Aftermath (25 page)

Austin opened his mouth then closed it again.
Holy hell
. The girl was inquisitive. "How about this—" he paused, racking his brain "—we're going to take this slow. Yes, I love him. No, he's not going to move in with us, but…" He hesitated. "One day,"
soon, he hoped
, "if this works out, we might move in with him. Here. His house is better than our apartment, right?" Riley quickly glanced out the window toward the pool, and Austin had her answer. "You'd get your own room, of course. This one, actually. We'd redecorate it for you. It was Cam's suggestion." One point for Cam. "But, Riley, not yet. Right now, we'll focus on getting to know each other. For instance, I've told Cam that you're awesome at soccer. He'd love to come to your next game."

"He can do that." She grinned, proud of herself.

Austin was beyond relieved. "Do you understand what I'm saying, though? We'll start off slow. Maybe we can have movie nights, go to your games, have dinners together, take Bourbon and Nacho to the park, perhaps sleep over here sometimes…"

"I understand the conspect of slow, Dad." She rolled her eyes. "I'm ten."

Austin laughed through his nose and shook his head. "Concept, baby girl. And I know you understand; I just want to make sure you don’t think everything is going to change overnight. Are you okay with all this?"

"
Yes
," she replied, sounding aggravated. "Mom's already told me that she's getting ready to start dating again or whatever. Can I have ice cream now?"

She can have all the ice cream in the world.

When Austin and Riley returned to the patio, the atmosphere was stilted and uncomfortable. Austin noticed how tense Cam was, so he concluded that they were all basically waiting for a result of the Dad and Daughter talk. The way Riley bounced over to the ice cream made Maggie and Lily look hopeful, and Austin's reassuring smile put the rest at ease.

"You can relax," Austin said quietly, sitting down next to Cam, whose shoulders visibly sagged with relief. "Everything went well." He grabbed Cam's hand and kissed it before threading their fingers together.

That was that.

For the rest of the evening, the two families continued to get to know each other, and whenever Austin and Cam even touched each other, Riley would giggle, roll her eyes, and turn red in the face.

*

Later that night when everyone had gone home, Austin and Cam stepped into the shower together in silence. Both were thinking about how well it had gone today, and while Austin was already planning a day he could spend with both Riley and Cam, Cam was simply reveling.

The reason Austin felt bold enough to think ahead was because Cam had told him earlier that they should go out and buy a pull-out couch for the living room.

It had felt like the proverbial green light. Cam was ready to try, and he wanted Riley comfortable when she visited. So, the living room would become a living room again, and Cam's bedroom would now belong to two men. When Austin spent the night, anyway.

"No, let me." Cam grabbed the bodywash from Austin. "I was gonna make things up to you, remember?"

Austin chuckled tiredly. "I was mostly joking, you know."

"Your dick wasn’t." Cam smirked. "Now, turn around."

Austin turned around, enjoying the hot water cascading down his naked body, then groaned in pleasure when Cam began to massage his shoulders, using bodywash instead of lotion.

"Do you think her room's gonna be all pink and bubblegum-y?" Cam asked after a minute. "'Cause I don’t know if I can handle that shit."

Austin grinned lazily to himself and dropped his chin to his chest. "I think her favorite color right now is yellow, but it changes."

The original plan had been for Austin and Riley to go home to their apartment tonight, but now there was a new agenda. Riley was excited at the prospect of decorating her own room, even if it wouldn’t be fully hers just yet. Regardless, she had tricked Nana and Pops into driving her around tomorrow to check color samples for the walls in Cam's second bedroom. So, she was spending another night with them.

"I can deal with yellow," Cam murmured, and that ended the subject.

Cam rubbed Austin's shoulders and upper back in firm and sensual strokes. His fingers kneaded the flesh, eliciting quiet groans from Austin. Then farther down his spine. When Cam told him to put his hands on the tiled wall and spread his legs, Austin did. He supported himself while Cam got down on his knees.

"Damn," Austin exhaled. Cam was kneading his thighs, the hot water washing away the suds quickly. It felt so fucking good. There was anticipation in the air, too. The closer Cam's fingers got to his ass, the harder his cock grew. Soon he felt those long fingers spreading his cheeks, still massaging and washing, but it was Cam's mouth that made him moan. "Jesus Christ…" His thighs shook with tension as Cam teased his hole with his tongue and fingers. At the same time, Cam was fingering his own ass, too. Reaching down, Austin began to stroke himself just as the tip of Cam's tongue entered him. It was soft, wet, and goddamn erotic.

Cam hummed and fucked him slowly with his tongue. Deep wasn’t deep enough, hard wasn’t hard enough; Austin grew frustrated with greed and started to push back.

"I think you're ready," Cam laughed quietly and withdrew. Standing up, he switched places with Austin and gave him a look over his shoulder. "There's lube on the counter."

Austin frowned and pushed away the shower curtain; sure enough, there was a bottle of lube. He grabbed it and raised a brow at Cam. "You planned this?" They didn’t exactly have a bottle of lube in every room of the house.

"You bet I did," Cam said, facing the wall. "I have needs, and when you're all riled up, you give it to me hard. I'm ready."

Austin had expected it to be the other way around tonight, but Cam's words surged through him like an aphrodisiac. All he wanted now was to slam his cock inside Cam's ass. So, that’s what he did after lubing up and nudging Cam's legs apart.

"Fuck," Cam choked out.

"Hard enough?" Austin hissed in his ear. Digging his fingers into Cam's hips, he pulled out only to shove his cock back in.
Tight. Slick
. "Goddamn, I love this ass." He watched with unmistakable hunger in his eyes how his erection slid in and out of Cam. Unfortunately, he knew he wasn’t going to last long, so he wrapped his fingers around Cam's hard cock and stroked him as he fucked his way toward climax.

Cam's head lolled back against Austin's shoulder, and he turned for a kiss. Austin obliged and stole his breath.

"I need to come," Cam groaned breathlessly. "Fuck, I need—"

"I'll get you there." Austin's hands went back to Cam's hips, and he pushed him forward a little. "One hand on the wall," he commanded. "You know what to do with the other." He rammed into Cam's ass and gritted his teeth. Over and over. It had to hurt, but Cam moaned for more, and it wasn’t long before they surrendered to their orgasms. "Fuck, Cam!" Austin threw his head back, his hips instinctively shifting forward in jerky movements. In hot pulses, his release filled Cam's ass. His chest heaved and every muscle tensed.

Cam clenched his jaw, releasing stream after stream against the tiled wall.

For several moments afterward, they could only hear the rushing water and their labored breaths.

"If you wanna carry me to bed, I probably won't stop you," Cam said after a while, still breathing heavily. "My poor ass."

Austin chuckled and began to wash them up. "You fucking begged for it." At Cam's tired groan and weak nod, he laughed and squeezed Cam affectionately. "Come on, baby. Let's finish up here and go to bed."

Two years later…

Slipping out of the bedroom, Cam buttoned his khaki shorts and rolled up the sleeves of his white button-down. The thin leather cord around his wrist was still damp from his shower, and he grinned a little to himself, thinking back on this morning when Riley had given it to him for his thirty-sixth birthday. The three white beads with black letters that spelled out "car" made it a very special birthday present. Fitting for a mechanic, Riley had said, but then she'd finished with, "You gotta explain to everyone that it stands for Cam, Austin, and Riley, though. Peoples gotta know that."

Cam was gonna make sure that
peoples
knew.

As he passed the living room, he stopped short when he saw Riley and a friend of hers dancing to some fucking awful pop music. But it wasn’t the music that horrified Cam; it was the fact that these two twelve-year-old girls were shaking parts they didn’t even have yet.

"What the hell are you doing?" he practically shouted.

"We're dancing!" Riley laughed, shaking her butt in some summer dress Lily had bought her. "Duh!"

"That’s not dancing." Cam was irritated. "Unless you're over eighteen and there's a pole," he bitched under his breath.
Over my dead body
. "Listen to me, sweetheart." He walked over and held out his hand. Riley took it with a curious expression on her face. "First of all, when a motherfu—a boy…asks you to dance, you only say yes if he kisses the top of your hand first." He held both hers and kissed her knuckles. "That means he's a good guy. Got it?" Riley giggled and nodded. Her friend, Mya, was giggling, too. "And when you dance alone, just you or with your girlfriends, you stick to the chicken dance. Are we clear?"

The two girls nearly bowled over in laughter, but Cam didn’t see what was so fucking funny.

"Lame!" Mya exclaimed.

"Yeah—that’s for kids!" Riley agreed.

"Like you'd know what's lame." Cam scoffed and turned toward the kitchen. "You're twelve!" Reaching the kitchen where Austin was busy unpacking the catered side dishes for today's barbecue, Cam sighed and grabbed a beer from the fridge. "Have you seen what's goin' on in there?"

Austin shook his head, though not as if to say no. "I'm thinking about shipping that kid off to a convent." He gave Cam a quick once-over and stepped closer. "You look good." So did Austin, in Cam's opinion, in his cargo shorts and black T-shirt. "Did I tell you that my parents are taking Riley tonight?"

Cam smirked and slipped his fingers into Austin's belt, tugging him close enough for them to touch. "A couple times." He slid his nose along Austin's clean-shaven jaw, a low groan rumbling in his chest. "And you like to remind me." He pressed his pelvis against Austin's, which earned him a quiet moan. "You just wanna stuff my mouth with your dick." With a husky chuckle, he placed Austin's hand on his crotch. "But I think it's my turn tonight, baby." He was dying to get Austin's mouth on him, and then he wanted a raw fucking in return. Cam's ass clenched at the thought of having Austin inside him. It had been
days
…

"Damn," Austin muttered gruffly. "So not the time." He adjusted himself and backed off. "Go check the grill or something. Our families and friends will be here any minute."

Cam laughed quietly and when he got to the living room again, the two girls were now watching TV, though the music was still on.

"We're visiting my little brother at camp tomorrow," Mya was saying as they watched some skinny models on the flat screen. "You wanna come with?"

"Sounds like fun," Riley said. "Just have to ask my dads first."

Cam's eyes grew large. One word went on repeat in his head, and the loop circled his goddamn heart.
Dads, dads, dads, dads
. As in, two of them. Not just Austin. Cam, too. Abruptly, he spun on his heel and returned to the kitchen. While Riley had always been accepting of him and liked him as her father's partner, it felt fucking glorious to hear that he was so fully included in her family.

"The grill ready?" Austin asked distractedly.

Cam didn’t say a word; he couldn’t. He just walked up to Austin and pulled him in for a bruising kiss.

"Umph." Austin was taken aback by the force.

Making sure the kiss didn’t end, Cam pinned him to the fridge and pushed his tongue into Austin's mouth. Inside of him, he grew impatient by the lack of words. He felt like he needed to say something about what he'd just heard, but it was too soon. In true Cam fashion, he got annoyed, but because words continued to fail him, he kissed Austin some more. On his lips, his jaw, his cheeks, his neck—until they were both out of breath and hard.

"We should g-get married," he blurted out, closing his eyes.

Fuck
. That had not been smooth.

"Are you serious right now?" Austin was breathing heavily against Cam's neck. "I can't
believe
—you just…"

"Yeah," he rasped. His shoulders tensed up, and he was ready to get defensive. It was what he did. He braced himself. "You got a problem with that?"

Austin exhaled a shaky laugh and lifted his head. His eyes shone with…something. Cam was too high-strung and anxious to read into it, but it reminded him of the time last year when he'd added Austin's and Riley's birthdates to his collection of tattoos.

Just the day after, Austin had made an appointment for his very first tattoo, which now sat on his shoulder blade. It was Riley's handprint from when she was little to represent his daughter, and the words, "To hell and back with you," underneath it to represent Cam.

"Check my left pocket, baby," Austin whispered, bringing Cam's hand to the pocket in question.

Still tense, Cam avoided eye contact, fixating on a point behind Austin's shoulder, and acted on autopilot. He dug his hand down into the pocket, only to brush his fingers against two metal objects. Circular ones.

Austin smiled carefully and touched their foreheads together. "I was going to ask you tonight when everyone had left."

"Oh," Cam uttered dumbly. "I came unprepared." He slowly pulled away his hand again. "I can buy the rings when we get hitched, though." He needed to shut the fuck up.
Christ
.

His dad also wore two rings, and he liked the idea of having one for engagement and one for marriage. So…now he wanted to get that first one on his finger.

"All I want is your yes," Austin murmured. Sticking his hand into his pocket, he retrieved the two gold bands that lay in his open palm.