Page 48 of How to Trust a Hellhound
“Josh, you know…” he began, but I reached up to put my hand against his mouth.
“Not now. Let’s just… bask in the weirdness of my hallucinations and cuddle a bit. It’s been a long day. Maybe we can finish that documentary on the giant music festival gone wrong?” I asked.
I could feel Wilder’s stare, but eventually, he grabbed the remote and switched the television on.
We passed the night watching documentaries, and someone—I didn’t ask who—dropped dinner off for us. If Wilder seemed to know about it before it happened, even though I didn’t see him on his phone, that was fine.
We ate, and he helped me put the Lego camera back together, although I certainly didn’t need help. Seeing his thick fingers handle the Lego pieces was weirdly sexy, though.
And we chatted about mundane stuff—jobs and different places in the country we’d visited and music. Wilder asked about me growing up, and he shared stories about when he was raising the boys. If some of the stories seemed a little odd, that was fine. As was the comment that Wilder didn’t have parents, since “first gens” just came into being.
Totally fine. Not everyone liked their parents, after all.
We had a really nice evening together, and the cuddles and chatting were amazing. If Wilder occasionally threw a concerned look my way when he said something weird, well… It was fine.
Everything was fine. Totally normal.
Really. Fine.
I woke up the next morning feeling like a bus had hit me. I knew I’d fallen asleep on the couch in Wilder’s lap while binging documentaries, and my body didn’t thank me for that. Luckily, I was in my own bed.
Wilder must have moved me here.
I could see my phone resting on the night table, and when Ipicked it up, I saw text alerts. The multiple dings was probably what had woken me.
Wilder had texted me, letting me know that he’d gone to check on all the boys, but he’d be back with breakfast before I needed to start work.
Yeah, that totally gave me warm fuzzies, because we’d had an amazing night. We’d talked, and we’d cuddled, and we’d watched shows, and we’d laughed over stories about our work.
And we’d had sex before all that. Like, really amazing sex. And it hadn’t been awkward afterwards, and Wilder hadn’t treated me any differently, either.
Because, let’s face it, I knew I liked things a little… different. I knew there was nothing wrong with that, but just because I liked things one way in bed didn’t mean that was how I always wanted things to go outside of bed. I was smart and competent and capable, and I didn’t need someone bossing me around or thinking I wasn’t worthwhile.
I think I’d let Rick make me question my value, but I was better than that asshole.
Was I tryingreally hardto ignore what else had happened yesterday?
Yes, perhaps I was.
That was shattered when I looked at my other texts, though. Toby had texted. About forty times. Because he was like a manic squirrel, and he’d type one line and send it and then type the next and send it… and why he couldn’t just put it all in one text was beyond me.
I scrolled to the end and groaned, because Toby was on his way over. Because of course he was.
I texted him to just come in and went to hop in the shower. I needed to be a lot more awake to deal with Toby’s energy.
By the time I was dressed and came out of the bathroom, I feltmore human, and Toby was wandering around the living room, looking at my Lego sets.
“I remember you used to love doing these. I thought maybe you lost interest,” he said.
I grabbed a cup of coffee and started setting my computer up for the day. “Do you ever really outgrow your interests? I just got busy for a while.”
Toby gave me a stare, because we both knew that wasn’t really the whole story.
“So…” Toby trailed off, smiling gleefully.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Toby?”
“Ohmygod! You and Wilder! And omg that’s so fantastic! Because he’s totally hot in a dad vibe kind of way, even though Dexter is hotter, of course. And did you know they’re literally hot, too, because of the hellhound thing? And you thought I was being figurative when I said Dexter set the sheets on fire, but he actually set the sheets on fire, and oh my god, have you had Wilder’s knot yet?” It all came out in a rush, and then Toby stared at me expectantly.
