Chapter Thirteen
The balcony off their bedroom looked out over the pool. Blaze stared at the sky and lit up for what he knew would be the last time. He knew the moment German stepped outside. Blaze felt him. He took a drag from his laced cigar and then set it on the wide banister.
“Don’t lecture me, okay? I know I’m dumb.”
German molded against his back. “Ben is finally asleep. I didn’t think he would ever crash after all the sugar and excitement.” He picked up Blaze’s cigar and took a puff before setting it aside again.
Blaze chuckled. “Oooh. I’m telling. You’re a bad boy.”
German laughed at Blaze’s antics. The soft, deep rumble vibrated against Blaze’s nape as German kissed him.
“I’m unemployed now. No random drug testing in my future.
” He licked the spot he had kissed. “Mhmm. Fresh from the shower.” His hand ran up Blaze’s chest. “Nothing but pajama pants. I’m incapable of not touching you.
” He kissed Blaze’s neck before resting his chin on Blaze’s shoulder.
For a moment, he stared at the same view as Blaze before speaking again.
“Dara told Ben he’d be living with us forever. ”
Blaze released a slow breath. “Well, I guess that settles last night’s discussion. He’s ours.”
German held him a little tighter. “It’s a little sad how accepting he’s been. We’ve been waiting to hear from Dara, expecting an update any day. Meanwhile, he’s been settling into his new forever home—like he expected nothing less from life but to be passed along to the next person.”
Blaze had spent the entire day thinking about it. After learning she never went to rehab, he had figured this had been Dara’s plan all along. “I want to be even madder at her than usual, but I don’t know.”
“It kind of feels like she acted like a real mom for once.” German took the words right out of his mouth.
“Yeah. That part. My guess is this last time Ben found her unresponsive jarred something inside her. Just not what we thought. Looks like she realized she wasn’t what was best. I just pray she didn’t take herself out in the most final of ways.”
“Me too.” German sounded sad.
Blaze hated that. Too much of their relationship had been heavy responsibility and not enough simply loving each other. “We never opened our gifts.”
He heard the smile in German’s voice when he responded. “I know. I guess it’s a good thing I brought them upstairs so we could enjoy that in private.”
Blaze took another drag from the cigar before offering it to German. German took a hit and passed it back. Together, they enjoyed the silence and the stress relief. Tension left the arms around him. He felt German relaxing for what was likely the first time in weeks.
“For Ben’s sake. We can never do this again.”
German kissed his shoulder. “At least until after he’s grown. Then we’re doing all the things. We’re traveling and walking around the house nude. I’m fucking you on every piece of furniture in this place.”
Blaze closed his eyes and basked in the picture German painted for a minute. When he opened his eyes, he put out the cigar. “Come on, sexy. I want to see you open your presents.”
German let Blaze drag him inside.
Together, they climbed into bed and sat on opposite sides of the pile of gifts between them. None of the presents were huge, but Blaze was excited to see German’s every reaction.
Blaze grabbed a small box wrapped in gold paper and set it aside. “You can open this one last.”
German wore a huge grin. “Which one do you want me to open first?”
Blaze shrugged. “The rest are fair game.”
German picked up a sealed card. “I was told to always read the cards first.”
Blaze couldn’t stop smiling. That was a good place to start.
After cracking the seal, German pulled out the contents and looked them over. It was a three-person itinerary of a few different theme parks around the country.
Blaze didn’t give German time to say anything.
“There’s no reason we can’t travel right now.
Ben isn’t in school yet. I talked it over with the guys, and they agreed we should take a break from touring for a while.
We still have several new albums to record, but we’re all weary of back-to-back performances. I want to focus on us.”
German looked beyond moved. “Are you serious? You actually told them you wanted to focus on us?”
Blaze didn’t understand why German sounded so surprised. “Of course. We’re getting married soon. We basically had a surprise adoption land on us. It’s our time right now.”
German’s smile was everything. “That sounds great. You choose a gift.”
Blaze grabbed a box, and German bit his bottom lip like he was nervous.
Suddenly, Blaze couldn’t wait to see what was inside.
He didn’t need anything, but this was from German.
He tore open the paper and pulled off the lid.
“Holy shit. No way.” Blaze pulled out the signed Canucks jersey.
It was his favorite player. “How did you get this?”
“I’ve guarded a lot of athletes over the years.”
Blaze couldn’t stop smiling. Before he could tell German to pick another box, German handed him another. “Open this one.”
“It’s supposed to be your turn,” Blaze halfheartedly argued as he opened the gift.
He was low key into the spirit now. Blaze wanted to rip into all his gifts.
His breath froze in his lungs as he lifted the lid on the tiny box.
It was a ring—like a wedding ring, except cool as fuck.
It was a skull with rubies for eyes. He had never seen anything like it.
“I hope it’s okay. If you don’t think it’s appropriate or anything, we can exchange it. I used a private jeweler. He said if you wanted something different, he’d be glad to let you choose something from his collection.”
“I love it.” In fact, it hit Blaze how fucking perfect German was for him. He got Blaze like no one else ever had. Blaze took the ring from the box and slipped it onto his finger. It fit perfectly.
“I took a ring from your dresser for size comparison, but I didn’t know if it was old or—”
Blaze blindly handed German the gold box he had set aside, cutting off his rambling.
“I thought you wanted me to open this one last?” Even as he questioned Blaze’s actions, German opened his gift. “Goddamn.”
Blaze tore his eyes away from the ring he wore to watch German’s reaction to his ring. It was a black band with deep-set rubies. He swore sometimes they shared one brain.
Their gazes met. German looked moved. “I love this. Seriously. It’s like you let me design it.”
“Put it on. I’ll be surprised if it fits. The guy showed me this set of ring sizer things, and I just kind of picked the one that looked closest to the size of your fingers.”
German laughed as he slipped on the ring. “Well, apparently, you’re a good judge of size. It’s only a little loose, which is perfect for my tastes.” German moved to his knees and pushed the unopened gifts aside. He tumbled Blaze onto his back and straddled his body.
“We didn’t finish opening our presents.”
German kissed Blaze’s neck, moving downward to tease his nipples. “I have the best gift ever right here.”
Blaze couldn’t say he wasn’t already on his way to being iron-hard. He was fully aware of all the things German could do with that talented tongue.
German kissed his way down Blaze’s torso. “I can’t wait to call you my husband, Justin Jay Journey.”
With his eyes closed, savoring every second, Blaze chuckled. “Full government name that’s not even mine now.”
German blew a raspberry on Blaze’s stomach. He sat back on his heels. “I was trying to make a point. It’s important to me that you know I’m here for you, not the star.”
Blaze snorted so hard, it hurt. “Dude, be so for real right now. There’s never been a second where I’ve thought that.”
German shrugged. “I’m sure that’s true, but I believe in not thinking you can read minds. God knows, I can’t.” He shrugged again. “I’d rather sound ridiculous saying that aloud than assuming you know.”
Blaze crawled his fingers up German’s thigh, heading for his prize. “For sure.” He sounded every bit as distracted as he was. “Can Teddy come out to play?”
A loud laugh burst from German. “What the fuck? Teddy? Did you just name my junk?”
Blaze couldn’t stop smiling. Everything about being with German brought so much happiness into his life. The knowledge that he would get to keep this forever was mind-bending. He never in a million years saw life going this way.
“You can name mine too, if you want?”
German chuckled as he placed his palms on either side of Blaze’s head. He swiped his lips across Blaze’s mouth. “Mhmm. I think I should taste it first.”
Blaze still couldn’t stop smiling. “You’ve tasted it before.”
German nodded, rubbing his nose against Blaze’s with the motion. “I think I should freshen my memory—like a wine tasting. Maybe I need to swish your cum in my mouth to pick out the notes.”
Blaze didn’t know if he should laugh or moan. German could be so unserious and talk dirty at the same time. He kept Blaze on his toes.
German swiped another kiss across Blaze’s lips before kissing his chin.
He moved to Blaze’s throat before continuing his descent.
When he reached Blaze’s navel, Blaze’s phone buzzed on the bed next to his head.
Blaze grabbed the device, intending to chuck it across the room.
He froze at the last second as he saw the name on the screen: Dara.
Blaze shot up, nearly knocking German’s teeth out in the process. “It’s Dara.”
For a moment, they simply held each other’s stare before Blaze answered with the phone on speaker. “Hello?”
“Hey.” Silence followed the greeting.
“Hey.”
At Blaze’s mimicry of Dara’s greeting, German wondered if Blaze was as clueless as him at how to handle this.
Dara cleared her throat. “Is Ben sleeping?”
“Yeah.” Blaze sounded as wooden as German felt.
“Good. That’s good. It’s late.”
“Yeah.” Blaze didn’t seem like he had anything else to say.