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“Stay,” Dom interrupted. He released his wrist and pulled back the blankets. “Unless you don’t want to.”

Gavin let the boxer briefs fall back to the floor. “I want to.”

He climbed into bed, and Dom immediately moved into his space, settling against his side with one leg thrown across Gavin’s. Gavin wrapped an arm around him as Dom yawned against his chest. Within minutes, Dom was asleep, and Gavin was left with his thoughts and the unfamiliar weight of another person warm along his side. He waited for panic to find him, but it never came. With Dom breathing evenly against him and Lucia’s soft breaths drifting through the monitor, Gavin wasn’t thinking about how easily this could disappear. He was thinking about how badly he wanted to stay.

18

DOM

Dom woke to an empty bed, and for one disoriented second, thought he’d imagined the night before. Then he shifted, and every muscle Gavin had stretched made itself known.

“Jesus,” he muttered, dropping back against the pillow. He was glad he had a day off.

The other side of the bed was cool, but Gavin’s shirt still lay on the floor where he’d dropped it last night, though his jeans were missing. The sight of it eased the anxiety that had been building. He grabbed his phone to check the time, sitting upright when he saw how late it was. He grabbed the monitor from the nightstand, but Lucia’s crib was empty. That got him moving. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and made it halfway down the stairs before he heard Gavin’s voice.

“I agree,” Gavin said in the patient tone he’d started using when Lucia was making an argument only she understood. “The service here is terrible. You should absolutely speak to a manager.”

Lucia answered with a happy squeal. Dom paused at the entrance to the kitchen. Gavin stood in the kitchen wearing just his jeans, and the loose waistband drew Dom’s attention to the lean muscles of his stomach. His hair was a mess, one side still flattened from sleep, and when he reached into the cabinet for a mug, Dom watched the muscles in his back shift beneath his skin.

He should probably say good morning. Instead, he stood there staring at the man who had spent the night in his bed and was now apparently trying to kill him by making coffee half-dressed.

Gavin noticed him in the doorway, and his lips curved. “Morning.” He came over and kissed Dom lightly.

“Morning.” Dom was pleased to discover he could still manage that much.

“You want coffee?” Gavin made his way back to the coffeemaker.

“Please.”

Gavin took down a second mug and filled it, then turned and caught Dom looking somewhere considerably lower than his face. His smile got wider.

“What?” he asked, one brow raised.

“Nothing.” Dom flushed and looked away.

“Dom.”

He looked back at Gavin. “I’m trying to remember if you looked like this yesterday.”

“I did,” Gavin confirmed, looking down at himself.

“I don’t know,” Dom said. He stopped to crouch in front of Lucia’s swing to greet his daughter, then crossed the kitchen to the island. “Seems like something I would have noticed.”

“You did.” Gavin set the mugs on the island, then hopped up to sit on the island, bracing himself with one hand as he settled on the edge. “Repeatedly.”

If it were possible, Gavin looked even better up close. There was a faint crease along his cheek from the pillow and a small red mark near his collarbone that Dom remembered leaving. Seeing it in the morning light made him smile.

Gavin followed his gaze. “Pleased with yourself?”

“Little bit, yeah.”

Dom moved to stand between Gavin’s legs, smiling when he gently tightened his thighs around Dom’s hips, holding him close. He rested his hands against Gavin’s sides, his thumbs brushing warm skin just above the waistband of his jeans. Gavin’s stomach tightened beneath the touch. That was satisfying too.

“We were going to bring you coffee upstairs,” Gavin said. “Lucia had this whole grand plan.”

“I can go back upstairs,” Dom offered. He tried to move closer, but the edge of the counter stopped his forward progress. “Though I kinda like it right here.”

Gavin laughed softly and settled a hand on the back of Dom’s neck. “Yeah?”