couch flipping through the sports channels so I blew the candles on the table out and joined him and Squish on the couch. Again, I sat close but not too close and within a few moments, he’d wiggled over. He had always been like a koala, clinging and touching, and I certainly didn’t mind one bit.
We watched a replay of last season’s football grand final but it wasn’t even into the second half when his head was on my shoulder and his blinks were getting longer and longer. “Wanna go to bed, baby?” I asked.
“Tired,” he said. “Always tired. Wish I wasn’t.”
“You need to sleep,” I said gently. “Your brain is recovering.”
He was quiet for a bit. “You call me baby. Or Jussy.”
“I do, sorry. It’s a habit.”
“What’d I call you?”
Such an innocent question, but damn, it hurt my heart a little. “You’d call me Dall. Short for Dallas. Or babe. Not in front of the boys at work; just when it was us.”
He hummed sleepily. “Like that.”
Me too, baby. Me too. And maybe one day we’ll get back to that.
I got him up to use the bathroom and I got him his meds and he was almost asleep when I helped him into bed. He mumbled something that I couldn’t understand, and with a deep breath, he was out like a light.
I leaned down and kissed his head, right next to the scar above his ear. “I love you, Jussy,” I whispered, knowing he was asleep. I wanted him to know, even on a subconscious level, that he was loved.
Squish quickly joined him, like he always did, curling up at his side and purring loudly, and I left him in charge. I got everything tidied up and went to my room, smiling at the rumpled blankets where Justin had slept. I inhaled the faint scent of him as I settled into sleep. I’d barely dozed off when Justin’s voice woke me.
“Dallas?”
I shot up, wondering what was wrong. I got to his room, and he was sitting up in his bed. “Can’t sleep,” he mumbled, then pulled the covers back in invitation.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I slid in between the sheets, and before my head was on the pillow, he was snuggled into my side. I rolled and pulled him against me, his head against my chest, and he mumbled again, but this time I heard him just fine.
“Don’t leave me.”
Chapter Three
I woke up with Justin plastered to me. He was snuggled right in, his heavy cast across my belly, his thigh across mine. Once upon a time it might have been annoying, waking up with a heat-seeking koala wrapped around me, but now I relished it.
My body liked it too.
Needing to pee didn’t help, but having him so close after so long . . . my body definitely liked it.
He was sound asleep, and I figured it would be best if he didn’t wake up with my persistent dick staring right at him. I’d crawled into his bed wearing only my boxers, so there wasn’t much hope of hiding it.
I gently lifted his leg off mine. It was his injured leg so I had to be careful, and when I slipped out from under his arm, he stirred but never woke. Once out of bed, I took a second to watch him sleep.
Fucking hell, he was gorgeous.
His injuries reminded me that he was vulnerable, but by God, he was resilient and strong too. And sexy as hell.
My dick agreed, which reminded me to leave before he saw me. I used the bathroom and I tried to think of everything we had to do this morning, listing his appointments in my head, but my problem wasn’t going away on its own.
Shower first it is, then.
Jerking off hadn’t been something I’d done much of since Justin’s accident. I’d either been too tired, too distracted, or too heartsore. But now that he was home and sleeping in the same bed seemed to be something that might happen often, I figured I should probably get used to it.
It didn’t take much . . . the hot water, a soap-slicked hand, and memories of Justin and me and the countless nights of frenzied fucking or gentle lovemaking, of being buried inside him, making him come just from having my cock inside him. God, how he loved that . . .
It didn’t take much at all.
I finished my shower, feeling a little lightheaded and much looser. I dressed and went to the