Chapter 20
Rohan
“You deserve a blow job for making such a good breakfast, Master.” Knox was pulling out all the stops if he was saying muffins were worth blow jobs. “Yes, I need to show you how important your help is.”
His eyes got wider as we walked toward the front door and he finally realized he hadn’t distracted me enough yet. “I...have another chapter ready. I can write another one really fast too. How does two chapters and a blow job sound?”
Like I should’ve made him go back and see his own house sooner.
“That sounds like a great way to spend the evening.” Kissing his head, I herded him faster. “Would you like to do that before or after I give you a spanking later?”
He was going to need it to help him wind down.
“I...” He blinked at me, the question seeming too hard for his brain to answer. “I like giving you blow jobs. Spankings are good too.”
Yep, I’d broken him.
It couldn’t be helped, though.
He’d basically moved into my house and was doing his best to forget his own place existed. It was cute and I didn’t mind, honestly, but we had to figure out the gremlin situation and get him a few more of his favorite things. “You need more clothes.”
“We can go to the store. You like shopping.” Frantically looking around as I opened the door, he was obviously searching for something. “We haven’t left the house recently. That’s my fault. What day is it?”
Was that what we’d been looking for?
Did he think there was a calendar hanging on the wall somewhere?
Had he hung up a calendar somewhere?
“We left the house yesterday.” That was a good idea, though. “But thank you for making sure we’d left the house recently.”
He could go into caveman mode and not leave for days if I let him, and I was fairly certain it would be weeks before he realized he had a problem.
“That was obviously not enough if we’ve ended up in this situation.” His ridiculous response was delivered so dryly I wanted to laugh.
“We have to get your mail. We have to make sure your house is in one piece. We need to make sure nothing else weird has turned up. I need to do another search of the house and I’d rather not do that in the dark.” So we couldn’t dawdle too long because I was serious about that.
Whatever the fuck was going on in his house needed to be investigated in the daytime.
“Oh.” Knox stopped in his tracks and went so still I poked his arm to make sure he’d respond. “Stop that. I’m not a gargoyle.”
Why was that the first thing that came to his mind?
“What have you been working on this morning?” When my question made him look guilty, I knew I was on the right track. “You don’t have any work-in-progress books about gargoyles.”
“It’s not my fault.” Knox shrugged and seemed to believe that nonsense. “I saw a meme.”
Good grief.
“Once Lori realizes you’re living here, I’m going to tattle on you.” And someone still had to tell her about the Christmas book.
“That’s mean.” Looking adorably offended, Knox tried to frown at me. “Masters who threaten sweet subs with terrible things don’t deserve blow jobs.”
“Subs who avoid their own houses because of gremlins don’t deserve spankings or orgasms.” I could fight fire with fire if it came down to it.
He sucked in a breath like the wonderful drama queen he was. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”
I did.
“Phone? Notebook? Little pencil? Keys?” As he started his normal pat-down routine, I had to fight back a laugh.
“Damn it.” Releasing my hand, he hurried back into the house and left me waiting by the front door. “I’ll be right back.”
He’d better or he’d regret it.
Knox must’ve realized that, though, because he was back in less than a minute with a phone in his hand and a handful of keys in the other.
He actually had a key to my house?
He did.
Holding out his keys, he frowned. “I can’t get it on the ring and that’s why I keep forgetting it.”
The only thing I could do was take the keys from him. “That’s no problem. I didn’t realize that was the issue.”
I also hadn’t realized he had a real key and not an imaginary one, but I wasn’t sure the right way to ask how he’d gotten it. Because it wasn’t a key I’d ever purchased. The flowered monstrosity looked like he should be taking it to a tea party, not letting himself into my house.
When had keys started coming in such horrendous patterns?
“There you go.” He was right. The ring had been too tight. “Let’s go.”
Or I’d ask him where the fuck it’d come from.
Knox sighed but didn’t drag his feet any longer. I couldn’t decide what had made him change his mind, but I wasn’t having to pull him like a screaming toddler any longer. “I’m not going in the house until you walk through and make sure it’s safe.”
That actually seemed reasonable, so I nodded. “Deal. You have your phone and stuff to keep you occupied.”
I knew from prior experience it would take a long time before he got bored enough to follow me some place he didn’t want to go. He was stubborn about weird things and easily distracted by others, so the combination meant that he could stay in the car until the apocalypse hit if it became necessary.
“I should’ve said that from the beginning.” Huffing, Knox let me help him into the truck with not much more than a pout and another sigh. “I need to think before I react.”
Since that was mostly about being able to manipulate me better, I ignored it even though he was right.
But he didn’t need me giving him any encouragement.
He could do that very well on his own and proved it as he kept up the drama and ramblings the entire drive over, only stopping once we got to his driveway.
“Well, the gremlins didn’t burn it down. ”
Had that been a legitimate worry or was he just being dramatic?
“You’re right.” Leaving the truck going, I held my hand out. “Keys?”
As he dug them out of his pocket, I tried to radiate calm and confidence. “You’re going to hang out in here. You’re going to read a book on your phone or make notes about whatever you should’ve been writing this morning. And before you know it, I’ll be back here for you.”
He took a deep breath as he handed over the keys, but he shook his head. “No, I need to be on the phone with you so I can hear you scream if they get you.”
His imagination was entirely too vivid...and somehow it was going to end up giving me nightmares if I wasn’t careful.
Fucking writers.
“Okay then, that’s what we’ll do.” I wasn’t going to argue with him just in case he turned out to be right. “But thank you for worrying about me getting killed by the gremlins.”
“Eaten.” Knox corrected me politely while also giving my nightmares more fuel. “They’re going to eat you. That’s what they do primarily. They eat weird shit in my kitchen and you’re meaty.”
For fuck’s sake.
“I am not going to be eaten.” I refused to die that way or question him about his definition of meaty. “No cannibalistic gremlins or anything like that. It’s going to be fine.”
“Is it cannibalism if they’re another species?” His strangely logical question made me want to bang my head against the steering wheel.
“If they can use plates and fuck with you, then yes.” It was the first thing that came into my head but it was an interesting enough response to have Knox going silent.
“I’ll have to think about my definition of human more.” It actually kept him distracted for several seconds until he remembered where we were. “But you have to promise not to get eaten. It’s important to me.”
“I should hope so.” He needed to write happier things. “That’s just fucking creepy.”
“No, it’s important you don’t get eaten.” Knox couldn’t seem to decide if I was stupid or just easily distracted, and he finally settled on rolling his eyes. Both. I was clearly both. “That should’ve been obvious.”
“Well, excuse me if romance wasn’t the first place my mind went when you talked about me getting eaten by cannibals.” It probably would’ve been the second if he hadn’t been so distracting.
“It should’ve been.” Still looking offended, he frowned at me. “I want you safe and not just because you feed me and keep me on track with work.”
There was an unsaid duh in his voice that made me want to laugh.
“Thank you.” Leaning over, I brushed my lips against his pouting ones. “You’re important to me too and I don’t want you getting eaten by cannibalistic gremlins either. I want you safe and not just because you’re good at blow jobs and giving me chapters of my favorite books.”
“Really?” Knox’s eyes got wide and he went all romantic and gooey. “The chapters are very good.”
“You’re better.” Because he was insane and kept my life much more interesting than I’d ever thought possible.
“Thank you.” He kissed my cheek before I could pull away. “Be safe.”
And we were back to worrying about the gremlins.
“It’ll be fine. We’ll be on the phone and I’ll do a quiet walk-through first while you chatter to me.” There really was nothing that could go wrong. “Then once I know that it’s fine, you can come in and we’ll get more of your stuff.”
Knox frowned as he gave the house a quick glance. “Well, I was—”
“If you’re good for me and pack more clothes, I’ll pick out a toy to use on you tonight.” He had to have more clothes because I was doing laundry entirely too often considering how much of the day he spent naked.
“Deal.” Knox was somehow horny enough to make bad decisions even though I’d worn him out earlier.
I was going to have to work harder at that.
“Alright.” Picking up my phone, I quickly dialed my nut and made sure I knew which key opened his door. “Perfect.”
Smiling when my voice came through his phone, I tried to lighten the mood. “You have to keep talking to me but it can’t be about sex or murder.”
He looked offended. “That’s...you can’t...”
“Yes, I can.” Because I was the one braving the gremlins.
Knox must’ve realized that because he gave up very quickly. “I understand the rules.”
I was prepared for interesting, but I didn’t let him see that as I climbed out of the car. “You break the rules and I’ll be disappointed.”
Sighing, he slouched back in his seat. “And disappointed Masters don’t give good orgasms.”
He was brilliant when he wanted to be.
“Yep.” Almost bouncing out of the truck to make it look like I didn’t have a care in the world, I raised my eyebrows and wiggled the phone at him when he just sat there pouting.
“I need a snack.” As I closed the door, Knox decided to go the pain in the ass route instead of the shenanigans direction. “Do we have brownies?”
He knew we didn’t have brownies because he’d asked for cookies the last time I’d gone grocery stopping.
“Can we have chili for dinner?”
If the brownies hadn’t proven the fucking with me point, the chili had.
“Oh, I want a sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly, please.”
I was going to feed him to the gremlins.
By the time I let myself in the house, he’d asked for every food he hadn’t wanted to eat in the last two weeks. Everything from stuff he’d found gross to things he just hadn’t felt like at the time were now things he had to have because he was starving.
He actually might’ve been hungry because he had a hollow leg, but he was just doing his best to drive me insane at the moment.
It actually came in handy, though.
If he hadn’t been such a dick, then I’d have been talking to him when I walked in the door.
“No. Just leave it here. He thinks he’s going nuts.”
What.
The.
Fuck.
There were people in his house.