Succumbing To His Fear (22 page)

“Morning my babies, I bring you coffee and breakfast. Alfie told me you were both here early and I know my boys. They would be moaning about wanting coffee and food but not getting off their little booties to go and get any.” It hadn’t taken long for Alfie’s mother Sheridan to get to know us and our ways. The woman was like a damn tornado and all of us were just swept up along with her. The moment she found out that none of us had parents to speak off and hadn’t had throughout most of our childhoods, she immediately went into mother hen mode and declared us all her children. She took the role seriously.

Alfie was her biological son and he didn’t seem to mind in the least. According to him, it was nice that he got to finally share some of the crazy. I loved her instantly and grasped onto everything that she offered with both hands. Yes, I was a thirty-one-year-old man, but I had always wanted a mother. It was the one thing I’d never had and couldn’t make for myself. None of our group had a family in the traditional sense, and it was the something that we all secretly craved, no matter how much each of us denied it. Lacking the traditional family, we created our own version. We each had our role. Fear was the dad or protector. Hayley the motherly big sister. James, Carter and me where the brothers along with Drake, who entered the family later than the rest of us but was no less important.

And it worked. The six of us had been content with our self-made family and none of us had been looking to add to it. We all had baggage and trust was not easy for any of us. That all changed when Alfie and the Nuggets entered the picture bringing with them his mom and stepfather Ben. Around that same time, Hayley had given birth to JJ, and John had come home from a long tour overseas, making our family of six grow to thirteen almost overnight. Not one of us questioned the new additions, feeling as Fear had, that they were meant to be there.

“Thanks Mama,” I said, swooping up my coffee and kissing her on the cheek.

“Thank you, Sheridan,” Fear, still snuggling a now sleeping JJ whispered.

“Anything for my boys.” She walked over to Hayley and continued, “And girls.” Hayley gave a tired smile and rested her head on her arms atop the desk.

“Why don’t you go home and get some rest or go in the back and lie down on the couch and have a nap. We’ll watch JJ,” Fear offered. It sounded like a good offer to me, but before Hayley could respond, the door opened again and Alfie, Griffin, and Lily walk in.

Griffin saw me and headed straight towards me holding out what looked like the coloring homework I had given him only yesterday. He wasn’t half-bad for a seven-year-old, a hard worker that was for sure. He was determined to become the best skin painter in all the world and nothing was going to stop him from achieving that goal.

“Here Uncle Tate, I finished your homework. I wanted to give it to you early because I wanna go watch the football match,” Griffin said excitedly. 

“It’s a football game, Nugget,” Alfie corrected. Griffin placed his drawings in my hands.

“Football game,” he repeated as if he was committing the word to memory.

“What football game?” I asked.

“Talon brought Tristan by this morning to ask if Fear would come and watch his football try out. He said that his dad and sister would be there and he wanted you there, too as you had never seen him play.” He shook his head before he continued. “He was so nervous, and when I told him you weren’t home, he looked gutted.”

“What time is it?” Fear asked. I knew he was struggling with the fact that not only did he have a father he knew nothing about until recently, but three siblings as well. They all wanted to get to know him, but letting people in was never easy for him. It was a miracle that he’d let the Nuggets and Alfie in. You only had to watch the four of them all together for a second to see they were each other’s perfect halves and were only whole when they were together.

“He called you Hunter. Why’d he do that?” Lily cut in.

“I guess he doesn’t know me as Fear yet,” Fear explained.

“Are you gonna come to the game tries?” Griffin asked.

“He invited us all, well Talon invited us all. I think it’s only been them and their dad for a long time and little Tristan, I guess I should say not so little Tristan; he’s the same height as me. He really is your brother isn’t he?” Alfie rambled on, losing his train of thought.

“Alfie, you’re rambling,” Mama Sheri said, trying to get Alfie back on track.

“Right, yeah, sorry. Anyway, what I trying to say was I think he wants to get to know his big brother and his family and maybe convince them that if he is good enough they might want to get to know him too.”

“I’ll be there. I know I need to make more of an effort. Dane gave me the space he promised when they first moved here, and what with everything else changing, I’ve let that space grow too big.” He stopped, and then asked Alfie, “Talon spoke to you?”

“He wrote it down, but he was the one to ask us all to come along.”

“Why did he write it down? Talon is the middle son isn’t he? When I saw him at the party, I thought he was awfully quite,” Sheridan said, almost as if talking to herself.

“He doesn’t talk. According to Dane, he has a severe stutter. So severe that it’s sometimes hard to understand him. Because of some problems he had growing up with it, he retreated and now hardly ever talks. He writes everything down,” Fear explained. Fuck, that must’ve have been rough growing up.

“I’m in,” Hayley said.

“Me too, and I’ll call the guys and see if they’re up for it too. The shop is shut today anyway. May as well show the Parker family we’re a united front. If they want you, they have to take the rest of us too,” I stated with a smile. Because not only was it true, but little Parker was not going to know what hit him come afternoon. His cheering section had grown by thirteen. And it looked like our thirteen may have grown again by four.

“Talon said to text him and let him know. I think it would mean a lot if that text came from you,” Alfie pushed. That was a perfect example of why he was perfect for Fear, he wasn’t afraid to push him. Most people were too scared to ask Fear for directions or the time.

“Give me the fucking number,” Fear grumbled. But I could hear the smile that he was trying to hide and so could everyone else.

“Fear, that’s a bad word. Where’s my dollar for the bad word pot? I need me some new shoes.” All of us were stunned by Lily’s comment and were struck silent for a second. Alfie was the first to shake off the shock and he did it true Alfie fashion.

Staring daggers at Sheridan, he warned, “Mother, you’re now only allowed supervised visits. Do you hear me? Look what you’ve done,” Alfie whisper-shouted in exasperation. “You created a mini you,” he finished with an arm flourish and pointed to where Lily was mirroring Sheridan’s body language. Her little hands were on her hips and she wore a scowl on her adorable face, trying to look stern. 

Sheridan, who was looking down at Lily with undeniable love and pride-filled glee, said, “I know. Isn’t it great?”

“No, Mother! It is not great, not great at all. One of you is enough,” Alfie shouted, outraged. At which point everyone lost the battle at holding back their laughter and it erupted in a loud chorus. “Argh! You people are impossible. I’m truly not seeing anything funny. I’m doomed. Doomed, I tell you, and if I am, so are all of you.” Then turning to Fear he said, “I don’t know what you find this funny. You know my mother now, at the ripe old age of sixty. Can you imagine what she was like as a teenager?” Pointing to his mother, he announced, “She has another 15 years to corrupt Lily even more. Think about that and see how funny it is.” Fear stopped laughing immediately, which only caused Hayley and me to lose it even more.

Sheridan zoned in on one of the words in Alfie’s diatribe. And having gotten to know Alfie pretty well, her outrage was exactly why he’d said it. “SIXTY! You little shit! I am not fucking SIXTY. Why, I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.”

“Gamma you owe me two dollars for your bad words. We can get you some color pens too now Finny,” Lily happily told her brother. Griffin’s eyes lit up and smiled in response.

Yep, I loved my newly extended family. They were bat shit crazy but we all needed a little crazy in our lives to remind us we were alive and to live for the now, not just go through the motions and watch life pass by.  

Vegas is a hot phone sex operator who knows just how to make your deepest, darkest fantasies come true either with a gentle whisper in your ear or with a rough growling command. When he’s in control, you know you’re in good hands. Vegas can tickle or scratch whatever itch or fetish a caller can throw at him.

But his job at the exclusive ‘Black Vanilla’ has its dark side, which becomes all too clear when Vegas receives a call one night that hits a little too close to home.

Somewhere out there, someone’s watching him. Someone who’s taken their fantasy one-step too far. It isn’t long before Vegas finds himself entangled in a web of dark and dangerous obsession. An obsession that can only end one way.

“Dirty Talk” will take you deep into the world of stimulating oral desire and blur the lines that exist between our ultimate fantasies and harsh reality.

(While this book does contain dirty talk.... it DOES NOT contain...'disgusting talk', Joey does a great job of giving you some kink but not making you uncomfortable.)