He released a shaky breath of relief and crawled back to Shane, who immediately grabbed Quinn’s hand, pulling him close.
“Everyone got out safely.”
“Thank God,” Shane said on a sigh.
“What do we do now?”
Shane looked away from Quinn, his fingers tightening on Quinn’s hand for a moment before releasing him. His expression turned grim and Quinn’s stomach twisted. “I don’t know,” Shane admitted.
Quinn had a feeling that when Shane finally made his decision for their next step, he wasn’t going to like it.Chapter SeventeenShane’s painkillers had just kicked in when he heard a familiar voice in the hall outside his hospital room. Groaning when he saw the man who strode in, Shane buried his face in the pillow.
“Hey, Shane. Heard you got shot in the ass.”
His head popped up. “What? I did not get shot in the ass.” He twisted around to better see Jude Torrez, his friend and former boyfriend—or better yet, friend with benefits. One who’d never failed to get a rise out of his lower regions because the man was flat out hotter than hell with his intriguing mix of Spanish and Greek heritage and his toppy-as-fuck attitude. They’d started sleeping together in high school and hooked up off and on over the years, but that stopped for good when Jude fell for a surgeon at this very hospital, one who was now following him into the room. Shane got the attraction there, too, and that had only been reinforced the few times the two men had him over for dinner. Jude was truly whipped by the tall, bossy doctor.
One who must love to bottom, because Shane knew Jude well. He also knew the smile he was giving them was dorky in the extreme but he couldn’t help it. Good painkillers. And funny enough, they must have been doing something bad to his body because for the first time, nothing perked up at the sight of Jude.
Well, shit. Shouldn’t painkillers make him want sex?
“If you were to pick a place to get shot, it’s the ass,” Dr. Ashton Frost, or Snow, as most called him, announced as he stopped at the foot of Shane’s bed where Shane couldn’t see him. He still felt him in the room—the man was just too larger than life, too present. “Lots of muscle and far from all the more dangerous places you could be shot.”
“I didn’t get shot in the ass,” he repeated, resting his head on the pillow.
“You sure?” Jude asked as he stopped within Shane’s view. He wore casual, loose jeans and a black pullover sweater that matched the hair on his head and scruff on his chin. He must have been off for the night—he worked as a paramedic at this hospital. His partner, however, wore a doctor’s coat, so he was obviously on the clock. Jude leaned down, his dark eyes shining with mirth. “Let me see it.”
“No.” Shane curled his lip at him. Or at least, he thought he did.
Chuckling, Jude reached for the light blanket over Shane. “Seriously, I’m a professional. Let me see it.”
“Why do you want to look at his ass?” Dr. Frost came around the bed and aimed a frown at Jude. It didn’t hold a lot of heat, though, and that was one of the things he liked most about Snow. The man knew his relationship with Jude was strong, so he didn’t pull any of the he-man, alpha jealousy crap. He looked like he had that sort of personality.
He-man alpha jealousy crap. He loved whatever that nurse had given him. Shane snorted loudly, causing both men to look his way.
“He’s my friend,” Jude insisted. “I want to make sure he’s okay.”
“Then read his damn chart.”
Shane rolled his eyes because there might have been just a little bit of heat behind those words. “Go the fuck away, Jude. I’m fine.”
“It wasn’t his ass.”
Shane perked up in more ways than one with the addition of that voice. Quinn strolled into the room, dirt streaks still on his clothes from hitting the ground in the park earlier. He also had some on his face. His hair stuck up all over the place from him running his fingers through it and those pretty blue eyes looked closely at him behind the black glasses.
God, he was so fucking cute. And sexy. So, so fucking sexy. And…now, Shane was really loving the painkillers. They were certainly not inhibiting his blood flow, because he looked at Jude, then back to Quinn and sure enough, everything worked. And it was all due to the computer geek. Shane was suddenly glad he was lying on his stomach, because he’d never hear the end of getting a hard-on in the hospital, and Jude was shrewd enough to figure out who’d caused it, too. Especially because Shane could not take his gaze away from Quinn.