“Can…can I come over to your house?” James asked low enough that Jacob had to strain to hear.
“Of course you can,” Jacob assured him. “That would make me very happy.” He was worried.
“It would?”
Lifting the hand not on James’s leg, Jacob cupped his face. “Do you need a friend or maybe a…Daddy? No pressure but I want to give you what you need.”
“No one will know but us?” James stared into Jacob’s eyes.
“No one has to know anything. Not until you’re ready,” Jacob assured him. “There’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing.” Jacob didn’t want James to think regression was a dirty little secret. “But it will always be your choice who you tell.”
James swallowed hard but he leaned his cheek against Jacob’s palm. “I’m tired. I don’t want to think anymore. I just want to…be.”
“Let me take care of everything for you,” Jacob requested. He wouldn’t go full Daddy on James. Instead, he would concentrate on that support that he’d just been thinking about.
“Please.” James closed his eyes. “Please.”
* * * * *
James
He’d been thinking about Jacob’s offer and then Jacob was there like James had summoned him out of thin air.
James leaned his cheek against the palm Jacob had on his face. Jacob’s hand was warm, rough, but it felt good to be touched.
“Let’s get inside,” Jacob told him. He helped James throw a leg over the motorcycle where he sat.
James’s feet barely touched the ground before Jacob had an arm wrapped around him. James allowed Jacob to take most of his weight. To lean against the strong body nearly wrapped around him. James tried to always be the strong one. It was important that no one saw him as weak. Jacob wasn’t like everyone else. He respected James. At least that was what he’d been telling James for days. In every text message that they exchanged.
Their relationship had undergone a radical change in the past three days.
Instead of texting his brothers and friends when it was slow at the fire-house or when he was bored, James was texting Jacob all day and night. And Jacob didn’t seem to mind. He replied quickly, always answering whatever silly or serious questionJames came up with. Jacob even sent articles from online and a link to a very good blog written by a little who’d been searching for a Daddy for a very long time. The boy had found his Daddy and shared their intimate details of their relationship. It was like reading an engaging television show and James was hooked. He even had his notifications on so he knew when the little posted again. And Liam Groves books? Those were so fun to read. Sexy. And James knew why Luca was obsessed.
“Here we are,” Jacob said quietly. “Into the warm house.”
They’d somehow made it across the yard and were walking into Jacob’s house while James had been lost in thought. The back door led directly into the spacious kitchen. It was the only room in the house that James had previously seen.
“Would you like a shower or to change clothes?” Jacob asked.
James looked down at what he was wearing. He couldn’t even remember. Jeans, T-shirt, and jacket. He sniffed himself. James had showered at the station. It was hard to get the scent of a fire all the way out though. “Do I stink?”
“No, sweetheart,” Jacob replied kindly. “I just didn’t know if it would help you relax.”
“Tired,” James told him. It seemed like a lot of effort when he didn’t have any energy left.
“No problem,” Jacob told him. “I’ll get you settled on the couch with some cartoons and grab you some clothes.”
“Cartoons?” Should he complain about that? He often put on cartoons when he wasn’t in the mood to pay close attention to what was on.
“Something silly that you can listen to in case you want to close your eyes,” Jacob replied.
That made James smile. He was relieved that Jacob wasn’t pushing him to act like a little. That he could just relax. They’d discussed James’s regressing—that was mostly all they talked about—James just couldn’t think about that when he was so exhausted. “Cool.”
Jacob led him down the hall with an arm still around his waist.
They reached the living room where the gleaming hardwood floor turned into thick gray carpet. James froze. “Should I take off my shoes?”
“I got it,” Jacob told him. “You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
