Chapter 7

Jakob

Operation Get a Papa For Christmas was going better than expected. We’d spent a wonderful morning in Tannenberg picking out the perfect tree—gorgeous and round and lovely—feeding the reindeer, and taking so many selfies. I put one of them as the screensaver on my phone. We hadn’t known each other long, but we were so cute and happy-looking together that it seemed wrong to bury it in my photo files.

That first kiss was the bestest, most romantic, hottest kiss I’d ever had. Technically, it was the only kiss I’d had, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t know it was spectacular. ’Cause it was. If those teenagers hadn’t started hooting and hollering at us from a distance, we could have continued it.

Reed was sweet and protective when he ensured my hand wasn’t injured further. A few over-the-counter Tylenol this morning had taken care of my hand, but he’d insisted I keep it against my chest to avoid it being jostled, and he’d carried the feed for me. The sign of a perfect Papa.

After we left the tree farm, Papa gave me the job of finding a restaurant for lunch. Since the town had an old-world German feel, I picked a place with the same vibes. My goulash soup and his pretzel were delicious, and then we shared an equally yummy wurst platter. Papa laughed at my sausage jokes like a good Papa, even though they were kind of dumb. My hot chocolate with a peppermint stick straw piled high with fresh whipped cream and chocolate shavings was the bestest part. It had been the most perfect day so far, and I still had a few more hours before I returned to the real world of adulting.

“Do we have to head back right after lunch?”

I wasn’t ready for today to be over. Reed looked concerned and didn’t answer right away. “I promise that I feel fine. The meds work great, and I’m not sore or anything. I’m having a nice time, and I’m not ready for it to end.”

“I’m not ready either, love. My mom gave me some decorations when I bought my place, but we should find a few new ones too. Let’s walk through town and see if we can find anything in a store.”

With that, Papa signaled for the server to bring our bill.

“Jakob, what are you doing?”

Papa’s voice was stern, but I wasn’t sure what I’d done wrong. All I’d done was get my wallet out so I could pay the bill. I was bewildered.

“I’m getting my wallet. You paid for the Christmas tree and the reindeer visit. I should buy lunch. That’s fair.”

Papa’s eyes narrowed and he gave an abrupt shake of his head.

“Absolutely not. Put your wallet away.”

Reed didn’t say anything else until my wallet disappeared into my pocket. “Silly boy thinking he’s buying his Papa’s lunch.”

Reed put some cash on the bill holder tray and I slouched back in my chair with the tiniest bit of a pout. On the inside, fireworks exploded in my belly. Reed called himself my Papa and I wasn’t going to let him take it back. Still, I had to at least pretend to care about who bought lunch. All my romance novels made it out to be essential.

“I wanted to buy you lunch.”

“You can make it up to me by going on a walk with me.”

I rolled my eyes at that piece of ridiculousness but smiled so he knew I wasn’t really mad. “C’mon, love, let’s hit the streets.”

With that, he pulled out my chair, and we went to find some new ornaments. The first place we stopped only had cheap plastic toys without any glitter to make them fun, so we passed on them. But the next store was full of hand-carved everything from wooden wreaths to nutcrackers. There were so many to choose from that I narrowed my choices down to three so I could try to eliminate some.

“Reed, what do you think? Which one should I get?”

This was a serious decision. It was my first Christmas ornament, and I didn’t want to pick the wrong one. “I can’t decide.”

“What are our options?”

Reed asked as he looked over my shoulder.

“The nutcracker is option one, the Christmas tree is two, and the bells are three. Which do you like best?”

I chewed on my lip while I considered it. Papa placed his hands on my shoulders and peered at the options before us.

“Love, there’s no way I could pick one. We’re getting all three.”

Reed reached around me to scoop them off the counter and take them to the register. I wanted to protest and tell him he shouldn’t buy me things, that I should be the one buying them, but I was too happy to put up a protest. Maybe Papa hadn’t decided to keep me the way I’d already decided I was keeping him, but even I could tell he was into me. That was pretty damn cool.

#

“Papa, do you think we can decorate it tonight?”

We’d—mostly him—dragged the tree into the family room and set it up in front of the picture window. “It looks kinda sad without any decorations.”

We were sitting on the couch, side by side, admiring how great it looked. It was a magnificent choice if I do say so myself. The remains of our drive-thru dinner were scattered on the coffee table.

“That’s going to take some time, and you still have to go to bed at a decent hour so you can go to work tomorrow.”

“Ugh. I don’t wanna go.”

“Sorry, love, that might be the worst part of adulting. But you’ll have a nice dinner waiting for you when you come home. I’m off tomorrow, so I can take you and pick you up when you’re done.”

Reed calling his house my home made my tummy do a flip-flop. I felt more at home here than I ever had at my parents’ house.

“Papa, could we decorate it tomorrow night then?”

“I think that could work if you want to do that.”

“Shit, never mind.”

“Language.”

That admonishment had me rolling my eyes.

“Jakob, rolling your eyes isn’t polite.”

And then he added, “I’m going to let it go for now, but please don’t think I will forget. And what is the problem with tomorrow night?”

Shit. His raised eyebrow spoke volumes. “That was out loud, wasn’t it?”

He nodded. I sighed.

“I’ve got a late meeting scheduled at the lab so I probably won’t be done until after eight and not back here until at least nine.”

“Home.”

“Huh?”

“You won’t be back home until nine. If it’s that late, dinner will still be waiting, but we’ll have to put off our tree-trimming until next weekend. I have tomorrow off and then go on a four-night rotation. I’ll still be there to pick you up. Just text me about thirty minutes before you’re ready for pick up.”

“Yes, for the ride to work, but my boss has a habit of changing his mind about when meetings are over at the end of them. I’ll call for an Uber to get home.”

How had this turned out so perfectly? Okay, maybe not perfectly perfect because we’d have to wait on the tree decorating, but pretty good. Analyzing it too closely might make it vanish, and that was the last thing I wanted to happen. Papa was everything I’d imagined, and keeping him was paramount. He fussed with the angle of the tree, but a quick clarification was needed despite my earlier resolve to leave it alone. My impulse control required work, but the need for an answer overpowered my own good sense.

“Papa, can I ask you something?”

Reed immediately stopped messing with an ornament, took my hand, placed it on his knee, and covered it with his own. How this man knew I was touch-starved was beyond me.

“It’s not hard to guess, but I know I’m touchy-feely, so if it’s too much, you can and should tell me to back off.”

“I did it again?”

“You did, but I like it. Think of all the time you’re saving me by not having to guess what you’re thinking. It’s efficient.”

“I want to be mysterious, not efficient.”

“Oof. That ship might have sailed, love.”

And then Reed gave me the gift of silence. He allowed me to gather my thoughts without demanding I spit them out so more important tasks could be handled. There was no rush, just seemingly infinite patience. It was further proof I needed to keep him.

“Do you mind that I call you Papa?”

I tried to sound assured and confident, but Reed’s indulgent smile wasn’t a great sign that I’d succeeded. “I mean, you haven’t said not to, but maybe you’re just being nice. I like it though.”

“Jakob, do you know what I like best about you?”

I wasn’t expecting his question, so I shook my head. “You take up space. When I was twenty-three, there was no way I’d have been able to tell my folks I was living my life for me and then do it. That takes balls. And if a guy who’s willing to do that wants to call me Papa, there’s no damn way I’m going to tell him no. And I like it. I like it a lot.”

Well, that was it. I couldn’t contain myself any longer and launched myself at Papa. He caught me with a laugh and then carefully rested my injured hand against his shoulder to avoid bumping it. His brown eyes sparkled, and his smile made my blood thrum in my veins.

“Now that you’re up here, what are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna kiss the shit out of you, Papa.”

The sharp smack on my ass made me gasp and hardened my dick.

“Lang—”

was as far as Papa got before I fit my mouth against his.

Neither of us could play coy tonight. We opened our mouths and gave full access to the other. Our tongues swirled around each other in an obscene dance that, I hoped, was a hint of what was to come. Papa’s hands slid around to cup my ass, his fingers pressing into my cheeks with delicious pressure. I pulled back to drag oxygen into my lungs, and Papa used the time to nibble my lower lip, then along my jaw and down the column of my neck. My entire body shuddered at the sensations coursing through me. Nerve endings I didn’t know existed were firing impulses that made all the others shoot off too. It was a deliciously torturous ending to the most wonderful of all my days.

“Papa,”

I groaned, but his ministrations against my skin only intensified. If this was what sex felt like, sign me the eff up.

“Baby, we have to stop,”

Papa said as he pulled away from where he’d been kissing my neck. My strangled whimper elicited a rueful chuckle from him. Ugh, I didn’t want him laughing. I wanted him to make out with me.

“No, we don’t. It’s fine. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. We need a proper discussion so we don’t fuck things up before we even get started.”

“How come you get to cuss?”

“Because I’m a Papa, and you’re not,”

he said with a boop to my nose and a smile.

“I’m not sure that’s fair.”

“It’s probably not.”

His smile only widened, and he adjusted his position, which just so happened to involve rubbing his hard cock against my bottom. “But I’m okay with it. “

“Seems very convenient to me.”

“Oh, it absolutely is convenient. Boys using naughty words get punished.”

His words created a chain reaction within my body, and the air stopped moving in my lungs. “Punished?”

Papa moved again, sending another wave of want through my body.

“Yes, punished, but that is a conversation for another day. You have work in the morning after a very long weekend.”

Papa’s words registered as logical and reasonable, but I wanted to talk more about being with each other. I crossed my arms and thinned my lips.

“I’m not done with this conversation.”

“Neither am I, but I am putting it off for another time.”

“No.”

“Yes, love.”

“I’m staying right here until we talk about it.”

Papa’s smirk differed from before, and his eyes glinted with something I wasn’t quite sure how to describe. “Love, are you sure you want to go down this road?”

“Yes, I want to talk about it now,”

I said mulishly, but I did scoot off his lap. His hardening cock beneath my ass had made my brain short-circuit. Somewhere, my sense of self-preservation was screaming at me to eject from the plane headed for a crash and burn. Even my inexperienced self could see the trajectory.

“Just remember, love, you asked for it.”

Oh shit.