Chapter 18 Murry
MURRY
“Did you go through the rooms again?” Raleigh asked.
“Twice, the only thing I haven’t been able to double-check is the ledge over the closet,” I explained.
“Well, come on, you can hop up on my shoulders and make sure we haven’t forgotten anything,” Raleigh said.
“Alright, let’s get it done and turn in the keys,” I replied, heading down the hall to our former bedroom. “I can’t believe we’re really doing this.”
“Kinda surreal, isn’t it,” Raleigh said as he dropped to one knee in front of the closet so I could climb on his back.
He steadied me as he rose, allowing me to see all the way to the back of the shelf, which was empty, thank goodness. We hadn’t realized just how much stuff we’d accumulated in the place until it was time to move out.
“We’re good,” I declared, so Raleigh lowered me back to the ground, then tugged me close and tangled his fingers in my hair.
“Yeah, we are,” Raleigh said before brushing a kiss across my lips.
Soft morphed into something more possessive as I backed him into the wall and used my body weight to keep him there.
“You’re not worried that it’s too soon to move in with Daddy Dorian?” I asked, panting as I gazed up into his eyes.
“Nope. We sleep there anyway, and constantly coming back for clothes or things we want to have over there is kind of getting annoying.”
“No shit, every time I tried to look for something, I realized it was over here,” I admitted.
“See, so why not move into the spare room officially? Even Phoenix thinks it would be good for us. Why drag it out when the loft is where we want to be?”
“I know, it’s just a little weird,” I said. “This was our first real home.”
“And the loft will be our second and hopefully last one, unless Daddy decides to move us all out into a house somewhere,” Raleigh said.
“And if things don’t work out with Daddy, we’ll have savings built up to get our own home by then, so it’s win-win either way.
Why continue to pay rent on a place we are never at? ”
“No, you’re right, and I’m in complete agreement about all of the reasons we’re doing this,” I said.
“I believe Daddy is our forever person. The one who is always going to be there for us, even when things are bad. There are just days when it all feels like a dream, and I’m scared that I’m going to wake up and we’ll be back dancing at the club, wishing we could just be ourselves with someone who’d love us exactly as we are. ”
“Never gonna happen,” Raleigh snapped. “We are never going to have to do that to support ourselves. You heard what Coby said at the last photo shoot. He’d already had people reach out to him for our contact information because they’d like to see us in their clothes.
Daddy Dorian opened a whole new door for us.
One that I hope we never have to use, but it’s going to be there if we need it.
We just need to focus on what we’ve found with him and trust that we won’t. ”
Snuggling against his chest, I clung and listened to the sound of his heart beating beneath my ear, steady and soothing.
“You always know just what to say to keep me from overthinking things,” I muttered.
“And you do the same for me,” Raleigh reminded me.
“Now we have Daddy to do it for both of us, and he’s great at it.
I love that he treated it like a real fear when I explained what happened at the mall and how afraid I am of getting separated from everyone when we’re in Portland.
And look what he did. I felt safer the moment he buckled it around my wrist.”
Raleigh’s hand, hovering near my cheek, offered the perfect view of the wide leather bracelets Daddy had made for us.
He’d embossed his name and number in it and buckled it on with kisses and promises that he’d keep his ringer up as high as it went, just in case something happened and someone had to call him while we were at the event.
I wore the matching one around my wrist, just tight enough that it felt like Daddy’s fingers resting there.
“I can’t believe he stayed up late making these for us,” I said.
“Why?”
“Just, I guess I’d expect something like that from you or Phoenix, or even James, depending on his mood, though he’d be just as likely to sew a tracker in our phones or shove the damn thing up our asses as he would be to actually make something by hand.”
Raleigh snickered, then folded over around me as he laughed into my hair. “I can’t… I could see that… and it would suck… but it would so be something James would do.”
“Right! He’s a scary combination of caring and sadistic,” I said, giggling now too.
“Gives a whole new meaning to having a bug up your ass, doesn’t it,” Raleigh said, making me laugh harder.
“There are only three things I want up my ass,” I declared. “Your dick, Daddy’s dick, and my strand of purple anal beads.”
“Not all at the same time, I hope,” Raleigh said.
“Of course not all at the same time!” I snapped, stepping back from him and crossing my arms. “Why would you even think such a thing?”
“I wasn’t thinking it,” Raleigh said, holding his hands up, though that grin never left his face, and I could tell he was struggling to rein his laughter in. “I was just looking for clarification about what you said.”
“Uh huh, sure, and likely over there fantasizing about ways you can make it possible now too, aren’t you?”
“Mayyyybe.”
“Just remember something,” I said, wagging my finger at him. “If you break this ass, you won’t get to play with it anymore.
“Even if I kiss it and make it all better?” Raleigh asked.
Narrowing my eyes at him, I tapped my foot on the floor, the picture of irritation while he just snickered more.
“If I were you I’d tread wisely, or you might find black licorice jellybeans on your pillow on our first night in our new home.”
“Eww, you just keep those damned jellybeans to yourself,” he complained. “And you didn’t answer the question.”
“How about you kiss me one more time before we turn in the keys, hop on your bike, and roar off to our new lives?” I suggested. “And stop thinking up ways to ruin my ass.”
Raleigh didn’t just kiss me; he teased and tormented me with his fingers, sliding one down the back of my sweatpants, toying with me, the tip of one finger teasing over my entrance several times as I mewed against his lips.
“Do you remember our first night here?” Raleigh rasped, breaking the kiss but not pulling away. “When you tackled me to the floor and wound up riding me until one of the neighbors banged on the door and complained that we were making too much noise in here?”
“That was all you,” I reminded him.
“Bullshit,” he replied, brushing one last, sweet kiss over my lips as he withdrew his hand, but not before he pinched my ass first.
“Owe, what was that for?” I grumbled, rubbing the spot he’d pinched.
“Distraction,” he said. “I wanted you to remember, not pounce on me and go for an encore.”
“Damn, I thought that was what you were hinting at,” I complained.
He grabbed my hand, and we walked through the door of our apartment for the final time, leaving this chapter of our lives behind.
“I was, sorta,” Raleigh said. “But not here. At Daddy’s house, so he can join us.”
“I love how you think.”
“It can be a housewarming present for all of us,” Raleigh said. “Phoenix said he had to take off after he helped unload the truck, which means he’ll be gone by the time we get there, so we’ll have Daddy all to ourselves.”
“Then why are we standing here discussing it?” I said, taking the lead now and tugging him all the way to the apartment at the end of the hall, where our building manager lived.
In no time at all we turned in the keys, hopped on Raleigh’s bike, and roared off down the street, the building growing smaller and smaller in the rearview until I couldn’t see it anymore.
Everything in it had been thrift store finds, even the box spring and mattress.
At one point we’d had a bed frame, but it was old, and we proved to be more vigorous than it could handle, so after several failed repairs, we’d given up on it and never bothered with a replacement.
The tiny table had only sat two; the coffee table had been propped up on one side by a giant book we’d shoved under there when one of the legs had broken.
The couch we’d found on the curb and dragged up that flight of stairs, nearly injuring Raleigh in the process.
Phoenix had been pissed as hell that we hadn’t called to get him to help us, but we’d been sure we could manage, and we had, despite some scrapes and bruises.
Daddy and Phoenix had hauled the functional furniture to the thrift store and the rest to the dump, which had only left boxes for them to take over to Daddy’s.
Unpacking was going to be fun, since we’d forgotten to label them when we first started packing.
By the time Raleigh suggested that it might be a good idea, we couldn’t find a pen and decided that we were wasting time looking.
It was a good thing we’d given up; I never came across a pen, and if Raleigh did, he didn’t announce it.
Phoenix was pulling out of the parking lot as we pulled in, so Raleigh honked while I waved to him.
The bike now had a designated parking spot in the garage, so Raleigh pulled into it, and we left our helmets on the rack beside the bike, where Raleigh kept the backpack he strapped to the sissy bars whenever we went shopping.
“We’re home, Daddy,” we announced when we stepped off the lift and into the loft, where boxes were carefully stacked along the wall so they weren’t cluttering up our room.
“I’m in the kitchen,” Daddy called out. “I made lemonade, if you’re thirsty.”
“I’m thirsty,” Raleigh muttered, spinning me into a kiss. “Very. Very. Thirsty.”
He peppered my lips with kisses, punctuated each word, and that chubby I’d had at the apartment returned as he started tugging at my shirt.