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Chapter Thirteen

Travis

H ow I survived Thanksgiving dinner at Mama’s was quite beyond me. On top of the lecture about safe sex, she’d also given broad hints about not hurting her baby , living a clean life, being good to the environment, and taking care of myself.

In vain, I tried to explain that I expended a lot of calories at work, and that was why I was scrawny. I didn’t mention my mother’d been wraith-like. Always slender. Not in a bad way—she’d just been willowy.

I took after her.

She never discussed my father, and I’d learned, very early on, never to mention him.

As I grew older, and understood child support, I wanted to demand I be allowed to track him down.

Even I recognized how hard my mom worked.

My father had gotten my mother pregnant—he should’ve been held responsible.

Only after she died, and I found her journal, did I discover she’d been raped by a stranger.

The few times I’d asked questions now haunted me.

But I’d been a child. She’d been right to keep this from me when I was too young to understand.

Maybe when I was old enough, she’d figured I didn’t need to know.

But she’d drilled into me about respecting my partner, the importance of consent, and how I could do real damage if I wasn’t careful.

I hadn’t been great with my partners in those first years after I discovered gay sex—but I’d also never taken what hadn’t been freely given.

“Travis?”

“Uh, yeah?” I rubbed my eyes.

“Hon, we’re home.”

Only now did I realize we were in the parking garage of his condo.

I liked how he called it home . He meant his place, but I hadn’t had a real home since Mom died. My apartment in the eastside was just a place to hang my hat. “What are we to each other?”

He frowned. “You mean like an actual title?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I told Mama I was bringing home my boyfriend. I don’t do that often…well, like at all. I needed her to know how special you are to me. She overplayed her hand, though. Her lectures—” He chuckled. “—yeah, discreet isn’t her strong suit.”

“I like her. A lot. She cares about you. Wants to protect you. You need to treasure that.”

He chuckled. “Oh, I do. You should see her when she comes to my games. She yells as loud as the fans half her age. She’s always shouting at the refs if she thinks they made a bad call.”

“Like the time you took an elbow to the throat?” He’d told me about that time. The idea terrified me because I’d once seen a brawler nearly kill a guy by doing the same thing.

“She wasn’t there that game. But when the guy only got a yellow card, I thought Becca was going to lose her shit.

Everyone knew it should’ve been a red card.

Automatically. But I guess the ref had a bad angle.

Whatever. I have to say, the other player gave me a wide berth for the rest of the game—which we won handily.

Becca could barely speak she was so hoarse. ”

“You love that woman.”

He chuckled. “I really do. Now, what’s going on?”

“What are we to each other?”

“Boyfriends isn’t enough?” He laughed. Not in a mean way.

“Well, sure. I just…I don’t want to make an assumption.”

“Badarse?”

“Hmm?”

“You like to boss me around.”

I didn’t do it as often as I liked—given we were new to this relationship—but the answer came easily. “Yeah, I do.”

“And I like being bossed around.” Despite his tanned skin, a pronounced blush crossed his cheeks.

“Well, that’s true.”

“I care about you.”

“And I care about you.”

“So let’s do boyfriends. It’s too soon for me to ask you to move in, although if you brought more clothes over, I wouldn’t complain.”

My jaw dropped. “It’s been three weeks.”

He shrugged. “I know what I want. I want you. You don’t appear to have any objections—”

“I don’t.”

“—then it’s super simple. We’re together. As a couple. You come to my games. I worry about you while you’re at work. Seems pretty simple to me.”

I swallowed. “It does, doesn’t it?”

He grasped my hand. “Life doesn’t have to be complicated. I get that it has been for you. That you’ve had a tough life. If I can make it easier, then I want to do that.”

“You already have.”

He raised an eyebrow.

I smoothed it with my callused finger. “By being you.”

He leaned toward me.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and met him halfway.

The kiss was simple, sweet, and tender.

“You taste like coffee.” Mama had served a rich Turkish coffee for dessert. I’d expected something more traditional, but she’d agreed to take a shift at the hospital because someone was sick. She’d needed the caffeination.

I wasn’t certain Mallow and I did, but of course we’d gone along with what Mama wanted.

We’d offered to drive her to the hospital, but she’d claimed she wanted the walk down to the SeaBus to refresh her.

Personally, I figured we could’ve dropped her a block or two from the hospital, but I’d quickly discovered Mama moved to the beat of her own drum.

“I like coffee.” Mallow pulled back. “But now I’m wired. At least we don’t have to work or have practice tomorrow.”

Some families celebrated Thanksgiving on the actual statutory holiday—the Monday. Mama preferred the Sunday night—if she had the time off.

Mallow pressed a hand to his stomach. “I think I need to burn off some of those calories.”

“Me too.”

He winked. “Mama won’t be happy. She wants to fatten you up.”

“I’m just naturally slender.”

“I know. It’s teasing. With Mama love thrown in.”

“Well, if she wants to feed me like that all the time, I have no objections.” I winced. “That sounded bad.”

“Huh?”

“Like that I expect your mother to cook for me. I should, you know, reciprocate. Invite her to my place. Just…” I winced again.

He tapped my nose. “Mama would welcome an invitation. You said it was small. But clean.”

“I’d hire a cleaner to make it Mama clean. But it’s dark.” I was on the north side of a building that buttressed up against another building. I never saw sunlight. Hell, I barely saw daylight. At night, though, with my blackout blinds, my bedroom was pitch-black dark.

“Travis?”

His use of my proper name caught my attention. He didn’t do that often. Just like I almost never called him Isaiah. He said he preferred Mallow. And I believed him. “Yes?”

“I want to go upstairs and make love. Nice and soft and gentle.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Exactly. We’ll let the food settle while we fool around. Then we’ll make love. Then I’ll sleep all night in your arms.”

Despite me being the smaller guy, I was almost always the big spoon. I wanted to feel like I was protecting my man . No one had ever stayed. No one had ever let me be the protector. The guys hadn’t minded me being the Dominant. But they hadn’t wanted more than rough sex and bossiness.

Mallow wanted it all.

“Yes, let’s go upstairs. We have another day.” And I liked the idea of bringing my things over. His place was so close to my work that I could walk. Well, short hike. That meant I didn’t have to pay for parking for the bike. Or worry about it getting stolen.

Mallow had gotten permission from his condo board to allow me to park it in his parking space with his car. Made for a tight fit, but I didn’t have to worry about overstaying my welcome in the visitor spots.

We made our way to the elevators. I pressed myself against Mallow’s body as he pressed the button for his floor.

On the ground floor, though, the door opened.

An older couple, with a little dog, took us in before proceeding to join us.

I tried to move away.

Mallow gripped me closer. “Good evening Mathilda. Ronald.” He grinned “Hello, Petey.”

The little dog lunged at him.

I held my breath.

“Petey.” The man, Ronald, tried to pull the dog back.

Mallow gently untangled himself from me. He crouched, holding out his hand for Petey to sniff. “You’re still a puppy. But you need to listen to your daddy.”

Inwardly, I groaned.

“We’re in obedience training.” Mathilda rolled her eyes. “You can see how well that’s going. We forgot to put on his harness for the walk, and he’s nearly choked himself several times.”

Mallow gently petted the dog. “Puppy energy. You let me know if you ever need a break. My boyfriend and I would be happy to take Petey for a long walk. Tire him out.”

“That’s mighty kind of you.” Ronald nodded to me. “We might just take you up on that.”

The bell chimed for our floor.

Clearly reluctantly, Mallow rose. “You have my number.” He put his arm around my back and guided me out of the elevator.

I was, of course, perfectly capable of doing it myself. But I liked the protective nature of his gesture. Marking his territory. Completely unnecessary with this older couple, but making a statement nonetheless.

They waved to us as the door closed.

I exhaled.

“They’re good people.” Mallow pressed a kiss to my cheek.

“Sure. But I worry about what people will think.”

“They’ll think they no longer have to try to set me up.” He said that with a huge grin.

Apparently Johnnie and Roger were continuously trying to set Mallow up with guys.

Twinks and bottoms. They were truly clueless about Mallow’s preferences, and he hadn’t known how to convey his preferences to his friends.

My appearance clarified things. Hence the comment, that first night, about me not being what they expected.

I’d taken that the wrong way, naturally.

They’d just meant I wasn’t a twink. Whether Mallow had explained the whole top and bottom thing? I hadn’t asked. “Take me to bed?”

“With pleasure.”

Mamba hung out in the living room alone.

We made gentle love that night.

Well, the first time.

The second time I fucked him into the mattress and made him scream.

Thank God for good soundproofing.