Page 26 of Pieces of You

“Oh my God,” Archie uttered, staring at me.

Corey dropped his jaw. “Holy crap.”

I lifted my brows. What was happening?

Sloan reentered our cabin and blinked when he spotted me.

“What?” I demanded.

“It’s just so wrong, Dominus.” Corey eyed me as if I were a display in a museum. “I love you with all my heart, but shaving off your beard makes you more naked than when you rock out with your cock out. If you know what I mean.”

Oh, for the love of⁠—

Archie and Sloan cracked up at that.

Fucking hellions, the lot of them.

“I’m hot without the beard too, fuckers,” I said.

“Of course, Master!” Archie hurried over to me and brushed his fingers over my jaw. “You’re always sexy.”

But…?

I narrowed my eyes at him.

He smiled and inched away. “That’s all. I’m leaving it at that. You’re always sexy.”

Hmpf.

They should be all over me. I’d put on utility pants and a matching green tee. I looked like the jarhead I’d been for so many years. Just…maybe add some grays and approximately ten pounds. A few wrinkles too.

Sloan smiled at me. “I’m surprised you didn’t give yourself a high and tight.”

Even I had limits. Besides, back in the day, I’d usually just shaved my head altogether, at least if I was going overseas.

“Do you miss those days?” I smirked.

He chuckled and walked over to me. “Not one bit, but it has nothing to do with your hair.”

I knew what he meant. Neither of us had much to look back on in terms of personal happiness and good relationships. Even so, it was in the past he and I had become best friends, it was in the past he had waited for me to come home from deployments, and it was in the past I had waited for him to get divorced.

He touched my jaw and kissed me. “Thank fuck you can pull this off, though.”

I chuckled quietly and rested my forehead to his.

The humor faded when he threaded our fingers together and brought our hands between us.

“You better be safe over there,” he said quietly. “I’m trying to remind myself it’s LA, not Fallujah, but I’m guessing there’s a big risk you’ll end up south of the border.”

I couldn’t deny that. After what I’d learned about my nephew and a few others I knew ending up in Europe, I’d stopped thinking this was a domestic issue. And of course, there was that voice in the back of my head, reminding me where coke came from. South America.

“I’ll be careful.” I withdrew my hands from his and took off his glasses, and I placed them on the coffee table. “Keep in mind, I’m better in the field than sitting on the sidelines.”

“Boredom won’t kill you.”

“What Daddy said,” Corey chimed in.

I smiled faintly and brushed my lips to Sloan’s. “We can’t know that for sure.”