I love St. Patrick's Day. The parade is full of weirdos and strangely dressed people. Everybody drinks beer and gets silly. Not that I would ever do that, I just like to watch the crazies and sit back with my green beer, gazing at the parade through green colored glasses. And this year, I didn't have to worry about being pulled for duty to watch the pickpockets have a field day. This year I was retired and got to stay at home going over my galley proofs.

I sent Peter off to work in a new green silk shirt that made his hazel eyes look more green than blue. Then I sat down at the computer desk to do my proofing so I could goof off in the afternoon. We'd had an unexpected warming trend and the window by my desk was open to let in the breeze. The screen was the only thing keeping Squeak and Squirt inside. They had their little pink noses pressed against the wire mesh so hard that it left imprints on them.

Little growls and tail thrashings told me that somebody on four paws was strolling through their alley and they wanted at him in the worst way. I ignored them in favor of finishing my edit of chapter twenty. I had to send the proofs back to my editor by next Friday and I didn't want to have to take time away from Peter. But I also didn't want to send back a half-ass job and have to look at the mistakes once the book went on sale.

Our friends would be reading this thing if only because they were curious about my past and hoped to find out more about me by reading my book. And if they read very carefully they would indeed know more about why I turned out the way I did. I just hoped it wasn't too much.

Chapter twenty-one was clean of errors and the next chapter only had a couple so I took a break and shook some crunchies into the bowls by the dining room table. The cats came running and sliding across the oak floor while I made some soup and a sandwich for me. Back to work and by four o'clock the proofing was done. All thirty-six chapters were as free of error as I could make them and I bundled them up into their mailing envelope and walked over to the post office to send them by priority mail.

It was so warm that I didn't even need a jacket. The bank sign said it was 68 degrees and I believed it. Stopping at the deli, I got there before the after-work crowd and got all the ingredients for a St. Patrick's Day feast including the imported beer that was not green but still good. I took the long way home and enjoyed some of the store windows decorated in leprechauns and shamrocks.

Shaking my head, I pondered just how domesticated I was and whether or not that was a bad thing. Home was a place that Peter and I had created out of love and sweat. Our equity consisted of hours of work designing and then making the images on paper a reality with wood and tile and a host of other products. Climbing the stairs, I had the same anticipation that always hit me when I finally opened the door and gazed on our home.

Nowadays, I also had to contend with the helter-skelter attack of our two fuzz balls trying to make a break for the stairs. I'd developed an almost unconscious technique of opening the door a crack, blocking it with my foot and saying 'no' in as stern a voice as I could manage. It worked 90% of the time and the other 10% was spent chasing down the little menaces and playing hide and seek on the three flights of stairs.

Good exercise for a man approaching fifty who was no longer on his feet all day, every day. I needed to check and see if there was such a thing as writer's butt because mine was threatening to spread and overflow the chair. I hadn't gained any weight but the muscle tone felt flabby to me. Maybe Caine would let me join his Tai Chi class first thing every morning.

Unlocking my front door, I grinned to myself and prepared to repel the cats. Of course, they were no where around and I swung the door open then shut it behind me quickly. Peter was home and the cats were nestled on his chest, telling him about their day. He looked up when I came in and the sultry look he sent my way promised untold delights.

I really am a very lucky man.

"So, what are you doing home this early?" I set the bags down on the kitchen counter and pulled out the cold stuff for the fridge.

"The Captain gave me the next two days off because I'm going to have 24/7 stakeout duty starting Friday. And we don't know how long it will last." A pair of strong arms slid around my waist and warm lips mapped that patch of skin behind my right ear.

Food suddenly lost its allure while my body began to react to Peter's touch. "Well, then ... I'll just have to wear ... you out so you won't miss ... me while you're watching."

"You take good care of me, Kermit. But no amount of wearing out could keep me from missing you." He turned me in his arms and the hazel eyes were solemn. "Being with you isn't like anything else I've ever experienced. I need to have a Kermit-fix everyday."

"I love you, too." I slid my hands around his head and brought his lips down to mine for one of those kisses that I swear involves melting. Tongues curled lazily together while hands kneaded sore muscles. Dinner was going to be late tonight because I needed him to take me to bed ... right now.

He read my mind the way he does and I found myself being walked backwards to our bedroom. The windows were halfway open and the cool March breeze swirled around the room while we undressed each other. We had to break apart to pull the duvet back so we could slide between the flannel sheets that still adorned our antique bed.

We met in the middle and skin to skin felt so damn good that I stretched all over just to be sure that every inch of my skin met every inch of his. "This is what I'll miss, Peter. Your warm body and the touch that makes me shiver."

Kissing me hard, Peter did a little stretching of his own before grabbing the lube from under his pillow and putting it to good use. "I'm going to miss the sound of your voice and the way you pamper me with good food and great loving. If we're lucky, then we'll catch this guy before I have to kill T.J. for his incessant talking."

Arching into his groin when he sparked my inner gland with those long elegant fingers of his, I sighed. "I'll get you a pair of earplugs. We can't afford to lose T.J. before he finds us a deal on a spiral staircase for access to the roof. Oh there."

Pulling me over him, Peter lifted my hips just enough for me to guide him home. The warm blunt head pierced and stretched me into a hiss but then he was sliding deep and all I felt was the love.

"So good, Kermit, you feel so good ... and safe ... and warm." Peter's eyes were heated and I looked down into them with a tinge of that disbelief that occasionally still surfaced from deep in my psyche.

"I love you, Peter. Now, if I'm going to be deprived of your loving for days, you need to leave me with a very strong reminder that you love me." I sat up and used my thighs to pull up before dropping down and squeezing him.

"Oh yeah, I'll leave you the ache that I plan on taking with me when I go." He thrust up and I swear I saw stars when he hit my gland.

Soon, the burn was continuous and I could feel myself begin to flush. When his hand clasped my cock, it was all over while I convulsed and came hard. The warmth that flooded me at that instant told the small part of my mind that watches him that I'd wrung his release from him. But I was too busy slumping onto his chest and breathing to rejoice too much.

We lay there, cuddled under the comforter until he slipped from me with a sigh. I missed him already and his strong arms held me close when I stirred. "We're going to be glued together if I don't get something to clean us up."

"Not yet, I'm not ready to let go just yet." He turned us onto our sides and pulled me up a bit so we were nose to nose. "I need to breathe in your scent and absorb your sweat so I can pull the memory out to comfort me when you're not there." Then without taking a breath, he said the most amazing thing. "I'm thinking that it may be time to leave the precinct."

All my senses went on red alert. "Something someone said or did?"

He smiled and kissed me gently. "Several somethings but that's not why. I can take care of myself, Kermit, although I enjoy it when you help me. There's just a missing piece to the puzzle that's my life and believe it or not, I think it may be the Shaolin path."

Caine was going to be ecstatic and even I was going to breathe a sigh of relief. It didn't mean he'd be perfectly safe but I could see him growing towards his future and that was worth the occasional brush with the Sing Wah. "Have you talked to your father? And what was the catalyst?"

"No, I haven't and you were." He answered with that little boy grin that always makes me melt.

"Something specific I did or just my general mastery of life?" I managed to keep a straight face when he started to chuckle.

"Oh, definitely something specific, my Kermit." He kissed me very gently, more a butterfly touch than our usual caress. Then those beautiful eyes were looking into mine from three inches away. "You love me. Everyday, I leave here knowing that you love me and I come home to the person who loves me best. That is a freedom that I never experienced before you. I always felt like I had to do this or be that. But with you, I can just be Peter."

I had to swallow hard to get rid of that damn lump. "I love you, Peter, all of you, which includes the Shaolin-you and the cop-you. And knowing that you love me freed my need to write and make a home. If a leprechaun appeared right now to grant me a wish, the only thing I have left to wish for is that you would be safe and always come home to me."

"Me too, Kermit. Don't you see what a wonderful gift that is for me? I always knew that Pop loved me but he was so busy training me and the others, that I never really felt that I came first. And when I met you, I immediately knew that you were special. You treated me as an adult, capable of making my own decisions and letting me make them. But very soon, I could see that you were putting me first. Protecting me, supporting me and loving me. I just wasn't sure what kind of love it was until the day I found you passed out in your office."

I had to clear my throat again. "You will always come first, Peter."

He grinned happily. "I know that. And you know that you will always come first with me. I'm just beginning to feel that the police path is about to branch on me. And I don't have the talent to write like you do. But the Shaolin path is looking better and better as the months go by."

"And the ... somethings at work ... aren't the dangerous kind?" I had to tread carefully here because my first instinct was to go and kick some butt. That was the second instinct too, but I needed to back off and let him handle this.

"I'd tell you if they were, Kermit. I'm not that kind of macho idiot." He assured me while I eyed him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Un-huh." I raised an eyebrow and moved my hands casually into tickle range. "Why don't you share some of these little incidents with your patient lover?"

He tried to move but he was too late and soon I was perched atop a laughing lover who couldn't catch his breath while I tickled him right into submission. "Pax, Kermit. I give up. Somebody left a pamphlet about AIDS on my desk and under the windshield wiper of my car. There was an off-color comment in the locker room from a guy in Vice. But the worst one was that idiot Andrews looking mournfully at me before offering his congratulations."

"Andrews, hm-m-m? Well, you should have said 'thank you, only the best for the best.' Then he'd have gone off gnashing his teeth and putting some drug dealer through the wringer." I smoothed my hands across his broad chest and tweaked his nipples.

"Oh, I did, my Kermit." He smiled innocently up at me. "I told him that you were so voracious that I'd had to start taking vitamin supplements and laying in lubricant by the gallon."

I started to laugh and couldn't stop while he smiled smugly and tweaked my nipples. The very thought of my Peter solemnly declaring that he needed help to keep up with my sex drive made me giggle in a very unmanly manner. So then it was my turn to be tickled with knowing hands that knew all my hot spots and slowly hardened my cock to steel-like proportions.

"Oh my, my voracious lover is contemplating where to stick this lovely cock." He stroked me slowly and wiggled his eyebrows but we were interrupted by the sound of a crash coming from the kitchen. "Oh, oh, we forgot to put everything away."

I rolled off of him and stalked out to confront two ferocious looking cats crouched over the bag from the deli and swishing their tails. They were ready to do battle for their prize but they didn't stand a chance against a man who really loves corned beef. I swooped in and rescued our meat and cheese while Peter tried to appease them with crunchies.

They stalked off with flicking tails that promised retribution of the feline-sort as soon as the disappointment healed. But for the moment, I was too busy fending off my lover while trying to make the sandwiches, which would fuel our next bout of lovemaking. His pout was kissed away and he finally gave in and helped create our dinner. We ate naked on the sofa while feeding little pieces of corned beef to our furry companions.

Squirt liked mustard but Squeak thought it was terrible and tried to clean it off her whiskers with a good wash of paw and tongue. But soon we were done eating and Peter leaned over with a tender stroke of his hand to see if I was up for another round. "I think that a hot bath would be safe from imminent retribution."

I hooked a hand around his neck and reeled him in for a soft kiss. "I don't know about that, Peter. I found Squeak playing with a drip from the kitchen faucet. She was pretty put out when I fixed it with a new washer. I think she might be developing a water-fetish."

"Then we'll close the door with them on the other side." He said hopefully and pulled me off the sofa. We danced to our own music all the way back to the bathroom where we began our bath ritual. Maybe everybody does it this way but when I light the candles and turn off the electrics, I always feel as if I'm stepping back in time.

Peter selected the sea-breeze bath oil and poured two capfuls under the hot water while I lit the last two candles over the tub. Caine had a friend who made both the candles and the oil so we always had a ready supply. One of these days, I was going to take classes from her on making candles. I'd always wanted to do that.

While I was lighting those last candles, Peter slid his arms around me and licked the back of my neck rather like Squeak did from the back of the couch. "You look incredibly sexy in candle light, my Kermit. Come inside of me now, please?"

Turning, I held him close and breathed in his scent. "Always, Peter, I'll always be inside of you." Placing a reverent kiss over his heart, I smiled at him. "Just the way that you are always inside of me."

He smiled. "I like that but I need a physical reminder, too. This nice big cock needs to snuggle someplace warm and tight."

I shivered and got in the tub, pulling him in after me. "No problem, Peter, I know just the place for him. But first, I need to wash every inch of your body to reclaim what is mine."

It was his turn to shiver and he let me soap the washcloth to lather him from top to bottom. The rough terry cloth stroking over his cock made him bite his lip but when I turned him and washed his crease, he shook all over. So, I leaned in after rinsing him and tongued that well-washed hole with broad laps that made him pant. "Oh god, Kermit, that feels so good."

I just chuckled and rolled up my tongue to stab within his spasming muscle several times while he held onto the rolled edge of the tub. "Time to open up for me, Peter. A little oil and your favorite cock will slide right into his favorite place."

A little of the bath oil goes a long way and once he'd taken three fingers, I oiled myself and pressed in slowly. He literally shook around me, his groans making me feel ten-feet tall. Once I was firmly seated, I paused to stroke his back and wait for him to adjust to the intruder that had invaded him.

"I love the way you feel, Kermit. Remind me to take some extra vitamin-B before heading for my stakeout." He squeezed gently around me. "Make me feel you, Kermit. Remind me who I belong to."

"You belong to me, Peter." I held onto his slender hips and pulled almost all the way out before thrusting back in. "In every way and forever, you belong with me."

"Yes, I do. And in every way for the rest of our lives, you belong to me, too."

"Exactly, my Peter." I kept the rhythm steady while hitting his gland with every stroke. He flexed around me but I just kept stroking in and out until his back flushed from shoulder to hip and I knew he was close. Then I reached around and grasped his cock and that was it. He gasped and pulsed hot fluid into my hand while his inner muscles grasped my cock and wrung my climax from me.

We both sighed and I kissed a spot between his shoulder blades. He shivered once more when I slipped from him. But then I had my arms full of wet lover while he tried to suck my tongue out into his mouth. That was no hardship at all and we feasted on each other for a long moment before I settled back against the slanted back and he lay on my chest with his head on my shoulder.

"Happy St. Patrick's day, Peter." I nestled a kiss to his temple. "All wishes come true today."

He chuckled lazily. "Who needs a pot of gold when I can have you to love me."

"Who indeed." I sighed and settled in to laze until the water turned cool.

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The end for now