Making His List (Naughty or Nice) (7 page)

“C’mere.” Ken pulled him down so they were lying together on the couch like spoons, Cory’s head resting in the crook of Ken’s arm. Ken’s other arm was wrapped around him with his hand splayed on Cory’s chest. Cory felt surrounded by Ken, comforted, safe.

“Why are you so good to me?”
I don’t deserve it
.

He felt Ken take a deep breath. “Because I love you.”

Cory’s jaw dropped and his heart soared with hope. He had to look at Ken’s face, see it for himself, but Ken wouldn’t let him turn over.

He struggled for a few moments. “Please.” Ken reluctantly let him move and Cory flipped around so their gazes met from inches apart. “Ken,” he whispered as he stroked his jaw and then cupped the back of Ken’s head.

“Don’t say it.” Ken appeared to be really struggling to hold himself in check.

“Don’t say what?”

His gaze dropped to somewhere around Cory’s chin. “Don’t say ‘I love you’ back just because you think you have to. Or because it’s a really emotional time right now. This was a bad time to bring it up.”

Cory’s heart went out to him. “It’s the perfect time to bring it up, because I want to start proving to you that I can earn it. I love you, and I’m so selfishly glad you love me back, even though I don’t deserve it.”

Ken frowned, and Cory felt like licking the crease between his eyes. “What do you mean you don’t deserve it?”

“I’ve treated you like crap.” Ken shook his head at Cory’s words and opened his mouth to reply, but he placed his hand against Ken’s mouth, stopping his denial. “I have. I took you for granted, and I didn’t
see
you for so long. I had everything compartmentalized into nice neat boxes, or so I thought. But you were always there in my heart. I just took forever to realize it. But I know it now. Please don’t give up on me.” His emotional resources at an all-time low, he trailed off, and thankfully Ken took pity on him, squeezing him tight before taking his mouth in the most tender, loving expression of caring Cory could imagine.

The kiss went on and on. It waxed and waned between caring and passion, comforting and arousing. At some point, Ken flipped Cory under him on the couch, settling against his accepting form, molding together from knees to mouths.

Cory pulled back. “Please don’t hold that stupid list against me. I don’t know what I was thinking. If I could do it over again, the list would have had just three letters on it.” He got a puzzled frown at that, and spelled it out for him. “K-E-N,” he whispered, and watched, delighted as Ken turned bright red. This kiss was a hard and heavy stamp of possession, and Cory moaned into Ken’s mouth, arching up beneath him as Ken pressed him into the couch.

“Uncle Cory?”

Chapter Seven

C
ORY
’
S
head snapped to the side so fast Ken almost lost a lip, and then they were both lurching from the couch and pulling Bailey into a three-way hug on their knees.

“Oh, Bails. Are you okay?” Cory smoothed her hair and ran his hand over her chilled cheeks. “I missed you, honey.” He hugged her until she squirmed to get away. Cory looked around the room. “Where’s your mom?”

“She dropped me off.” Bailey’s lip quivered. “It was the wrong house, though. So I went one way, and then I remembered where to go.”

Ken’s jaw clenched and Cory sent up a thankful prayer to whoever helped her get home safely. “Let’s get you ready for bed, okay?”

“Tomorrow’s the holiday party at school, right? Can I wear my Santa sweater?”

Cory smiled despite his inner anger toward Becky, happy to have Bailey safe and thinking good thoughts. “Of course, but it’s really
, really
late. So if you want to go to school tomorrow, you need to get to bed.”

Bailey scrambled for the stairs. “I’m going to bed right now!”

Cory sat back on his heels watching her go, hands to his mouth, stunned and weak with relief. 

“It’s okay. See? She’s back safe. Everything’s okay.” Ken was soothing him, and he didn’t even know why until he pulled his hands away from his face to find them damp with the tears he hadn’t felt himself shedding.

“I know. I’m just so happy and pissed and relieved. What am I going to do about her?”

“Well, tonight let’s start by tucking her in safe and sound. Then we’ll call the police and tell them about her being dropped off.” Ken pulled Cory up against him, his cock full of promise against his own. “Then I’m going to take you to bed and show you just how much love you deserve.”

K
EN
felt a strange sense of déjà vu as they went through Bailey’s bedtime, but the rightness of doing it with Cory in their newfound love for each other made it infinitely more rewarding. Bailey was exhausted, and Ken had a feeling they got her in bed just in the nick of time, right before the impending meltdown.

Disaster averted, he sat with Cory as he called the officer from before, who promised to come out the next night and talk with Bailey to find out more information about where she’d been let out of the car. Charges of child endangerment were possible, and the officer advised Cory off the record to find a lawyer who specialized in custody challenges and guardianship first thing in the morning.

There was obviously a lot churning through Cory’s mind, so Ken took charge and led him into the bathroom and began to strip him down.

“You’re giving me another shower?”

“Yes, but try not to pass out this time,” he joked as he pulled Cory’s shirt over his head and then made quick work of his pants and socks.

“Ha ha. Your turn.” Cory impatiently pulled at the T-shirt Ken had thrown on when he got Cory’s frantic message earlier. Ken obliged him by skinning it off and then watched amused as Cory depantsed him. “You went commando? You never go commando.”

“I was in a hurry,” Ken replied, a bit breathlessly because now Cory had Ken’s cock in his hand and was stroking his length.

“My hero.” Cory’s words were teasing as he led Ken into the shower, but his mien was serious. Cory adjusted the water, and they came together, slick skin on skin under the warm spray.

“Thank you for not giving up on me,” Cory murmured against his lips.

Ken pushed him up against the tiled wall, swallowing his gasp of reaction. “If you’re going to say things like that, this is going to be a short fucking shower.”

“Mmm. Okay.”

Ken shook his head, but couldn’t stop a grin from surfacing. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Love me.” Cory’s eyes were wide and vulnerable, and Ken couldn’t resist kissing them closed.

“I plan to.” Suddenly needing the flexibility of a horizontal surface, he abruptly turned off the water. “Do you realize it’s been two weeks since we last—”

“Made love?” Cory offered as they each grabbed a towel and took turns drying the other off.

“Exactly.” He looked dubiously at the bedroom door as they left the bathroom. “Did you lock the door? She’s getting into a habit of sneaking up on us.”

“Oh.” Cory looked worried. “I don’t want to have her come looking for me and be locked out.”

Ken walked over and turned the lock. “She can knock. And I’ll unlock it afterwards.
And
put on pajamas.” He pushed a smiling Cory down on the bed and crawled atop him. “I never thought I’d be a dad.”

“I want you to. I want us both to be her dads.” Cory needn’t have looked so worried, but it was a cute look on him.

“Then that’s exactly what we’ll make happen somehow. We’ll start tomorrow and won’t stop until she’s our little girl, safe and sound. Okay?” He pinned Cory’s quiescent body beneath him, feeling satisfaction at the press of Cory’s warm, hard erection against his own. “Tonight, I just want to fuck you until you forget your name.”

“Oh God, that sounds good. Stop talking and start fucking.”

They didn’t stop rubbing against one another as they both laughed, it just seemed to enhance their arousal somehow to share little jokes. Ken pressed his mouth to Cory’s and it opened at once, inviting him inside. Their tongues dueled, breaths comingling until it was as if they shared their souls.

Ken could have stayed in that moment forever, but suddenly it was Cory urging him on, showing him with his lips and hands how needful he was. His urgency was contagious, and Ken moved down Cory’s body, glancing up once at his intent expression before he took the firm silky head of Cory’s cock into his mouth.

Cory’s wordless, begging sounds drove him on as he sated himself on Cory’s length, working his essence onto his tongue and then pressing with his lips firmly down his shaft, hollowing on the way back up. Ken set a slow, steady pace he knew wouldn’t be fast enough for Cory, purposely drawing things out. He glanced up at Cory, teasing him with his tongue. The moment their eyes met, Cory’s muscles tensed and Ken could tell the edge was near.

Finally allowing himself to be pushed onto his back, Cory dove down his body and latched onto his cock with a ferocity they’d not yet reached. Whether it was comfort, relief, or love driving him, he needed. Now.

“Grab the stuff,” he ordered gruffly, and Cory pulled off with eye-crossing suction before reaching for the lube and a condom. Then he lay back invitingly, holding them up. Ken grabbed the lube and wasted no time in slicking two fingers and starting to prep Cory’s grasping entrance. He groaned as Cory quickly accepted his ministrations, stretching like a dream.

“I can’t wait until we can do without those things. I want to come so hard inside you, fill you up.” Ken couldn’t believe the depths of his possessiveness now that Cory had finally declared himself his. “You’re never going to look at another man again. Never going to get a call from a random guy.”

“I never went out with him, Ken. Never touched him. I told him I wasn’t interested, that my heart was taken.”

Ken stopped, stunned. “You said that? We weren’t even talking then.”

“Maybe not, but you still had my heart.”

Those nimble fingers were rolling the rubber down his length and he was nearly frantic trying to control his need enough to give him time to prepare Cory.

“Just do it,” Cory groaned as Ken slid the third finger into that warm clinging passage alongside his first two.

“Not going to hurt you, babe. Don’t ask me to.”

“It won’t hurt me, I’m so freaking ready it’s ridiculous. Do this with your cock. C’mon, stretch me with this.” He squeezed Ken’s erection, hard, and it was almost over right then.

“Okay, Cory, you want it, you’ve got it. Just tell me if—”

“Yeah, yeah. Fucking fuck me. Please.” It was the little break in the voice in that plea that did it, and Ken complied, replacing his fingers with his cock and pressing into Cory with a steady push that had Cory’s eyes rolling back in his head.

“Good?” Ken bottomed out and held still. “Cor?”

“Oh, yeah. God, you feel good.” Cory’s voice was breathy, and it drove Ken crazy to think he’d caused that reaction. It made him want to….

He thrust at the same time as he took Cory’s erection in a firm grip with the hand he’d been using to lube Cory. “
You
feel good.” Ken set up a tandem assault. He found the perfect slide as he pumped that gorgeous prick with one hand and braced himself to thrust deep before withdrawing almost completely.

Each time he reached that point, Cory made a little noise of protest, and it was the sexiest fucking sound he’d ever heard. Ken did it over and over, feeding off Cory’s uninhibited reactions. It had always been good between them, but this, this was amazing.

“Love you, Cor. I love you.”

“I love you too. Ken, I’m—”

Ken slammed his mouth down on Cory’s, not wanting to hear an apology or anything else, wanting the beautiful sound of Cory’s declaration ringing as he approached the pinnacle. He increased the speed and pressure of his pulls on Cory’s cock. “C’mon, babe. Show me you love me. Give it all to me.”

Cory’s eyelids fluttered closed, and he rocked up against Ken. Ken could feel the first clench around his length before Cory shot ropes of pearly white ejaculate, streaking his chest from his nipples down to his pubes. His hazel eyes opened and locked on Ken’s, and the love burning in them was all it took to bring Ken over the edge. They drifted together for a few minutes as they recovered, Ken braced over Cory, thinking about how far they’d come since their first time together in this bed.

“Wow,” Cory gasped. “That was intense.”

“Mmm hmm.” Ken forced himself to move enough to take care of cleaning up and then pulled Cory up against his side. Finally able to act without hesitation, he urged Cory onto his shoulder. “I think I need to make a list too.”

Cory raised his upper body, a self-deprecating twist of his lips looking out of place on his otherwise sated face. “Do a better job than I did.”

“It’ll be short and sweet. You. Bailey. Our little family is all I want.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with Bailey and Beck.” A shadow crossed Cory’s face. “God, tonight, when we didn’t know….”

He traced his hand across Cory’s jaw line. “Hey. She’s asleep down the hall. And tomorrow we’ll go and find the best legal team we can to make this permanent. Whatever it takes.” Ken urged Cory’s head back onto his shoulder. “Then we need to go do some more Christmas shopping while she’s at school.”

“You noticed that too, huh.”

“Yeah. I’m going to spoil her, I know it.” He shrugged with his free shoulder. “I just want to make you both as happy as you’ve made me.”

“Spoil away.” Ken could hear the grin in Cory’s voice. “Tell you what, we’ll both make a new list tomorrow. I can think of a few more things I really want.”

“As long as I’m at the top.”

“Always.”