Page 19 of His Gift
“Ludo, answer the call,” Shawn called out, which shocked me even more. On several levels. He had one of those super, high-tech, Ludo phones that billionaires had? And he was willing to take a call from his husband while still knotted in my sore ass?
“There’s a problem with the venue,” a disembodied voice, made shrill by the call, echoed from wherever Shawn had put his phone before our scene had started. “Pullman Center wants a twenty-thousand-dollar deposit for booking so close to Christmas, and of course Dad hasn’t given me access to the account they would need to be paid from.”
Dad? So Walt was Shawn’s brother. Whew!
Unless he called Shawn’s father Dad, too.
Shawn sighed. “And you felt the need to call me and tell me this at—” he twisted to look over his shoulder at the clock on the bedside table, “—nine o’clock on a Saturday morning? When you know I’ve taken the weekend off?” That last bit definitely sounded pissed to my ears.
“Oh,” Walt, whoever he was, said. “I forgot. Sorry. Preg—I mean, I guess I just wasn’t thinking straight.”
“I’ll say,” Shawn murmured so only I could hear.
“I had to call you because the venue needs the check, and yes, they want an actual, paper check, by noon today,” Walt went on. “You’re the only one with authority to write the check, so I had to call you.”
“You could have called Dad,” Shawn said. His knot was going down, so he shifted to slide out of me, then rolled to his back. “I don’t know why he hasn’t given both his sons financial authority for things like this.”
Yes! Waltwashis brother! Halleluiah! That meant Shawn could be all mine after all.
That thought shocked a little sense back into me. I didn’t have any right to think of Shawn as my alpha. Even though he’d had his delicious fist inside me. And because I desperately wanted to.
“Alright,” Shawn said, moving to rub a hand over his face, but stopping when he saw how sticky with my slick it was. His face flushed an amazing shade of red as he went on with, “I’ll meet you at Pullman Center at noon so we can hand the check over together.”
“I…I can’t be there,” Walt rushed to protest. He sounded…off to me.
“Why not? You live in Norwalk, the Pullman Center is in Norwalk,” Shawn said.
“I just can’t,” Walt said.
“He’s hiding something,” I whispered, just in case Shawn hadn’t figured that out.
“He’s been hiding something for weeks,” Shawn whispered back.
“Are you talking to someone else?” Walt asked. “What are you doing with company at nine on a Saturday morning?”
To me, it didn’t seem at all odd for someone to have an overnight guest still with them in the morning, but the fact that Walt thought it was strange, coupled with everything I’d spent the last twelve or so hours learning about Shawn’s inhibited sex life, told me a lot.
“You need to cosign a check for anything over ten thousand dollars,” Shawn called out to his brother. “If you’re not there to meet me at the Pullman Center, then we’re not booking the place for the Christmas Eve supper.”
“It’s the only venue large enough that’s available on such short notice,” Walt growled.
“Then I’ll see you at the Pullman Center in three hours,” Shawn said, then followed that with, “Ludo, end call.”
I thought I heard the smallest clip of Walt protesting before the call ended. A few seconds later, the phone rang again, but instead of answering it, Shawn just sighed.
“I’m sorry,” he said, curling back toward me and wrapping his large, warm body around me. I wondered if he realized how affectionate and, well, wonderful the gesture was. “We’re going to have to cut this short. But I had a really incredible time playing with you.”
My heart dropped. Just like that, it was over.
“Did I make the good list?” I asked teasingly.
Shawn chuckled. “No,” he said. “You are very much on the naughtiest of naughty lists.”
I laughed, but then Shawn did something that took me completely by surprise. He pulled me in close and slanted his mouth over mine in a tender kiss.
I didn’t usually kiss play partners. Not unless they forced it. So Shawn’s kiss took me doubly by surprise. Even more shocking, I kissed him back unreservedly, threading my fingers through his hair and holding onto him like I would never let go. I didn’t want to let go. I felt like our time together had barely begun. It was a crime that it had to come to an end so soon.
“Yeah,” Shawn sighed awkwardly, possibly realizing kissing wasn’t really what play partners did.
