Chapter Four
~Jessie~
“You can put her in my room, I’ll take the pull-out bed,” Jessie motioned at the steps leading up to the second floor of their townhouse.
“Uh, no.” Nik glared at him. “My room.”
Jessie spun to Nik, hands on his hips. “My room is closer.”
“My room is cleaner.”
“Oh, boys,” Katarina chuckled, closing the front door behind her with that fabulous rump of hers. “Bella and I are more than capable sleeping on the pull out.”
“No!” Jessie and Nikolai both hissed, keeping it low as to not wake the kid, but firmly enough that Katarina’s eyebrows shot up on her forehead. They waggled fingers at her before jabbing the other with them. “My room.”
“It’s technically my townhouse, Nik.” Jessie didn’t like to pull the owner card on Nik.
However, his best friend was being rather ridiculous.
Obviously, Jessie would sleep on the pull out.
His ma would have his hide if he put a guest on the couch when he had a perfectly good king mattress upstairs.
Especially a lady with a kid. The pull out was lumpy on the best of days.
They’d give the poor kid scoliosis, or whatever her mother used to say he’d get from slouching.
“They’re my guests, I invited them,” Nik huffed, crossing his arms across his broad chest.
“I can just—”
“My room is connected to the bathroom. What if the kiddo needs to go potty late in the night?” Jessie interrupted with a tilt of his head.
That’s when Nik leaned down close, whispering in his floppy ears, “Your room has all the butt plugs, cock rings, and lube.”
“Nik’s room it is!” Jessie laughed sheepishly, motioning with a grand swoop of his arm.
Nik flashed a shit-eating grin at him before climbing the steps to the second level.
Katarina eyed Jessie with a bemused expression but said nothing.
Jessie wasn’t going to fight when Nik had a point.
A very good point. They’d been playing around over the weekend.
He needed to blow off steam and the only person who really got him off that way was Nik.
Jessie didn’t mean to make his best friend into his friend with benefits.
It’s just that they worked so well together.
Nik liked it rough when he was taking but liked it soft when he was giving, which was perfect for the minotaur.
Sometimes, he needed to pound some ass and get off on it.
Others, he wanted to be kissed so soft it made him melt.
Was the line they danced on getting blurrier with every night spent in his bed? Maybe.
But Nik was a man of few words, if he wanted more, he’d say something…right? If he wanted more of Jessie than this fuck buddy, best friend, right hand situation, he’d definitely say something. Nik wasn’t someone to take bullshit for long.
Or, at least, that’s what Jessie told himself every time after they fooled around and found his bed empty in the morning.
If he wants more, he’ll ask. And so, Jessie marched to the couch.
Gonna need somewhere to sleep. He cleared off the cushions.
This thing is not great but survivable. Once upon a time it’s all we had.
Setting them down onto the living room floor, he shoved the coffee table aside.
All the furniture in the townhouse was bought second hand or a favor of a friend.
His buddy from high school worked for his dad’s mattress store.
He traded him upgrades on his car and oil changes for a year for those two amazing beds upstairs.
The couch was bought at a yard sale, the coffee table left from the previous tenants.
But it was home. It was his home, and he’d done it all without help from his dad.
See, Pops, I am capable of doing this.
He pulled on the couch strap and tugged the creaky frame out from within the frame.
The mattress popped into existence as soon as he locked the legs in.
He considered sleeping on the cushions instead, but the couch wasn’t long enough for his hooves.
Jessie flattened the whole thing out before heading to the hall closet.
Their broom nearly nailed him in the face.
Every. Fucking. Time! After fighting off the vacuum and duster, he grabbed the spare sheets from the closet and stuffed everything back in.
It wasn’t till he’d wrangled the fitted sheet to the mattress that he realized he wasn’t alone.
Jessie glanced up and caught Nik decorating the top of the mattress with extra pillows from upstairs… reminding him Nik was sleeping here.
“Oh… wait,” Jessie sighed, feeling stupid. “You can—”
“Go grab some z’s,” Nik nodded to the stairwell before plopping an armful of quilt and the giant platypus, a hard won prize at the carnival last summer, ontop.
“You still sleep with him?” Jessie gasped, snatching up Barnibus.
“He’s a good guard platypus,” Nik huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Jessie couldn’t help but hug the fluffy thing.
It was a log of vibrant seafoam with an orange beak and a monocle.
Originally he had a top hat, but they lost it one night when Barnibus fell off the bed.
So, Jessie sewed on a fake monocle. It made the disgruntled creature look like a distinguished gentleman.
“You know the kids gonna be all over this tomorrow,” Jessie teased.
“Hmm,” Nik hummed to himself as he returned Barnibus to the bed.
Jessie almost asked him, Hey? Why don’t you sleep in my bed with me tonight?
It normally wasn’t hard. Hey, you feeling frisky?
But for some reason, offering his bed with no intention of getting the other off kept him on a weird ledge.
He was one wrong hoof from toppling over the edge.
Is offering that too coupley? Jessie and Nik used to share beds all the time.
But, then again, that was back before Jessie knew what it sounded like to have his name moaned by the bugbear.
If he wanted to share, he’d ask.
Jessie patted him on the back, “Sweet dreams, big guy.”
“Yeah,” Nik grunted as he climbed into bed. The creaky metal complained the whole time. Jessie glanced over his shoulder, watching his roomate arrange himself at an angle to make it comfortable.
I’ll ask him tomorrow. Jessie flipped off the hall light as he saw Barnibus disappear into the massive arms of his best friend.
After he locked the front door, the minotaur sluggishly skulked up the steps.
He was at the top step, about to turn out that light when he heard murmuring from the other room.
Katarina had met her friend at the driveway, who stopped to drop off two bags with the boys and hug their newest roomie.
The pair had a long, whispered conversation that didn’t ease the crease in the pretty lady’s forehead.
Jessie should have walked into his room. He knew better than most that snooping only got someone in trouble. His father once cut off a guy’s left pinkie for snooping. Granted, Eggy also turned around and told someone else what he heard.
And yet?
Jessie tiptoed across the hallway, which was a few feet between his door and Nik’s, where the bathroom took up space. The murmuring was definitely Katarina, but it wasn’t to the little tike. With the door still open a crack, he could hear it clearer as he stepped up beside the door.
“Yes, please…the sooner I’m free of him, the better.
I know it’ll be a fight to get Bella free from him.
He might not be able to stop the divorce, but he’ll fuck with me if I try to take full custody.
So, it’s best to get the divorce in first and fast. Then, when he gets out, I can work on custody…
yeah, well, the Lord Commander personally dragged him away.
I don’t know who snitched but fuck if I’m not happy.
Not a single person stopped him. None of our neighbors said a word…
Yeah, I know. Thank you, my love, you’re a miracle worker.
Yeah, I’m safe. Hehe—yeah, they’re nice.
Compared to Gill? They’re fucking saints. ”
Jessie slid away from the door, headed to his room.
Gill, huh? He pulled his phone out of his back pocket.
Got personally popped by the Lord Commander, did ya, jackass?
That kind of thing definitely put someone on the front of some sort of newspaper or blog.
Not that it’s my business. It truly wasn’t, but that didn’t stop his nosy ass from scrolling through the daily articles.
Gillian Hurley, human, 37, arrested for destruction of property and assault.
Jessie furrowed his brow as he took a quick screenshot.
Gill was a big guy, blond hair, mean face, but he wasn’t exactly a problem for a succubus.
Succubi were arch-fiends, without all the fame and glory. Everything he knew about them came from unsavory sources. If Katarina wanted to rip his face off and suck out his bone marrow, she could have done it. Which meant the lady in Nik’s room was far nicer than Jessie.
He pocketed his phone and ducked into his room just as he heard Katarina’s voice die off. Closing his bedroom door behind him, he glanced to his bedside table where a bottle of lube sat audaciously next to a dildo.
“I should clean up,” he muttered to himself. “Good call, Nik.”
Jessie took a few minutes to wash, dry, and tuck away the toys where little, curious hands wouldn’t find them. Then, finally, he threw himself into his bed. Sleep took him shortly after.
Cruuuuuuunch. Something was in his bed. Smack, smack, smack, cruuuuuunch.
It wasn’t a person, but it was heavy enough to register in his sleep rattled mind.
Crunch! Plus, with some person clearly snarfing down an apple with gusto in his ear…
Jessie shifted ever tentatively onto his back.
He glanced to the right, and there on the bed was a plate of food next to a platypus, with a tiny terror standing at the side of his bed.
Big, glimmering ruby eyes stared up at him.