Chapter 3
WAKING NEXT to Jasper had quickly become one of Vincent’s favorite aspects of having the brat in his home.
So when he woke to find Jasper gone and likely making a mess of his kitchen, he was as disappointed as he was satisfied.
He stretched, rolled over to find his phone, and squinted against the backlight.
Late morning already, so no excuse to let himself fall back asleep.
With a groan he rolled out of bed and made a quick trip to the bathroom.
Then he headed downstairs to find Jasper, clad in boxers and a tee, finishing his usual misshapen pancakes and slightly overcooked eggs.
One of these days he’d need to take some time to teach Jasper to properly cook them, but for now he settled for wrapping his arms around Jasper’s waist and breathing in his scent.
The ends of Jasper’s hair were still damp from his shower, and his skin still smelled like Vincent’s new cedarwood-and-lemon soap.
It didn’t quite suit Jasper, and he found himself missing the usual citrusy mango scent.
Jasper turned his head to press a quick kiss to Vincent’s cheek before scooping half the eggs onto a plate with two pancakes and handing it over. “What’s the plan for today?”
Vincent set the plate aside to retrieve the blueberries from the fridge. “Making reservations for vacation, for one. Do you have a preference on when?”
“After the concert? It’s next Friday I think,” Jasper said, filling his own plate and pouring syrup over his pancakes and eggs.
That was likely too soon to hope for, but he’d call Zach directly to see what they had available. God forbid he try to book online; he’d never hear the end of it. “Double-check after you eat,” he said, drizzling some honey over his pancakes before settling at the table.
Breakfast was quick. Jasper was apparently too excited about the prospect of two weeks away from home to do more than inhale his food before racing upstairs to find the concert tickets. Less than a minute later, he was back at the table and shoving them in Vincent’s face.
“Next Friday!” Jasper bounced on the balls of his feet, waiting for Vincent to take the tickets before snatching up his abandoned plate and taking it to the sink.
Vincent shook his head, glancing at the date on the tickets before he finished eating. “You want to try for that Saturday?” he asked, getting up to hand his plate over. He found a magnet on the fridge and pinned the tickets to the top corner.
“Yeah, that should give me plenty of time after we get back to get ready for the new semester.”
And enough time for Vincent to adjust any living arrangements, though he kept that to himself.
He may have offered a second contract, but it was still too early to be considering letting Jasper move in with him, even if Vincent was starting to suspect Jasper’s current living situation wasn’t the best for him.
He pulled his phone out as he headed down the hall to his office and called Zach.
It rang four times before Zach answered with an exaggerated gasp and a “I didn’t know ghosts could use the phone! This is amazing! What’s it like on the other side?”
“Ha fucking ha,” Vincent replied, barely refraining from rolling his eyes.
“And still the same boring sense of humor. I would have thought the afterlife would cure you of that. I mean, you are dead, right? You haven’t called in, like, a year, so it must be something extreme.”
Vincent winced and stifled a sigh. “I’ve been busy,” he said lamely, settling at his desk and opening his laptop.
“Yes, getting your club up and running. I saw. Congratulations, by the way, even if you didn’t invite us to the opening.”
Christ. He’d forgotten how thickly Zach liked to lay on the guilt. “I’m sure I invited you when I ordered the benches,” he replied. “Same as when you invited me to your resort.”
Zach scoffed. “Like fuck Adam would have come out here.”
That was true, though listening to Zach tell him how much of a dick Adam was yet again was the last thing he was in the mood for. “I was calling to make a reservation, or should I book it online?”
“What?” Zach audibly perked up. “No way. You found a new sub? Is he cute? Do we get to meet him?”
Vincent nearly shuddered at the thought of Jasper meeting Zach.
He didn’t need the brat getting new ideas, though he couldn’t deny it would likely be good for him to see another sub in his natural habitat rather than at the club.
“Maybe. Depends on if you have a cabin available for two weeks, starting next Saturday.”
Zach let out a low whistle. “Lemme check. We’ve started getting booked up pretty far in advance lately.
” The sound of rapid typing and mouse clicks came through the phone.
“So one of the mid-level cabins might be available. Someone reserved it for that weekend, but they haven’t paid the deposit yet. Gimme a few minutes.”
The complete silence that followed let Vincent know he’d been muted.
He put his own phone on Speaker and set it down as he brought up the resort website on his laptop.
It didn’t take long to find one of the cabins Zach was referring to, and he clicked through the photos available.
Two stories, though the top level was a loft with the bedroom and bathroom.
A balcony with a nice view of trees and a walking path leading deeper into the woods.
Connected den and dining room, large TV, updated kitchen. But the highlight was the playroom.
A bit bigger than Vincent’s own, though with a different setup.
The obligatory bench, this one in a dark red leather.
Handcuffs, crops, and other various impact play items lined one wall, with a couple of chests in the corner.
The item that caught his eye, though, was the chair that belonged in a doctor’s office.
Before he could fantasize too much about how to use it, Zach returned.
“So good news,” he said, cheerful grin obvious in his tone. “The cabin is yours, and I’ve already marked it booked, so you’re all set. I assume you’ll want supplies brought in?” he asked dryly.
“I’ll put the order in if you give me a good day and time for delivery.” Vincent wouldn’t mind sampling the local restaurants, but more than a few days was too long to go without a proper home-cooked meal, much less two weeks.
“Yeah, sure. Any afternoon that’s not the weekend is fine.”
“I’ll set it for Wednesday, then.”
“Sounds good, but you better bring your boy by for dinner.”
“I’ll suggest it to him.”
Zach huffed. “There’s a fifteen percent insult fee if you don’t. Besides, I know you’re gonna want pictures done while you’re out here. Ash won’t do them without meeting him first. He might make an exception for you, but I’d rather not ask him to.”
Vincent winced. “He’s gotten worse?” Like Zach, Vincent had met Aston—Ash—in college when he’d transferred overseas after his accident. Unlike Zach, Ash was an extreme introvert and avoided social interactions as much as possible. The two had already been fast friends by the time Vincent met them.
“No, but he has set very firm boundaries over the last year, and that’s one of them.”
He couldn’t exactly say no to that, and it would be a dick move not to visit while he was there. Giving up one evening alone with Jasper wasn’t the end of the world. “We’ll have dinner.”
“Great! What’s his favorite food?”
Vincent snorted. “Spaghetti.”
“Oh, simple. A boy after my own heart.”
He fought back a groan, sure Jasper meeting Zach would end in disaster one way or another, and Vincent had a feeling he’d be the one to suffer from it.
Within a few minutes, he had the room paid for, and they spent another twenty catching up while he put together a grocery order for delivery.
Once that was done, he grabbed his laptop as he went in search of his brat and found he’d made himself at home on the couch with his new console game.
Vincent settled in beside him, intending to get the payroll approved and processed for the week, but he found himself distracted by watching Jasper play.
He didn’t recognize the game, and the gameplay seemed far more challenging than the games he preferred.
After a while Jasper pressed closer and nudged him with an elbow. “Wanna play?”
“I’m good,” he replied dryly. He was sure if he took the controller he’d be dead inside of ten minutes.
Instead he forcibly turned his attention back to his work.
Once the club’s payroll was done, he approved the pending time-off requests, set the schedule for the next month, and scheduled an interview for a chef for Tuesday.
Depending on how supplying staff meals went, he’d look into expanding into light dinner options for members who wanted to get to know others better before playing with them.
That would be several months in the making, though, so he turned his attention to the other businesses he had a hand in running.
The money his grandfather had given him access to after his mother’s death and Vincent’s subsequent accident had been spent investing in various stocks, but he’d also needed something more substantial to keep himself grounded amid the chaos of moving back to the States, and he’d found that by getting involved in the local community and businesses.
Two were tech start-ups that he’d helped fund shortly after returning from Europe, and he currently held a position on their boards.
So long as the owners and CEO remained sensible and their goals stayed aligned, he saw no reason to try to interfere and merely kept up-to-date with any changes they made and the quarterly reports.