Bossy Baby by Athena Steller

Nine

Mac

It had been a good day. Busy but good. Mac knew Hayley was bossy but hadn’t known just how bossy his boy could be. Hayley had really seemed to enjoy his role too. After spending almost two hours at the nursery picking up flowers for the greenhouse, Hayley had turned into a little drill sergeant. After arranging delivery. Hayley had put Mac to work.

Hard work.

Labor.

And Hayley didn’t get tired sitting while barking orders, so he didn’t see why Mac had been exhausted.

Mac had finally put his foot down, sending Hayley into the playroom so Mac could shower.

Now, freshly cleaned up, Mac felt better, although there was still an ache in his shoulders. Who knew what hard work planting flowers was? That was after the entire greenhouse had to be cleaned. Of course it had. Mac felt like he’d gotten suckered in.

“Feeling better?” Hayley asked as he looked up at Mac who hadn’t moved from the playroom doorway.

“I’m fine,” Mac lied.

Hayley giggled. “Sorry I worked you so hard. I had a picture in my head of how I wanted things to look. I might have been over eager.”

Mac deflated. He’d do anything to see his boy smile, even if that meant he was sore later. He walked into the playroom and sat behind his boy. Hayley immediately climbed into his lap.

“It did look really good,” Mac said.

Hayley beamed. “Didn’t it? Just think how amazing it will be this spring when we add to it. Or when we transfer the plants and flowers to the beds in the front of the house.”

Mac would be hiring someone else to do that planting. “This does give you plenty of time to plan.”

“I want to draw it all out.” Hayley raised his right hand. “As soon as the cast comes off.”

“It’ll be off before you know it,” Mac assured him. Mac wasn’t sure what it would mean for them once Hayley didn’t need him as much.

“It’s just strange. Not being able to do everything I could before.”

Mac hugged Hayley. “But if you hadn’t broken your arm, you wouldn’t have been able to boss me around all day.”

“That was fun,” Hayley responded. He giggled. “Really fun!”

“Oh yeah?” Mac lifted Hayley before laying him down on the rug. “Fun?” He started to tickle Hayley. Mac ended up laughing just as hard as his boy. He had never felt this…light before. This warm on the inside.

Hayley surprised him by wrapping his good arm around Mac’s neck and pulling him close. “Thank you,” Hayley whispered.

Mac gazed into his boy’s eyes. The bright green seemed to reach in and pull at Mac’s heart. Okay, maybe not literally, but Mac was in love with Hayley. How had that happened? He was attracted to Hayley. He wanted to claim Hayley. But love? Mac froze. When had that happened?

“This is where you kiss me,” Hayley said.

Mac blinked. “I don’t know what you’re thanking me for.” He needed to concentrate on Hayley’s words, not on this foreign feeling inside. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what love was. Mac just hadn’t expected it to hit him so hard.

Hayley smiled. It was sweet. “I’m pretty sure I have you all figured out, big guy.”

Mac sure the hell hoped not.

“You wouldn’t have chosen this big house for just you.”

Embarrassed, Mac cleared his throat. “I have the kittens, too. They need a lot of room. And they’ll grow. Plus you’ll probably want more pets or something.”

“Exactly, you’re always thinking about what I might want. Like the greenhouse. Letting me pick the plants out and order you around. You are a sweet man.”

Mac was not sweet.

“You’re a good man,” Hayley continued.

That was also false.

“You’re the best man I know.”

Mac needed to end this. He kissed Hayley. Wrapping his arms around Mac’s neck, Hayley held him tight. Mac hadn’t planned on the kiss heating the way it had.

When Hayley slipped his hand inside Mac’s lounge pants, Mac was helpless to resist. He pushed his pants past his ass, allowing Hayley room to explore.

“Roll over,” Hayley ordered.

Mac rolled onto his back, bringing Hayley up to straddle his legs. Hayley had his uninjured hand wrapped around Mac’s shaft. Mac had been trying so hard to be good. To not pressure Hayley into doing anything too fast.

“I want to suck you off,” Hayley told him.

Mac might have whimpered.

“And no more sleeping in the guest room.” Hayley stroked him. “I want to sleep in bed with you.”

“Yes!” Mac hissed.

“And after you come down my throat, I want to come all over your chest.” Leaning forward, Hayley licked one of Mac’s nipples. “I love your chest. When we’re home, you should never wear a shirt. Didn’t I already tell you that? If not, I meant to. No shirts ever for you. Unless we have guests.”

Home.Hayley had called his house home. That had Mac almost coming even with Hayley’s gentle strokes.

“Whatever you want,” Mac panted. “Anything.”

“Look at your huge cock already leaking for me.” Hayley leaned forward and licked a drip of precum from the head of his cock. “Yummy.”

Mac was dying.

“And tonight, I want you to fuck me,” Hayley said. “I want your big cock spreading me open.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Mac hollered. How had his boy gotten so good at dirty talk?

“Are you going to come, Daddy? Are you going to flood my mouth?”

“Gonna!” Mac warned. He hadn’t even felt Hayley’s mouth on his dick and he was already to blow.

Hayley dropped down and swallowed Mac’s cock while grasping the base. Pumping Mac’s shaft while sucking, Hayley had Mac at his mercy.

Mac shouted out his release, indeed filling Hayley’s mouth with his cum.

Hayley swallowed everything Mac had given him before popping off Mac’s dick.

Struggling to get his pants down, Hayley was groaning in frustration. Mac pushed Hayley’s hands to the side and yanked his pajamas down.

Instead of letting Hayley figure out how to jerk off with his left hand. Mac urged Hayley onto his chest with Mac’s left palm to Hayley’s bottom while wrapping his fingers around Hayley’s shaft.

Mac beat Hayley’s cock fast until Hayley began to come. Hayley painted Mac’s chest just like he’d wanted.

“Hot!” Hayley panted. “So hot.”

Mac rubbed Hayley’s cum in while Hayley watched with need in his eyes.

“That’s going to make me hard again. I love seeing my mark on you,” Hayley said.

“You can mark me with your cum whenever you want,” Mac promised.

Hayley kissed him.

Yep, whatever his boy wanted Mac would do.

***

Mac

Mac needed to carry Hayley up to bed but he hated to wake his boy. They’d been cuddling on the couch, watching on a show on the History channel, when Hayley had fallen asleep.

Even knowing Hayley would be more comfortable in bed, Mac just wasn’t ready to let him go.

His phone pinged and Mac froze in horror.

That alert. Fuck, no.

Mac carefully slid Hayley off his lap and tucked him completely under the blanket. Not much protection, but he had very few minutes to remove the threat to his boy.

Rising, Mac went to the fireplace and the hidden drawer.

He pulled the gun out and unlocked the safety. Holding the weapon in one hand, he removed his phone from his pocket with the other.

The motion detector by the greenhouse had gone off. That meant the enemy was coming in from the backdoor.

Mac pulled up the cameras on his phone. He wasn’t surprised when he didn’t see anyone. The person who’d made it through or over the fence and close enough to only set off one sensor was obviously trained.

Quietly, he stalked to the kitchen where the back door was.

He didn’t have enough time to hide Hayley. Fuck, Mac hadn’t even shown Hayley the safe room yet.

Mac had failed his boy.

But he wouldn’t let Hayley get hurt. Even if Mac died, he’d take the son of a bitch with him.

His heart hurt. Mac didn’t want to leave Hayley. Did not want Hayley to find out the truth of him this way.

Survival. That was all he could do. In order to protect Hayley, Mac had to survive. If Hayley left him after this, Mac deserved it. But Hayley would be alive.

Not turning on the kitchen light, Mac let his eyes adjust to the darkness as he snuck to the back door.

Of course the threat could go around front. Or enter through a window, but the best guess was the back door.

Positioning his back to the wall right next to the back door, Mac lifted his gun.

Unlike the movies, there was no sound. The knob didn’t turn. It had been locked, but it opened slowly.

“It’s me.”

The whispered voice was familiar.

Mac wasn’t surprised. “Hands in front of you,” he ordered quietly.

Two hands appeared in the doorway.

“Step forward slowly.”

Lance entered the kitchen, still holding his hands out.

Mac grabbed the man’s arm and threw him against the wall. He covered Lance’s body with his own while pressing the barrel of the gun to Lance’s temple.

“You don’t seem surprised to see me,” Lance said.

“Only one person could get this close without setting off the alarms. The man who designed the system,” Mac responded.

“I missed one, apparently,” Lance commented.

“I added more.” Mac didn’t trust anyone. Not even Lance. Well, no one but Hayley.

“Are you going to shoot me?” Lance questioned.

“I haven’t decided.” Mac didn’t want to admit that he’d prefer not to kill the other man. They weren’t friends, but they shared a past. “Where have you been?”

“Around.”

Mac didn’t expect a different answer. They all had their secrets. “What happened.”

Lance sighed. “I fucked up.”

“Am I in danger?” More importantly, was his boy?

“No. I took care of it.”

Mac backed off, although he kept his gun trained on Lance. “Don’t move.”

“I won’t.”

Mac retreated to the kitchen sink and flipped on the small light above it. He took in Lance’s disheveled appearance. There was blood on the shirt and he had a black eye, but he didn’t appear to need medical attention.

“Talk,” Mac ordered. Leaning against the sink, he didn’t let his guard down. Lance had done more for Mac than anyone else. It had been Lance who’d set him up in his new life. Mac didn’t want to kill the other man, but he had Hayley to think about. Lance was also the one person that could set Mac up and kill him.

Lance lowered his hands although he did keep them away from his body. “I ran my monthly check for anything regarding our names.”

“You came across something,” Mac guessed.

“There’d been a rumor you’d been spotted in a town up in Colorado. They had your description. Your old handler even flew there to check it out.”

Mac frowned. He hadn’t left town since he’d first laid eyes on his boy.

“I knew it wasn’t you,” Lance said. “But two men were killed.”

“How?”

Lance lifted an eyebrow.

That told Mac what he needed to know. Was he being set up? Or was it something else? “What did you find out?”

“Your old handler believes it was you. That you’re alive and back at work. Freelance. He called his superiors. They sent a team of six to take you out.”

Except Mac hadn’t been there.

“Who was it?”

Lance shrugged. “Young guy. Just starting out. Thought you were dead, so he decided to use your reputation as his own. Looked damn close to you in appearance.”

Fucker—whether this guy realized it or not, he’d just screwed up Mac’s world.

Mac nodded toward Lance. “He do that?”

Lance snorted. “No. I decided to let him keep pretending to be you. He has your old handler running around chasing him. The team got too close to him, so I had to take them out. The ones alive will have a story to tell. Making it known that the guy isn’t one to be messed with.”

“You should have called me.” Mac might not want to step back in his old life but this was his mess.

“I was curious about this kid,” Lance admitted. “How he knew some things. What his end goal is.”

Mac would prefer the guy just went away. For good.

“What did you find out?”

“Same commander in service. Same path as you until about a year ago. He stopped reporting in. Changed his appearance. He’s working for someone, but I just don’t know who. Yet.”

“Why me?”

Lance smirked. “You were the best. If he was going to use someone’s reputation, who better?”

Mac rubbed the back of his head. “This fucks things up for me.”

“It doesn’t have to. I’ve got enough on him that if he does become a nuisance, I can bury him. Right now, I’m more worried about where he’s getting his jobs.”

That was a concern. “How’d you fuck up?”

“My identity is blown.”

“Shit.” If Lance’s cover was gone, then he’d need to start over. That was months, almost a year, of work. “The team they’d sent after you were good. Professionals. I was careless. My handler knows I’m alive.”

“God damn it,” Mac muttered. “What do you need?”

“A safe place to regroup.”

Mac looked around the kitchen. He owed his new life to Lance. For Lance showing Mac that he had a way out of the life. Still, he didn’t want Hayley in danger.

“I’m not asking for you to put me up,” Lance said. “I know you’re otherwise occupied.”

“How long have you been in town?”

“Long enough,” Lance responded. “But you know I watch all of you.”

Mac growled. While it was good that someone had his back, Mac also didn’t like being watched.

“I’m glad you finally got your boy,” Lance said.

“I don’t. Not anymore. I have to tell him.”

“You were going to have to eventually.”

Mac knew that. He’d just hoped for more time.

“He might surprise you,” Lance suggested.

“You ran him?” Mac was offended on behalf of his boy. Hayley was everything that was good in the world.

“Of course I did. He’s not only yours. How he handles your past will affect us all.”

“I’ll kill anyone who comes near him.” That was a promise.

“Exactly.” Lance waited a few moments. “Want the file?”

“Fuck no,” Mac spat. “Destroy it.”

“Already done.”

Mac huffed in annoyance.

“I don’t need a place. I found one. I just wanted you to know I’d be around. Keeping an eye on things.”

“Fucking wonderful,” Mac responded. Everything was spinning out of control. He hated not being in control. “Call next time.”

“Just making sure you haven’t gone soft.” Lance smiled. “You have a boy to protect now.”

“Get out,” Mac ordered. Fuck his life.

“Sure, man.” Lance pushed away from the wall. He exited the house as quietly as he’d entered.

Mac set the gun on the counter and dropped his head.

This was it. He’d run out of time.

“How much did you hear?” He didn’t even lift his head.

“Pretty much all of it.”

“I can take you back to your apartment. Or call you a cab or something if you don’t want me to drive you,” Mac offered. It was the least he could do.

“Can we sit?” Hayley asked.

“Sure.” Mac waited until Hayley pulled out a chair before he chose the one farthest away.

“You’re going to have to look at me eventually.” Hayley’s voice was soft.

“I’m sorry.” Mac rubbed the back of his head. “I wouldn’t have let you get hurt.”

“I know.”

Why did Hayley have to sound so sad? It was breaking Mac’s heart.

“That man,” Hayley said. “He said that someone was pretending to be you.”

Mac nodded. “I have a reputation. About what jobs I took and…how I took care of them.”

“How you killed,” Hayley said.

Tears burned behind his eyes, but Mac refused to let them fall. He hadn’t cried in twenty years and he wouldn’t start now, even if it felt like his heart was being torn out of his chest. “How I killed,” he admitted.

“How’d you get out?”

Why did they have to discuss this? Hayley needed to leave him.

After Mac didn’t answer for several minutes, Hayley huffed. “How’d you get out?”

“Lance helped me fake my own death. I supposedly died in an explosion. They found my DNA on a body.”

“Mac’s not your real name.”

“It’s the name I chose.” His floor needed a good cleaning. Now that Hayley was leaving him, Mac would have plenty of time to clean. If he even stayed around. Mac couldn’t imagine being in the same town as Hayley, though. Not if Hayley was afraid of him. And Mac couldn’t touch.

“I like Daddy better.”

Mac jerked his head up. Why the fuck was Hayley smiling at him? “What?”

Hayley pushed back his chair before rising. He walked to stand in front of Mac.

“Move back,” Hayley ordered.

Mac made room between the table and his chair. Hayley plopped onto his lap. Naturally, Mac’s hands went to Hayley’s hips.

“Now as I was saying.” Hayley splayed his hand on Mac’s chest. “I like the name Mac. It suits you. Daddy is still better.”

“I don’t understand.” Why wasn’t Hayley running from his house screaming? “You get that I killed people, right? I was a hired killer.”

Hayley nodded. “I bet you were really good at it too.”

“Of course I was.”

“But you’re even better at being my Daddy.”

“I don’t think so,” Mac said. “I messed up. I should have told you earlier.”

“I knew you weren’t ready.”

“What the fuck! You knew? Who told you? Caleb? Mitch?”

“They know?” Hayley narrowed his eyes. “Who all knows? That’s dangerous. No one should know!”

“You know,” Mac pointed out. “How do you know?”

Hayley gave Mac a small smile. “Remember when I told you about my Papa Brandon?”

“Yeah.” Mac had heard all about Hayley’s parents and brothers.

“You have more in common with my papa than we both knew. From the things you didn’t tell me…I kind of put things together.”

“Your papa was a hitman?” Mac didn’t believe it.

“Black Ops,” Hayley corrected. “But he knows a lot of people. Throughout the years, some would show up at the commune in need of help. Or to hide out.”

“Didn’t that put your whole family at risk?”

“My parents weighed the risks against helping when they could. It wasn’t perfect, but it taught us a lot. Like how to read people.”

“You don’t read people very well,” Mac said. “You didn’t run me off.”

“Why would I run you off? You’re the sweetest man I’ve ever met.”

“I’m not sweet,” Mac disagreed. “I killed people.”

“Bad people?” Hayley asked. “I bet it was bad people.”

“I like to think so.” Mac ran his hand up Hayley’s back. “I couldn’t do much in the military, but once they recruited me into the government work, I had more choices. It was where I met Lance. Lance can find anything out about anyone. He gave me the details that the government liked to leave out.”

“Like with me?”

“He didn’t tell me anything,” Mac said quickly.

“Like I care,” Hayley said. “I’m pretty much an open book.”

“I like to think I know you pretty well. I just didn’t expect you to be so accepting.”

“You thought I’d run away in terror.”

“Well, yeah.”

“You can’t scare me away, Mac.”

“You should be scared.”

“Maybe you should be scared,” Hayley said.

“Why?”

“Because I think I’m in love with you.”

Mac blinked down at Hayley. “You what? Are you screwing with me?”

“Of course not. You’re perfect and I’m falling in love with you.”

“I must be dreaming,” Mac said. To himself. Because obviously Hayley wasn’t sitting in his lap, right after finding out he killed people, and confessing he thought he was falling in love with him.

Hayley grabbed his cheeks and jerked Mac’s head up. “You with me, big guy?”

“You can’t love me,” Mac told him.

“I’m pretty sure I can do whatever I want.”

There was his bossy boy. “Sure, you can but you shouldn’t—”

“Shut up, Mac.”

“What?” Mac frowned. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”

“I did.” Mac nodded before patting his cheek. “You’re not listening very well.”

“Am too.”

“Do you have something you might want to tell me back?”

Say back? How had this night taken such a sudden turn? What the fuck was going on? Mac was lost. He didn’t like feeling lost.

“Mac, I just confessed that I was falling in love with you. Do you have a response?”

“Oh!” Mac nodded. “I love you too.”

“You love me?” Hayley repeated. “How do you know for sure?”

This time, Mac knew what to say. “You’re my first thought in the morning. My last thought at night. When you’re out of my sight, I feel like I might lose my mind. I would do anything just to see you smile.”

“That’s why I love you,” Hayley told him. “Because everything you just said. I know I’ll always be safe and cared for.”

“I’ll keep you safe.” Mac hugged Hayley hard. “Even if it’s you I have to protect yourself from. No more breaking bones.”

Hayley laughed. “I know.” He sat back. “And now you know what we’re going to do?”

Mac had no clue. Hayley wasn’t following any script Mac could anticipate.

“You have a promise to keep.”

“I’ve made a lot of promises. Most of them in my head,” Mac confessed. “I’m not sure which one you’re talking about.”

“I love that you told me that.” Hayley rose. He grabbed Mac’s hands and tugged him up. “It’s time I finally felt you inside me.”

“You still want me to…us…”

“I still want you to fuck me,” Hayley interrupted. “Like right now.”

“Okay.” No pressure or anything.

Hayley laughed. “Pick me up and carry me to bed.”

“Okay, my bossy baby.”

“As long as I’m yours,” Hayley told him.