A Trip to Remember (4 page)

“It’s a large closet, and it keeps Shea’s dog hair from getting in them,” called Logan.

He wasn’t kidding. The closet in the hall wasn’t so much a closet as it was a small bedroom. Colin was pretty sure he’d stayed in hotel rooms that were tinier than this closet. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with books. “Unreal,” he muttered.

There were so many options that he didn’t know what to do with himself. Logan found him sitting on the floor,
The Hobbit
in one hand and
The Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes
in the other. “I can’t decide,” said Colin, tilting his head to look back at him. “You’ve given me too many options.”

“Have you read either of them?”

“Both,” admitted Colin.

“Then go with
The Hobbit
. You can at least finish it before you leave.” Before he left he said, “You better put Sherlock back where you found him.”

Colin put Sherlock back where he found him (or where he thought he’d found him) and headed back to the living room. Logan was back in his spot, a Kindle in one hand and his drink in the other. Colin’s drink was sitting on the coffee table, waiting for him.

“All those hard copies and you’ve got a Kindle,” he said.

“Ran out of space to put all the hard copies,” answered Logan. He entwined their legs again once Colin was on the couch.

“You could give away some of the old ones to make space for the new,” pointed out Colin. He adjusted his right leg, trying to return to the ankle touching from earlier. He’d definitely lost his mind, he decided.

“Perish the thought,” said Logan. “I don’t give my books away.”

Colin held up the hand with his book in it. “The thought is perished,” he said. “So sorry.”

Logan looked smug, but he didn’t say anything else. He tucked his chin to his chest and focused on the screen. Colin followed his example, wriggling around to get himself comfortable and then settling in to read. Maybe he’d talk Logan into watching the
The Hobbit
films later. Were non-Christmas themed movies allowed? The one movie took place in winter. That was kind of Christmasy….

He tried to focus on the book but found that the couch was too comfortable, and Logan was too warm. Before he knew it he was sliding into sleep, the words on the page now nothing but a blur.

W
HATEVER
WAS
underneath him was moving and not near as soft as the couch had been. He frowned. His hand patted the surface, felt it rise and fall. “What?” he muttered and cracked open his eyes.

His face was tucked into a warm neck, his legs tangled with familiar muscular legs.

“Did you know,” said a familiar voice, “that you’re quite active in your sleep?”

Colin closed his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

Logan’s arm was around his waist. He squeezed him. “Nothing to be sorry for. You’re like a blanket.”

“How long?” asked Colin. He tried to pull up and away, to retreat back to the spot he’d originally fallen asleep in. Logan wouldn’t let him. He kept him pinned in place. Colin couldn’t look him in the face.

“A couple hours. I was napping, and you just threw yourself down on me. Eyes closed and all. I don’t know how you didn’t wake up.”

“I used to sleepwalk,” said Colin. “Had to do those sleep studies and everything. It hasn’t happened in ages.” He tried to push away again. Logan let him go this time, grunting when Colin used his chest to push himself up. From that angle, Colin was looking down into Logan’s face.

Logan looked sleepy with his eyes half-lidded and hair mussed. In the soft light, the gray in his hair wasn’t as noticeable. He gripped Colin’s hips and smiled when Colin blinked down at him in surprise.

“I’m going to try something,” said Logan. “Let me know what you think.”

Colin started to say what, but was interrupted by Logan’s mouth touching his. He froze, as still as a statue, his eyes popping wide as Logan pressed up into him while insistently moving his lips.

After a moment Logan pulled back, slight disappointment written across his face. Colin got with the program. He followed him down, reconnecting their lips and sliding his hands into Logan’s hair. His heart felt like someone had doubled the beat. He couldn’t believe it.

One of Logan’s hands moved to his ass and cupped, pushing him down and forward. Colin moaned eagerly into Logan’s mouth, fingers twisting tight in his hair.

Logan broke their kiss, running the hand not on his ass over his back. “Yeah?” he asked.

Colin huffed, tracing his lips over Logan’s jaw. “Yeah,” he said. “I can’t believe you have to ask.” He couldn’t believe they were kissing in the first place. This kind of thing did not happen to Colin.

Logan flipped them. There was a chance Colin made an undignified squeaking noise. He laughed down at him, bending to kiss the hollow of his neck. He nosed his way up to his mouth, leaving a trail of messy kisses on his way and a couple nips here and there. Colin wiggled beneath him, tilting his hips and searching for friction.

“Slow,” said Logan, right before he kissed him again. He kept him pinned to the couch with his weight as he slowly ravished Colin’s mouth. Colin didn’t think he’d ever been kissed so thoroughly or with so much thought.

Colin hitched his leg up around Logan’s waist, laughing when Logan asked him if he understood what slow meant. “Just like this,” murmured Colin, biting at Logan’s jaw. It took a lot of effort on his part to keep things there, to resist the urge to thrust into Logan’s weight and rub himself off. He kept his hands on Logan’s back, sliding them underneath his shirt to touch warm skin. He could feel the muscles rippling and traced the movement with his fingers.

He didn’t know how long they lay like that, exchanging nothing more than slow kisses and the occasional detour downward to suck a mark into exposed skin. Colin was pretty sure he was going to have a hickey necklace. “I don’t think I’ve kissed this much since I was in my teens,” he said, head shoved back into the pillow as Logan sucked on the sensitive skin behind his ear.

Logan worked his way back to his mouth, grazing his teeth over Colin’s bottom lip. “There’s something to be said for necking for hours.”

“You’re ridiculous,” laughed Colin, unable to contain his smile. He moved forward, capturing Logan’s lips with his once more. He certainly didn’t want it to end anytime soon. Despite how painfully hard he was, the rest of his body felt loose and relaxed. His thoughts were nothing but hazy wisps that he couldn’t hold on to.

He wouldn’t have noticed the phone ringing if Shea hadn’t started barking obnoxiously. Logan tried to pull away, but Colin clung tight to him. “Ignore it,” he said.

Logan laughed, kissing him through it. “It’s probably family. Let me get it.”

Reluctantly Colin slipped his hands from under his shirt and moved his leg to the side. “Fine,” he said. “But bring me a water when you come back.”

“Demanding,” teased Logan, bending to give him a quick peck before he left the room.

When he was out of sight, Colin rubbed his face, trying to work out the ache in his jaw. He couldn’t believe his jaw actually hurt from kissing. His lips tingled, feeling puffy and numb. He licked them and wondered just how long they’d been kissing for. It had to have been a while.

He stretched, rolling from his back to his stomach and burrowing his face into the pillow. Lazily, he rutted his hips into the couch once, twice. He felt tired despite his earlier nap, his eyes drooping.

He was drifting back to sleep when a heavy weight landed on his back. He grunted, squinting his eyes open to scowl up at Logan. Logan had his phone to his ear, a landline phone—who even used those anymore?—and was smirking down at him.

“It’s fine,” he said. “This moron wrecked his car, and he’s going to spend Christmas here.” He winked at Colin as he said it, smirk firmly in place.

Colin flipped him off. Logan shoved his face into the pillow.

“No, he’s cool,” said Logan. “Definitely not an axe murderer. He does hate Christmas movies, though, so maybe there is something wrong with him. I’ll keep my eye out.”

Colin tried to buck him off, scrambling to get his knees and hands underneath him to push off. Logan compensated by collapsing to the side and sprawling out lengthwise over Colin’s back.

“If you talk in my ear,” Colin warned him, “whoever you’re talking to might have cause to worry.”

Logan reached out and covered his mouth with his ridiculously large hand. Colin licked his palm in retaliation. Logan grimaced but didn’t remove his hand. He proceeded to hold an entire conversation with his mother, squishing Colin into the couch throughout. He removed his hand when he’d finished talking and obligingly lifted himself so Colin could roll over. He then straddled Colin’s stomach.

Colin mock-glared up at him. “You’re an asshole,” he said, fighting back the dopey grin he wanted to plaster across his face for some inexplicable reason. “Where’s my water?”

“You should be way more grateful to the man who rescued you from certain death,” said Logan. He leaned to the side, though, and came back with a water bottle in hand. “If this wasn’t my couch, I’d totally dump this on you.”

He swiped the bottle from Logan. “I need you to get up. I can’t drink it like this.”

Rather than getting up, Logan leaned down over him. He dragged his thumb along Colin’s bottom lip. Colin tried to bite it. Laughing, he pulled away and finally removed his ass from Colin’s stomach. He scooted down to sit on his thighs.

Pushing himself up, Colin ignored the weight and guzzled the water. Logan watched him while Colin tried to look at anything and everything that wasn’t him. “Can we watch something not Christmasy?” he asked when he was done drinking.

“Sure,” said Logan, reaching out and running a hand through Colin’s ruffled hair. “What does Scrooge feel like watching?”

C
OLIN
JACKKNIFED
up from where he’d been sprawled across the couch sleeping with the realization that he had never called his family to tell them what was going on. What had even happened to his phone?

The room was in complete darkness, and he was more than a little disoriented. The last thing he remembered was watching Bilbo talk to Smaug. Now the TV was dark, and the bag of chips he’d had lying on his stomach was gone. Carefully, with one hand extended to make sure he didn’t walk into the coffee table, Colin tried to make his way from the room. He needed to call his mom, but he didn’t think the middle of the night was really the time to do that. He could send her a text to let her know he’d call in the morning, though.

Navigating the stairs in the dark was a challenge he’d rather not repeat. He felt like he was drunk, practically having to crawl up the stairs to avoid tripping. He made a note to tell Logan that he needed to buy night-lights for when he had guests over. Making it to the guest room, he fumbled his hand over the wall looking for the light switch. His hand hit something hard, he thought it might have been a picture frame, and a moment later there was a crashing sound as it hit the floor. He froze. He wasn’t wearing shoes, and he definitely heard a shattering noise. He did not need to be stepping on glass.

He was debating what to do when the light in the room came on. He turned to look at a sleep-mussed Logan. “What are you doing?” Logan demanded, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “It’s late.” His gaze trailed down to the floor.

Colin followed his look, staring down at the shattered remains of what was indeed a picture. “Sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t find the light, and I needed my phone.”

Logan ran a hand over his face. His hair was sticking straight up in some spots. “Get your phone and come on.” He held out his hand.

“Come on?” repeated Colin. He carefully moved around the glass and retrieved his phone from his bag.

“You can sleep in my room. I don’t need you stepping on the glass when you don’t remember it’s there tomorrow morning.” He took Colin’s hand, thumb brushing over his knuckles.

“That’s the weakest excuse I’ve ever heard to get someone in bed,” said Colin, but he allowed Logan to lead him from the room anyway.

Logan’s room was pitch black. “I get the right side,” said Logan, letting go of Colin with a squeeze and sliding into said side. Colin could hear the rustling of the sheets as he settled. “Don’t hog the blankets.”

Colin stared at the general area of the bed. Logan had really meant he’d share the bed for sleeping, who would have thought? He carefully picked his way around to the left side and slid in. He lay on his back, staring up at nothing, far too aware of the body lying not even a foot away from him.

Not even a minute later, he felt a warm arm wrap around his waist. “Go to sleep,” said Logan. “You think too much.”

H
E
TRIED
to rub the sleep from his eyes as he listened to the grumbling snores coming from Logan’s side of the bed. Logan’s side of the bed….

He looked up at the ceiling wondering what he should do. What was the protocol here? He shifted onto his side and stared. Logan was stretched out beside him, an arm wrapped around his pillow and the other thrown out to the side. His face was buried in the pillow, causing his breathing to sound stifled. “S’early,” he slurred after a minute. “Lay back down.”

“Right,” muttered Colin. He vaguely recalled the events of the night before.

Logan slowly rolled over onto his back. He stretched like a big cat, scratching a hand down his bare stomach. “We didn’t have sex.”

“I know we didn’t,” said Colin. “I also didn’t text my mom.”

Logan cracked one stormy eye open to give him a baffled look. “Excuse me?”

“I meant to text my mom last night, to let her know I’d call her today. You distracted me.” He’d been so preoccupied with the thought of sharing a bed with Logan that texting his mom hadn’t even occurred to him. “She probably thinks I’m dead,” he said. “I should call her now.”

Logan dragged his pillow over his head, bending it so it was clamped around him. Colin grabbed his phone and slid from the bed. He didn’t think Logan would appreciate him talking while he was trying to sleep, even if the man did deserve a little payback.