“Cool. Promise me you won’t make me send Ryan after you again?” he asked, his voice quiet and pleading. I could almost picture him curled in a ball on his bed, waiting for my answer. For as much as he liked to pretend he didn’t need other people, I wondered if he felt isolated now that both his best friend and his boyfriend were on the other coast.
“Only if you promise me you’ll figure out how soon you can get your ass out here,” I shot back.
“Fair enough,” he conceded. “I’ll call you in a couple of days. And tell your Daddy he still has to pass my test.”
“Yeah, okay.” I chuckled, because no one in the world would be scared of Tanner. “Love you, Tanner. I promise not to worry you again.”
“Love you, too. Thanks for calling yourself, instead of just knowing Ryan would have updated me.”
I took it all back; havingtwopeople who’d call me out on my shit so close together could wind up in disaster. But I’d take it because they were also the two people who made me happier than anything.
The door opened as soon as I ended the call. I spun around in the heavy wooden chair. “You were totally eavesdropping, weren’t you?”
“Me?” John pressed a hand to his chest as if he couldn’t believe I’d accuse him of such a thing. We both laughed, and he pressed his lips against mine. “I’m proud of you. I’d bet that if Ihadbeen listening to make sure everything was okay, I would have heard you helping him, too. So, how long before I have to worry about double trouble?”
I shrugged and frowned. “No clue, but it had better be soon. I love the guys here but talking to him made me realize how much I miss him. Thank you, Daddy, for making me pick up the phone.”
“Baby, you know I’m always going to be here to help you, just like you’ll always be willing to go toe to toe with my brother for me. It’s what partners do.” He laced his fingers with mine and tugged me out of the chair. “And we make one hell of a team, if I do say so myself.”
And this was what I loved most of all about him. Yes, he might be in charge most of the time, but he still viewed us as equals. “I think so, too. Now, let’s get down there before your brother thinks we’re doing unmentionable things on his table.”
“Let him think whatever he wants. I’m just making sure my boy’s okay before we leave this room.”
His boy.Fuck, if I’d known how much moving here was going to change my life, I never would have left after I first touched down here.
Yeah, him loving me forever wasn’t going to be a problem at all. I might love him even longer than that.
Epilogue
Mav
Today was going to be the ultimate test. We were having our friends and family out to celebratefinallyhaving a house that couldn’t be hitched to the back of a truck and rolled down the road. Getting to this point hadn’t been easy. John had it in his head that I needed something extravagant, when my only wish was something simple andours.
As grateful as I was to Theron and Sam for opening their home to me when I first moved to Annandale, it wasn’t long after John and I got together that I needed out. I always worried about who might overhear us when we were having sex, and I wanted the same sort of freedom with John that Sam had with Theron when he needed his Daddy.
That couldn’t happen under someone else’s roof. Even if they would have been totally cool with it, Daddy had taken to buying me pretty, frilly, super short nightgowns that barely covered my backside. And that was if I was lucky. There were more than a few in my expanding collection that covered absolutely nothing and were the best kind of indecent when we spent the night curled up watching movies. Or more likeDaddywatched movies. Before the opening credits finished, he’d have me so worked up I couldn’t follow along.
Just thinking about finally being able to do that on our couch, in front of a real fire, had me getting hard.
“You’re still my princess, right, baby?” Daddy whispered as he snuck up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and nibbling on my neck.
“Yes, Daddy.” My head fell back against his shoulder, whimpering as he flicked open the button on my jeans. This had become routine as well, even though it was anything but. To keep the peace and lower my own anxiety, days we spent with Stephen and the club were always masc days. But that didn’t mean I was completely stripped of feeling pretty.
It was safe to say my Daddy had a shopping addiction. I wasn’t going to complain, because he also knew just the perfect pieces to put together to create outfits for all of me.
Tex and Justice rolled in before Daddy could shove my jeans around my ankles and throw me on the bed. They were pretty cool, and I owed my acceptance around the guys to them. Things had gotten ugly for a while after Tex found Justice sneaking through the woods and later offered him sanctuary, but the club had come out the other side with only a few less members.
I was proud as hell of Stephen. He’d stood up to everyone who’d accused him of going soft for not only not kicking us off the property, but also for letting a gay man patch in. No one expected it to be an easy transition, but in recent months, there were a few new faces hanging around, all of them here because they’d heard it was a welcoming space.
“Get your ass out here, Mav,” Justice bellowed.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. It seemed he’d finally given up on trying to come up with a kickass road name for me. Just because he had one, he thought everyone needed a nickname they could use out here. He still had a long way to go before fitting in, but I was happy to see him coming out of the shell he’d been in when Tex first introduced us.
My mouth fell open when I saw the huge cooler he and Tex were pulling out of the trunk of Justice’s car. “You guys do know we’re not expecting a hundred people, right?”
“Yeah, but one of these days you’re going to realize people like you. Rumor has it, a few other crews are going to be stopping by, so Stephen figured we’d turn today into one big party.”
Of course he had. Stephen still had some serious boundary issues, but I didn’t raise a stink about it because I’d learned this was his way of showing his acceptance of our relationship.
