“Cousin,” Basil whispered to me, translating helpfully. I thought Felix was calling him a brat, and while I agreed Basil could be one, I wanted to be the only one to call him that. He looked up at me like I’d hung the moon. “Yeah, I want to go with you. And you can make all the conditions you want.”
He bit his lip as he finished, and I could tellDaddywas on the tip of his tongue. “Then let’s get out of here. We can stop by your place for an overnight bag, and I’ll make sure you get to where you need to go each day.”
“Are you moving him in before the first date?” Gregor teased. “I thought that was only lesbians.”
“And possessive Italians,” I replied, not looking at the man. “Get what you need. I want you alone within the hour.”
Basil went up on tip-toes to peck my cheek, speaking quietly so only I could hear, “Yes, Daddy.”
Letting him go to grab a laptop and backpack, I mourned the loss. But he returned to me in only a minute, and we said our goodbyes. He said something to Gregor I didn’t catch, and I asked him about it when we got to the car. I’d driven, so I opened the passenger door for him before hopping in and retaking his hand.
“I told him not to come home for at least an hour.”
“You’re roommates, right?” I asked, not sure where he was going with his statement.
“Yes, because I don’t want to wait the length of the Bay Bridge before you get me naked,” Basil told me in a flirty tone that made me dizzy as my blood rushed south. “And you probably wouldn’t approve of road head.”
“You’d be surprised,” I growled, pulling up the GPS so he could type in his address.
Since it was early evening on a weekday, it only took us ten minutes before we were entering an industrial size elevator in a newer condo building. Basil was on me the second the doors closed, pulling me down for a kiss as he ground the obvious erection he was sporting against my thigh. We broke apart when there was adingfollowed by the clearing of a throat. A little old lady stood there with a tiny, white, fluff-ball of a dog, giving us the stink eye.
“This lift is going up,” Basil reached out to press the close door button. “Catch the next one.”
We laughed at her shocked expression, and it felt so good to laugh with the boy. I wanted to make him laugh every day. But also moan my name.
Stumbling out, still all hands and mouths, Basil typed in the door lock code between kisses to my neck. “My room’s to the right.”
By the time we made it there, we were both divested of shoes, belts, ties, and jackets, with his backpack tossed on a couch. I didn’t get an impression of Gregor’s condo, because I only had eyes for my boy.
He stripped off a sock and put it on the door before closing it. “I always wanted to do that after a college roommate did it almost nightly for a semester.”
“Well, I’m nothing if not a wish granter,” I bit at his lip, unbuttoning his shirt while he did the same to me. “What other things have you always wanted to do?”
“Make love,” Basil blurted, before his eyes widened and he turned away to cover his face.
Wrapping my arms around him from behind, I removed his hands and rocked him in my hold. “I think we can arrange that,amorino mio.”
“What doesamorinomean?” Basil asked in a way that told me he had some guesses, but wanted me to say it. “You said it before at the bar?”
Kissing along his neck and I pulled his unbuttoned shirt off his shoulders, I spoke quietly in his ear, “My little love.” Making my way along his jaw, I felt Basil smile, “You like that, don’t you?”
“No one has ever said they loved me before,” Basil admitted, his head bent. I just knew he was biting that sweet lower lip I wanted to suck on. “You’re not just saying that because of what I said, are you?”
His words were a convoluted jumble, but I got the gist. I turned him to face me. “Noragazzo, I’m not just saying it. My heart broke when you left my house, and I couldn’t go on without telling you how I felt.”
“How do you feel?” Basil broached tentatively, as if there was any question. “Like you want to get me naked and in bed?”
“Definitely want you naked on every surface, as often as I can get you,” I shrugged off my own shirt before pulling him against me so we were skin to skin. “I feel possessive, and protective. Turned on, physically and emotionally,” I kissed his cheek, then his neck, setting a path to his nipple and down to his stomach with each word, until I was on my knees. Tugging his pants down and tapping each leg until he stepped out, I looked up at my boy again. “But mostly, I feel like my life is empty without you. If that’s not love, then I don’t know what love is.”
“Oh,” Basil breathed out, staring down at me in awe. “Then I guess I’m in love with you too, Daddy.”
My heart beat faster in my chest, and I rose to kiss him. I hadn’t been in love for almost two decades, and a little piece of me would always love my late wife, but I was so damn happy Basil had walked into my life.
“Still want to make love?” I teased my fingers along the wristband of his briefs, wanting to see all of him, touch him everywhere.
“Are you asking, now?” Basil licked his lips and smirked at me, “Because the Daddy I fell for took what he wanted.”
A growl rumbled in my chest at his words as I tackled him to the bed, Basil’s breath gusted out of him in surprise before I took his mouth in a claiming kiss. “You’re mine.”
