Chapter 5 #3
He ignored the internal voice telling him why he was filled with satisfaction.
The voice on that shoulder was an idiot.
He wasn’t looking to keep Shaun, so bitching about the rightness of him snuggling into his chest and going back to sleep without further protest was fucking ridiculous.
Zenko tightened his arms around him and closed his eyes.
Maybe falling asleep wasn’t going to be a problem after all.
He woke slowly, warm, and more comfortable than he had any fucking right to be after the last twenty-four hours.
For a couple of seconds, he didn’t move.
Then his brain caught up with the rest of him, and he realized sometime during the night their positions had changed.
Shaun had been the one who’d crawled across the bed and curled into him, but now Zenko had one arm wrapped securely around Shaun’s waist, holding him against his chest, while his other hand rested on the bare skin of Shaun’s stomach.
Bare skin.
Fuck.
The towel Shaun had wrapped around his waist was nowhere Zenko could fucking see, which meant it had disappeared beneath the covers sometime during the night.
That realization would have been bad enough without Shaun shifting in his sleep and pressing even closer, his morning wood rubbing against Zenko’s thigh.
Every fucking thought in his head immediately headed south, and for several seconds he lay there staring at the back of Shaun’s head while his body suggested several ways they could make use of their current position.
Only the knowledge of what Shaun’s back looked like beneath the covers stopped him from doing something incredibly fucking stupid.
He carefully untangled himself, climbed out of bed and stood there looking down at Shaun for another moment.
Apparently, sometime between pulling the man into his arms and waking up, he had gone from letting Shaun use him as a pillow to holding on to him like he had no intention of letting the fucker go.
There was no fucking way he was examining that shit before coffee.
He grabbed a clean pair of sweats and a T-shirt before heading for the bathroom.
A quick shower took care of the worst of the sleep, although it did fuck-all about the hard-on he’d climbed out of bed sporting.
By the time he dressed and made his way out to find coffee, he’d managed to get his dick and his brain back under control. Mostly.
He downed his first coffee standing in the kitchen, poured another for himself, then filled a second mug for Shaun before heading back to the bedroom.
He eased the door open quietly and found Shaun exactly where he’d left him, still dead to the fucking world beneath the covers.
Setting his own coffee down, he walked over to the bed and slowly moved Shaun’s mug back and forth in front of his nose.
He smirked as he watched Shaun’s nostrils flare when he got that first whiff of caffeine.
“Shaun, you want a mug of coffee?”
“Mugs are for amateurs,” Shaun muttered, his eyes still closed. “Gimme caffeine in an IV and I’m all yours. Promise.”
Zenko inhaled sharply.
He’s still asleep and doesn’t know what he is saying.
But dammit, his dick still took notice of the sleepy, husky tone in Shaun’s voice.
Getting himself under control before coming back to the room had been a complete fucking waste of time.
The memory of waking up with Shaun naked in his arms, his morning wood rubbing against his thigh, was still way too fucking fresh.
Add in Shaun promising he was all his, and his dick was more than happy to start paying attention again.
“Is that for me?” Shaun sat up stiffly, wincing when the movement pulled at the cuts on his back.
Zenko’s attention immediately shifted from the way Shaun’s sleep-roughened voice affected his dick to the careful way he was moving.
“Yeah, but take it easy. Your back’s going to hurt like a bitch this morning.”
Shaun reached for the mug, wrapping both hands around it before taking his first drink. His eyes closed again almost immediately, and the low sound of appreciation he made had Zenko biting back a grin. Apparently, caffeine was all it took to make Shaun Jacobsen happy first thing in the morning.
Zenko picked up the clothes he had found for Shaun and dropped them onto the end of the bed.
“Found you some clothes. They should fit well enough until we can get you something that actually belongs to you.”
Shaun glanced toward the clothes before taking another drink of coffee, and Zenko watched some of the tension ease from his face as the caffeine started doing its job.
“Doc will want to look at your back when you’re dressed.” Zenko nodded toward the clothes. “I used butterfly closures on the two deeper cuts last night, but I want him checking them properly before you start moving around too much.”
Shaun lowered the mug and looked at him. “You did that while I was asleep?”
“Yeah.” Zenko picked up his own coffee and took a drink. “You woke up long enough to try breaking my fucking wrist, then went straight back to sleep.”
Shaun frowned into his coffee. “I did?”
“Fast as fuck, too.” Zenko studied him over the rim of his mug. He hadn’t forgotten how quickly Shaun had reacted or how quickly he’d settled again when he heard Zenko’s voice. “You got some kind of training you forgot to mention?”
Shaun’s gaze flicked up to his for a second before he took another drink. “I drive trucks, Zenko. Doesn’t mean I’ve spent my entire life sitting on my ass.”
Zenko watched him for another moment, but Shaun had already dropped his attention back to the coffee like the subject wasn’t worth discussing.
Zenko wasn’t buying that shit for a second.
Civilian truck drivers didn’t usually come awake with reflexes fast enough to lock down the wrist of a trained operator before their eyes were even open.
There was something Shaun wasn’t telling him, but after everything the man had been through, Zenko wasn’t about to stand over him first thing in the morning and start another fucking interrogation.
Noble had done enough of that yesterday.
Besides, whatever Shaun was keeping to himself didn’t change the things Zenko did know.
Someone had taken him because he’d overheard information that could save thousands of lives, then tortured him trying to find out exactly what he’d told base command.
Whoever had arranged that kidnapping was still out there, and until Red Squadron figured out how the fuck Shaun’s report had reached them, this compound was the safest place for him.
Zenko had no problem with that. In fact, the idea of Shaun walking out of here before they knew who had betrayed him sat about as well as a bullet in the fucking gut.
Shaun took another drink of coffee before setting the mug on the nightstand and reaching for the clothes Zenko had left at the end of the bed.
Zenko turned his back to give him some privacy, although that seemed fucking ridiculous considering how they’d spent the night.
He’d already woken up with his arms around a very naked Shaun.
Pretending he suddenly needed to protect his modesty probably qualified as closing the barn door after the horse had fucked off halfway across the county.
The rustle of clothes behind him eventually stopped, and he glanced over his shoulder to find Shaun dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed with his coffee back in his hands.
He still looked tired, and the careful way he held himself told Zenko his back was hurting more than he wanted to admit, but he looked a hell of a lot better than the man he had carried out of that cave.
For the first time since finding him chained to that wall, Zenko felt like maybe they’d reached the point where Shaun could start deciding what happened next for himself.