His job was simple—just watch, analyze their behavior, and make sure nobody was cheating.
I’d promised him a big reward for his work—even if he wasn’t going to take my money, he’d definitely takeme, and I was more than ready to give until he couldn’t take any more.
After all the stress, and after all the pressure I’d put on myself. The night went well.
We netted over half a million from fees. Some players went home with two briefcases, others with none. Everyone had fun, and nobody started any bullshit. My father had used to take a seat at the table as well, gambling away whatever money he was set to make. Most of these events were used to pay down debts, do business dealings, or douse the fires of family feuds. There was only one issue Kalen brought up, and it was his belly. Something hadn’t agreed with him after my mom’s dinner.
***
Kissing him in the car ride back to my place, he was so sweet and giddy, leaning into my touch, and into my lips. It was probably at that moment I could feel him understand the business I was in, and whether that was illegal or not, it was an important part of the life I led.
Kalen giggled. “Half a million dollars.”
“Half a million,” I whispered into his ear as his skin prickled up into tiny lumps at the side of his neck. “There’s more than that.”
“In your bank?” he asked.
“Are you asking as Kalen, the guy I’m going to fuck tonight, or Kalen, the federal agent?”
He smacked his lips. “The guy you’re going to fuck.”
I pressed my face harder against the side of his cheek. “Good boy.”
We arrived at my apartment, and I saw the glint in Kalen’s eyes, the type that saw everything as being possible in life. The first time I’d met him, he was a bit lifeless, trying his best to get my guard down, to fuck me and do some cartoonish plan of finding dirt.
I chased him around the apartment, all hyped up on the excitement of the evening we’d had together. It had been less than a week of knowing him, and I was ready to lock things down—maybe not marriage, but it would’ve helped with the wholenot testifying against your spousething.
We had fun. There was no denying the fun we had together now. I might not have admitted to it when he first arrived, but there was something so uniquely fun about him that I was hungry for. A hunger I’d suppressed with whatever expensive alcohol my father had in his liquor cabinet and cigarettes—although only temporary, since they were disgusting.I could never quite enjoy the taste they left me with, or the rush. Nicotine made my heart pound heavily and my palms slick with sweat, which in my mind was a bad substance.
“I got you!” Kalen said, jumping onto my back.
Slowly, I lay down on the sofa, not quite squashing him, but enough for him to giggle and struggle free. I don’t think I’d really ever tested his strength, but I knew he had it somewhere. A power strength, whether that was in his legs grappling me, or his tongue laying sticky kisses to my skin, and small suction marks as if he was an octopus with tentacles.
It was in that moment, in that heat, where I’d felt something so exciting stir within my stomach, that I said the words I thought would take months to be free from my mouth.“I think I love you.”
We stopped wrestling on the sofa. I’d said it first, or at least, I usedthinkand softened the thought. Turning face-to-face with each other, he chewed his lower lip lightly and nodded.
“I think I—”
“You don’t have to say it,” I said through a cough, roughing up my voice slightly.
He shook his head. “But I do think,” he said, giggling. “And even if it’s only temporary, I wanna say it. I think I love you too.” He climbed onto my lap and hooked his legs around me once more.
My mouth was occupied with his neck, kissing away at all the sweated off lotions and cologne I’d doused him in. I carried him to the bedroom and threw him down onto the bed, landing right where his beat-up old plush cat lay with its two big black button eyes staring at me.
Kalen hugged the cat plush in his arms. “Are you gonna fuck me, Daddy?”
I smacked my lips and swallowed the saliva. “I told you, after the good work you did today, you’re gonna get a nicereward,” I said. “Besides, I’m thinking about turning that room with the handcuffs into a playroom for you.”
He perked up. “Really?”
On the bed, I parted his legs with both hands on his ankles. “As long as you keep being a good boy,” I said, working my way up his body until I was on top, my head at his chest, rubbing into his plush teddy. “We’re gonna have to put this away. I don’t want it to get dirty.”
Kalen was breathless. “Yes, Daddy,” he whispered, letting go of the toy.
Free to undress him now with no obstacles, I didn’t care about all the buttons on the shirt, tearing it open and letting them pop off across the bed. There was a second layer, a white tank top. “You’re like two-factor authentication,” I said, pulling a small part of the fabric with my forefinger and thumb.
He laughed. “You dressed me,” he said. “It’s your fault.”
