Free Patient Z by Becky Black Page B

his mouth. He dipped his head as Mitch raised his, and their lips met.
    Cal sighed into his mouth and freed Mitch’s other wrist. Mitch raised both hands, sliding them over the sides of Cal’s face, into his hair, pulling him closer. Cal relaxed, his body settling down on top of Mitch’s, heavy and comforting. It was so good to feel the weight of a man on him again. To smell that distinctive scent of a man. To feel bristles scrape his skin. Why had he denied himself this? He might have so little time to enjoy it. Cal might leave at any time. He would be gone, and Mitch would never know how good it would feel to be with him. Cal slipped his hand under the waistband of Mitch’s shorts. He ran his fingers through coarse hair, over delicate skin, and…
    “Hey! Mitch!” Horrible clanging from the door. Bren’s voice, sounding alarmed. “Hey, everything okay in there?”
    “Fuck,” Cal muttered. For an instant, Mitch froze, and then abruptly he shoved Cal away, toward the wall. Cal swore some more. As Mitch rolled off the cot, Cal snapped, “Tell her to go away!”
    Mitch grabbed a shirt as he ran to the door, fearing Bren would try to break in. Dammit, of course she’d heard the yelling. The room she shared with Inez was right next door. He threw back the bolt and opened the door. Bren stood there with a few women behind her, all looking nervous. Inez was clinging to her arm, eyes huge.
    “Bren, it’s okay,” Mitch said, hoping he didn’t sound as freaked out as he felt. By God, he’d really been about to do it. Cal’s hand had been an inch from his cock.
    “I heard screaming,” Bren said. “And not the fun kind.” There were some giggles, and Bren turned on the crowd behind her. “What is this, a sitcom? Go to bed!” They scattered at her order, some more slowly that others, giving Mitch speculative looks. Or a disapproving frown in the case of Dolores. She eventually turned and swept away with some drama, in her voluminous full-length dressing gown. Only Inez stayed, still holding Bren’s arm.
    Bren turned back to Mitch, concern in her eyes. “The dreams?” She knew about them because when they first met and started traveling together, he’d been having them almost every night. He’d felt emasculated the first time he’d woken with her soothing him, rocking him like a child. But she’d never treated him as less of a man in the daytime because of it. Everyone had nightmares in this new world. He’d held her and soothed away her nightmares many times too. He gave her a reassuring smile.
    “Yes. A dream. But it’s okay. I wasn’t alone.” She’d worried about him being alone with the dreams when they arrived here and he started living in this room. She hadn’t let him lock the door for the first couple of months.
    “Yeah.” She grimaced. “I should have thought of that and left you two alone. Guess I was just worried about you.” She rested a hand on his arm, and he reached over and covered it with his.
    “Thanks, Bren.” She made him calm as she always did. Cal had woken Mitch, brought him back to reality, but had not made him calm, only stirred him up in a different way. A way he didn’t dare indulge in. Because Cal had said it himself. One day he’d be gone. And if Mitch let himself get involved, Cal would take Mitch’s heart with him. Because it could not be just sex . It could be just sex with a man you met in a sauna or a club and spent an hour or a night with and never saw again. But not with a man you saw every day and who shared your room.
    “Okay,” Bren said, turning away. “It’s okay now,” she said in a soft voice to Inez. “They’re fine. There’s no danger. We’re safe.”
    Mitch closed the door. He took a shaky breath and turned around. Cal was still lying on Mitch’s cot, looking impatient. He had one hand resting on the front of his bulging shorts, the thumb stroking up and down. Mitch swallowed hard. So easy to go over there. Take up where they left off.