Not Safe for Work(110)

My pride wanted me to jump up and refuse his offer, but I just stared at him, disbelieving. Not that he was willing to part with some money—God knew it would be a drop in the bucket for him—but that he cared enough about my kids and me to do that.

“I don’t… I have no idea what to say.”

“Just say yes or no,” he whispered. “I haven’t met them, but I know they’re your world, and they’re a huge part of why you’re killing yourself for Mitchell & Forsythe. It’s not a judgment of your ability to take care of them and provide for them. I know damn well you can and will pay their way, whatever it takes. This is a gift from me to you. Because I love you.”

“I love you too, and I…” I shook my head. “My God, Rick. I just can’t believe you’d…”

“Jon.” He kissed me gently. “I don’t just want to make you happy in the bedroom. And I’ve seen how much of a toll it’s taken on you to finance their education. What kind of partner would I be if I stood back and let that keep eating away at you and them when I could do something about it?”

I searched his eyes. “Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely.”

If it had been anything else—paying off my mortgage, buying me a car, putting a Rolex on my wrist—I’d have balked, but this went so far above any kind of gift he ever could have given me. There was nothing more important to me than my children, and he was willing to give them their education. He was willing to make sure they didn’t graduate college with the heavy burden of student loans.

“Thank you,” I whispered, drawing him in for another kiss. “I don’t think I could ever thank you enough for that.”

“You already have.”

I pressed my lips to his, and then I pulled him even closer.

As we wound each other up again and turned each other on, hands running all over skin and cocks hardening between us, our conversation was never far from my mind. Even as he melted away my ability to form a coherent thought, one last thing remained in my mind, clear as day:

That I’d been the stupidest man alive to let him go for anything, and I was the luckiest man alive to have him back.





Epilogue


A couple of years later.

From the passenger seat, Rick smiled at me. “So how does it feel to be the dad of a college graduate?”

“Pretty amazing.” I grinned as I pulled the car into a parking space. As I put the car in Park, I added, “Kind of old, but amazing.”

He laughed, patting my leg. “Just wait and see how old you feel when you’re walking her down the aisle.”

“I am so not ready for that.”

“You have plenty of time to get ready for it.” He leaned across the console and kissed my cheek. “I mean, three months is enough time, right?”

I tried to glare at him, but we both laughed. I slid my arm around his shoulders and kissed him.

We exchanged glances. Oh, he knew he was in for it tonight. That little smartass comment had earned him a cock cage tomorrow unless he redeemed himself after we got home. Knowing him, he’d try his damnedest. I couldn’t wait.

But that would come later. Assuming either of us had any energy left after Kelsey’s graduation this afternoon, and the celebratory dinner we were about to have with the whole clan.

I shut off the engine, and we headed into the restaurant.

This place didn’t take reservations, and we had a large group since Karen, the kids, and all of their respective partners would be here, so Rick and I had come in early to make sure we got a table. The employees rearranged some tables in the back to make one big one, and the hostess seated us. The whole process hadn’t taken long at all, so we had the table to ourselves for the next twenty minutes or so.

I sat down and set Kelsey’s gifts on the chair beside me.

Rick stayed on his feet. “Budweiser, or see what’s on tap?”

“Budweiser’s fine.” I smiled. “Thanks.”

He smiled back and then headed up to the mostly deserted bar to get us a couple of drinks.

Alone with my thoughts, I sat back and released a long breath. What a day. What a year. And it wasn’t over yet. I wasn’t just the father of a college graduate. In a few months, I’d have a son-in-law. Brooke and her girlfriend were making noise about getting married too, and Karen was already insisting on paying for her wedding just like she was paying for Kelsey’s.

Tyler and his girlfriend hadn’t said a word about weddings—I was pretty sure neither was interested in the whole institution—but they were saving to buy a house together after they graduated. I was thrilled for all of them, but I’d warned them all that I was not to be a grandfather before I turned fifty. With the way Kelsey and her fiancé kept swooning over every baby within a ten-mile radius, I probably wasn’t going to win this one. And even if I wouldn’t admit it out loud, I was pretty okay with that.

It was just hard to believe how much everything was changing. My family was growing up and expanding. My boyfriend and I were, as my daughters were wont to say, stupidly in love. We were living together now. His job ebbed and flowed, and sometimes he worked long days that rivaled the grueling periods at Mitchell & Forsythe, so he’d be home at ten and back to the office at six. But those precious few hours at home were spent in the same bed, even when we were both too exhausted to even think about sex, and when he went to work every day, he wore a slim leather collar beneath his shirt and tie.