Page 89 of A Thousand Cuts

Liam stared at the door, startling when the man popped his head back up, waving his sandwich in the air. He looked pointedly at Liam for a moment before turning back to Fix.

“Good work, Daddy,” he said, and then he was gone again, leaving Liam frozen in front of Fix.

He felt his heart shrivel in his chest at the words. Fix called him muffin. The man called Fix Daddy. He wasn’t…Liam wasn’t the only one. Fix wasn’t just his. Of course he wasn’t. Why would Liam ever think…

He pushed at Fix’s chest, trying to get off the counter and out of there. Out of Fix’s arms and his home and his influence on Liam’s sanity. He needed to breathe and he couldn’t do that when he was shattering to pieces. But Fix wouldn’t budge. He wouldn’t let him leave even when Liam pushed harder against the unmoving mountain in front of him. He braced his palms against Fix’s chest, and the similarity to how it felt when Fix was kissing him hurt. It hadn’t hurt then. It had felt perfect.

He felt hands on his cheeks. He shook his head, trying to get them off but Fix made him look up. He was hazy. Liam’s vision was blurry and Fix looked distorted.

“Black is my brother, Liam.” Fix’s voice broke through the noise inside his head and Liam blinked to focus.

“What?” he asked.

Fix sighed, shaking his head. “Tell me if I’m wrong, but…this reaction is because of Black calling me Daddy.”

Liam set his face into what he hoped was an expression of indifference. “There is no reaction,” he said, voice far from the confidence he wanted to play at.

“You’re fighting me, honey,” Fix said. “I thought we were past this.”

“I just want to get down. Let me leave.”

“No. Not until you listen to me. I don’t have to touch you if you don’t want me to, but I want you to hear what I have to say.”

Liam crossed his arms over his chest and looked away. “Fine.”

“Look at me,” Fix said, and despite the shame creeping in on him Liam couldn’t help but obey. He looked at Fix and found those kind eyes trained at him like always. “That was Black. One of my brothers.”

“You call your brother muffin?” Liam snarked.

“Have you seen him?”

Liam scowled. “He’s beautiful.”

“He’s the biggest pain in the ass known to humankind,” Fix corrected dryly.

“He…he called you Daddy,” Liam whispered.

Fix groaned. “They all do. I’m the oldest in the team. I take care of them for the most part. Hart does too, to some extent but they see me as a parent. When they say Daddy it’s…it doesn’t mean the same thing it does with you.”

Liam looked away, tightening his arms around his chest before speaking again. “I didn’t like it.”

“I don’t either. I’ve told them all to stop countless times before.”

“I want…I want to be the only one.” Liam closed his eyes to keep himself from chickening out of admitting it. “For you. I want to be the only one you let call you that.”

“You are, honey,” Fix said, sliding a thumb over his temple to get him to open his eyes again. “You’re the only one I want to call me that.”

Something warm settled in the pit of Liam’s stomach and he leaned forward, digging his fingers into Fix’s beard and kissing him. He straightened his back so he could glue himself to Fix’s chest, allowing him entrance into his mouth the moment Fix ran his tongue over his lips.

Fix tasted like every desire Liam had ever had. Like fulfilled promises and granted wishes. Liam could so easily get addicted to him, he knew.

“Daddy,” he whispered against Fix’s lips, feeling the man’s muscles tense under his touch at the word.

“Hm?” Fix nipped at Liam’s bottom lip, speaking without breaking their kiss.

“Take me to bed?” Liam asked, and before the words were out he was being lifted into strong arms and rushed up the stairs.

He closed his eyes and let the turmoil of the day slip away.