Page 56 of The Caretaker
“I am,” I confirmed, feeling the truth of it on my skin.
Noon stepped around me, taking in the nuts and bolts of the room. “I can fast-track whatever permits you’ll need. Call in a few favors and have a crew out here in a couple weeks.” He gripped one of the wooden beams, as if checking that the structure was sturdy. “Shouldn’t take more than a few months, maybe four, to get everything done. You said your grandfather’s farmhouse is still functional, right? We can live there in the interim. Or rent something in town. I can oversee it all—free of charge, of course. If you give me your budget I can make sure we remain within it,” he went on, still moving as I trailed him.
“I can manage some of the work myself,” he said from the bathroom now. “I’m licensed and certified to…” His wordspetered off as he took in my expression. If it matched what I felt in my heart, he had to have been overwhelmed by it.
“What?” he asked, crowding my space and cupping the back of my neck. He applied just the right amount of pressure. Enough to both let me know I wasn’t going anywhere, and that I was free to leave if I wanted to. “Am I falling too hard for you, beautiful?”
I loved it when he called me that. I especially loved it when he made mefeelthat way.
“Am I moving too fast, Solace?” His toe-curling grin said he already had the answer to both questions. Likely because they were written all over my face.
“No,” I said decisively. “I don’t want either of us to hold back or waste precious time on trying to pace ourselves, trying to spread out our feelings over the course of months or years, or however long the outside world thinks is appropriate. I want you here. I want this to beourhome. I’m ready to buildourlife.”
“Are you sure?”
“When you know, you know, Care Bear. And trust me, I know that I want you.”
He granted me one of his delectable forehead kisses. It was lingering, and reverent, and he inhaled like he was siphoning life from me, like he wanted to draw in the very essence of me too.
He eased away and stared down at me with stars in his eyes and joy settling at the corners of his lips.
“Don’t give me that look,” I warned, backing away.
“What look?” he asked, the picture of innocence, as I leaped out of his reach.
“Come on,” I said, laughing at his displeased frown. “I’ve got a lot more to show you before we lose sunlight.” I let him catch and drag me into his chest once more for a hot and heavy kiss. And when he finally released me before striding off with atriumphant huff, all I could think was:This is what it means to be cherished. This is what it feels like to be loved.
“Dear, God,” Noon said, rolling off of me and stretching out like a cat. “Where has this couch been all my life?”
“Gee, thanks,” I retorted, sweaty and covered in his cum. “I thought I was the reason you’re utterly satisfied right now.”
“You are,” he swore, rolling back to hover over me. “But anything this comfortable should be illegal, and I’ve never come across a couch that every part of me could fit on at once, let alone that a second person could fit on with me. Tell me we’re taking it with us to the new house?”
I giggled at his pleading expression. Actually, giggled with pure happiness. “Saying I fit is a stretch. I guess since we sleep on top of each other anyway, it’ll work. Do you think you can keep it clean?” I gestured to my chest, to how sloppy he’d been with me. “Seeing as how it’ll be our bed for the foreseeable future.”
We’d explored every inch of the property and made it to my grandfather’s farmhouse right before sundown. It wasn’t until we’d made it to my childhood bedroom that I remembered it contained a twin bed. Gav’s room did too. Neither of us wanted to have sex in my grandfather’s bed—the bed he’d taken his last breath in—so we’d made the living room our temporary bedroom.
“We’ll just have to triple up on the sheets,” Noon said, fingering the thin sheet we currently lay on. “And add a blanket beneath us. That should do.”
“Are you going to insist we sleep on this thing even when the house is done and we have the gigantic, custom-made bed that your measurements require?”
“Maybe,” he said before adding as an afterthought, “You act like you’re not tall as well.” He slid down my body to lick my chest and stomach clean before returning for my mouth, our tastes mingling to form a potent cocktail of cum.
“Not when standing next to you,” I said, swiping my tongue over my lips once he backed off.
“Well, no one’s tall when standing next to me.” He arranged us onto our sides, draping one of my legs over his hip, one of his legs sliding along my other. “You had someone clean the place before we arrived,” he said, playing with the wetness trickling from my hole—the place where he’d released the first half of his load.
“Pauly. He keeps an eye on the place for me. I told him I was coming, and he offered to have things ready.”
“Pauly?” Noon asked, interest piqued.
“A childhood summer friend,” I explained.
“I’m excited to meet one of your friends. Will I like him?”
“He’s…an acquired taste.”
“Uh-oh.”
