Chapter 17
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
Francis
Kendall was the kind of lover I’d never dreamed existed.
He wasn’t pushy or arrogant, he didn’t try to control me, and he encouraged me to take what I wanted.
Being intimate with him was like a kid running full bore into a playground with all the best equipment.
So many decisions, and all of them led to pleasure beyond my wildest fantasies.
I rode the seesaw. I went down on the slippery slide over and over again.
I pumped my legs like I was on the swing set, climbing higher and higher before leaping into a stratospheric orgasm.
Kendall held me carefully through it all with those big, solid hands of his, and the expression on his face let me know that he enjoyed every second.
“Can I… will you… on your back?”
I climbed off him and lay on my back, reaching for him.
“Can you go a little longer?”
“Yes,” I said. “You’re so good to me. Do what you want. I’m okay.”
He lifted my right leg and placed my ankle on his shoulder. “You’re so gorgeous. I love your legs.” He kissed my calf and nuzzled the skin behind my knee, causing me to arch up off the bed. “I’ll be careful.”
“You’re always so careful with me.” I smiled up at him and stretched my arms over my head. “I know I’m in good hands with you.”
He moaned as he entered me and gave me long, slow strokes as he continued to lick and suck the skin on my leg, my ankle, the arch of my foot, and when he sucked my toe into his mouth I discovered that, yes, I did indeed have erogenous zones I wasn’t aware of.
I hadn’t really thought of feet as gross, but I also hadn’t imagined how good that could feel.
Being full of him while feeling his hands and mouth all over me was almost too much, but just when I thought I’d have to tap out, he grabbed my hips, shortened his strokes, and a look of complete bliss washed over him.
He tensed once, twice, and then he exhaled and shuddered as I felt him come inside me.
“Come here, my love.”
He leaned forward, trying to hold up his weight, but I pulled him down to sprawl across my chest. I stroked his scalp, his back, and his shoulders, loving our closeness and the peace I felt being connected to him in such an intimate way.
Meeting Kendall at Pride, kissing him silly, and then discovering we were neighbors were all such surprises, such deviations from the life I’d lived before.
Every new surprise with Kendall brought with it more joy, more realizations that I’d needed the change that had been thrust upon me involuntarily.
I never would have known love like this, pleasure like this, if I’d stayed in Silicon Valley, in the soul-crushing field of finance that had never brought me any sort of satisfaction.
Fighting what your heart wants is always a recipe for unhappiness.
Since moving here, I’d taken up painting again, danced with my new friends, and sang my heart out by myself in my house.
I was making people happy! I made Kendall happy, too, and that brought me satisfaction and fulfillment I’d never expected to feel.
“Thank you,” I whispered to Kendall, kissing his forehead.
“You’re welcome. What? Why thank me?”
He sounded half asleep, and I loved that he relaxed so thoroughly after we’d made love. I wrapped my legs around his waist and held him tight.
“For making my new wonderful life even better.”
He moved off me, his limbs heavy with impending sleep, and he curled up to my side.
“Even better. I love you betterer, Francis. Thank you for giving me you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He was out in minutes, snoring a little heavier than before, and I was quite proud of myself. If this was what it took to get him to nap, I was glad to be of service any time.
I was able to disentangle myself and clean up quietly in the bathroom.
I dressed quickly and snuck out. I hoped he remembered I said I’d be back.
I looked around for paper to leave him a note but didn’t find any, and I worried that texting him would wake him.
After the experience we’d just shared, I hated to not stay in bed, but duty called.
Someday soon, Kendall and I would have uninterrupted time together, and I was so looking forward to it.
I decided to walk through the barn and tortoise yard to make sure everything was okay before heading back to the house. I chuckled to myself. Was I about to become Farmer Francis? Tender of dinosaurs?
Sounded splendid to me.
I spied several authors out in the pool yard, enjoying the morning sun before it got too hot, and once I slipped through the slider into my great room, I spotted a new group on the couch chatting and a few sitting at the large dining table.
Mom looked at her watch and raised an eyebrow at me.
“Morning,” I said in my cheeriest voice.
“Not for much longer,” Auntie Judy said with a smirk. “I’m not sure I like it when they stroll right in after a night of debauchery and don’t even try to hide it.”
Mom hmphed and shook her head. “I sent you over to take care of that man and his animals, not to become an animal. Look at your hair. When are you getting it cut? You look like a hillbilly.”
“I’m sorry, who was the one ready to start wearing cowboy boots? Tell me, have you heard from your hot young thing at the Pai Gow tournament?”
She rolled her eyes at me while Auntie Judy cracked up. “You should have seen this man. He was like some cheesy guy from the movies, giving her pickup lines. What did he say to you again?”
“’If I were a lamp, you could rub me and make the genie come out and give you all the wishes you wanted,’ or something ridiculous like that.”
“Did you tell him you’d wish he’d go back where he came from?”
“I said I’d wish for him to find someone else to bother. Not my best, but I was trying to focus on my game. I don’t have time for ridiculous men.”
“No, you were hoping that Mafia-looking guy would hit on you instead.”
I stood a little straighter. “Mafia-looking?”
Mom exhaled and rolled her eyes. “Just because a man wears his collar open and a gold chain doesn’t mean he’s in the Mafia. You’ve watched too much Sopranos.”
“Am I going to have to send you two with muscle next time?”
Auntie Judy wiggled her eyebrows. “You can send us with that Roger and his boyfriend. Derek might not know what to do with them, but I’ve got a few ideas.”
“Oh my goshness, my sensitive ears.” I fanned myself as I walked toward the stairs. “I’m going to shower, and then I’ll be down to get lunch ready.”
“Make sure you don’t look like you’ve been ridden wet and put away hard when you come back.”
I gasped and turned back to glare at my mother.
“I think it’s the other way around,” Auntie Judy said. “Ridden hard and put away wet. I heard it in a Western movie once.”
“You two can go home now,” I called down. They were cackling as I shut my door.
When I looked in the mirror, though, I totally fit that description.
My lips were swollen, my neck flushed, and my hair…
what was even going on with it? Normally it fell straight, but it was sticking out in several directions.
I needed to get it cut, or at least tamed.
Especially if I was going to be sneaking into my own house after a morning of particularly strenuous sex with my boyfriend.
Yeah, I was ridiculous, and I didn’t care one bit.
I waved goodbye to the last of the romance authors two days later, having made new besties for life.
We’d all traded social media handles, and they said they’d be back, as a group or individuals.
They gave me some great feedback and did indeed want to know all about my gay romance happening right under their noses.
I didn’t kiss and tell. Okay, I didn’t tell anything other than the kissing parts.
After what I’d heard them discuss, they didn’t need any help from me in the part-A-into-slot-B descriptions.
My solo writer, BL Maxwell, checked in two days prior and said that, yes, please, she really wanted to stay the two weeks as we’d discussed, and she even hung out with my other authors before they left. I wasn’t just helping make dreams come true, I was building bridges between artists as well.
All the activity helped take my mind off the next hurdle for Kendall and me.
Shay Warren.
His Saucy Daughter.
She’d flown in the previous night, and since I’d had my romance authors to feed and entertain—I did indeed keep Kendall fed by making fence-line deliveries—we’d agreed that he should take their first day together to catch up. He also planned to tell her about us and gauge her reaction.
His text later had me cracking up.
Hot Pants Boyfriend: I cannot be held responsible for what happens, but Shay and I would like to take you to dinner at Knots and Pies. Are you free?
Saucy Boyfriend: So you mean like a date. With you and your daughter.
Hot Pants Boyfriend: When you put it that way…
Hot Pants Boyfriend: Think of it as less date, more interrogation.
Saucy Boyfriend: An interrodate. Say less. I’m in.
Hot Pants Boyfriend: I’m not sure which of us has more to fear.
Saucy Boyfriend: You, obviously.
Hot Pants Boyfriend: Obviously.
Saucy Boyfriend: Can’t wait.
Being busy with the retreat meant I hadn’t really had a chance to freak out about meeting his daughter, but as I waited for Kendall and Shay to swing by and pick me up, my stomach was in knots.
I’d never done the whole “meet the family” thing.
I’d certainly never done the “meet your kid who’s only six years younger than me” thing. Would this be the thing that derailed us?
I sure as hell hoped not.
I’d left a meal in the fridge for Ms. Maxwell and was just wiping the counter when there was a knock at the front door.
I looked down at my outfit—I’d gone with my tan chinos and a light blue short-sleeved button down that matched Kendall’s eyes—and did a whole-body shake.
He loves you. It’ll be fine.
I opened the door to my swoony boyfriend.
“Hey, baby.”