Page 26 of Just A Little Joy

He made me feel safe and unsettled at the same time, and I didn’t know which part to trust.

A soft knock on the door interrupted my spiraling introspection. When I forgot to answer, the knock was repeated but more firmly.

His voice through the door wrapped around me, warm and grounding, even as my nerves spun.

“Casey, you okay? Did you get stuck again?” Travis called from the other side of the door. Ugh. My mind had wandered so far that I hadn’t even moved to change my clothes.

“No, no. I’m good. One sec, please.” In my rush to move on, I yanked too hard on the stubborn zipper, and the slide immediately stopped. A few more yanks only tightened the pull. I swallowed a groan but allowed myself a silent ten-second foot-stomping tantrum.

“Are you sur—” Travis said as he turned the knob and stepped inside. His eyes immediately zeroed in on my stuck zipper. “Gah, that zipper just wants to be stubborn.” Without hesitation, he locked the door behind him and dropped to his knees in a fluid movement.

Seeing him kneel like that sent a spark straight through me, sharp and sweet all at once.

For a big man, he was graceful. I suppose it was from all those years on the ice, but I could appreciate it on so many fronts. But the best front was that he was on his knees right in front of me. His mouth inches away from my cock.

“Here, let me try to fix it again.” Travis interrupted my wayward thoughts. My body betrayed me with him so close. His breath blew against me as he worked to free the fabric from the zipper’s clutches. My cock stirred even though I was desperately focused on thinking about the most unsexy things. My high school chemistry teacher…taxes…climate change…the president…were all tried, and failed, to trick my body into forgetting who was kneeling in front of me.

“It might be time to hang this one up. I’m not sure this zipper can be salvaged,” Travis said after a particularly hard yank.

I suppose he thought my squirming had something to do with the onesie, but it had everything to do with his knuckles brushing against my skin and my body responding like anyone’swould. I sucked in a breath between my teeth, and Travis glanced up at me at the noise.

“It’s allergies.”

I braced for rejection the way you brace for winter storms, expecting the worst even when it wasn’t coming. There went my secret hope—my unspoken secret hope—that he hadn’t noticed my dilemma.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” I defensively.

Travis glanced up at me again, but this time his jaw dropped and his eyes widened in disbelief.

“Is that what you seriously think?” he asked.

“Uh…yeah?”

Travis sat back on his heels a little, his jaw still slack.

“What else would I think?”

“The better question is why would you think that?”

Now that he’d pointed it out, I really didn’t have a reason for thinking that. I mean, we did kiss in the car the other night, so it’s not like I thought he was wholly opposed to being around me—and tonight, he’d volunteered to be my Daddy and keep my secrets.

Travis, like earlier this evening, let me think through my thoughts without interrupting me or offering his own opinion. Yeah, that didn’t make any sense at all now that I was thinking about it.

“Yeah, okay, I see your point.”

“I’m glad you do,” he said with a happy tilt in his voice. “If you thought this was going to offend me, I’m not sure you even know who I am.”

“I’m not sure I do know you well enough to say.”

Travis gave one final yank and the cloth came free of the zipper. To my everlasting disappointment, he got to his feet and handed me my clothes.

“Well, if you’re not opposed to it, we could get to know each other better.”

“What did you have in mind?” I asked. I definitely knew what I was hoping he’d offer, but I didn’t want to push my luck—or force it.

“Do you trust me?”

Trust came easy with him, even when every old instinct said to run first and feel later.