Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ATTICUS
I’d really like to get up, but I know that Yorick would be extremely anxious if he woke up to find me gone. Maybe if he’d spent the daylight hours sleeping, he wouldn’t be sleeping into the night.
“Yorick,” I say, voice soft to avoid startling him. “We need to get up. We need to get going.”
His grip tightens on me as he murmurs something but refuses to open his eyes.
“Yorick, come on. Don’t you want to go home and get away from this mess?”
His eyes open and when he sees me, he only latches on tighter. “You’re still here.”
“I didn’t plan on going anywhere.”
“Do you still love me or was that all a dream?”
“Yes.”
“Yes to which part?”
“Yes to the first part.” I know I should just say it out loud to alleviate some of his concerns, but I find myself uncertain how.
Have I ever told anyone those words in a thousand years?
I don’t even remember my parents, but did they tell me they loved me before I was sold as a slave?
It shouldn’t be that hard, especially saying it to someone who’s been in my life for such a significant part of it.
Thankfully, he doesn’t appear concerned by my lack of words.
Yorick seems to settle down and I watch him closely.
My eyes have always been trained on him, but I fought so hard to keep from doing so.
Because every moment I watched him was a moment I drew him closer to Morpheus and closer to his death.
It feels strange giving in to something that I’ve forbidden myself from for so many years.
I can’t help but fear that I’ve made a terrible mistake caving to my desires. It’s such a weak mistake. One that seems impossible to undo, even if it’ll keep him safe.
When did I become so horribly selfish?
“Let’s get a shower,” I urge while I pull from him, but as I sit up, he’s dragged after me. His arms are locked around my waist, evidently prepared to never let go. “It’s going to be rather awkward walking around like this.”
“You could carry me. Honestly, you should just do that, don’t you think?”
“That wasn’t the first thing that came to mind, but if that’s what you want… There is a bit of a ridge on the shower, though, so when I drag you in, watch your head.”
“Drag?” he asks with a gasp. “I wanted to be cradled!”
“Hmm… so hard to please,” I grumble as I hold my arms out. He practically dives into them. I catch his naked body, and he’s all smiles while he settles into my arms.
“This is such a good dream.”
“Still not a dream,” I say. He shifts in my arms, wrapping his legs around my waist and drawing me in for a kiss. It’s a quick one, like he can’t stop looking at me long enough to give me a proper kiss.
“There’s no way you’d carry me around like this. This really is a dream.”
“And yet I am.”
“There’s no way you’d profess your undying love for me like this. Most definitely a dream.”
“I’m not much of a word man…” I say before deciding that I can stop this roll that he’s on by kissing him. It really pleases him so much. His hair hangs in my face as I feel his excitement.
“My favorite dream ever,” he murmurs.
“How long are you going to pretend this is a dream? Do you need a cold shower to wake you up?” I threaten.
Yorick clings tighter. “I really don’t think that’s necessary. I’m definitely awake now, fully awake. Very much awake.”
“Hmm… are you?” I ask as I nip his neck. He shudders and presses closer to me.
“I think I might like you biting me,” he mutters. “Is that weird? Probably weird. You should bite me again to find out.”
“To find out if it’s weird?” I ask while I carry him into the bathroom. He doesn’t appear to want to be put down, so I reach in and turn the water on.
“No! If I like it.”
“I don’t think you need me to bite you again to answer that. It’s pretty obvious,” I say as I step into the shower while carrying him. I press him against the wall, pinning him there so I can nip his neck while my fingers explore up his leg that’s wrapped tightly around my waist.
The water cascades down his thigh, brushing over his cock before dripping down between his legs. My eyes are almost mesmerized by those beads of water sliding down such intimate places.
He mumbles something before I rake my fangs down his neck, causing a moan to escape him.
“Your cock is rubbing against me,” he murmurs.
“Hmm… Did you bring any lube?”
“Where on my body do you think I could have tucked it?” he asks as he gestures at his naked self.
“If only you’d brought lube.”
Yorick practically dives out of my hands, nearly slips on the wet floor, and zips out of the bathroom. He’s back and trying to clamber into his previous position before I have time to even say anything to him. He does a ridiculous hair flip and winks at me.
“Had some right here,” he says while trying to hoist himself back into my arms.
“I would never have noticed you’d gone anywhere,” I say dryly.
“Right? Maybe if you… let me back into your arms, you really wouldn’t notice! Pick me back up!”
“I want to, but watching you work for it has entertained me too much,” I tell him, and he pins me with a look.
It makes me grin as I press him against the shower wall and cup his cock.
That makes whatever nonsense he was about to blab about promptly disappear.
I rub his cock, gently teasing it with my fingers before lifting him up into my arms again.
He’s immediately pleased the second I do.
Yorick is so easy to read, but he’d complain if I told him that.
His lips find mine as he fumbles with the lube, so I take it from him.
“You know I can help, right?” he asks while I remove the lube from his hand and squeeze some onto my fingers.
“Yes, but I’m well aware you love to be pampered, so just worry about hanging on to me.”
That stops the debate right in its tracks as he shrugs. “I do like to be pampered,” he whispers against my neck. “About time you learned that. Took you long enough.”
“You don’t believe me giving you an obscene amount of money as well as allowing you to steal from me wasn’t enough pampering?”
“I just did that stuff to get your attention.”
“Well, you definitely have it,” I say before kissing him.
He’s all smiles. “I sure do. Tell me everything else of yours that I have.”
“Currently? My car, a house, some clothes, my favorite jacket—”
“No! I was talking about things like… your heart and soul.”
“Maybe I didn’t get there yet. The list is long.”
“Sure is.”
“My keys… and you took my lawn mower one time.”
“I needed to mow my grass!” He gasps, and I really feel like it has nothing to do with my finger tracing over his hole.
“What now?”
“Are we bickering like an old married couple?”
“For sure,” I joke.
“I want a ring.”
“I’ve already given you like forty. Take your pick.”
“Well, if I knew those were engagement rings, I wouldn’t have sold them all. You’ll just have to get me another—one I don’t have to steal this time.”
“We aren’t even on day two of being together, and I’m already getting married?” I ask.
“We wasted so much time, Atticus. So many years!”
“And we might be wasting many more by being together,” I fret. Who knows what Morpheus will do now.
His grip on me tightens. “I don’t care.”
I want to tell him that I also don’t care, but I know it would be a lie. I would rather step away from him again if it meant having him safely in my life for hundreds of years to come. But right now… I want to live this dream and not “wake up.”
So I guess I need to enjoy every single second of it, then.
My lips find his while my fingers rub his hole before pushing inside him. He murmurs how good it feels, and I know I won’t be satisfied with just this. Not when I can have all of him.
Yorick has always been so willing to hand away too much of himself to me.
I’m not quite sure what makes me so worth it in his eyes. Why has he waited for me for all these years? He could have had so much. He could have had it all.
“Why did you never find someone else to love?” I ask.
His eyes catch mine. “Because every time I tried, it felt like a lie. A few times I thought I just needed to spend more time with them and it’d be enough. But every time, I found myself going back to you.”
“I don’t know why.”
“Do I need a reason?” he asks.
I gaze at him, taking in his earnest expression before deciding that he really doesn’t need one.
I just want to cherish this moment of freedom and hang on to it with everything I’ve got.
I will fight for us. I will fight so hard to keep moving forward and to keep him safe as I do so, even if it feels like fighting will never be enough.
Yorick pinches my cheeks. “Stop it.”
“Stop what? I thought you liked it when I touched you like this. Is our sex life already getting stale?”
“Stop getting in your head.”
“That’s the last thing I’m doing.”
“You don’t think I know you better than that after this many years?” he asks. “I know you better than you know yourself.”
“That’s a scary thought.” But probably true… although I won’t let him know that. I can’t give Yorick too many wins or who knows what he’ll get up to. I’ve already seen what he can accomplish while thinking that I’m refusing to let him have anything.
“I think I know how to quiet you down so you can stop acting like you know everything going on in my head,” I say as I bite his neck.
He moans, but it’s nothing compared to the way he clutches at me when I press the head of my cock against his hole.