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Chapter Thirty-Five

LIE

September

This is probably some kind of record. I’ve held this job for two months, even though I hate every single day of my working life. I hate coming home dirty and spending forty minutes in the shower trying to scrub dirt from my skin.

I feel like I take off three layers of my epidermis every single day. How long before I run out of skin? My skin feels raw.

There is no amount or combination of clothing that keeps me clean.

Dirt seems to get through all layers of my pants and clings to my knees.

They’re constantly dirty now, no matter how many times I clean them.

My nails are always ugly, broken, and dirty.

I can scrub them until they bleed and still there’s fucking dirt!

But I’ve had a job for two solid months. That’s impressive, right? That’s growth or some shit. The marks of a responsible adult, a contributing member of society.

Rolling my eyes, I flick the light off in the bathroom and step into the hall. I pause when I see my mother walking by outside, on her way to work at the school. I watch her until she’s out of sight and then turn away.

I haven’t spoken to my parents in two months. Not since the day in the front yard. I haven’t seen my father at all. Not in his backyard. Not leaving for work or coming home. Not when I’m out with Cash or Laiken.

Honestly, I’m happy about that. I don’t want to see him. My hurt has finally started to numb, and I’m able to go through my days with some sense of calm and happiness.

Laiken makes me happy. Everything he does. Everything we talk about. Every conversation, adventure, and second, he makes me smile.

I’m done thinking that this is wrong. I don’t care what people have to say about it, though thankfully, they’ve stopped making us the center of gossip. They’ve moved on to what Philip did to Jose last week while they were partying with guests on the nude beach.

Whatever. As long as they’re done talking about me for a while. They can’t even say I’ve quit yet another job.

I’m being bland as fuck, all domesticated, settled down, and with a steady job. Ew.

Laiken is in the kitchen when I come around the corner. He smiles, and my heart skips. There are days I wonder what I’d be doing if I weren’t here with him. Probably still sitting on my bed in my childhood bedroom crocheting dicks.

Now I do that on the couch while my partner writes. Say what you want, but I think that’s a step up.

“Morning,” Laiken says.

As is the case with everyone who greets me before noon, I grunt in response. He chuckles, handing me a mimosa and an omelet. It’s like he’s trying to woo me or something. Silly old man; I’m already wooed. I’m his.

I slide onto the stool at the counter with a grumble, “Thanks.” I watch him over the stoves as I absently eat my delicious breakfast and sip on my morning alcoholic beverage. This is definitely far more adult than crocheting dicks in my bedroom.

“Where are you working today?” Laiken asks.

I don’t know where he musters conversational skill from in the morning. I try to remember that I love him with all my heart, and that means I shouldn’t just grumble and glare at him in response.

“Library,” I answer. “It takes a whole day to mow that stupid lawn.”

The library is surrounded by a green park with paths and kiddie play stations. It’s a beautiful place. Although the newest plans for the new islands propose building a new library three times as big, and honestly, I’m here for it.

I’m really excited about the expansions. They’re going to be amazing. It’s so frustrating knowing that we have so long to wait before the first island is built! Considering islands take hundreds of thousands of years to form in some cases, I shouldn’t complain about a decade, right?

Laiken sets his plate beside mine and takes my chin between his fingers, guiding my face up so I’m looking at him. How he always takes my breath away!

“Lie, if you hate your job, then quit.”

“That can’t always be an option. People are going to stop hiring me.”

“Then stop settling for jobs you hate. I’ll take care of you.”

My heart races as I look at him. Studying him. Waiting for any sign that I just fabricated those words because I’m dreading spending the day in the sun pushing a stupid mower around. “What?”

His lips curl into a sexy smile. “You heard me,” he murmurs, kissing my lips softly. “Stop taking jobs you hate. Believe it or not, I can’t stand to see you so miserable every day and so drained every night.”

“But… what if I never find a job I love?”

“Then you stay home and let me take care of you. All you have to do is walk around in those sexy little shorts so I can look at your ass from time to time.”

I know the last part is to lighten the mood with a bit of teasing. As if I’ll ever stop wearing the little shorts. But I can’t help but stare at him. What he’s offering me is… tempting. So damn tempting.

“I’m serious,” I say.

“I am, too, Lie. Stay home. Crochet your dicks. Walk along the beach. Take some classes online. Sunbathe. I don’t care what you do, sweetheart. The only thing I care about is your happiness.”

I put my fork down and twist on my stool so I can wrap my arms around him, pressing my face to his chest. Not going to lie. It’s absolutely ridiculous how much lighter I feel already knowing I don’t have to keep going to this stupid job.

“Are you sure?” I ask, my voice muffled by his sexy, silvering chest hair. I rub my face in it, just for fun. “How long until I need to find something I like?”

Laiken sighs. “Never, Lie,” he says, voice quiet. His arms tighten around me. One of his hands buries in my hair as he holds me close.

I love the way he holds me. Like I’m the most precious, cherished thing in this entire world. I will never get enough of this. I could spend years right here in his arms and nothing else.

Then years making up for all the sweet, PG time by riding that glorious python in his pants. Mm-mm-MM!

“All I want is a smile on your face. I don’t care if you never work a day in your life again.”

I sigh. “I don’t want that, you know. I want to find something I love, but everything I try is just stupid, and I hate it.”

“Because you feel like you need to be working, you’re taking random jobs. It’s not because you’re interested in that job.”

Laiken isn’t wrong. When I was in school, I wasn’t made to feel like I needed to have a job over the summer or during breaks. But once I quit, Mom started pushing me to work.

I get it. No one wants a mooch. I didn’t want to live off my parents forever, either.

Why does being an adult have to be so hard?

“You know what’s great about working from home?

” Laiken asks. I shake my head. “It opens you up to the possibility of finding jobs online from anywhere in the world. Or you can go to work for yourself if you can think of something you want to do. You could focus on getting involved in the community or volunteering. Anything you want, Lie.”

“I love you,” I whisper, tightening my arms around him. “So, so much.”

“I love you,” he answers. He huffs quietly. “Finally have the kind of love I’ve waited a lifetime for,” he muses. “I’ve waited so long for you, Lie.”

“I’m glad I didn’t have to wait as long as you did. You’re so old. I’m glad I still have a few years left before you stop being able to get it up.”

Laiken slaps my ass, and I jump, laughing. “Go quit your job and come home. I have a surprise for you.”

“Shouldn’t I be a good employee and give them two weeks’ notice or something?”

“I would normally say yes, but you don’t need them as a reference, nor will they find someone in two weeks because there’s no one to find.

However, I hear the words out of my mouth and that I’m actively encouraging you to not show them some respect with a two-week notice, so…

Yes, I think you should. That’s the right thing to do.

I’m proud of you for knowing that and not listening to me. ”

“I can stick it out for two weeks,” I grumble, sagging against his chest again.

Laiken kisses the top of my head. “Finish your breakfast before it gets cold. I’ll walk you to the library.”

“Does that mean I’ll get my surprise early?”

“Nope. It’ll be worth the wait, though. I promise.”

“Did you get your cock pierced?”

Laiken looks at me with his eyebrow raised. “When would I have done that? You literally sucked my cock four hours ago, Lie.”

I grin. I totally did. Woke up horny and decided I wanted to choke on a fat summer sausage. I wiggle a little in my stool, still smiling, as I eat my now-cool omelet.

I can’t stall much longer, though, so I finish eating and Laiken walks me to the library.

The trailer with the equipment I need for each job is always left at the site by the time I get there in the morning.

I always wonder how early someone gets up to deliver these trailers around the island, so they’re there when the worker bees show up at the jobsite.

Maybe they do it the night before? No. They’re busy picking them up from that day. It sounds exhausting and all they’re doing is hauling trailers around.

I’m not cut out for manual labor. Or dirt. Or six hours of sun.

Laiken kisses me and heads home. He’s spending the day in meetings, which I feel is most of his days now. He still calls himself a bartender, but let’s be real. It’s been a while since he’s been able to get behind a bar, and I know he’s frustrated because of it.

I begin my shift by calling my boss and telling him I’m giving my two-week notice.

He chuckles and tells me I’ve lasted far longer than he thought I would.

I have a reputation, obviously. He’s a nice man who tells me I don’t need to give notice if I don’t want to.

We agreed to meet in the middle, and I have just a week’s notice to work out.

There’s a misconception that I don’t feel guilty for leaving a job after a short period with no notice. I know that I’m letting people down. Not just the people who hired me, but the people who rely on whatever services I’m supposed to be doing.

Laiken is waiting for me by the trailer when I finally head back with my weed whacker. I’m too tired to even make an immature boy joke about whacking my weed. I dump it on the trailer and fall against his bare chest.

“One week,” I tell him. “He told me I could quit today, but I think I can stick it out for one week. I offered two weeks many times, but he thinks one will be fine. I appreciate him. He’s my new third favorite person.”

“Behind me and Cash,” Laiken says.

I nod. “Yep.”

“Let’s go home.”

“You have a surprise for me,” I say, grinning.

“Yes, but first I’m going to help you wash all the grass off you, though I kind of like the freshly mown and sunbaked smell on your sweet, supple skin. Then I’m going to show you my surprise.”

“You got your dick pierced today ,” I suggest.

“Is this a hint? Do you want me to get my dick pierced?”

Do I? I give Laiken a wicked grin and don’t answer. Honestly, I have zero complaints with his dick just the way it is. It’s mighty perfect as far as I’m concerned.

Laiken washes me very thoroughly, inside and out, but has a steely resolve that it’s not sexy time right now. No matter how much I beg and point out that I haven’t even been on my knees today. I haven’t met my daily kneeling quota.

I’m impressed with his refusal, even if annoyed, since he walks out of the shower with a magic shaft the size of my arm poking up from his groin. Hot, hard, and needing to be ridden.

When he brings me to the guest room, I say, “You turned it into a sex dungeon, right? Is that why you wouldn’t let us get off yet?”

Laiken looks at me with bemusement. “Honestly, you’d think you weren’t well-fucked daily by the way you talk, Lie.”

“When you have a hot man who only has a few years before his cock stops working properly, you have to make every day count!”

He slaps my naked ass. The clap echoes in the hall and immediately burns.

“OW!” I say, laughing and holding my ass cheek.

Laiken hauls me against him and bites my lip. “Darling, with your sweet, young ass, my dick is going to work for a very long time. I promise you this.”

“Then there are pills to help it,” I helpfully point out.

I love it when he growls. It does things to me.

Without responding, he pushes the door open and pushes me inside. Whatever I was thinking would be behind this door, it wasn’t the most stunning library I’ve ever seen.

“Wow,” I whisper as I look around in awe. I’d like to say literally anything else right now, but I’m speechless. That is, until I see my dick chair sitting in the corner. “Kind of takes away from the elegant atmosphere, doesn’t it?”

“Does it?” Laiken asks. “I think you need a closer look.” He gently pushes me further into the room.

I don’t see it at first. Not until I run my finger along the fine carvings on the columns between the bookshelves. If I turn my head a certain way… “Is that a dick?”

“Is it?” Laiken asks, amused.

It is. And it’s not the only one. They’re carved into every single place, sometimes more subtly than others.

Into the ornate arches at the top of the bookshelves.

Into the legs of the desk. It’s even in the subtle, abstract, ornate design of the wallpaper peeking out in the few places where there’s wall showing.

I look at him, not knowing what to say.

“Now you have a place for your erection collection,” he says.

I snort, laughter bubbling out of me. But it sobers quickly. “It’s all at my parents’ house.”

“As of tomorrow, it won’t be. We’re rescuing all your belongings while they’re at work.”

I’m not sure if I feel relieved or upset by the idea. Either way, once my room is cleared out of everything I own, it truly means all ties are cut. I wonder how long it’ll take them to realize that my room is empty.