Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LUCAS
“What do you need from me to get around my place?” Frankie asked as he shut the front door.
Lucas had a vague idea of what Frankie’s place looked like, only because of his own. So long as the floor plan was the same, he’d be able to get from room to room. The only risk was tripping over furniture and getting a concussion on a low table—which had happened before.
He moved his cane from his left to his right hand and then pointed. “Window?”
“Mhm.”
He pointed to the left. “Kitchen. Bathroom?”
Frankie chuckled and slung his arm around Lucas’s waist, then dragged his fingers down his arm until he was holding his wrist. “The layout is the same. My couch is there,” he said, guiding Lucas’s hand in the direction of the window. “It’s up against the wall.”
“Coffee table?”
“Yes. It’s rectangular and goes almost from end to end in front of the couch. The corners are padded.”
Lucas frowned. “Uh. Why?”
“Because I’m raising a blind child with cerebral palsy who likes to run when she gets the nighttime zoomies.”
Lucas burst into laughter. “Right. Of course. So if I fall, I probably won’t crack my head open.”
Frankie dipped low and kissed the side of his neck. “Probably not, no. I had someone come in and help me create a layout that would help Elodie. Her brain doesn’t really process what her eyes see most of the time, so she’ll walk into walls if there’s not a lot of contrast.”
Lucas assumed that meant Frankie’s place was full of bright, contrasting colors. He understood the concept through touch—smooth to rough or soft to hard. He’d had rooms like that when he was at the blind residential school and had roommates who had vision but couldn’t see.
And the school did have a lot of padding. Especially when he was in the elementary wing.
“You’re a good dad.”
Frankie let out a slow breath. “I never meant to be one. I mean, I love her, but the fact that my mom was able to have a child at her age boggles my mind.”
“Did you ever think about saying no?” Lucas started forward, stopping when his cane met the table, and he traced around it before feeling for the couch and dropping down. It was very soft and very worn.
It jostled a little when Frankie sat down beside him, and he burst into laughter when Frankie’s large hands grabbed him by the ankles and twisted him, taking his feet into his lap. “May I?”
“What? Spoil me even more?” Lucas asked as he folded his cane and dropped it on the floor beside him.
Frankie said nothing for a beat, so Lucas assumed he’d done some kind of gesture. “I like spoiling you, princess.”
Lucas groaned. “Keep that up and my pants are going to get uncomfortable again.”
“That was my plan. Fenton is going to be by with Elodie in a few hours, which is plenty enough time for me to play with you.”
Lucas shuddered and began to knead his toes against Frankie’s chest. It felt good. It felt even better that Frankie let him.
“To answer your question,” Frankie said after a long beat, “I knew if I took in Elodie, my husband was going to leave me. I considered what both options would be like, but I knew I wanted to keep Elodie with me. I didn’t want her raised by strangers who might be even worse than my mom when I could give her a home. ”
“I’m sorry your ex was such a shithead about her.”
“He wasn’t a fan of my brothers either, but since they were pretty much grown adults, he couldn’t say anything.”
“Why’d you marry a guy who didn’t like your brothers? That also seems shitty.”
Frankie laughed, but the sound wasn’t amused. “Because I was a jackass. I was lonely and feeling very unwanted. Before him, my longest relationship was only a couple of months, and I was starting to think no one was ever going to love me.”
“But he did?”
Frankie sighed softly. “No. I don’t think he did. I didn’t really love him either. I guess I thought being with him was better than being alone. By the time I got the call about Elodie, I knew I’d made a mistake. I kind of let that situation tear it all apart.”
“Sounds like you’re better off.”
Frankie squeezed his ankles softly, then picked up his foot and kissed the arch. Lucas had no idea why Frankie would want to put his face there, of all places, but he wasn’t complaining. He loved that Frankie wanted to touch him all over.
He felt adored. Worshipped.
Like if their circumstances were different, maybe he could even be loved. But he was starting to understand more and more why Frankie was afraid of something long-term.
“Do you want to come to the bedroom with me?”
Lucas raised his brows. “Are you deflecting?”
“Maybe a little. I’m not fond of my ex or that time in my life. I’d rather pay attention to you.”
Lucas pulled his feet away and sat forward. “Will you make me come?”
Frankie chuckled, his laugh low and rumbling so deep Lucas could feel it across his skin. “I will absolutely make you come.” The couch shifted, and Lucas knew he’d stood up, and then two hands took his and pulled him to his feet. “You know where the bedroom is?”
It took Lucas a second to remember where he was standing in the room, and then he pointed to his right. He was kissed for his answer. “Follow me.”
So he did.
The bedroom layout was technically the same as his, but Frankie’s bed was in the middle of the room instead of pushed against the wall.
Lucas’s was wedged in the corner and covered in pillows and blankets so he could create a little nest in the L shape.
His friends at school used to make fun of him for it, but no one had ever been able to shame him for needing his small comforts.
He ran his hands around the mattress—soft sheets, thick comforter, closer to the ground than his own bed, which probably had something to do with Elodie. Frankie also only had a couple of pillows, but Lucas didn’t mind since he wasn’t going to be sleeping here.
He went for his jeans, but Frankie stopped him just as he was popping the button open. “Let me?”
Lucas scoffed. “I can definitely get undressed on my own. I learned that shit before I could walk.”
Frankie burst into laughter, burying the sound in the side of Lucas’s neck. “Oh, princess, I have no doubt about that. But I want to undress you. I want to strip you down and put my hands all over you.”
Lucas swallowed thickly. “Oh. Well. In that case, yes, please.”
Frankie hummed, the sound like a smile, and his warm fingers ghosted up Lucas’s shirt, then dragged it up over his torso, then over his head. He stretched his arms so Frankie could pull it off him, then brushed a firm, careful touch over his exposed chest. “Gorgeous.”
“Am I?”
“You don’t believe me?”
Lucas huffed a small laugh. “My version of what’s gorgeous is different than yours. The only people who tell me I’m good-looking are people who are invested in me.”
Frankie gripped Lucas by the waist and pulled him in closer. “You don’t think I’m invested in you?”
“I think that if you believed I really wanted the truth, you’d tell me.” Lucas wasn’t sure if he would. Not entirely. But something told him Frankie wouldn’t humor him just to get laid. And that he wasn’t used to saying what other people wanted to hear just to spare their feelings.
Frankie sighed and let go of Lucas’s hip to cup his cheek. “The first time I saw you, I was annoyed at how gorgeous you were.”
“Right. You made my day hell on earth—”
Frankie quieted him with a kiss. “And I am incredibly sorry for that.”
Lucas pushed him a few inches back. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad for that.” He curled his hands around Frankie’s wrists and guided them down to his jeans. He wanted to talk about this, but he didn’t want to get off task either. He was way too horny.
“Part of the reason I was annoyed was because you were distracting me. It was already a shitty day, and then I turned up to your truck to find this gorgeous, mouthy man who wouldn’t look me in the eye.
Which I understand why now,” Frankie added before Lucas could cut in.
There was a smirk in his tone. “All I could think about was coming back and making it right. I would have felt bad if it were anybody, but it felt worse because it was you. Something about you was so…”
Lucas waited, holding his breath, but Frankie didn’t go on. “What?”
Frankie popped the button on Lucas’s jeans, then dragged the zipper down and shoved at them until they pooled at his feet.
Lucas kicked them off, then let his feet come to rest just outside of Frankie’s.
“I’ve been struggling with the right words.
Everything with you feels so damn natural, and I keep thinking the other shoe has to drop.
Something has to go wrong. Something has to prove to me why… ”
Lucas swallowed heavily. “Why what?” he whispered.
“I…” Frankie swallowed so thickly Lucas could hear it. “I’m shaking my head. This feels a bit…too heavy.”
“Do you want me to leave?” Lucas braced himself for the rejection, but instead, Frankie tucked his fingers into the waistband of his boxer briefs and tugged until their bodies met again.
“Ha! No. What I want is to put you on my bed and suck your cock until you’re begging like the pretty little princess you are. Then I want to finger you until you’re loose and soft for me. And then I want to fuck you until you come.”
“Oh god.” Those words tumbled from his lips, thready and unchecked. They were more moan than speech, and he struggled to say something else—anything else—to show he was totally cool and calm and collected.
But he wasn’t.
He was a fucking needy mess.
“Well I want that.”
“Good.” Frankie spun him around, gripping him by the hips, then walked him a few inches forward until his shins met the edge of the mattress. “Reach down and bend over.”
Down and down he went. For a moment, he thought it was some trick and the bed was gone and he was going to hit the floor. But then his fingers touched the mattress.