“Sure. I’ll show you on your way back to the room.”
“I appreciate it.”
“You know you don’t have to thank me. You’re family.” Brian touched his shoulder.
Ty swallowed. The things Brian said always tugged at his damn heart.
When he had Kell’s fruit cut up, he followed Brian back toward their guest room. He stopped in front of an opening just before they turned the corner blocked by a Japanese-style partition. Inside the small room was a futon and a string of paper lanterns across the ceiling. One wall was floor to ceiling windows. Perfect.
“Perfect,” he told Brian. “Goodnight.”
“Hey,” Brian called out to him before he could go inside the room. He stared down at his feet for a moment then up into Ty’s eyes. His brow bunched as he stared at him with something akin to amazement. “You move just like him. So much like him. You sound like him, you—”
The pain he saw in Brian’s eyes almost gutted him. He may have sounded like his father and walked like his father, but he wasn’t him. He wasn’t Brian’s best friend who he’d lost in his arms years ago. Ty gave him a look of understanding because he missed him, too. But he’d already mourned his father once. That was enough. Brian’s pain was his own.
Brian cleared his throat, tried to compose himself. “You did good bringing Kellam here. I have everything you need to protect him. He’s safe here.”
“I know. Thank you, Brian,” Ty said and went inside the room.
Kell was on his knees beside the bed, his head bowed and hands lightly clasped together.
Kell
He was almost finished with his night prayer when he heard Ty come back through the door. He didn’t interrupt him. Instead, he heard him place some things in the mini-fridge then close himself in the bathroom. When Kell was finished thanking God for keeping them safe, he got up off his knees and started turning down the covers on the comfortable-looking bed. He ate a piece of the neatly cut orange from the plate that had been placed on the night stand and took a long drink of water. Would Ty always be so considerate? Kell knew he would. There was no way it could all be an act. He couldn’t believe how much his life had changed. For the better.
He heard the shower turn on in the bathroom. The thought of Ty’s tall, naked body all wet and soapy just a few yards away was making him hard again. Instead of climbing into bed and panting through the ache, he re-opened up Ty’s duffle bag and found him a T-shirt and a pair of nylon shorts and laid them across the bed for him. It was the least he could do, since he’d already helped himself to an extra-long T-shirt and a pair of shorts with a drawstring after he’d finished showering. He liked wearing Ty’s clothes.
He was chewing another piece of grapefruit when Ty stepped out of the steaming bathroom in nothing but a plush white towel wrapped low around his waist. Kell choked on the tart juice rushing down his throat the wrong way. His eyes watered as he fought to keep them open while he hacked and coughed. He didn’t want to miss a second of seeing Ty’s sexy body before he covered it. No matter if he could barely breathe or not.
Ty hurried over and started patting him on his back. He laughed lightly, “You okay, shorty?”
Kell nodded and blurted in between coughs. “I placed your… clothes… on the… bed.”
Ty stared at him for a long time, then at the sleep clothes that were laid neatly across the foot of the bed. “Thank you,” was all he whispered, when he picked up the clothes and took them back into the bathroom.
Ty came out dry and fully clothed. He messed around with a few things in his duffle bag before removing his firearm and placing it in the nightstand drawer on his side. He looked like he was still coming down on himself because of the fight, or there was something else heavy on his mind. As soon as Ty climbed into the bed beside him, Kell was on top of him.
Ty didn’t try to push him off, or control his hands. Instead, he let Kell love on him. This wasn’t about sex or getting off. He could see his partner was hurting. Lying there in the dimly lit room, he massaged Ty’s round shoulders and down his biceps. When he got to his right hand, he felt the swollen knuckles and caressed them too.
“That was some punch you threw back there. That guy must’ve been three hundred pounds.” Kell kissed his hand. “Did your dad teach you how to fight?”
Ty’s voice was husky as he touched him. “Yeah. He taught me how to land a punch that’ll get a man ’outta your face for good.”