Chapter 5 Ryan
RYAN
Iwas in and out of consciousness, for how long I didn't know.
The heat was unbearable, but I shook like a leaf on a tree in a hurricane.
I thought Tommy might have come back at some point, because someone had said something to me about hydration.
They'd held a bottle of water for me to drink and held up a little plastic cup with some terrible tasting cherry medicine in it.
I'd bitched about the taste, but then sleep dragged me under again.
After the chills, the sweating started. That's when I moved.
“Come on, Mr. Winthorpe, let's get you into some dry pjs and into the bed.”
Tommy didn't sound like Tommy anymore. His voice was silky and deep, like rich silk velvet sliding across my skin.
How could it be possible to have a high fever and still tent my jeans?
I might have enjoyed the feeling if I didn't have more than enough shitty feelings to deal with.
Instead of liking being turned on I was too sick for me body to turn on me.
It just pissed me off. How dare Tommy do that to me!
“Quit sounding so sexy, Tommy. I got a boner the size of a decent salami, and it feels like the outline of my zipper will be permanent.”
He had the audacity to laugh and that made me even madder.
If my head didn't hurt so bad I would have opened my eyes to give him a withering stare, but my head was killing me so I Kept them closed and yelled at him instead.
“It's not funny, dammit. I don't wanna feel hot right now.
Well, I mean I obviously feel hot, I just sweat through three layers of clothes and a blanket, but I don't want to feel sexy when I feel like shit.
I'm tired and achy and sweaty, and I'm tired of feeling bad.”
Strong hands picked me up off the sofa in one swift move. My eyes popped open in time to see the fireplace pass by, then I was being carried to another room, presumably the bedroom. I knew that because I saw a king size bed in the middle of the room.
I hadn't realized how much I'd wanted to snuggle in a real bed until that moment. And that's when I started to cry.
“I'm sorry I yelled, Tommy. I don't feel good and I'm so tired. I promise I'm not an asshole most of the time. You know, most can be assholes sometimes, but I do try.”
That deep laugh slid over my skin again and irritated me, but I didn't yell this time.
“I agree that most people can be assholes, but you've got a legitimate reason, so we'll let it slide. I'm gonna sit you on the bed and I've got you some pj's set out for you. Go ahead and charge and crawl into bed. I'll bring you some soup and meds, okay?”
I was put down on the bed in the dark room with only the light from the bathroom lighting the way.
Before I could thank him, he was gone back to the kitchen.
I slowly stripped out of the sweaty clothes and threw them in a pile next to the bed.
When I was down to my underwear, I just shrugged and took them off too.
There were no clean ones, but the soft fleece pants on the bed next to me would be comfy enough without them.
After I got the pants on and pulled the cotton tee over my head, I felt like I'd run a marathon through a swamp wearing a fifty pound weighted vest.
Crawling into the bed and laying down took every bit of strength I had left. Ten minutes or ten years later the soft clink of the glass being placed on the bedside table woke me up, and I saw the slight red glow through my eyelids from the bathroom light.
“Alright, let's get you a little more water and meds, then you can sleep some more, Mr. Winthorpe.”
I loved that he was being so sweet to me, I really did, but it was ridiculous for him to stay so freaking formal.
I knew I was grumpy, but never realized how big a grump I was when I was sick until now.
On the other hand, it really was ridiculous to have him see me commando in pjs and call me Mister.
“Tommy, you've picked me up and seen me at my absolute worst, I think you can call me Ryan now.”
That slick sexy vibration of a chuckle slid right to my cock again, and I started to open my eyes to give him a stern look as he replied.
“Alright, Ryan, but if I'm going to call you Ryan, it's only fair I should tell you, I'm not Tommy. He left yesterday before the snow started. My name is Ragnar.”
The bedside lamp clicked on and with it, my world changed instantly.
Our eyes met and locked. Time slowed and all I could hear was the beat of my heart on my ears.
His dark brown eyes pinned me to the spot and my cock, even though I was sicker than sick, came to life instantly.
But even strange still, the dormant shifter blood deep in me seemed to move and shift in my veins for the first time in my life. That could only mean one thing.
“Holy fuck, you're my mate.”
A veil seemed to shift over his eyes for a moment at my words, giving me a panic attack, but just as fast as it came, it left. His eyes were warm and inviting once again.
“Yeah, I think I am.”
Resting on politeness had been my crutch for years, but my bucket of fucks had been emptied by the fever and chills, so realness was all I had to work with.
“I'm so freaking sick, Ragnar. It is Ragnar, right?
I'm excited as hell for…” I flailed my left hand at him because my right hand was propping me up and at this point I didn't know how long I had until I fell back down into the pillow.
“all this. But, honestly, I can't do this right now. Do you mind if I just pass out, and we can have a do over tomorrow?”
The smile in his eyes spoke for him, but he did lean over and pull the covers up a little to let me sink back under them.
“Let me give you your meds first, then I insist you go back to sleep. We can talk when you feel better. We're not going anywhere anytime soon anyway. The storm dumped a ton of snow up here last night. Looks like we'll have a white Christmas day after tomorrow.”
I took the plastic cup of cherry crap again, then washed the taste out with a half a bottle of water. I was exhausted, so I let Ragnar tuck me in and fell instantly into a dreamless sleep. My last thought was that tomorrow me was going to think this was all a hallucination.