Overwhelmed, I whispered, “This is the best present anyone has ever gotten me.”
I looked at Rey and saw this “aww shucks” expression on his face.
“I guess I did good, then?”
“Baby, you did amazing.” And I really needed to up my game when it came to presents.
I rolled the leather up and carefully placed it on the bedside table, then put everything else neatly on the floor. Turning to Rey, I held out my arms.
He dove in and settled against me, then shivered.
“Under the covers?”
He nodded, only separating from me enough for us to be able to get under my comfy winter blanket.
Once we were settled, he put his head on my chest and splayed his hand on my soft stomach.
“For the record, I like this better than the one on the apron.”
Something about that made me unclench. I wasn’t what most young gay guys seemed to find attractive. Of course, it had bothered me a little. To hear him say those words settled me in a way I hadn’t expected.
“Good to know,” I murmured and kissed the top of his head. When he stayed quiet, I prompted, “Tell me about your family.”
Rey sighed. “I guess I realized my family wasn’t the typical one, when at a sleepover when I was five or so, I started to talk about what kind of guns my dad owns and how cool the Beretta his driver has was, and everyone looked at me funny. See, their parents didn’t have guns. To them, guns were scary, because they’d been raised right.”
“Funny how different that conversation would’ve been in somewhere like Texas or hell, Alaska.”
He nodded against my chest, then lifted his head and kissed the spot over my heart. “Yeah. My mom liked to surround herself with these leftist artsy types, that was what she’d known while growing up somewhere upstate.” He wiggled impossibly closer to me and put his leg over my thigh. “I remember being twelve and someone tried to bully me for something, and then another kid kind of jumped in. Not to protect me, but to tell the bully that you shouldn’t mess with me, because ‘don’t you know who his dad is?’”
I squeezed him closer. It couldn’t have been easy.
“I had this favorite in my dad’s crew. His name was Uncle Stuart. He was really nice. Around my dad’s age, sort of his right-hand guy. He always had time for me if I wanted to chat, and he smuggled me candy as if it was something he needed to smuggle, you know.”
Rey’s expression grew fond, and then so damn sad I wanted to shield him from his memories.
“He got shot one night somewhere. It was some sort of a rivalry thing, I guess. Someone else’s crew making a point that they could get to Dad if they wanted to. There was a turf war for a while. I had a bodyguard everywhere I went, which wasn’t normal in my school. Like if I’d been at one of the super-rich people schools, then sure. But ours was a normal elementary school. I don’t even know how Dad pulled it off. They wouldn’t allow anyone extra on the premises normally.”
He got lost in his thoughts, and after a minute I stroked his arm firmly. “What happened the day you left home?”
Chapter 25
Rey
I felt less upset than I thought I would while telling the beginning. But the real upset was just around the corner, and I hadn’treallythought of it after the first few days.
“I’ve never told anyone.”
“You’ve sat on this for over a year, baby. I think it’s time to get it out if you can. If you want to wait for the therapist, then that’s understandable. Either way, I’ll be here for you.”
I considered Jack’s words as I trailed patterns on his chest. It felt so damn good and safe to be like this with him. I wasn’t turned on. Icouldbe, but I wasn’t.
“I’ll…I’ll leave some stuff out.”
“Okay.” He squeezed me again, which somehow made me feel loved in a way I’d never felt before.
“One day, I came home from school early, and I was in my room. Dad was somewhere with his driver and his bodyguard. I started to do some homework, when I heard the front door open.” I swallowed hard. “All his guys had the code, so it was normal for them to show up sometimes. But…but this time, it was two of them. These younger men who had been with him for a while. But like, legacy. Both of them had someone in their family who had worked for Dad before, you know?”
“Yeah, makes sense.”
