Chapter 18
Bento
By the time my vision returned and my ears were no longer ringing, Niran had already cleaned me up and was sliding my boxers back up my trembling thighs. When he noticed I was conscious again, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. “How are you feeling, kon-dii?”
I took a moment to take stock of my body. I was sore from getting the shit kicked out of me, of course. My balls were pleasantly empty, which was nice. But my ass was sore. Niran had warned me I would be, but shit. He hadn’t been kidding.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I rasped, which wasn’t a lie. I’d take any pain he doled out so long as it meant he continued to be mine and I continued to be his.
He smirked knowingly before grabbing my sweats from the floor.
I eased off the desk with a wince, then braced myself on my good arm as Niran helped me back into them.
And just in time, too. As soon as the band settled into place on my hips, Niran’s office door opened without a single knock to warn us that someone was barging in.
We both swung our gazes to Rico, and my face flooded with heat.
We’d fucked with the goddamn door unlocked. Shit. What if Rico had barged in while Niran had been balls deep inside of me and I’d been delirious on his cock?
I took a look around the floor, swallowing thickly.
Even though he hadn’t walk in on us, there was no mistaking what’d happened not long ago.
Not only did the room still smell like sweat and sex, but Niran’s desk was a mess.
His cum, which had no doubt slipped out of my ass while I’d been completely out of it, had dripped onto his desk, even getting on some of the paperwork.
Papers were crinkled, and a lot of them had ended up on the floor.
Rico arched a brow at us, but before he could ask what the hell had happened or say something that would no doubt embarrass me, Anurak stepped in behind him.
Oh, fuck. The boy’s eyes widened as he took in the space, and then, his pale skin colored red when it clicked in his head what’d just happened in Niran’s office.
I chanced a glance at Niran, only to find a smug look of satisfaction on his face. The bastard.
“Are you two together now?” Anurak blurted, looking between me and Niran.
“We are,” Niran confirmed.
Anurak shot me a hurt look, and I grimaced.
How the fuck did I keep screwing up with him?
At this rate, I was surely destined to never be his bodyguard again, Rico would ship me off to work somewhere else, and I’d forever be separated from Niran, all while losing the people I’d come to think of as family. Shit.
“It’s new,” Niran told Anurak before I could open my mouth. “Literally just started when I rescued him.”
“Oh.” The hurt look fell from Anurak’s dark eyes, but then, he stepped forward, nervously wringing his hands together. Rico reached up and gripped the back of his husband’s neck, massaging the muscles there. Something had Anurak nervous and twitchy, and I frowned.
“Easy, perrito,” Rico murmured. “Bento is not angry with you, remember?”
“I’m not,” I assured him. I had nothing to be angry with him about.
I was confused and hurt, yeah, but not angry.
Anurak had always been aware of the risk that I faced as his bodyguard.
It almost felt like now that I had been injured, he didn’t want me that close anymore.
Niran believed he didn’t mean it that way, but that was how it felt.
How else was I supposed to feel? Anurak was the closest I’d ever had to a best friend and a little brother.
“I’m sorry,” Anurak said softly. “I’ve been scared since you got kidnapped, Bento. I was terrified you wouldn’t make it out of surgery, and then, I was even more afraid that you would hate me when you got home. You rely on your routine as my bodyguard, and because of me, you lost that.”
“Not because of you,” I told him, my voice firm.
“It’s because of the assholes who wanted to kidnap you, Anurak.
They hold all the blame.” I moved closer, and despite the pain in my ass and the strain it would put on my abdominal muscles, I crouched, bringing our faces level with each other.
“None of this is your fault. It’ll take some adjusting on my end, but I’m going to be fine.
And I’m sure Niran will find other ways to keep me busy. ”
Niran snorted from behind me but otherwise stayed silent.
I settled my good hand on Anurak’s shoulder.
“You’re basically my little brother, kid,” I told him quietly.
“If you really don’t want me to be your bodyguard anymore, I’ll respect that.
” I wouldn’t fucking like it, but I wouldn’t fight him on it.
It was, ultimately, his decision. “But please believe all of us when we say that what I went through has nothing to do with you.”
He sniffled and nodded, his eyes blurry with tears. “I still want you to be my bodyguard,” he said, his voice wobbling, “but only if you still want that. I didn’t mean to say what I did earlier.”
“You were scared.” I understood that. Didn’t make the words hurt less, but I did understand saying shit in the heat of the moment.
Hell, I’d threatened to leave Niran not even an hour ago in the heat of the moment when both of us knew I’d never walk away from him, even for a lonesome ass vacation.
“And it’d be an honor to still be your bodyguard. ”
He surprised me by hugging me, his touch gentle, and he avoided my injured shoulder.
I sighed and hugged him back, the anxiety I’d been dealing with since that morning finally loosening.
When he stepped back, he grabbed Rico’s hand and linked their fingers together.
I straightened, swallowing down my wince and my groan of pain.
I couldn’t show Anurak that I was hurting.
He would just worry even more than he already was.
“Ace and I will be going into town tomorrow evening to give out candy at the Trunk or Treat event. Will you come with us?”
Niran pressed his hand to my lower back. “Afraid Bento is unavailable,” Niran told him. “We have other… business to attend to.”
Rico nodded once at Niran, understanding what Niran meant, even if his husband was a little clueless. “I’ll go with you,” Rico told him before Anurak’s face could fall again. And fuck, the way the boy brightened at those words… He was so in love with his Papi.
“Really, Papi?” Anurak asked as Rico led him from the room.
“Really, perrito,” Rico assured him, their voices fading as they walked further and further away.
“Do you think they know what happened in here?” I asked, staring at the still-open door.
“Everyone knows,” Alfonzo said as he walked past Niran’s office, his eyes locked on his phone. “You’re loud, Bento.”
“Oh, my God,” I groaned, my head falling back on my shoulders.
Niran snickered from beside me, then patted my sore ass. “Help me clean up this office, then we need to sort the papers that can be saved and the ones that can’t so I know what to reprint. After that, you need to sit your ass in that chair and do what I told you to do earlier.”
“You better be glad you’re hot when you boss me around,” I muttered as I began sorting through the papers on his desk while he gathered what’d fallen to the floor.
Niran snorted. “You keep saying that, kon-dii.”
I winked at him when he glanced up at me. “Well, it’s true.”
He shook his head. “Focus. We don’t have all day.”
I gave him a mock salute, and in return, he landed a smack on my ass so hard, I yelped.