Chapter 44
“I’ll…uh…suck you.”
“Now?”
“No! After we’ve been where we’re going.”
“Rah-rah, uh—”
“I’ll use my fingers, too!”
Elliot clenched his ass at the thought of Mick’s long fingers nudging his prostate. “Promise?”
Mick nodded and took the bridge leading out of the city.
“And your mom says you’re not romantic!” Elliot waggled his eyebrows.
Mick snorted. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean my fingers up your…rosebud.”
Elliot giggled as he tried to imagine Mick’s prim and proper mother giving her son advice on the best way to woo Elliot back by fingering him until he screamed the walls down. It was impossible.
“I’ve decided what to do with the money,” Elliot said after they’d been riding in silence for a few minutes.
“Yeah? What are you planning?” Mick didn’t sound at all surprised, like he’d expected Elliot to come up with something, as if he’d had faith all along.
Elliot swallowed. It was an amazing feeling to know someone believed in him when he wasn’t so sure he believed in himself.
“I, uh, want to give it away. To an anti-bullying organization.” Elliot bounced his knee and glanced at Mick to see his reaction. He was relieved when he saw the question-mark smile appear on his partner’s face. Encouraged by Mick’s approval, he continued. “I’m a grown man. I’m supposed to be confident. But it was so easy for them to get me to roll over and do what they wanted.”
“That’s not—”
“Don’t.” Elliot cut Mick off and shook his head. “It’s what happened. Don’t cut me any slack.”
Mick reached over to Elliot and grabbed his hand, gave it a gentle squeeze, and hummed in acknowledgment.
“I realized it must be impossible for kids to cope with something like that. Being bullied, I mean.” Elliot interlaced their fingers, pressing his palm against Mick’s. “So, uh, I wanna help with that.”
“It sounds like a great plan,” Mick agreed and flashed him a smile.
They drove for almost two hours until they arrived in a small town by the ocean Elliot never even had heard of before. He looked around, loving all the quaint little houses, wanting nothing more than to get out of the car and walk the streets and check them out. But he knew better than to press Mick for answers, so he kept his mouth shut.
Before long, they parked outside a whimsical green octagon house. It had two stories, a wraparound porch, and a large upstairs balcony. Elliot looked at Mick with a raised eyebrow, but Mick smiled enigmatically and stepped out of the car, leaving Elliot no other choice but to follow.
Tall trees surrounded the house, and Elliot couldn’t see a neighbor in the vicinity. The sound of rippling water made him curious, and he looked around until he saw a glimpse of a tiny brook not far from the house.
“Honey?”
“Yes?”
“What are we doing here?”
Mick walked up to Elliot, plastered himself against Elliot’s back, and wound his arms around Elliot’s waist. He leaned his chin on Elliot’s shoulder.
“Do you like it?”
Elliot took in every detail. The beautiful irregular stone inlay on all eight angles. The light streaming out of the large window, making the house look friendly and inviting. On the upper floor, he saw chunky beams in the ceiling, giving it a rustic and homey feeling.
“It’s amazing,” Elliot whispered. Even better than the mountain cabin he’d thought of as his own the last few months. He put his hands over Mick’s and weaved their fingers together. Grounding himself before asking. Pleading. “Can you please tell me what we’re doing here?”
“I have a job offer.”
Mick told him about a case he’d won several weeks back, and how the opposing counsel had approached him after the negotiations were done. The other lawyer, Ben, had ended up asking Mick out.
“What?” Elliot growled.
“Calm down. I said I was taken.”
“But—”
“Do I need to remind you of your subtle friend Harry?”
“Continue your story,” Elliot ground out between clenched teeth, very unhappy about the thought that some successful guy had hit on hislover.
“He works for a firm that specializes in divorces for the LGBT community. It’s a growing market apparently.”
Elliot’s ears perked up at the information.
“A few days ago, one of the partners from his firm called me and wanted to meet up.”
Mick had met two senior partners for lunch, and the meeting had ended with them offering him a position. When the firm had started looking for another lawyer, Ben had recommended Mick, impressed by his performance in the case they’d been on the opposite sides of.
“The office isn’t even an hour’s drive from here, and on days without meetings or court appearances, it would be okay for me to work from home.”
“What do you mean?”
“You could quit the school. You don’t like it there anymore anyway,” Mick continued.