Page 62 of Daniel's King

We walked into the apartment, and Richard spoke.

“Go get settled in the front room. I’ll make us both a drink, and then you can tell me what is on your mind.”

He walked up to me and gave me a kiss on the lips. It amazed me still how he could tell exactly what was on my mind. I gave him a smile and walked into the front room and sat down on the sofa. It wasn’t that long before Richard walked back in with two glasses of gin and tonic. Again, he knew exactly what I needed right at this moment. He placed the glasses on the table in front of us, sat down next to me, and pulled me to his side for a hug.

I still couldn’t get over how caring and loving Richard was to me. I wasn’t used to such signs of love and affection all the time. Not that I was complaining, it was just that no man had ever taken the time like Richard did to make sure I was treasured like I had treasured and cared for them. He pressed a kiss into my head as he sat there holding me and stroking my hair in such a caressing way that I could just fall asleep in his arms.

“Now, handsome, what’s wrong? You have been quiet since we left Mum’s. Did she upset you?”

I went to move, but he held onto me tightly, keeping me in the position he wanted. I wasn’t sure if this was just so he could comfort me, or if he didn’t want to hear my answer. He needn’t have worried though, because this had nothing to do with his family and everything to do with mine.

“No, please don’t think that, Romeo. It has nothing to do with your mum or Arthur. Well, perhaps in a roundabout way, but they were amazing today and made me feel extremely welcome. It's just…” I paused for a moment as I took a steadying breath, the tears starting to form in my eyes at the thought of what I was missing. “It's just, spending time with them today, I realised what I was missing. I don’t have a loving family around me, except for you. I guess I was just thinking that perhaps I should try just one last time to reconcile with my parents?”

I felt Richard relax slightly. I guessed he was worried that his mum had said something to me, and we were just putting on a front for him and Arthur. But I would never have done that.

He gently put his fingers on my chin and moved my head around to meet his. “I’m sorry. I should have thought how meeting my family would make you feel. I really didn’t mean for you to be upset by it.”

He touched his lips against mine for a moment, just a sweet, tender kiss. Nothing more, nothing less. It was one of the things I loved so much about this man. He may have been new to this, but he certainly learned quickly and made up for the years he had been alone.

He slowly pulled away, moving his hand onto my cheek. “If you want to go see your parents, you know I will be there with you every step of the way. I wouldn’t want you to face them alone. It doesn’t bother me what they think of me, but I don’t want to see you hurt. If you think it will make matters worse with me being there, I will wait outside, but under no circumstances will I let you—”

I crashed my lips against his, immediately placing my hand in his hair and guiding him to the exact position I wanted him in. I didn’t want to hear any more about him not being wanted or liked by my parents. If that was how they felt, then that was how they felt about me. They either accepted us as a couple, or I had nothing more to do with them. I didn’t need their money, and I could live without them in my life if I had to. I just wanted to give them that one chance to share my happiness with them.

I pulled away from the kiss to find Richard smiling back at me.

“What was that for?”

I smiled at him. “Because I love you and needed to show you right at that moment. Plus, I couldn’t stand to hear you say any more about my parents not liking you.”

I saw a smirk come over his face before he leaned down, pressed a kiss on my cheek, and whispered in my ear. “I think it’s about time you reminded me just how much you love me in the bedroom, don’t you?”

He moved away and gave me a wink. What had I made this man into? One of these days, he would be the death of me. But hell, what a way it would be to go. I tilted my head to one side, just taking in the gorgeous man that was sitting next to me, before I spoke.

“Lead the way,Romeo.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Richard

My life with Daniel was finally starting to have some normality. We had both returned to work and had gotten ourselves into a routine. We shared the chores around the house, and one of our favourite times was cooking together each evening. Our relationship was coming along both in and out of the bedroom. However, I still couldn’t get the conversation about his family out of my head.

We had spoken to his brother, Simon, on several occasions now, and he had accepted us as a couple without question. He had always understood what Daniel was going through and finally admitted to us both that he was bisexual, so understood the issues that we had with his parents. However, unlike Daniel, he had decided to hide his sexuality from them. After seeing what they put Daniel through, he had taken the cowardly option—his words—and never said a word.

So far, though, Daniel had not phoned or spoken to his parents. I had already spoken to Kye and asked him if there was any chance that he could get hold of Daniel’s mother, Joyce’s, phone number, not wanting to look myself. I knew I might be stepping over boundaries, but I hated seeing him so low. We were looking forward to a life together, and I wanted him to be happy.

We had already spoken to Sienna and Jayden, who had put us in touch with the adoption agency that they had used to adopt Amelia, and we’d had a meeting with them. They were more than happy for us to adopt a child, or even two, if the right siblings were available. Sienna had suggested that we visit the home that she helped to run and meet the staff and children there.

We had fallen in love with a brother and sister whose parents had died in a car accident. They were five and seven, so most possible adoptive parents overlooked them as being too old. They all wanted younger children who wouldn’t remember their parents. But that wasn’t what we wanted. We wanted to celebrate their biological parents and help them to remember them. We didn’t care if they called us by our real names or “Dad.” All we wanted was to give them a new life, in a secure home, with two dads who loved them to the moon and back. All we had to do now was wait and see if we would be accepted, and if Daisy and Zach were happy to come live with us.

We had also decided that we would be moving into Daniel’s house in Kingston-Upon-Thames. We had been there and visited with a builder, who was going to remove the walls of Katherine’s old bedroom and make it into an open-planned playroom and office. We wanted to make it as different as possible to try and irradicate some of the memories that it held for Daniel. There were still more than enough bedrooms in the place, even without that one, so we weren’t worried about that. Yes, the commute would be longer, but I really didn’t care about that. If it meant that we could be a proper family together in a home, that was all that mattered to us.

I was sitting running through my usual jobs for the day, checking on the information that had been sent through by our new members of staff, when the door to the office opened. I looked up and saw Kye walking in with a piece of paper in his hand. He passed it to me before he spoke.

“Don’t ask how, but that is the number you wanted.”

Before I could even say thank you, he walked back out the door, closing it behind him.

Even though we had a better understanding of each other now, Kye still had his good days and bad days. We all knew the signs and looked out for them now. It wouldn’t be too long before Nathan was heading into his office to talk to Kye. We had all commented how he seemed quiet today, but we usually left the hard conversations to Nathan or, in extreme cases, Kelsey. She always seemed to get around Kye. We all knew his sister had not long moved over here, and we all suspected he was just worried about her. I was sure, given a day or so, he would be back to his sarcastic self, that we all loved.

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