Turning to Ryan, he gave him the same pleased smile. “Andyou did great keeping Adam talking about movies when he weaseled his way intothe bedroom.”
Ryan laughed. “It was like playing keep-away with a nosyteenager. He kept trying to look for shit, and I kept having to distract him.”
Dare had warned us that his family was nosy, but I’dhonestly thought he’d been exaggerating.
He hadn’t been.
But they loved him to death and seemed genuinely excited tosee us in his life, so I couldn’t really complain. At least, I didn’t think Icould. I wasn’t raised in the most boisterous family, so I couldn’t alwayspredict how regular families would behave.
Like Ryan’s.
They were fascinating too, just in a different way.
Dare winced, sighing, but not looking surprised by theexplanation. “They’ll settle down eventually. They liked you, though, and Ithink that made it harder to treat you like polite strangers instead offamily.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but the whole thingwas funny enough that I chuckled. “So only family gets this kind ofexuberance?”
Dare laughed. “Yes, unfortunately.”
Smiling, I shrugged. “I think them liking us is the mostimportant thing.”
Right?
“They loved you.” His expression was tender as he leanedover and kissed me again. “I knew they would.”
I was glad one of us had.
“And we got a lot of the house done.” Ryan looked around asDare settled back into his embrace. “There isn’t a ton to do tomorrow.”
“And my siblings that are coming over to help clean theapartment tomorrow are much better behaved. Promise.” Dare smiled, closing hiseyes and sinking into our laps. “We’re just not going over there too early.”
It’d been a long day, so I couldn’t blame him.
Dare had run circles around us all day long. He hadn’tseemed to be trying to prove anything. He’d just been so focused on gettingeverything done that he’d been in high gear for hours. I had a feeling he’d beenfeeling a little bit guilty because in his mind he’d pushed us into moving. Soguilt, combined with keeping track of his family and worrying about them, hadtaken its toll on our Master.
Moving hadn’t been a bad thing, though, and we’d seen theneed too. We just hadn’t done anything about it because change wasn’t either ofour favorite things.
When Dare yawned and he took a slow, deep breath, I knew hewas halfway asleep, if not more.
Ryan smiled tenderly, clearly seeing it too. “Let’s go tobed. It’s been a long day.”
I had to agree.
Dare opened his eyes and sat up, though. “No, I wanted tomake sure I—”
Whatever he was going to say was bound to be something abouthelping us, but it was late and we were done. “Master, we want to cuddle.”
That stopped him in his tracks, and he chuckled. “Aww, Ithink that’s the first time you used ‘Master’ to manipulate me. This is somekind of milestone in our relationship.”
I knew I was blushing again, but his teasing grin said hewasn’t mad.
“Alright.” Giving each of us quick pecks on the cheek, hestood and stretched. “You win.”
Thank God.
As we stood, he yawned again, making Ryan fight to hide agrin. Our Master was exhausted. He just refused to see it.
Walking through the house still felt weird, but with all ourstuff in it and the big bed in the main bedroom, it was starting to feel morelike home. Ryan led the way, turning to look at us as we filed in one at atime. “Why don’t you two get a shower and I’ll get everything ready in here.”
