Is chore-play a thing? I mean, domestic labor has never really done it for me before, but as I sit here at the kitchen island, watching Gio clean the counters to within an inch of their lives, I can’t tear my eyes off him.
That adorable, anal-retentive man of mine is going to meet my dad and brother today, and he’s cleaning the kitchen—that’s after spending most of his downtime this week doing the same to the rest of the house, all so it’ll be perfect for my family.
Not only has it made me realize I’ve fallen hard for Gio, but this cleaning malarkey has made me realize that this whole scene is kind of doing it for me . . . in a big way.
Is it the way the sleeves of his T-shirt cling to his biceps, or the tense and release of his more-than-abundant shoulder muscles as he wipes the counter back and forth? Or could it be his tight ass when he bends over to put the dishes away, wearing those grey sweats he knows I like?
Whatever this sorcery is, I’m totally buying it. Sign me up—I’m a fan for life if it means I don’t have to do chores and I get to jump the cleaner and thank him in a multitude of pleasurable ways afterward.
It’s a win-win. Gio gets his sterile kitchen, I get free live porn to prime me for a pre-lunch snack—him.
Unfortunately, we don’t really have time to do anything about my lust today. Well, not the way I want to work it out of my system. That’s not to say I can’t show him any appreciation though.
I slide off my seat and slowly move toward my clean-freak plant daddy. Reaching out, I glide my hands over his hips and around to rest on his stomach, rubbing them over his Chicago PD T-shirt.
“What are you doing, baby?” His low, husky voice just adds to my already turned-on state as he drops the cloth into the sink and turns in my arms. One look at my face and his eyes drop low, his gaze flashing with heat.
“Baby,” he rumbles, his hands moving around to my back and stroking down to my ass. “We don’t have time to deal with that look you’re giving me.”
I press my hips firmly against his and quirk a brow. “Oh, we don’t, but I do.” Then, with my gaze locked with his, I slowly drop my knees down onto the tiles, my fingers wrapping around his hard length through those God’s-gift-to-women sweats.
“That’s a nice fucking view, baby,” he groans, pushing firmly into my grip, his hand raking through my hair to rest on the back of my head.
I wink up at him. “And it’s about to get a hell of a lot better.”
Reaching out, I delve my fingers under the waistband at his hips and slowly pull it down, not breaking eye contact until his pants are hanging mid-thigh. Licking my lips, I run my hands in until I’m gripping his shaft at the base, loving the way his eyes flutter closed and his breath hitches when I stroke him to the tip and back again.
Then I focus on the job at hand, sticking out my tongue and dipping my mouth to run the point around his crown, earning a low growl that I feel right down between my legs.
Gio’s fingers flex against my scalp as I wrap my lips around him and take him deep, swallowing before lifting my head and doing it again and again, bobbing up and down, pursing my lips to add more friction as I slide his hard length in and out, resisting the overwhelming urge to delve my fingers between my legs to ease the growing ache.
“Fuck, baby. No better view than you. Your mouth on me, your hands. Your everything.” The rasp in his voice turns me on even more.
“So beautiful,” he groans before throwing his head back and growling when his hard length hits the back of my mouth again. I rake my nails gently across the sensitive skin of his inner thigh, making his muscles tense and shake, and I know he’s getting close. Time to turn this party into a blowout—literally.
I hum against his cock, the vibrations coursing through both of us, making me squirm and getting me so close to getting off without either one of us touching me. I’m on such a knife’s edge, I swear that even a small amount of friction would have me screaming out.
Reaching one hand around to grip his butt and moving the other to roll over his balls, I push him deeper and faster into my mouth. His grunts and groans get louder and more out of control until his thrusts start to stutter, and I lift my gaze to watch him watching me, making me moan against the head of his cock.
“Fuck, baby. I’m there. Jesus. That mouth,” he grinds out as he thrusts twice more, then stops, shouting out as he climaxes into my mouth.
After swallowing him down—because who would ever waste any part of Gio Rossi?—I let him fall from my mouth and lean back on my calves, sucking in desperate breaths and willing my heart and my libido to settle.
Gio hooks his arms under mine, lifting me to my feet before gripping my face and crushing his lips to mine, licking and tasting and almost sending me right up into the stratosphere.
“Your turn,” he rasps, dragging his lips to my neck and moving to undo my jeans.
I break our kiss and slowly step back, shaking my head with a grin. “Nuh-uh, roomie. We don’t have time.” I lean in and touch my mouth to his jaw. “And we both know how much I love it when you take your time with me.”
“Fuuuck. You’re gonna have me ready to go again if you keep talking like that.”
I straighten and shoot him a smirk. “But it must be said, I seem to really get off on watching you do housework in grey sweatpants. Maybe you should use that to your advantage sometime.”
Then I’m skipping off down the hall toward my bedroom to get ready for Dad and Adam to arrive so we can all go out to dinner leaving Gio standing in the kitchen with his pants around his knees.
Best. Morning. Ever.
“Well,” I hear my dad say as soon as Gio opens the door. “Good to know you don’t pull a gun on everyone who comes knocking.”
Gio insisted that he be the one to greet Dad and Adam when they arrived. Now, I’m thinking that might not have been a good idea.
A startled giggle escapes me,
“Now that’s a laugh I’d know in a crowded room,” Dad says, and I step out to stand next to my boyfriend, grinning at my family.
Tears sting my eyes, and before I know it, Dad’s reaching out and pulling me in for a big bear hug right there on the front steps. As much as Gio, this house, and the firehouse crew are all home to me now, my dad’s arms are definitely something I hadn’t realized I’d missed.
“C’mon, chief. Let me get some A2 love too,” Adam teases, playfully stealing me from our father and hugging me tightly. “Hey, sis.”
“Hey, big bro.”
When I step back, and Gio wraps his arms around my waist in a claiming gesture that no one misses, I realize we should really get this first meeting underway.
“Do you want to come in?” I ask.
“Well, I didn’t come all this way to stand on the street and freeze my balls off, sweetheart.”
An unexpected snort of laughter sounds from beside me. I glance up and meet Gio’s crinkled eyes, all his nerves seemingly gone.
Moving back, I swing my arm out and usher Dad and Adam inside, starting the quickest house tour in history.
“Nice to see you’re keeping the house clean, kiddo,” Dad says, looking impressed as he peers into the kitchen.
Gio, earning a definite thank you from me later, doesn’t dispute him, but I do. “Yeah, Dad. That’s all my roomie here. Moving states has done nothing to help my housekeeping skills.”
He chuckles, his whole body shaking with it as he looks over to where Gio and Adam are chatting in the living room. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a look of surprised pride in his gaze. “Well, then. He’s not earning any black marks against his name so far. But the night is still young,” he adds with a wink.
“Be nice, Dad. I really like him.” I drop my voice so that it’s for our ears only.
“Why are we whispering?”
“Because I don’t want to make Gio any more nervous.”
Dad scoffs and looks over my shoulder to my boyfriend. “He sure doesn’t look nervous.”
“He cleaned this house from top to bottom at least twice.”
“Ah, so he’s one of those anally retentive, stick-up-his-ass coppers then?” he asks with a laugh as we move down the hall to see the rest of the house, starting with my bedroom.
“No. Well . . .” I make a show of thinking about it. I shake my head. “No, definitely not. He just likes a clean house and looking after his belongings.”
Dad arches a brow. “Does that include you?”
“Yep.”
He nods and looks around my bedroom, seeming happy with my living situation. But something in me feels like I need to qualify just how Gio takes care of me—the PG version, anyway. Because, like every child, I’ll never stop wanting to prove to my parents that I’m one hundred percent okay, and that means starting with the truth about that callout. Here’s hoping this is the first step towards getting my head into a better place.
I take a deep breath, steel my shoulders. I can do this. “Full disclosure,” I blurt. “I had a bad call a while ago, and it rattled me because I thought we’d left someone in there when we were pulled out.”
Dad reaches out and holds my hand, concern written all over his face. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“Well, honestly. I figured Cap would’ve told you during one of your many chats. But I think its more to do with me struggling to get past it.”
Dad shrugs. “I’m your father. I’m not going to apologize for worrying about you and making sure you’re going okay.”
I squeeze his fingers. “And I love you for it, I do. But it all worked out in the end. Gio’s brothers both looked out for me until we could get back to the firehouse, and then they called him to pick me up so I didn’t have to drive home. Gio helped me hold it together then let me fall apart when I needed to as well.”
Dad strokes my arm, his gaze softening. “That’s good, sweetheart. Not easy to go through though, is it?”
“Nope. And in the end, I was hearing things because there was no one stuck inside. So it was a whole lot of stress for nothing.”
“No. It’s never for nothing. But you’re okay now? On the job, I mean?”
I try hard to school my features, and I know Dad’s watching me closely. Somehow I manage to pull it off. “Yeah. I mean… I’m getting there. I’m good… well, better, put it that way.”
“Good,” he says. “You’ve got one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever known, sweetheart, and that’s something you got from your mother. I fell in love with her for it, so it makes sense that she gave it to you too.”
“Dad . . .”
His eyes glisten but he waves me off, pulling me in for another hug before stepping back. “So Gio, he’s a good man? He makes you happy?”
“Absolutely, Dad. I know he has my back even when I don’t want to admit I need him to. The whole Rossi family have been super welcoming. They’ve kind of all adopted me.”
“Good. That’s really good.” He huffs out a sigh that’s part relief, part resigned. I take it as a win though, because it means he can see that I’m happy and settled, and he hasn’t read me deep enough to sense that despite what I’m telling him, something is still wrong at work.’
Because everything else is absolutely perfect, and as soon as I can get myself over these yips, I’ll be even better.
We start to walk back down the hall. “So, you’re dating but still have separate rooms. Interesting . . .”
“Dad!” I splutter, getting me a hearty chuckle and a wink.
“Knew I’d get ya with that one. You’re thirty-one tomorrow, sweetheart. I’m not naïve, even if I can categorically say I do not want to know about it.”
“Thank God for that,” I mutter.
“But if I know my daughter, you’re probably determined to keep the guy on his toes.”
We reach the living room where I find Gio and Adam sitting in front of the TV, watching a Cubs game replay.
“Jesus, roomie. You’re a fast worker. You’ve charmed my brother already?” I ask.
“To be fair,” Adam says with a toast of his beer bottle, “he won me over talking about my plant nephew over there.”
My eyes jump wide as my head snaps first to Fred, then Gio, my heart melting and other parts of my body making promises to him that I plan on keeping later tonight. “Yeah. Uncle Adam, meet Fred.”
“Hold up. You have a plant together? This is more serious than I thought,” Dad says with a surprisingly straight face. “Good going there, Gio. It shows my daughter you’re responsible and will be a good father.”
“A plant father, Dad. Jeez, it’s not like Fred is a child,” I say.
Gio arches his brows sky-high before looking back at Fred. “It’s okay, Fred. She doesn’t mean that.”
Dad grins then crosses the room, holding out his arm to my boyfriend. “Thanks for looking after our girl. I might be able to stop my weekly calls to the Captain now, since Alex tells me you and your brothers have been watching out for her. It’s good to see my daughter being treated well.”
Gio shakes his hand. “It’s my honor, Mr. Maxwell. She’s a wonderful woman.”
“Pfft. Call me Jeff or Chief—that’s what everyone does.”
“Okay, Jeff.”
“And how are you holding up against my daughter’s stubborn streak?” Dad asks, taking a seat in the empty armchair, his eyes moving to the game as well. I sigh and shake my head. Gio chuckles, and Adam just straight-out laughs.
“You know Alex better than me, Jeff. Each day promises a new adventure.” Gio glances over at me, locking eyes with mine. “And I make sure I enjoy and appreciate every single one.”
Woman down. Somebody save me. I’m a goner.
Because all I can think about for the rest of the night—throughout dinner, dessert, and saying goodbye to Dad and Adam, who make it clear to both Gio and myself that they more than approve—is that I haven’t just fallen for Gio. I’m totally in love with the man.
I guess now all that’s left to do is tell him.