Kevin
“I’m not sure it matters.” I was just relieved to have the meeting over, but Jeremy was even more worked up than he’d been before.
“But it does.” He was pacing, and in the small confines of our living room, he looked a little like a tiger at the zoo, trapped with barely restrained anger. “Someone knows about us. Just the way the cop phrased it, he knew we were lovers before he walked into that room. He knew about our relationship before he even talked to Dr. Sheppard.”
Jeremy wasn’t wrong. He was just really worked up. As long as the cops left us alone, I didn’t care who knew. “The cop doesn’t seem to care that we’re related. Which is weird, but as long as we’re not in trouble or going to end up on the news, I’m good.”
Jeremy stopped as he was walking by the couch and looked at me, turbulent emotions showing clearly on his face. “But how can I keep you safe if I don’t know where the danger is coming from?”
Tears prickled at my eyes and I reached out to grab his hand. Pulling him down to the couch, I climbed onto his lap and wrapped myself around him like a monkey. Holding him, I looked him in the eyes. “You can’t always keep me safe. I know that. I love you no matter what. My only concern was them taking you away. Everyone else can go to hell for all I care.”
He was so worked up he was almost shaking. He’d taken everything at the therapist’s office so calmly that I hadn’t been expecting the hurricane of emotions that started to erupt in the car. Once the immediate danger passed, everything else seemed free to come out, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. “But someone has enough of an issue with us that they called the police.”
There was something that kept rolling around in my head about the whole thing. “But they didn’t just say that they thought we were sleeping together and related. They said you were abusing me, or something like that. If it wasn’t her, and from his reaction it couldn’t have been, then it’s someone else who knows about the accusations. Yeah, I’m loud but nothing that sounds like you’re abusing me. So it’s someone who knows we’re related and about the old accusations. There aren’t that many people.”
Bryan and Maddox came to mind but were quickly dismissed. I knew they might not understand how we could love each other, but they’d never do anything like that to us. I just wasn’t sure who else had figured it out. We’d been careful. “You know the only person we’ve had problems with has been Charlie.”
Jeremy sank back against the couch and I could feel his muscles relaxing so I kept going. “Do you remember the way the cop said neighbors in that example? What if that wasn’t something casual? Do you think Charlie could have been the one to call?”
Jeremy shrugged. “I don’t know. Things just don’t add up.”
“They weren’t before either. Why was she trying to get Rich to flirt with me and cause problems in our relationship? She’s the only one who’s been making our lives crazy. All the invitations to the parties and the weird looks—she’s got to know more than we realized.” There was a lot about her we didn’t know and too many things that were starting to stand out.
“And how did Dad know about the business and school going well? It might have been said in passing, but it didn’t seem casual. He knew stuff about our life.” Jeremy’s hands came up and started rubbing up and down my back.
There were huge pieces of the puzzle missing, but I wasn’t sure I cared right then. With Charlie gone for the summer and no calls from our mother yet, there wasn’t anything we could do about it. “Do you want to call her and find out what’s going on?”
I thought it personally sounded like a terrible idea, but I tried to keep that out of my voice. Maybe I hadn’t hidden it as well as I’d wanted to, because Jeremy’s arms tightened around me, and he pulled me down to kiss my forehead. “No, I’m not going to poke a sleeping snake. However she found out stuff about us doesn’t really matter. I’m going to agree that it’s probably Charlie somehow, but with her gone for the summer, we should be safe.”
Safe from our mother.
That should never be something anyone should ever have to say. “We’re not going to focus on it now. It’ll drive you nuts if you let it. We’re safe and she’s not going to get any more information. Charlie isn’t working right now, and we’ll be more careful what we say in the hallways and around school. She hasn’t said anything to other students, or we’d have heard about it, so I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
Jeremy closed his eyes and pulled me down so my head rested on his shoulder. I felt him nod, and I knew he was trying to push it all away. “We’re fine.”
“I know. It’s just hard.” His voice was starting to sound more rational and less frustrated, but it still made emotions well up inside me.
“I love you.”
His eyes opened and I could see how wet they were. “I love you too. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says or who finds out. Nothing is going to pull me away from you.”
“I know.” Maybe it was something I should have been worried about, but it wasn’t. I just knew he wouldn’t leave me. He always made me feel safe and loved, and nothing anyone else did would change that. “I know how much you love me and how important I am to you. You show me in everything that you do and in a thousand little ways.”
I was the center of his world and he was the center of mine. I knew people wouldn’t understand, but I didn’t care. If I’d learned anything from the stress of the previous week, it was that nothing else mattered. As long as we were safe and together, that was the most important thing.
His hands moved to cup my face. Jeremy leaned up and kissed me tenderly. “I don’t ever want you to forget how special you are. I know my worrying makes you crazy, but you are the most incredible person, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“You can’t control everything, remember?” I gave him another kiss, just the barest touch of lips. “No matter what life throws at us, we can handle it together.”
A tender smile spread across his face and his fingers started running through my hair. “You are incredible.”
“Are you saying I’m always right?” I gave him a grin and a wink.
He laughed like I’d hoped he would, and the last of his stress melted away. Jeremy’s hands moved to my legs, and he started absently caressing me. “Absolutely not. Just in this one case.”
“I don’t know.” I sat up and gave him a serious look. “Incredible sounds a lot like always right. I might need to get this in writing so you don’t forget.”
His fingers moved like lightning and started digging into my sides, making me laugh and giggle. I probably sounded crazy, but I couldn’t help it. I squirmed and squealed while Jeremy wore a wicked grin and just kept tickling me. “What did you need to get in writing? Who’s always right?”
I was laughing too hard to say anything, and the half words came out in gasps between the rounds of laughter. Eventually, I managed to force out something that sounded like a real answer. “You. Always. You. Right.”
Not an actual sentence but it was good enough. Jeremy’s fingers relaxed, and he wrapped his arms around me. I just sagged against him and tried to catch my breath. It felt like I’d run a full marathon. His hands moved up and down my back, caressing me in long, soothing motions. I yawned and cuddled closer into him.
I don’t know how long we sat there cuddling—hours or minutes, it didn’t matter. I was with Jeremy and that was what was important. The warmth of his body as his arms wrapped around me was perfect and the steady beat of his heart was almost hypnotic. My eyes fought to close and I sighed.
One of his hands moved up to start playing with the hairs at the back of my neck. It was starting to get long, and I probably needed a haircut, but I loved the way it felt when his fingers ran through it. Shivers went down my spine and I sank against him, boneless.
He started telling me how important I was and how right it felt to hold me in his arms. He told me how incredible he thought I was and how he loved to see me laugh. Little random things that came to his mind kept spilling out like he wanted to make sure I knew how much he loved me.
I finally pressed my face against his neck. My eyes were closed and my body felt like it was floating, all foggy and light like it sometimes did when he took charge in the bedroom. It was wonderful. I’d felt so heavy and stressed for days and it was like I could finally breathe.
“Baby, I love you so much.” I could hear the emotions pouring out of him.
“I know you love me.” I yawned and everything started to get even fuzzier. “You’ll always love me like I’ll always love you.”
Sleep finally took hold, and the last thing I felt was a tear slipping down my cheek. He was the most important thing in the world to me, and I knew no matter what anyone else said or how they would think we were too close, there was nowhere else I was supposed to be.
We were made for each other.
“We were made to love each other.”
~~~
M.A. Innes is the pseudonym for best-selling author Shaw Montgomery. While Shaw writes femdom and m/m erotic romance. M.A. Innes is the side of Shaw that wants to write about topics that are more taboo. If you liked the book, please leave a short review. It is greatly appreciated.
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