“Not only,” I told him. “But if you want me around for other reasons, and want me to help protect Cheyenne? I’m in.”
“Really?” He rolled his head so he could look up at me. “You’d do that for me?”
I had to kiss him. No other choice. Our lips met for one wonderful moment, his mouth soft against mine, his hand finding my cheek.
I told him, “I’d do just about anything for you. Live in a comfortable house, with extra dog toys and people to walk them, and someone who can cook? Not a hardship.”
“It comes with a teenager who’s pretending to not watch us through the patio door.”
“We can work around her.”
“God, I want to.” Brooklyn arched his neck to kiss me again, then snuggled back against me. “I feel like I’m taking advantage.”
“You’re not, believe me.”
“There might be danger.”
“But probably not, and if there is? You think I want to be somewhere else if you and Cheyenne are in trouble?”
“Oh,” he breathed, as if that was a revelation.
“Tell you what,” I suggested, because having him close was giving my dick all kinds of ideas, and there was a teenager around. “When those two boarders go home, do you think you could let Cheyenne watch Sadie for half an hour and you drive me back to my place? I need to walk and feed, and then pack my stuff.”
“Sure.” Brooklyn said it so casually I knew he wasn’t imagining what I was.
“Or maybe a whole hour. There will be things in the bedroom I want to pack.”
A slow smile spread over his face. “Oh. Of course. Packing the bedroom.”
“If you’re up for it.”
“That’s a yes, absolutely. Although I need to stop thinking about it or I won’t be able to get off this couch.”
“Same.” I lifted my arm off his shoulders and shifted around so the hardening of my dick would be less obvious. “So what do we do until then?”
“Lunch,” Brooklyn suggested. “And then in the afternoon, you can help me train those vizslas on some obedience commands and pick over the yard. Till they head out at four. Unless their mom’s early. Sometimes she is.”
“Fingers crossed,” I said. “But if not, I’m a patient man. I can wait a few hours.”
“I’m not.” Brooklyn grinned. “But I can fake it till four o’clock.”
I held his head between my palms and leaned in for a deep kiss?—
“Hey, guys. Bruno rolled in something icky. Oops.” Cheyenne put a hand over her eyes but she was laughing. “Sorry.”
“We’re just kissing,” Brooklyn said. “And you don’t look sorry.”
She swiped her hand over her mouth and chin, wiping away the grin. “Should I go try to clean up Bruno?”
“He’ll knock you over. I’ll get him.” Brooklyn pushed to his feet. He turned to me, and this time there was nothing awkward and everything hot about the meeting of our eyes. “I’ll see what I can find for you to do before we head out at four.”
“But he’s coming back.” Cheyenne leaned toward us. “Right? With the dogs.”
Sibling rules said one of us should tease her, but she’d been through a lot lately. I said, “With the dogs and cat, definitely. It’ll just take a bit of time to pack.”
Brooklyn added, “I’ll count on you to hold down the fort with Sadie here. We won’t be gone long.” I tried to catch his attention, and he flushed, avoiding my gaze. “Well, not very long.”
I breathed, “That’s what you think,” as softly as I could near his ear.
