Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 139186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Jake went silent for so long Vars was beginning to worry, but what came out of the boy’s mouth next made him smile. “Could you tie me to one someday?”
“And fuck you until you come all over the seat, so that I have to make you lick it clean?” Vars asked, sliding his hand to Jake’s nape. The collar was still in place, and even though it seemed Jake wouldn’t need it anymore, neither of them seemed to want to approach the subject of removing it. Vars rather liked it where it was.
Jake bit his lip with a playful smile. “That’s so hot. Are you trying to turn me on before meeting my family?” He pointed to one of the many indistinctly nice houses.
Vars parked the car in front of its white fence and slowly pulled Jake closer. He wasn’t ashamed of showing affection in public, but he could imagine how difficult this was for Jake’s parents, even without seeing the collar on his neck or his older boyfriend’s arms around him. This hug would have to last them a few hours. “It’s a nice place.”
Jake gave him a quick kiss, so obviously nervous it was somewhere between adorable and making Vars feel protective. He would forever be in debt to Gray for taking on a pact with a demon just to save Jake from an eternity inside of Azog. Gray was still being treated at the hospital, so they didn’t even know what exactly he’d promised the creature, and frankly—Vars didn’t want to think of it yet.
Jake took a deep breath. “It is. Because they’re nice people. With nice grandkids, a nice orchard behind the house, and one very rotten apple.”
Vars smirked, nuzzling Jake’s face. “You’re not rotten. I know. I’ve tasted you.”
Jake stroked Vars’s beard, and they just sat in the car, Jake clearly unwilling to leave. “Thanks for doing this with me. Thanks for… everything.”
“We’re in this together, boy. You can always count on me. That’s a promise,” Vars whispered, and the dirty interior of the old car at once felt like the most sacred of spaces, grand enough to witness a vow so profound.
The door opening on the porch made Jake jerk back so fast he hit his head on the car door. Vars looked at the young woman approaching them with a smile. Blonde, blue-eyed and athletic, she just had to be Jake’s sister.
“Hey!” Jake got out of the car with an uncertain smile, but she instantly pulled him into her arms.
“We were so scared when we heard about the fire.”
Vars pulled the duffel bag containing a few of his things out of the car, along with the few presents he’d picked up on the way, and a small bouquet he bought for Jake’s mother. It was only polite not to come to someone’s home empty-handed, and he’d have more to prove than pretty much anyone else ever crossing that threshold.
The woman introduced herself as Janet and sniggered. “He’s so… big, Jake,” she teased her brother, poking him with an elbow.
Jake looked like a fish out of water. “Well… yeah,” was all he had.
So at least the sister was not opposed to Jake’s sexuality. Vars rewarded her with a small box of chocolates, introducing himself.
“Jake told me all about you two fighting over the tree house when you were little.”
Janet laughed, smiling at the gift. “I always secretly thought he was letting me win. We’d keep him tied to the tree if he lost.”
The urge to grab Jake became too strong, and Vars put his palm on Jake’s nape, slipping a finger under the collar. The boy was furnace-hot.
“It’s not my fault you were a freakishly strong child,” Jake said as she led them to the porch. “She actually does weightlifting,” he told Vars, and it was nice to see him slowly open up.
“Good. I can get behind that,” Vars said and led the way into the house. With Jake’s other siblings living elsewhere, Vars only met his parents, who remained tense, if polite, even after accepting Vars’s gifts of flowers and a Cuban cigar.
But the food looked amazing. When the five of them sat down in the dining room, at the table where Jake had eaten all his celebratory meals as a child, Vars felt as if he’d stepped into a movie where the food was picture perfect and served on crockery, not aluminum trays.
Jake’s father was the one to open the can of worms. “So, you’re in that club with Jake?”
Vars took a sip of water and looked at him across the table, his knee pressing against Jake’s nervously tapping leg. “I only recently joined. But yes, we met at work. I’m their accountant.”
Janet’s face fell, and she seemed disappointed. “Oh, no! That’s so boring.”
“Janet!” her mother hissed, but Jake’s father’s face lit up.