Murry sighed and wiggled, sniffed, and let out an obscene moan when he caught a whiff of the same scents I’d awoken to.
“Smells like heaven.” He murmured, lips brushing my ear.
Somehow, he always managed to be the big spoon, even though I was bigger. With a leg thrown over my hips and his arms wrapped around me, he clung like a warm, softly snoring backpack.
Or a koala.
Out of all the gear he’d worn yesterday, that had been my favorite to see him in.
A soft rapping on the door preceded the opening of it and Dorian’s voice, low and gentle. “Are you guys awake?”
“Mmm hmm,” Murry muttered. “Do I smell cinnamon?”
“You sure do. I made French toast with simmered peaches and whipped cream,” he replied. “Do you think you can drag yourselves out of bed to come to the table, or would you like me to load up a tray so we can eat in here?”
Breakfast in bed sounded amazing, but I had to piss, so I was going to have to get out of bed anyway; might as well go to the table so we wouldn’t create extra work for him.
“We’ll come to the table,” I replied, wiggling some, “just as soon as I have the chance to use the bathroom.”
Murry’s grumbled groan told me that he was in the same state, cozy but forced to leave the warmth by the call of nature.
“In that case, I’ll see you out there,” he replied. “Would you guys prefer milk, juice, or coffee this morning?”
“Milk, please,” Murry replied.
“Juice for me, please,” I said as Murry finally turned me loose.
“Pineapple, orange, or grape,” he asked. “Murry, would you like your milk plain or with chocolate or strawberry syrup added?”
“Strawberry, please,” Murry said, flopping on his back with one arm thrown over his eyes. “Can you make it really, really pink?”
Dorian chuckled, his features soft as he studied us. “I sure can.”
“I’d love some pineapple juice, please,” I said. “It’s my favorite.”
“Good to know, and I’ll be sure to keep strawberry syrup and pineapple juice stocked from here on out.”
“Thank you,” we said as he stepped back and allowed me to step past him to get to the bathroom.
A short time later we were seated at the kitchen table, digging into the scrumptious meal Mr. Dorian had made, the television on the counter was playing a rerun of an old season ofRuPaul’s Drag Race.
“I love this show,” Murry said after he’d washed down a bite of food. “We’ve binged all the seasons, plus the all-stars.”
“Same,” Mr. Dorian replied. “I’m a huge fan of Project Runway too. That probably sounds so cliché, considering what I do, but fashion has always been in my blood.”
“How’d you get into modeling?” I asked.
“My folks,” he explained. “My mom was a model; in fact, the first spread I was in was one she did for an expecting mother’s magazine. I was still in her belly, but she likes to tell the story about how I was already hamming it up. In one of the photos from the shoot, you can see the outline of my foot pressing against her from the inside, like I wanted to make sure everyone could see me. She’s got it hanging in the living room, right besidemy sonogram photos. My dad is a photographer; he took the photos for that shoot. They met during a modeling call she took part in, fell in love, and started a family not long after.”
“Do you have any siblings?” Murry asked. “Raleigh and I were both only children.”
“Two, actually,” Dorian explained. “I’ve got a sister who took after our old man and is a photographer up in Estes Park, Colorado. She takes wildlife and landscape photos, mostly in the Rocky Mountains. It blows me away when I see them. She’s captured photos of bears, elk, mule deer, pronghorns, big horned sheep, and so many birds and smaller critters that I’ve lost count.”
“That’s so cool,” I said. “The only big animals we’ve ever seen were at the zoo.”
“Yeah, that’s the only place I’ve ever seen them either,” he explained. “She’s the nature lover in the family; I prefer sleeping indoors, with toilets that flush and beds that don’t involve an air pump to inflate them.”
Snickering, I speared a peach on top of a piece of French toast, swirled them through a frothy mix of syrup and whipped cream, and popped them in my mouth with a soft hum.
