Chapter Sixteen #3
“We ended up talking for hours,” Shane said dreamily. “It was so cool, hearing about Saudi Arabia and all the interesting people. At that time I’d never even been out of Florida.” He glanced at Matt. “He’d met a lot of SEALs, too, guys pulling security for the embassy folks and other VIPs.”
“Is that why he decided to become a SEAL?”
“That’s all he ever wanted. He was kind of like you in a way, always working out, really focused on his goal.” Shane shook his head. “Dude could hold his breath underwater what seemed like forever. He was just larger than life, you know? The kind of guy you always think of as bulletproof.”
Matt could see Shane’s hand, lying along the armrest of his chair, clench into a fist. He waited, but all Shane said was, “Can you help me back to bed now? I’m tired.”
“C’mon.” Matt got him up and out of his chair, supporting him as he shuffled down the hallway to his room. They crawled into bed, and without a word Matt drew him into his arms, stroking his hair gently as Shane drifted off to sleep, his head tucked up under Matt’s chin.
When they woke up again, Matt cajoled Shane into going for a short run. He kept the pace slow and easy, but about two miles into it, Shane suddenly slowed.
“Hey, do you mind if we walk for a bit?”
Matt looked over at Shane in concern.
“Just some twinges in my thigh. I’d rather save my stamina for when it counts, since I don’t need to impress you anymore.”
“You never did impress me,” Matt pointed out, smirking when Shane threw up his hands.
“Let me rephrase that. Since I stopped trying to impress you, okay?”
They snickered together as they dropped to sit on the sand.
Without being asked, Matt reached over to massage the cramping muscles in Shane’s thigh, wishing he had some lotion.
Shane closed his eyes, every now and then letting out a faint hiss when Matt’s fingers dug into a particularly painful spot.
“Ow! Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“Yes, I know what I’m doing, so shut up.” He kept on working the muscle, and eventually the knots eased. “There,” he said, giving Shane’s thigh one last little pat.
“Ah, much better.” Shane sprawled on his back in the sand. “What was your major in college? No, wait. Don’t tell me—physical therapy.”
“Close. Health and exercise science.”
Letting out a lazy chuckle, Shane rolled his head to look at him. “Aww, that’s perfect. Mr. Workout himself.”
“Hey, working out got me through some really tough times.” Matt nudged Shane’s foot with his. “In college, every time I wanted to drink, I’d hit the gym instead.” He gave a rueful smile. “I did a lot of working out.”
He looked over at Shane when he rested a hand on Matt’s forearm and squeezed. “Do you ever, uh, still want to drink?”
“Most of the time, no.” Matt shrugged. “The class-up party, I had no problem staying away from it even though a few guys tried to egg me on. A few firm ‘noes’ and that’s usually the end of it.” He paused, wincing. “But that time with you at the street taco place…”
Shane pushed to one elbow. “That first time we had dinner together? Why?”
“I dunno. Some liquid courage, I guess.”
“Courage? Like you-were-afraid-of-me courage?”
“Yeah, but not so much of you…of what you represented.” Matt rolled his shoulders.
“I saw you with Alexis in the parking lot that first day, so I assumed you were straight. Up until a few minutes before our dinner, I’d actually thought you were married to her.
I didn’t understand myself, or my reaction to you, so right at that moment I really wanted a fucking drink. ”
At that Shane sat all the way up, his eyes solemn.
“I won’t drink around you anymore,” he said quietly. “Not because I don’t think you can handle it, but just—”
“As a show of solidarity?”
“Yeah. Teammate to teammate.”
After glancing around briefly, Matt leaned in to give him a kiss, his chest tightening at the feel of Shane’s soft lips against his. He pulled away reluctantly, letting out a sigh.
“Lemme guess. We don’t have time.”
Matt shook his head. “No, I have a dive practical this afternoon. But… I did have an idea.”
“Yeah?” Shane kissed Matt’s bare shoulder, then bit down lightly on the muscle. “What’s that?”
Matt gulped as fire raced along his nerve endings. “Well,” he croaked, “you know we’re gonna get two weeks off for the holidays, right?”
Shane crinkled his nose, looking mystified. “So?”
“So I was thinking, a week with our families, and a week getting whatever this is—” Matt sawed his hand back and forth between them “—out of our systems.”
“Out of our systems. Oh.”
Matt held his breath as Shane turned to gaze out over the ocean. When he didn’t say anything, Matt elbowed him gently. “Earth to Shane. Isn’t that a great idea? We can sleep as long as we want, eat like pigs and fuck our brains out.”
When Shane finally turned to look at him, there was a tinge of sadness in his eyes, quickly masked. “A week alone with you? Hell to the fucking yes. I’m in.”
“Good.” Matt leaned over to give him an exuberant kiss. “I was thinking Vegas.” He jumped to his feet and hauled Shane to his, delivering a sharp smack to Shane’s sand-covered ass. “Now let’s get going.”