A Restored Man (33 page)

"Good." Cole rubbed his thumb along Ty's fingers. "I'll make sure you're fed so you've got your energy."

"I'm on a sugar high right now. Candy bars are awesome for that surge of energy."

Cole quickly shifted positions and leaned over Ty. "I think we need to test just how strong your sugar high is."

Ty lay perfectly still—his legs straight and his arms flat at his sides—when Cole bent to deliver a kiss.

Cole separated from the kiss and scowled. He lifted his weight on his hands to look at Ty's stiff body then glanced back up to his face. He shifted his weight and reached out, pulling Ty's arms and legs, guiding them around his body. "Don't be mean," he whispered, placing a few kisses along Ty's jawline.

Ty wrapped himself tightly around Cole again, just as he had during their lovemaking.

Cole withdrew from the kiss and smiled. "There's my spider monkey," he said, placing more kisses along Ty's neck between the words.

Ty laughed and pulled Cole closer. "Stop teasing and make love to me."

Cole moaned as he pushed his already hard shaft against Ty. "With pleasure," he said.

* * * * *

Cole lay on his stomach in bed, running the tips of his fingers along Ty's marred torso, tracing each thick web-like twist of skin. Since the day of the battery explosion in the shop, he'd taken the time to research burn scars. He knew the sensitivity to touch, and other things, could be different. He had also learned that deeper scars were different and required more healing time and long-term attention. But he didn't know enough about Ty's scars to know what parts of his research applied to his condition. He closed his eyes while his fingers mapped Ty's damaged skin. He couldn't imagine the pain Ty had endured—the accident, recovery, and the self-imposed guilt of losing his parents—it was all too much. Cole didn't know if he would have been able to survive the burden and deal with the rehabilitation during his recovery.

"Good morning," Ty said, sleep still thick in his voice. He raised his hand to Cole's bicep, grazing his fingers up and down his arm.

Cole looked up and smiled. "Good morning." He looked down again to resume his exploratory path along Ty's scars. Ty shifted in bed, drawing Cole's attention again. He stared into those brown eyes filled with a mix of emotions.

"What are you doing?" Ty asked with obvious discomfort.

"Does it hurt?" Cole asked, looking down as he followed each twist of skin.

"In general, or what you're doing specifically?" Ty asked.

Cole immediately withdrew his hand as if singed and looked up. "Did that hurt?" he asked, trying to steady the worry in his voice.

Ty reached out and caressed the side of Cole's face. "We don't really talk about it, do we?"

Cole shook his head then leaned into the heat of Ty's palm.

"I know Aidan told you about the accident," Ty said quietly.

Cole glanced up. "I would have preferred to have heard it from you."

"I don't like to talk about it," Ty said, rubbing his thumb back and forth along Cole's cheek.

"We don't have to talk about the accident. I already know what happened, but I don't really know about much after." Cole reached out and placed his hand in the center of Ty's chest. "I want you to be able to talk to me about it."

Ty huffed a nervous laugh. "What if I can't?"

"Then we'll have to work on it," Cole said with a lopsided grin. He moved his hand to the side of Ty's torso and ran the palm of his hand up and down the scarred skin. "You never answered my question, does this hurt?"

"I can feel that now," Ty said quietly. "I couldn't really feel what you were doing before with your fingers."

Cole's chest tightened. "At all?"

Ty shook his head and looked away.

Cole reached out and grabbed Ty's chin. "Don't shut me out. Talk to me."

Ty sighed. "I can't feel the really soft touch," he mumbled.

"At all?"

Ty shook his head. "But if you touch me like you normally do, I
can
feel that. If something is too hot or too cold, it's like I can feel the temperature, but not until it's too sharp, then it just usually hurts. They're also really uncomfortable," he mumbled.

"How so?"

"I have some muscle contracture there so I feel it when I try to reach too far or have to twist my torso for something." Ty spoke in a low, distant tone. He reached out and ran his fingers through Cole's tousled hair. "It was hard to brush and dry my hair at first and getting dressed was a problem, too. I wore a pressure garment for months to help minimize the amount of contracture while the scars healed. I actually got them off the week before you started at the shop. It helped to minimize the tightness but it didn't get rid of all of it because the damage is a bit deep. The physical therapy helps though."

"Is that why you fell that day?" Cole asked past the tightness in his throat.

Ty nodded. "Hard to explain, but when I reached for the sign it was like a huge rubber band snapped me back. It jolted me and I couldn't hold myself up on the ladder. Doesn't happen all the time, just when I push myself too much."

Cole sighed. He didn't want to remember that day ever again, the image of Ty lying, unmoving, on the wet pavement still haunted him.

"So the therapy helps?"

Ty nodded and repositioned himself on the bed, sitting up against the headboard. "The therapy helps for both the scars and the leg. It took me a while to be able to go up and down stairs. I remember finishing at the shop one night," he began, absently flattening the sheets against his legs. "I was so damn tired by the time I got home. I had one elevator in my complex and it was broken. I had to get up to the fourth floor but I couldn't even make it up half a flight of stairs. I felt stupid, sitting in the stairwell. I couldn't take another step and I couldn't even make it back down. I had to call Aidan. It was so embarrassing," he finished quietly. He swallowed heavily and kept his focus pinned on the sheets. "The next day, I called a realtor and put the place on the market. I figured it was easier to just sleep in my office."

Cole reached up and quieted Ty with a kiss. He wanted Ty to open up to him but he couldn't handle the emotion straining Ty's voice with the memory. "I've seen you stretch. Is that part of it?"

"I'm supposed to do that a few times a day. That's part of my at-home physical therapy stuff."

"I know you probably don't do that as often as you're supposed to," Cole said with a chastising arched eyebrow.

Ty fidgeted with the edge of the bed sheet. "I lose track of time and get caught up in what I'm doing. I do try to do it at least once a day though."

Cole turned on his side, shifting his weight onto his elbow and resting his head in his hand. "And how often are you
supposed
to do it?"

"Five to six times a day," Ty mumbled.

Cole exhaled heavily. "You don't take care of yourself, so you better not bitch at me when I do."

Ty glanced over at him and scowled.

"Don't give me that look," Cole said, reaching out and tugging Ty's pouting lips. "If you took care of yourself, then I wouldn't have to."

"No one said you had to."

"Don't argue with me," Cole said. There was no way in hell he was going to let Ty regress by not following doctor's orders. "What else are you supposed to be doing?"

Ty looked up and sighed dramatically. Cole held back a smile, knowing this was as close as Ty would come to pitching a temper tantrum. "I'm supposed to put lotion on it because my skin dries out. I don't have sweat glands there anymore because of the grafting so it tends to itch like a bitch, especially now that the pressure garment is off."

"Let me guess. You either forget or don't do it as often as you're supposed to?" Cole said.

Ty shrugged.

Cole chuckled. "You're a horrible patient."

"And I'm starting to get why Aidan thinks you're a pain in the ass."

"Aww, I can feel the love oozing from you," Cole said, leaning up to hover over Ty and placing a chaste kiss on his lips. "C'mon, get up." He sat up, tugged Ty by the arm.

"I don't want to," Ty said with a scowl. He reluctantly moved over and sat next to Cole on the side of the bed. "I like being in bed with you."

Cole bumped Ty's shoulder. "Good. We can make this a standard practice on weekends until I get out of the halfway house. Then when my time there is over…" He trailed off, not really sure how Ty would feel about him bulldozing his way into Ty's life and planting roots. Cole wasn't leaving his side, period. He just hadn't really had a discussion with him about it and he had a feeling this was one of those situations where he needed to pause before screwing things up.

Ty wrapped his arm around Cole's waist and leaned over to rest his chin on Cole's shoulder. "I'm good with weekends."

Cole nodded and took a deep breath. If that was all Ty wanted, then he could—

"And I'm good with you moving in here after you leave the halfway house if you want. Unless you were planning on moving somewhere else then—"

Cole turned his head and kissed Ty. "Here's good," he said with a smile, feeling the knot in his chest loosen.

"Good," Ty said, with a grin. "I want you here even if you're going to be a pain in my ass with the reminders of what I need to do."

Cole chuckled. "Actually, rather than a reminder, which you can just ignore, I figured we could start the day off with a lotion massage then I could help you with the stretching and stuff before I make you breakfast."

"Is that so?" Ty reached under the bed sheet and wrapped his fingers around Cole's growing hard-on. "You're going to do all that for me, what the hell am I going to do for you?"

Cole closed his eyes and tried to level his breathing when Ty's grip tightened, sliding up and down his shaft in a slow rhythm. "I think we can figure something out," he said breathlessly. "Did you have something in mind?"

Ty's low rumble-laugh drove Cole insane with need. "I can think of a few things," he said, pushing Cole back onto the bed.

"We're supposed to get up. I was going to make you…oh fuck," Cole said on a gasp when Ty's warm mouth wrapped around his now painfully hard arousal. His hands fisted in the sheets with each hard pull of Ty's mouth on his shaft. He inhaled deeply as his body arched, begging, hoping Ty would speed up his torturously slow rhythm.

Ty released him and looked up with a wicked grin. "You were saying," he said, swiping his tongue up Cole's shaft from root to tip.

"You fucking tease," Cole said with a growl.

"Did you want me to stop?" Ty said with a challenging tone and knowing smile. He kissed the soft skin at the base of Cole's shaft, never breaking eye contact.

Cole inhaled sharply as the puffs of air rushed across his heated skin. He pushed his heel into the mattress and bit his lower lip. "You're fucking killing me," he said, reaching out and gripping the back of Ty's head.

Ty wrapped his lips around Cole's shaft again and moaned when Cole tightened the hold on his hair. He reached up and dug his fingers in Cole's hips as he sped up the pace of his rhythm.

Cole writhed and pulled Ty closer to take him deeper, groaning with each hard suck of Ty's mouth and sweep of his tongue. His heart pounded against his chest and a jolt of current shot to his balls. He tugged on Ty's hair, pulling him up and off him. Ty reluctantly released him, kissing his way up until they were face-to-face and his hard-on pressed against Cole's.

Cole reached down and held both shafts in his hand. "I don't come unless you do," he said, slamming his mouth against Ty's swollen lips for a searing kiss. He pushed his fingers in Ty's hair while his other hand slid up and down their joined, heated shafts. Ty reached out and held Cole's shoulders in a bruising grip. Cole rolled their bodies on their sides then slung his leg over Ty to pull his body closer. They broke the kiss, each gasping for air.

"Oh God," Ty whispered breathlessly at the crook of Cole's neck.

Cole wrapped his arm around Ty's neck. He screwed his eyes shut, trying to maintain a steady rhythm as he waited for that telltale last whimper with the breath hitch that escaped Ty right before he peaked. He groaned, trying to hold tight inside the coil that threatened to spring free.

Ty's breath hitched, triggering the spark within Cole to instantly ignite and spill his release with Ty's.

A few moments later, they still lay close, neither one wanting to release the other. "See, I told you I liked being in bed with you," Ty said, chuckling at the side of Cole's neck.

Cole smiled and placed a gentle kiss on Ty's lips. "Me, too," he said, praying he would never do or say something stupid that would ever put this closeness at risk. "Now how about a massage?"

"Yes, Dr. Renzo," Ty said, nuzzling Cole's ear. "I promise I'll be a good patient."

"Tell me where we're going please?" Cole said with a hint of a whine.

Ty held back a smile. They had spent all morning in bed and lost track of time. If he hadn't looked over Cole's shoulder at the clock, they would have missed this. He had taken too much time to coordinate everything just right to blow it now. "I already told you, it's a surprise."