Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ROME
I have everything ready for when he returns. Comfort dinner, dessert, and a hot bath with bubbles floating on the top of the water. Dennis does nothing to help except supervise me with his one eyeball and repeatedly hissing at me when I get too close.
Gone is the cuddling and purring he gave me this morning. But then again, maybe he can sense the stress in the air. Maybe he can feel what just happened.
When Dex walks into the apartment, he looks exhausted, and I rush toward him, pulling him in for a long hug. His arms wind around me, and he squeezes me tightly before letting me go. He still smells like smoke.
‘Bath,’ I tell him, and he lets out a long exhale. I can feel it on my cheek. I grab his hand and bring him into the bathroom, where he stares at the tub longingly for a long moment.
‘Undress,’ I tell him, and he pulls his shirt off while I work on his pants. As much as I always seem to want him, tonight is all about him. Tonight is only about him and what he needs.
When he’s completely naked, he steps into the warm water and sinks beneath the bubbles, disappearing entirely for a long moment.
I stare at the water and jump slightly when he bobs to the surface.
‘Smells good,’ he says, bubbles lingering on his fingers.
‘I bought some nice bath stuff.’
He nods, his eyes meeting mine. ‘Thank you.’
I swallow and then kneel beside him, my hands moving to the shampoo and squirting some into my hands.
‘You can join me.’
I shake my head and then say with my voice, “Going to take care of you first.”
He lets his eyes slip shut as my fingers move through his hair, massaging his scalp as he leans back. I work on him for a long time, letting my hands move from his head to his neck, rubbing the sore muscles of his shoulders until they start to relax.
‘So good,’ he tells me, his chin meeting his chest. ‘I love this.’
I capture those signs and tuck them into my heart. Grabbing some soap and lifting an arm from the water, I wash him slowly, getting to every part of him, my shirt getting wet in the process, so I just take it off.
Dennis sniffs at it and then sits on the partially dry side of it.
Dex’s eyes slide down my chest, and he wets his lips. But not right now, I think. Not until later and only if he’s really sure. He’s been through something traumatic. He needs me to take care of him right now.
I rinse his hair, and he leans back, looking relaxed and clean. He no longer has the smudge of soot on his cheek, and his face no longer has the tension it previously wore.
‘I want you to relax while I warm up the food,’ I tell him, and he turns his gaze to meet mine.
‘You don’t have to.’
‘I know that, but I want to.’
I hop up and walk to the kitchen, getting everything from the fridge and working on warming it all up. I have no idea what he wants, but I went with the usual. Wings, fries, mac and cheese, and brownies. And right near them are some gummies Robbie left.
He stopped by earlier and hid them under the welcome mat with a note to use them carefully.
Nothing about this spread is remotely good for him, but it’s all delicious and comforting.
When Dex appears, his sweatpants dangerously low on his hips, he looks at the food on the counter and rubs his bare stomach.
‘Gonna get messy.’
‘The best part of comfort food. Sit. You want a drink? I have soda, beer, straight alcohol.’
‘I’ll take a soda. Whatever doesn’t have caffeine.’
I give him a root beer, and he pops the top, taking a long sip. I watch his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows it down, taking a seat right next to him and handing him a plate.
He dishes himself up a pile of food and lets out a sigh so deep it makes his shoulders sag. ‘Thank you for doing this.’
I swallow, feeling a click in my throat. ‘Of course. I would do anything for you.’
His eyes blink, and I see them water slightly. But before he says anything, he grabs a wing and bites into it. I can’t hear him groan, though I know he does, but I do see the way his body relaxes into the bite.
‘Delicious,’ he says with his free hand. ‘Where did you get all this?’
‘Some from the grocery store, the rest from Fly Bites.’
His eyebrows rise as he finishes the wing and licks his fingers. ‘Well, they make good wings.’
I place some on my own plate and eat everything slowly, nerves making it a little hard to get anything down. I want to ask him if he learned anything about the fire, how it happened and what the process will be to reopen again, but I also don’t want to stress him out.
I’ve never really cared about someone else more than myself. Even Robbie—as much as I thought I loved him—was never the first in my thoughts. But Dex? He’s all I can think about. He’s all I care about.
‘What?’ he asks when he catches me staring.
‘Nothing,’ I sign back, not wanting to push.
But Dex must read my face because he grabs the gummies and the brownies and moves toward the couch.
‘How about you feed me and hold me and I’ll tell you everything you want to know?’
I nod, grabbing the food and putting it away before Dennis does something to it, like lick it, and then I join Dex on the couch.
He’s bitten into a gummy and swallows half of it before holding out the rest to me.
‘You want some?’
‘Bad idea.’
‘Only half.’
I sigh and take it. It’s been a fucking day. I might as well.
I sink into the couch and pull him up against me, our legs wrapped around each other, our bodies facing each other. I need to see him to be able to hear what he’s going to tell me. But before he can start, I reach out and hold up a bit of brownie.
‘I think you need chocolate.’
‘I do.’ He leans forward and takes a bite of it, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Bits of chocolate linger on his lips, and I brush them away with the pad of my thumb.
His eyes meet mine, and I can see the heat in their depths. And I see something else.
Something more.
‘They aren’t one hundred percent sure,’ he eventually tells me, ‘but they think it was arson.’
My eyes widen, shock moving through me. ‘What? Who would want to do that?’
He sags against me slightly, but not enough that we can’t still communicate. ‘I don’t know, but I saw a car in the parking lot before all this happened, and it gave me a bad feeling. I knew something was off, but I did nothing about it. And now half of the gym is gone.’
‘You couldn’t have known.’
‘I know, but I still feel guilty as hell.’
‘Did they say why they think it was arson?’
‘Multiple starting points, traces of accelerants.’ He fingerspells that last word, and when those letters taper off, my breath has left my lungs.
‘It spread fast too. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and they had a great response time…but fuck.’ He runs a hand down his face and then peers over at me.
‘I don’t know what to do. The gym is my whole life. ’
‘Have you talked to insurance?’
‘Yeah, I made the call. They’re going to follow up once they have the official report. Thankfully, we have a good plan, but it’s gonna put us out of commission for a while. And honestly, the guy on the phone was a dick. Said if I was the arsonist, they wouldn’t pay out.’
I fume at that, my hands spitting out a slew of curses while Dex looks on.
‘My thoughts exactly,’ he says when I finally calm down. ‘I told him neither me nor Thom did this. Someone else did.’
‘Of course you didn’t do that. Fuck that guy.’
He leans against me as the effects of the gummy hits us both. It’s not a full dose, but it’s enough to have us relaxing slightly. Dennis hops onto the coffee table and begins licking his paw, staring at us for a long moment.
‘I just want this day to be over. It was awful.’
‘It didn’t start that way.’
‘No. It didn’t. It started so fucking good. Held so much promise.’ His words trail off, and I hold him tightly.
‘You’ll be okay. We’ll be okay.’
He glances up at me, and I give him a soft, chaste kiss.
I’ll make sure of it, I tell myself. I’ll make sure everything is okay.
Robbie stares at me with a suspicious look in his eye as Dex and Thom go over the incident report and the other forms the insurance is requiring for the claim. They both look stressed, and Robbie doesn’t look like he’s slept much.
There’s little he or I can do about this. The brothers own PUMPT, and they know what it needs. I just want to be here, but it only takes me a moment to remember that Dex and I haven’t told anyone else about being in a relationship except Quinn.
Frankly, I’m surprised the next call he made wasn’t to Robbie.
‘Outside?’ Robbie asks me across the table.
Dex and Thom have been trying to use ASL to keep us included, but this is one time I will not fault either of them for defaulting to speaking.
I nod and stand up as Robbie taps Thom on the shoulder and lets him know we’re going out back.
Thom frowns, looking worried. ‘Sorry. I don’t mean to forget—’
‘No.’ Robbie takes Thom by the chin and kisses him. ‘It’s okay. Don’t worry about us right now.’
My chest aches with envy because that’s what I want to do for Dex, but I don’t know if he wants that in front of everyone. I don’t want us to distract from all of this.
But as I step away, Dex pouts at me, and I take a breath. What better way to let Thom and Robbie know that this is a thing. Walking around the table, I set a tender hand to his cheek. His eyes flutter closed, and I feel the faint rumble of a hum as he urges me close.
I can feel both sets of eyes on me, but fuck it. I lean in and kiss him long and slow until he releases all the air in his lungs and knocks his forehead against my jaw.
Very faintly, I hear Robbie make a noise of outrage, and I glance over at him, raised brows, challenging him.
‘Seriously!’ his hands demand.
I shrug.
‘Did you know about this?’ he asks Thom.
Thom looks guilty and shrugs. ‘I’ve seen some things at the gym.’
I guess we weren’t as subtle as we planned to be. But whatever.
Dex pushes me slightly to the side. ‘He’s my boyfriend. Get over it.’