“Feelings and reality are two entirely different animals. I honestly wasn’t sure we’d ever know the whole story. That he’d ever trust us with it the way he has.”
David wondered if Rory’s phone call with his brother had something to do with it. He could only hope what he and Rig were doing was making some kind of impact. It seemed to be.
The night they’d brought him home they’d agreed on their plan of action. It was simple. Love and affection, with a dash of avoidance. No confrontations, declarations or intense bedroom sessions until he was ready. Just lots of physical contact and loving touches.
David felt like he could go insane if this went on too long. What he really wanted to do was tell Rory how much he loved him and then tie him to the bed for a month. Or until he agreed to the three of them moving into a bigger house together, legally binding contracts and an intimate family ceremony as well as a houseful of dogs and the adoption of an at risk teen.
No pressure.
Rig lifted his hand and kissed it, as if he knew what he was thinking. He might. He’d been right about everything so far.
“Should we wake up sleeping beauty?”
David stood and adjusted himself with a scowl. “I can take it if you can. Besides, he’s looking forward to his brother coming over. I was thinking about inviting Walter and Macy tomorrow. I think we should get to know them, right? Too soon?”
Loving Rory had destroyed his famous Mills chill.
Oh God. He was acting like Essie.
Chapter Ten
Three weeks.
Rory wandered aimlessly adjusting and readjusting candles and sofa pillows. He wanted everything to be perfect. It had to be. And this had to work.
When he’d told Younger his plan, his brother had laughed and given him his seal of approval. He laughed more now. Smiled more too. That might have something to do with the last Finn Again, when Solomon the Younger had come out to their family. It had been glorious.
James was the first to embrace him, but not the last. That was Wyatt, and he’d been showing some definite signs of shock. “Is there something in the water? Somebody would tell me, right?”
Younger had whacked him on the back of his head and given him a hug. Because that was the kind of thing he did now. He hugged and approved of dirty plans to seduce people who were torturing Rory with affection, attention and three weeks of sleeping together with no sex.
Rory’s only consolation was that they were all suffering. Rig had started working out more—a lot more—in order to exhaust himself. David distracted himself all day but once he fell asleep, he moaned and rubbed his cock-teasing erection against him all night.
He would have done something about it, but David was a frustratingly light sleeper.
Still, that told him a lot. And at least Dream Rory was getting lucky.
If real Rory were getting laid, everything would be exactly as it should be. It was astonishing how very not-at-all he missed his sad apartment with its artistic milk crates. How easy it was to live with them. They’d always been close, but living together on a daily basis didn’t work for everyone. Merging work schedules and extended family, therapy sessions and arguments over the remote, might have ended in disaster. But together, they fit. Rory had never been in a situation that felt more like home.
He was loved.
And with that love came a surprising amount of socializing. They’d gone to see Nonna Gina with Noah and little Zachary. Had dinner with Jen, her bookends, Walter and Macy.
And of course they’d had a picnic at Owen and Jeremy’s lake house with Essie, Hermione and Weasley, their puppy Angus and his always-proud owner, Uncle Shawn.
Owen’s dog, Badass photobombed every picture.
He’d realized what they were doing, but “creating a network of spies” sounded cooler so that’s what he was going with. The gist was, if everyone he knew met everyone else he knew, he’d never be able to hide behind a mask again.
And once he’d stopped hiding, his family and friends came rushing in as if they’d been waiting for the invitation all this time.
It was a revelation.
And none of this meant David and Rig were off the hook for denying him for three entire weeks. He’d used every subtle and not-so-subtle hint in his repertoire—he’d even let them accidentally discover how flexible he really was, but to no avail. They’d been giving him “space.”
His phone rang once and disconnected. That was the sign. He’d called the girls in for this. Jen, Essie and Janice. Jen had lured her boy toys out so he could borrow their magical ménage mansion for the night. Essie and Janice were in charge of kidnapping David and Rig.
Nonna Gina had even made a dinner that was warming on the stove… If they got too weak and needed to regain their strength.