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Qhuinn led the way through the tunnel that ran underground fro center&039;s office Blay stayed behind him, and the only sound was their boots The meal they&039;d shared had been the same, only silverware on silverware and an occasional, Could you please pass the salt?

Dinner&039;s great conversational drought had been broken only by a rainstorm of so, they&039;d both put their forks down and run into the foyer, but Rhage had looked over the balcony and shaken his head, telling them to stay out of it

Which was cool The two of them had plenty of their own shit to deal with

When they got to the door that led into the office closet, Qhuinn punched 1914 into the security pad so Blay could see the numbers

"Year the house was built, evidently" As they stepped through the closet and came out next to the desk, he shook his head "I alondered how they got here"

Blayfrom "Me, too," to "Fuck you with a chain saw, you rat bastard"

The route to the PT suite didn&039;t require a leader, and once they got into the gym, it was hard not to count the yards Blay put between theo now," Blay said as they cae the cut on my back"

"It&039;s between your shoulder blades"

Blay gripped the knob and went again with the noise in the back of his throat And this ti

"Be reasonable," Qhuinn said

Blay&039;s eyes stared straight ahead After a moment, he opened the door "Wash your hands first Before you touch me, I want you to wash your hands"

As they went in, the guy urney that Qhuinn had been operated on the night before last

"We should get a tilanced around the tiled room with its stainless-steel cabinets and medical equiped out of his shirt, and winced as he looked down at the barely closed bleeders on his chest "Shit"

Qhuinn let out all the breath in his lungs and just stared at his friend The guy&039;s head hung off his neck as he examined where he&039;d been cut, and he was beautiful like that, his shoulders wide, the pads of his pecs thick, his ar, though, was his self-contained reserve

Hard not to wonder as underneath all that auze, tape, and antiseptic wash fro it all on a push tray and scooting the lot over to the gurney

With the supplies gathered, he went over to the stainless-steel sink and pressed the foot pedal to get the water running

While he washed his hands, he said quietly, "If I could, I would"

"Excuse me?"

Qhuinn pumped some suds into his palms and scrubbed all the way up his forearms Which was overkill, but if Blay wanted hi to be "If I could love a guy like that, it would be you"

"Yeah, on second thought, I&039;ll work on myself and to hell with my back¡ª"

"I&039;, and shook his hands over the sink "You think I haven&039;t thought about it? Being with you, that is And not just for the sex shit"

"You have?" Blay whispered above the dripping

Qhuinn dried his hands on a stack of blue surgical towels to the left and took one with him as he went over to Blay "Yeah, I have Hold this under the wounds, would you?"

Blay did as he was told, and Qhuinn squeezed souy&039;s sternum

"I didn&039;t know¡ª Motherfucker!"

"Stings, huh" Qhuinn went around the table, to his buddy &039;s back "I&039; to do this one now, and I think you&039;d better brace yourself It&039;s even deeper"

Qhuinn put another towel under the wound and hit it with shit that smelled like Lysol As Blay hissed, he winced "It&039;ll be over in a second"

"Bet you say that to all the¡ª" Blay stopped right there

"Nah I don&039;t say that to anyone They take me as I come They can&039;t handle it, it&039;s their probleauze, Qhuinn tore the thing open and pressed the white weave against the wound between Blay&039;s shoulder blades "I&039;ve absolutely thought about us but I see -teroing to be"

Blay&039;s rib cage expanded and compressed "Maybe because you don&039;t want another defect?"

Qhuinn frowned "No"

"You sure about that"

"Look, if I cared what people thought, do you think I&039;d do what I do already?" He went around and blotted the slice on Blay&039;s chest, then tended to the wound on his shoulder "Besides, ot to impress anymore?"

"Why were you so cruel?" Blay asked in a dignified voice "Back in the tunnel at my place"

Qhuinn picked up a tube of neoain "I was pretty sure I wasn&039;t co your life over ured it was better for you to hate hed for real, and the sound was nice "You are so arrogant"

"Duh But it&039;s true, isn&039;t it" Qhuinn smoothed the milky ointment onto the break in Blay&039;s skin "You would have"

As he came back around in front, Blay lifted his head and his eyes Their stares met, and Qhuinn reached out and put his palently back and forth, he whispered, "I want you with so to be worthy of you

Treat you right Be only with you I&039;uy Even if I settled with a female shit, I tell myself I could be with just her, but in my heart of hearts, I don&039;t really believe that"

The yearning in the blue eyes staring up at hiine what it was that Blay saw in hi with you," he whispered, "that you care so much about me?"

Blay&039;s sad s his face with the kind of knowledge that came only after life kicked you in the nuts a nu with you that you can&039;t see why I would?"

"We&039;re going to have to agree to disagree on that"

"Pro"

"Leave ood I&039;m not a child, and I don&039;t break easily, and what I feel is none of your goddaht thing"

"You weren&039;t So promise me?"

Qhuinn exhaled hard "Fine, I pro as you swear you&039;ll look for someone real, okay?"

"You&039;re real toto do that I-a someone you can really have"

Blay&039;s hand crept up Qhuinn&039;s forear solid on both sides "Okay all right But it&039;s going to be a guy I&039;ve tried feht"

"As long as you&039;re happy Whatever makes you happy"

As the tension eased between them, Qhuinn wrapped his ar to absorb thethere were another way for them

"I suppose this is for the best," Blay said into his shoulder "You can&039;t cook"

"See? I&039;"

Qhuinn could have sworn Blay whispered, "Yes, you are," but he wasn&039;t sure

They pulled apart, looked into each other&039;s eyes and so center, in the vast privacy of the ed

"Just once," Blay said softly "Do it just once So I&039;ll knohat it&039;s like"

Qhuinn started to shake his head "No I don&039;t think¡ª"

"Yes"

After a moment, Qhuinn slid both his hands up Blay&039;s thick neck and captured the male&039;s sturdy jaw in his palms "You sure?"

When Blay nodded, Qhuinn tilted his friend&039;s head back and to the side and held it in place as he slowly closed the distance Just before their mouths touched, Blay&039;s eyelashes fluttered down and he trembled and¡ª

Oh, it eet Blay&039;s lips were incredibly sweet and soft

The tongue probably wasn&039;t supposed to be part of it, but there was no helping that Qhuinn licked inside and then sank deep as his arms slipped around Blay and held him hard When he finally lifted his head, the look in Blay&039;s eyes said he would let anything happen between them Let it all happen

They could take this spark between them all the way ho what he did best to his buddy

But things would never be the same after that, and that hat stopped him, in spite of the fact that he suddenly wanted exactly what Blay did "You&039;re too iood for the kind of sex I have"

Blay&039;s eyes lingered on Qhuinn&039;s ree with that"

As Qhuinn let go of the guy and stepped back, he realized it was the first and only tiht I&039;ht about this"

Blay took a deep breath, then braced his arurney and seehed a little "I can&039;t feel my feet or my hands"

"I&039;d offer to rub thelance under his lashes was da else of rinned "Fucker"

"Fine, fine Be that way" Blay reached over for the antiseptic, put soauze, which he taped in place "Will you take care of covering up the one in back?"

"Yeah"

As he hit the raw patch with so Blay&039;s skin running their hands over hihs

"One thing, though," Qhuinn murmured

"What?"

The voice that ca he&039;d ever heard frouy breaks your heart or treats you like shit, I will bust him apart with my bare hands and leave his broken, bloody body for the sun"

Blay&039;s laughter rumbled around the tiled walls "Of course you will¡ª"

"I&039; serious"

Blay&039;s blue eyes shot over his shoulder

"If there are any who dare to hurt you," Qhuinn growled in the Old Language, "I shall see them staked afore me and shall leave their bodies in ruin"

At his great caet warm Bundled in a thick terry cloth robe, with a mink blanket over his body, he was stretched out on a couch afire

The rooruold and deep blue often suiting his ood by the massive stone fireplace A retriever of so Bella had always liked dogs Their h, so there had never been one in the faht of hisat another of the family homes about a hundred and fifty miles away She hadn&039;t recovered yet from Bella&039;s abduction Probably never would Even all these months later, she didn&039;t want to leave the country, although given the state of Caldwell, that wasn&039;t a bad thing

She was going to die in the house she was in now, he thought Likely within the next couple years Old age was upon her, her biological clock starting to race to the finish line, her hair already having gone white

"Got s The Moor went over to the fireplace, moved the screen out of the way, and stoked the blaze until it roared even brighter

Which was pretty whacked for August

Ah, but this was August in the Adirondacks Plus he was double-loaded on dopamine, so he had about the same sensory perception and core temperature as petrified wood

Trez put the screen back in place and looked over his shoulder "Your lips are blue You want uard, not a butler"

"And we&039;ve got howaround here with silver trays?"

"I can get it" Rehv went to sit up, and his stomach lurched "Fuck"