Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
GAbrIEL
An agreement had been put in place.
Aki and Zach would see Riku twice a month from now on. More often, if possible.
The little boy was absolutely delighted by this, and so was I. Truth be told, I’d been worried about Aki’s withdrawal from life. Maybe I should have said something sooner, but I didn’t want to lecture him.
He told me about his talk with Zach.
I sipped my coffee while processing it.
“I’m a dickhead, right?” he said.
His regret made him noble to me. My beloved’s heart was golden.
I put the coffee down before sitting up in my hospital bed as the sun began to creep into the sky on the second day of the Holy Week.
He ranted away, his complexion a tad peaky. “Selfish prick. Who the hell do I think I am? Shame on me. Shame on—”
I interjected before he made it worse. “Don’t be hard on yourself.” It came out as a growl, my forceful tone defending him from himself.
He recoiled slightly. “So stern.”
With good reason. “You were thinking about your brother, about the greater good.”
He didn’t answer.
“Because you’re a sweetheart.”
His lips cocked. “Sweetheart?”
“Sweetheart. Sweetlips. Sweet everything.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “Unless I’ve eaten asparagus, then I’m not so sweet.”
“Doesn’t bother me.” I licked my lips for emphasis, then returned to sternness. “Let’s not digress.”
He scratched at the medical wristband on his left wrist. “Is this the right choice? Stay at home while Zach hunts these fuckers?”
I took a moment to answer. “Yes.”
He tapped his fingers on his leg. “Oh.” He nibbled on his bottom lip, lost in thought.
“We were attacked in our home,” I said. “There’s no such thing as safe. It doesn’t matter where we are, danger is always around the corner.”
As much as I wish it wasn’t.
“Yeah. I’ll still fight. I have to. No pipe and slippers just yet.”
“Pipe?”
“Never let that happen, G.”
I laughed, making a mental note.
“Aki?”
His lovely eyes locked onto me.
“I love you.”
“Right back at ya.”
“And we’ll be husbands soon.”
He smiled.
“Do you still want to go ahead with it?” I asked.
He cocked a severe eyebrow my way. “Really? Yes, Gabriel Dawson. On night seven of this Cherry Moon, we’re sealing the deal.”
Butterflies rejoiced in my belly, a heavenly mental fuzziness wanting to carry me off to a happy cloud somewhere.
“Great news,” I managed to say.
Then it was his turn to lick his lips in that seductive way I liked. It always came with a promise of delicious things to come.
“If we weren’t in such a state,” he said, “I’d come over there and ride you into next week.”
My cock instantly inflated. “You can try.”
“Wedding night, you bad man. It’ll give him,” he pointed at the bump in my sweatpants, “something to leak over.”
I laughed. Leak? What a way with words my beloved had.