BROCK SUPPOSED no news was good news, but they were stuck indoors and that made for a cranky Josie at the end of the day. Gordon and Max had left after pizza with nothing else to report. Josie had been fractious during her bath and her stories, and had taken ages to settle.
Finally it was just him and Eric again. “You want a drink?”
“God, yes.” Eric rubbed the back of his neck.
He poured them each a whiskey and handed one of the tumblers over to Eric before settling down on the couch with a sigh. Eric joined him, close enough that he could feel the warmth coming off his lover’s body, far enough away they weren’t touching.
“I want you and Josie being here to be permanent.” He hadn’t realized that was what he was going to say until the words were out of his mouth.
“What?”
“Maybe I’m presuming, but you’ve told her all about me, you named me her guardian if anything happens to you, so I have to think, somewhere in your head, you were hoping we’d get back together again.”
“Praying.” The single word fell between them. “With all my heart.”
“Then you’ll stay with me. Both of you.” It was what he wanted.
“Really? You want us?” Eric scooted closer.
“I kind of thought that was obvious last night.”
“Well…. You have a lifestyle and…. God, kiss me, Brock. Now. Before I fuck this up.”
“A lifestyle.” He chuckled, pulling Eric in close. “If you call working nights and weekends a lifestyle, then sure.”
Then he kissed Eric, taking his time, luxuriating in the taste of his lover’s lips. Eric pressed into his arms, breath hitching, arms wrapped around him. He put all his feelings into the kiss, the love that had never gone away, not in nine years.
His lover. His. His family. His life.
Eric settled against him so that they were heart to heart.
“It feels right, doesn’t it?” Brock figured Eric had to be feeling it, too.
“I just…. Everything seems like a hallucination lately.”
He took Eric’s hand and set it on his erection. “This feel like a hallucination?”
“No. God, no. I—not at all.”
“Good.” He brought their mouths back together again and this time he plundered Eric’s mouth.
Eric moaned for him, moving to sit in his lap, fingers framing his face. “Love.”
“Yeah, that’s the idea.” He took another kiss, his hands finding Eric’s ass and kneading it, feeling his lover up.
His. Fuck, yeah. This was his. He trailed his lips from Eric’s, down along his lover’s jaw to the warm neck.
“We can stay? Permanently?”
“Yes. I’ll call the lawyer. I’ll have your name added to the condo as co-owner. We’ll get adoption proceedings going. Anything happens to you, I want a thick, solid paper trail between me and your batshit-crazy mother.”
“Yes. I want Josie to be with her Bee. I always have.”
Brock laughed suddenly. “Trust you to leave and still get your way with me.”
“I had to go. I didn’t want to.”
“I can’t argue with your results, even if a part of me is grumbling about wasting nine years.” Not that he’d have had anything to do with adopting a baby nine years ago. Hell, he wouldn’t have a couple of months ago, either. Josie had kind of wormed her way into his heart.
“We didn’t waste it. We just needed space to do it right.”
“And I guess the whole kidnapping business was the universe’s way of saying ‘get on with it already.’”
“No. That was some crazy little fucker trying to hurt my daughter.”
“Yeah.” He hugged Eric to him. “They’ll catch him and throw him in jail.”
“You think so? You think they’ll find him?”
“I think he’s too stupid to stay hidden.”
Eric sighed. “I’m scared for Jo, Brock.”
“Nothing is going to happen to her, baby. She’s got lots of big, strong men around to look after her.” He winked. “And you.”
“Oh, you butthead.” Eric swatted his hip. Hard.
Brock laughed. “If we’re going to get kinky, we should probably move this to the bedroom.”
Eric’s laughter joined his. “Does that mean I get a side of the bed that’s my own?”
“I guess I could agree to that.”
“You guess?” Eric tackled him playfully, not pushing too hard, but still better.
He kept teasing. “I like my bed. A lot.”
“Oh…. You turd.” Eric’s fingers knew just where he was ticklish. He bucked as he laughed, Eric’s body riding his. “Love you, you big lug.”
“Lug? Big lug?” He retaliated, tickling Eric gently.
“Mmm-hmm…. My big lug.”
“Yeah, I’ll give you that.” He went back to the kissing, licking the inside of Eric’s mouth. Eric settled, fingers sliding on his skin. His cock responded to the change in mood immediately, making it known that it was totally interested in moving this along in a nontalking direction.
“Are we supposed to be having a discussion?” Eric moaned the words against his lips.
“We finished the discussion ages ago. You and Josie are moving in. I’m adopting her. You get the left side of the bed. Now shut up and kiss me.”
Eric cupped his face, mouth pressing hard against his, sealing the deal. He sucked on Eric’s tongue, pulled it into his own mouth. No one—not all the lovers and one-night stands and fuck buddies—no one else had ever kissed him like it was the most important thing in the universe.
“Love you,” he whispered into Eric’s mouth.
Eric’s eyes fastened onto his. “I’m sorry I had to leave, but I’m so glad…. So glad your heart is here, Brock.”
“It is, baby. It was never anywhere else.” He wrapped his hands around Eric’s ass and stood, carrying his lover off.