Page 36 of A Queen and Her Knight

“Your boxers are tenting,” John remarked evenly. “Sorry,myboxers are tenting. My dull, boring, plain, cotton boxers.”

“You aren’t boring!” Rennet snapped and opened his eyes. John blinked, a sign that Sunshine was startled. Rennet took a breath, but didn’t lower his voice. “You aren’t boring. Not to me. Not ever. I’m half dressed, fucking fixing the sink in your underwear, making you late for your very important job, and you haven’t batted an eye. You aren’t boring. You’re… kind of the best.”

“Half dressed is a little optimistic, don’t you think?” John took a step closer to him. “Half-naked seems more accurate. Those boxers are getting thin.” Rennet huffed and sat up. “I noticed, Rennet,” John went on. “I always notice. You look like a porn star on a normal day when you’re fixing something. In just boxers under a sink, I expected you to make a comment about laying some pipe.”

“I was thinking something involving nuts, actually.” Rennet grinned crookedly and tipped his head back to make it easier to look at John. “I could get my tool belt.”

“Or, you could finish that and we could go back to bed, since I’m going to be late anyway.” The purring quality to John’s voice wasn’t like the sound a cat shifter made, but it was still animal. Sunshine was a little wild beneath the surface, but Rennet already knew that and knew it well.

“Really?” Rennet shouldn’t have asked, but it slipped out.

John lifted an eyebrow. “‘Really,’ what? Do you not want to? That’s fine. But you’re half hard and on your back for me, and I’m practically fifty, but my dick isn’t feeling fifty this morning, so, if you wanted to mess around….”

“Yes. I, uh, yeah.” Rennet wasn’t in his youth anymore either, but aging was different for humans. “Yes, but, really? I mean, I know you liked it when I fixed things, but we’ve done handyman stuff. We could do plumber stuff if you want.”

“Rennet…” John started, then stopped. He tried again. “Have you been worrying that I’m bored with you?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I should have known. That explains your obsession with getting me to wear silk—you’re deflecting.”

Rennet squirmed. “What? So? No. What’s deflecting?”

John came over to kneel down next to him. “You aren’t a handyman I’m screwing on the side. You’re my husband, Rennet, or you will be as soon as I get them to change that stupid law—where’s your ring?”

Andnowthere was concern in Sunshine’s voice.

Wordlessly, Rennet upended the P pipe over the bowl. Water splashed out, followed by a small circle of gold.

John nodded slowly. “I see.”

“I was going to make coffee.” Rennet heaved a breath. “Then we were out of grounds, so I went to get the grinder and the beans, but I needed a spoon. So I opened the silverware drawer and a butter knife was stuck in there wrong or something, and it popped out. Which scared me—uh, startled me. I wasn’t scared. But I, uh, spilled beans all over the counter, which I had to clean up, right? Long story short, we’re out of half and half, I found leftovers from three weeks ago at the back of the fridge, gross, but the counter is all clean. Then I had to wash my hands.”

“Rennet.” John’s shoulders were shaking. He was laughing, the asshole. “Rennet, what happened?”

“The top came off the soap dispenser, and my hand got too slippery. And when I rinsed it off, the ring just… went right in the drain,” Rennet finished, and put the pipe down with a grunt of displeasure.

“There are two of those rings in my bureau.” He could feel John watching him as he spoke. Then John took the bowl from him and poked around until he got the ring on the tip of hisfinger. “You lost two, then found them, so we saved them. You didn’t need to panic over losing this one.” He studied the ring in question for a moment, then wiped it off on his towel and held out his hand. “Gimme.”

Rennet raised his hand with a stupid feeling in his stomach and sizzling heat in his face. John slid the ring back into place but didn’t let go of him. Sometimes, he made Rennet feel like a kid again, but better. He tried to tease to cover up the fluttering in his chest. “You really like seeing me with that on, don’t you? Kinky.”

“There is absolutely nothing kinkier,” John agreed. “Which is why I’d like my husband-to-be to finish up in here so I can take him to bed, strip my boxers off him, and fuck his brains out. If he’d like that.”

“Sunshine.” Rennet stared as John got to his feet and the towel mysteriously did not go with him. “This is so respectable. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.” His tail wrapped around John’s ankle. “I thought you wanted me to fix the sink first.”

“I wanted the water back on first. I don’t care about the sink.” John paused, then frowned. “Wait, why did you shut off the water to whole house? Why not just the sink?”

“Well, I was…. That is….” Rennet felt his wings droop. “I was worried something might happen.” As John had correctly guessed, Rennet had been anxious about John truly wanting to marry him and still desiring him. Not a huge amount, but enough that it would make more things happen than usual, more than his normal amount of chaos. If therewasa normal amount; chaos might have its waves and fluctuations like everything else. “I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve never fixed a sink before. But I wanted to be sure. So I shut off everything.”

“Well, something did happen,” John corrected calmly. “You made me late for work. Margery won’t be expecting me for at least another hour. Whatever will I do with all that time?”

Rennet peeked up, then gave him a coy glance. “Take your fiancé to bed and fuck his brains out?” he suggested.

“Water back on first,” John reminded him, sensibly, then held out a hand to help pull Rennet to his feet.

“Are we sure this isn’t the sexy plumber fantasy?” Rennet wondered, and got a smack on the ass for it as he walked away.

The End

Princess Sweetpea

First posted in 2016

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