Page 66 of Night By Night
He’d never felt anything like this before.
Maddox’s fingers tightened around the back of his head, taking control as he lifted his lips from Hank’s.
“I mean it—I don’t have to have this if you don’t want to do it.”
“I want to try.”
Dox studied his face for a long moment. “Then we take it slow. We take it night by night. We work our way through everything and don’t take each other for granted.”
Hank nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
“Rule one,” Maddox hoarsely said, “you donotlie to me. I need full honesty from you abouteverything. If anything about what we’re doing doesn’t work for you, I need you totalkto me about it. Sayredoryellow, I don’t care what it’s for, so we cantalk. I have zero interest in forcing you to do anything. Like I said, I still want to marry you, even if there’s no sex or play or anything other than friendship between us.
“Rule two, if we are going to try to have a deeper relationship, including sex, then it’sonlythe two of us in this relationship, for sex or play. We don’t date anyone else, either. Rule three,I’min charge. Of you, of us, of our family.Period. I will give you input, but I make the rules and the final decisions. You do what I say, and I will carry the burden of everything except what I tell you to worry about. Can you accept those three rules?”
A dark, terrifying chasm loomed in front of Hank no matter how he tried to avoid it. Telling Dox no to any of this wasn’t an option.
Not when he had JJ’s life to consider.
If it wasn’t for her, sure, the two of them could take their time, explore, figure this shit out.
She didn’thavetime. She was looking at a lifetime of doctors and injections and blood sugar monitoring. Of learning how to eat healthy, of constantly being aware of what every choice she made would do to her body.
He wanted her to have a normal life—karate, gymnastics, Girl Scouts, soccer, dance classes. Friends and excelling in school. Get her on the robotics team, if that’s what she wanted. Whatever she wanted to do. Maybe with Maddox there to help tutor her she’d excel in STEM classes.
He couldn’t do any of that for her now with this additional burden added to his plate, because every spare moment he spent working to earn money for her medical treatments meant less time he’d have to devote to her as a father.
And he’d still fall epically short.
Here before him sat a man willing to make him his husband and make her his daughter and help care for her.
Love her.
Protect her.
Devote his life to her.
Comparing the two options…well, saying yes to Dox was a no-brainer.
It also wasn’t exactly an option that repelled him, either.
Hank met his gaze. “Yes, Sir.” Hell, it evenfeltright calling him that.
Feltnatural.
Didn’t that mean something?
Dox’s gaze softened, that heartbreaking vulnerability stillrightthere, on the surface. “How long’s it been for you?” he asked Hank, and Hank didn’t need him to clarify.
A laugh barked free. “Three or four years, give or take. Too damn long.”
“Me, too. Not quite that long, but too damn long.” Dox turned them so he could lay Hank back on the bed. “How about we stop talking for a little while and take care of something first?” Dox asked.
Hank nodded. “Please.” Inside his shorts his cock throbbed now, aching, and wasn’t that a positive sign? Maybe it wasn’t guaranteed long-term success, but damn, it was the first real sign of life down there in a long fricking time.
He trusted Dox. If Dox said Hank could stop this at any time, Hank believed him.
Dox had never, in all the years they’d known each other, betrayed his trust.
Ever.
Especially now, when the man had every reason in the world to back off and walk away from a problem that no one expected him to accept responsibility for.
Yet, here he was, stepping up and taking over.
Dox was right—if that wasn’t love, what was?
