AllFreeNovel
Share Us
2
Adam
The buzzing of his watch against his skin made Adam groan. Another whole hour had already gone by? He swore it had only been five minutes since he’d sat down at his computer. How long had he been sitting there, staring at the screen without even seeing it?
Way too long. So, get on your feet.
With a groan, ignoring the creaking of his knees, Adam got to his feet.
Fatherhood was trying to give him a dad bod, but he kept trying to stave it off for as long as possible, although he had a feeling he was fighting a losing battle. A mean little part in the back of his brain kept insisting Angel would be more attracted to him if he still had the same abs he’d had when they’d met. He’d remind himself that was ridiculous. Angel didn’t care about his abs. She even said she thought he was cuddlier now. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to want to do anything more than cuddle, but he knew abs wouldn’t fix that.
They might make him feel a little better, though.
Everything had changed after Melody was born. Which was exactly how it should be, but his body changing was something he’d been unprepared for.
Newborns meant little sleep for mom and dad, which meant he’d started missing a lot of his workouts, and even though she was a little older now and sleeping much better, he’d fallen out of the habit. The urge to get to the gym or his friend Liam’s dojo wasn’t nearly as strong as his urge to go home and see his girls. Snuggle his baby. Give Angel a much-needed break.
Angel had stopped teaching the self-defense classes when Melody was born. Once Melody had gone down to two naps a day and started crawling, Angel hadn’t been able to keep up with her sewing and online shop anymore, either. Half the time, she’d end up napping at the same time Melody did.
Stretching upward, Adam went on his toes and tried to ignore when his back creaked as ominously as his knees had. Hands over his head, he held it for the count of five before letting his body back down, dropping his hands, and slowly releasing his breath.
When he opened his eyes, he stared at Justin—one of his best friends and also the social media manager for his company—lounging in the office doorway. Tall, dark-haired, and handsome, the amused look on Justin’s face made Adam scowl.
“What do you want?” One nice thing about working with a friend was he could be as surly as he wanted, and Justin took it in stride. Heck, he was probably even more amused.
“You’ve been grumpy all day. Wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
Sighing, Adam moved around his desk and headed for the door, causing Justin to straighten up.
“Walk with me,” he said, gesturing for Justin to move out of the way. Every hour on the hour, Adam did a walk around the office. No, it wasn’t the same as going to the gym, but it was movement, and right now, that was a win. Maybe he should try to work out in the mornings, but the idea of getting up earlier than he had to and losing even more sleep did not appeal. “Did someone complain?”
“No, everyone always assumes you’re not getting any sleep thanks to the baby.” Justin strolled beside Adam, hands in his pockets, keeping his voice low. Deciding it was a good time for an outdoor walk, Adam headed for the side door. “It’s not like you’re unprofessional—other than with me—or rude. I wanted to check in because you haven’t seemed like yourself lately.”
The way he said it had Adam eyeing him suspiciously. He opened the door to the outside for Justin, letting the other man stroll through first. The fact Justin avoided his gaze confirmed Adam’s thoughts.
“Do you ever wonder what our group of friends would be like without all the gossip?” Adam asked, shaking his head as he closed the door behind him. The air was unseasonably warm in the high fifties, making it a gorgeous day for the beginning of December. He and Justin began a brisk walk as if by unspoken agreement. Warm for Maryland in December still wasn’t exactly warm. Plus, he had some energy to walk off now.
“Boring.” Justin chuckled, then his expression turned more serious. “We’re all worried about you. You two haven’t been to the club in a few weeks, and the last few times you were there, things seemed… tense.”
Tense because Adam had wanted to scene but hadn’t wanted to pressure Angel into scening. Or do something. They barely had vanilla sex at home, so he hadn’t felt like he could suggest having kinky sex at the club.
BDSM was all about communication, but it was hard when communication seemed like pressure.
Angel was sexually submissive and wanted to make him happy, but she didn’t want to have sex. That was clear enough from her body language. That she would, even though she didn’t want to, didn’t make him feel good. Talking about it felt like pressuring her for sex, which didn’t make him feel good, either.
So, he had no idea what to do, and every visit to Stronghold had become tenser as they ignored the elephant in the room—going to a sex club and not having sex.
“It hasn’t been easy after the baby.” Adam cast a sidelong glance at Justin. “You’ll see, soon enough.” He dropped that second sentence with significance.
Justin almost tripped. “How did you… Dammit!” He scowled. “We’re not announcing ‘til next week. Don’t tell anyone yet.”
“It’s so cute you think we all don’t already know.” Adam shook his head. “What was that you were saying about gossip?”
Justin groaned, shaking his head and running his hand through his hair.
“Everyone’s going to act surprised when Jessica makes the announcement, though, right?”
“Of course.”
