Page 135 of A Thousand Cuts

He stopped them and cupped Liam’s cheeks in his warm hands. Liam closed his eyes, nuzzling slightly. He felt Fix’s breath on his lips before the kiss landed. He sighed into it, relaxing and letting Fix hold him up. He returned the kiss, reveling in the softness of it. In the love pouring from it.

He could hardly believe this was his now. That he got to have Fix. No secrets between them. No stalkers and no curses. Just them, their love, and the monumental potential it held.

“Let’s go,” Fix said, breaking the kiss.

Walking through the door of the cursebreaker house was weirdly comforting.

Curses and horrible things had happened to him here as well as at his apartment, but this place felt different. The walls were full of love and he instantly felt at ease.

Fix paused with him in the entryway, taking his hands in his.

“So your real name is Daniel,” Fix said out of nowhere.

Liam startled at the sound of it again, but he tamped down the fear. “Was.”

“Do you want to go back to that?” Fix asked, looking into his eyes. “I can call you whatever you want.”

Liam bit his lip, watching Fix through his lashes. “I picked Liam because it sounded pretty. I never had any attachment to it other than hiding my original name. But…I met you as Liam. I found my place as Liam. I became yours as Liam. I want to keep that. It has meaning now. You gave it one.”

“Oh, honey.” Fix kissed his lips, holding him as close as he could. Liam would never get tired of how it felt to be kissed and held by his daddy. “Everything about you has always had meaning.”

“We choose the meaning for ourselves with our names.”

Fix smiled and nodded. “Yes.”

“I love you, Daddy,” Liam said, resting his forehead against Fix’s collarbone.

“I love you more than anything.”

“And we love you both, but we’re hungry so PLEASE, make us food,” Black yelled from inside the house and Liam felt Fix’s rumbling laugh under his head.

“I still don’t like him.” Liam looked up.

“He is an acquired taste,” Fix said, leading Liam inside the house.

And for all that he said he didn’t like him, he still gave Black a huge hug once he walked in.

Because like it or not, Liam had a family now.

Epilogue

One month later…

“That the last of it?” Ash asked, lugging a box the size of a small car. It was duct-taped shut but clearly Liam had underestimated the sheer power of stuff that was in it, because it was bursting at the seams, spilling silk and glitter everywhere.

“OMG I love this!” Black squealed, sprawling himself on the ground and flailing in a small pile of glitter like he was making a snow angel. “We should get Liam moved in and out every day.”

“Fuck no.” Cane glared from the bed of Fix’s pickup, his expression automatically shifting from a snarl to a smile when Hart walked out, beaming at him from the porch.

“Gross, Candy Cane,” Ash said, hefting his box higher and heading toward the house with Black hot on his heels asking himto ‘meander’ so they’d have a glittery pathway to the front door. “Stop eye-fucking my brother.”

“But he’s so very eye-fuckable,” Cane drawled, and Fix groaned under the weight of an entire sofa he was now holding on his own while Cane slacked off.

“I have a jar filled with teeth stashed in my car just waiting for Hart to see them,” he hissed, looking at Cane pointedly.

Cane sneered but bent down and picked up the other end of the sofa, muttering under his breath about rule boards and body parts being forbidden under threat of celibacy.

“The things I do for you, sweetheart,” Cane said as he carried the sofa, marching after Fix toward the house. Liam wanted to keep the sofa, so they were keeping it.