Protection is Best Served With Benefits: MM DDlb Romance

Chapter Two

Not edited or proofread.

Griffin

Max slept the entire day away. I couldn't really blame him. Ever since I'd found out he suffered from migraines, I'd kept a close eye on him. I almost had all his tells down pat. But this one had slipped by me, and I felt like shit for it. Had I known he already had a migraine forming before the meeting, I would've told him to cancel it. Axel would have understood. Hell, Axel was the entire reason I knew Max had migraines to begin with, considering he'd chewed my ass out and made me go apologize to Max when I sent him home, thinking he was slacking on the job.

I picked up my phone, ignoring Harlan's messages to check the time. Harlan was one of my best friends, and he was also Axel's personal bodyguard. He was... something else for sure—the life of the party and also a deadly mother fucker when crossed. He'd probably just sent a bunch of memes or some dad joke he thought was funny as hell but was actually dumb. Ever since Axel knocked Novella up and became a dad, Harlan became obsessed with dad jokes.

It was weird, but that was Harlan in a nutshell.

I frowned at the time on my phone before quickly pulling up one of the many delivery apps on my phone. Max had been asleep for hours, burrowed beneath the blanket, barely moving. He needed to eat, and then I needed to get him home. If he continued sleeping on that couch, he was going to wake up sore. No matter how comfortable and expensive that couch was, it definitely wasn't a bed. And my boy needed a bed.

After putting in an order for Mexican, since I'd seen him eat it quite a bit—sue me, I noticed just about everything about Max—I locked my phone back and then dialed security, quietly letting them know I had a food delivery coming, and I needed them to bring up to me silently. God help me, if anyone disturbed my boy before I was ready for him to be awake, I'd slit their fucking throat.

I focused back on the budget in front of me, punching numbers into my calculator. I was so damn sick of looking at numbers today. This was usually Axel's job. I'd be so fucking glad once he came back to work. Usually, if he was gone for the day, Max would handle this for him. But my boy was not in any condition to be looking at a computer screen, nor was he in any condition to be doing math. So, it fell to me.

But fuck, did the tasks today have to involve dreaded budgets?

Axel was nitpicky and liked to look over the finances himself, especially since he filtered his gun and drug money through the corporation. I knew this was one of the hassles of being in the position we were in. But I didn't think this paranoia was worth it. He was a third-general crime family leader. Whatever they were doing was working. Even Axel's dad hadn't been this obsessed with the figures.

About forty-five minutes later, I got a notification on my phone that someone from security was headed up with the food I'd ordered, so I slipped out of my office and met him at the elevator. Once I was back in my office, I set the food out on the coffee table in front of the couch and then crouched in front of my sweet boy. His face was just barely peeking out of the blanket.

"Max, baby," I called, keeping my voice low in case he still had the migraine. "I bought food. I need you to eat."

He groaned and slowly opened his eyes, blinking at me for a moment before reaching up to rub his eyes. It was so fucking adorable, I couldn't stop the small smile from tilting my lips. I was so head over heels for this boy, and he didn't even realize it. He could ask me for anything, and I'd give it, so long as he was still safe. Still taken care of. If he asked for the moon, I'd pull a Gru and build a shrink-ray gun.

"Do you think you can handle it if I turn on a lamp so we can see?" I asked him.

He sat up, letting the blanket fall to his lap. Fuck, he looked so fucking cute in my shirt. It was three sizes too big on him, but it was perfect. I loved seeing him wrapped up in something that was mine. Like I could mark him. Smother him in my scent to keep any other interested people away.

"You can turn it on," he rasped, his voice thick with sleep. I gently squeezed his knee before standing up and walking to my desk to flick on the lamp. He winced as soon as it came on and closed his eyes. Muttering a curse, I snatched my shades off my desk and walked over to him, sliding them onto his face. He breathed a sigh of relief. I hated that I couldn't see his eyes, but I needed him to be comfortable.

"As soon as you finish eating, I'm taking you home," I told him.

Max frowned at me. "You don't even know where I live," he mumbled as he slid to the rug beneath the coffee table and opened his styrofoam container.

I smiled softly at him. "My home, baby boy. I don't want you alone until this migraine eases. I've never seen you with one this bad before, and I'm worried."

His cheeks flushed a little at the term of endearment. But then he winced, his face paling a little as he reached up to cradle his head. I clenched my jaw and tapped his container with my fork. "Eat, boy. And then, I'll take you home."

He didn't bother responding. Just began trying to eat. He didn't even get more than a few bites down before he was closing his container and pushing it away. "I need my meds," he mumbled, dropping his face into his hands.

I stood and walked over to my desk, grabbing the orange prescription bottle. When I set them in front of him, the lids already off, he grabbed one of the pills and swallowed it down with his water. I capped the lid and put our food back in the plastic bag before shoving them into the mini-fridge in my office.

"Come on," I said softly, reaching down to help him up from the floor. He shivered, so I snatched the throw blanket he'd been sleeping with off the couch, wrapping it around his shoulders. "I'm going to carry you to my car," I warned him.

He just wrapped his arms around my neck in response, so I crouched and slid my arm beneath his knee, lifting him against my chest.

It was time to get my boy home where I could properly take care of him.