Page 54 of Wandering Closer

“As messed up as it is, it works in our favor that he’s reaching out. If he makes a threat, we can press criminal charges against him on top of everything. Let me know if he does again, but for now, I’ll keep working on gathering everything I need and you write that book.”

“Okay.” I’m aware I sound like a broken record, but I’m not sure what else to say. We end the phone call as I slump down onto a stool at the island.

I was looking forward to a new week with a fresh start. I need to get a lot done on my book, and being a stressed out mess won’t help. Tyler’s been out of my life for over four months now, yet I still feel like he has a hold on me in ways that he doesn’t deserve. It’s not fair to Thoren for me to be sulking around, worrying about my parents' opinions or if Tyler will reach out again.

He has been working so hard on making sure I am emotionally, mentally, and physically cared for. I need to get myself together for both of us. Between his actual job and working at my house last week, he easily put in seventy hours. If there is anyone that deserves to be taken care of, it’s him, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

With a plan in place, I grab a small snack, my appetite long gone, and head back upstairs to write some more. I get one more chapter written by the time Thoren should get off work, so I drag myself back downstairs to get dinner started.

“Honey, I’m home,” Thoren calls through the front door, mixed with Shadow’s excited woofs as she barrels straight for me. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of her excitement when she sees me. “What smells so good?”

“I’m making teriyaki wings and sticky rice for dinner,” I smile over my shoulder at him as he leans in for a kiss before moving to the sink to wash his hands.

“And what is all this?”

“I thought homemade apple pie sounded delicious.”

“What did I do to deserve this?” he asks, wrapping his arms around me from behind. He mentioned in Seattle that apple pie is his favorite dessert and it breaks his heart that people mostly eat it once a year.

“Go relax while I finish this and get it in the oven, and then we can talk.”

“Miss Wilks, are you calling me to the principal's office? I do hope you’ll punish me,” he smacks my ass, walking away. “I’m going to take a quick shower and change. Give you some time to make sure my punishment matches my crime.”

The ease with which he approaches life blows me away. If someone told me we were going to have a talk, I would have an internal panic attack thinking of every worst-case scenario possible. I love that about him, that he balances me out in that way. There are a lot of things that I love about him, and that scares the crap out of me.

With the pie in the oven and dinner done, I clean up the kitchen and set the food out on the table for us. Thoren steps into the dining room and I try not to stare, but I’m failing. Gray sweats and no shirt should be illegal on him, with the corded muscles of his arms wrapped in tattoos. His sculpted chest is still damp, his hair a little wild, giving him a freshly fucked look. It reminds me of the first day he popped out of the woods into my backyard. To think that was only two months ago. Look at us now.

“Close that pretty mouth before I fill it,” his deep voice rumbles, pulling me from my wayward thoughts.

My cheeks heat, but I take a seat and start dishing out our plates. My hands shake as I set his in front of him, and he latches onto my wrist before I can pull away. “What’s going on, baby?”

I feel so stupid. It isn’t like he’s in trouble, or this is even a big thing to talk about. I just don’t do well being assertive and holding my ground, and I’m expecting some pushback from him on this.

“I’m setting a limit for you.”

“A limit?”

“Yeah. You’re doing too much; working too hard. I would like to hire someone to finish my bathroom. You’re doing such a great job, and I’m so appreciative, but I can’t let you do it anymore. You’ve hit your limit on things you can do for me.”

His chuckle is a little sinister as he grips my wrist tighter, forcing my eyes to meet his. “There is no limit on what I can and will do for you, Lily. If you want me to work on it less, I will. If you want me to take a week off work and get it all done, I will. If you want to hire someone because you don’t like my work, that’s fine, too. But not letting me do this because you think I’m doing too much for you is not something I accept.”

Well crap, that’s not where I expected this to go. I don’t even know which option to choose, but I know I can’t let him burn his candle at both ends for me. “Two days,” I blurt, “You can work on it two days a week, maximum. I can find another rental, or maybe stay with Michele for a bit since it’s going to push the timeline back.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not. My home is your home until the bathroom is done. You’re lucky I didn’t end up having to re-pipe the kitchen, too, because I would love nothing more than to have you here with me for months. I’ll stick to two days if that’s what you want. Is this all you wanted to talk to me about?”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that Tyler reached out, but the oven timer saves me. I slip away to pull the pie out,setting it on the trivets to cool. I should tell him about the text; he’s been with me every step of the way through this. He just worries about me so much already, and I can’t keep adding to that. If he reaches out again, then I’ll tell him about it.

We finish up eating as I tell him about how my writing is coming along and he tells me about his day at work. I refuse to let him clean up dinner, so he sets up a movie for us to watch, and gets the pie and ice cream ready.

“I picked Bad Teacher, since I didn’t get my punishment I was hoping for,” he smirks before taking a bite of his pie.

The moan that leaves him is unholy, making me desperate to hear him do it again. I watch as he savors every bite he takes, licking the fork clean each time. Heat sears through my body, traveling south at the thought of that tongue licking me the same way. It gives me the courage to do something crazy.

Putting my bowl on the coffee table, I sink to my knees on the floor in front of him and pull down his sweats. He lifts his hips, helping me get them down, his hazel eyes boring into me with a question written in them. His cock is quickly growing under my gaze, and I lick my lips before licking him from his balls to the tip. The low moan rumbles from his chest again and I smile at the thought of bringing it out of him.

He brings another bite of pie to his lips, casually eating while I suck his cock. An idea forms in my head, so I turn to my bowl and slip a bite of ice cream into my mouth before wrapping my lips around his thick purple head. His stomach muscles tense as the cold sensation hits him, but I slide my lips down as far as I can, cooling and warming him as I go. The ice cream melts in my mouth as I suck and lick every drop off.

“You look so pretty with your lips wrapped around me,” he says, taking another bite of his dessert.

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