I gave him a thoughtful look. “Literally, or figuratively? Because I wasn’t kidding at the aquarium when I said I have a small bladder. I’m currently waging war with my desire to not ever move from this spot and the need to go pee. Also, I’ve read that you’re supposed to pee right after you do it. Less risk of a UTI.”
Landon was watching me with a funny expression.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s cute when you say do it, like you’re some blushing virgin. Sometimes, you seem surprisingly crude. Then you remind me that there’s this strangely shy, innocent side of you, too. I like it.”
“Wait, blushing virgin. Are you saying I wasn’t good?”
Landon frowned. “Hell, no. That was… It was enough that if you said you never wanted to even think about BDSM again, I wouldn’t care.”
I gave a little shrug. “I don’t know. The whole candle thing was pretty hot. Pun int—”
Landon covered my mouth and rolled his eyes. “Although, I think a ball gag might come in handy from time to time.”
“What’s that? Like… You shove your balls in my mouth and gag me with them? That honestly sounds pretty much a hundred percent unpleasant.”
“Uh, no. It’s a little ball connected to straps. The ball goes in your mouth and the straps tighten around your head so you can’t pull it out. It keeps you from talking.”
I scowled. “You’re saying my constant stream of nervous jokes are a turn off, Landon Collins? Because it’s a package deal. You want access to the goods, then you’ve got to deal with the jokes.”
“That’s an arrangement I could live with.”
I rolled on my side and planted a kiss on his lips. “Are there normal bathrooms in here? Because if you tell me I’m going to have to pee in a chamber pot, that will be the last straw.”32LandonI sat in my small apartment staring at the first real check I’d ever earned from The Golden Pecker. With access to the accounts, I’d known roughly what I would earn as the sole owner of the club. Seeing it in my hands was an entirely different feeling.
Eighty-two thousand dollars and change from two weeks. Even with taxes and overhead taken out, I’d still be looking at roughly eighty thousand dollars of profit in two weeks. It was enough that I could put a deposit down and get mom to see one of the top specialists in the country this week. I could pay for in-home care if she preferred it and keep her away from as many lengthy hospital stays as possible.
My mom came shuffling out in a pair of fuzzy bunny slippers and saw me holding the check. I’d filled her in on mostly everything that had happened, including the fact that Andi and I were now considering ourselves a couple. That particular thought made me crack a bit of a smile. There was an odd sort of pride to having claimed Andi as a girlfriend—and the word claim was highly appropriate. She wasn’t the sort of girl you fell into a relationship with. You had to wrestle her into submission, and even then, it wasn’t a true kind of submission.
Andi wasn’t for the taking. You never truly had her in your grasp. She was still wild, but she was my wild thing. I found that I deeply liked that about her.
My mom cocked her head when she saw me holding the check. “What’s that?”
“First chunk of real money from the club,” I said. “Looks like we might be flying out to California for that proton therapy thing you were talking about.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What about Andi? You’re not going to just leave her here in New York while you shuttle me around the country, are you?”
I waved the check. “With this, I can afford to get her tickets, too. I know she’ll want to be there for you.”
My mom scoffed. “Please. Following your sick mother around for her cancer treatments is hardly the way to celebrate a new relationship. Let me do this first treatment by myself. I’m still perfectly capable of getting around on my own. You two enjoy each other. When it’s time for the next treatment, then I’ll let you start doting all over me again. How does that sound?”
I scowled. “You want me to send you to California by yourself? No. Out of the question.”
She pinched my cheek hard but smiled crookedly. “Just because you’re bigger than me, it doesn’t make you the boss, young man.”
“This is really what you want?”
“Yes. Besides, I can drag your brother along if I decide I need the company. God knows he’s not chasing any girls around.”
I grinned. No. For some reason, the girls chased him. And he growled the majority of them away, too. Sometimes, I wondered what he was waiting for. I’d seen him date before, but he’d never really fallen for anyone.