Chapter 26
Blake
Watching Marlow’s chest rise and fall in a steady motion nearly lulled me to sleep until the sound of his front door alarm disengaging hauled me right back into reality. Rubbing my eyes, I slowly untangled myself from his arms to sit up.
He hadn’t told me he was expecting anyone later today. Then again, I’d caught him in the middle of talking with his mother and trying to convince her not to come over for dinner, so there was a strong possibility she’d gone against his wishes and come over anyway.
I had a hunch that him avoiding her was because of me. Hopefully, that only extended into the realm of this being a new relationship and not wanting to jinx it by telling people too soon and not falling into ‘I’m worried my mom is going to hate you’ territory.
I’d never come back from that, no matter how well I treated her son. Silas had made it damn clear to warn me.
Since my dating life was abysmal and non-existent before this, I had no experience impressing parents regardless of whether or not their preconceived opinions of me were positive or not.
My own were an odd sort who played by their own set of traditions and values, not caring to follow the norm in anything they did.
I’d always appreciate that about them. Growing up in a ‘free’ household gave me plenty to be thankful for.
Rolling out of bed, I held back a wince as I stood, checking over my shoulder to make sure Marlow was still fast asleep.
My body was sore from the sex, way more than I thought it would be, in the best way.
It wouldn’t surprise me if I tore something, but honestly, I didn’t really care.
That was hands down the best orgasm I’d ever had in my entire life.
Slowly hobbling to Marlow’s bathroom, I slipped his robe off the back of his door and wrapped it around my body, covering up the marks imprinted into my skin by his hands.
Feeling them with every movement of my body sent a twinge of delight tickling under my skin. They made me feel owned, belonged to.
Asking me to stay was the last thing I expected, yet somehow made so much sense even if it slapped me hard in the face with surprise.
Marlow was right. We’d figure out the logistics once he was all better and able to move on his own again. Until that time came, I simply wanted to stay in whatever this moment was.
“Marlow,” someone called toward the front of the house. A man’s voice.
Not his mother.
Silas, maybe?
Heading down the hall, I stopped short at seeing not the doctor toeing off his shoes, but Marlow’s other friend I’d spotted waiting for him at the hospital. The taller one who’d spent the majority of his time there comforting Marlow’s mother.
Avery.
Fuck me.
His eyes narrowed on me immediately. “You.”
His dark blond hair was tied back in a half knot, the rest of the wavy lengths brushing his shoulders. While his clothes were casual, they were made with impeccable tailoring, displaying his wealth rather prominently without having to say a damn word.
In his hands was some kind of dish, the top of which was wrapped in tinfoil.
Nodding to it, I said, “You want me to take that?”
His shoulders stiffened. “Why are you wearing his things?”
Ugh, I really didn’t want to get into this.
Especially, since my skin was still slightly crusted with our mixed fluids. I had no idea what the fuck I had going on between my legs, and at this point, I was far too sore to bend down to look.
Avery advanced toward me, his scowl deep as I remained quiet. “Does he know you’re stealing his things?”
“I... don’t think he would care?” Stealing was a rather harsh word. This was more like borrowing.
Though, to a protective friend, I doubted that mattered.
“I was going to put it back.”
Avery shook his head. “Where is he?”
“Napping.”
“So, you take advantage of a man who’s too drugged up on meds to notice?” He leaned forward suddenly, forcing me to take a step back. “What’s wrong with you? Wasn’t it enough he got hurt under your watch? Now you think it’s fair to steal from him, too?”
Oh god.
How the hell did I turn this around?
At least Silas gave me a little benefit of the doubt to prove I wasn’t a total scumbag. Then again, the jury was still out on his formal opinion of me, though if I had to take a guess, it was probably mirroring this one.
“Avery, knock it off,” Marlow’s voice chimed in from behind me.
Whipping around, I spotted him slowly making his way over to us, his crutches stamping on the floor with each swing of his body.
How he was able to move so quietly through the house with those things, I still had yet to figure out.
It seemed whenever he wanted to remain stealthy, he had the uncanny ability to essentially make himself nearly inaudible to pick up on.
Now, though, he wasn’t bothering to remain all that quiet. “You’re such a bully.”
Avery’s mouth dropped open at the sight of him. “You’re kidding.”
Marlow had thrown on a matching robe, making this situation all the more obvious. If Avery hadn’t picked up on what was going on before, he sure did now.
“You’re sleeping with him?”
Marlow grinned. “Yup.”
My hand conveniently found my face to sigh into. Leave it to him to not at all sugarcoat things.
What did I expect, though?
This man was honest to a fault sometimes.
“I can’t help it. Look how cute he is.” A kiss was pressed against my temple, drawing me out from under my hand.
“Cute? Marlow, he almost got you killed.” Concern was taking over the anger in Avery’s voice, shifting it from a pointed and aggressive tone and turning it into one that was close to almost begging.
As if he were trying to plead with his friend to open up his damn eyes and see the truth for what it really was: that he was taking a liability to bed.
Too bad we were both too far down in the trenches to care.
“It’ll be a fun story to tell our kids,” was all Marlow followed up with.
Wryly, I glanced at him. “Kids, huh?”
He shrugged, grinning again. “Maybe a dog, too. I’m thinking a lab. They like the water. Perfect for the lake.”
Or a golden retriever, my mind helpfully supplied.
All right, I didn’t hate that idea, but that was getting far too ahead of ourselves. Letting my mind wander to the fantasy wasn’t helping with the fact that we had a very angry man in the house who was looking close to throwing whatever casserole dish he had in his hand right at my head.
Turning back to Avery, I said, “I’m sorry we are meeting like this. If I knew you were coming over, I would’ve fixed you up a drink first.”
That had him blinking in surprise.
An arm was thrown around my shoulders. “Blake here is the caretaker type. Kinda like your Brandon.”
The other man’s face pinched suddenly, his fingers lightly tapping the sides of the dish. Whoever Brandon was, most likely the other man who came with him to the hospital, he had a deep and profound effect on Avery. Enough to cool him down almost immediately.
“Silas said you’re the director of Austin Adventures.” His words were slow as he spoke them. “Don’t you think it’s highly unethical to be sleeping with your clients? Do you do that often?”
“Wow, way to make me feel like a dime-a-dozen, Av,” Marlow said.
Right as Avery was opening his mouth to retort, I cut in. “I’ve never slept with a client. Nor entertained the idea before this.”
“So why do so now?” he asked.
Turning my attention back to the man attached to the arm around my shoulders, I held his gaze for what felt like eons.
The fork in the road was giving me two choices: deflect and try to make this all seem like a happy accident that simply turned into a relationship that neither of us were expecting to blossom.
Or, the second choice, and the much harder one: be vulnerable. Open up to Marlow’s friend and show him that this wasn’t a one-off deal, that I wasn’t going to grow bored in a month and skip out before my duties were officially done and save myself from facing any kind of accountability.
Being in it for the long haul meant putting myself in positions where the need to be honest about my true feelings was paramount.
For all of Silas’s harsh bites and Avery’s callous words, they were simply trying to protect their friend from some bozo coming in and wrecking their friend emotionally again.
They’d seen firsthand how hard Marlow had taken me running away the first time and I doubted that was giving them a stellar first impression of me to work with. If I were in their shoes, I’d want me to prove myself, too.
Pulling in a deep breath, I said, “I never planned on it. I’ve always had a strict rule about never crossing any boundaries with clients, no matter how flirty they try to get. Truthfully, there was never anyone that even remotely interested me. I thought... for a long time, I was broken somehow.”
“You aren’t, Blake.” Marlow squeezed my shoulders.
“I was until you came around.” A smile broke out on my face. “You lured me right in. Like one of those fishermen with the really shiny baits.”
“Hope it was one of those expensive silver ones.”
I laughed. “Definitely.”
Looking back at Avery, I was surprised to see how much his expression had softened. Clearly, whatever I’d said resonated with him in some way, tempering down the anger he felt for me for the moment.
“I was scared about my feelings. How intense and real they were. But the more I tried to run away from them, the worse it felt to put distance between us. I don’t want to go back to that ever again.”
Marlow pressed another kiss to my temple. “Me either. Let’s not.”
I could get behind that. “Deal.”
Avery’s gaze flitted between us. His fingers drumming against the dish while lost in thought. When he finally spoke, he asked, “You’re sure about this?”
With a first nod, Marlow replied, “More than I’ve been about anything in my life.”
“He lives out in Wakefield, Mar. You remember that, right?”
“I’m gonna buy a summer home out that way.”
I dug my elbow right into his ribs. “Knock it off.”
His only response to that was to lift his arm from my shoulders and swing it around to clamp a hand against one of my ass cheeks, squeezing the sore muscle hard enough to make me jump. He threw his head back to laugh, a devious glint to his eyes.
He was lucky we had company.
Avery sighed. “Well, we might as well all eat together. Brandon made it for me to bring over since he knew you wouldn’t be doing any cooking. But could you both go shower first? You reek like sweat and sex. It’s making me nauseous.”
“Say less,” Marlow winked. “Any excuse to see Blake naked again is fine with me.”
Grabbing his shoulders, I used them to spin him around, coaxing him back toward his bedroom. Avery merely shook his head at us before walking to the kitchen, throwing a quick ‘don’t take too long’ over his shoulder before disappearing beyond the doorway.
“Come on, grandpa,” I said, gently nudging him forward.
“You into that, Blake? I know we’re pretty far apart in age but I didn’t think you were into the major age gaps.”
Feeling ballsy, I slapped his ass. “Guess you’ll have to find out.”
The grin he turned to throw over his shoulder at me was all the more promising. “Oh, I intend to find out every little thing about you. Don’t you worry.”
Oh man, did I love the sound of that promise.