16. Brent

CHAPTER 16

brENT

The ride to the airport was quiet, making me feel like I was in trouble. I was a grown fucking man, and most of the time, I gave zero shits what anyone thought of me. The only people who mattered were the ones in my circle, and it had grown substantially when we moved to Portland. But John was different.

Yes, he was my … husband. It was difficult to wrap my mind around, but not as much as it did three days ago. Before this trip, that would have freaked me the fuck out. My heart no longer pumped all my blood to my feet when I thought about it.

Even though I never saw myself as someone who would eventually get married, John had been different from the very beginning. And the longer I thought about it, the more it failed to terrify me.

I was busy booking our return flight while he drove as quickly as possible. "We can make the seven p.m. flight if we get there in the next hour. Want me to book it?"

He checked the GPS for traffic along the route, then nodded. "Yeah, go ahead. We'll make it."

"Okay. I need your phone to book yours."

Reaching for it, I looked at him. "Passcode?"

John glanced at me sheepishly, then cleared his throat. "123123."

I smiled. "Afraid you'll forget the code? You know any hacker with half a keyboard could break into this, right?"

"Hardy har. Just book the fucking ticket."

I bit my lip and went back to work. Ten minutes later, I had us booked in first class for our return flight to PDX.

When I closed his app, the overwhelming urge to look at his photos overtook me. I sat my phone on the seat and opened his photos app. The last photos he'd taken were from today, but as I scrolled on, my breath caught in my chest.

John had taken a photo of us on the bed at the hotel. I was plastered across his chest, passed out while he smiled up at the camera. He was exhausted, but he also looked … happy. After hours of dealing with my sick ass, he still looked happy.

Scrolling on, I found pictures of the apartment, and then a beautiful girl that looked like him. The look on her face matched him, and it was the same one in the photo earlier. Happiness.

Allowing myself to fall for him was more dangerous than any mission I'd ever been on. But I wasn't sure I could stop myself even if I tried.

"Get us booked?" he asked, glancing over at me momentarily.

"Yeah, we're good to go." I darkened the screen on his phone and went back to my own.

I had a fuck ton to think about, but wouldn't go back on my word. I'd agreed to ninety days with him before we decided what we were going to do.

Staring out the window as we approached the airport, I thought about my friends. Telling Dare what we'd done would be easy since he'd just eloped with the man he loved to hate. Phantom wasn't married yet, but he and Adam might as well be. Then there was GQ and Dominick. They were perfect for each other and Livie.

I glanced over at John and his chiseled jaw. His features were relaxed as he sang along with the song on the radio. Could I see myself with him?

He must have felt me staring. "You okay? You're not getting a goddamn burger if your stomach is upset. Maybe we should wait to eat until we get to Portland. We can grab something and take it home. Tomorrow we're going grocery shopping."

I nodded, making no argument, but continued to stare at him. "Whatever you want to do is fine with me."

John slowly panned to me, making me smile. Then he put his hand on my forehead.

"What? What did I do now?" I laughed.

"Just making sure you didn't have a fever. It's unlike you to agree."

I laughed and pushed his hand away. "Oh fuck off."

But he caught it and held my hand in his. His smile was warm and reached his eyes. Right then I knew I had no chance of coming out of this thing with him unscathed.

After we turned in the car and grabbed our bags, we ceremoniously dropped our Rush shirts in the trashcan outside the airport. After checking in and clearing security, we found seats at our gate. As we settled in, John elbowed me.

"Did you really have to do that today?"

I scowled at him and then spoke very low. "What's wrong with the way I handled it? Turner's a homophobic dickwad and his management needed to see it. It will save that owner a ton of trouble in the end. If they let him go, then that will prove he had a contract, and it'll help Greer. So the way I look at it, I was protecting Dare."

"So you're saying a protector also needs a protector."

I thought about that. "I guess we all need someone to have our backs now and then. Not me, but most people." I leaned closer and dropped my timbre. "And I gotta tell you that that 'back the fuck off' in that authoritative tone really did it for me."

"Uh-huh." His mocking tone made it difficult not to smile.

"It did. And if you would've heard how he spouted off at Patrick, you'd understand. I'm sorry if it bothered you, but I did what I had to do to make sure we got what we needed. That's who I am. Plus Patrick is joining our team as Cole's bodyguard."

John went quiet until my stomach growled. "I guess we should find you something else to eat."

He sat up and looked around at the offerings in the terminal. "How about I grab some snacks and a soda?"

"It's okay. I can wait until we get back. And I'm getting a burger."

John shook his head at me, then sat back. "Whatever. But I'm not staying up all night with you again. So eat at your own risk."

I grinned, then threw his words back at him. "But you said…"

"I know what I said. And if I'm staying up all night, it's because we're fucking. No praying to the porcelain god."

"You could sleep in your room and you'd never hear it."

"Nope. We have an agreement. Ninety-days."

I wasn't going to tell him three days had already passed. If he wanted to start over, far be it from me to mess with the schedule. That meant three more days for him to rail me. Or for me to rail him.

Shifting I looked at him. "Sorry about that. We could have had a good time."

John bumped his shoulder into mine. "Stop. We had a good time. I didn't hate it. Any of it."

Thinking back on our time together the last three days, the only terrible part was when I was in the bathroom. John was there to help me through it. And I wasn't sure I'd ever told him how much I appreciated it. I never wanted him to think I wasn't grateful for him being there.

"I don't remember if I ever thanked you for taking care of me. I'm just not used to it, that's all. I've kinda been on my own since my brother died, and I don't want you to think I'm an asshole."

John tilted his head closer to me. "Here's the thing, sweetheart. You'll never be an asshole to me. I see who you are, and I'm always going to be on your side. I'm your protector, whether you want me or not. No matter how many people you piss off, or how much you run that sweet mouth when you should shut the fuck up, I'm going to stand right there beside you come hell or high water. So get used to it."

As much as I wanted to tell him to fuck off, and to stop calling me sweetheart, I knew he wouldn't. And somewhere deep inside of me, I hoped he never did.

On the flight home, we opted to order pizza. John thought it would be easier on my gut than a greasy burger, so I decided to humor him.

When we walked up to the door of the condo, John stopped and ran his finger over the wood. "What happened to the door?"

I leaned in and ran my fingers over the deep gouge. "I don't know," I lied. "Weird."

He unlocked the door and pushed it open for me to walk in. Placing the pizza on the coffee table in front of the TV, I went to my room to drop my bag while John turned on the lamp and locked the door.

When I returned, he stood going through the guide until he found a baseball game."This okay?"

"Yeah, that's good," I said, walking into the kitchen to grab a couple of beers and some plates.

I settled onto the sofa next to him and sat back as the energy drained out of me. My head hurt from the lack of food, but I wasn't sure I was hungry anymore.

As he opened the beers, I leaned my head back on the sofa, stretching my neck from side to side to loosen the muscles. When that didn't relieve the pain, I ran my left hand over my head and squeezed the back of my neck.

"Tired?" he asked, handing me a plate with a small slice of pizza.

I smiled at the portion size and sat up. "Yeah. It just kinda hit me all of a sudden."

"You need some food. And you're still recovering from the other night. It might take you a few days to get back to normal."

When I didn't reply, John looked over at me. As our eyes met in the dim light, what I saw made my stomach quiver. It made me want to crawl into his lap and forget about eating.

"Let's eat dinner, then I'll help you relax."

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. I was swimming in unfamiliar waters, and normally my first response would be a smartass joke to lighten the moment. But a bigger part of me wanted to give in and let him take care of me. Like he'd been doing for the last three days.

"You don't have to do that, but I'm not gonna argue with you."

His face broke into a smile. "That's a first. Maybe I should take a picture to commemorate the moment."

"Now who's the smartass," I said, taking a bite of my pizza. I'd never admit that I loved the way he could read me so well and diffuse my anxiety.

We watched the game while we ate and settled into a comfortable conversation about baseball and the teams we thought would make it to the World Series. And when we were finished eating, he took our plates, the box, and empty bottles to the kitchen.

I stood to stretch as he returned. He tossed a bottle on the sofa, then took the hem of my shirt in his hands. "Take it off, please."

I blinked at him, hung up in his eyes, as he smiled. "You don't want massage oil all over it. It might stain."

Nodding, I took it and tossed it on the sofa. "Where do you want me?"

He grinned. "Between my legs on the floor."

There were so many lewd jokes running through my head, but for the first time, maybe in forever, I just wanted to comply. So I got on the floor and leaned against the sofa between his legs.

The soft snap of the bottle lid caught my attention until his big warm hands worked on the taut tendons in my neck. He massaged the sore muscles at the base of my skull, then worked his way down to my neck and shoulders.

"That feels so fucking good," I groaned as he worked out the lactic acid that had lingered in my body.

John chuckled as he bent down and kissed the side of my neck. The rasp of his beard against my skin sent shivers over my skin and up and down my spine.

I lifted my arm and ran my fingers through his hair as his hands worked down my arms, squeezing and massaging the soreness away. I didn't want him to stop.

"John," I moaned as he left open-mouthed kisses along my jaw and bit lightly on my earlobe. He was hitting every erogenous zone I had.

"Take yourself out," he whispered into my ear as his hands left my body.

My cock was already hard as I hurried to unbutton them before I blew in my pants.

"I'm so hard," I said between shuddered breaths.

"I know, sweetheart."

With my cock out in my hand, my head fell back against him as he brought the bottle of Almond Oil around in front of me to drizzle more over my dick.

"Hold it until I tell you to move," he whispered again.

I nodded as I tried to breathe. This bossy side of him was really working for me.

"What if I can't?"

His arms went over my shoulders as I watched him drizzle more into his hand. John sat the bottle down and rubbed his hands together before sliding his oily hands over my shoulders and down my chest.

"I won't let you cum, sweetheart." He bit my earlobe, sending a new wave of chills over my skin.

Long fingers massaged my ribs and down my sides while my eyes rolled in the back of my head. I tried to absorb the sensation as pre-cum bubbled up like magma and leaked from the head of my dick.

"John…"

"I know. One minute. I'm getting there."

An eternity later, he finally wrapped his big hand over mine as we jerked me off together with long, slow motions. And when his left hand went to my jaw and turned my face to him, he stared into my eyes. "Let go, sweetheart."

He took my mouth in a different kind of kiss, and I let go, my cum releasing from me as unwanted tears slid down my face.