Chapter 18
Rohan
“I don’t know. It’s very...bright.” Knox was trying to be polite but he wasn’t succeeding at it. “But if you like brightly colored art, I’m sure it’s beautiful.”
Well, he was trying.
“What do you think?” Knox finally looked back over at me, probably remembering we were picking out art for my house, so my opinion actually mattered.
It didn’t.
“I think this would drive you crazy.” Chuckling as he sighed and nodded, I didn’t even try to tease him about it because I was pretty sure it would’ve given him hives. “So how about we keep wandering around?”
Trying to be subtle about his deep breath, Knox stood straighter and skimmed his gaze over the gallery. “Yes, there are other options that will be fun to look at.”
He really hadn’t connected the dots, so as he led us toward much more traditional-looking artwork, I finally decided subtle was a terrible option when it came to Knox.
“You know.” Pointing to a painting of the ocean on a stormy day, I waited until he was paying attention to continue. “That one might look good in your office. I know how the white walls are driving you crazy.”
And the light bulb went off.
“We’re...” Looking around, his eyes widened. “We’re going to get something for my office?”
Refusing to mentally walk through how he was so confused since I knew it wouldn’t make sense, I nodded. “Yes, the blank walls are traumatic and we can’t have that.”
I didn’t need a wrapping paper room anyway.
“The walls are very distracting.” Perking up now that he realized I wasn’t simply torturing him because it was fun, he grabbed my hand and dragged me toward another wall in the surprisingly large gallery. “Look at that one. It’s almost like an old map.”
The painting was clearly designed to look like an antique map of the downtown area and I could see why Knox liked it. “I think that’s the area where your house should be. What time period is this supposed to be?”
Knox started reading off the description on the small plaque, answering most of my questions as he got more and more wrapped up in the painting. “Look at the water over there.”
And we looked at the rivers and we looked at the trees and we tried to guess where the major roads would eventually go...yep, this was definitely Knox’s kind of artwork. “Do you think this would look good on the wall behind your desk?”
He didn’t even hesitate before nodding. “Yes, it’s perfect.”
I still got a giggle out of it becoming his office so quickly, and he had no idea why it was so cute. In his mind, it was his space and had been since he’d first walked into it. But to make him truly happy in his office, we needed more decorations for it and a few more practical items.
“Alright, how about we look for something else for the opposite wall? I think that will be a great start on making the room feel less distracting.” And it wouldn’t spoil the surprise I’d already arranged. “Dogs playing poker or something with a different feel?”
He was the cutest nut ever and took the whole thing absolutely seriously. “I don’t think I’ve seen anything that traditional here but I’m sure we can find something. I like that it has local artists.”
The gallery was a lot nicer than I’d expected and I wanted to point out that they needed to update their website, but it wasn’t my business, so I stayed focused on the art. “Me too.”
Once he was shopping with a purpose and not just randomly trying to make me happy by wandering stores, he was much more enthusiastic. Well, in a Knox kind of way. Before, he seemed to have been studying it from a how do I make Rohan happy viewpoint.
It was odd.
He’d started taking notes that seemed to be about what I liked to do and had even written down what I’d said about my favorite ice cream flavors.
I felt kind of like a new character in one of his books and I couldn’t wait to see what else his brain came up with.
But first, we had to shop for artwork for his blank walls.
His distractingly blank walls in his nearly empty office.
Nothing weird about that...or the way he seemed to have forgotten the other house actually existed.
Walking through the gallery and making the appropriate noises as he talked to himself about the art, I had time to start wondering what he was thinking about the other house.
“They deliver, right?” Cocking his head and studying a landscape painting that would take up most of the wall in question, he frowned. “I don’t think we can get something like this home safely.”
Yep.
Home.
“I agree. Delivery is going to be a requirement as well as someone to help me hang it.” I gave my adorably nutty author a curious glance. “Unless you’re going to help me?”
“There aren’t enough blow jobs in the world to make me do a home improvement project of any kind.” Knox was perfectly serious and jumped a foot when someone behind us giggled.
Oops.
“Well, luckily for you, we can arrange for delivery and for someone to help hang it up.” The ancient woman who’d scared the pants off Knox could’ve been anywhere between eighty and a hundred and twenty but seemed to have the sense of humor of an eight-year-old boy because she was nearly snickering.
Deciding to brazen it out, I pretended Knox hadn’t just been talking about sucking dick. “That’s wonderful to know. We’re looking at a couple of different things actually. Too many blank walls.”
She wasn’t helpful at all.
“Oh, yes, that would be too much work to talk him into.” Smiling at Knox, she patted his cheek. “It’s hard work.”
He couldn’t seem to decide if he’d fallen in love or was having a heart attack. “I...yes.”
Great.
How had he found someone who was nearly as weird as he was?
****
“You know, if she’d been fifty years younger, I think I might’ve worried.” Teasing him again, I loved the way he squirmed and blushed. “She’d have tried to take you home.”
But I wasn’t worried. He liked living in my house and I kept him safe from the gremlins and fed him.
Yep, I’d win.
So it was fun to make him crazy since I didn’t actually have anything to worry about.
“She patted my butt.” Blushing again, Knox tried to climb into the seat but was stuck because he wasn’t one of the X-men or magical. “She thought we needed naked art.”
That made me laugh.
“Because you told her what you did for a living and I think she wandered off to do some research when she left us alone for that few minutes.” There’d definitely been a glint in her eyes as she’d tried to drag him off to the area where they kept more grown-up art.
“No one ever reacts like that.” Scrubbing his hands over his face, he was wonderfully dramatic. “They either get offended or confused, and either way they leave it alone and change the subject.”
Well, that was better than I’d expected and good to hear.
“Even if I meet my readers out somewhere, they’re all very polite and either get shy or they giggle. No one grabs my butt.” He was doing his best to be offended but there was something about his tone that said he’d gotten a kick out of it.
“I think I should be glad she was too old to spank you.” He wiggled too much most of the time. She’d have never been able to make it work without ending up broken. “I’m going to have to keep a closer eye on you in public.”
A collar, maybe?
Still squirming as I pulled into the driveway, Knox sighed and pouted. “No, I was very good. I think?”
She’d clearly been his first dirty old lady.
“I offered to save you.” Several times, just to make sure. “But you wanted to be nice.”
And he’d liked the attention.
“I...” Looking adorably helpless, he pouted. “I was nice. I’m a nice person.”
Insane.
“You are.” Turning off the truck, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “So nice, in fact, I might have to spank you for flirting with someone else while we were out.”
Oh, he had no idea how to respond to that.
His mouth opened and closed several times before he swallowed. “I’m very polite.”
I managed not to laugh but it was close. “Come on, nice boy. Let’s go look at your office and see if we can imagine the pictures hanging up in there.”
We’d kept the first one he’d picked out and managed to find a trio of landscapes he loved that were a much more manageable size. I wasn’t going to take a chance on damaging them, though, so they would be delivered next week.
“That’s a great idea.” Looking relieved that he didn’t have to figure out how to get a spanking without admitting to flirting with the thousand-year-old dirty bird, he nearly jumped out of the truck. “I took pictures, so we can see how it looks. I have a magic app.”
He was so excited that waiting for me didn’t seem to have occurred to him, so he was out of the truck and dashing toward the house before I could ask him what a magic app was. I had every intention of continuing the odd conversation but that was quickly derailed.
As I got out of the truck, he started patting himself down at the front door and frowning. “Hurry, I forgot my key.”
Did he have a key?
Knowing Knox, the answer would be yes but it would also be strange, so I frowned and treated it like it was normal. “I’m sorry. I’ll remind you about that next time.”
And then I’d wait and see what he actually did.
“Thank you.” As I came up to the front door, he was so excited he bounced and gave me a quick peck. “You have such a good logical mind. It’s amazingly useful.”
Huh?
Oh.
“Well, yours is creative enough for the both of us, so someone has to be the logical planner.” I was glad when he nodded, still looking like he’d given me a wonderful compliment. “Alright, let’s get inside.”
As soon as I had the door unlocked and open, he bounded into the house and barely paused long enough to take off his shoes. “Let’s go see how they look.”
On his magic app.
Well, magic apps would have to wait until after he saw my surprise.
Three.
Two.
One.
Knox stopped right in the doorway, eyes cartoonishly wide. “Oh wow, the gremlins brought bookshelves this time.”
Oops.
“No, I bought bookshelves for your office and had them delivered while we were out.” The gremlins were not getting credit for the damned things. “That was why we had to leave the house. I had a friend come over to let the delivery guys in.”
Blinking several times, it took his brain a few seconds to get going again. “No gremlins still? Really?”
I should’ve planned better for his surprise.
“No gremlins.” Wrapping my arms around him with my chest pressed against his back, I walked us into the room. “We’ve been checking the photos and nothing has moved.”
At some point he’d need therapy if he couldn’t stop checking the photos, but we had to figure out what the fuck was going on before I pushed him to take that step. I didn’t want him to look legitimately nuts when I took him in to see someone like that.
Knox was interesting enough that I wanted his brain firing on all cylinders when I took him to see a professional. Traumatized with an explanation I could handle, but rambling about gremlins would get him locked up.
“We’ll...we’ll have to take pictures of this room but...but I have bookshelves in my office now...and...and you even got me art for the walls.” Knox wasn’t moving away from me yet, but he was slowly taking in the new furniture, so I was patient. “Oh, the chair. You remembered.”
Being startled with a possible gremlin attack showed just how stressed he was about the weird situation, but I let him push it to the back of his mind for the time being.
I simply held him tight and pointed to the ground to distract him.
“And a new rug. It should be soft enough that you can kneel for a long time on it.”
That got a naughty giggle from my dirty-minded author and he nodded. “It even squishes under my toes. I can pace on this perfectly. Thank you.”
Adorable.
Turning around in my arms, he pressed his chest against mine and started subtly rocking back and forth to make sure my dick knew it was time for him to come out and play. “I...I should say thank you.”
Hmm, I wasn’t going to argue with that plan.
“You got me ice cream and you even made my office less distracting so I can get you more chapters.” Knox wrapped his arms around me, looking like he’d given me wonderful praise.
His way of seeing the world was fascinating.
“Yes, I think both of those deserve a very thorough thank you.” We’d just have to see what form that was going to take.