Chapter Five
Ten half woke and found himself wrapped around a warm body. His morning wood was pressed firmly against a hot ass.
The sun was shining in, the room warm, unfamiliar.
He blinked a few times, loathe to move from his warm and cozy spot.
Daniel. His boss. Okay, whoa.
He began to inch backward, trying not to rock the mattress and wake Daniel up. He wanted to not be rubbing his hard-on on his boss’s ass when said boss woke up.
Although, that butt was… imminently rubbable.
Biting back his groan, he made himself keep inching backward. Daniel hadn’t made any overtures toward him—the invitation to sleep in the man’s bed had simply been because they were both upstairs and half-asleep and it had been the easiest thing to do. He finally got himself rolled onto his back and put an arm over his face to cut out the light coming from the window.
“Mmm. It’s late.” Daniel stretched, back popping audibly.
“Early still. It can’t be more than seven.” Of course, Daniel wasn’t just an early bird, he was usually up before the early birds.
“That’s late for me. It was nice, though. Visiting with you. Playing.”
“Yeah. Totally. I think we should do it again.” A lot. Especially before the triplets came.
“Yeah. Yeah, that would be fun.” Daniel sat up, long hair like a wild black mane.
Ten resisted the urge to reach out and run his fingers through it, push it back over Daniel’s head.
“Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a coffee bar up here.”
“Coffee in bed? That sounds decadent—how can I say no?”
“I know. That’s why I had this installed. It makes mornings nicer.”
“Does it do fancy shit or just straight-up coffee?” He liked his coffee doctored.
“It does everything. There’s a refrigerated cream container in the cabinet that’s attached.”
“Oh man, that’s awesome. Hazelnut Latte?” He loved a hazelnut latte.
“No problem.” Daniel grabbed two mugs and started futzing around, the scent of coffee filling the air.
“I could get used to this.” It really was decadent. Maybe he’d be willing to turn 5:00 a.m. into his regular waking hour for coffee in bed. Nah. Not a regular thing.
Unless the babies had him up at five…
He put a couple pillows behind his back and reclined against them.
Daniel brought him a lovely coffee that smelled like heaven.
“Oh, thank you.” He buried his nose in the coffee and breathed in deeply. “Yum.”
“You’re welcome.” Daniel made his own cup, then sat on the edge of the bed.
“You’ve got a great setup here.” He looked around the bedroom, taking note of the space. “Are you interested in having the babies up here when you first bring them home from the hospital?” He’d bet it would help Daniel bond with them and Ten could have an intercom in his room and come up when he heard the babies wake. Hell, the cream fridge could totally double for premade bottles for nighttime feedings.
“Do I need to? I mean, I suppose I should…”
“It’s totally up to you, but the babies are going to need to be fed every couple of hours or so at the beginning, and it would be easier not to have to keep coming downstairs to the nursery. Might make bonding easier, too.”
“Okay. I’ll deal with it.” Daniel stood up and headed to the window, forehead against the glass. “Let me make a note to arrange for the babies to sleep up here and clear my schedule for the next ten days to prepare for London.”
An electronic warning beep sounded. “Shit, I’ve got dinner with Elle on Saturday…”
.Daniel had his whole life organized electronically which was rather impressive, but Ten’s focus was on the content of the baby arrangements. “I can get everything set up for you to have the babies up here, you know? It’s kind of my job.”
“Yeah. You and Matt can confab.”
Matt’s voice came over some intercom. “You are not cancelling your supper, Danny. You will not disappoint that little girl.”
“I have…”
“Daniel Brian Thorpe!”
“Fine.”
“Breakfast is ready.”
“I’ll send Tenor down.”
“You need breakfast too,” Tenor noted. “Unless I’m going down to get it and bring it back up to you?” He wanted to ask about London but didn’t for now.
“No. No, of course not. I’m not that much of a diva.”
Tenor chuckled, but he thought that maybe Daniel had his moments when he was that much of a diva. He didn’t mean it in a nasty way, either, just that Daniel was special and that included sometimes being demanding.
Daniel glanced over at him, and the man pinked a little. “I’m going to tame my hair and all, then I’ll be down.”
“Sure. It’s lovely, by the way. Your hair, I mean. I’d only ever seen it neatly contained.” Wild like it was made him want to run his hands through it and grab it, maybe tug on it to expose the long, delicate line of Daniel’s neck. He mentally shook himself and grabbed his coffee cup as he got out of bed.
“Thank you. I think about cutting it off, but I’ll wait a little longer. I’m not too old for it, not yet.”
“There’s an age when you’re too old to have long hair?” This was news to him. But then he was a working-class joe.
“I think so. When it gets thinner, stringy. You know…”
“Hey, maybe it won’t. Your girls are going to be angels, no grey or thinning hair from them!”
Daniel chuckled softly. “Such optimism.”
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.” He gave Daniel a half salute and headed down the stairs before he could embarrass himself by being caught staring.
He had work to do. After breakfast. It must be later than he thought if Matt already had it made. Still, it had been a great evening the night before and was promising to be a great day.