Chapter 16 #2
“Norway,” Zachy muttered. “And Australia.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” Gage asked him, letting go of Cooper’s hand so he could stroke Zachy’s hair. “It’s not polite to eavesdrop on Daddy’s conversation.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“Uh-huh, you better close your eyes and go to sleep before you get your cute little tail in trouble,” Gage warned him.
He didn’t make another peep, just burrowed back against Song as Gage kept stroking his hair to help lull him to sleep.
“We should probably get some sleep,” Cooper said, “or all of us will be in rough shape tomorrow.”
“Which is exactly why we will be ordering room service and staying in for a bit,” Gage said. “There is no law saying that we can’t spend our last day in the Big Apple being lazy.”
“You’ll hear no arguments out of me.”
“Even with room service, we’ll probably still need to grab a coffee before we head out on one last trek,” Cooper muttered.
“Matcha green tea?” Zachy muttered.
Grumbling, Gage drummed his fingers on the blanket. “Little one, if you don’t take your butt to sleep, you are going to have corner time in the morning and absolutely no matcha green tea latte before we head out.”
“Eep,” he whimpered and burrowed deeper into the pillows.
“I’m going to give him an eep in a moment,” Cooper declared.
“What, didn’t get enough in the bathroom?” Gage asked, lightly slapping Zachy’s ass when he started giggling.
“Why so squirmy?” Song grumbled, sounding an equal mix of sleepy and annoyed.
“The daddies are being naughty,” Zachy stage-whispered.
“That’s it,” Cooper said, the bed bouncing some, and then Zachy started laughing, and it took Gage a moment to realize that it was because Cooper had started tickling him.
His arms slid beneath Gage’s under the covers, so Gage started searching for a seam that would allow him to slide his hands beneath the blankets too.
Zachy thrashed, squirming, his fingers dancing up Gage’s sides as he started trying to retaliate.
Tickling more, Gage got him turned over to face the correct target, only instead of Cooper, he must have found Song, because he started thrashing around too.
“Friendly fire! Friendly fire!” Song complained. “Abort mission! Holy shit! How is this even fair?!”
“Gotta pee, Papa, gotta pee!” Zachy squealed, scrambling from the bed the moment Cooper stopped tickling him.
Song grumbled insincere complaints about being woken and tickled mercilessly as he tried to tug the blankets back around him. “How did that even start?”
“Zachy was being nosy instead of sleeping,” Cooper declared.
Song huffed in response. “I owe him a tickle.”
“That you will save for morning,” Gage declared. “Or you will find yourself in the naughty corner right along with Zachy.”
“Eep!”
“Uh-huh, another eep,” Cooper said. “There’s been a lot of eeps from two boys who are supposed to be asleep.”
“Sorry, Papa.”
“Sure you are,” Cooper growled, drawing out his Rs until Song shivered. “If I hear one more eep from the middle of the bed, no matter who makes it, you will both be warming Daddy’s and Papa’s cocks tomorrow, and you will not be allowed to come. Is that understood?”
“Eep!” Zachy declared as he stepped out of the bathroom just in time to hear Cooper’s declaration.
“That so doesn’t count,” Song protested. “It didn’t come from the middle of the bed.”
Cooper grumbled, but Song did have him there.
“You’re right,” Gage said. “That one doesn’t count. Zachy, I hope you have them all out of your system now, because once you do climb in here, they will count, and your little bottom will spend the bulk of tomorrow on my lap.”
“Umm, Daddy,” Zachy said in that cheeky voice Gage loved. “Are you trying to warn me against eeping or encourage me to eep more?”
“We’re doomed,” Song moaned and yanked a pillow over his head.
Words too muffled for Gage to understand followed up his statement, while Gage slapped a palm to his face and groaned.
“How about no more eeps and no more talking? You just get your butt in here and go to sleep,” Gage said. “As in right now, Zachy, it’s bedtime.”
“Yes, Daddy,” our good boy replied, wiggling back beneath the covers.
Seconds later G heard the soft sound of him sucking on one of the binkies he kept beneath the pillow and knew it would help Zachy comply with his request. In hindsight, he probably should have just located one himself and stuck it in Zachy’s mouth when he mentioned Norway.
The problem with nights like this, where there were so many waves of adrenaline hitting one after the other, was that once one of us was unsettled, all of us were.
Even sucking on his binky, Zachy was squirmy, while Cooper kept accidentally kicking Gage’s foot as he tried to find a comfortable sleeping position.
Things went on like that for almost half an hour, as Gage tried to drop off into slumber, only to be reminded of the one place on their list that they hadn’t had the chance to take the boys to.
As long as there were no more eeps, they’d make it there before it closed.
If not, there was always next time.
“Fuck it, I’m putting a movie on.” Cooper grumbled, the bed flopping as he rolled off, likely to seek out the remote control they’d sent flying.
Rolling on his side, Gage couldn’t tell if that was daylight on the horizon or just the lights from the city creeping into the room. Either way, a movie might be just what they needed to help them drift off before they spent their final day in the city sleeping.
And the night wired, again. Shit. That would make the drive home a long, cranky one.
“Yeah, a movie might be a good idea,” Gage said.
It took the flashlight on his phone, some muttered curses, and Cooper tidying up the room some before he located the remote.
When the television flared to life, Gage found himself blinking against the brightness, but as Cooper found Die Hard and put it on, Gage couldn’t think of a better holiday movie to drift in and out on.
Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker, indeed. If the rest of their holiday season went the way this trip had gone, then they were fixing to blow the roof off the new year.