Leo’s not prepared, though, to find Grayson standing at an easel, angled toward the bed where Nix is scrolling through Grayson’s phone. Leo can see a vague outline of—is that Nix?—on the canvas. His artist mate is so focused that he doesn’t even acknowledge Leo.
Nix does, though. “Leo, come see!”
He’s holding out the phone, and Leo has to skirt an extra large painting on the floor. He does a flying leap and tackles Nix while their omega laughs.
“Look! Gray says I should look at some stuff for the spare—myroom. I feel weird about it, but he says everyone likes to be alone sometimes, and if I want to, then I should have a nice room, too.”
His mate is soft and warm and smells like vanilla sugar, with undertones of Grayson’s sweet basil and the subtle scent of incense. He’s thrilled his mate is handling the idea of them buying him things a lot better.
“Show me what you’re thinking. Gray has a talent for interior design on top of everything else he does, but don’t let him talk you into any more beige,” Leo says, just to hear Nix laugh.
Together, they look for a reaction from Grayson—but nothing. Theirnaked painter is a sight, though, and Leo can’t help but sigh.
“Right?” Nix asks. “How is he so…?”
“Perfect?” Leo replies, eyes still on Grayson’s long, lean thighs and magnificent cock. Rowan’s might be the biggest and Jay’s thickest, but Grayson’s is picture-perfect.
“Yeah, that.”
Grayson turns away to grab a new color of paint—revealing his subsequently perfect peach of an ass, too—and it breaks their concentration.
“Whew. Okay, show me. Where are you looking? Oh, that’s good…we can get whatever you want delivered.”
They spend the next houradding to cart,and Leo only gets his mate to do it with the promise they can remove whatever istoo expensive,orI don’t need three of thoseright back out. In the end, Leo has the entire cart sent to Nix Rena by express delivery.
Protesting, Nix grabs Grayson’s phone.
“That’s too much. We should cancel this…” Nix has sucked in his scent a bit, and the vacuum it leaves feels weird. He will admit that while it doesn’t make him crazy like the enigmas, it’s just discombobulating instead.
“Nix, stop. I don’t want to upset you or make you feel uncomfortable. We haven’t ordered anything that you don’t need, but I also think it’s nice to have things youwant,as well. We missed your birthday, and we always do something big for birthdays.”
“You do?” Nix pinches the edge of the sheet between his fingertips.
“We do. Finn’s is in July, and we flew into Atlanta to see a baseball game and rented a place. It was fun.”
Embarrassing Finn is always more fun than it should be, and Grayson had prepared a pole dance as a treat, giving the birthday boy a lap dance. It was so incredible that Leo is adding it to his Christmas wish list.
If art and architecture didn’t work for Grayson career-wise, dancing sure would.
It’s obvious Nix is battling himself—torn between feeling guilty about the extravagance (which, in Leo’s opinion, it isn’t) and wanting to make him and Grayson happy.
Leo sees the exact moment he chooses the latter.
“Okay. Hey, what did you do for Jamie’s birthday?”
Nothing. They had done nothing except pray and forget the fucking day by accident.
“Well, we were waiting for the biggest gift ever to open his eyes.”
Nix’s eyes pop wide, and a burst of vanilla makes Leo’s mouth water.
“What?Oh. Me. I’m sorry about that. Maybe we should do something now?”
“We can. What do you think we should do?” It’s been a rough time in the Rhodes house, and maybe a little birthday celebration would lighten things up. “Want to think about it, and we can maybe make it a surprise?”
Jay was fun to surprise—Gideon or Finn, not so much.
“Really? Can I help? I love parties. Or, I did.” He frowns. “Just us, though, right?”
