Page 272 of Daddy's Pride

“Oh, sweetheart,” he said, laughing as all the weird, awkward tension between us just… poofed it away. Like magic. “I did want sex.” He grinned at me, his fingers stroking my face. Then his expression turned serious. “But I didn’t want sex as much as I wanted to be your Daddy. Not just a Daddy, but yours, Owen.”

My heart started to pound hard, and he pulled his hand away from my face and held up his bare wrist, the green band that felt like it had broken my heart nowhere to be seen.

“I’d decided to switch out my bracelet just before I heard from you, because scening with any of the boys there wouldn’t have been fair to them, and it wouldn’t have been fair to me.”

“Why not?” I whispered.

He smiled at me. Not the wide grin from a moment ago when I’d made him laugh, but something both softer and hotter that had me really, really glad I was still clutching the pillow, because having him look at me like that was, uh…

Well, like I said, I was glad I had the pillow.

I was also pretty sure my dick had just gotten the memo about the gay epiphany I’d had a few minutes ago.

“It wouldn’t have been fair,” Daddy said, cupping my face again, “because my heart was already somewhere else.”

Me. I was pretty sure he meant it was with me.

And then I was all the way sure when he stared at me for another minute, then asked, “Can I kiss you, baby boy?”

“Yes?”

He huffed out a quiet laugh. “Is that a question?”

I’d already told myself all the reasons it was impossible for him to want me back, but he did anyway, and discovering that made something hot and fierce and kind of wonderful burst to life inside me.

I tossed aside the pillow and scrambled right onto his lap, clinging like a baby monkey.

“No, Daddy. It wasn’t a question,” I said breathlessly. “Please kiss me.”

And then he did, wrapping his arms around me and cradling the back of my head as he tipped my face up to the perfect angle and brushed his lips over mine.

Once.

Twice.

And then, on the third pass, he kissed me, groaning into my mouth as he licked his way inside and teaching me that I’d never done it properly before. Kissing had never made me feel both claimed and cherished at the same time. It had never been… perfect.

Because it had never been with him.

Chapter 10

North

I had no idea what I’d done right in life to deserve the boy in my arms, but if I had my way, I’d spend the rest of it making sure I could keep him.

His mouth tasted like heaven, the feel of him squirming on my lap was torture of the most delicious kind, and the hot little sounds he made as I tipped his head back and mouthed my way down his neck were the kind of music I’d happily trade my soul for.

“Fuck, baby,” I muttered, squeezing him probably a little too tightly as I pulled away to try and get a hold of myself. “You’re perfect.”

He blushed. Of course he did.

I fucking loved it.

In fact, I was right on the cusp of admitting that I loved him, which felt like a ridiculous thing to say this quickly… and also completely inevitable.

I’d been falling in love with him for months now. It just took holding him in my arms to make me see it.

“I should let you get some sleep,” I murmured, using a lifetime of willpower to ignore my throbbing cock.