“That went well,” Kimbra drawled.
“Yes, I should have come clean a long time ago, I admit it. I hope your family reacts as well as they just did.”
“Oh, honey. You have no idea. Momma and Papi are gonna make your mom and dad look completely chill by comparison. They go wild over every grandbaby, especially first ones for the parents. See, I already know how they’re gonna react. They’ll probably be more angry at me for denying them a wedding. Except I already had one for them. I know they’ll accept you, because you’ve seen how much they love Walt.”
“Will they have a problem with me being a woman?”
“Nah. You’re giving them a two-for-one on grandbabies. Are you kidding me? Like I said, tonight was chill by comparison.”
When they reached home, Eve was glad they weren’t getting together with Ron and Ivan tonight. She needed to…decompress a little.
As always, it seemed like Kimbra could read her mind. Once they were in bed, Kimbra pulled her into her arms. “I think someone needs a little mental vacay.”
“I could be persuaded, Ma’am.”
Kimbra rolled Eve onto her back and worked her way down Eve’s body, not bothering to take her time tonight. Tonight Kimbra went right for every button to work her up and get her begging for her. She climbed between Eve’s thighs and pushed them apart even as she reached up and played with Eve’s nipples.
Except Kimbra was apparently in a mood to make Eve beg tonight. She teased, lightly sucking on her clit without getting her over, swirling her tongue around it, easing off just to do it all again.
Eve was not too proud to beg.
Finally, Kimbra turned around and lowered her pussy over Eve’s face. She eagerly grabbed Kimbra’s hips and pulled her over her mouth, eager to please her, wanting to hear her come.
“That’s it, baby girl,” Kimbra said, her voice husky. “Just like that.” Kimbra resumed licking Eve’s clit, and it didn’t take long before they had each other moaning and grinding.
Eve rapidly flicked her tongue over Kimbra’s clit and finally got her over the edge. As she moaned her climax against Eve’s pussy, Kimbra started lightly sucking on her clit again, and it was game over.
Kimbra rolled off her but kept an arm draped over her as they lay there and caught their breath.
“You realize in a few months we’re going to have to get creative, right?” Kimbra said. “We’re not going to be able to do that.”
Eve snorted. “At least we’ll be able to remember everything we do to each other, because we can’t get drunk.”
Kimbra laughed. “True story.”
Kimbra turned around and Eve snuggled tightly against her. “We’re going to have to find a bigger place,” Eve said. “Especially if Ivan moves in with us.”
“Let’s hold off on that.”
“Why?” Eve tipped her head back to look up at her.
“Let’s see how things go with the two of them. If I know Ron, he’s probably going to be marrying that boy if he has his way.”
“You think?”
“Yeah. I was curious and started looking up some properties.”
“Properties?”
“Yeah. Maybe we could build a house. Go in as a trust with Ivan and Ron.”
“Ivan’s broke.”
“I think I can arrange a private loan with Lynn. She’s the one who fronted the money for the DNA testing that cleared Holly’s brother. Ed says she does some real estate investing. There’s some great properties over by where Leo and Tilly and Doyle and all them are. We close fast, get a house built. We start on it now, we should have it close to done not long after the babies arrive.”
“What if Ron and Ivan don’t want to live with us?”
Kimbra arched an eyebrow.
“Okay, yeah, sorry. We give Ron a chance to move in so he’s close to the kids and he’ll move in tomorrow.”
“Exactly. And he’ll have Ivan with him.”
“You seem pretty certain about that.”
“Baby girl, I know my boo. He’s needed someone like Ivan in his life for way too damn long. Now that he’s got him, he’s never letting him go.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ron was glad he’d beat Ivan back to the house Wednesday afternoon. He’d actually beaten Meri home, too, which was unusual. Fortunately, he’d been able to avoid Cedro Luzon, his boss, since he was out of the office.
And he was Kimbra’s father.
Such a web of connections. Ron found Meri her job with Leo through Ev, who worked for him. He worked for Kimbra’s father, and had ever since high school. If it hadn’t been for his job there, he would have been up shit creek when his parents threw him out. At least he’d been able to work while going to tech school to become an electrician, because his roommate had worked for him.
On Wynn’s side, there were coworkers and friends who’d led him into the Suncoast Society, and therefore to meeting Meri. Ron had known Rusty and Eliza already, through the ren fair circuit, and through Meri’s friends and former classmates, Susie, Grant, and Darryl.
He could go on and on.
While he waited for Ivan to finish working, Ron started rearranging the third bedroom. Some of Meri’s stuff was stored in there, as well as his own. At least Ivan didn’t have a lot of stuff. He’d borrow a pickup truck that weekend to finish moving Ivan out of his apartment and in with him.
Like hell would he let the guy get away from him.
Didn’t seem like Ivan was in a hurry to get away, either.
Ron wondered if Ivan had decided how he wanted to receive his orgasm. Ron honestly didn’t care how—he just wanted to watch the man’s face as he came and relish knowing it was him giving Ivan so much pleasure.
Something he was pretty sure the guy wasn’t used to getting much of in his life.
Meri arrived while he was still working on that and stopped in the bedroom doorway. “What are you doing?” This was the first time he’d actually laid eyes on her in a few days, although they texted back and forth multiple times a day, and talked on the phone.
He turned. “So…hey, listen. I’ve got to talk to you about something.”
“This sounds bad.”
“It’s not…bad. It’s just…big.”
Her eyes widened. “Did you meet someone? You met someone, didn’t you!”
“Um, yeah, but that’s not the big part.”
“How is that not the big part?”
“You’re going to be an aunt.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Say what?”
He walked over to her and held her shoulders. “You know how one of my Viking group’s battle cries is ‘mead is forever’?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, it really is.” He gave her the quick and clean version of what happened between him and Eve.
“Oh. My. God! Congratulations!”
“It gets better.”
He told her about Ivan, leaving out the pocketknife and the fact that he’d had the man in his bed—with him—last night.
She rubbed her forehead. “Let me make sure I’ve got the bullet points correct—you got drunk and slept with Kimbra’s girlfriend, Eve.”
“Yes.”
“And Kimbra got drunk and slept with this Ivan guy.”
“Yes.”
“And you both knocked them up.”
“Yep.”
“And now you’re basically claiming this guy?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
She sighed. “I know you made my decisions for me because I’m your sister and I’d fucked up, but are you going to be okay?”
“Kimbra and Eve seem to think he’s a good guy. I want you to meet him as soon as possible.”
“I can’t tonight. Wynn’s got parent-teacher meetings, and I need to pick him up and take him home after. I drove him to work today. He’s in a bad pain cycle right now and I earned myself a spanking by hiding his car keys from him this morning.”
“Oooh, naughty brat. I’d have spanked you, too
.”
“Well, he hasn’t spanked me yet, but when he texted me at lunch he thanked me for driving him. I had a flat tire yesterday and he insisted on changing it instead of letting me call AAA. He’s paying for that stubbornness today.”
“Ah. Poor guy.”
“Yeah. I just stopped by to grab clothes and check the mail. But congratulations again.” She hugged him. “Remember all the advice you gave me, though, huh? Keep your eyes open.”
“I will. I don’t think Kimbra would let me screw up.”
“I’m surprised Kimbra didn’t kill you for sleeping with her girlfriend. I’m shocked Kimbra’s father hasn’t killed you.”
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t know yet. That’s tomorrow night.”
“Good luck.”
“I might need it.”
She left a few minutes before he received a text from Ivan.
On my way, Sir.
He smiled as he stared at the screen. Yeah, this was the right thing to do. Absolutely.
* * * *
Good boy.
Ivan sat in his car at a red light and smiled over the text. Okay, so his life was about to get really damn crazy…
And he didn’t even mind.
He’d had a good day at work, and no less than ten people asked him what had happened to make him look so…
Happy.
He didn’t even know what to tell them yet. It wasn’t a secret he was gay—his sexuality wasn’t even an issue at work because he didn’t discuss stuff like that, and especially not in front of patients. But the few times people had offered to fix him up—with men or women—he’d either declined the women by saying he was gay, or declined the men with a fib that he was dating a guy.
He’d never faced blowback about it, either.
Several times he’d reached down to his pocket just to remember his knife wasn’t there, then up to the amulet resting against his chest, under his shirt. Except now it was out, fished out from under his shirt as soon as he’d clocked out.
Maybe he’ll let me keep it.
The other thing he kept twisting around in his mind any time he had so much as a spare second was how did he want Ron to make him come tonight?
He’d never really looked forward to an orgasm like this before. It was something quickly done and over with and usually a means to an end to get what he’d needed.
Now that it was on his mind, he couldn’t stop thinking about it, or Ron.
Or the feel of Ron’s mouth on his cock that morning.
By the time he arrived at Ron’s his cock ached, throbbed, and yet Ivan still had no clue what answer to give Ron. He grabbed his stuff and headed inside, pulling up short when he saw Ron standing there and smiling at him.
He set his stuff down and the answer came to him as he threw his arms around Ron and kissed him. “Sir’s choice,” he said.
“Reeeeally?” Ron’s hands settled on Ivan’s ass. “You sure you want to hand that back to me? I promised you any way you wanted.”
“I suck at choosing anyway.”
Ron slanted his lips over Ivan’s, a sucking, searing, hungry kiss the likes of which Ivan could never remember feeling before. It surprised him when Ron dipped his knees so he could better hike Ivan into his arms and wrap Ivan’s legs around his waist. With his hands under Ivan’s ass, he carried him over to the back of the couch, setting him there even as he still kissed Ivan.
He felt Ron’s hard cock pressing against him through their clothes when Ron lifted his lips from Ivan’s. “I’m not playing around,” he hoarsely said. “I want to see what we can build between us. So if you’re not in this all the way, do me a favor and tell me now so I don’t get my heart broken.”
“I’m really…broken, Sir.”
“That’s okay, baby. So am I. I’m pretty good at putting pieces back together, just ask Meri.”
“What if you don’t want me?”
“How about if you want this you trust me and tell me the short version right now?”
Ron was peering into his eyes with that blue gaze of his, a blue gaze he knew he was going to be a sucker for every time. “I was a premie. Three months. They didn’t think I was going to make it. I was in and out of the hospital a lot, sick a lot. My parents had to work a lot to make ends meet and pay insurance and stuff and my father really resented me.”
“How could he resent you?”
“Because my brother was killed about a year before I was born. Freak accident during a football game. Got tackled and snapped his neck. Just a stupid, bad, unlucky hit and the way he landed. He was seventeen. I’m what they call a ‘replacement baby’ in every sense of the word. My mother was almost fifty when she had me, which is probably one of the reasons I was a premie. She told me before she died that she went off birth control on purpose and didn’t tell my father.
“So instead of being able to deal with his grief and try to heal, he was forced to take an extra job and use up all the money they’d saved for retirement, and what was supposed to go for Joshua’s college, all that, on my medical expenses. And, of course, he couldn’t retire. He was sixty-two when I was born.”
“Oh, shit,” Ron whispered.
“Yeah. Nothing like adding insult to injury by the ‘replacement baby’ being nothing like the son he’d lost. The son he’d bonded with. Who he’d been a Scoutmaster for, took him hunting and fishing and camping. Who he’d seen become an Eagle Scout.
“Then, there was me. They couldn’t even take me to the grocery store without me catching a cold, much less take me out into the woods to catch a fish.”
Ron held Ivan’s head in his hands, his forehead pressed to Ivan’s. “That’s your brother’s knife.”
Ivan closed his eyes and nodded. “I know it makes me a horrible son to be glad my dad died when he did, but it put both of us out of our misery when he was gone. He would have likely killed me himself if I’d come out to him as gay. It would have been the final insult. Joshua was into football and baseball and soccer. Me? I either had my head in a book or watched anime all day.”
“Oh, jeezus, baby. I’m so sorry.”
“Joshua looked like a younger version of my father. He was six-three when he died. My dad was six-four, a big guy, beefy in his younger years, even bigger than you. Joshua was like his clone. Then there was me. My dad didn’t miss many opportunities there toward the end to point out how much I wasn’t like him or Joshua, and how damned disappointing it was. Like he thought I could control my height or my build or my appearance.”
“What an asshole.”
“Unlike Joshua, I looked like Mom and her side of the family. Everyone was short and thin.”
“How’d your dad die?”
“Congestive heart failure. I know his drinking was a contributing factor.”
“And your mom?”
“Breast cancer.”
Ron wrapped his arms around Ivan and held him. “I know nothing I can say can ‘fix’ what happened to you, but you realize your father was fucked up and none of that was your fault for being born, right?”
“That was the other reason I wanted to become a doctor. I thought maybe he’d finally be proud of me. Joshua was going to be a doctor. Then later, I wanted to be one for Mom, if nothing else. But mostly because how nice the doctors were to me as a kid, and to my abuela when she was in the hospital. I wanted to try to help people like that.”
“Oh, baby.” He slowly rocked Ivan. “How about you let me have a shot at taking care of you for a while, huh?”
“I just wanted him to be proud of me for one damn thing. But it was like my very existence constantly reminded him of what he’d lost. All I ever wanted was for him to love me for who I was, the way my mom did.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ron stared down into his boy’s sad green gaze. What Ron really wanted to do was find his father’s grave, dig him up, and piss on his corpse.
“Is that why you cut?” Ron finally asked. “To punish yourself?”
“I don’t kno
w. The pain helps me deal. I think maybe part of it was I was so used to IVs and needles and pain as a kid it…numbed me somehow.”
“But you cut with Joshua’s knife.”
“Dad said he always carried it. He gave it to Joshua in Scouts when he got his certification to handle a knife. When Joshua died, my dad always carried it. One day he’d left it on his dresser, I was maybe ten. I picked it up to look at it and he walked in and spanked me for even touching it. When he died, Mom gave it to me.”
“What the hell?”
“She didn’t know. She was working a lot, too. He never did that kind of stuff around her. I was hers. And he loved my mom. Sooo…” He forced a sad smile. “I was a triple disappointment. Because he had to take care of me because even though I was the exact opposite of who he needed me to be, I made my mom smile.”
Another puzzle piece clicked into place. “And that’s why you can’t deal with humiliation play at all. Because of shit the guy said to you.”
“Yeah.” He laid his head against Ron’s shoulder.
“When did you start cutting?”
“In college. After Mom died. I didn’t mean to. I was sitting there with that damn knife that I was only carrying because Mom thought it would mean a lot to me to carry it, and I accidentally dropped it on my thigh and it cut me. For a few minutes, everything felt…peaceful.”
“Endorphins?”
“Maybe. I discovered BDSM not long after I came out because my first boyfriend like to spank. Then he cheated on me and…” He shrugged. “It got easier and easier to try to deal with things on my own. I was busy and had college and work and residency and everything. I discovered the Toucan a few years ago. It was relatively…safe.”
Ron buried his face in Ivan’s hair. “I’m going to take care of you, baby. I swear. We’ll make it through this.”
“You sure you still want a crack at me?”
“Can’t scare me off that easily. But we do need to run by your place and grab stuff. I’ll rent a pickup truck this weekend.”
Except Ivan didn’t move, and Ron didn’t want to let him go.