looming. It was going to be a bad one. He could feel it already.
Two hours later, Brantley was still at his desk; however, he was no longer pretending to work. He’d given that shit up a while ago but hadn’t found the energy to stand up.
“You comin’ down for dinner?”
He peered up from his desk chair to see Reese standing in the doorway, his chest bare and a pair of black sweats hanging low on his hips. When he wore things like that—so casual, so very … male—it made Brantley wonder how he managed to go a second without running his hands over every long, lean inch of him. Even now, when his thoughts were muddled and the pain behind his eyes was growing more intense by the second, he wanted to touch and taste, explore and ravish.
“Yeah,” he answered but didn’t move from where he sat.
He wanted to get up, but the headache that had started two hours ago had taken root. In no time, it would be a full-blown migraine, and he would do anything to keep it from intensifying. This was the first one he’d had in two weeks, and it dispelled his theory that they were possibly going away for good. Ever since the incident that ended his career as a SEAL, he’d been battling them, and each and every time, he prayed that one would be his last.
“You’ve got a headache,” Reese said softly, taking one step into the office.
Brantley could see so much concern in those brown eyes, and it hit him somewhere in the center of his chest. It pissed him off that he’d spent the better part of the day sulking over the fact that Reese hadn’t told him he’d nearly gotten married at one point in his life. It was a stupid worry, he knew. Something he had no business harping on. There were a lot of things they didn’t know about each other, a lot of things they would eventually learn.
Yet it still made his stomach twist into knots.
Reese flipped off the overhead light, then pulled the cord to close the blinds. Even though the sun was still shining through, it helped. Some.
“Come on,” Reese urged, moving over and holding out his hand. “I’ll get your medicine.”
Because he knew the migraine was inevitable and it would be a hell of a lot easier to be in his bed in a completely dark room, Brantley nodded and put his hand in Reese’s.
When he stood, Reese stepped in close, cupping his cheek with his free hand before pressing his lips gently to his. Brantley felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders even as the shift in position made his head throb more.
Without another word, Reese led the way downstairs, through the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water on the way to their bedroom. By the time he got there, Brantley had no choice but to ease down on the bed and close his eyes. The nausea always hit him when he walked, and the throbbing had increased tenfold in such a short distance.
He heard the click of the lamp when Reese turned it off, followed by the sound of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom opening, closing, then footsteps coming his way.
“Here,” Reese whispered as something pressed against Brantley’s lips.
He opened his mouth, took the pill, and accepted the water Reese helped him with.
“You want me to undress you?”
Brantley nodded, wishing like hell Reese would ask that question when he was well enough to come up with a quip to lighten the mood.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen now.
When Brantley woke up, the pain was like a knife in his skull. The instant he was conscious, the nausea hit him like a freight train.
He groaned and managed to roll out of bed, stumble to the bathroom. His knees hit the tile floor with a thud, seconds before he heaved. This was the worst part. Wasn’t the blinding headache enough? Vomiting only made it worse. A vicious cycle that he found himself in as he fought to breathe in slow and steady, willing the pain away enough to get him back to the bed.
Several agonizingly long seconds later, he stumbled to the sink to rinse his mouth out. The action took effort, but he managed. It wasn’t until he returned to the bedroom that he realized Reese wasn’t there. The clock on the nightstand read 0128.
He paused long enough to look at the door, considered going to find him, but gave