Page 42 of Xavier

I had to settle with myself that it was okay that my son was going to be spreading his wings and flying from the nest soon. All parents had to deal with it eventually. Hell, Gage was already through the thick of it and barely surviving. If we didn’t have each other, we’d be sunk by now.

That part comforted me, at least. We had each other to lean on while our hearts were out traveling the world without us.

“All right, clean up time,” Gage sang out as he got up from his chair.

The twins were on their feet instantly, collecting everyone’s finished plates and stacking them to take into the kitchen to wash. Dexter and I followed suit, grabbing the leftover food to bring into the kitchen for Gage to wrap up and save for tomorrow.

“Thank you,” Gage whispered in my ear as I passed the plate of half-eaten turkey to him. I knew he was thanking me for more than helping him clean up.

My heart squeezed in my chest, the sincerity for whatever he was referring to quite obvious in the way his eyes twinkled as he smiled at me. Too bad we weren’t alone or else I’d back him right up into that counter and have my wicked way with him.

“You into video games, Dexter?” Greyson asked, scraping off one of the plates into the garbage next to the sink.

“I play sometimes. I don’t have a lot of friends that are into the kind I like,” he said, passing another plate over.

“What are you into?” Asher asked.

“You know those simulator games that are realistic where you do mundane tasks that you’d otherwise hate to do in the real world?”

Greyson kicked his twin in the shin. “Dude, youhaveto show him that farming simulator one you have.”

Asher nodded quickly. “You’re going to love it. You get to farm crops from a field.”

How the hell wasthata fun video game idea?

Honestly, I’d never understand the younger generation. Half of the shit they found entertaining baffled me.

Dexter turned to me with those big doe-eyes of his, silently pleading for me to let him go hang out with the older boys.

How could I possibly say no to a look like that?

I snagged the stack of plates from him. “Just remember, we’ve got the rest of your itinerary tomorrow.”

“I’ll set an alarm,” he said, and then followed the twins out of the kitchen, abandoning Gage and I to the rest of clean-up duty.

Gage snorted. “You sucker.”

“I know.” Setting the plates down on the counter, I brushed my hands on the towel next to the sink before cupping his face with my hands and bringing him in for a kiss. “Would you believe me if I told you I did that for this?”

He smiled. “Yousucker.”

“Only for you.” I kissed him again, this time deepening it.

Delightfully dangerous of us to be doing this with our kids mere feet from us in the room next door. At the same time, I had no self-control when Gage was around me. He could simplybreathein my direction and I was popping a boner that acted like a fucking compass pointing right at him.

I’m sure there would be a point in time when this enhanced tension between us would die down and we’d eventually fall into a comfortable rhythm of being old and gray together.

Until that time came around, though, I was riding this out for as long as possible. Call me selfish for leaning into my rabid desire for this man. It was more likely that I was on the ‘crazy’ side of the spectrum than anything else.

Gage moaned softly against my mouth, turning us so that he had his back resting against the counter. His hands came up to rest on my chest, pushing gently until we parted from our kiss. His face was flushed in that beautiful way it always was after a heated kiss, which only made me want to kiss him that much more.

“Xavier…” His pupils were blown as he looked at me. “I have a question for you.”

“If it’s ‘can you fuck me against this counter’ the answer is yes.”

He laughed, slapping my chest. “Nice try. We’ll get caught for sure. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to have to deal with the aftermath of the boys walking in on that.”

“True.” More than likely they’d avoid the kitchen, and us, like the plague. But his point remained the same. Ialsodidn’t want to irreversibly scar my kid. “What’s up?”

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