BO soaked up Adam’s strength and warmth for as long as he could before pulling away to lock his gaze on those beautiful gray irises. He brushed a knuckle beneath the bandage he’d placed over the worst of Adam’s injuries and frowned. He’d been right when he’d assumed watching Adam get beat on would break him. Despite being at a public bar, surrounded by people, tears had flooded his cheeks.
And that was before the final round, when the referee had ended the fight by announcing Adam’s loss. Standing there, bloodied and bruised, Adam had accepted defeat like the champ he truly was. But under his stoic exterior, through the eyes of a lover who knew him well, the heartache was clear.
Bo hadn’t thought twice. He’d sent Lulu a text to tell her Adam lost, and before he could send another to let her know he’d be leaving for a few days, she’d responded with, Drive careful and pull over if you get tired. Let me know when you get to Vegas safe and sound. Oh, and give Adam a hug for me.
How could he leave Adam here to face that pain on his own? Just because they’d been forced apart by things outside their control didn’t mean Bo loved him any less. He hadn’t even realized how deeply he cared for Adam until their separation forced him to step back. When he looked at everything he’d taken for granted during their time together—everything Adam had tried to offer but he’d refused—driving to Vegas had been the only logical response. Leaving Adam to suffer alone was out of the question.
“I’m so sorry, Adam.” Bo clenched his jaw as shame turned his stomach sour. “About everything. About leaving the way I did and about not coming back to get my stuff myself. Calling you like that and making you do it when I hadn’t spoken to you in days was…. I’ve been a jerk and a—”
Adam placed a finger over Bo’s lips. “It’s okay. You did what you had to do to take care of yourself and your sister. There’s nothing wrong with that. Your priorities were in the right place.”
Maybe they were, but that didn’t mean Bo had handled things well. He’d fled right on the brink of securing a commitment he knew Adam wanted as much as he did. Rather than letting him help, Bo had pushed him away. He’d been a selfish coward. Too focused on his own issues to realize what his actions might’ve done to Adam.
“Part of that hug was from Lulu, by the way.” Bo wriggled in Adam’s hold when Adam cocked a brow and bumped his hips to highlight their mutual hard-ons. “I mean, the G-rated upper-body portion. Everything down south was all me.”
Adam laughed. The deep, familiar tenor washed over Bo in a comforting wave. The loneliness and misery of the past few weeks disappeared, replaced by that special brand of security, solace, and cozy contentment he only felt in Adam’s presence.
“How is the little monster? She sounded well enough when we spoke yesterday, but—”
“Wait, you two talked yesterday? When? How? She doesn’t even have your…. Oh.” Bo’s shoulders sagged, and he shook his head. A smile crept up his lips. “That little pain in my butt. She borrowed my phone to check her Facebook because hers was dead, then sent me to get her ice water. I never thought she’d use it for anything other than the stated purpose or I wouldn’t’ve given it to her.”
Chuckling, Adam ran his callused hands up and down Bo’s arms. “She seemed a bit rushed. That’s probably why, eh?” He grinned. “So that means you don’t know why she called, do you?”
“No, but I can guess.” Bo sighed and climbed off Adam’s lap. The coffee was done, so he poured them both a steaming mugful and joined Adam back at the table. On his own chair this time. “She’s antsy to get out of the sterile hospital environment and back home. Unfortunately I’ve been living out of a motel, so there really isn’t a ‘home’ to go back to yet. I told her I’d need to find a job before getting an apartment, and she of course argued I already had one.”
Bo glanced at Adam and cringed at the smirk on his face. Just as he suspected. The little brat had circumvented him and called Adam to plead for an extension to his kindness. Something Bo did not want. He had a GED and a solid work history. He could and would find a job that, even with California’s high cost of living, could support them. It wasn’t Adam’s responsibility to keep throwing money their way. “I’m sorry. Lulu’s never been great at discerning boundaries or recognizing when they shouldn’t be crossed.”
Adam threaded his fingers with Bo’s, drawing their joined hands to his lips for a kiss. “Have you talked to Lulu about what she wants? Aside from getting out of the hospital environment, that is.”
Electricity fired under Bo’s skin at the feel of Adam’s lips. He struggled to get his mind out of the king-sized bed upstairs and back to the topic at hand. Clearing his throat, he slid his gaze to meet Adam’s and focused on the soft warmth of his stare. “She’s having trouble at school. The excessive alcohol intake was more a symptom of that than anything else. I think she needs a stable environment right now. She wasn’t quite ready to be out on her own, especially so far from home and… well, me. We’ve relied on each other nearly our whole lives, you know?”
Adam ran his thumb over their linked knuckles in gentle circles. He tipped his head to the side. “Does she want to stay in Berkeley?”
“What, you mean stay in school?” Bo scrunched his brow. “Of course she does. She was so excited about getting into UC Berkeley. It was her dream for most of high school.”
“Was? Or is?” Adam offered a soft smile. “I kinda got the impression she wanted to come back to Vegas. Has she said anything to you?”
Lulu told Adam she wanted to move back to Las Vegas?
Bo rubbed at the back of his neck with his free hand, his stomach doing a delighted flip when Adam offered one of his most adorable lopsided grins. How had he endured the past two weeks without the man who could right all his wrongs with a single smile? Even more pressing of a question, how could he survive the rest of his life without him?
“Lulu said that? That she wants to move back?”
Adam shrugged. “Not in so many words, but she did say she planned to drag you back here. To Vegas… and to me.” He cleared his throat, and a slight tinge of pink colored his cheeks. “She wanted to know if I’d take you back. I didn’t bother to ask what capacity she referred to because the answer would be the same either way.”
Bo swallowed, his heart thrumming to life in an erratic rhythm. His pulse jumped at his throat. What was Lulu’s game? She couldn’t be trying to get rid of him. If nothing else, she’d made it clear she wanted to be with Bo and she wanted to go home. “Oh. Crap.”
Lulu hadn’t wanted Bo to mooch off Adam. Her goal hadn’t been for him to soak up a salary while living hundreds of miles away doing nothing to earn it. She’d wanted him to keep his job in Vegas because she wanted to go home. Not to an apartment in Berkeley where she’d spiraled into depression, but to the place she’d lived happily all her life. To the place she and Bo belonged.
Giving Adam’s hand a squeeze, Bo slipped his fingers free. He dug his cell out of his pocket and shot Lulu a text. He waited, on the edge of his chair, until she replied. Barely twenty seconds later. He could almost hear the eye roll in her words when he read, Took you long enough, genius. Yes, I want to move home. TO VEGAS.
“Everything okay?”
The note of concern in Adam’s voice brought a grin to Bo’s lips. He tossed his phone on the table and crawled back into Adam’s lap, thrilled when Adam’s mouth stretched to match his own goofy smile.
“Sounds like I’m moving home.” Bo laughed when Adam’s beaming face cracked even further, his gray eyes sparkling with delight. “Mind telling me what your answer was? It’s imperative I know now.”
Adam cocked an inquisitive brow. “My answer?”
“To Lulu’s question. The one you didn’t deign to get the specifics on because the answer would be the same either way.”
“Oh, that answer.” Adam smirked and gave Bo’s backside a squeeze, tugging him closer. “It was a resounding yes.”
Bo rolled his hips so their cocks grazed. They both moaned and the hold Adam had on his butt strengthened, his eyes turning smoky with desire.
He hadn’t thought he’d have another opportunity to broach the subject he’d meant to discuss in the hotel all those weeks before, but presented with a second chance, Bo found himself wavering.
He didn’t want to remain Adam’s PA. Of that much, he was sure. He needed to find employment elsewhere. Something outside their relationship that could support him and Lulu while allowing him and Adam to date. Unhindered. Without any undue risk to his financial stability or any unnecessary guilt for Adam.
If their relationship didn’t work, they both needed the freedom to step away without any negative consequences. Otherwise, how could they trust the other wasn’t sticking around to avoid hardship or discomfort?
But it wasn’t his employment status that had Bo pausing. Adam would agree to those terms easily enough. It was the thought of moving back to Vegas and living apart from Adam. The very idea made his skin crawl. After living together for so many months, this house felt like home to him. Especially when he got to sink into bed with the man he loved every night.
But could Lulu find herself a home here?
More importantly, would Adam want her to?
“Babe?” Adam knuckled under Bo’s chin, forcing their gazes to meet. “Talk to me. I can see your gears turning. Don’t shut me out. Let me help. What’s got you worried?”
Bo licked his lips, taking a moment to relish the flash of longing that darkened Adam’s eyes as a result. He laced his fingers behind Adam’s neck and rubbed his thumbs into his hairline. When Adam closed his eyes and purred, the knot of nerves in Bo’s belly loosened. “What if I told you I don’t want to come back as your PA?”
Adam squinted one eye open, cringed, then opened them both. “I’d say I’m not surprised. I’d also fully support any decision you feel is right for you, but I’d ask you to consider allowing me to keep you and Lulu comfortable until she’s better. Now isn’t the time to be starting a new gig. Lulu needs you here, at home, helping her heal. We can get some home health nurses to come during the day, but she needs her brother too. Her healing isn’t going to be purely physical, after all. She’s been through a lot.”
Bo’s pulse quickened. He tightened his hold on the back of Adam’s neck. “And by ‘home,’ you mean—”
“Here.” Adam’s faced hardened. “I mean here. In our home. Just because you went to Berkeley to take care of Lulu for a few weeks doesn’t mean this isn’t still your home. I want you and Lulu to move in with me for good. I love you, and for some insane reason, that darling little monster has grown on me too. But don’t tell her that. I enjoy our sparring.”
“Yeah, when you aren’t breaking my eardrums with your painful attempts at harmonization.” Bo chuckled, the sound choking at the back of his throat when realization dawned on him like a brick falling square on his head. He let his hands fall from Adam’s neck to rest on his shoulders, then squared his own. “Cheese and rice, Adam, you can’t drop a nuclear bomb and act like the world didn’t tilt on its frickin’ axis as a result.”
Adam drew back his chin and inclined his head to the side. “Asking you to move back in is a nuclear bomb?”
Bo snorted. “No, but saying ‘I love you’ sure is.”
When Adam turned ashen, his eyes popping and jaw dropping comically wide, Bo grinned. So it hadn’t been a purposeful admission. Who cares? It needed to be said. Bo had hoped he felt the same—had all but convinced himself he did—but hearing the words spoken aloud did strange and wonderful things to his insides. He gave Adam’s shoulder a gentle shove, careful not to put any real pressure in case there were hidden bruises. Which there undoubtedly were. “Don’t worry, I love you too, you big squishy-hearted oaf.”
Adam growled and thrust to his feet. Bo squealed, latching on with all four limbs at the sudden shift in his equilibrium. Not that Adam would ever let him fall. Not that Bo could ever think he would.
“Can I take you to bed?” Adam’s voice was gruff, husky with desire. “I think it’s time we made love. Proper like.”
Bo rocked his hips and groaned. “I thought you’d never ask.”