The Professor and the Manny

by Trina Solet

  "He's a dead man," Ned said. That was fine by him. He had no compassion for the man who tried to hurt Mina.

  Even after the FBI agents left, Ned was still in shock. He didn't go get Mina from the Lawrences' right away. He wanted to pull himself together first, but that wasn't easy when he thought about what could have happened to her.

  As they stood together in the living room, Jeff said what Ned was only thinking. "I can't believe all this. Poor Mina. How can anyone...?" Jeff shook his head.

  "Thank God you were there," Ned said and hugged him then he pulled back a little so he wouldn't hurt his injured side and his arm. To think that he almost lost the two most important people in his life.

  "I almost wasn't. I was going to leave." Jeff sounded out of breath when he said that. It must have hit him how differently things would have turned out without him there to protect Mina.

  "That's right. You were too quick to jump to conclusions and run away," Ned scolded him. He remembered the pain of watching him leave too well to let him off the hook just yet.

  "I'm sorry. I only wanted to protect you guys," Jeff said.

  "You did. You saved my little girl's life." Ned threw his arms around him again.

  "I'm still sorry I tried to leave."

  "You should be," Ned said sternly, while still holding onto him. He wished he could hug him harder, but he didn't want to hurt him.

  "And I'll keep apologizing as long as you want me to," Jeff vowed.

  "I'm satisfied for now and grateful," Ned said but he could hardly breathe when he thought that Mina had been in so much danger and he didn't even know it.

  Jeff must have noticed the haunted look on his face. He rubbed his back and told him, "She's safe now, and we're all together."

  His days were back to normal, but at night, Ned was tormented by what might have happened to Mina and Jeff. That gave Ned little reason to rush off to bed. Mina had been in bed for a few hours while Ned stayed in his den and away from Jeff. Too much was on his mind, and he wasn't sure he wanted to tempt fate by being with Jeff so soon when he was still recovering from his injuries.

  Tired of sitting behind his desk, Ned got up, stretched and decided to put away some files. It was busywork but he needed to keep busy so he could stay halfway sane. That's when he heard Jeff's footsteps in the hall, approaching then stopping right at his door.

  Maybe Jeff just wanted to say good night. No. Jeff wasn't going anywhere. Ned knew it though he stayed turned toward his desk. Closing then locking the door, Jeff stalked toward him. Ned gave him a sideways glance, but only for a second, only long enough to catch sight of his predatory gaze.

  "Am I so hard to look at?" Jeff asked when Ned refused to turn and face him.

  "Hardly. I just didn't want to ogle you," Ned said.

  "Yes, it's so much better when you ignore me," Jeff complained.

  "I'm not ignoring you. I couldn't even if I tried," he said and looked into his eyes. Jeff's eyes were too intense and his gaze reached too deep inside him to be resisted. Still Ned somehow managed to continue explaining himself. "There's been a lot going on and I had a lot on my mind."

  "I know. I was thinking that you might still be mad at me for trying to leave," Jeff said with a questioning look in his eyes.

  Ned shook his head. "That's not it. I wanted to take it easy on you because you were hurt. This is just me trying to be a good guy or at least a halfway decent guy," he explained.

  "And if I want you to be the bad guy?" Jeff prompted him.

  Ned sighed and turned back toward his desk.

  "So you want me to be the bad guy," Jeff said as he stepped close behind him and placed his hands on the edge of the desk on either side of Ned.

  "You're being bad alright," Ned said as he forced himself to breathe evenly so he wouldn't give away how the nearness of Jeff's body made him lose control.

  Ned was dying to lean back into him that's why he didn't dare move. He was trapped. And then his situation got even worse. Jeff placed his hands on his arms and drew them down. Ned shuddered and his head fell back just right to land against Jeff's shoulder. Why did he have to be so tall?

  Jeff's hands left his arms but came back to rub up and down his sides. A low grunt left Ned's throat. Slowly Jeff's hands slid around to his front and his well-muscled arms wrapped around Ned's waist. Restless, one hand went up to rub Ned's chest while the fingers teased the buttons of his shirt.

  Groggy with rising lust, Ned made a weak move to put a stop to things. It was too soon for this. Jeff wasn't recovered all the way. He placed his hand over Jeff's and stopped it right over his heart. The same heart that was beating out of control.

  Jeff didn't fail to notice. "Your heart is going crazy."

  "That's you," Ned said, his voice thick and shaky.

  For a moment, Jeff only breathed. "I'm in there?" he asked hesitantly.

  "For a while now," Ned admitted.

  "So you haven't been ignoring me?" Jeff said and he sounded kind of afraid, like he knew what Ned might say next.

  "I've been loving you," Ned confessed and the arms that had been holding him squeezed him tighter.

  Then Jeff was turning him around roughly and his mouth was on him, hard and demanding. Ned lost himself in his kiss and in his steely embrace. Jeff was all there was, just the two of them, and it felt so right.

  Chests pressed together, hearts beating hard, they held on tight to one another. Held against his body by Jeff's arms wrapped around him too tight so neither of them could breathe, Ned shuddered and moaned into that incredible kiss. After staying away from him all this time, he never wanted to let go. But he did.

  He let the weight of his feelings drag him down. Ned's knees hit the floor and he looked up at Jeff with adoration.

  "Don't move, just let me worship you for a while," Ned instructed him.

  "Worship?" Jeff wondered at the word.

  "Yes. This body deserves to be worshiped," Ned told him as he freed his cock. Then he looked deep into his eyes. "You deserve to be worshipped."

  "I'm already going crazy over you, you're killing me," Jeff said just as Ned started working on his cock.

  Rolling his balls in a gentle grip, he licked every inch of his cock until he had Jeff shaking, unsteady on his strong, muscular legs. Instead of holding on to the desk for support, Jeff's hands were in his hair, his only handhold.

  Ned started taking him into his mouth with excruciating slowness then pulled back out until he was sucking only on the head. He alternated sucking and licking and teasing the head with his tongue.

  In the throes of lust and love, Ned savored every thick, rock hard inch of him until neither one of them could take any more. He took him down as far as he could go over and over again.

  Ned pulled his own cock free and pumped it. Matching the rhythm as he started to suck Jeff faster and harder, Ned worked him relentlessly now. His fist was a blur, his mouth tight around Jeff's cock until they were both coming.

  Boneless and spent Jeff was sliding down against the desk while Ned was swallowing. He couldn't stay on his feet, and that was OK. Ned took hold of him and gathered him in his arms.

  "What did you do to me?" Jeff asked in a breathless whisper then laughed.

  "Showed you I love you," Ned told him.

  As he kissed his lips lightly, Jeff looked dazed and happy. Ned lowered his forehead to Jeff's and just let him breathe for a minute. Once he got his breath back, he tilted his head for a more thorough kiss. Their kiss slowing, getting lazy, Jeff cupped his face and stroked his beard.

  "Can you tell how much I love you?" Ned asked moving his lips against Jeff's as he spoke.

  Jeff closed his eyes for a moment then answered. "Yes." His eyelids opened slowly and he looked deep into Ned's eyes. "And I love you too."

  Chapter 28

  The next morning, Ned came to him and told him that he had decided it was past time to tell Mina about him and Jeff. Jeff agreed, but he hadn't wanted to push him after everything that happene
d. The two of them joined her in the living room where she was playing with the kitten.

  "I have news Mina. Good news," Ned told her.

  She picked up the kitten. Sitting on the couch, she put the kitten on her lap so she could hear the news as well. Now they were both ready to listen to what Ned had to tell her.

  "You know how you like Jeff?" Ned said to her.

  Mina nodded and then smiled up at Jeff.

  "Well, I like him too. So I decided that Jeff should be my boyfriend," Ned told her.

  She nodded again then held up the kitten. "And Princess Strawberry Pie," she said, but Ned obviously had no idea why she was bringing the cat into it.

  "I don't think she's involved," Ned told Mina and shook his head.

  She probably only understood the head shake though. "Yes," Mina insisted.

  Ned looked at Jeff helplessly. At first, Jeff was just as confused, but then he smiled. He kneeled down to talk to Mina.

  "You mean that all four of us like each other and we should all be together, is that right?" Jeff asked her.

  "Yes. All together," Mina confirmed.

  Jeff laughed and hugged her. "It's a deal. You, me, your dad, and Princess Strawberry Pie."

  Mina was happy now, and Ned kneeled down to join the hug with that horribly named kitten in the middle of it.

  They were all happy together but a little later, Mina was already rejecting her dad.

  "I want Jeff talking, not you," Mina said.

  "Ouch, my poor, hurt feelings," Ned said and clutched at his heart.

  "Sorry, Professor Daddy," she said and hugged him, but she still insisted on talking only to Jeff.

  "We have to busy," Mina said to him once her dad had gone off to sulk in his den.

  "We do?" Jeff said while trying to figure out what she meant. "We have to get busy?"

  "Birthday busy," she said.

  "Who is having a birthday?"

  "Professor Daddy."

  "He is? When?" Jeff asked.

  "Soon."

  "Do you know the day?"

  "Soon."

  Realizing that was all the information he was going to get out of her, Jeff tried a different question. "Who told you?"

  "Uncle Carl on the FacePhone."

  "FacePhone? FaceTime. OK." Jeff thought about it. He had never spoken to Ned's brother, so he decided to call Nora and ask her when Ned's birthday was. Mina hovered next to him anxiously. She was ready to get to work right now.

  After he spoke to Nora, he gave Mina the news. "His birthday is Friday."

  Mina nodded.

  "That is soon, so I guess we better get busy. You want to throw him a party?" Jeff asked.

  "Birthday party and balloons and cake," Mina said.

  "All of that." Jeff looked out at the back yard. He was almost finished with his work on the gazebo, though he did get delayed by his injuries. "We can have the party out there. I'll make sure to finish the gazebo and we'll..."

  "Dollhouse," she corrected him.

  "OK. I'll finish the dollhouse and we can decorate it for the birthday party."

  Mina smiled at him excitedly. He could tell how much Ned's birthday meant to her. And Jeff had to make some plans of his own, including the right gift. "We'll go shopping and get party supplies and presents," he told Mina.

  "Present." Mina's eyes went wide and she gasped. Obviously a present was a big deal to her. For a minute, she was so overwhelmed by the idea of choosing a present that she had to go and get Princess Strawberry Pie and hug her.

  "Don't worry. Your dad will like whatever you get him," Jeff said, smiling at her. "He'll love it as much as you love Princess Strawberry Pie."

  She looked down at the kitten and then back at Jeff like she couldn't quite believe he could love her present that much.

  They started planning and looking up what the party supply stores had on their websites. Jeff didn't want to promise something he couldn't deliver. When Ned came into the living room, he wanted to know what they were doing. Jeff was about to tell him it was a secret, but Mina had a different answer.

  "Birthday surprise," she told her dad.

  Jeff and Ned looked at each other. Maybe she didn't know what the word surprise meant.

  "Wow. I love surprises," Ned told her.

  "Pink balloons," she told him and showed him a picture of the bright pink balloons on the tablet Jeff was using.

  "Maybe your dad would like..." Jeff started to say, hoping to talk her out of so much pink, but Ned shook his head.

  "Anything she wants," he said.

  "Your birthday is all for Mina, isn't it?" Jeff said after Mina went into the back yard to play with the kitten.

  "She gets more out of it than I ever could," Ned told him.

  Jeff gave him the basics of their plan for his birthday. "We're having a party in the back yard. We can put the new grill to good use, and I'll have the gazebo finished in plenty of time."

  "She keeps calling it a dollhouse," Ned said while he looked at the almost complete structure. "I thought by now she might notice that it's not."

  "I guess that means you're having a birthday in a dollhouse," Ned said and kissed him.

  They made a guest list together and planned some adult food and drink. Then Ned tried to give him money for his own birthday shopping.

  "Are you trying to finance your own birthday party? That's not how this works," Jeff told him.

  "OK. But don't go overboard," Ned said and put away his wallet.

  Jeff agreed and gave him another quick kiss.

  To find the perfect gift from Mina, she and Jeff looked in a few different stores. Nothing they looked at got her attention as much as the contents of vending machines. That gave Jeff an idea.

  "I know what you can do. You can make your dad a basket of goodies," Jeff told her as they stood in front a vending machine full of drinks in front of yet another store that had nothing good enough for Mina to buy for her dad.

  "Goodies?" she said.

  "Yes. We'll get a nice, big basket and fill it with snacks from all the vending machines. We'll put a big bow on the basket too. It will look really nice," he told her.

  Mina clapped. He wasn't sure how Ned was going to feel about it, but she liked the idea. They raided a bunch of vending machines and then Mina carefully arranged the snacks in a big basket that Jeff was sure was left over from Easter. It had chicks and bunnies on it. They decorated it with a big, purple bow. It was a thing of beauty.

  "Is good?" Mina asked worriedly when it was done. She peered at it from every angle to make sure.

  "Of course it is. It's great. Your dad will definitely know how much you love him," Jeff told her.

  She was happy to hear it, but she needed more assurances. "Is it best good?"

  "It's the best, yes," Jeff told her. "It's going to be the best present and the best birthday party any Professor Daddy ever had."

  Once they set aside that project, it was on to the next task. Jeff got out a big, pink piece of construction paper and set it up on the kitchen table.

  "We're going to write in big letters 'Happy Birthday, Dad,'" Jeff told her.

  "Daddy," she corrected him.

  "Not Professor Daddy?" Jeff asked.

  She thought about it then she whispered, "Daddy."

  Chapter 29

  On the day of the party, the back yard was full of guests, snacks, borrowed tables and chairs, and crazy, pink decorations. Mina handled the crowd pretty well. After Ned and Jeff were sure she was OK being among the guests, they let Cici, professor Alvarez's daughter, take charge of her and the kitten.

  Cici's brother, Noel, pretended he wasn't jealous of Mina having a kitten. He knew dogs were better than cats anyway. When Professor Swensen's kids heard him, they all got into a big argument about it. With all of them there, it was one more reason to think this might be a kid's birthday party.

  When Nora arrived, she couldn't believe her eyes. "Wow, you must really love pink," she teased Ned.

  "It's my
favorite color," Ned told her. "But this is mostly Jeff's fault."

  Nora smiled at both of them. "You two would do anything for your little Mina, wouldn't you?"

  "Anything," Ned said and Jeff agreed with all his heart.

  Then they looked at each other, and Jeff thought how there was someone else he felt that way about. He had two people in his life he loved more than he ever thought was possible.

  Though most of the guests were already there, Ned kept looking around like he expected someone else to arrive. Then Jeff saw who Ned had been waiting for, and he was stunned. Coming around from the side of the house were Jeff's mom, her husband, Jack, and his three little daughters.

  "I invited them here as a surprise for you," Ned told him.

  "This is your birthday. You're supposed to get the surprises," Jeff said as they went over to greet the new arrivals.

  "I couldn't just sit on my hands while you guys did all this for me," Ned said.

  Jeff hugged his mom and then introduced everyone.

  "This is your birthday party, right?" Jeff's mom asked Ned as she stared around her in confusion.

  "My daughter, Mina, did the decorating," Ned said.

  "And I let her do whatever she wanted," Jeff said as he kept his arm around his mom. He was so happy to see her.

  Meanwhile Jack's daughters couldn't contain themselves another second as they looked at the gazebo decorated with pinks streamers and balloons. The youngest girl was about a year older than Mina. The oldest was nine or ten.

  "Go ahead before you burst," their father told them. They ran off to join Mina, Cici, Noel, Professor Swensen's kids and the kitten.

  "I guess no little girl can resist a gazebo," Ned said.

  "This whole party is right up their alley," Jeff's mother said. She was still amazed at the pink cotton candy explosion she saw all around her. Her husband seemed nonplussed though.

  Ned asked him about that. "You're taking all this in stride."