24. Dario
CHAPTER 24
Dario
There’s a fat and cheerful little Santa sitting on the front desk when we arrive, holding a sign that reads ‘Welcome to the North Pole!’. The sergeant greets us warmly and informs the captain over the phone that we’ve arrived.
Padilla meets us only a couple of minutes later. “Thank you so much for coming in, Dario,” she says warmly as she shakes my hand. “Am I okay to call you Dario?”
I glance knowingly at Lochlan, who gives me an encouraging grin.
“That would be perfect, thank you.”
She nods and turns to Lochlan. “And this is…?”
“Lochlan Bell,” he says quickly, also accepting her hand. “Dario’s boyfriend.”
The shock of hearing him say that is starting to fade, but I wonder if there will ever come a time where it feels totally natural to me that such a gorgeous, kind, amazing man is proud to stand up and tell whoever will listen that he’s my boyfriend. That I’m his.
Possibly not, but hopefully that means I’ll never take how wonderful that fact is for granted.
They finish their shake, and Padilla beckons for us to follow her. “So, you’re pretty new in town as well, huh?” she asks me as we head into a room with a table that could technically fit eight people around it, judging by the chairs. But it doesn’t feel huge with just the three of us claiming one end. Lochlan and I sit, but she gestures to the coffee pot. “Can I get you something?”
“Yes, please,” Lochlan says emphatically, but I shake my head.
“Um, have you got any herbal tea or anything? If not, water’s just fine.” I feel like I need something to calm my nerves right now, not wake them up.
“We have plenty of tea,” she assures me, then sets about pouring two coffees and makes something fruity for me.
Lochlan squeezes my thigh and leans closer to whisper in my ear. “Look at you, asking for what you need. I’m so proud of you, baby.”
I’m sure I blush, but I don’t say anything back, afraid I might start crying if I do. Lochlan knows I’m listening to him, though.
“Thank you,” I tell Padilla as she hands us our drinks. “And yes, to answer your earlier question, I’ve only been in Redwood Bay about three months.”
“Three weeks,” she says, jabbing her thumb toward her chest. “I was in a little place just outside of Seattle before this. But my folks are here, and they aren’t getting any younger, and I just needed some damn sunshine, you know? When a promotion opportunity popped up for me, it seemed like fate. How about you?”
I know she’s trying to get the measure of me. I don’t blame her. Shane knows how to spin some wild lies. So I’m happy to chat for a while if it means the captain feels she can trust me.
“Uh, similar. It was the first job I got offered close to my family, so I went for it. I had to get out of Arizona.”
“Ah,” Padilla says knowingly. She clicks a pen and flips to a fresh page in her notebook. “And away from the charming gentleman who forced his way into your home today, I’m assuming? Why don’t we start from the beginning. Tell me everything you can.”
So that’s exactly what I do. It’s painful, and I’m afraid that every word I say could be the thing that makes her snap and accuse me of lying about who’s the real victim between me and Shane. But Lochlan never lets go of my hand, giving me strength. Even when I tell parts of my story that make me cringe at how stupid and weak I was with Shane. In fact, he actually leans in and kisses my cheek just when I think I’m too ashamed to go on.
So I do go on. I describe how the last straw was Shane hitting me, how my amazing family didn’t judge me, they just worked out the best plan to get me out of there. Then my name change, the restraining order, and finally moving here.
“I think that’s all I need for now,” Padilla assures me. “We’ll be in touch with the Arizona PD to corroborate their involvement and get copies of their files. We’ll need the footage from your home security system as well.”
“Of course,” I say as we all rise to our feet. I feel like my legs are made of Jell-O and that I could sleep for a week. But I know I just need to hold on a little longer, then I can go home.
With Lochlan.
“Do you think you have enough evidence to convict him?” he asks Padilla.
“I’m afraid I can never give guarantees,” she says diplomatically as she begins escorting us toward the front of the precinct. “But I think the video footage combined with the witness reports are a solid starting point. Don’t worry, Dario. I’m going to have my ADA throw the whole book at him. Epilogue and all.”
I smile tentatively, scared to get my hopes up. But I do know one thing for sure, and that’s the last time I escaped Shane I felt so alone.
Now I have more families than I know what to do with.
“Thank you for coming in,” Padilla says as we reach the front desk.
I shake my head. “Thank you for listening to me. For making me feel heard.”
Her expression is sympathetic. “No matter what anyone might have told you in the past, you’re important. I personally have your back now, kiddo. You have my number, call me anytime.” She narrows her eyes. “Unless the Seahawks are playing. Then I might have to send you to voicemail.” We all laugh lightly as she bats my arm with my own case file. “Seriously, take care. And try and stay out of trouble.”
“I’ll make sure of that, ma’am,” Lochlan says earnestly. “Although, I’m not sure how much trouble there’s going to be in Redwood Bay.”
She scoffs and shakes her head. “That’s what I thought about Pine Cove. I swear, sometimes small towns are crazier than big cities.”
With a parting wink, she heads back into the belly of the precinct.
Lochlan and I both sigh at the same time, then chuckle weakly at each other. “Let’s get you back to the rebel base,” he says.
“Best plan I’ve heard all day, Commander,” I tell him.
“Tell me what you need.”
I blink and look at Lochlan. We’re standing in my entrance hall. The dogs are sitting at our feet, but they’re just gently wagging their tails. I think they can both sense that I’m operating on low power mode, trying to conserve all the energy I can. I’m not sure I really remember the drive back from the police station.
“Uhh,” I say as I look around what I can see of my house from here. I’m not sure what sparks the memory, but I suddenly slip my hand into my back pocket, sagging in relief when my fingers wrap around the flash drive. It would be a terrible sort of irony if I lost it after that talk I had with myself earlier about not losing it. “I should probably put this somewhere very safe.”
“In your office?” Lochlan asks.
I nod, and he gently steers me there where I slot it back into the USB port. It’ll be safe there with the door closed, especially with so many miniature intergalactic crews watching over it.
Lochlan then leads me back down into the kitchen where he opens the fridge. “Ah, perfect.” He pulls out one of the protein shakes I have in case of emergencies where I’m in the zone and don’t want to pause work to make a proper meal. It’s a banana one as well, my favorite. I thank my past self for his forethought.
“What about you?” I murmur as he cracks the lid and presses it into my hand.
“I had a big lunch, I’m fine,” he says.
I’m worried he’s not being honest because he doesn’t want to take the focus off me right now, and almost start to feel guilty. But then I remember that he’s a grown adult and I trust him to look after himself. If he says he’s okay for now, I believe him.
After I gulp down as much of the drink as I can stomach, Lochlan puts the lid back on, then brings it with us into my bedroom, placing it on my nightstand. The dogs haven’t even followed us, so he has no objections when he closes the door. Wordlessly, he then crosses the room to me again where he begins gently taking my clothes off until I’m just in my briefs. He strips back the covers and guides me to lie down before tucking me in.
“Do you want company or to be alone?”
“Company,” I reply immediately. “But…thank you for asking. That’s so thoughtful of you.”
“Of course, baby,” he says, quickly stripping down to his underwear as well. “I’m here to give you whatever you need right now.”
As he also climbs under the duvet, I roll to greet him, and we slide naturally into each other’s arms. “You,” I whimper, my emotions bubbling to the surface once more. “I just need you, Lochlan.”
His kisses feel like heavenly clouds as his lips gently meet mine over and over again. He threads his fingers through my hair, humming happily. My chest aches with how much he means to me. How he probably doesn’t even know how his actions today have gone such a long way to restoring my faith in humanity. It’s almost as if I can feel the tough scars around my heart softening and fading.
All because of one man and the community he’s a part of.
If I lose him because I was too scared to take a leap of faith, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.
Drawing back, I gaze into his eyes. He brushes my hair from my forehead and smiles sweetly. “What, baby?”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to chicken out at the last second, but I must be brave.
“I love you,” I say in a rush, hoping I haven’t ruined everything. He was the one determined to speed things up. Yet there’s always a chance…
Except of course there isn’t. His face splits into a beaming grin and his eyes sparkle. “Oh, hell yeah! I think I fell in love with you the moment we met, you know? I just didn’t realize it for ages. You’ve been my favorite person since that day in the park where my terrible son jumped all over you and I thought you were going to hate me.”
“I could never hate you,” I say, horrified by the idea. But he just laughs.
“I feel the same.” He caresses the side of my face with such a feather-light touch, it sends shivers throughout my body. “I love you so much, Dario. Thank you for trusting me with your heart.”
We begin kissing again, slowly at first, luxuriating in just being close with one another. But the heat starts creeping in, like a fire growing in my belly, and before long I’m moaning into his mouth.
“Need you,” I mumble against his lips, scrabbling with the waistband of his briefs.
“Shh,” he soothes me, rolling us so I’m on my back and he’s hovering over me. “Is this okay? I want to take care of you.”
This position used to make me feel trapped and worthless. But not with Lochlan. He knows that topping is how I feel good. But being under him right now just makes me feel cherished.
I nod, and he kisses my mouth some more. However, soon he’s breaking off and reaching into my nightstand.
“Wait,” I say, touching his arm as he withdraws the condoms and lube. “I…if you wanted…my test results are all negative.”
It seems to take him a second to process what I’m saying, but then he beams at me. “You wanna go bareback?”
“We’ll still need lube,” I say quickly. “But…yeah, if you know your status and that’s something you’d want?”
He drops the condom box back in the drawer as he leans down to kiss me hard. “I definitely want to feel everything with you, gorgeous. And we have regular health checks at work. I’m ready for lift-off.”
I giggle at his silly sci-fi reference in the middle of a safe-sex talk, but also I think some of my relief is finally leaking out.
“Your departure is approved, pilot,” I murmur before kissing him again.
I lay like a pillow princess as Lochlan gets our underwear off, then he straddles me for more kisses as he lubes up his fingers and starts stretching out his hole. I would have been fine just to frot after the day I’ve had. But if he wants to put the effort in to fuck, that feels pretty damn romantic to me in this moment.
He doesn’t spend too much time on prep. It’s not necessary as we’ve been at it a lot this past week and I’m not huge anyway. But I think right now we’re both too desperate to be close more than anything else. Extra lube does most of the heavy lifting as he spears himself on my hard dick and starts lowering his way down.
“I love watching you,” I whisper, running my hands over his damp chest as he sinks deeper. “I love seeing what I do to you.”
He kisses my lips and grins. “I love putting on a show for you, baby. You feel so perfect. You know just how to treat me right.”
It’s simple praise, but his adoring words seep through my bones like syrup. “Tell me I’m good,” I utter, tears leaking from my closed eyes.
“Dario, my baby,” Lochlan says with a happy sigh. “You are the most perfect boyfriend in the whole wide world. I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to call you mine. You’re so good for me. So good to me. Everything about you is wonderful, but I know there’s still so much cool stuff to discover. Thank you for being mine, sweetheart. Look at me?”
I take a breath and peel my eyes open. He smiles down at me, and I realize he’s bottomed out already.
“I love you,” he says earnestly, his gaze feeling like it’s reaching into my soul. He rolls his hips and we both moan and gasp. “I love you, Dario. I love you so much.”
“I love you, Lochlan,” I tell him, a sob catching in my chest. “I love you, baby.”
There isn’t much talking after that. Lochlan does pretty much all the work as he cradles me and rams himself again and again on my cock. Neither of us last long, but I think he knows without me saying anything that this time I don’t want to tease or draw anything out. I want to spill my seed inside him and mark him as mine.
He looks so stunning as he rocks on top of me and thrusts his huge dick through his closed fist. When he shoots all over me, I come inside him within seconds, feeling like my soul flies from my body.
I’m not sure how long we lie in a heap, panting and trembling together. When he eases himself off me, I moan, but don’t have the energy to even lift a pinky let alone go after him. He returns soon enough, however, and I guess he might have cleaned himself up in the bathroom. He’s got a warm washcloth that he runs over my junk and my chest so I’m not sticky. Then he dries me with a couple of tissues before fetching the protein shake I’d forgotten all about.
“Can you drink a little more for me?” he asks kindly.
When I nod, he helps me to sit up a bit and even helps me keep the bottle steady as I gulp a few mouthfuls down. After I’ve had enough, he puts it back on the nightstand, then cuddles up behind me as the big spoon, the duvet just heavy enough over us to feel comforting instead of suffocating.
It’s like we’re in a nest or a womb, so safe from the outside world as we regain our strength to rise from the ashes once again. Just before I slip into the warm darkness of sleep, I entwine our fingers and press our hands to my chest.
“My love,” I murmur.
“My everything,” he whispers as he nuzzles my neck.
I used to think that love was a weapon used only to control and tear down and punish.
I never knew it could be freedom itself. That it could lift you as high as the tallest redwood trees into the blue skies beyond.
Now I know what love truly is, I’m never going to let it go.