Chapter 43 Tennant #2
He eventually goes so still I assume he's fallen asleep. Shifting so I can sit further up on the bed, he clutches at me tightly. “No!” he protests. “I'm not ready for you to go yet.”
“Settle, Baby Boy. I'm not going anywhere, just trying to get more comfortable.” Kicking off my shoes, I shuffle around until I’m leaning against the raised head of the bed and Lio clings to me like a koala the entire time.
Is this how Hollis feels when Roman clings to him? If so, I can't say I hate it.
Easing him back so I can see his face, I look into his eyes. The emerald is almost as dark as Roman’s eye color, and I smile a little at that. “I love you, Mostrotto.”
He gasps. “I love you, too, Daddy. I don't deserve you, but I love you, I do.”
“You deserve to have whatever you want, Baby Boy. I won't hear otherwise, understand?”
He nods a little.
Gripping the back of his head, I bring his mouth to mine, kissing him deeply.
Lio lets out a weak laugh. “You taste like blood, Daddy.”
“Do I?” He nods. “You like that?”
“Yes, Daddy.” His eyes darken further.
I grin. “Shall I make you bleed?”
“Please…”
Pulling his mouth back to mine, I kiss him once more, pouring every ounce of anger, fear, and even stupid fucking love into it. I bite at his tongue and lips, sinking my teeth into the delicate flesh until it gives in to me and I get the first taste of my Baby Boy’s blood.
My cock hardens and Lio moans, though neither of us heat up the kiss, or make any other move to escalate things. Now isn't the time. Not with him still healing—both mentally and physically.
I only pull back so my poor Baby Boy can breathe. His lips are stained with blood, and that dark, possessive part of me lights up at the visual claim.
“You are the best thing I've ever tasted, Little Monster.” I trace my thumb along his bottom lip, catching the blood there.
He watches as I suck it off my finger, his breath hitching. “Whose blood was on your lips before?”
Internally, I sigh. “Benjamin.”
“Oh. Is he…does he hate me? I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to come see me.”
“No, Piccolo. No, he doesn't hate you. He loves you so much. But…he's currently on bedrest. He…tried to hurt himself, using me. When I refused, he ended up getting hurt anyway. I'm so fucking sorry, Baby. It's my fault.”
Lio blinks and shakes his head, confusion filling his eyes. “He…he tried to kill himself, too?”
“No,” I say firmly. “He didn't try to kill himself, not really. But he did try to use me as some fucked-up form of self-harm. Things were a mess when you were gone, and some wires got a bit crossed. He touched me when he shouldn't have and I reacted.”
“But he’s okay?” He tries to sound unaffected, but there’s a crack in his voice, and I hate having to break his already fragile heart.
“Yeah, Baby Boy, he’ll be okay. He needs to be on bedrest for a while because the knife nicked his kidney.
It was dicey at first, trying to avoid internal bleeding, but now, they just want to make sure the organ is healing well before they allow him to move more.
I’ll take you to see him soon, okay? I know he misses you. ”
Lio doesn’t respond to that, he simply nods.
I try to reassure him. “I would never lie to you, Baby.”
“Okay…” Lio’s expression is shuttered, and it kills me, knowing I’m not capable of properly caring for him through this type of tragedy.
I reach up and wipe his eyes. “He’ll be okay, and so will you.”
He sighs, looking down as he picks at a button on my shirt. “I talked to Javi…my new psychiatrist,” he says softly. “I…told him some things, and he reminded me that relationships are fluid, and I need to communicate with my Doms…”
I bite back my sigh. I know exactly what he’s talking about, and as much as I want the answer to be ‘fuck no’, I can’t do that to him. Not after catching feelings.
“Your Owner and I talked to Allesandro. We know what he means to you, and while I…disagree with him, and will never fully trust him with you, I know you love him. I want you to be happy, Emilio. It grates that Hollis and I can’t fill that void, but I know better than most that love doesn’t work that way. ”
“Do you trust me?” He looks back up at me, his eyes wide and pleading.
“Yes.” I offer no further explanation, because there doesn’t need to be one. We’re both very aware how hard trust is to come by these days.
“I love you, Daddy. I…” His eyes fill with tears again. “I’m sorry for…for not being strong enough, for being so weak that I can’t stop needing him.”
“Hush.”
Holding Lio tightly, I slide him off my lap to my side.
Before he can protest, I push myself up and over him, trapping him beneath me.
Capturing one of his hands, I hold it between us.
“I love you, Emilio. I know why you made the choices you did, and I don’t fault you for them.
It’s not a mark against you, so you don’t have to be sorry about that.
“As for Allesandro… I don’t like him. I didn’t like him before you and I got together, or even before he hurt you.
That won’t change. I won’t ever trust him, but my trust in you is absolute.
I won’t stand in the way of your happiness, because while I’m an obsessive bastard, I'm not a controlling one.”
There’s such trust and love in his eyes, I have to take a shaky breath.
“I am your Daddy. You need to be cuddled and loved? You need me to build you a nursery so you can relax and let all your stress melt away? Then I’ll do it.
I will do everything and anything you need me to, Little Monster, because that is the gift you gave me. ”
Lio’s breath stutters and he gasps out a sob. “Wh—what if I need Allesandro, too?”
I swallow, unsure how to respond, so I close my eyes as some type of fucking feeling rushes through me, striking my heart.
“He doesn’t fucking deserve you. He lost all right to care for you when he threw you away like you were nothing. He can be your Master. I understand he gives you things I can’t, but that…”
Fucking shit. The constricting feeling I had when Roman and Lio were taken starts up again, and I bury my hands in the sheets of the bed, unwilling to let my Little Monster down because of stupid fucking emotions.
Lio reaches up and frames my face. “You’re my Daddy,” he says firmly.
“You will always be my Daddy. You’ve shown me what having that level of care is, and I want it desperately.
But…I need him, too. He…showed me how to be the Boy I am.
He made me trust in the care, and…yes, he gave me things I hate, but I wouldn’t be here without him.
The first time my mind went dark, he was there.
And now, he’s showing how much he loves me by letting me have an Owner and a Daddy.
” His chest rises and falls rapidly, and his eyes get glassy, but he continues.
“Hollis is my Angel, my Owner. He owns me heart and soul, and he is at the top of this all. I know it’s only because of him that I have you, and the potential to have Allesandro again. ”
Lio licks his lips, his eyes seeming to plead with me to understand.
“Daddy…that’s more than a title, it's an honor.
A place in my heart that only you can have, much like Sir will be my only Owner.
But…while Allesandro is my Master—and has been for a long time—and will be my only Master, I want him to be my Papa Bear as well.
Both he and Javi said I need to talk to you about it first, and so I am.
“Please, Daddy… He isn’t the same as you. He’s more like a bear: growly, firm, and sometimes a little stern, but cuddly as well. He cares for me, but he isn’t my Daddy. You are.
“I love you, Tennant. I love the care you give, the way you protect everyone, and how strong you are. You’re the feels whisperer, and I think you’re the only one who can ever truly make those stupid things make sense.
You’re my Daddy, and I want everything that comes along with that—except the diapers, I don’t like those, Daddy.
” The way he blushes and squirms underneath me tells a different story, but I’ll let him pretend I believe the lie.
Leaning in, I kiss him softly, tasting the dried blood on his lips, but I keep the kisses I give him gentle. “I won’t let him hurt you again. If you need this, Baby Boy, I hope you know what you’re signing him up for.”
He sighs. “Overbearing Daddy?”
I nod and give him a serious look. “Yes, he can play with you, help you heal from everything you’ve been through, and be in your life in whatever capacity you’ll allow, but that means he also forfeits every bit of privacy. Leandro’s overlording will come in handy.”
He tries to glare at me, but really he looks like the puppy Hollis collared him as. “Don’t scare him, Daddy.”
I laugh a little. “Never. So long as he knows what he has, and doesn’t do anything stupid again.”
Lio bites his lip. “So…I can have my Daddy, my Owner, and my Master slash Papa Bear?”
I groan and press a firmer kiss to his delectable mouth. “So long as you know who you belong to.”
“Always, Daddy.”
My insides still churn with discomfort, but I don’t think there’s anything I won’t give this Boy. And…unlike with Benjamin, I know I don’t have to worry about him abusing my trust.
Fuck, how did this even happen? Never in my life did I think I’d ever get Hollis to give me a chance, and now I have him, a Little Lamb, a Toy, a dumbass soulmate, and a Little Monster. And I will kill whoever I need to in order to keep every single one of them. Life has a twisted sense of humor.
Shifting to my side, I gather Lio close, holding onto him as if my life depends on it, and given the way I’m feeling, it just might.
He snuggles in, warm and soft, and feeling so fucking right in my arms. I press another kiss to his head. “Thank you, Daddy.”
“Don’t thank me, Little Monster. I’ll burn the world down for you.”
Lio sighs, and whatever tension he was holding eases at my words, as if violence is soothing to him, and knowing my Mostrotto, it probably is.
I hold Lio until his breathing evens out, the excitement of meeting a new mental health professional and showing me his vulnerabilities wearing him out.
I close my eyes, as the sleep I’ve gone without recently catches up to me now that my monster knows its soulmate is safe in its arms. And he always will be.