Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

BARRETT

I knew Owen better than I knew myself. He fell asleep almost immediately, but I expected that from him too. Whenever I forced him to go to the gym with me, he'd go home and, without fail, take a nap. The same thing happened when I forced him to go on a hike or visit the slopes. He reminded me of a cat with his need to sleep after any kind of physical activity whatsoever. Today, I was extra grateful because it meant I could hold him a little longer.

The words I knew he'd say were coming. He'd tell me he loved me and we'd always be best friends, but this was a mistake. He'd say that losing my friendship was too big of a risk. He'd remind me how bad mixing business, friendship, and fucking truly was, and if we were smart, we'd forget the last option.

What I couldn't say was anything to refute his arguments because—I hated to admit it even to myself—all his points would be perfectly logical. It was a bad idea to mix business, friendship, and romance.

None of that changed the fact that I still wanted him .

We lay in bed until the sun started setting on the horizon, and he finally started to stir. I waited until the last possible moment to extricate myself from the tangle of his arms and legs. My body protested the loss of his warmth, but I didn't want to force him to use the words that would shatter my heart. This goddamn pining was starting to annoy even me. I was still gonna do it though.

"Barrett, what time is it?"

"Around six-thirty or so."

"Okay, I'm going to check on the kitten."

Owen pulled himself out of the bed and grabbed his pants off the floor. I was hoping he'd stay naked, so I was disappointed. It was a shame, really, because I liked Owen's ass a lot.

His wince and gait when he walked toward the bathroom had me worried. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt him. I was a big guy, and I didn't know how long it had been. Owen was so secretive about who he dated that I'd never even met anyone he was interested in. Back in the day, I used to suggest double dates, but he was always quick to shut that down.

I gave him a few minutes of privacy before I followed him. The closer I got to the bathroom, the more I smiled. I heard him crooning to his new baby. He was singing him a little pop song about going home.

I carefully pushed open the door and found him sitting cross-legged on the floor with this new furry friend on his lap. The kitten startled at the noise and immediately went to its feet. Back arched, with fur puffed, he looked like an angry dust bunny. His hisses didn't rank high on intimidation, but I could tell he was trying hard for it.

"Hey, little man, what's the matter?" I moved slowly, and the little demon stared straight into my soul. His eyes tracked me, and I was not loving it .

When I got within three feet of Owen, the living hairball launched his attack. Within a blink, he was attached to my pant leg and trying his best to claw his way up. He never once stopped hissing.

"No, sir, Lucifer. You are supposed to protect me from actual bears, not Barrett."

"How'd you get him to stop hissing at you?"

"He never did. Lucifer knows who loves him," Owen said with a sing-song tone. He reached over and plucked the spawn from my pants. "Lucifer, be nice to Barrett, or he's gonna make you go stay with the bear."

"Awww, babe, I wouldn't do that."

It didn't occur to me to not use the endearment, but Owen froze. He had a deer-in-the-headlights look, and I wanted to kick myself for bringing it up when we were both still raw. If I was smart, which I only was occasionally, I'd wait until Owen brought it up himself. But if I did that, I might wait forever.

"You don't have to call me that," Owen said in a defensive voice.

"I want to call you that," I answered back.

"Do we have to talk about what happened?"

"We could go back to town and pretend it never happened, but we'd still have to talk about it eventually."

"Can we just wait until we're back? I just…I just can't right now. Okay?"

"Yeah, babe, we can wait."

With an agreed-upon truce, we tried to get Lucifer to warm up to me. We failed. Every time I came close to Owen, Lucifer raised his hackles and hissed. He wouldn't even accept a food bribe from me. When I tried to feed him, he snapped at my fingers. When Owen did it, he purred and preened.

If I wasn't so preoccupied with what came next for Owen and me, I would have laughed. As it was, all I would manage was a weak smile. I knew Owen wanted to run away, but I needed to figure out how to make him stay.

"Do you think we could let him out of the bathroom for a while?"

"Yeah, he's figured out the litter box, so it should be fine. Can you have pets at your place?"

If Owen couldn't keep his new friend, he'd be heartbroken. The cat might hate me, but he'd live with me if Owen's place wasn't an option. There was no way in hell I'd expect Owen to let him go. And it would be an even better excuse to have him in my house more often than he already was.

"I've been there so long without a pet, I don't even remember."

Owen lived in an in-law cottage that he'd turned into a perfect display of his considerable talents. When he moved in, it was builder-grade bare minimum, but now it was a work of art built from mostly reclaimed, recycled, and thrifted items. Levi, his landlord and friend, liked it so much that he had Owen redo the main house.

My wandering thoughts were interrupted by Owen taking my hand. The moment I felt his touch, my attention locked in.

"Hey, little demon, he's our friend," Owen crooned.

The cat apparently decided I was all right so long as Owen touched him too. We petted him in tandem until purrs rumbled through his body. When the kitten closed his eyes, Owen withdrew his finger and mine remained. The cat peered up at the loss of his favorite but otherwise remained motionless.

"Maybe he just needed a sign?"

"A sign of what?"

"I don't know. Maybe a sign that you're not going to hurt him?"

"Hmmm. Or maybe he just needed a sign from you that it was okay? "

"Could be," Owen agreed with a soft smile. "Part of me wants to call Levi, but I don't want to hear him say no. Little Lucifer is going to be a surprise."

The caretaker really had taken his job seriously. The pantry was fully stocked. I found some jarred tomato sauce and pasta. It would be plenty to carry us over until the morning. Kim would leave first thing in the morning, so our time would come to a quick end tomorrow. I wasn't ready for the return to reality I knew was on the horizon. I wanted more.

"Hey, Owen, is jarred spaghetti sauce and pasta okay for dinner?" I asked when I went over to the couch where Owen had perched after reluctantly leaving the bathroom. The day's adventure and the food had sent the kitten straight back to bed. Owen left him in the bathroom so there was no chance of being unable to find him in the morning. From the couch, he had an unobstructed view of the door. He hadn't taken his eyes off it.

"What? I missed that," he answered with a distracted tone.

"I asked if pasta and spaghetti sauce was all right for dinner."

He looked downright forlorn, curled up on the couch by himself, and I couldn't leave him there without a cuddle to at least try and make him feel better.

When I sat beside him, he turned directly to me. That cat clearly represented a helluva lot more to him than just a stray. He'd been off enough for a while, maybe even months, that I had begun to worry. Owen snuggled next to me was a goddamn Band-Aid to my soul.

Even after we graduated, we were inseparable. We were each other's favorite travel partner. If there was a wedding, we were each other's plus one. Our families expected the other would attend special occasions, dinners, and birthday parties. But over the last few months, he'd been too busy to go on a trip with me for fun. He'd never been one for the club, but he'd practically stopped going there as well. When I invited him to a stage show, his absolute favorite, he'd said there was too much on his plate to take a break. But except for Rory's Victorian, he hadn't taken on any private clients.

Owen had always been private and never talked about who he was dating. He said it was just a thing and not a big deal, but I worried about him.

I'd been instantly attracted to him from the first time we met, but he'd encouraged me to find other boys to play with. He'd always insisted he preferred to play alone.

So here we were a decade later—both single, both into kink, and one of us pining like a goddamn Bront? novel. I'd always swallowed whatever foolish thoughts entered my head about confessing my undying and unrequited love.

And now we'd gone and fucked. Hell if I knew what that meant. But he was letting me near him again, so I would soak in every moment. The longer we sat together, the more Owen burrowed into my side. At some point, he couldn't get wedged in tighter and frustration radiated from him.

"All right, baby, climb up here." I shifted for him to get on my lap, and he moved there without hesitation.

He wrapped one arm around my back and his other rested on my chest. His closed fist drifted higher and higher. The tension in his shoulders was a sign that keeping himself in check was a struggle, so I took his closed fist, pried up his thumb, and guided it toward his mouth. His lips sealed around the digit and he began to suck.

Within seconds, his shoulders dropped and the tension melted from his body. He made soft noises that made my heart and cock swell. I gathered him closer, and the noises increased .

I wished we could stay like this forever, but dinner still needed to be made. It could wait a few minutes though.

"Baby Boy, we can cuddle, but then I have to feed you," I whispered.

"Da, 'ungry."

"That's why I want to feed you, silly goose."

"Stay."

"Sweet boy, I'll stay for a few minutes and then get up to fix dinner. If you're hungry, we gotta get some food in your tummy."

I dropped my hand and rubbed small circles against his soft stomach. It wasn't hard and chiseled. It was soft and squishy, and I loved it. Owen had a solid build, but he hated working out. I sometimes dragged him to the gym with me, but he rarely did the whole workout. Usually, he cut out early and waited for me at the smoothie bar.

After a few minutes, the burrowing eased up and Owen started playing with the button on my shirt. He seemed in better spirits, but I wasn't foolish enough to think Owen had changed his mind about me. Or us. Owen slipping in and out of little space had everything to do with the bear incident. Under normal circumstances, Owen never allowed anyone to be around when he was little, even with people like Jakob, whom he'd known for years.

"Hey, Baby Boy, why don't you come into the kitchen with me while I cook dinner? We can find something for you to play with."

Owen nodded, slid off my lap, and grasped my hand to pull me off the couch.

"Have you been holding out on me? Check out those muscles!"

Owen's answering giggle was the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. I didn't know how we could have known each other for so long and it was the first time I'd heard it.

Once I had Owen set up at the table, I rummaged through the kitchen to find something to occupy him. The best I found was a couple of Matchbox cars buried in the back of a junk drawer. He occupied himself vrooming the cars around salt and pepper shakers. Every once in a while, there'd be an epic crash that required my help to right them on their wheels and be amazed at how spectacularly they crashed. His hand-eye coordination went out the window when he regressed. Everything would likely return to normal tomorrow, but I had a few more hours left to enjoy being Owen's temporary Daddy.

"Hey, buddy, let's clear the table so we can eat," I told him.

"Da, I play," Owen responded.

"I know you're playing, but you need to eat too. There'll be plenty of time to play after dinner. By then, Lucifer will done with his nap, and we can play with him too."

That was enough to satisfy Owen, and he put his cars aside and sat at the table. Once I had the food in front of him, I realized my mistake. Giving pasta and sauce to someone who regressed as far as Owen did was a recipe for disaster, especially since we didn't have a change of clothes. He'd managed to keep the mess to his face but was living on borrowed time.

"All right, hold on. Let's get situated before you don't have any decent clothes for tomorrow."

With that, I wiped down Owen's face and hands. He dutifully sat through my ministrations without objection. I pulled his plate toward me and spiraled the pasta around the fork. When I raised it to his mouth, he gave me the sweetest smile and opened wide. His little gulping noises were too cute.

I took turns feeding him and myself. His cars snuck back over, and I couldn't find a reason to force him to give them up. By the time dinner was over, I'd managed to save his shirt but not his face from sauce stains. This messy boy needed a bath.

"Owen, you okay with a bath? You're a mess."

The way his face lit up at the suggestion told me this weekend would end in heartbreak. I had no goddamn idea how I would go back to being just his best friend. I needed to figure that shit out and fast because the keys would be delivered bright and early in the morning.

"All right, baby, let's get you cleaned up."

I wiped off Owen's hands and face as best I could and then guided him into the bathroom. Lucifer was lounging in his basket but perked up when we came in. Owen immediately plopped on the floor to play with him while I drew the bath.

The bathroom had been renovated at some point, but the clawfoot tub hadn't been taken out. It was situated in an alcove with a shelf that ran around it right above the rim. It was fairly deep, so I left the water running while I rummaged through the kitchen for some makeshift toys. I ended up with measuring cups, a plastic cup, a sieve, and some wooden spoons. They'd work fine.

When I got back, Owen was right where I'd left him, and, of course, Lucifer was right in his lap, purring away. I found some bubble bath under the sink and dumped that in the water. When I looked up, Owen stood beside me, holding his kitten.

"Hey, buddy, we gotta get you in the tub. Do you want me to do it or do it yourself?"

"Da."

"You want me to help?"

"Yesh, peas."

"Okay, Baby Boy, let's get you in here. Tubby time won't be fun with cold water."

I stripped off his outer clothes. He looked at me expectantly when I didn't push off his underwear.

"You're right. I forgot the last part."

When I kneeled to help him step out of his underwear, I carefully kept my eyes averted from the mouth-level cock I desperately wanted to sample again. Without knowing where we stood or how he felt about sexy time in little mode, I wasn't making a move on him.

I directed him to the toilet, and he handled his business without comment. When he was finished, I helped him into the bathtub overflowing with bubbles. He patted the water and immediately made bubble towers. Owen grabbed the toys I'd brought from the kitchen. He created showers with the sieve, scooped bubbles with the cups, and generally made a mess.

Next to the tub, Lucifer kicked up a fuss at being left on the ground. I tried to cuddle him on my shoulder, but that plan was abandoned about two seconds in. Lucifer twisted, clawed out of my arms, and leaped onto the shelf next to the tub. He supervised bath time with eagle eyes on Owen.

For his part, Owen giggled when Lucifer let him dab his nose with bubbles and when the cat swiped his paw through the bubbles. My temporary baby boy was relaxed and all smiles. I wished I could give him that forever.

"Are you going to wash yourself or me?"

"Da."

"All right, let's get you squeaky clean."

I took the plastic cup, ran the water, and rinsed his hair. I poured out a dollop of the shampoo I'd found in the closet and rubbed it between my hands. When it was sudsy, I threaded my fingers through his hair.

Owen closed his eyes and leaned his head back. The blissful expression and completely relaxed posture were exactly what I'd hoped for. I alternated between scratching his scalp and massaging it. Between the bear, the regressing, and what I truly hoped had been damn good sex, he'd had quite a day. After a full scalp massage, I carefully rinsed his hair, ensuring I kept the soap out of his eyes.

It was an exercise in self-control I wasn't sure I could maintain for more than a few minutes when I grabbed a washcloth and bath soap to give Owen a once-over. I did a quick scrub down of his back, torso, and arms. When it came to his legs, I ran a quick pass over them and tried to remind myself that I needed to maintain some distance. I steeled my resolve and dipped under the water to clean his cock and balls.

"Okay, Baby Boy, you're good to go. It's time to get out."

Owen stuck his lip out so much I thought he might trip on it.

"I know you like tubby time, but the water is getting cold. Five more minutes, and that's it."

"Meanie Da," Owen grumbled.

"I'm not mean. I just don't want you to get cold. You're going to waste your play time complaining about me," I responded.

With that admonishment, Owen picked up his sieve and tried to fill his measuring cups. He wasn't at all successful, but he tried hard. Everyone once in a while, he'd reach up and boop Lucifer's nose. That cat hadn't taken its eyes off Owen once. I didn't know if animals could fall in love at first sight, but I was pretty sure I was witnessing something close to it.

Once his five minutes were up, I forced myself to avert my eyes from the planes of his body when he stepped out of the tub. I wrapped a towel around his waist and took another to scrub the water from his hair. His giggles while I rubbed his hair dry were the cutest damn thing I'd ever heard.

Once his hair was done, I made quick work of drying his body. When I'd gone looking for towels, I'd found a donation box of clothes in the linen closet. Lucky for us, there were some sweats and T-shirts in there. They were a little large for Owen but would work in a pinch. Once squared away, he picked up his kitten from the ledge and gave him a proper cuddle.

"Da, sleep with kitty?" Owen asked as he crooned into the fur of his neck. He ran his hand gently over the cat's head and scratched under his chin.

"Tomorrow, you can sleep with the kitty. For tonight, he needs to stay in here so he doesn't get lost." Owen looked like he might throw down with me. "I'm sorry, buddy. I know you want to be with him. Hey, I saw a couple of storybooks on the bookshelves downstairs. How about I read you both a story?"

Owen gave me a nod and helped Lucifer give me one too. I hurried downstairs to grab the books and return fast before Owen could get sad again over the cat's sleeping arrangements. I sat on the floor with my back to the wall. Owen settled between my legs with the cat on his lap. I tried my best to voice the story of the dump truck who needed to learn to share the dirt.

By the end of the story, Owen and the kitten were both yawning. I deposited the kitten in his basket and steered Owen toward the sink. A quick search under the sink found an unopened package of toothbrushes and some travel toothpaste.

Owen was swaying on his feet, so I didn't even bother asking him if he wanted to brush his own teeth. I prepared the brush and told him to open his mouth. He obediently followed directions, and within a few minutes, I ushered him out the door and directed him into bed.

He eagerly scrambled under the covers and began sucking his thumb the moment his head hit the pillow. I planned to sit with him until he was asleep before grabbing a shower, but he was out cold within seconds. I ran my hand over his head and he gave me a soft smile at my touch. I was nowhere near ready to give this up.

I reluctantly turned away from Owen and headed back to the bathroom for a quick shower, a piss, and brushing my teeth. The kitten gave me a halfhearted hiss but didn't even bother to pick its head up from its spot on the pillow. The scrounged clothes were too small for me, so I crawled into bed with Owen, wearing only my briefs. He immediately turned over and clutched me like his own teddy bear. I settled on my back, a hand on his ass, and drifted off to dream of Owen.