Physical Therapy (15 page)

80

Z. A. Maxfield

“I was sleeping… I was tired.”
Now
my fucking head hurt too. I turned, giving him room to come in. “A lot has happened in the last three days.” He let out a mirthless laugh. I sat on the bed, and he stood towering over me. Not for the first time I almost shivered, looking at that solid body of his. He was glowering, which made him even
hotter
, and
how sick was that?
I watched his hands clenching and unclenching on the grips of his crutches and I needed to swallow hard. Despite his lack of balance, he began to pace. It intrigued me to watch his body mechanics. They improved remarkably with anger.

“You just don"t get it, do you?” he said. He swiped his hand through his hair, the crutch dangling from his forearm dangerously close to whacking him in the face.

“What?” I asked. “Coming out? I sure the hell do get it, junior. I had to do it. And don"t kid yourself if you think even ten years has dimmed the memory. My father still chooses not to sit in the same room with me.” I felt myself soften a little. “Was it bad?”

“Yes.” He sat down with a
thump
and sighed. “No.”

“That clarifies things.”

“Shut the fuck up.” He glared at me. “It was bad because it was so… They hardly batted an eye.”

“What?”

“I told my parents, and they were like, „Thank you for telling us. Anything else?" It was awful.”

“Ah.” I nodded. “Awful. I always thought that awful looked more like people throwing your clothes out the window. More like spittle flying or shots fired.”

“Don"t you dare make light of this.”

“What do you expect me to say until you tell me what"s wrong?” I asked. “It"s too fucking late for guessing games.” I flopped onto my back, moving up to put my head on the pillow. He could talk, and if he didn"t make more sense I would try to fall back to sleep. He dropped into the bed beside me, and I heard his crutches hit the floor.

“They were fine. Amazingly supportive until…”

“Until what?” I never noticed, but the corners of the ceiling were full of cobwebs.

It was disconcerting because I didn"t see any spiders. I kept thinking if there were cobwebs there had to be spiders, and the fact that I didn"t see them made my skin crawl a little. In the meantime, Ken, who had gotten me out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night and apparently
forgotten
what it was that had upset him so much, was lying there next to me saying fucking nothing for the longest time.

“Until I told them about
you
,” he said grimly. “Then they lost it completely.” I forgot all about the spiders. I forgot a lot of things that made me vaguely uncomfortable in that moment and focused on the one thing that sort of, even though I had tried to prepare myself for it, broke my heart.

I spoke past the pain. “Sorry.”

“Sorry?” he muttered. “Is that all I get? Sorry?” Physical Therapy

81

“Fuck you! What do you want? I"ve got nothing but sorry.” I turned away from him. “Don"t let the door hit you.”

“Jordan—”

“Get out, Ken,” I said. “I"m tired, and tomorrow is going to be another long day.” I felt an arm wrap around me. “I"m not going anywhere. You know I"m not going, but if it makes you feel better, you can tell me to go again.”

“I don"t know what to do,” I told him.

He slipped away and sat up for a moment. I heard fabric rustling behind me.

“Let"s get some sleep,” he said, dragging my jeans off.

“Ken—”

“Shh.” He slipped up behind me again, wearing nothing but his underwear, and pulled me back against his chest. “C"mere. We don"t have to talk, we don"t have to fuck, let"s just get some sleep.”

“Okay,” I told him weakly. I could feel his knit boxers against my cold skin. He was warm everywhere, wrapping himself around me. Whatever drama was surrounding him with his parents, I could still feel that hum of rightness when his skin touched mine. I guessed it was simple chemistry. I couldn"t remember another man, another person, who made me feel so good. Even Cooper, who felt like home, didn"t feel like this.

Ken spooned up to me, and I reached around and hooked a hand behind his neck, bringing him in for a brief kiss. He seemed as tired as I was.

I asked him, “Anything else that needs to be said tonight?” It might be a good idea to let me know if his dad was going to show up with a gun.

“Nope.” He squeezed me hard, which I took to mean
shut up
. I fell asleep with his breath softly disturbing the hair on the nape of my neck.

* * * * *

I woke up before Ken, feeling his strong arms wrapped around me as the first rays of sunlight began to tease their way through the gap between the inexpensive light-blocking draperies. Motes of dust danced in the beams, and I watched them without moving or saying anything for a while. Gradually, Ken stirred. I felt the first faint changes in the way he was breathing against my skin, a barely perceptible tightening of his hands as they caressed me, and the answering flush in my body as his cock filled and tightened against my ass.

I settled back farther against him, absently wondering if his hard-on was for me or if it was just everyday morning wood. A hand slipped around me and cupped my balls.

I got my answer.

“This feels good,” he murmured against my hair.

82

Z. A. Maxfield

“Yeah?” I hardly dared to breathe. He was pulling me closer and grinding on me, setting sparks all along the trail of kisses he was leaving on my neck with beard-roughened skin.

“Yeah.” He backed away briefly, pulling his shorts off and tossing them over the side of the bed. He ran a hand down the column of my spine, moving so slowly that it felt like water dripping, or something teasing along my skin like a bit of fabric, like silk.

I didn"t know what kind of experience he had, but his touch felt innocent, like an exploration, not a seduction.

I bit my lip to keep from hurrying him along. His hand trailed lower and lower at an impossibly slow rate, until it slipped down my ass crack to tease my hole and gently rub the skin beneath it toward my balls. I opened my legs to give him room, and he laughed against my ear, a kind of delighted chuckle, as though he"d made a discovery and wanted to test his theory out.

“Your skin is so soft here.” He tickled me.

“Well…” I gasped when his finger circled around behind my balls and then teased at them. They drew up a little as my dick tightened. “It"s not like it gets a lot of wear and tear these days.”

“Mm.” He pressed against me so his erection found friction against my leg. “I want… What do I want?”

“You have to ask?” I rolled a little to see his face.

He bit his lip and blushed.
Blushed
. “I want to fuck you. Do you? I mean…is it okay?”

I put my head down into the rubbery little hotel pillow. Not since I was a kid, experimenting with Cooper, had I been with anyone who asked like that. “Yeah,” I told him. “It"s fine.”

I reached over to the nightstand and retrieved a condom and lube. I knew that I"d have to dial down my enthusiasm and let him take his time. He was running his hands over my back, up my thighs…yeah. Taking his time was going to be a really good thing as long as I could stand it.

He shifted behind me and pulled my hips up until I was on my hands and knees.

One hand crept around my waist to cup and fondle my cock, and the other parted my ass cheeks. Ice-cold lube dripped between them and I gasped out loud.

“Should have warmed it, huh?” he asked, attuned to the minutest changes in my body. “I gave you goose bumps.”

“Not because of the cold,” I told him as his questing finger breached my hole a little. I pushed back against him, and he made an incoherent sound, sort of draping himself over my back, rubbing his dick along the backs of my thighs.

“Oh, hot,” he murmured, pumping his finger in and out. “I want to feel this on my cock.” He added another finger. I couldn"t stop myself from moaning aloud and taking him deeper.

Physical Therapy

83

In the best of times, when I lived in the Bay Area and had ample opportunity for sex, I often went home alone. I"d gone from my very small and repressed hometown and found hundreds, even thousands, of like-minded people to play with. Some of them were fairly welcoming; some made offers of fuck-buddy sex and no-questions-asked coupling and, occasionally, threepling. Some had professed a desire to make it more meaningful than that. I took full advantage of what my new freedom offered. But none of those easy hook-ups moved me the way Ken did with his almost-fumbling as he rolled on a condom. The way he pulled me up into position and the care he took to make me comfortable.

“You"ll tell me if I hurt you?” he whispered, his hands trembling against my skin.

“I don"t—”

“Did I hurt you?” I turned, suddenly concerned that he"d kept that from me.

Blue eyes that were dark with desire met mine. “At first, maybe,” he admitted. “A little, but then…”

“I"m so sorry,” I told him. “It won"t hurt me. I didn"t—”

“Shh.” He shook his head. “Just tell me, okay?” He lined up his cock with exquisite care and made his way past my body"s defenses.

I arched into him to encourage him.

“Oh,” he groaned, moving forward slowly as I moved back. “So tight. Okay?” I just nodded, swallowing hard. It was more than okay. It was Ken, and before that moment I hadn"t realized how much I"d wanted this. Ken"s big, hard body and impossibly strong arms. The way he crushed my hips in his large hands where he held me. I"m not a small man, but he covered me completely, and I had a vague notion about that turning into a very,
very
good thing when he got over his shyness. I pushed back with my arms until he was so deep inside me I thought he might feel my heart beat, and I let everything else go.

I loved the way he flexed his ass to rock into me and drag back, rising and falling like together we were some great machine, pistons firing, gears churning, exchanging oxygen for keening noises and little gasps of pleasure, out and in, a grunt here and a groan there to encourage pleasure.

“Oh, fuck.” He snapped his hips into me so hard I could feel his balls slam against my skin. I had to put a hand on the headboard to keep from moving. “Not going to last,” he gasped out and kissed my spine between my shoulder blades.

I kept my head down and angled my hips for maximum sensation so I"d go over the edge with him. It wasn"t going to take much more; I could have come just from the way he held me and the noises he made. Gliding in and out of my body, reaching around and taking my cock in an almost punishing grip, he made me soar outside myself again, but then he laid his cheek against my neck and something about that gesture, the unexpected almost cuddliness of it all, made me want to slow it all down and savor it.

84

Z. A. Maxfield

“Oh, FUCK!” he shouted in my ear, the shock adding the extra percussive burst of terror that I apparently needed to push me right over into an orgasm of epic proportions. He crushed me in his arms, pressing his forehead to my shoulder as I shot cum all over his hand.

Oh, muscles
. I was used to athletes; I often worked with them. But when he wrapped those long arms around me and his strong muscles rippled against my skin…

“You? Are awesome.” I sighed, unable to stop myself. He was a nuzzler, his raspy face scrubbing my skin and scraping little beard burns all along my neck.

“Hm, what?” He rolled us, pulling out to tug the spent condom off his cock and toss it on the floor by the bed. He pulled me over, and I flattened myself against him, letting the whole length of our bodies press together as I felt my damp skin begin to cool.

He was sweaty, and I brushed some hair that was stuck on his forehead back off his face. I gripped his forearm and squeezed. “It"s hot, how strong you are.” He grinned, but then it faded. “It all looks better lying down, though, doesn"t it?” I didn"t agree, so I just shook my head.

“I"m only keeping my muscles because I work them out regularly, separately, in the gym. My body mechanics are for shit. Do you know if that will change?” he asked suddenly. “Would you tell me the truth if you did?” I was shocked. “Of course I"d tell you the truth. Who doesn"t?”

“Sometimes I think people like Izzie don"t tell me everything they know. People like my physical therapist, Rowena, who I see twice a week at the hospital. I think they all keep a stiff upper lip for my sake.”

“I haven"t got enough information about your case to tell you anything, but I know enough about Izzie to tell you that she isn"t the type who lies to soften a blow.” Ken blew out a soft breath. “Yeah. That"s probably true at least.”

“And what does she say?”

“She tells me I"m making progress. So does Ro. Monday I should be able to go to two canes.”

“I have Monday off. I could go with you. Maybe find out what I can do to help.”
For fuck’s sake, where had that come from?

“Like my girlfriend?” he teased, but his eyes said something a little more…sincere.

“Sure. I"ll bake your PT a batch of brownies.” I smacked his head a little, a light tap to let him know I was nobody"s
girlfriend
. But fuck, I was. And I knew it.

* * * * *

By the time I got to Day-Use after a breakfast exchanging glances that ranged from stunned to guilty to glowing at Denny"s with Ken, Izzie and everyone who came in to work out seemed to know that Ken had spent the night in my motel room. Reactions Physical Therapy

85

ranged from Izzie"s hearty slap on my back to Officer Andrew"s eerie determination to meet my eyes at all costs, even though he was embarrassed.

If there was one thing I knew, it was small towns, and this whole business of knowing other people"s business fazed me not at all. No place could compete with my hometown of River Falls with regard to the speed at which information was disseminated.

I wasn"t even surprised, really, when I saw Mark enter the gym, except that I knew he should have been in school. I don"t know what went through my head, except that there could only be two reasons he showed up here at my work looking for me: either he was okay with his big brother being gay—hey, it
could
happen—or he was here to kick my ass.