Free The Soldier's Tale by RJ Scott Page A

fingers. He kissed a small trail from the pulse to Sean's ear, little biting kisses with flicks of his clever tongue. This was teasing, just testing this instant connection between them.
    The heat between them, the passion, exploded in a confusion of hands that gripped, teeth that bit and pulled, and mouths that tasted and sucked and marked in a frenzy. Daniel was too far gone to go slow and to take. He pushed past any pain in his knee, rutted and marked Sean in a primal explosion of lust, and Sean answered with ferocity of desire.
    Clothes were pulled and tugged until skin met skin, Sean moving so they could push against each other, hard muscles fighting for dominance. At one point, Sean had control as he weakened Daniel with his hands, reaching down and closing around Daniel's hard, leaking dick, twisting and pulling. His other hand grasped Daniel's long hair almost too hard, pulling him away until their lips were apart. A mask of heat blazed across Sean's face.
    "Gorgeous," Sean repeated again and again. He murmured against Daniel's throat, sucking hard, soothing it with his tongue and then biting again until Daniel was sure of its permanence as Sean's mark.
    Orgasm was building in him, so close. "Slower," he whimpered, contradicting the breathless plea by arching his head back to give Sean free rein to his throat. "We need to…" He tried to stop, but it was too late. He lost it, hot and hard and heavy over Sean's firm hold, Sean following not long after, sliding against the curve of Daniel's hip, falling breathlessly on top of him, his eyes closed, his body limp.
    "I could hold you all night," Daniel whispered gently. Sean burrowed farther into his hold, dropping his fingers to Daniel's hard chest and tracing random patterns.
    Daniel dropped his head back, a familiar exhaustion pulling at the edges of his thoughts, his eyes heavy in the warmth of the room, his body languid with pleasure, and bit by bit, his body relaxed. The dampness in his pants he could handle for a short while. He needed just a few minutes rest. Sean was still drawing letters and random shapes on his chest, the skin-to-skin contact warm. Daniel felt the shift as Sean pulled at a blanket on the back of the sofa and settled it over them both.
    And they slept, the blanket a cocoon of warmth and Sean's body hot against Daniel, the weight of him secure against his chest.
    When the mobile rang as dawn lightened the room, it woke them both with a start, and Sean fumbled to answer, rolling up and off of Daniel and grabbing at jeans as they refused to stay on his hips. He was half smiling when he came off the phone.
    "Seems little Edward is a fighter. He's responding okay, still very poorly, but at least out of danger. Phil said he'd update us in a few hours."
    "That's good news, isn't it?" Daniel was hoping Sean would say it was.
    "It's not bad news, which makes it good news." He rubbed at tired eyes. "If that makes any sense at all." Daniel pulled him back to hold him tight.
    "Perfect sense."

Chapter Nine

    Daniel stood for a long time staring at his reflection in the mirror. The bathroom was where he did all his best thinking. Judging his reflection when he could see the evidence of the scars, everything was more real. He didn't look tired after last night. In fact, to his eyes, despite the physical stuff and the lack of sleep, he looked very rested. He'd taken his meds like a good little soldier when Sean had crossed his arms across his chest and refused to leave before he saw Daniel swallow them. Resentment shot through Daniel at that thought. He wanted a relationship based on mutual respect and trust, not one where one of them pointedly reminded the other of the frailty of body and mind. Still, the sex had been good, and he wouldn't mind a repeat of that if it was offered to him.
    Sean wanted to visit the baby in the hospital so he'd left at eight, a smile on his face that the news he received had been good. He hadn't left without making plans to see