BROCK WOKE up slowly, his morning hard-on snugged up against Eric’s ass.
He could get used to this. In fact, he was pretty sure he already was. Good thing he was keeping Eric this time. He wrapped his hand around Eric’s hip and tugged his lover back as he thrust forward. Damn. Good.
“Brock.” Eric groaned, arched, ass pushing against him.
“Baby. I don’t want to hurt you.” He wanted this, though.
“Okay. Don’t. Love me.”
“You’re supposed to be healing.” He kept thrusting, though, Eric’s warm skin feeling so good.
“Uh-huh.”
He reached down, finding Eric’s cock as eager as his own.
“Love morning sex.”
He knew that. “You say something the minute anything hurts.” If he made things worse now, he wouldn’t have sex with Eric for weeks. Maybe even months.
“I promise. No acrobatics. I’ll just let you do the work.”
“Okay. Don’t move.” He wrapped his hand around Eric’s cock and began to tug.
“You’re not asking for much.” Eric’s laugh filled the room.
He squeezed the pretty cock. “I’m not.”
“Brock. Oh, lover….” Eric’s laughter faded into a moan.
Yeah, he could derail Eric like that. Brock kept stroking, Eric’s prick hot and silky on his palm.
“Love you. Don’t stop.” Eric tried to shift, to push back against him.
He did stop as soon as Eric began pushing. “No moving. I’ll take care of you.”
Eric groaned. “Evil old man.”
“Oh, yes. So evil, I’m going to make you come.”
“Uh-huh. Vicious.” Eric’s laughter was husky.
He chuckled as well, stroked a little faster.
“Did I mention evil?” Eric’s cock started to leak for him.
“You did. If I was evil, would I do this?” He twisted his hand, let his thumb drag over Eric’s cock.
“N… no. Oh, fuck that’s hot. Do it again.”
Chuckling, he did it again, rocking forward this time to rub against Eric’s ass.
“Yeah.” Eric’s skin was warm, soft, smooth. He licked at Eric’s neck, humming at the pleasure that flowed between them.
“This is perfect.” Eric moaned softly. “Perfect.”
“Almost,” he groaned, hips rocking harder.
“Oh. In me. Fill me up.”
“Not this time, baby.” Not until Eric was better.
“Brock.”
“That’s right, that’s my name.” He kept rocking, kept stroking Eric’s cock.
“Want you. Fuck. Need.”
“You’ve got me, baby. I’m right here.”
“Love you.” Eric gasped, rocking back against him.
“No moving, baby.” He didn’t have the heart to stop, though, not when they were this close.
“Don’t stop.”
“Then you don’t move.” He growled, his own hips working hard against Eric’s ass.
Eric nodded, moans becoming tiny little cries.
He squeezed the head of Eric’s prick, pressed into the slit. Heat answered him, Eric shooting, spunk splashing on his fingers. Groaning, he closed his eyes and breathed Eric in, let that and the hot skin he was rubbing off on make him come.
They rested together, breathing hard. “Morning.”
“Mmm….” He licked at the sweat on Eric’s shoulder. “Morning, baby.”
Eric nodded. “A good one, too.”
“You need a shower.” He rubbed his hips forward, his cock sliding easily in the mess along Eric’s ass. He chuckled. “I’ll get up and keep the princess occupied while you deal with taking a careful shower. No bending for anything, though, so don’t drop the soap.”
“I can probably pick up soap.”
“No bending, baby. Promise me.”
“I swear. I’ll just let the soap melt.”
“Okay. Then you can take an unsupervised shower.” He gave Eric’s neck another kiss. “You need help getting up?”
“I don’t think so. I’m better today.”
“No pushing it, okay? I know you think I’m fussing, but if you aggravate it again, they’re going to have to get you back in surgery, and I’d kind of like to avoid that.”
“No. No, I’ve had enough surgery.” Eric let him help this time, let him get them both out of bed.
He walked Eric to the bathroom and turned on the shower for his lover, grinning when Eric rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t hurt to indulge me.”
“No. It doesn’t.” Eric looked at him. “Do you think we could ask Lacy to stay one evening, watch Jo while we go out to dinner?”
“Oh, that would be nice, baby. We haven’t been out on a date in a very long time.”
“I know. I’d have to go to the house and get decent clothes, but I could dress for you.”
“Gordon said all your clothes were destroyed, remember? Besides, I don’t want you going back there ever again. I’ll have Stephanie send over catalogs and we’ll reoutfit you and Josie.” He wanted to the place stripped, cleaned within an inch of its life by a service, and sold.
Eric sighed. “I have to go at some point, love. I have to deal with all this.”
“No, you don’t. It can be dealt with for you. That’s the advantage of me being your hero—I can afford to keep this off your shoulders.”
Eric looked at him, then drew him down into a long, hungry kiss.
He returned the kiss, nearly deciding to take a shower with Eric, but they had other responsibilities now, too, so he ended it and pressed their foreheads together. “I do love you, baby.”
“I know. I’m so happy.”
“Good. Then everything else is just details, right?”
Eric nodded. “That’s right.”
“All right, then. Let me go deal with a certain detail before she paints my walls with her crayons.” Smiling, he took another kiss and then went and put on a pair of briefs and his robe.
“Yeah. Boredom is a terrifying thing.”
Chuckling, he went out to look for his little girl. She was sitting outside his bedroom door with her little stuffed animals in a row in front of her and a book.
Brock smiled and crouched down next to her. “Good morning, Josie.”
“Morning, Daddy Bee! I reading to my babies.” That smile just warmed him all the way through.
“What story are you reading to them?”
“Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in!”
He sat down next to her. “And are you the big bad wolf?”
“No! No, the wolf is a meany beany greenie.” She giggled. “I the piggy with the good house. You and Daddy can stay at Josie’s house.”
He laughed. “Thank you very much, honey. So Daddy’s the piggy with the straw house and I’m the one with the wood one?”
She nodded. “The bad boys and Grammy is the wolf. I don’t like the wolf.” She showed him her book, where the wolf had been eradicated, blacked out with heavy strokes of crayon.
He put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “I’m sorry your grammy’s the wolf, honey.” He’d like to knock her into next week, old lady or not.
She nodded. “I sorry she’s mean to my daddy.”
He gave her a hug. “You have a good heart, honey.”
She hugged him back. “Can we have waffles?”
“We can if we go out to have them.” He didn’t have a clue how to do them at home.
“’Kay. Daddy comes, too?”
“Of course. He’s just having a shower—you know, getting clean. We’re all going to need to get dressed first.”
“Uh-huh. I go get a dress.”
“Okay, honey. I’ll get some clothes on too, too.” He kissed the top of her head and slipped back into his room.
He could hear Eric, singing happily at the top of his lungs.
Chuckling, he made his way back to the bathroom. “Madame has asked for waffles, so we’re going to go out.”
“Oh, yum.” Eric grinned at him, hair all shampoo-y.
“I’d offer to help, but I’m guessing it won’t take long for Josie to find a dress and get it on.” He wanted to, though, his cock taking the sight of naked Eric as an excuse to perk right back up.
“No. No, she’s focused.”
“You’d better hurry up, then.” He gave Eric’s ass a wet slap and headed into the bedroom to find some clean clothes.
He was humming. Humming. Yeah, he was pretty happy.
“Daddy Bee! Daddy Bee!” Josie ran in, tears streaking her face. “My pink flower dress is teared!”
One of her half dozen little dresses was thrust up at him, a long tear in one seam.
Oh God. Could he tape it back together? There was duct tape in one of the kitchen drawers. “You could choose a different dress?”
“I want flowers!”
“If you go find another dress to wear, maybe after we’ve finished eating we can go to the store and buy you a new dress with flowers. Or I could fix this one with the big gray tape.” He figured it was a fair deal.
“New?” She tilted her head. “Can it be yellow?”
“I don’t see why not.” They had to make little-girl dresses in all colors, right?
“Okay!” She handed him her dress and bounced her naked butt out of the bedroom.
Eric chuckled, peeking out of the bathroom. “Man, I wish all problems were that easy to solve.”
“I was just going to say, if only all problems were that easy to fix.” He chuckled and smiled. Leaning a little, he admired the view. He’d managed to get his jeans on before Josie’d shown up, but he was still only half-dressed himself.
Eric pulled on jeans and a T-shirt, smoothing the cloth over his belly.
He reached out to stroke as well. “You feeling okay?”
“Sore. A little tired. You know.”
“You up to this? I could take her on my own.” Oh God. Could he survive a whole meal out at the restaurant with her and not Eric?
“No way. Waffles.”
“Oh, good.” He chuckled and patted Eric’s belly before throwing on his T-shirt and a pair of socks.
“And shopping, apparently. I need to stop at the bank, and…. God, who’s picking up my mail?”
“I’ll bet Gordon and Max have taken care of that. We need to call Gordon anyway and make sure they got Max sprung.”
“Sprung?”
“Oh. Didn’t I mention it? They arrested him.”
“Arrested him? Why?”
“Because they think he shot first.” Brock growled—it still made him mad. “And he might have, I don’t know. Probably. But Jesus fuck, he saved our lives.”
“How can I help? What can I do?”
“I don’t know. Let me call Gordon and see what’s up, see if we can do anything while we’re out.”
“Okay. Whatever they need.”
“Yeah. We owe them a lot.” He nodded and went out into the living room to grab his cell phone. He peeked in on Josie on the way—she was “brushing” her hair, making a huge mess, but looking cuter than a button.
Chuckling, he grabbed the phone and dialed Gordon.
“Yeah, Boss?” Gordon sounded exhausted.
“Hey. How’s it going?” He didn’t see any reason to beat around the bush.
“Been a long fucking night, man. How’s Eric?”
“He’s good. Wants to know how things are going for Max. We both do.”
“Your lawyers are good. They let him go an hour ago. They’re going to charge him with assault.”
“What? No fucking way!” He was flabbergasted.
“The lawyer guy says it won’t stick, but still.”
“That’s a fucking crock, Gordon. That little pissant had a gun to Jeff’s head!” He growled. “What did they charge Tim with?”
“I don’t know. He’s seventeen, that’s not really a juvenile.”
“I want him charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, and all the crap he pulled at Eric’s house.”
“Monday you’ll need to come down to your lawyers.”
“Can we do anything in the meantime? We owe the two of you more than we can ever repay.”
“Don’t call unless there’s an emergency? I’m taking my man home, fucking him through the floor, and then we’re sleeping.”
Brock chuckled. “You got it. You call us if you need something, though, okay?”
“I will. You call if you need me.”
“I will. We won’t, though. Have a good weekend, Gordon. You both deserve it.”
“Thanks, Boss.” The line went dead.
He sighed and hung up, trying to let go of the residual anger. It wouldn’t help Eric and Josie any if he went off about this right now. He could put it aside until Monday.
Eric came to him. “Well?”
He shook his head. “They’re charging Max with assault. The lawyer says it won’t stick and he got Max out on bail. Gordon’s taking him home.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Brock.”
“Yeah, me, too. I just hope the lawyer’s right. Anyway, we have a princess to take to get waffles, let’s drop it until she goes to bed, huh?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s a….” Eric looked over as Josie toddled in. “You ready?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “Gots my shoes.”
She held her leg out and Brock bit back his laughter at the sight of one short bright pink sock, and the second one, longer, with a cartoon character on it.
“Is it non-matchy-sock day?” Eric asked.
Josie nodded happily.
“Excellent.”
Brock looked down at his own feet and wiggled his toes. “I match. Is that okay?”
Josie nodded again. “Daddies are gived from sock day.”
Eric whispered. “Forgiven.”
He grinned and nodded, then smiled at Josie. “Oh, that’s good, my toes thank you.”
“Waffles now, Daddy Bee.”
“Uh-uh, what’s the magic word?”
“Pretty please.”
“Yeah, that’ll do.” He picked her up and took Eric’s hand. “Come on, it’s feeding time at the zoo.”
“Ooo ooo ooo! I be the monkey!”
He laughed and nodded. “You bet. What’s Daddy?”
He let Eric lock up and then bent so she could reach the button to call the elevator.
“Ephalant.”
“An elephant? Why is Daddy an elephant?”
Eric was well hung but not that well hung. And he probably shouldn’t be having thoughts like that.
“Daddy, show!”
Eric laughed, then made this huge, amazing, very-much-like-an-elephant sound.
Brock just stared, totally amazed. “Wow, that was. Something.” He laughed and gave Josie a tickle as the elevator doors opened up. “And what about me?”
Josie looked. “Hmm…. A….” Her eyes lit up. “A lion!”
“A lion?” He thought a minute, letting Josie press the button to the basement, and then he let out his best roar.
Eric and Josie both applauded for him. He took his bows and tickled Josie’s ribs, enjoying the morning with his family.
Josie’s laughter filled the elevator. God, this was fun.
He smiled over at Eric and set out to enjoy the day.
BREAKFAST HAD been relaxing and fun. They’d carried on the theme of “breakfast at the zoo,” eating their waffles in various animal styles. Josie’s giggles had rung out through the restaurant, and Brock couldn’t think of a happier sound.
Now they were clothes shopping. A quick call in to Stephanie, who he’d promised a huge bonus to for disturbing on a Saturday, had yielded him the name and address of a handmade clothing and toy store for children.
They walked in and Josie immediately started fussing to be let down. As soon as she was, she made a beeline for the racks of dresses at the back of the store. Brock and Eric followed more slowly, and he had to admit, if he’d been a three-year-old girl, he’d think he was in princess heaven.
It was a good thing he didn’t have to worry about the price tags.
“Brock, love. This is extravagant.”
“How often have I had a chance to spoil her?”
Eric smiled, leaned against him. “I need to get my pictures from the house, so you can see.”
“I’m pretty sure Gordon’s packed your stuff up for you. I’ll see about getting it delivered.”
Eric nodded. “That would be nice, Brock. I’ve emailed the school, but the principal hasn’t answered me. I’m afraid they’re going to let me go.”
“We could fight that if we wanted. But it might be easier to tell them we want a glowing reference and help finding you a new job, eh?”
“I think, maybe. I’m considering a change. I could have my counseling degree in eighteen months, and I have savings.”
“Is that what you’d like to do, baby? Because now’s as good a time as any for that kind of thing.”
“I don’t know, Brock. I just… I honestly don’t know if I want to face a classroom again, worry about whether they’re thinking about hurting Josie.”
He took Eric’s hand, squeezed it. “No one is going to hurt her. Ever.”
“Well, except for that salesperson….” Eric stepped forward. “Did you find one you liked, Jo?”
Brock laughed softly and went over to Josie. “If you can narrow it down to two or three, that would be good.”
She picked three dresses, all in varying shades of yellow.
“Are you sure you want them all to be yellow, honey?”
“Daddy? Do I?”
Eric chuckled. “There are a lot of pretty colors. I like the green, very much.”
“How about you buy three different colors, and then you can wear whatever color you feel like?”
“What is your favorite, Daddy Bee?”
“I like the blue one there with the little pink flowers.” They’d never believe this in the boardroom.
“Okay! Blue with pink, pretty please.”
“Do we need to try them on her or anything?” He’d never shopped for little girl’s clothes before.
“She wears a three.”
“Cool.” He turned to the salesclerk, who did look like she might be about to have apoplexy. “The blue one with the pink flowers, the green, and the yellow one she’s still holding, all in size three, please.”
“The green one and blue one are for my daddies,” Josie told the woman.
“Oh? Which one is your daddy?”
“This is my daddy and my daddy Bee.”
Brock gave her a smile that dared the woman to make a negative comment.
“Oh? Oh! Oh, that’s nice, honey.” The clerk chuckled, nodded. “You’re very lucky to have two. Daddies are very important.”
His smile became more natural and he asked Eric, “Is there anything else she needs while we’re here, baby?”
“I don’t think this is the need type of store, Brock.”
“Okay, what else should we get for her because I’m her indulgent daddy Bee?”
Eric looked around, then smiled. “The easel.”
“Ah yes, for our budding artist.” Brock nodded at it and told the salesclerk, “We’ll take one of those, too.”
“What’s that, Daddy Bee?”
“It’s for you to color on.”
“Oh.” Her eyes went wide. “Oh, Daddy Bee. The big girls at my old school had those. Oh….”
“Score,” Eric whispered.
He beamed. Go him. He was the best daddy ever at the moment.
Josie flew into his arms, kissing him and saying “thank you thank you thank you” over and over.
Laughing, he settled her on his hip. “You’re welcome, honey. It goes with the special Josie paper, right?”
She nodded. “I draw on the paper for you.”
“I know. You make me beautiful pictures.”
Her little arms wrapped around his neck. “My daddy Bee.”
“Yeah, honey.” He rubbed noses with her and then handed over his credit card. He didn’t even care how much everything had come to.
“You’re going to spoil her rotten.” Eric didn’t sound like he minded that much.
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No. No, she deserves it.” Eric winked. “So do you.”
He chuckled and put Josie back down so he could carry her bags. “All right, I think surviving all this shopping means we get a trip to the ice cream parlor.”
“Ice cream! Bubble gum ice cream!”
“Yeah, yeah. I know what your favorite is, Missy.”
“My name not Missy. My name is Jo-sie.”
Brock chuckled. “I know that, honey.”
“Jo. Sie. Jo. Sie.” The song went on and on as they headed out to the street.
Brock chuckled, walking along, holding her hand and her goodies, Eric in step next to him.
“Do you want to go swing on the swings for a little while, Jo?” Eric’s words made the skipping become bouncing.
“Yes! Please!”
They detoured over to the little park at the end of the street and Brock sat on a bench with Eric while Josie ran to the swings. There were a number of other families, little children and big, just enjoying the day. Brock shook his head at himself, at how comfortable he felt here.
“Brock? Brock Vencenza? How the hell are you?” Callum Parker walked up, dressed in gym shorts and a muscle shirt, obviously just having finished a run.
He shook hands with the CEO of one of his umbrella companies. “I’m good, man. How’re you?” He waved at Callum’s getup. “Good run?”
“You know it. What are you doing out and about?”
“Oh, just a little shopping and enjoying the day with my family.” With his family. The words made him smile. He pointed to Eric. “Do you remember Eric?” He knew he’d dragged his lover to more than Eric’s fair share of business parties, and Callum would have had to have been attending at least one.
“I do. Nice to see you. Your….” Callum motioned to the children.
Eric nodded. “Yes. Our daughter is the one hoarding the swings.”
Our daughter.
Brock had to admit, he did like the sound of that. A lot.
“Oh, she’s pretty.” Callum nodded, smiled again. “I wouldn’t have pegged you as the daddy type.”
“He’s an amazing father.” Eric was quick to defend him, and he’d opened his mouth to respond when Josie fell off the swing into the dirt and starting crying.
“Daddy Bee!”
He made it to the swings in two seconds flat, lifting her up and fussing over her.
“I falled!” She showed him her sandy knees, which were only a bit pink.
He gently rubbed the sand off them. “You did. This doesn’t look too bad, though. How about you try again?”
“’Kay. ’Kay. I swing ’gain.”
“Good girl.” He put her back onto the swing and pushed it gently to get her going again.
“Daddy, push me!” Her feet dangled, and she crowed.
He stayed there to give her a little push now and then. He didn’t want it to go too high—if he got her too far up, it would hurt if she fell again. He saw Eric talking to Callum, but those eyes were on him. He smiled and waved at Eric. Eric waved back, smiled.
“You ready for that ice cream soon?” he asked as he pushed.
“Ice creamy!”
Laughing, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up against him, and then danced out of the way of the swing.
Eric came over to him, Callum heading toward the street. “Did someone say ice cream?”
“We did indeed.”
“I’m dying for a hot fudge sundae.” Eric grinned, touched Josie’s nose.
“Oh, can we share?” Brock asked.
“I think so. Lots of whipped cream.”
“Two cherries.” He winked at Eric.
“Two spoons.” Eric’s arm wrapped around his waist.
“Yeah.” He kissed the top of Eric’s head and settled Josie on his hip.
“Ice cream with my daddies and me!”
He chuckled and bounced her on his hip. “That’s right, honey.”
It was perfect.
Unexpected but perfect.
Just like his family.