When I wake up the next morning, it’s not to an empty bed. It’s in the arms of the man that I think I’m falling in love with. Having never known what that feels like, I’m not entirely sure if that’s what’s happening or if my crush is just growing into some out of control feeling that I’ve never experienced before.

I can’t love him and Aiden at the same time, can I? Does a man like me really have enough room in my heart to love two people in completely different ways?

My heavy sigh stirs Penn next to me, but if it woke him up, he’s not letting on. I turn my face toward him, burying my nose in his hair and inhale deeply. I know I have to go upstairs and start getting the pet ready to go to her new owner, but I want to take the smell of Penn’s body with me.

Aiden would laugh if she could see me right now. Not in a cruel way, more of an “I told you so” kind of way. She tried for years to keep me upbeat after I decided to kick the male escort thing by doing even the smallest things.

Taking me out for ice cream, walking down the beach to take in a sunset, randomly showing up with little presents to make me smile—hell, she even tried to set me up on a few blind dates, but I never went. Then one night, she talked me into taking a break from being a hermit and took me to a movie.

That’s where I saw Penn for the first time.

That’s when I felt my heart race and the blood rush into my ears for the very first time in my life, that’s when I knew what it felt like to truly want something. Aiden saw it on my face as soon as Penn walked away from her when they were done chatting at the box office and she understood at that moment she had finally produced the one thing that she knew could keep me from falling into a hellish despair of my own making.

Ever since that night, she tried her damnedest to get us both in the same places again, but when I caught on to her, I stopped her in her tracks. I told her that I didn’t need or want anything that I didn’t already have, but Aiden knew I was full of shit.

I had managed to do okay for myself until she dragged me out to The Lounge. It was easy enough to do since she didn’t tell me that she knew Penn would be there, and to be quite honest, I had almost forgotten about him until that point.

Penn Harris with the magical big blue eyes and soft, full lips.

I chuckle as I pull away from him and gently ease myself off the bed. I don’t want him to wake up until he’s ready—it will give me some time alone with the pet and a chance to figure out if I should take it outside or just up and down the hallway to learn to walk again.

After a fair bit of looking around, I manage to locate my boxers on the floor and slip them on, casting a glance over my shoulder on my way out of the room. Yeah, he’s definitely asleep still, I think with a small smile.

I stop in the kitchen and grab an apple, then make my way to the elevator. I’m eager to see how it’s healing today and maybe see if it’ll let me feed it. Sometimes, they can get temperamental after completion and don’t like me touching them again, but this one seems to be different from what I can tell. Of course, I could be wrong about that, but there’s only way to find out for sure.

I lean against the wall of the elevator as it ascends to the top floor of the building and rub the fruit against my chest before I bite into it. It would be nice if I could share some of this with it, but I don’t want to undo the stitching since that’s healed up so nicely. Also, it doesn’t seem to mind the way I do feed its body. This piece has been the easiest of all the ones I’ve worked on so far which only makes me feel worse about not sedating it before we attached the hooves last night.

I walk out of the elevator and push the door open to the workshop. There’s no reason to keep it locked now since the only two people I give an actual shit about have been in here.

“Good morning!” I call out to it cheerfully as I approach the table.

I turn the hanging lamp on over the table as I tend to do when my pieces are finished to give them a once over before I begin prepping them for the move to their new home.

It doesn’t greet me with warm eyes like it usually does, instead it follows my movements with a solemn, and somewhat pained stare. I pull the sheet completely off of the piece, letting it fall to the floor and run my hands down its thigh and stop just below its knee where the fur I hand sewn into it begins.

I’m very proud of the job I’ve done on it. The order placed was particularly specific at to the type of fur it wanted for this piece, and I was able to get an amazing deal on some faux fur at the local craft store. I’d never hurt an animal to recreate something like this—or at all for that matter. They don’t deserve to be mistreated any more than small children do, so I tend to always work around requests like this and still produce what’s requested to the highest quality that I’m capable of. The end product is always so well done that the owners don’t think anything of it.

The finished product looks exquisite and the owner will know that this is money well spent. What they choose to do with the pet once they have it in their possession really isn’t my concern, but I always do wonder about them sometimes.

It can be chalked up to absence making the heart grow fonder and being proud of one’s work.

I walk around to the other side of the table, biting into the apple again, with my back to the door and raise an eyebrow.

“Fuck.”

I let out a sigh when I notice that a patch of fur seems to be coming displaced.

“I’m not going to sew it again, so don’t worry,” I tell it as I flip the small square of material. “I’ll just glue it—it’ll do the same job.”

Just as I’m ready to walk away from the table, I feel a pair of arms slide around my waist from behind and a chin rest on the back of my shoulder.

“You know what sucks? Waking up to an empty bed when it wasn’t that way when you went to sleep.”

I close my eyes and lean my head back slightly. Penn’s voice is so soft and destitute, and I know how he feels. I’ve felt that way so many times in my fucking life but never with someone I care about so goddamn much.

“Are you … are you not wearing clothes?” I ask suddenly.

“Nope,” he replies with a laugh, his hands snaking their way into the waistband of my boxers.

I shake my head and pull away, then turn to face him. “Not in front of it,” I say softly. “Besides, I was pretty sure I wore you out last night.”

Penn tilts his head to the side and grins, “Did you miss the part where I told you that I can be insatiable?”

I laugh and give him a gentle, but firm shove. “Go put some damn pants on.”

Penn gives me a dirty look before he turns and leaves the room. Once he’s out of earshot, I put a hand gently on its forehead.

“I’m sorry about that. I hope you know that I would have never allowed that in front of you. He’s the guy I’ve been telling you about,” I explain with a smile.

It closes its eyes and jerks its head away from my hand and I sigh. I don’t want it to leave my home hating me, but I don’t think there’s anything to be done about that now. It was the pain it felt—the affliction of knowing that I was trying too damn hard to impress Penn in front of it and hoping that it would be able to bear the brunt of what we had done together, and it hates me now because of it.

I head over to the table and get the crafting glue so I can fix the patch that’s falling off. Maybe since this won’t cause it any pain, I might win some favor in its eyes again even though I know I’m going to lose it once I get it on its new feet.

Once I have that set, I place a hand firmly down on its leg and count to ten. I let out my breath in a rush as I pull my hand away and give the fur a tug. Well at least that worked the way I wanted it to.

I bite into my apple again and smile when Penn walks back into the workshop. He’s wearing my sweatpants which are baggy on his thin frame and I actually kind of like that look on him.

Penn walks right up to me and takes my face in his hands, but I pull back and chuckle.

“I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet,” I say softly.

“Considering I had your dick in my mouth, I’m pretty sure that a little morning breath isn’t going to bother me,” he replies with a smirk.

“Hm.”

I take another bite of my apple, chewing slowly as I stare into his eyes and take him in carefully. Penn really is beautiful in his own, weird way and something tells me he knows it, but I wonder if he thinks that all I need is sex to keep me interested in him.

He moves his face forward again and I raise the apple to stop him. “Not until I’ve brushed my teeth.”

“Whatever,” he mumbles walking away from me. He stops at the table and looks down at the pet’s ankles and leans down closer to inspect them. “Looks good. No infection.”

I take one last bite of the fruit before I toss the core into the garbage can and nod. “And today, we learn how to walk again.”

Penn moves away from the table when I reach it. I begin to quickly undo the restraints and pull it up to a seated position. He reaches for it and holds it firmly around the waist while I undo the leg restraints and I smile at him.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he replies kindly.

I reach under its arms and place one around my shoulders, hoisting it up from the table and Penn helps me steady it on its new feet before he goes on the other side of it and puts its other arm around his shoulders and we begin to help it take slow steps toward the door.

Together.