Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 84289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“How are you guys doing?” I ask Mom as I rinse off dishes and hand them to her near the dishwasher.
Dad glances over at me as he’s sliding Tupperware into the fridge nearby. “If you’re asking about what I think you are, your mom and I are in couples counseling.”
My heart twists a little in my chest. “So you’re not…”
“We’re not splitting up, sweetie,” Mom tells me. “Emily caught us in some bad moments, when we were fighting about things around the house. But we were never intending on a split. She was having a really hard time, and I think she was worried about us.”
I feel the slight sting of a tear near the corner of my eye.
It takes me by surprise.
The idea of my parents potentially divorcing had been something I shoved away to a dark corner of my mind, filing it away into a box labeled just don’t fucking think about it.
Now, it’s cracked open.
And I realize just how strange it would have been if my parents had been about to split up.
Until now, I’d never given much thought to the idea of family. It had always just been a given. Now it feels like more of a gift. A privilege I’ve had for my entire life but had been invisible to me until now.
I hug Mom and then Dad, too, and help them finish cleaning up.
When I look over at Niko in the living room with my brother and sister, something tugs at my heart.
Niko never had this sense of family to begin with. Never had a father in his life at all, and a mother with no warmth.
And barely any sense of love at all, for most of his life.
“Hey,” I tell Aaron as I walk over to the living room and the two of them finish a round of the racing game. “I’m stealing Niko for a minute.”
“We’re about to do the death battle!” Aaron protests.
“I’ll bring him back, I’ll bring him back,” I tell him.
I take Niko upstairs and lean him back against the wall in the hallway, kissing him.
“You take me upstairs just to kiss me, Ollie?” he murmurs, looking at my lips as I break for a breath.
“You don’t seem that upset about it.”
“I’ll kiss you anytime, anywhere,” he says, dipping to kiss me on my neck, too.
“I just wanted to be with you. Only you. Just for a minute. Niko, do you know how much I fucking love you?”
“I love you, too.”
“But I really love you. I love seeing you out there with my family. Love seeing you in Onyx House, or down the aisle when we go to the grocery store, or even across the fucking quad at school.”
“Too many compliments. Too much love. I’m shutting down.”
I suck in a breath. “I know, I know.”
It’s going to take a while before Niko feels like any of this is normal. For him, it never has been.
But that doesn’t mean I’m ever going to shut up about it, either.
He leans in and bites my lower lip.
“I’ve never felt like this before, Oliver. I’m not always good at being vulnerable, and you know that. But I promise you that in my mind, I feel like I’ve won some kind of lottery. Being with a family that accepts me isn’t something I ever thought I’d get to experience.”
“Well, you have ‘em now. They all like you more than they like me, I think.”
He puffs out a laugh.
“I think it would be impossible not to love you, Ollie. Which reminds me. I’m filming you tonight.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Filming me? Here?”
He holds up a finger then shimmies off toward my bedroom, coming back out with his black backpack in hand.
He pulls out something shiny and silver, and I realize it’s a pair of handcuffs.
“Want a video of you cuffed to your bedpost. For my personal collection.”
My cock throbs and a tingle goes down my back. “Everything we do is for your personal collection now. Filmed or not.”
He squeezes my bulge and drags the edge of the metal cuffs along my chest. “Later tonight.”
“Fuck, don’t get me hard when I need to go downstairs again in a minute.”
“Fine,” he says, giving me one last squeeze before putting the cuffs away again. “But you are fucking mine tonight.”
He goes off to put the backpack in my room again then joins me in the hall again, putting an innocent look on his face.
“Not buying that innocence,” I tell him.
“What?” he says with a shrug. “See you downstairs, Ollie.”
He winks at me then heads back downstairs, leaving me aching and tortured up here. I think about math class and baseball and anything to get myself to stop being hard, and finally, I’m in good enough shape to head down again.
“Hi, my love,” Niko says as I arrive in the living room again. He holds out a game controller. “Aaron says you can’t beat him in this game. I told him you’ll knock him out. Settle the bet?”