He bit back a laugh. If that was her only objection, he’d call it a win. “You can call me whatever you want, sweetheart. You can still call me Uncle Dox, if you want to.”
“But I can’t. Because you’d be my dad then. I can’t call you my uncle if you’re my dad.” Cue an epic eye-roll that nearly made him snicker. Duh.
“What do you want to call him?” Hank asked, obviously close to laughing himself, Maddox was happy to see.
She studied Maddox for another moment. “Can I call you ‘Pop?’ I can’t call you both ‘Dad’ because you wouldn’t know who I want.” That duh was also silent but obvious.
Unexpectedly, he choked up as he nodded. “Yeah. I like that. I’ll be happy to be called Pop.”
“Okay.” She resumed eating.
He and Hank exchanged a glance. “Um, do you have any questions?” Maddox asked her.
She shook her head. “No.”
Then again, kids were easy. They didn’t learn to be assholes on their own. They had to have an asshole adult put bullshit into their heads first.
“So you’re okay if I marry Dox?” Hank asked.
She nodded and took another bite of her eggs. “Uh huh.”
Maddox and Hank exchanged a look and shrugged.
After breakfast, Maddox dropped JJ off at June’s and met Hank over at the county clerk’s office to file for their license. JJ had another doctor appointment today at two, but Maddox would go pick her up for that and then take her to Eliza’s after.
As they stood in line, an idea hit him, but he wanted it to be a surprise for Hank.
Once they had their license in hand, Hank walked with Maddox out to his car, where Hank pulled him in for a long, sweet kiss that hardened Maddox’s cock.
“Love you, Sir,” Hank said. “I’m not doing this only for JJ. I’m doing this because I really love you.”
“I wish I’d been braver sooner,” Maddox admitted.
“It’s okay.” Hank finally smiled. “We’re both smarter than we were as kids. When are we going to tell your parents?”
“Not yet. They’ll want to fly down for it, and they’ll worry about JJ. Let’s get settled and then we’ll tell them the truth, that we eloped. We’re both under enough stress as it is right now. Let’s take the easy way out on this.”
“You think they’ll be okay with it?”
“Uh, yeah. They’re gaining a granddaughter and a son-in-law. I’m pretty sure they’ll be happy about it. I mean, not about her diagnosis, but about having her to spoil rotten in the first place. They always loved you.”
Once they’d parted ways, and he knew Hank had headed to work, Maddox took a slight detour. The jewelry store was in a small shopping plaza and he saw it nearly every day on his way to and from work.
It didn’t take him long to buy two plain bands, not the least expensive they had, but close to it. He had to guess at Hank’s ring size because he wanted this to be a surprise, so he used his middle finger as a size guide and went a little larger than that. They assured him he could swap it out if it didn’t fit.
He wanted his guy to have a ring on their wedding day.
His ring.
Back in the car, he sat there and stared at the two bands in the ring box and realized this was…real.
This was happening.
I get the guy, and the sweet kid. I get perfection.
Now all he had to do was not fuck things up.
* * * *
Thursday and Friday had the men busy with a bunch of appointments for JJ, and an intro class for managing JJ’s health, and learning how to check her blood sugar and give JJ her medicine. Eventually she’d be doing it herself, but they needed to do it for her for right now, until they had her medicine levels worked out and stabilized.
And at night, once JJ was safely asleep, the men locked their bedroom door and Hank learned what it meant to give himself to a Dominant.
To hand over all control.
Still not doing anything besides oral and handjobs, though. Not that Hank was complaining about that, because…
Daaaaamn.
Hank wasn’t sure if Dox was taking things slow in the sex department because he worried about Hank freaking out, but he didn’t question it. He’d agreed to this and, frankly?
He didn’t have any complaints about the sex he was getting. For starters, it was a lot more frequently than he’d been getting it in years.
Secondly, Dox was damned good at it.
Third…he realized he was absolutely enjoying bringing Dox pleasure. He loved the noises and faces Dox made as he got him close to the edge. He wanted to learn how to be as good at giving a blowjob as Dox was.
He loved stroking the man’s cock and watching his face as he blew cum into Hank’s hand, the way he shuddered at the end and gasped with pleasure.
He wanted it all, and more.
Then there was snuggling in bed with Dox.
As in, Hank loved doing it. After so many years alone, it was nice to have someone to cuddle up with and go to sleep next to. It honestly wasn’t awkward like he’d thought it might be, because it wasn’t much different than what they’d already been doing. Except now Hank knew he could snuggle against the man and it wouldn’t be a problem.
Saturday morning, Hank grumbled when his cell phone rang a little after eight o’clock in the morning. He’d been comfortably spooned around Dox, who now also grumbled.
“What the hell?” Dox muttered.
Hank reached behind him and blindly fumbled for the phone and dragged it to his ear. “Hello?”
“Hey, did I wake you up?” a woman asked.
“Eliza?”
“Ain’t the tooth fairy. Listen, what are you boys’ plans for the day?”
He wasn’t even awake yet. “I don’t know, I—”
“Hooo, boy. You’re still asleep, aren’t you? Put your Sir on, please. I tried calling him first but his voice mail picked up.”
Well, that was one order he’d happily follow. “Eliza. Wants to talk to you.” He put the phone in Dox’s hand and then used that arm to hook around Dox’s waist and drag him even closer to his own body.
“Hello? … No, but— … I mean, yeah, but— …”
Whatever it was, Eliza was apparently not letting Dox get a word in edgewise.
Hank closed his eyes and pressed his face against the nape of Dox’s neck. Yesterday, Hank had talked to Ken Listley and gotten the okay to be late for work Monday morning. The plan was to go back to the county courthouse, get married by a clerk, and file the paperwork. Then Dox could take JJ to the gym before he went to work and immediately start the paperwork to add Hank and JJ to his insurance plan. Hank would head straight to work after they got married. As soon as he had the insurance in place, Dox would handle updating the doctors’ offices.
Hank was almost asleep again when Dox’s words punched through enough of his brain to make sense. “Okay, thank you. We’ll see you at one.”
Hank realized he’d ended the call. “See who where at one, Sir?”
Dox snuggled against him. “We’re to be at Eliza and Rusty’s at one. June told Eliza why JJ will be late Monday morning. Apparently, they’re taking exception to us getting married without any friends present. They’re all throwing us a wedding.”
That woke Hank up again. “Huh? How are they doing that? They need someone to marry us.”
“One of their friends is a Notary and volunteered to do it when they asked her.”
“Oh.” Hank’s eyes started drifting closed again.
“All we have to do is have us, JJ, and our marriage license there at one. She said she’s taking care of the rest.”
Hank opened his eyes, but he found himself staring at the back of Dox’s head. “Really?”
“Really.”
“So…what do we do now?”
“We go back to sleep for a while. I’m still too asleep to drag you into the shower and fuck your brains out in there.”
Hank hadn’t been horny…until D
ox said that. Now his cock started inflating where it’d been pressed along the seam of Dox’s ass, separated only by their shorts.
“Oh, you did not just pop wood over me talking about fucking your brains out, did you?” Except as exhausted as Dox sounded, he also sounded amused.
Lying was forbidden, so Hank sighed in resignation. “I did, Sir.” At least the no-lying rule took a lot of the mental discomfort off his plate.
Honestly? This was the easiest relationship he’d ever had.
“Mmm.” Dox deliberately ground his ass against Hank, turning his little problem into a bigger, harder one. “Then let me take care of my boy so he’s not in misery all day.” Dox rolled him onto his back, sat up, and pulled down Hank’s shorts to suck his cock down his throat.
Hank bit back a needy groan. At least he knew the door was locked. They’d fooled around late last night and never unlocked it.
Dox shouldered Hank’s thighs apart so he had plenty of room to bob his head up and down Hank’s cock. Hank pulled a pillow under his head so he could watch him and reached down to stroke his hair, run his fingers through it.
When he came, it was with his fingers laced with Dox’s and squeezing his hand, struggling to keep his eyes open to watch while pleasure coiled and snapped inside his body, taking him over the edge.
He caught his breath and peeled his eyes open again to see Dox’s brown gaze steadily focused on him. He released Hank’s cock with a playful kiss on the head before tugging his sleep shorts back into position.
“Do you want to fuck me, Sir?” Hank said. “You can, if you want.”
* * * *
Maddox climbed up his body and kissed him. “At some point, yes. If you want me to. Right now, I’m having too much fun learning everything I can about your body before we even get to that point.”
Maddox rolled onto his back and Hank sat up. “Are you sure you’re going to get…everything you need, like this, Sir?”
“What do you mean?”
“We can’t really play because of JJ. And you’re not…” His face turned an adorable shade of pink. “Are blowjobs and handjobs enough for you, Sir?”
Maddox smiled. “They’re the start, buddy. We’re doing things backward and getting married first. I like the idea of keeping you in mental limbo for a little while, though. I meant what I said about control. That’s more important to me than spanking or play. There might be nights I tie you up and edge you and use you and make you beg to come. There might be nights we play and I see how many times I can make you come in the space of a few hours. We’re just getting started, and I’d rather take my time and do things this way. Day by day, night by night. Taking our time and having fun.”
Hank leaned in and nuzzled the front of Maddox’s shorts, which were tented by his erection. “Am I allowed to ask to make a rule, Sir?”
“Of course. This isn’t a one-way thing, buddy.”
“Then I’d like to make a rule, Sir,” he quietly said, his breath warm against Maddox’s cock, even through his shorts.
“What’s that?”
Those blue eyes of his would always hit Maddox hard in the feels. “I’m not allowed to lie to you, and I have to tell you if something’s wrong, correct?”
“Yes?”
“If you aren’t getting what you need, if you feel like you’re missing something, I want a rule in place that you’ll tell me and give me the chance to come up with a solution with you—together.”
Maddox sat up, which prompted Hank to sit up. He cupped Hank’s cheek with his hand and kissed him, taking his time and savoring it. “I promise,” Maddox said. “That’s a rule I’ll gladly agree to.”
That was the last talking they did for a while, because Hank pushed him back onto the bed and pulled Maddox’s shorts down. It wasn’t the world’s best blowjob, but every one he gave Maddox was getting better, and they were pretty good to start with.
No complaints about them, that was for sure.
What he lacked in skill he made up for in enthusiasm.
And those blue eyes of his.
Once sated, he pulled Hank into his arms to snuggle with him tucked against his side. “I think I’m going to hyphenate your last name to mine,” Maddox said. He’d been thinking about this ever since Hank had said yes.
“You don’t want me to change my name?” Hank asked.
“No, because of JJ. It’s easier to change my name.”
“What if I wanted to add your name, Sir?”
Maddox stared into his eyes. “That’d be cool.” But his heart raced in a good way at that. “Is that something you’ve been thinking about?”
“Uh, yeah. I want my husband’s name.”
“What if you’d married a woman?”
Hank shrugged. “I never really thought about it much before now, but I kind of think they should take each other’s names. Why only one? Or keep both their names.”
Maddox thought about the wedding bands he’d hidden in his laptop case. “Good point.”
* * * *
When they finally climbed out of bed, JJ wasn’t far behind them, drawn by the smell of coffee brewing.
“There’s our princess,” Maddox said, kissing the top of her head when she wandered into the kitchen. “Let’s check your blood sugar.”
She melodramatically sighed as she flounced into her chair, dropped her head to the table, and stuck her hand out. “I suppose.”
It made Maddox snicker, because he’d seen her do more of this so far than Hank had. She wasn’t seriously griping, more she was trying to make him laugh. She knew he hated having to stick her, and she wasn’t sure enough to do it yet herself.
Maddox checked her sugar levels and consulted with the instructions to verify what he was giving her and how much before he did. Her sugar was a little high, and she’d be eating shortly. They were still so early in this process that the doctors wanted to fine-tune her medications. There were all sorts of variables, like food, gymnastics, and martial arts, that could impact her sugar levels. Since she was already very active, that would help in some ways.
But already they could see the worst of her irritability, which had crept up on them over the past couple of months, was gone, as was a lot of her previous exhaustion.
And she said she felt better, too.
“So, we have a change of plans for today,” Maddox told her while Hank cooked their breakfast.
“What change?” she asked.
“Miss Eliza wants to throw us a wedding at their house today.”
She cocked her head. “Instead of the courthouse?” They’d told her their plans already, and had planned to take her along Monday morning and make her a part of it.
“Exactly. Miss June’s going to be there, too.”
She nodded, already looking excited. “I’d like that! Will there be cake?”
“I don’t know exactly what the menu will be,” he hedged. “We’ll see.”
She did an adorable little dance in her chair. “Daddy and Pop, sittin’ in a tree. To-day they’re gonna get marrieeeeed!”
Hank burst out laughing and turned from the stove. “I don’t think Walt Whitman has any worries,” he joked, making Maddox laugh even harder at her confused scowl.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
“Never mind, pumpkin,” Hank said. “You’ll find out when you hit high school.”
After a morning spent doing chores, they headed over to Eliza’s per her orders, and were shocked to find cars parked up and down their street, with one parking spot reserved for them in their driveway. They didn’t even make it up the front walk before the front door was thrown open, and they were welcomed inside with the sound of happy cheers.
Eliza led them through the house. “Guys, this is Loren and her hubby, Ross. She’s going to be the I-do officiator today.”
“Thanks for doing this.” Maddox remembered Loren and her husband from the munch he’d attended, and they’d come to JJ’s birthday party. JJ remembered them, too.
Loren smiled. “My pleasure. I’m sort of the unofficial official for this group.”
“You gave me the Kindle for my birthday!” JJ said, hugging them both.
“Yes, we did,” Loren said. “Have you been using it?”
“Every day! I loooove it!”
“We got your thank you note,” Ross said, giving JJ a little fist bump. “Your daddy is doing things right.”
She grinned up at them. “So is Pop. He helped, too.”
Maddox was still absorbing that he was really going to be JJ’s step-dad and wondered if that was ever going to get old.
He hoped not.
“Do you have anything special you want to say?” Loren asked them. “Any vows you wrote?”
Maddox met Hank’s gaze. “I want to say something when we get to that point. Whatever basic ceremony you normally use is fine.”
“I didn’t plan to say anything,” Hank added, “but I can wing it.”
They didn’t waste any time, either. Eliza hustled everyone out to the backyard, where a grill was already starting to smell pretty dang good from whatever it was they were cooking on it.
Rusty, who wore an apron, whistled for quiet, and Loren took over. “This is a last-minute addition to the weekend’s festivities,” she said. “Eliza requested I keep it short, sweet, and remind everyone if you want your meat rare you’d better tell Rusty now, if you haven’t already.”
He held up a pair of barbecue tongs and snapped them together, making everyone laugh.
June’s husband, Scrye, who made tall Rusty look small, and who JJ also loved, picked her up and settled her on his shoulders so she could easily see the ceremony. And Maddox was aware of several people taking pictures and video with their cells, which was good, because now they’d have memories of it they could look at later.
For now, all he could see was Hank.
“Join hands,” Loren said, and they did.
Maddox found himself blinking back tears and swallowing the lump in his throat.
This is really happening.
Chapter Nineteen
Night by Night Page 17
