Niko never had this sense of family to begin with. Never had a father in his life at all, and a mother with no warmth.
And barely any sense of love at all, for most of his life.
“Hey,” I tell Aaron as I walk over to the living room and the two of them finish a round of the racing game. “I’m stealing Niko for a minute.”
“We’re about to do the death battle!” Aaron protests.
“I’ll bring him back, I’ll bring him back,” I tell him.
I take Niko upstairs and lean him back against the wall in the hallway, kissing him.
“You take me upstairs just to kiss me, Ollie?” he murmurs, looking at my lips as I break for a breath.
“You don’t seem that upset about it.”
“I’ll kiss you anytime, anywhere,” he says, dipping to kiss me on my neck, too.
“I just wanted to be with you. Only you. Just for a minute. Niko, do you know how much I fucking love you?”
“I love you, too.”
“But Ireallylove you. I love seeing you out there withmy family. Love seeing you in Onyx House, or down the aisle when we go to the grocery store, or even across the fucking quad at school.”
“Too many compliments. Too much love. I’m shutting down.”
I suck in a breath. “I know, I know.”
It’s going to take a while before Niko feels like any of this is normal. For him, it never has been.
But that doesn’t mean I’m ever going to shut up about it, either.
He leans in and bites my lower lip.
“I’ve never felt like this before, Oliver. I’m not always good at beingvulnerable, and you know that. But I promise you that in my mind, I feel like I’ve won some kind of lottery. Being with a family that accepts me isn’t something I ever thought I’d get to experience.”
“Well, you have ‘em now. They all like you more than they like me, I think.”
He puffs out a laugh.
“I think it would be impossible not to love you, Ollie. Which reminds me. I’m filming you tonight.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Filming me? Here?”
He holds up a finger then shimmies off toward my bedroom, coming back out with his black backpack in hand.
He pulls out something shiny and silver, and I realize it’s a pair of handcuffs.
“Want a video of you cuffed to your bedpost. For my personal collection.”
My cock throbs and a tingle goes down my back. “Everything we do is for your personal collection now. Filmed or not.”
He squeezes my bulge and drags the edge of the metal cuffs along my chest. “Later tonight.”
“Fuck, don’t get me hard when I need to go downstairs again in a minute.”
“Fine,” he says, giving me one last squeeze before putting the cuffs away again. “But you are fuckingminetonight.”
He goes off to put the backpack in my room again then joins me in the hall again, putting an innocent look on his face.