Chapter 23
Leon
My hand whacks into something that definitely should not be in my bed.
“Ouch!”
I jerk up at the voice and roll over to find Auggie holding his temple.
“That’s the thanks I get for looking after you?”
“What?” I glance around, trying to get my bearings. I’m not at home, and with Auggie in bed next to me, I think that means we slept together last night, but fuck if I remember. I also usually don’t make a habit out of sleepovers. “What’s going on?”
He sits up, sheet slipping off his lean chest, and rubs his head dramatically. “We were sleeping before you tried to knock me out.”
“Sorry.” I guess. My head hurts as I struggle to sit up.
“How are you feeling?” he asks.
“What am I doing here?”
Auggie tilts his head, floppy curls shifting with the movement. “You have the flu. Cam and I brought you here so I could look after you.”
Well, that explains why my body aches like I’ve been run over, then backed over, then run over again. “No one ever needed to be looked after for a little cold.”
“It wasn’t a cold. It was the actual flu, which I know people are always saying they have but never do, but in this case … flu. You were really sick. You’ve been out of it for days.”
His voice is hammering my brain. “Wait. Days?”
“Since Tuesday.”
“What day is it now?” I ask, not so sure I want the actual answer.
“Thursday.”
“The fuck?” I go to throw myself out of bed, but my legs don’t want to cooperate, and Auggie quickly grabs my arm.
“No way. You’re still recovering.”
“I have work to do, clients to contact … Fuck. I’m screwed.” Falling off the earth for two days isn’t a great look for anyone, let alone someone who has commitments, and two worksites to run, and meetings booked …
“No, you’re not.” Auggie’s calm is maddening.
“You don’t understand. I had so much booked in, so many …” I groan and cover my face. I’m behind again. Very behind, and now I’m also going to need to grovel to people and hope that not being there to check the sites means we’re not too far delayed.
If only my head would just. Stop. Throbbing. Maybe then I’d be able to concentrate long enough to figure things out.
“It’s all done.”
I frown and drop my hands, trying to work out what he means.
Auggie links his hands behind his head and leans back against the headboard.
“W-what is?”
“All your work. Things have actually been seamless, if I say so myself.”
“My … work?”
He grins. “You sure are slow when you’re sick.” He pats the pillow beside him, and I fall back onto it, half out of curiosity and half out of exhaustion.
“My head hurts. Explain. Slowly.”
He reaches for the bedside table where he’s set painkillers and water. “Cam said you’d be down for about a week, and I knew how much you’d stress if nothing got done in that time, so I did it for you.”
“Did …”
“Everything you normally would. Met clients, checked off the builds. I didn’t have access to your accounts for the invoicing, but I let your suppliers know what was going on and told them everything would be paid up by Monday at the latest. You have great credit, by the way.
Or relationships. Who knows, but they took me at my word, so well done, you. ”
“I don’t know—”
“What to say? How about ‘thank you, Auggie, you incredibly capable, sexy man.’”
And even though I feel like shit, I manage a laugh. “Thank you, Auggie. You incredibly capable, surprising, resourceful, and sexy man.”
He absolutely glows. “You really are lucky to have me.”
He might be teasing, but it’s completely true. I love the guys I’ve hired—I handpicked them myself, and they’re good at what they do—but if they had a chance to slack off for a couple of days, they’d take it. They’re only human.
“Well, better get to it,” I say, struggling to sit upright.
“Nope. I’ve been made to promise that you’ll stay in bed until the weekend at least.”
“There’s no way that’s happening.”
“But I promised, Leon. You wouldn’t make me break my promise, not when I’m new in town and making friends. How would that look for me to give my word and then have Cam see you up and about, and I’d feel terrible and like the most epic of liars who ever lie—”
I quickly cover his mouth. “You’re rambling.”
He pulls my hand away. “See how much I need you to do this for me? Please?”
“Auggie, I—”
“Have a lot to do. I know. But I swear I’ve got it covered.”
I give him the most skeptical look I can manage, because I know Auggie’s heart is always in the right place—it’s his limbs that never are. He could set out today with the best of intentions and end up setting the whole street on fire.
He sighs. “Fine, look.” Auggie climbs out of bed and grabs his phone from where it’s plugged into the wall, and then instead of sitting back on his side of the bed, he rounds the damn thing and plops into my lap.
My next inhale is full of the smell of his shampoo, and it’s lucky I’m so drained or I’d definitely be reacting at the feel of his perky ass cheeks against my thighs.
As it is, I doubt I’d be able to get it up if he was naked and blowing me.
My dick twitches.
Okay, so maybe I’m not that drained.
Auggie opens his calendar. “These are all your appointments, and I’ve made notes each day for the things I’ve gotten through.
I’ve also sent copies of what needs to be fixed on-site to Rory and Oscar and cc’d you into the emails so they can’t make out like they didn’t know.
And here”—he opens his camera—“are the sites, listed by date. I’ve taken photos of the process and then the areas that need to be fixed up.
I’ve emailed you the quote I did for Piper at Harvey’s so you can approve it before it’s sent, as well as one for a back section at Olive’s motel that she asked me to do up real quick when I was out there the other day.
I’ve used a lot of your past quotes for reference, but you’ll need to clean up a few things I wasn’t sure of, and—”
I cup his face. I’m not sure where the impulse comes from, but when he looks up at me with those big eyes, I can’t help running my thumb over his jaw.
“I was being a dick when I said it before, but you really are incredible.”
His cheeks start to turn a splotchy pink. It’s beautiful. He’s beautiful. Auggie swallows roughly, then clears his throat.
“So, there’s, umm … some other things. That I’ve done.
But, yeah. That’s most of it. And hopefully I’ve done it the way you would have because I don’t want you to have to stress, and I want you to know that everything you’ve done for me …
I appreciate it. And this is maybe a small way for me to show you that. ”
There is nothing more adorable than when he starts to ramble. “This isn’t small at all, Auggie. You’ve saved my neck.”
“Then in that case, will you please stay in bed and trust me?”
I know how badly he wants that. And how badly I want to give it. My trust. But he hasn’t exactly made it easy so far, and the thought of sitting here all day, doing nothing … it sets my teeth on edge.
A wicked gleam hits Auggie’s eyes before he grabs my shoulders and throws one leg over my thighs to straddle me.
I suck in a breath as his lips find my ear. “I know how much you hate doing nothing, but how about we make a deal? You look after yourself, I’ll look after the work, and when you’re all better … we can look after each other.” The sexy dip to his tone is accompanied by his grinding down into my lap.
I grunt and grab his waist. “Something tells me it’s inappropriate to trade labor for sexual favors.”
“You know what else is inappropriate? Sucking my boss’s dick. But here we are.”
I shake my head. “Auggie …”
“What?” He runs his hands over my shirt. “I just want to feel your cock inside me. Please, Leon. Let me earn it.”
Earn it? My eyes go wide at how much I love that imagery. Earning the right to ride my cock? Fuck. How does this gorgeous man know exactly what filthy things to say to get me to do whatever he wants?
My eyes drop to those precious lips, and the only thing holding me back from kissing him is the thought of making him sick. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.” He wriggles in my lap, brushing his hard dick over my stomach. “Do we have a deal?”
The urge to say yes is so tempting. It sits heavy on my tongue, but before it can slip out, I swallow it back again.
“No. If sex happens, it happens. But it’s unrelated to work.
” He pouts, and it makes me laugh. The painkillers seem to be helping.
“Nope, none of that face. I’ll promise to stay in bed today, but that’s only because I’m so fucking tired.
But I need my laptop so I can still do something. ”
He thinks it over for a minute. “Stay in bed today and tomorrow, and I’ll bring you your laptop and video call you from each site so I can update you on where everything is at.”
He’s not going to let this go. It almost kills me to agree. “Fine. Deal.”
“Deal. Is work talk over now?”
His question throws me for a moment. “Ah, I guess?”
“Good.” He shifts back, then leans down and presses his face into my boxers.
I get no warning before he lightly nips my balls.
“I cannot wait for you to fuck me.” Then Auggie stands like nothing has happened and makes for the door.
He turns back before he leaves and gives me an innocent smile. “Get better soon, Leon.”
That little tease.
He did what I thought was impossible.
My dick is hard.
And dammit. I’m way too tired to jerk off.
Somehow I keep my word. I’m antsy and it kills me to give up control, but if I’m honest, I really am way too out of it to do much more than look over paperwork. I’d be a liability on a worksite, but the resentment at not being able to work is hard to shake.
I like to feel like I can do anything.
That said, it’s sort of nice to have Auggie come home to his apartment in the afternoons and fuss over me. He insists on cooking dinner and getting me whatever I need, and he talks my ear off about absolutely everything.
There’s no way to feel awkward or out of place with him here.
And while it’s weird being in someone else’s space, what’s weirder is that I don’t mind it. I don’t miss my place like I would have thought, and that’s a mindfuck all of its own. Being homesick is normal. Even when you live in a total shithole.
So why am I trying to concoct ways to extend my stay?
I stretch my legs out and prop my feet on the coffee table.
We’re sitting here, watching TV, like it’s a totally normal thing that we do.
I should feel guilty about eating his food and taking up his couch and hogging most of the bed at night, but then Auggie wriggles his feet under my thigh and curls up in the corner of the couch and I can’t remember why I should feel guilty.
Auggie’s phone starts to ring, and after a quick glance at the display, he hurries to silence it.
I don’t think much of it until I notice it light up again, and again, and Auggie’s cute face is marred by a scowl.
“Everything okay?”
“Just Dad.”
“Should you answer it? What if it’s important?”
He stares at his phone again for a moment before placing it facedown on the floor. “It’s not. He’s only nagging.”
“Still doesn’t think you should be working for me?”
“Something like that.”
I hum. “I know he’s a pain in your ass, but he cares, at least. More than I can say for my folks.”
“Where are they anyway?” he asks like he can’t help himself.
“They got divorced and moved away. Mom went down to Florida—basically as far from Sunbury as she could get—and Dad went to Portland with his new girlfriend, but I pretty much never see him. I get the occasional call to check in, but they’re both busy living their own lives.”
“That sucks.”
I shrug. “I don’t mind so much. Like, yeah, there are times when I compare my family to others, like Tanner’s, but also, they’re allowed to have their own lives. They raised me. I’m doing good. And I know they’re proud, they’re just very hands-off.”
Before I know what’s happening, Auggie throws his arms around my neck. “They’re idiots.”
I awkwardly pat his back. “Really, it’s okay.”
“I think I’m starting to get why you like affection.”
“Who says I like the affection?”
“The need to cuddle after sex, the way you’re always casually touching people and wanting to be around them. How you snuggle into me while you’re sleeping.”
“I do not.”
“Do too.” He pulls back a little and rubs his nose over mine. “You’re an adorable snuggle monster, aren’t you?”
I raise my eyes to the ceiling. “Give me strength.”
“And I’m needy. So we go well together.”
“Do we?”
“Yep. I like to be snuggled and you like to snuggle, so we get to be totally platonic snuggle bugs together.”
Platonic, huh? It hasn’t escaped my notice that he hasn’t brought up sex since yesterday morning.
“Only platonic while we’re snuggling though. I don’t think there’s anything platonic about bouncing on your dick.”
I throw my head back and laugh because he’s too ridiculous. “You don’t give up, do you?”
“Not if we both want it. But alas, you’re still sick.” He pretends to faint and ends up with his head in my lap. “We’ll have to keep snuggling until the time is right.” He takes my hand and guides it to his hair. Without words, I start to stroke my fingers through the curls.
He goes back to watching the TV, but I can’t stop watching him.
The way his bronze hair catches the light, the little twitches in his face and slow blinks of his eyelids.
Yeah, I definitely should be telling him it’s time for me to go home now.
I just can’t get out the words.