“Come here, baby. We need your kisses too.”
I smiled as I leant over Aiden, my mouth finding Hunter’s and kissing him deeply. “Love you so much,” I murmured against his lips, drinking down his groan and letting it warm my chest.
“Love you too,” Hunter said. “Love you both.”
We had things to do today—a kitchen to sort and set up—but that could wait a little while longer. There were more important things for us to do first.
A couple of hours later—showered, fed, and properly dressed—we headed over to Aiden’s new kitchen share in North Hykeham, about twenty minutes from the centre of Lincoln.
It was a shared kitchen agreement with a small local catering company owned by two sisters, who Aiden seemed to have immediately clicked with. He’d signed all the paperwork on Friday when he and Bacon had brought everything up from Leicester in Bacon’s dodgy van, but they’d mostly shoved everything into his corner of the kitchen, waiting until today when Hunter and I had been available to help.
They had half the kitchen each, with their own fridges and storage spaces, and from what Aiden had said, there would maybe be a few hours of crossover between them every day, but Aiden would still have the place to himself in the early mornings.
He’d made announcements across social media that he was moving, and as predicted, a couple of the drag artists from The Court had immediately banded together to place a standing order for the dressing rooms. It seemed like Ryan and Rory were basically spreading the word to everyone they knew, and it was apparently getting around since a local queer-owned bookshop had reached out too, interested in getting some cookies for the Dungeons & Dragons night they hosted regularly.
Aiden had also been researching local markets and was talking about finding more nearby queer businesses to supply. I had no doubts he was going to hit the ground running, especially in the run-up to Christmas.
He was still looking for a flat to rent, so he was currently living between our place and Jonny’s, but he’d found a few to check out next week. Annoyingly for him, most of the decentflats seemed to go as soon as they came onto the market. I wasn’t complaining, though, because it meant we got to see Aiden four or five nights a week.
“Okay, what’s the plan?” I asked as I climbed out of the car, looking around at the small industrial park we’d pulled into. It was virtually deserted, and I couldn’t see anyone else around. I guessed mid-morning on a Sunday wasn’t peak work hours for people who rented units here.
“Let’s organise the kitchen first,” Aiden said. “Then we can unpack all the other shit and get all the supplies out. Once we’re done, I might try mixing up a test batch of dough to see if I like where everything is.”
“Okey-dokey,” I said, my eyes lingering on Hunter, who’d gotten out of the car and was stretching his arms above his head, a sliver of skin appearing between the bottom of his hoodie and the waistband of his jeans. There was a small reddish-purple mark on his hip which Aiden had sucked into his skin earlier, and I was very tempted to add a matching one on the other side.
“You’re staring,” Aiden said, the smirk obvious in his voice.
“Yeah? So are you.”
“Obviously, our babygirl is hot.”
“And you’re admiring your handiwork.”
“That too.”
Hunter spotted us and rolled his eyes, tugging his hoodie down as a soft flush spread across his nose. “All right, show’s over. Get your butts moving.” As he turned away, I was sure I heard him mutter, “Perverts.”
I chuckled and gestured to Aiden. “After you. Since you’ve got the keys.”
“Thank you.”
He glanced around, smiling as he realised we were the only ones around. He reached out and grabbed my hand, tilting his head up for a kiss. Then he dragged me after Hunter, grabbinghis hand with his free one and standing on his tiptoes to steal another kiss. The three of us walked hand in hand to the door, enjoying a moment of peace together before Aiden put us to work.
My chest burned as I looked at the three of us, my grin so big I was sure it looked ridiculous. But I had every reason to be happy.
I couldn’t believe I got to have this. It almost didn’t feel real.
But it was.
And I was going to hold on to both of them for as long as I could.
Hopefully for the rest of my life.
