“Just excited,” I said as he slowly lowered me down the front of his body.
“No shit,” he grumbled. “And now you’ve got me all excited too.”
Giggling, I just shook my head at him. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not. You need to strike that word from your vocabulary. You know exactly what you’re doing when you do things like that, and I love it.”
I opened my mouth to remind him that he was just as bad, but he silenced me with another kiss and pressed me back against oneof the pillars that separated his bike from Daddy’s car and the large van he kept for events.
“If you’re going to ravish him against that pillar, at least give me a moment to go inside and grab a chair.”
Aspen’s voice startled us almost as bad as my yelling had startled Raleigh, and he jerked away from me and shoved me behind his body, growling until he realized that it was just Aspen and not that dickhead Sean that had snuck up on us. He visibly relaxed when Aspen held up his hands and chuckled.
“Or not,” Aspen muttered with a shrug.
“Sorry,” Raleigh said, flushing a little when I elbowed his side.
“What was it you were just saying about that word?” I asked as I headed in.
“Stuff it, you,” he grumbled.
“I’d rather stuff it in you,” I shot back.
We were close enough to Aspen that he heard the whole exchange and burst out laughing as he held the door open for us.
“Since I haven’t had the opportunity to tell you this yet today, I will now,” Aspen said as we stepped past him. “Having you two around is a breath of fresh air. You’ve significantly elevated the endorphin levels around here, for some of us more than others, but I won’t hold that against you. Thank you for contributing to our wacky-erotic ways. I’ve always believed that laughter was just as important to arousal as wicked little touches everywhere.”
“You’re not wrong,” Raleigh said. “Erotic tickling always leads to squirming, leaking, and laughter.”
Giggles bubbled up from my throat. Aspen gasped, sputtered, and for once seemed to be at a loss for words. The halting starts and flustered, exasperated endings of his cut-off sentences followed us all the way to the doors of the lift.
“You just proved my point!” Aspen finally declared, chuckling as he passed us on his way back into the shop, three bags from the delivery window held in his hands.
It was the coolest setup I’d ever seen. Delivery drivers could place orders behind Plexiglas doors Aspen opened from an app on his phone. It ensured they couldn’t go missing and were protected from the elements, without drivers having to come all the way into the shop. Not only did it save them time and the potential discomfort of stepping foot into the shop to deliver something, but it also eliminated disruption to the flow of Aspen’s workday, which was filled with far more than his work in the shop.
He'd shown us the social media feeds our photos were trending on, as well as the brand’s website, where our photos were prominently featured. He’d also allowed us a sneak peek at the catalogue he’s designed. It was with the printers now and would soon be distributed throughout the country to clients on the website's mailing list.
It was still kind of mind-blowing to know that someone in New York would soon be looking at pictures of Raleigh and me in the different pet gear Daddy had designed. Just a few weeks ago, the only time it seemed like people really saw us was when we were dancing at the club.
Maybe it was a little vain, but I fluffed my hair as we stepped out into the loft to see Daddy, and yeah, there was a strut to my step when we sauntered up to him and right into a hug.
“I didn’t expect to see you two back so soon,” he muttered, and I felt him press a kiss to the side of my head. “Not that I’m not pleased to see you, but when you left this morning you told me you wouldn’t be back until tonight, so I’d resigned myself to a lonely day of sipping tea, drawing, and pining for my favorite muses.”
“Your muses are home for good now, Daddy,” I declared.
“James said that we didn’t have to work the two weeks or even tonight, because there were dancers who had been begging for more hours, so as long as we were good with it, he’d give ours to them, and we were free to come back to you.”
“We were more than okay with it,” I added as he squeezed us more.
“So am I,” he said. “Why don’t you two put your things away and get comfortable? You’ll never believe what I’ve been up to since you’ve been gone.”
“Did you finally make us G-strings out of fruit roll-ups?” Raleigh asked, giggling when Daddy shot him the same look he had when Raleigh had first suggested it.
One part disbelief, the other contemplation. That he’d even paused for a moment to consider it had left us hopeful that it would happen someday.
“I did not,” Daddy said. “Though I did order a few boxes in, purely for research purposes.”
“What are you researching, Daddy?” I asked.
