“Do it.” Jamie clenched the sheets and, taking Marc with him, slumped onto his stomach, boneless and trembling. “Please... I need to feel you come.”
He sounded on the verge of tears, but if the last few hours had taught Marc anything, it was to trust Jamie to know what he wanted—what he needed.And he needs me to come.The thought alone was nearly enough to push Marc over the edge, but he fought it and fucked Jamie faster, searching out the bundle of nerves that would take Jamie with him.
“OhGod.” Jamie drove his fist into the pillows and shoved his other hand beneath him, finally closing his fingers around his dick. “I’m gonna come.”
Do it.But Marc didn’t say it, just bore down on Jamie and chased the bolt of white-hot heat until he surrendered to the near-violent urge racing through him and screwed Jamie like he didn’t know how close they were to the precipice of pain.
He dropped a messy kiss on Jamie’s sweaty cheek, and then found his mouth. Their tongues swirled together, and Jamie breathed Marc’s name as Marc swallowed his gasps. The lack of oxygen left Marc dizzy, but the tight wet heat of Jamie clenching around his cock kept him conscious until he came with a raw groan, only dimly aware of Jamie’s guttural cry below him.
Marc fell onto Jamie, still mindlessly pumping his hips, though the speed decreased with each thrust. His vision was blurred, and his pulse off the scale, but every intelligible thought he had was for Jamie.You’re smothering him.
Alarmed, Marc rolled to the side, but Jamie came with him, shifting in a fluid movement that belied the hell-raising ride they’d just been on. He wrapped his arms around Marc like a vice and returned his face to the home it had carved out in Marc’s chest, his laboured breaths misting wetly against Marc’s sweat-sheened skin.
Marc absorbed every one like they were his own and clung to Jamie like they were the last souls left on earth. The past few days had got away from him, but three words that had travelled both ways stood out and echoed in his head as sleep claimed him.I love you.
Fifteen
Jamie came awake suddenly, but it wasn’t with the jump of anxiety that often sent him tumbling from the couch. Instead, he smiled and turned his face to the warm light filtering through the curtains, revelling in the strong arms clamped around his waist.Marc’s arms.
Fuck.Jamie opened his eyes and shifted gingerly, half-expecting to find Marc wide-awake and watching over him, but Marc was still asleep and his only reaction to Jamie’s wriggling was to roll onto his back.
It was fascinating to see Marc so peaceful—no frown ceasing his forehead or concern clouding his eyes. Marc was a man who lived to take care of anyone lucky enough to cross his path, and sleeping when Jamie so desperately wanted him awake was probably the most selfish thing he’d ever done.Not like you.Jamie’s fingers trembled as they hovered over Marc’s bare chest, like they believed as much as he did that he had no right to touch Marc—no right to absorb the warmth of his body still pressed tight against Jamie, even though he’d rolled over.
But I do have the right... because he gave it to me.
Jamie betrayed the devil and laid his palm over Marc’s heart, letting each beat seep into him and calm him. Anxiety stopped at the gates. Jamie’s gaze drifted over the rest of Marc’s body, taking in the nicks and marks he hadn’t had time to pay attention to before. Most were random, but the scar on Marc’s hip was unmistakable. Jamie traced it with his fingertip and tried to picture the bullet blasting through Marc’s flesh and bone. The wound was small, and had carved a mere fragment out of Marc’s hip, but the sight of it, both real and in Jamie’s imagination, made him shudder all the same.
He tore his eyes away and moved down Marc’s body. At some point in the night, one of them had made a haphazard attempt to cover them with the blankets Jamie had stacked at the foot of his unused bed, but Jamie’s fidgeting had pushed them down. The temptation to wake Marc up with his mouth was strong, but Marc’s prosthesis caught his attention before he could reach for Marc’s cock.
He put it back on.That had never happened before, and they’d been naked around each other enough for Jamie to be fairly sure that any self-consciousness Marc might have felt about taking it off was long gone.
Jamie’s hands moved of their own accord to the suspension system that held Marc’s leg in place. The vacuum and cloth liners were simple enough to remove and he gently slid the prosthesis away from Marc’s stump, and set it carefully to one side.
He glanced back to find Marc awake and watching him through hooded, sleep-heavy eyes. “Shit, I thought you were asleep.”
“Evidently.” Marc sat up on his elbows, his expression unreadable. “And I was until you unclipped the pros and the metal against the sheets went straight through me.”
“What?”
Marc dragged the prosthesis towards him. To Jamie it made no sound, but given Marc’s wince, it was apparently like fingernails down a blackboard.
“Sorry,” Jamie said. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
“You didn’t. I can’t believe I didn’t notice you taking it off, though. I punched a nurse who tried to do that once.”
“Seriously?”
“No, but I wanted to.”
“Erm... sorry?”
Marc laughed. “God, don’t be sorry. That’s not what I meant. I didn’t mean to fall asleep with it on—I put it back on to make a cuppa a few hours ago. And I’m glad you took it off—it’s bad for the stump to wear it when I don’t need it.”
Jamie vaguely remembered Marc mentioning that before. He took the prosthesis while Marc cleaned up his stump with some wet wipes, and laid it on the carpet beside the bed. With that done, he turned his attention to the stump left behind, frowning at the reddened skin. “Is it sore now?”
“No more than usual.”
“Can I touch it?”