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“Nah. I was gonna volunteer to watch the beast for you anyway if you’re not planning to take him to the meeting.”
“Thanks. That’s probably a good idea.” There were plenty of times that I needed Hercules, and I’d bring him regardless of what others might think, but this was the sort of meeting where he’d be more of a distraction than I wanted. “Knowing he’s happy with you will let me focus on my presentation.”
“You’ve got it. You need to work on the presentation after we do the dishes?” He collected our empty plates.
“Maybe for a little while. I also want a shower after that roofing work.” Stretching, I stood as well and followed him to the sink area.
After a quick cleanup, he shooed me to my favorite of the leather chairs near the woodstove. “I’ll make sure everything’s buttoned down for the rain.”
He headed outside. Sitting there without him next to me felt strange, like this was my cabin, a place I belonged, but also like I was in a stranger’s house. All the things I didn’t yet know about Harley loomed large, but as I looked around the cabin, I also saw all the little details I’d gathered about the man. The thriller and mystery reader. The mismatched coffee mug owner, a surprising number with sentimental sayings. I wanted to know everything about him, all his secrets and the soft underbelly he kept hidden from the rest of the world. Giving up on work, for the time being, I padded to the bathroom, mindful of the limited hot water supply but also hoping Harley might come in and join me.
“Storm’s here,” he greeted me as I exited the shower a short time later. He sat in one of the chairs like he’d been inside for at least a few minutes. A day prior, he most definitely would have joined me in the shower. That he hadn’t made me more unsettled by the pounding rain than I otherwise might have been. The storm came in with a vengeance, loud winds and driving rain pelting the cabin.
“Wind’s really howling.” I wrapped my towel tighter around my waist.
“It’s a typical spring storm.” His tone was reassuring as he stood. “We’ll be okay.”
Would we be okay? Not from the rain, but from the coming storm of change headed our way? I wasn’t at all certain, and that sucked.
Harley seemed to pick up on my unease, holding out a hand and gentling his voice. “Come on, boss. Bring your beast. Let’s go to bed and listen to the rain.”
“Okay.” I collected Hercules and carried him up the ladder to the cushion he’d adopted near the bookshelves. In bed, naked with Harley, with my head on his shoulder, his arms around me, and Hercules’s soft snores joining the rain sounds, I was finally able to exhale even if I was still far too wired for sleep.
“What do you need, Ambrose?” His husky whisper was my undoing, the way he said my name, my actual name, like I was the only thing that mattered in the whole world.
“You.” And then, because that was a given, I gave a self-conscious laugh. I knew what I wanted, but asking was difficult. “Maybe…”
“What? You can have anything you want.” He dropped a kiss on my bare shoulder, warm lips on damp skin that promised everything might be all right, perfect even, if only for a little while. The kiss was a promise he truly cared, and right then, that was everything.
“I want you to make love to me.” Calling it fucking seemed crass and not at all the vibe I wanted, but my cheeks heated at any mention of the L-word. “Want you in me tonight.”
“I can do that,” he said solemnly, dropping another kiss, this one to the top of my head. “You’ll have to tell me how to make it good for you.”
Lord, his humbleness was going to be the end of me. And that desire to please, to please me, specifically, was how I already knew this would be exactly what I wanted and needed.
“I will.” I tilted my head up so I could kiss his mouth. “I brought the supplies up the other day.”
We’d bought lube and condoms when we’d bought groceries, but we’d been having plenty of fun with our usual variations on jerking off and frotting with a side of occasional oral.
And privately, I could admit I hadn’t been fully ready, but now I was eager to feel every damn thing I could with this man, uncomfortable emotions included. If this was our last night together before everything changed back home, I wanted to have this memory.
I retrieved the supplies from where I’d stashed them near the small lamp on the floor, which I left on low, giving a rosy glow to the loft.
