Chapter 20
How had tonight gone so fucking wrong? It was the question that Nolan kept coming back to. He glanced over at Kai, who had the window open, eyes combing the street for a kid that Nolan didn’t know. The death grip Kai had on the takeout container in his hands was worrying.
He’d gotten the story from one of the waitstaff since Kai had gone silent on him.
Trying to make it right, Nolan had offered to drive around looking for the kid.
That was over two hours ago. It was close to two in the morning now.
The longer they drove around, the more Nolan stewed.
His heart hurt for Kai and this unknown kid who’d been diving for food in a dumpster.
How the hell did someone see that and not try to help?
He’d raked the security guy across the coals and dragged the head of security out to answer for his staff laying hands on a child, but ultimately, it didn’t change anything for that kid or for Kai.
One was still missing and probably hungry, and the other was still distressed.
“Come on, baby, he’s probably gone h—” The word caught in his throat as Kai’s sad eyes swung to him. That kid probably didn’t have much of a home, if any at all. “Hopefully, he’s made it somewhere safe tonight. Let’s go home and try again tomorrow.”
Kai’s gaze swung back to the road. Nolan gave a mental sigh, taking his silence as assent.
When they got home, Kai let himself be led into the house, hugging the takeout box like he was cradling a baby.
Nolan took it from him and placed it in the fridge, fully intending to keep his word to help Kai find the kid tomorrow.
Did he really believe they would? He wasn’t sure, but he was going to do anything Kai needed if it meant him hurting less.
He led him to the kitchen sink, letting the water run warm while he inspected the scrapes along Kai’s palms. They weren’t in terrible condition, so he just gently cleaned them with soap.
Kai leaned against him, and Nolan couldn’t help the relief that coursed through him.
He hadn’t wanted to think about it, but for one second, he’d worried that he’d broken something that couldn’t be fixed.
He shifted their positions so that he could wrap his arms around him, Kai’s damp hands pressed to his chest.
“I’m sorry,” Kai whispered, his head buried against Nolan’s neck.
“You don’t have to be sorry. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sprung Landon on you like that.”
Kai lifted his head but tucked his chin, tears tracking twin paths down his face. Nolan didn’t let him go.
“It’s just hard, you know? I’m going to talk to this guy and maybe he tells me he can’t do anything and it’s almost easier that way because then I didn’t lose anything and everything is how it’s supposed to be.
But if he tells me he’s going to fix it, then all of this, for eight years, all of the shit I’ve been through, didn’t have to happen.
I don’t know what to do with that. How do I just go home like nothing ever happened? ”
Kai looked at him then, meeting his gaze as though Nolan had the answers.
Nolan’s heart broke all the way open. He grieved for Kai and for everything he’d been put through.
He wished he knew how to make it right. Hell, right now, he just wanted the right words to comfort him.
Instead, he cradled his face, bringing their foreheads together while he searched for them.
“Baby, what happened to you should never have happened at all, and I’m so, so sorry that it did.
That doesn’t mean that it should never be put right.
I’m not going to feed you some bullshit about how it made you the person you are today, because I’m hella pissed that you didn’t get to find out who you could have been if you’d have been loved and cared for like you should have been. ”
Kai’s face crumpled as the tears came faster.
“I’m not going to congratulate you for being a survivor, baby. I want to go to war for you to make it right. I need you to know that your uncle is so deeply in the wrong, and he deserves to pay for everything you’ve been through. Do you understand that?”
Kai hesitated.
“You said you trust me, right?” Kai nodded. “Have I done anything to make you feel like I don’t have your best interests in my heart? Use your words.”
“No, Daddy,” Kai whispered.
“Alright. I’m going to make an appointment with Landon, and you’re going to sit down and talk to him.” Nolan made sure he looked Kai in the eye when he said the next part. “I am going to be there right beside you. We’re going to make this right together. Got it?”
“Yes, Daddy.” Kai’s voice shook, but Nolan would take it.
Tension that he hadn’t known he was holding eased out of his shoulders, and he pulled Kai back into a hug, wrapping his arms all the way around him so that he was tight against his body and swaying gently with him while his tears dried.
“From now on, any hard thing you have to deal with, you bring it to me and we’re going to deal with it together. We’re going to do it over and over again until you learn to run to me, not away from me, understood?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Come on, let’s go up to bed.”
Kai clung to his hand but allowed himself to be led upstairs to their bedroom.
Nolan sat on the edge of the bed pulling Kai into the v of his legs.
“You looked so beautiful tonight,” Nolan told him looking up at him, his hands spanning his corset over his ribs.
“Before I ruined the whole night?” Kai gave him the tiniest, self-deprecating smile, but he still looked so fragile, and that just didn’t sit right with Nolan.
“Baby, you need to stop thinking so much in black and white.” He reached around Kai’s back for the bow at the base of his spine that cinched the corset into place. “You didn’t ruin the whole night. We just took a detour on our way home.”
Kai gurgled with tired laughter, but his grin spread and Nolan puffed his chest with pleasure. He pulled the corset loose, and Kai sighed, draping his arms around Nolan’s neck.
“Damn, that feels good.”
“It’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. One day, you’re gonna wear it for me with nothing underneath.” He worked it open and tugged it over Kai’s hips. letting it fall to the ground.
“I wanted to wear it for you tonight.”
“Nuh-uh. I want a whole night, and I want to be seduced. Sexy dance and everything.”
“Should I tell Myles to get me some heels?” Kai asked a little more playfully.
“If you want to,” Nolan said, mouth curving in approval as he tugged Kai’s tie off and started undoing the buttons of his shirt.
“I liked dancing with you tonight.”
“Same. And I liked making out with you on the balcony. And seeing you take on that security guard. Baby, you looked so fierce. I was so proud.”
Underneath his blush, Kai looked pleased. Nolan pushed his shirt off of his shoulders and let it hit the floor. “Your heart is so good. There’s nothing anyone could say to convince me otherwise.”
Kai’s smile dipped. “I just know what it’s like to be him. I was him. Sometimes you hoped people would help, but if you couldn’t have that, you just hoped people wouldn’t notice you at all.”
“But you noticed and you helped.” Nolan stood and pulled the thin undershirt over Kai’s head.
“I tried.”
“You helped. You stood up to a bully. Baby, that thing was too tight! Look at you!” Nolan fretted, sitting back down on the bed and taking in the angry red lines on Kai’s torso where the stays had dug into his skin. “Does it hurt?” he asked, frowning as he ran his thumbs down them.
Kai shook his head.
“How many times do I have to tell you to? Use. Your. Words.” He punctuated each word with a kiss against his chest.
“No, Daddy.”
Nolan hummed with approval and reached for Kai’s belt. When he pushed his trousers over his hips, Nolan’s brain melted for the second time that night as all of the blood in his brain flooded to his dick.
“Goddamn,” he whispered, forcing Kai to twirl awkwardly, with his pants around his thighs. Kai laughed, stumbling over his discarded clothes and trapped legs. Nolan grabbed his hips, pulling him down onto his lap so he didn’t fall. “Ooh baby, you’re in so much trouble.”
“Yeah?” Kai asked a little breathlessly, grinding back on Nolan’s hard cock and letting his head loll on Nolan’s shoulder.
Nolan reached around, gripping his inner thighs and pulling them apart as far as they’d go with his pants still around his thighs.
“I changed my mind. This is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.
” He stroked Kai’s trapped length through the satin with his thumb until he reached a damp spot just over his head.
“Needy baby,” he whispered when Kai moaned.
“Please, Daddy.”
“Okay, baby. Let Daddy take care of you.” He shoved Kai’s pants to his ankles and Kai kicked them off.
Nolan shifted their positions until Kai lay on his back in nothing but his tiny panties.
Then it was his turn to strip. Kai propped himself up on his elbows to watch as Nolan ripped the tie from his throat and started unbuttoning his shirt.
He took his time, letting Kai admire the view while he did the same.
Kai ground his hip into the bed, and Nolan wondered if he even realized he was doing it.
“Say it,” Nolan demanded, letting his shirt and pants fall to the ground. For a second, Kai looked confused but then remembered.
“Onions.” Kai swallowed as Nolan whipped his undershirt over his head so that he was only in his boxers when he pounced.
Kai shrieked when Nolan landed on top of him but didn’t have time to do much else as he crushed their mouths together in a possessive kiss.
Nolan wasted no time, moving his mouth to his jaw, biting lightly on the lobe of his ear before kissing his way down one side of his neck and up the other.