She shrugged. “Aren’t you glad your moms are not like most parents?”
“Every day.” I pulled her into a hug while trying to keep my paint-splattered body from pressing against her T-shirt and jeans.
She hugged me and rubbed my back. “You know we love you, and we already love Liv, but when you’re ready, we’d like to meet Kayden too.”
“Of course. They’re still navigating their relationship but”—I smiled hopefully—“am I insane to think this is going to work out? There are definitely feelings between them; they both made that clear to me. I think they could fall in love with each other too and that makes me so happy I want to pinch myself to make sure this is my life.”
Mom laughed. “If you love both of them, then I have no doubt they could love each other too. I’m willing to bet they’re both pretty special.”
“They are. They really are.” I smiled, getting lost in visions of the three of us building a life together. I tipped my head back and groaned as I remembered that not everyone would be quite as accepting as my moms. “No matter what happens next, a nontraditional relationship is going to raise a lot of questions and judgment. All I want to do is protect them from that.”
Mom squeezed my shoulder. “Look, Ima and I have a less-traditional marriage than society would have you believe is normal. But you know what I believe?”
I shook my head.
“Other people are just suppressing the shit out of what they really want. Most people choose one partner because that’s what society makes us believe we have to do. If the three of you end up loving each other and you want to build your lives together, then fuck society. Fuck the world. Build your life together and never look back, Jace. Because when your life is over, the only thing that really matters is that you spent it the way you wanted to. No one will praise you for forcing yourself into society’s definition of normal when you were built for something different.”
“I love you, Mom,” I said.
“Of course you do, I’m awesome.” She turned to look at my painting of a man with glasses sitting next to a dark-haired woman with a nose ring at a bar. She had a glass of wine in her hand, and he held a glass of sparkling water. “That’s gorgeous by the way. I can feel your love for the subjects pouring off the canvas. You should really keep this one for yourself.”
I glanced at it again. I’d started painting it without any conscious thought about what it was going to be, but art had always been like that for me. I’d start spraying the can and something would appear in front of me as if I’d painted it all subconsciously.
“You want to grab lunch when I’m done here?” I asked as she turned to leave.
“Yeah, I’ll call Ima too. She owes me twenty bucks.”
I laughed. “For what?”
“For you telling them both you were in love with them before Thanksgiving.” She looked back over her shoulder at me. “I did win that bet, right?”
I shook my head. “Yeah, you won.”
Kayden and I walkedback to my condo after dinner, hand-in-hand, and the knowledge that I’d held his hand and kissed him in public tonight still made my heart race with excitement despite this being our norm now. The only thing that had made me happier was listening to Kayden tell me all about his day with Kaylee yesterday. We’d spent last night talking about my afternoon with Olivia—though I’d left out her intention to ask him out, since it didn’t feel like my place to tell him. He’d been so happy for us and then became so turned on when I told him about the moment we’d shared on her couch that we’d stopped talking before we’d even gotten to discuss his afternoon with Kaylee.
But tonight, she was all he could talk about and he looked absolutely stunning, beaming in the glow of fatherhood. Part of me wanted to record him and send it to Liv because I knew if I did, her love for him would be locked and loaded. Deal closed.
He pulled me against his chest as I fumbled with the door and kissed me slowly and deeply. “I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I want you to fuck me tonight,” he whispered against my lips.
My dick twitched and I gave up on opening the door. “That sounds phenomenal.” I cupped his face in both hands. “I want to do that because you want it, not because you think I need it from you. I’m very happy, Kayd.”
“I know,” he said, pulling my hips against his. His dick hardened against me. “I’ve been wanting to do it for a while. I want to feel you inside me. I want to share that level of intimacy with you.”
I smiled and gave him a soft kiss. “I love you.” I pushed the front door open and kissed his neck as I pulled him into the condo with me.
“I love you too.” He palmed my erection through my jeans and bit my lip lightly. “I can’t wait to see your face when you come inside me for the first time.”
“Or what I can do with my piercing?” I teased.
He moaned deeply. “Fuck me. Literally, Jace. I need you to fuck me now.”
I chuckled, pulling us toward the bedroom. “I thought we were going to work on the rehab facility, but this is a hundred times better.”
Kayden laughed. “Play first, work later.”
We kissed our way to the bedroom, shedding clothes along the way until we were both naked and Kayden lay flat on his back beneath me. I kissed down his chest and took his dick in my mouth as I popped open a bottle of lube. I positioned myself between his legs and pressed one finger inside, gently warming him up. He groaned in pleasure as I pushed past the ring of muscle and sucked his cock.
“More,” he cried.
