Aiden followed Rob upstairs, his hand tucked away in Rob's larger mitt. He didn't know what Rob had planned for him, but he was sure that whatever it was, it was gong to leave him in tears.

Rob lead him to the bed, sat down on it himself, and pulled Aiden down next to him so they were sitting side by side at the head of the bed, Rob's arm around Aiden's shoulder, Aiden's head on Rob's chest. It was a nice position to be in, and this way Aiden didn't have to look at the man who had just declared himself his daddy.

“We need to talk about what happened,” Rob said gently. “Why you did what you did.”

“Because I was stupid.”

“No, you're not stupid,” Rob chided. “You're a very smart boy.”

Aiden fidgeted with his fingers as he attempted to explain. “I was tired. Tired of being chased. Tired of being a piece of shit. Ellie didn't need me anymore, Mason fucking bitch slapped me. Steve wasn't even talking to me, and you...” Aiden broke off. “Even you didn't seem to like me. So I figured it would be better if I wasn't around anymore, and if I could get Bobby off Ellie's case, then that was a bonus.”

“Nobody was enjoying your behavior,” Rob said, shifting slightly to look down at Aiden. “But that's not the same as wanting you dead. You get that, right? If you had died, you would have broken all of us. Me and Steve, Mason and especially Ellie. That girl loves you with everything she has.”

“I know,” Aiden said curling up and sliding down the bed until his head was basically in Rob's lap. Rob didn't seem to mind that. He began to play his fingers through Aiden's hair.

“Next time you start to feel bad about yourself, I want you to come to me and talk to me,” his daddy said. “I'm always going to be here to listen.”

Aiden looked up into his daddy's handsome face, saw the care and concern written in every one of the little wrinkles around Rob's eyes and mouth. “Am I in trouble?”

“Do you think you should be?”

Aiden gave a little nod.

“Mhm. I agree,” Rob said, his voice soft but strong as he kept his fingers playing through Aiden's hair. “I think my boy needs to spend some time over his daddy's knee.”

Aiden felt a spear of arousal run right through him. He didn't know if he was supposed to, but this was kind of arousing, being looked after so intensely, being allowed, for once, to just be small and weak and vulnerable.

He didn't resist as Rob started to undress him, pulling his shirt over his head and starting work on the button of his fly.

“I want my boy naked,” Rob said. “Naughty boys don't wear clothes when they go over their daddy's knee.”

Embarrassment raced through Aiden as Rob slid his pants off him too. He wasn't wearing any underwear. Never did these days. Rob was fully dressed, of course, wearing tan khakis and a knit sweater. Dad clothes.

“Come on, boy, over my lap,” Rob urged, easing Aiden over gently until he was lying prone across the bed, his hips pressed against Rob's hard thighs.

Rob's palm smoothed over his back and cheeks. “What are you being spanked for, little boy?”

“Uhm, almost killing myself?”

“That's right,” Rob said.

Aiden hid a little grin. It wasn't a very little boy thing to admit to. In fact, nothing he'd done was. Maybe he didn't need a daddy after all. Maybe he was a bit too grown up for this.

“Rob...”

SMACK!

Rob's palm found his ass in a hard slap which made Aiden gasp as heat blazed across his skin, and the ache of the impact sank right into his flesh.

“You'll call me Daddy, boy,” Rob said sternly.

“Uhm, but....”

SMACK!

Another one of those hard whacks met his butt, stoking the fire in his muscle all the more.

“I'm too old for this!” Aiden cried out. “I'm thirty! I'm not a boy, I'm a man!”

“You're my boy,” Rob reminded him. “And I have a whole lot of ways of reminding you of that if you forget.” He slapped Aiden's butt again, a firm swat that made Aiden jolt against his thighs. There was no more arguing then. Rob wrapped his arm tightly around Aiden's waist, locking him in place as he started to spank him long and hard. The slaps weren't brutal or angry. They were firm and decisive. They were purposeful too.

“You can be whatever you like to the outside world,” Rob lectured as he spanked. “You can be the heir to a fortune, you can be a business man, a philanthropist, you can be a loving brother. You can be any one of a thousand good things. But here, with me, you're my little boy. Understand?”

“Yes!” Aiden cried out. The heat in his ass was a great motivator for understanding, that was for sure. More than that, though, was the way he was starting to feel. Very small, very naughty, and very, very cared for. His daddy wasn't spanking him out of anger, but out of love. There was care in every single swat that seared his cheeks. Rob wasn't going to let him squirm out of this. He wasn't going to let him rebel and return to the state of mind that had ruined everything.

“You've needed this for a very, very long time,” Rob said, pausing for a moment. “And maybe, if someone had bothered to tan your ass twenty years ago, you wouldn't be where you are now. But there's no shame in needing this. There's no shame in being my little boy. There is shame in crime and addiction though, isn't there, Aiden?”

Tears started to flow down Aiden's cheeks. He couldn't stop them and he didn't try. Truth was, he had been ashamed of himself since Mason left to join the Marines. All their lives, everybody had thought that he was the one doing poor Mason Malone, the boy with no father and no money, a favor. But it was Mason who had kept him sane all that time and the moment Mason was gone, Aiden had started to fall the fuck apart.

That was why this hurt so much. He'd never admitted that to himself before, but it was true. When Mason came back and there was a gulf of experience between them that neither one of them could bridge, Aiden had only gotten worse. The more Mason succeeded, the further Aiden fell, like being a junkie was some kind of revenge on everything he had once been, some rebellion against everything good and right in the world.

He'd never thought he'd be friends with Mason again, so when Mason sent guards to save him from Cornoli, Rob and Steve had become extensions of that friendship he so missed. They were reminders that Mason himself wasn't there. His best friend in the world was acting through proxies. And then... seeing Mason with Ellie... having some idea of what they were doing. She'd loathed Mason all her life, and now she preferred Mason to her own brother. That had been the final straw. He couldn't handle it anymore.

“I should have been Mason,” Aiden sobbed.

“You're not Mason,” Rob soothed, making a soft sound as he pulled Aiden up into a hug. “You don't need to be Mason. I'm glad you're not him. He wouldn't let me do this.”

Aiden let out a tearful little snort of laughter. “No, he wouldn't. Mason's not a loser piece of shit like I am.”

“Stop it,” Rob said firmly. “You're not any of those things. And Mason is far from perfect. I love you, Aiden, for exactly who and what you are.”

It was all too much. Snuggled up close, Aiden sobbed against his daddy's chest, held in his tight and loving embrace.

“I've got you,” Rob crooned. “I'm going to be here for you. I'm not going anywhere.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you,” Rob said, his lips on Aiden's forehead. “Because, hell, part of my make up is needing to look after someone. A daddy needs his boy as much as his boy needs him.”

“Really? Why?”

Aiden wiped his tears away as he sat up a little more and looked into Rob's eyes with curiosity. “What made you... like this?”

“Like this?” Rob chuckled, and kissed Aiden tenderly. “I think I was born this way. I like looking after people. It's why I joined the Marines as a medic. Being able to help people who really need it makes me feel like my life is worthwhile. But, you see enough war and enough death and you fail to save enough people and....” he paused as his breath caught in his throat. “I need to be able to save you, Aiden. I need my boy.”

Aiden wrapped his arms tight around Rob. “I'm sorry,” he said, meaning it. “I mean, I'm really fucking sorry for what I put you through. Steve and I had beef, but you were always good to me. Even when I was a total pain in your ass. You were still there for me, and I totally disregarded it.”

“You did,” Rob agreed. “But I don't think you will again, will you, boy?”

Aiden looked into Rob's eyes and said the words he knew Rob so desperately needed to hear. “No, Daddy.”

“Good.” Rob kissed him again, and this time it was deeper. Their tongues met and entwined and as Aiden's tears dried he pushed himself against Rob, feeling the hard ridges of the muscular medic beneath his bare body.

“I'm not feeling very small right now,” he admitted, lust dancing in his eyes.

“Good,” Rob growled softly. “Because, boy, I've been waiting far too long for this.”

He reached down and undid the zipper of his pants.

“Suck daddy's cock,” he growled softly, pulling Aiden's head down toward his crotch, where the thick length of his cock was now exposed.

Aiden did not need to be told twice. He wanted to make his daddy feel good. He wanted to make it up to him. He had been a very, very bad boy, and now it was his turn to do something for Rob.

He took Rob's cock into his mouth, rolling his tongue around the thick head of it. His daddy's groan was perfect as Aiden started to work his lips down the shaft, reaching into Rob's pants to cup his balls.

“Fuck yes, boy.”

It was comforting in a way, to have his lips wrapped around his daddy's cock, to suck on it like a pacifier, drawing that hard throbbing flesh deep into his mouth over and over, feeling Rob's balls tighten beneath his fingers.

“Such a good boy,” Rob growled softly.

As Aiden worked his lips over Rob's cock, he sensed the man stiffening beneath him, Rob's breath coming in faster, rasping groans. Robert reached down and laced his fingers into Aiden's hair, not pushing or pulling, but moving with his bobbing motion, encouraging him to keep up the sucking.

Aiden wrapped his hand around Rob's cock and worked it hard, suckling at the head of his dick with quick lashes of his tongue, followed by deeper strokes that took the hard rod all the way into his hot wet hole.

It didn't take long for his daddy to reach climax. Rob's hand clenched in Aiden's hair, his cock thrusting up and swelling as he let out a roar of release, spurting hot loads into Aiden's eager mouth. Aiden wasted no time in lapping it all up, cleaning his daddy's cock, making sure not a drop was wasted.

“Such a fucking good boy,” Rob said gruffly, pulling Aiden up to kiss him deeply, his cum still on Aiden's tongue as theirs met in a passionate embrace.

Pleased and proud that he had made his daddy feel good, Aiden curled up with Rob as he recovered from his climax, his muscled chest rising and falling with the last panting breaths of climax, his eyes half closed as the pleasure ran through him. For once, Aiden had managed to do something that made Rob feel good.

“I love you,” Aiden whispered in Rob's ear.

“I love you too, my boy,” Rob purred back, cradling him close.

“Well I love you both,” Steve interjected from the doorway. “And I want my turn.”

Rob let out a laugh. “Impatient,” he smiled.

“You got to go first,” Steve said, his eyes locked on Aiden. “Now I want to claim what's mine.”

Aiden snuggled into Rob's arms. He was protected with his daddy. He didn't know how it would be with his dom. There was unfinished business between him and Steve. It had been lingering in the air for quite some time, but seeing Steve standing there, he had the feeling reckoning was upon him.

“Okay,” Rob groaned after a minute or two. “If you must...”

“Oh I must,” Steve growled. “I really fucking must.”