“I didn’t see a music room,” I murmur against his neck.
“I didn’t show it to you,” he replies softly.
“Why?”
I feel him shrug beneath me. “It felt personal.”
“And this isn’t?” I ask with a chuckle as I lean my head back so I can see his eyes.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to get you in here,” he replies and kisses my forehead. “It’s not done yet. I’ll show you when it’s finished. You should sleep.”
“You really want me to stay?”
“Yes.” His arms tighten around me. I’ve never felt this at home with a man. Not even with Keith, and I’d been with him for years.
This is all so different. Better different.
“Did you lose a parent, Declan?” I ask, remembering what he said earlier before the game.
“My father passed away almost three years ago.” He doesn’t stiffen up, or turn away. But his voice sounds sad.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
“Did you get along well with him?”
He nods. “Ours is a close family. We had our moments, but I don’t know if there’s anyone in the world I’ve ever admired more.”
“That’s nice.” I close my eyes against the tears that want to form. “I didn’t admire my father. I loved him, but I didn’t admire him.”
“No?”
I shake my head and appreciate that he’s not pressing me to continue. He just waits.
Declan might be the most patient man I’ve ever met.
“He fell apart after Mama died. Most men would have recovered, but he never did. So I took care of him.”
“Who took care of you?” Declan asks softly. I simply shake my head and continue.
“Dad was an alcoholic, and owning a bar didn’t help that at all. He wasn’t a mean drunk, Dec. He was a sweet man. But he would get sad. As an adult, it’s easy to look back and see that he was just trying to be numb. He loved her so much.
“We lived in that apartment above the bar, and I’d wait for it to close every night, and for him to come upstairs. I learned to have a bucket near the door so he could be sick, and then I’d help him to bed, then go to bed myself.”
“And get yourself off to school the next morning,” Declan guesses correctly.
“After I graduated, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I felt so much guilt, but I knew the best thing for me was to go. So I did. I went to college, majored in restaurant management, and thought I’d come back here and help Dad, but I just couldn’t do it.” I’m surprised that there are no tears. I’m just telling him the story as if it belongs to someone else.
Sometimes it feels like it did happen to someone else.
“No one would blame you for that, sugar. I’m sure your daddy didn’t.”
“No, he didn’t. But I can’t help but feel guilty that I never came home to see him. Not once.”
“You never saw him after you graduated from high school?” he asks incredulously.
“He visited me a couple of times,” I reply and sigh deeply. “I should have come home. But I didn’t. Maybe that makes me weak.”
“I wouldn’t call you weak.”
“I couldn’t keep the apartment upstairs. It had too many bad memories.”
“So you made it into a kick ass, amazing space that others can enjoy.”
“Thank you,” I reply happily.
“Just speaking the truth again.”
My hand glides down his chest, his stomach, and finally finds his semi-hard cock. I stroke it a few times, fully waking it up, and climb on top of him.
“The truth turns you on?” he asks with a smile as his hands grip my ass and he guides me up and down.
“You turn me on,” I reply and lean back to brace myself on his legs, and then begin to ride him in earnest.
“Jesus, Callie, you make me crazy.”
Chapter Three
Declan
“Thanks for the ride home,” she says with a smile as I pull up to the curb just outside of Adam’s condo.