Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Oh, thank God you’re here,” Ryan said, flat on his back in Beni’s garden. He reached his good arm up for Jasper, who hadn’t replied to Ryan’s text, but still showed up. It filled him with all sorts of effervescent happiness thinking maybe Jasper was so worried, he dropped everything to rush over.
“Ryan,” Jasper said, breathing unsteadily. “God, are you okay? Retirement was supposed to mean fewer injuries, not more.”
“I’m not hurt, possum. I’m just stuck.”
Jasper stroked Ryan’s cheek and gave him a sweet smile. “Okay. Let’s get you to your feet then.”
Ryan reached out again and bent his knees, planting his feet against the ground. Jasper pulled him into a sitting position but was tugging too gently to lift Ryan from the ground.
“Why on earth were you trying to garden in your c—ugh!—condition? And in the middle of winter?” Jasper asked, grunting with every tug on Ryan’s good arm.
“I wasn’t,” Ryan said. “I was just coming to admire the work Beni has done, and I tripped. I was trying to sit on the bench.”
“This isn’t working.” Jasper crouched down and wrapped his hands around Ryan’s waist. “Stand up on the count of three. Your legs work, right?”
“Yes, my legs work. You try standing up when you can’t move your upper body!”
“If I had a broken clavicle I wouldn’t be hanging out in the garden.”
“You don’t know that. You’ve never broken your clavicle.”
“Would you just stand up?” Jasper said. “Ready? This time, push with your legs. One… two…”
On three, Jasper stood up and dragged Ryan along with him. The press of Jasper’s body felt so heavenly, Ryan faked a weak knee to get a few extra seconds of being hugged. Jasper was hugging him. On purpose.
“Okay. You’re on your feet,” Jasper said.
“I am,” Ryan said, still leaning into him.
“And… up you go,” Jasper said, peeling his body away and pushing Ryan’s good shoulder to make him stand upright. He looked up and down Ryan’s body and shook his head. “You are filthy.”
Ryan shrugged. “I’ve been on the ground.”
Jasper snorted, then brushed some dirt off Ryan’s clothes. “How do you shower with that thing?”
“So far, it’s been sponge baths I give myself, but I got a shower sling today, so now I can stand under flowing water. Not that it’ll help with scrubbing certain areas, but small wins.”
Jasper raised one eyebrow at him.
“I meant my left armpit, sicko.” Ryan smirked at him and lowered his voice. “But other pits, too, if you’re interested in help—”
“Okay. Let’s get you inside.” Jasper looped his arm around Ryan’s good elbow and led him towards the house. “You go shower, and I’ll try to find something for lunch.”
“You’re staying?”
“I just got here. Of course I’m staying.”
Jasper kept his arm wrapped around Ryan’s, tight but not too tight, and guided him up the steps to the back door.
Ryan leaned into him more than he really needed to, savoring the warmth and familiar weight of Jasper’s body.
He wondered how much Jasper saw through his behavior but ignored any words of caution fluttering through his mind, too happy and relaxed to care.
Jasper thrust his hand out to stop Ryan from bumping his shoulder against the door frame. “Easy, Mr. Winter Gardener.”
“I’m trying. Just, you know, a little dizzy.”
“I bet. It’s hard work sitting in the cold, isn’t it?”
“Right. I probably just need to lie down.”
“Do you want to get into bed?”
“No, no. I need a shower. I can’t get into bed like this,” Ryan said, looking down at his dirt-dusted body.
Jasper nodded. “Yeah. Do you have a shower chair?”
“I don’t,” Ryan lied. He’d moved it earlier as part of his plan.
Jasper stopped walking. “Well, hmm. Will you be okay in the shower? Maybe you should just do another sponge bath while I get lunch?”
Things weren’t unfolding exactly the way Ryan had hoped. His goal had been to get Jasper to shower with him immediately, but he could admit, that was far-fetched. But he always aimed high. That’s what his parents had taught him, and it had worked pretty well so far.
So, he pivoted. “I’d like to try a shower. Can you, um. Just help me get in my shower sling?”
“Of course.”
“It’s in the kitchen, I haven’t opened the packaging yet because it’s hard with just one arm,” Ryan said pitifully.
Plan B started now—Jasper would help Ryan get into his shower sling and hopefully take such great pity on him that he’d offer to bathe him. And if Ryan was honest, that was even more tempting than just getting help in the shower.
“I’ll meet you in there in a second,” Jasper said. He tilted his head sweetly. “Will you be okay? Standing up all by yourself?”
“I’ll be fine.” Ryan kept his eyes locked on Jasper for a few seconds before Jasper turned around.
Ryan made his way down the hall and shut the bathroom door behind him, leaning against it while he gathered the courage to progress his plan.
He listened to Jasper move around in the kitchen, tidying up, closing cabinet doors and putting dishes in the dishwasher.
Domestic Jasper sounds Ryan had missed over the past week, making him ache worse than the slowly healing wound across his chest. If he’d been on the fence before, which he hadn’t, his plan to seduce Jasper was now in full swing.
He stripped carefully, pulling his shorts off first, wishing Jasper had been there for that part, then slipped his arm out of his sling and removed the tank top he’d been wearing for days because it was easy to get on and off.
The door opened and Jasper walked in, closing it behind him again. He smiled across the bathroom and tiny, fragile threads of hope curled themselves through Ryan’s scarred chest.
Jasper didn’t avert his eyes—they were locked on Ryan’s. There was a flash of something between them that made Ryan’s dick swell, and he was desperate to know if Jasper was feeling the same, but he was too nervous to look down.
And it was a good thing he didn’t—he’d clearly misread things, because Jasper pulled out the shower sling with a huge grin.
“Okay, big guy. I also brought a plastic bag for your cast. You’ll have to take frequent breaks to make sure it’s not getting wet.”
“Oh, yeah. Okay.” The direction of Ryan’s plan was moving from a sexy and fun one to something pathetic and sexless right in front of his eyes.
Jasper pulled the plastic bag over Ryan’s cast and slipped the shower sling over his shoulder, his hands surprisingly gentle compared to the way he’d been tugging on him outside in the garden. It was nice, since Ryan was now in a bit of pain, not that he’d ever tell Jasper that.
Although… Maybe he should. Seducing Jasper wasn’t going to plan, and Ryan was about to get into the shower—probably alone. He blew out a shaky breath and hissed through his teeth, causing Jasper’s hands to lift from Ryan’s body.
“Did I hurt you?”
“No…” Ryan said, his voice trailing off.
“Are you sure?”
“Well, actually, maybe a little.”
“I’m sorry,” Jasper said, securing the final piece of Velcro on the sling. He put his hands on his hips and nodded. “Okay. Stay still so you don’t fall.”
Seconds later, he was down to his briefs, helping Ryan into the shower. Ryan made a show of not staring obscenely, but it wasn’t enough, because Jasper glared at him.
“Eyes to yourself,” Jasper said. He stepped into the shower to stand behind Ryan, bumping into him with—Ryan could swear—a half-hard cock.
Ryan grinned and dipped his head under the water, letting out a groan at how good it felt—both the water and Jasper’s hands around his waist. He did it again, accidentally that time, when he felt Jasper soap up a washcloth and scrub it on his back.
“How long were you in that dirt? Jesus. You’re covered.”
“It was a while.”
“It’s winter! Why weren’t you wearing a coat?”
“It’s hard to get dressed by myself,” Ryan said.
It wasn’t, really.
“Okay, good arm up,” Jasper said, lifting Ryan’s hand.
The washcloth against his skin was divine, from both getting clean for the first time in a while, and knowing Jasper was the one doing it.
The scrubbing moved a little lower down his side, and Jasper used his bare hands to rinse the soap from Ryan’s body.
When he moved to Ryan’s chest, the scrapes there from his injury were too sensitive for the abrasive rag, so Jasper tossed it on the floor of the shower.
He used his hands again to clean Ryan’s skin more gently.
A thumb brushed over Ryan’s one exposed nipple.
It stiffened under Jasper’s hand, and Ryan sucked in a breath.
“Behave,” Jasper said, his voice raspier than before.
And Ryan was trying, sort of, but Jasper wasn’t making it easy.
He was so close, so wet, and so all-consuming to Ryan’s senses, that his pulse sped up every time Jasper’s hands slid to a new location.
The confidence he’d had in his plan to get Jasper into the shower with him for sexy reasons had faded, replaced by fear that he’d dug himself deeper into this hole of longing if things didn’t go the way he’d hoped.
But then, Jasper’s hand scrubbed the skin below Ryan’s belly button, focusing on the hair that trailed down to his crotch. In doing that, his pinky dipped even lower, brushing the soft skin of Ryan’s cock.
He tried to stay strong, but Ryan was just one man. A heartbroken, touch-starved man currently being manhandled by the love of his life, so he couldn’t help it if his dick was fully hard. He moaned at the contact before mumbling a quick apology.
Jasper’s breathy laugh bounced off the walls of the shower, but his hands didn’t stop scrubbing and rinsing. Now he was washing Ryan’s hair and scrubbing behind his ears, the feeling of it nearly orgasmic. It was familiar and homey and terribly arousing, and Ryan’s dick grew harder.
“Jas—”
“Keep it to yourself,” Jasper said.
Ryan laughed and tipped his head back so the shampoo could be rinsed out, but the angle was awkward with the cast in the way. A quiet huff left Jasper’s lips before he shifted position, stepping directly in front of Ryan instead.