Saving You (Words We Never Said #6)

21. Ridge

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

RIDGE

He knew the second he saw Grady at the bar, he was going to be given the third degree. He’d spent the week with Oz after the man had been given the okay to take time off to recover. That had been a relief in itself for him. The moment he knew his job wasn’t in jeopardy and that he was somewhere safe that his parents couldn’t get to him, he relaxed in ways Ridge had never seen in him.

He was still in pain, but he smiled a lot and laughed a little. He spent time with Ina the moment she was home. He helped cook and did what cleaning he could while making sure not to aggravate his shoulder.

In short, he’d made Ridge’s house feel even more like a home than it already did. Ridge got used to him there. He got comfortable. He let himself picture a future with Oz, and while it was very soon into their relationship, there was hope.

But Oz had to go home that Saturday so he could prep for his return to school. He was on light duty with his shoulder, but he was out of the sling, and his signing wasn’t causing nearly as much pain as it had been. He and Ridge were still having the occasional nightmare, but neither of them wanted to talk about it.

Ridge had been avoiding the topic altogether—including the hollow pit in his stomach after dropping Oz off at his place and leaving him there—but his luck had run out. Grady was going to want answers.

“Pop a squat,” Grady said, giving him a sharp look. “I know what happened.”

“Uh…”

“Alora has been up my ass trying to guilt me into playing spy for her and her mom. She’s telling people you are keeping Oz against his will.”

Ridge stared at him. “If you believe that bullshit?—”

“No,” Grady said firmly. “All of this is making me terrified that there’s something medically wrong with her. It’s like, she’s jumping down these conspiracy theory holes, and it’s getting worse.”

Ridge winced. “I’m assuming her parents aren’t willing to look into it.”

“Her mom is as off the wall as she is, and her dad doesn’t give a shit so long as it doesn’t interrupt his tee time.”

Ridge felt a little sick to his stomach. “What about the girls?”

“Got a temporary order to have fifty-fifty custody. Adele has been a goddamn dream, adjusting my schedule for them. Once the divorce is finalized and we have a parenting plan, I can work on babysitters and stuff.”

“And you know you’ve got us,” Ridge reminded him.

Grady pressed his forearms to the bar and sagged forward. “I know. This is just…hard. And I’m worried about Oz. When I heard he’d been hit, I thought maybe it was her.”

“His sister?”

“Darcy,” he said.

Ridge quickly shook his head. “Nah. It was a freak accident. Rex ran into the road chasing a dog, and Oz went after him. Saved his life.”

“Fuck,” Grady breathed out.

Ridge nodded. “Mm. He’s okay. Nothing broken, no concussion. He dislocated his shoulder, so the pain sucks, but he’s getting by. And he was staying with me to avoid his mom and sister breaking into his house.”

Grady’s face darkened. “They did.”

Ridge laughed. “Yeah, we both figured. He’s home now and ready if they do show up, but he’s got a chain and a new dead bolt, and I think he’s installing a Ring camera this week.”

“It fucking sucks that it’s come to this,” Grady said. “I wish…shit, I wish I could go talk to him.”

Ridge looked down at his hands. “Better not.”

“I know I fucked up over the years. I should have stood up for him more.”

“Yes,” Ridge said, refusing to pull punches, “but that’s not why. He needs space from everyone involved in that whole mess.”

“No, yeah. I get it. I just…don’t know. I want to be there for him after the years I wasn’t.”

“You can be. I think your patience is what he needs. And I swear I’m not speaking for him for kicks.”

Grady snorted. “I figured. Y’all are in love, right?”

Ridge felt his cheeks burn. They were. They were boyfriends. They were in love. They were on their way to becoming a family someday.

“Yeah, I know that look,” Grady said. He sounded sad. “I miss it.”

“It’s not over for you,” Ridge assured him. “Look how many guys we know that found love well after they gave up.”

As if on cue, Adele walked into the bar with Gage at his side. Ridge wasn’t surprised. Adele had been making room for his kid now that he was growing up, and none of the guys were upset about it. They’d practically raised him, and it was amazing to see the person he’d grown into.

“Not interrupting, are we?” Gage asked. He slid onto the stool next to Ridge.

“Not at all. You coming in to eat?”

“Since I have to wait to drink,” Gage said irritably.

“Because it’s the law,” Adele said, ruffling his son’s hair. He took a seat beside Grady, who grinned at him. Before anyone could say anything else, the rest of the guys began filing in. The moment was over, and Ridge was grateful for it. He needed space from everything to feel like his old self.

Just for a little while.

Just until he found the courage to pick up his kid, go home, and not see Oz waiting for them.

Except, Ridge pulled into his driveway, and there was someone on the doorstep sitting with their back to his post. It took him all of five seconds to recognize Oz. He glanced back, grateful Ina was asleep in her car seat because it meant he could leave her for a minute.

He put his car in park, shut off the engine, then left his door open as he took the keys and walked up. Oz had his eyes closed, arms wrapped around his middle, cheek resting on top of his bent knees.

Ridge hesitated, then leaned down and brushed a touch over Oz’s temple. His eyes flew wide, and his head popped up.

“Oh,” he said aloud, then swallowed thickly. He wasn’t wearing his CIs. ‘How long was I asleep?’

Ridge shot him a half smile. ‘I don’t know. When did you get here?’

Oz blinked, then grabbed his brand-new phone from where it was sitting beside him. ‘Two hours.’

‘Baby,’ Ridge signed, sinking all the way down to his knees. ‘Why didn’t you go inside?’

‘I forgot the code to the door.’

Ridge shook his head. ‘Text? FaceTime?’

‘You were out with your friends. I didn’t want to disrupt that. I knew if I asked you for the code, you’d just come home.’

Ridge wanted to argue because he had needed time with everyone, but Oz was telling the truth. Ridge wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to get in his car, grab Ina, and go to meet him before he could make even a partial dent in the couch.

He sighed, then stood up and held his hands out, letting Oz use them to climb to his feet. Reaching past, he punched in the code slowly so Oz could see, then gestured for him to go in. ‘I’m going to get Ina. She’s out.’

Oz nodded, then turned as Ridge headed to the car for his sleeping daughter. She barely stirred, breathing wetly into his neck, smelling like dirt and cookies. She needed a bath, but there was no way in hell he was going to wake her for that.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Oz flopping onto the couch, so he hurried into Ina’s room and got her settled in the bed. She shifted a tiny bit when he pulled off her shoes, and then she nestled into her sea of stuffed animals and went back to her tiny little snores.

He watched for a beat, heart warm and happy as she dozed. She was half his heart. The other half was waiting for him in the living room. He took one more last look at her, then closed the door nearly all the way before turning and making his way to the living room.

Oz wasn’t there. Ridge’s heart picked up a few extra beats. Did he panic and run? He peeked in the kitchen, but no sign of him. He swore he hadn’t heard Oz walk past him to the bedroom, but he made his way there just to check, and it was instant relief to find him lounging on the bed in what had become his spot.

‘Hi,’ Ridge signed when Oz looked up.

‘Sorry. I forgot my CIs.’

Ridge frowned. ‘Do you need them?’

‘No, but I know it’s easier to talk sometimes,’ Oz said with a shrug.

‘Not for you.’ Ridge walked closer and pressed one knee to the bed, cupping his boyfriend’s jaw, urging him to look up. ‘And not for me. You know this is an ASL-first home, sweetheart. That will always be true.’

Oz swallowed heavily. ‘They came to my house. Darcy was with them.’

Ridge felt a sort of white-hot rage racing up his spine. ‘What happened?’

‘Nothing,’ Oz signed, then laughed. ‘Darcy apologized. She used really, really bad Signed English. She probably looked all the signs up last night. My mom was furious, but I couldn’t understand what she was saying. My sister grabbed my CI case off the coffee table and tried to force me to put them on. I took it and threw it across the room.’

‘What the fuck,’ Ridge demanded. He sank down beside his lover. ‘Did you throw them out?’

‘Darcy got them to leave before I did. She looked sorry. She looked very sorry. Maybe what you said to her helped.’

Ridge didn’t want to take credit for that. He needed to believe that she woke up and realized that Oz was a fully functional, capable, gorgeous, ridiculously intelligent man who she let slip through her fingers because of the bullshit ableism she’d been spoon-fed her whole life.

‘If she’s really sorry, do you think you and her?—’

Oz closed his hands around Ridge’s, stopping his signs. He shook his head, then leaned in. “You’re it for me. You’re my person.”

Ridge felt those words hit him in the center of his chest. ‘Yeah?’

‘My person,’ Oz signed. ‘I want you inside me.’

Ridge’s entire body went hot. ‘Sex?’

Oz laughed. ‘Yes. Please. If you want.’

Ridge wanted. He’d wanted for so, so long. He shoved Oz back with the force of his kiss, swallowing down the laughter that quickly turned into moans. He tore at Oz’s clothes, then at his own, and it wasn’t long before Ridge had Oz pinned to the bed, legs spread wide, hand around his cock.

‘Please,’ Oz begged.

Ridge leaned in and nipped at his jaw, then his ear, then his mouth. He leaned back. ‘Again.’

Oz’s eyes were wide and feverish. ‘Please. I need you inside me. Please, baby.’

Ridge knew one day he’d draw it out. He’d edge him until he was wild with need and incapable of coherent words or signs. But tonight was not that night. Tonight was important. It was a step he knew Oz had been nervous to take.

And the fact that he trusted Ridge with it meant everything.

He leaned in, kissing him again—slower, deeper, possessive. Oz groaned, then rutted into Ridge’s hand, though he refused to give more than a short stroke.

‘Wait,’ Ridge told him. ‘Breathe.’

Oz obeyed.

‘Such a good boy.’

Oz’s entire face bloomed pink. ‘Tell me again. Tell me I’m good.’

‘So good. Perfect. Everything.’

Oz shuddered, his cock throbbing, growing thick and wet at the tip. Ridge looked down, then shimmed lower and took the head into his mouth, giving him a hard suck. Oz let out a sharp cry, his hips bucking upward so forcefully Ridge had to pin him with his hands.

‘I’m going to taste you. Then I’m going to fuck you. Hold the sheets or my hair. Do not touch your cock,’ Ridge ordered.

Oz took a moment, then nodded. He fisted one hand in the sheets, tentatively lifting the other. Ridge ducked his head and let Oz wind his fingers through his hair before closing in a tight grip.

Ridge let out a contented sigh as he lowered his head, kissing down his torso, the head of his cock, then the base. He pushed one of Oz’s legs up to expose him, then licked around his balls, taking one between his lips, then the other. When Oz’s thighs were trembling, Ridge lifted his other leg, then spread his cheeks and stared at his hole.

It was dark purple, flushed, and covered in whorls of light, coarse hair. He felt his mouth water as it spasmed, and he touched his thumb, pushing in slightly. Oz let out a soft grunt, his hips shoving downward like they were trying to take Ridge inside him.

And that would happen. But…not yet.

He kissed the left side of his ass, then the right, and then he licked a firm stripe along his cleft. Oz’s cry was loud, and he was grateful to have a Deaf daughter who wouldn’t be woken up. He did it again, and again, until Oz’s voice went rough and trembling, and then he tightened the muscle of his tongue and dove in.

Oz’s body shook, then went tense all over. He didn’t make a sound, but the grip in Ridge’s hair went iron-tight and painful. Not that he minded. It was keeping him grounded and preventing him from shooting off as his own erection dragged against the sheets.

“Please,” he heard in a jagged whisper. “Please, please.”

He looked up to see Oz signing and speaking at the same time. He took mercy on him because the only thing he wanted in the world was for Oz to know he was loved, worshipped, and adored. Pulling away, he leaned over and rummaged through the nightstand, eventually finding his lube and the small box of condoms he’d bought and never used.

Oz watched with feverish, hazy eyes as Ridge hooked Oz’s ankles around his waist, then rubbed his cock a few times before rolling the condom on. He licked his lips like the sight of Ridge was filling him with every hunger he could possibly feel.

‘I want to be open on your cock,’ Oz signed, his hands shaking.

Ridge blinked at him. ‘It’ll hurt.’

‘You’ll be careful,’ Oz said. ‘You won’t ever let me feel pain that I don’t want to feel.’

That was a terrifying promise to bind himself to, but in truth, he would do everything in his power to make sure that was the case. Oz had suffered enough. Hell, they both had. They deserved this. Every second of this joy.

He leaned in and offered a kiss, which Oz took with so much enthusiasm it made Ridge laugh. He rained soft pecks along his jaw before pulling back and uncapping the lube. It felt too good to rub himself like that, so he only took a couple of strokes, and then he shifted his knees and pressed the head to Oz’s waiting hole.

‘Now?’ Oz asked.

Ridge nodded, and with the smallest, most careful thrust, he slipped inside. Oz’s mouth opened in a small, perfect O. His chest was still, and then he sucked in a sharp breath and opened his eyes.

“More.”

Who was Ridge to deny him? Gripping Oz by the hips, he rolled his own, pushing in inch by inch. It was an agonizing eternity of ignoring every instinct that told him to grip him and fuck his ass until neither one of them knew up from down.

And he would do that one day.

Maybe even tonight.

But in that moment, he needed to be slow. Tender. Full of purpose.

And endlessly patient.

He drank in every single one of Oz’s gasps, his groans, the way his hips moved and his muscles clenched. He watched his expression, waiting for the most minute sign that he wasn’t into it. But that never came. Oz licked his lips and shifted, trying to take all of him.

‘Please,’ his hand begged. ‘Please, please, please.’

Ridge gave a harder thrust, slipping all the way in, and Oz grunted, sitting up halfway. He nodded, looking absolutely fucking wrecked and desperate. He tightened around Ridge, and his hands lifted, clawing at his shoulders.

“I’m so close. I’m already so close,” he said aloud. “Please. Make me come on your cock. Make me take it.”

Ridge lost himself in that moment. All of his plans burned to ash, and from that rose a feral need to stake his claim. He gripped Oz under his ass, lifting him halfway into the air, and he began to pound into him—rough, heavy thrusts that filled the room with the sound of skin slapping against skin.

He grunted with the effort, gasped at how fucking good it felt. He shifted Oz’s hips until he let out that sheer animal sound of pleasure when he hit his prostate, and then he thrust hard—over and over and over until Oz’s eyes slammed shut and his body tightened.

He was coming. Oh fuck, he was coming. His back arched as he spilled between them, and Ridge only managed three more thrusts before he filled the condom deep inside his lover. He had no memory of lowering Oz, no memory of collapsing on top of him.

He came to rolling his hips as his cock began to soften, and he quickly pulled out, holding it by the base so he didn’t make a mess. His stomach and chest were sticky from Oz’s release, but it was the most glorious feeling in the world.

Rolling to the side, he pulled the condom off, tied it, and let it fall on the side of the bed with a wet plop.

‘Gross,’ Oz signed.

Ridge burst into laughter and buried his face against Oz’s neck, breathing in the scent of his sweat and his come. It was fucking glorious. ‘I am so in love with you,’ he signed when he pulled away.

Oz’s blush had started to fade, but his ears and the apples of his cheeks went pink again. ‘Pillow talk?’

Ridge shrugged. ‘Maybe, but it’s also the truth. I’m yours. I need you to know that. I understand you have a lot of work to do on yourself, but I’m here for it.’

Oz smiled, kissed him softly, then rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling for a long beat. ‘I wonder,’ he signed after a short pause, ‘is this town cursed?’

Ridge frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘How many people do we know got into pretend relationships, and they ended up finding their forever person?’

Ridge snorted and rolled onto his stomach, kissing Oz on the ribs. ‘Maybe,’ he signed, a little sloppy with his elbows folded, ‘you—and the others like you—subconsciously knew it was meant to be. Maybe that’s why you chose me.’

‘Maybe,’ Oz offered with a small grin.

He rolled onto his side, curling against Ridge. They were sticky, and they’d regret not cleaning up in the morning, but that was a future Ridge problem. For now, there was this: warm arms, soft lips, easy breathing, and the promise of thousands more nights and thousands more mornings like this.

Ridge woke to the house empty and a note on the counter:

Ina and I went to get a sweet treat and some things from my house. I’m going to stay a while, I think. If that’s okay with you.

Stay forever , Ridge thought to himself. He wondered if maybe that was too much, but he didn’t think it would be. He’d probably say it later to see the look in Oz’s eyes. Maybe it would match his own because he knew his pupils were heart-shaped at the thought of his beloved and his daughter going about their morning like they’d always done this.

Like it was right. Inevitable. Like life before his lover had just…been on pause.

He smiled through his coffee and through his shower, though he did wish Oz was there to join him. He dressed and fixed his hair, then checked to make sure he wasn’t needed in early before staring into the fridge, debating if he wanted to cook something or down a protein shake.

Then the door slammed, and tiny feet sounded on the hardwood floors. He spun right in time to catch his giggling daughter and showered her with kisses. When he looked over, he saw Oz holding a white paper donut shop bag in one hand and Cheese curled up in the crook of his other arm.

As he should be.

Exactly where he belonged.

‘Welcome home,’ Ridge signed.

Oz’s eyes went wide for a second, and then he let out a breath, nodded, and kissed the cat before letting him down. ‘I missed you.’

Ridge knew he didn’t mean in the half hour he’d been getting donuts. He knew it was bigger than that and deeper. It was a profound sense of knowing that there had been years missed. But while they could never make up for that, the years ahead were going to be so much better.

And fuck. He was happy.

He was so goddamn happy.