“Name it,” King said without hesitation. He was almost back to his usual self, but I knew it would be a different story when he was alone and had to deal with what I’d told him.
I took a few minutes to talk to King about what I was hoping he could do for me, then said my goodbyes to my brother. When he hugged me, I found myself holding on to him for a really long time.
“Thank you for everything. If you find someone who makes you want to patch up some of the holes that are inside you, don’t let him go, okay?”
King grunted, but I wasn’t deterred. I clung to him for a moment longer so I could add, “Until then, I’m always here. Do you hear me? Good stuff or bad. I’m always here.”
This time, King didn’t respond which was a response in itself. That and the fact that he brushed a light kiss against my temple before releasing me and walking away was proof enough that he’d heard me. Really heard me.
I watched King until he disappeared around the corner of the house and then made my way back inside, making sure to lock all the doors before heading upstairs. I opened the door to Micah’s room as quietly as I could but was surprised to see him sitting upright in bed, his back against the headboard. The light on the nightstand was turned on. I knew instantly by his worried expression that he’d heard some, if not all, of my conversation with King.
“Everything okay?” he asked, his voice heavy with concern.
I went to his side of the bed and sat down. I leaned in and kissed him softly. Micah eagerly kissed me back.
“You heard?” I asked.
“Only a little,” he responded quickly. “When I woke up by myself I was worried about you so I thought maybe you’d gone back to your room.”
“Did you miss me?” I interrupted before stealing another kiss.
“Yes, of course—”
“How much?”
“What?”
“How much did you miss me? Are we talking enough to fill a stadium or more like an aquarium?”
Micah rolled his eyes and smiled before he leaned in and kissed me soundly. My cock was at full attention when he finally released me from the intoxicating embrace. “Does that answer your question?” he asked softly.
I nodded.
“When I realized who you were talking to, I came back up here. I didn’t listen in on your conversation—”
“I pretended you were there,” I cut in. I reached my hand out to brush my fingers along his cheek. “It made it easier to tell him.”
Micah turned his head and pressed a kiss into my palm. “How do you feel?”
“It hurts,” I admitted. “It fucking hurts.”
Before I even finished the statement, Micah was pressing into my arms. “I know it does, my love.”
The endearment sent shivers up and down my spine.
“It’ll get better,” he whispered into my ear.
“Promise?” I heard myself ask.
“Promise,” Micah reassured me and then his mouth found mine and he made me a promise of a different kind.
The kind that I knew would get me through even the darkest of days. I just hoped like hell those would be few and far between because I was more than ready to bask in some fucking light.
“I love you,” I breathed against Micah’s mouth.
“Love you,” he responded.
I eased Micah flat on his back and settled my weight on top of him but I didn’t kiss him again. Instead, I held his eyes so I could ask him the one question I’d been too afraid to hear the answer to earlier in the evening.
“Come to Vegas with me.”
Okay, so not so much a question as a plea.
A plea that Micah almost instantly answered.
“Yes.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Micah
Saying yes to Con when he’d asked me to go to Las Vegas with him had been easy.
Probably the easiest thing I’d done in a very long time.
I couldn’t say the same for everything that had followed. It hadn’t exactly been hard, per se, just a little awkward and a lot intimidating.
While I’d let Con make all the arrangements to get us down to Vegas, I'd insisted on telling the kids why we were going to Vegas instead of Alaska like we’d planned. I’d gone into the whole thing with an elaborate speech about how life changes and dreams and reality don’t always mix.
The results hadn’t been pretty.
When I’d first announced that Con was leaving for Las Vegas, both kids had been upset. Rory had taken it especially hard and had started crying her eyes out and had immediately climbed into Con's lap as we’d sat around the kitchen table. As Con and I had tried to calm the little girl, Christopher had looked at Con and asked if he’d done something wrong to make Con leave.
It was only then that I’d recognized not only my mistake in how I’d phrased the statement, but that both kids had become considerably more attached to Con than I’d realized. I'd been so caught up in my own burgeoning feelings for the man, I hadn’t noticed how much time he’d started spending with the kids on a daily basis when he wasn't training or working in his home office. He’d helped both kids build the castle that they’d been working on for weeks, and he'd started teaching Christopher some self-defense moves which had left Christopher beaming with pride.