My phone buzzed again, and this time I pulled it out.
2:16: Don’t forget to eat something before the dinner rush. Something light.
2:18: Forgot to tell you we’re running behind. Ryan was held for some extra drills. I hope to beat you home as long as I don’t pass out from the stench in my car.
2:26: Ryan just talked to his mom. She wants to know if he can crash at my place tonight. I know we were going to talk, but can I make it up to you tomorrow?
The fact he asked without immediately assuming I’d be cool with delaying our pow-wow about how I felt after a week of him taking care of me – calm, but oddly horny in case you were wondering—meant the world to me. I’d always had this impression that the Dom, and damn did it feel weird to attach that label to him since we hadn’t done anything remotely kinky, did whatever the hell he wanted and the sub could take it or leave him. I didn’t need to think about it before I typed out my response.
Me:Not a problem. Want me to crash at Mama’s tonight?
Now that we were growing closer, it felt weird being at home when Ryan was there. Which was stupid, because it wasn’t like I walked around naked or wearing a ball gag. Hell, I wasn’t even sure that was shit Calvin would be into. I could get down with the former, but I was way too oral to let anyone gag me. No fucking way.
Calvin:Absolutely not. Get your ass home as soon as you can. Maybe we’ll grab pizza for dinner and turn on one of those comic movies the two of you are obsessed with.
Me:Isn’t that weird? Seems a little soon for bonding with your kid.
Calvin:It’ll be weirder to him if you’re suddenly avoiding him. What we’re doing won’t affect him unless we let it.
But it would, eventually, if we ever got past these bizarrely satisfying text exchanges.
Calvin:You’re thinking too hard. All you need to do is tell me you’ll ask Tony to run the front tonight and you’ll be home before eight. Can you do that?
Lovely. Now he was not only telling me what to do with my personal life, but he was helping me manage Marino’s. I should be pissed, but I was more frustrated that I hadn’t considered giving Tony more responsibility sooner. There wasn’t much money to give him a raise and an official promotion, but he was the brother who always rode my ass to delegate some of the responsibility. I huffed out a laugh, realizing I’d been so desperate to prove Papa hadn’t made a mistake handing me a restaurant I didn’t even want that I was micromanaging everything into the ground.
I slid the phone into my pocket, turning my attention back to my pain-in-the-ass brother. The crabbier version of me that was slowly disappearing wanted to smack the smug grin off his face. I held out my hand for him to stop himself from saying something stupid. “Not a fucking word.”
“I didn’t say anything.” He laughed. “But that must’ve been one hell of a conversation. You went from all sappy happy to pissed off and now you’re all boneless and relaxed. Hopefully, someday we’ll be able to meet this guy who’s got you all twisted in knots.”
It’d be so easy to throw Tony a bone and tell him he already knew the man who occupied my thoughts too much of the time, but I didn’t want to jinx anything.
“He’s a good guy,” I confirmed. I’d known that from the day we met. “What would you think if I asked you to help me out with the front of house a bit more? With you up front and Freddie in the kitchen, I might be able to take a day off each week.”
“I’d say it’s about damn time,” Tony said without hesitation. “Both of us have been waiting for you to realize you can’t run this ship on your own. But we know you, we understand why it’s been so important for you to prove you could do it on your own, so we didn’t say anything.”
Tony half stood so he could grab a legal pad and pen off my desk. “Let’s figure out a schedule that’ll work, because you should be able to take a couple days off without worrying that the place is going to burn down.”
For the next hour, Tony and I brainstormed ways to streamline the daily operations of the restaurant. By the time we were done, we agreed it was for the best if he completely took over the front-of-house operations, including scheduling and customer service. Freddie would be the king of the kitchen, which wasn’t going to be much of an adjustment because everyone but Mama already knew better than to tell him what to do with his staff. That left me time to focus on the business boredom while finally allowing me to break the chains shackling me to the desk.
Then you can have Calvin chain you to his bed.My entire body locked up at that thought. I had clearly told him I wasn’t interested in being restrained, but fuck if there wasn’t something enticing about the thought of him chaining me to the bed, ready for him to use as he saw fit. I could practically hear myself demanding that he release me because I had a life, but my complaints would fall on deaf ears. Calvin would lean down and remind me he was doing this for my own good, that I needed to learn to be selfish and put my own needs first for a change.
“Man, you’ve got it bad!” Tony teased. “Why don’t you get the hell out of here for the night and I’ll tell Freddie we need to sit down on Tuesday afternoon so we’re all on the same page.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
In the meantime, I needed to figure out a way to put this arrangement with Calvin into fast forward, because my balls were going to pop pretty soon if I didn’t get some release. For a few days, I’d thought he’d made a valid point when he said I needed to ignore my dick and listen to my brain, because I was more focused at work and less stressed at home. But now, the slightest innocent thought turned into a vivid porn running on a loop through my brain. It was a damn good thing Ryan was staying at the house tonight, because I was so desperate I’d be tempted to beg Calvin to at least let me jack off in the shower if we were alone. And why was it so hot to consider asking for permission to rub one out?
Before heading home, I needed to stop by the kitchen anyway. Hopefully, Freddie was in a good mood because I had a huge favor to ask him. I followed Tony out of the office, locking the door behind me. “Hey, you wanna ring up an order for me before I go?”
“Man, if you’re hungry, you know you can just grab something. The brunch leftovers are in the back for crew food,” Tony reminded me.
Normally, that’d be exactly what I did, but I wanted something better than pizza for dinner tonight. Calvin coming home and being so grateful that I’d taken care of dinner that he dropped to his knees and blew me was probably too much to ask, but a guy could hope.
“Calvin’s kid had a big clinic this weekend because he made a higher level team for fall league. The kid’s gonna be hungry and I figured one of the to-go pans of lasagna might hit the spot.”
“That’s pretty damn nice of you to do for your roommate’s kid.” Tony glanced over his shoulder, one eyebrow quirked like he thought I was lying. I wasn’t. I may not be telling himwhyI was trying to get the kid a special meal tonight, but if he wasn’t going to be at the house, I could’ve easily picked up Chinese or Thai, which I knew were Calvin’s favorites. Ryan, on the other hand, was all about the carbs. At least with Mama’s lasagna, he’d be getting some hidden veggies and plenty of protein as well. “Please tell me you’re not chasing after him?”
“Hell no!” My emphatic response echoed off the high ceilings of the hallway. “Man, that’s just wrong. The kid’s only fifteen!”
