for me to push inside.
