Daniel tapped James’s shoulder. “I think what she wants to know is what she might have done to make you this way.” Daniel swallowed. “Grace, you did nothing at all. You raised a good son. There’s no doubt about that.” She needed to be reassured.
“But… I heard…” She really seemed confused.
“Most of what you heard was probably misinformation spread by people who don’t know anything anyway. There is nothing that either of you did to make James gay. You brought him up the best you knew how, and he turned out to be a kind, strong man.” Daniel half expected Grace to get angry, but she simply nodded.
“But what do we do now?” Grace asked.
“Just love him and accept him for who he is.” Daniel quietly excused himself and returned to the living room. James and his parents talked for a while more, their voices softer.
“I think we should go to bed. I’m talked out for tonight.” James joined him in the living room. “It’s after midnight. Do you want me to take you to a hotel? I can if you really want me to. Mom has calmed down a great deal, though.” James hefted a suitcase.
“Let’s just go on to bed.” Daniel stifled a yawn. This day had been a lot more than he ever bargained for.
“Okay.” James carried Daniel’s suitcases back to their room, closing the door behind them. “Thank you. I was running out of ways to try to make them understand, and what you said was perfect.”
“Actually, your mom and dad took it pretty well. They didn’t kick you out, and you even threatened to never see them again and they didn’t bite. That’s one thing in your favor.” Daniel sat on the edge of the bed, losing the battle with the next yawn. “On a bright note, you don’t need to hide your life from your parents any longer.”
James sat next to him. “I wish that were true. My mother may have seemed a little cowed tonight, but she never gives up anything that easily. I’m willing to bet that tomorrow she’ll be back at it again. It’s what she does. If the world doesn’t go her way, retreat, gather your forces, and then attack again…and again.”
“What does she think you’re going to do, turn straight?” Daniel chuckled behind his hand. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“She’ll push every woman she can find at me in case I haven’t met the right one yet. It’s just a matter of her regrouping.” James nodded. “But I think I can deal with it now. They know part of who I am that they didn’t before.”
“What about Holly and Margot?” Daniel asked.
James shook his head. “I expected Margot to come home with Mom and Dad, so I don’t know where she is, probably at Holly’s. They were shocked, and I didn’t have a chance to talk to either of them.” He lowered his head, and Daniel put an arm around him.
“I saw Weston when his friends took him out of the restaurant. He was pretty messed up.” Daniel smiled and lifted James’s chin. “Why did you do that?”
“He started in on you, and I saw red,” James said. “He could have attacked me all he wanted and I wouldn’t have cared, but the asshole went after you, and…”
Daniel closed the distance between them, sealing James’s lips with his own. Daniel pressed James back onto the bed, rolling slowly until he straddled James, kissing him harder, not wanting to break the connection between them.
“James…” Grace said from the other side of the door.
“Not now…” Daniel growled and turned back to James, determined that he was going to get what had been denied to both of them for days. He backed away and pointed to the head of the bed. “Get comfortable,” Daniel snapped as he pulled off his shirt. Then he toed off his shoes before dropping his pants and pulling off his socks. Daniel stood at the side of the bed in only a pair of white bikini briefs, staring down at a shocked James.
“You told her…”
“To mind her own business in the nicest way I possibly could right now.” Daniel placed a knee on the mattress, prowling onto the bed and up James’s body. He loved his wide eyes and the way his breath already came in shallow pants. “I’m going to give you two seconds to get those clothes off or I swear I’ll rip them away with my damned teeth.” Daniel wasn’t kidding and felt ready to grab James’s collar and rip the damn shirt away.
Daniel might have grinned when James leaned forward, pulling his shirt over his head and shimmying his pants off like he was doing some demented dance, but all he saw was honey-warm skin, and once James lay back down, Daniel straddled him once again, running his tongue slowly up from his navel, blazing a trail up his belly until he closed his lips around a nipple. James quivered under his ministrations, and damn, that was hot, as was the skin of James’s throat as Daniel kissed and licked his way upward, under his jaw and over his chin before taking James’s lips once again. This time he let James guide the kiss.