When I get downstairs, Ollie and Cillian are on the couch, Tiernan in his chair.
“Where’s Dean?”
“We dropped him off at school. He had a test he can’t miss.”
Murder by night, back for a test the next day. Only Dean or Tiernan would care enough to do that. Cillian only went to make Ollie happy.
Before I can sit down, Tiernan says, “Let’s go talk, Rory.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Tiernan’s already walking away.
“You want me to come help talk to him?” Cil asks, and he would—he would argue for me, even though he doesn’t like Shai, because it’s for me—but I shake my head.
“I’m good.”
In Tiernan’s office, I take the chair across from him.
“Why is there a stranger in our house, Rory?”
“There are strangers in our house every time we have a party,” I counter.
He can’t argue with that, so he says, “You know what I mean.”
“I want him,” I answer simply. That’s what it boils down to. I want to fuck him and keep him until I’m done with him.
“How do you want him?”
“I’m not sure. I just do. He’s fun, and I like the way he fucks.” There’s more to it than that. I’ve felt a weird connection to him from the start, felt like he gets me in ways most people don’t, not even Cillian.
“You like how a lot of people fuck.”
Why is he doing this? “This is different.”
“How?”
“I don’t fucking know, T. Jesus.”
He sighs. “I’m not trying to be a dick.”
“We all know it comes naturally to you.” Otherwise, why would he need to tell us that so often?
He bites back a small smile but doesn’t continue, waiting for me to say something, to tell him more. I rub a hand over my face in frustration, reach into my pocket, but my spinner isn’t there.
“You said I could come to you, so I’m coming to you. I want to keep my pet. It’s not like the shit with you and Dean or Cil and Ollie. It’s not forever. I…like to be with him.”
His eyes narrow, studying, looking deep the way only Tiernan can. “It’s okay for it to be more. With him or someone else.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s not. Let’s be real. We’re talking about me.” I wouldn’t even know how to do that.
His brows draw together. “What do you mean? You’re the first person in this house who would jump in front of a bullet for any of us, the first one to sacrifice yourself, your time. If one of us needs something, you’re always the first to offer yourself up, no matter what it is. Why could you not be the same for him?”
“I do that shit because I can’t fucking keep still and I like chaos.”
“You do that shit because you love us.”
Yes. Them. I do love them. I’ll always love them. They keep me human. Romance isn’t the same. “It’s not like that, T. What the fuck? You’re like, in touch with your emotions now and shit.”
