Cut & Run (42 page)

“Mm hmm,” Zane answered, following along. Some sleep wouldn’t go unappreciated, depending on if he slept at all without several whiskey shots first.

“Next bad pun you make I’m kicking you in the shin. I don’t care where we are,” Ty threatened as he turned and raised his chin.

“Ah ah ah, you forget, pain is not an incentive for me to quit,” Zane prodded, crossing his arms.

Ty responded with a swift kick to Zane’s shin. Zane laughed and caught Ty around the waist, hefting him practically off his feet and swinging him around. Ty flailed gracelessly. A man of his size and demeanor was not accustomed to being tossed around like a rag doll, and it showed. Zane’s size advantage was finally paying off. He snickered and let Ty get his feet under him. “You love it,” he teased.

“Jesus,” Ty snapped as he held to Zane for a moment longer to make Cut & Run | 255

sure he really was on the ground again. Zane kept his arms wrapped around him, and he leaned forward to nuzzle the side of Ty’s neck. “Well, that’s …

sort of embarrassing,” Ty muttered almost to himself.

Zane grinned and pressed his face close so the other man couldn’t see it and get cranky again. Ty simply let himself be cuddled with a resigned sigh.

Unable to hold back a yawn, Zane mumbled against Ty’s skin, unwilling to move just yet.

“Bed, huh?” Ty murmured as he finally wrapped his arms around Zane and patted him on the head.

Zane nodded, feeling drowsy for the first time in a long while without the help of copious amounts of alcohol.

“Take off those nasty jeans before you get your ass in my clean sheets,” Ty warned. Zane disrobed obediently as Ty watched him, leaving only his briefs to sleep in, then Ty stepped back and nodded for him to get into bed. “Fucking later,” he promised with a tired smile.

Zane grunted at him and crawled over the foot of the bed and slid down to lay on his belly with a soft sigh, not even bothering to reach for a pillow. Ty stood watching him for a moment, then walked over to the door and flipped off the light before crawling in after him.

“You’ll be here?” Zane asked sleepily, shifting one hand to just barely touch Ty’s arm.

“If I’m not, look on the balcony,” Ty answered softly as he rolled onto his side and slid his hand over Zane’s back.

The other man hummed softly and dropped quickly off to sleep. With his eyes closed, the shadows and thinness of his face became more pronounced. Ty sighed softly as he looked over him.

There was an obvious familiarity to this situation. Except before, their roles had been reversed, and Ty hadn’t yet been forced to resort to substances to keep his sanity. He reached up and ran his fingertips down the side of Zane’s face with a frown. There wasn’t much to be done for him, either, nothing that Zane wouldn’t resent.

256 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

ane managed to sleep a couple hours before the dreams and the shakes woke him with a startled gasp. He sat up quickly, reaching for the gun Z that wasn’t there, looking around in confusion. The man in bed beside him groaned in response to the bouncing of the mattress and flopped onto his side. Seeing that, Zane remembered where he was and why, and his heart started to calm. He looked down at Ty, though he couldn’t see much in the dark. He glanced to the clock and sighed. Two damn hours. He was wide awake now with little chance of more sleep.

He scooted up to lean against the headboard and stare off into the dark, trying to order his thoughts. A day ago, he would have hit a bottle. Now

… he pulled one knee up to his chest and sighed.

“It’s harder to go back to sleep when you’re sitting up, numbnuts,” Ty muttered sleepily without moving or opening his eyes.

A smile pulled at Zane’s lips. “I didn’t realize that, thanks,” he murmured, reaching out to smooth a hand through Ty’s hair. It was comforting to have him there, though Zane wouldn’t have admitted it aloud.

Although, he figured, he’d already said it in a way, hadn’t he?

Ty swatted at him grumpily and muttered again, tossing an arm over Zane’s lap as he sat there beside him. He rested his face against Zane’s hip and sighed sleepily. Settling his hand in Ty’s hair again, Zane petted him gently as he let his head loll back. No more drink; it would be hard to get to sleep at night, hard to gear down. He’d probably be a worse mess in the morning, and Ty sure wasn’t going to tolerate him popping pills to wake up and stay up. He winced. He should get that other tin out of his jacket before Ty had reason to find it.

“Go to sleep,” Ty muttered against his hip. “And stop thinking about drinking.”

Zane thumped his shoulder. “Bastard,” he cursed quietly before allowing himself to slump. He stilled and calmed, looking at the dark shadow of the man curled up against him. It didn’t seem like they’d spent enough time Cut & Run | 257

together all those months ago to have developed this sort of comfort, but it was there nonetheless.

“C’mon,” Ty muttered as he lifted his head and scooted back, patting the bed next to him.

“Ty,” Zane said tiredly. It wouldn’t work. As soon as he went back to sleep he’d wake right back up. Too much time spent on a hair trigger. But he didn’t want to keep Ty awake, so he slid down and turned to his side, facing him, and laid his head down.

“Roll over,” Ty ordered in a hoarse, sleepy voice as he slid his arm under Zane’s head. He gave his shoulder a push for good measure.

Frowning, Zane let him push him to his back. Ty manhandled him until he was on his side again, facing away, and Ty snuggled against him. He wrapped his arm over Zane protectively and nuzzled his nose into Zane’s hair with a sigh.

“Sleep,” he whispered soothingly, knowing if Zane didn’t, then he wouldn’t either. It was impossible for him to rest with a tense body next to him.

Zane laid there for a long moment, surprised, but he started to relax more as Ty held him close. It was … indescribable. He could feel sleep encroaching again, and Zane hoped he might rest for a change.

He twitched slightly as he started to fall asleep; the warmth of Ty’s body and the sound of his breathing eased Zane enough that he dozed off, feeling safer in Ty’s arms than he had in a long time.

The next time one of the two men awoke, it was Ty, waking without moving. The morning light was seeping through the windows and he groaned softly. Zane still lay on his side, just where Ty had maneuvered him, deeply asleep with Ty wrapped around him. He hadn’t even moved, much less woken up again. Ty extracted himself carefully and padded into the bathroom, making as little sound as possible. When he returned, Zane still hadn’t moved.

Ty slid back into the warm bed and up next to him. He slowly kissed his neck, nuzzling into the warm skin. Zane shifted slightly and his breath caught as he started to wake, recognizing the touch as out of the ordinary.

“Morning,” Ty murmured softly as he felt Zane stir. Zane hummed quietly, almost questioningly. “Wake up,” Ty whispered.

Starting to move a bit, Zane drew in a deeper breath and turned his face up toward Ty, eyes still closed. “Time to wake up already?” he asked, 258 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

voice soft and heavy with sleep.

“You’ve got an hour or so before we have to get out of bed,” Ty answered as he continued to nuzzle against Zane’s skin.

Zane made a few appreciative sounds and shifted closer to Ty. “Don’t wanna wake up … this is nice,” he mumbled.

“Want to sleep a little longer?” Ty asked in a softer voice.

“Mmm. Only if you stay,” Zane murmured faintly, about to drop back off into a doze.

“If I stay, I might do unseemly things to you,” Ty warned in a low voice as his hand moved slowly down Zane’s side.

The corner of Zane’s mouth turned up. “Mmmm. As long as I’m not dreaming it,” he murmured, smoothing his hand down over the mattress in front of himself.

Ty scooted closer, pulling Zane back by his hip as he lifted himself up more. “This is becoming distracting,” he informed Zane softly, lips moving against Zane’s ear.

Zane laughed hoarsely and finally opened his eyes. “This?” he asked, covering Ty’s hand with his own, just to touch. Ty’s fingers dug into Zane’s hip slowly, and he flexed his hips against him.

“Waking up like this every morning would have its perks,” Ty murmured without thinking as he kissed at Zane’s neck.

Biting his lip, Zane tried to ignore how much that thought pleased him—but he couldn’t ignore the curl of desire. “Yeah,” he agreed.

Ty pushed up further and pulled Zane to lie flat on his back, kissing him languidly as his hand roamed up and down warm skin. Zane slid his arm over Ty’s waist as he let him control the kiss. God, he could get used to this.

He
wanted
to get used to this.

Groaning softly, Ty straddled one of Zane’s legs, pushing his knee between them and forcing them apart.

“Yeah,” Zane encouraged, sliding his hands down Ty’s back and gripping his ass, pulling their groins closer together. Ty growled and kissed him harder, insinuating himself between Zane’s legs and sliding his hands under his shoulder blades to hold him still. Body relaxed and malleable from sleep, Zane moved as Ty moved, his mouth giving as Ty took, Zane’s body quickening as he tried to rock against him.

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Ty gasped softly into Zane’s mouth and reached up to tangle one hand in his hair, sliding their groins together for the friction. The phone on the bedside table began to ring and vibrate demandingly, and Ty practically snarled at it before stealing another kiss. Zane’s hands tightened on Ty. He wanted so much to say “forget the phone, you’re supposed to be fucking me,”

but he let the kiss end instead of lengthening it.

Ty stretched and reached for the phone, groaning as his hips pushed into Zane even harder, and he snatched the phone up and flipped it open.

“What?” he barked in answer as he settled back down over Zane’s body. The voice on the other end was loud enough to almost be distinguished, and it was obviously female. Ty bent his head to nip at Zane’s neck as he listened.

A hum rumbled in Zane’s chest as he settled his hands on Ty’s hips, giving him the angle to pull the other man against him as he slowly rutted against his body.

Ty reached again for the bedside table, letting the voice on the phone ramble on as he grabbed the drawer pull and yanked at it. He fumbled in the drawer, finally extracting a tube of lubricant and then a torn box of condoms.

He kissed Zane again, bringing the phone close enough to Zane’s ear that he could hear a brief but heartfelt curse. Zane smiled against Ty’s lips.

Obviously it wasn’t critical enough to stop Ty from fucking him, so he couldn’t care less that the person on the other end of the line was pissed off.

To help out, Zane lifted his hips and snagged his briefs with one hand, pushing them down to his thighs.

“Yeah,” Ty whispered to him as he reached down to help, pushing the briefs further down and kissing him again. The phone fell from his hand and slid down the pillow, and he reached for the lubricant as he pushed Zane’s legs further apart with his knee. Zane kicked the briefs to the side and spread his legs more to make room for Ty. His cock was already erect and standing.

It hadn’t taken long, not with Ty touching him. It never did. As he sucked in a breath, he turned his head and could hear the feminine voice still talking.

“Ty?” the little voice questioned angrily. “Ty! Are you even listening to me?” it shouted.

Ty reached for the phone and put it to his ear again as he reached between Zane’s legs with the other. “Listening,” he grunted unconvincingly before moving the phone away from his mouth and kissing Zane again as he slid a finger inside him.

Biting his lip against a soft cry, Zane arched into Ty’s hand, squeezing his eyes closed and gripping the sheets. Fuck, he wanted this so 260 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

badly, and the fact that Ty was doing it despite the phone call just made him crazier. Zane lifted one hand to curl around himself, lightly running his thumb over the head of his aching cock.

Ty could barely form complex thoughts, much less deal with the woman on the other end of the phone. He wanted Zane and just Zane, and he wanted him right that minute. He slid another finger into him slowly, practically vibrating with the desire to go faster.