Patient Z (10 page)

Mitch took Cal’s head between his hands and kept him close, stroking his hair. But he soon grew more impatient and pushed on Cal’s shoulder with one hand, guiding him down. Cal grabbed the waistband of the shorts, impatient too, done with them, wanting Mitch naked right now. The shorts fell to his ankles, and Mitch stepped out of them. Cal took the opportunity to move away and lie on the cot. There wasn’t much room. The only place Mitch could lie was on top of him. That was A-OK with Cal.

The cot groaned with their combined weight. Cal barely heard, as he was groaning too, relishing the heaviness of Mitch on top of him. And truly loving the slide of Mitch’s hard cock against his. He reached down to touch it, wrap his hand around the thick shaft. Another man’s cock in his hand again at last. It had been months for him. Longer probably for Mitch.

“Touch me,” he said. Mitch needed no more basic instruction on that. He took Cal’s cock in his big hand and stroked it a bit hesitantly. He looked into Cal’s face with a worried expression. What, did he think Cal didn’t like it? Was he afraid he’d forgotten how to do it? This was one skill you never forgot. “Go harder,” Cal said, reassuring. “It feels good. So good.” The sharp, musky scent of arousal filled his senses. Heat balled in his groin as Mitch’s hand moved faster, held him tighter. Had to reciprocate. His hand had gone limp as the pleasure surged through him, but he revived and tried to match his rhythm to Mitch’s.

“Wait, Cal, we should…should…”

“Plenty of time,” Cal gasped out. “Later. Just…need to come.” Of course it would be quick this first time, their need so strong and urgent. “Kiss me.” The plea surprised him. Kisses weren’t for something like this, for simple tension release. But they’d kissed last night, and it had felt amazing. Mitch was on him in an instant, mouth fastened on his, hungry, desperate.

He thrust hard into Cal’s hand, and Cal writhed, unable to thrust, Mitch too heavy on him. He freed his legs, opened them wide, and wrapped them around Mitch.
Fuck me! Fuck me!
He kept the words inside, because it was too late. They were coming, bodies slamming and rubbing together, cocks dancing, fighting, slick with cum as it pulsed from them, mixing, sticky, warm on their skin.

Cal pulled away from the kiss, gulping air, holding Mitch tight, wrapped around him like a drowning man grabs for anything that floats. Mitch moaned. The tension of climax, which had left him frozen, poured out of him, and he fell down onto Cal, pinning him to the cot. They lay there, panting and spent. So quick, just a prelude. A tension release. But so fucking good. If that was how good a little frottage and mutual handjobs felt with Mitch, how good would the rest be? He’d find out when he had the strength to move again.

He almost fell asleep but came back to himself when Mitch moved, with a muttered apology for crushing him. The cot creaked alarmingly and started to tip.

“Shit!” Cal yelped. Mitch pushed it upright again with a hand on the floor, and Cal grabbed on to him instinctively.

“Okay, I don’t think this thing is designed for two grown men,” Cal said. “Why don’t we put the mattress on the floor? Yours too. Make ourselves a little nest.”

“Um, okay. If you want to.”

“What? You don’t want to go again? That was great, but I can do a lot more.”

“Of course I do,” Mitch said. “But you were falling asleep.”

“I’m awake now. Move it.”

Mitch clambered off the cot carefully and went over to haul the mattress and blankets off his own. Cal dragged the same off his cot, and they put them together on the floor.

“Lie down,” Cal said. “I’ll give you a back rub.” He could see the tension coming back into Mitch, in the set of his shoulders. Cal clearly hadn’t yet done enough to loosen him up. He grabbed a tub of moisturizing lotion from the crate by his cot. The salty air and constant sea breezes dried your skin something fierce, and everyone aboard used copious amounts of moisturizer. Mitch lay down after a tiny hesitation, and Cal straddled him.

As Cal rubbed the lotion into his hands, he wondered if they had anything around here they could use for lube. He’d laid in the condoms and only just realized he’d forgotten about lube. He began the back rub, which elicited a sigh of contentment from Mitch. Cal was damn good at this. He’d taken a short course once. He could practically make a man his slave with just his hands.

“So, what do you like to do?” Cal asked. “You prefer to top?”

“I’m happy to switch,” Mitch said. “What about you?”

“Always been a switch-hitter.” He certainly had. Cal was always very accommodating. Whatever the other man liked to do, he would find that was just exactly what suited Cal. Like they were meant to be together. Thinking of it now made him sick. All those lies, for years. Sick.

Mitch’s muscles were melting under his hands. He kept making little sighs. Cal recalled Bren’s words about the heavy burden Mitch carried. He didn’t deserve to be lied to or hurt. He was kind of a jerk, but the kind of jerk whose heart you could fall in love with. Cal faltered. Fall in love with? What the fuck was that nonsense? Nothing he dared allow into his head. “Okay!” He slapped Mitch’s ass, hard enough to make his hand sore and leave a red mark. “My turn.”

Mitch turned over, eyes a bit wary, as Cal handed him the tub of lotion.

“I’m not as good as you,” Mitch said. But he rubbed the lotion on his hands, and Cal switched places with him. Mitch straddled him, and as the back rub started Cal felt Mitch’s hard-on brushing his ass and lower back. Between that and Mitch’s big, strong hands on him, he quickly got hard again and writhed against the itchy blankets under him.

“God, Mitch,” he moaned after a while. “I want you. Inside me.” What he’d recalled earlier came back to him. “I’ve got condoms, but I forgot to get lube.”

“I didn’t,” Mitch said. He moved away and rummaged in his discarded clothes. Cal took the opportunity to get up on his hands and knees. The blanket was going to scratch his cock raw if he didn’t. A draft of cold air from someplace wafted across his bare ass, but Mitch coming back soon blocked that out. Condom, lube, and a couple of his fingers, cold and slick, soon had Cal ready and begging for it.

“Shh,” Mitch said in a soothing voice. “You’re okay. Here we go.” He’d regained some of his confidence, relaxing back into the familiar after too long not doing it. That was all his nervousness and hesitancy had been about, not lack of experience. A guy who looked as good as Mitch and lived in San Francisco could get exactly as much experience as he cared to. Exactly as much—to ten decimal places.

He pushed in, Cal wincing at the invasion. After so long without this he sometimes felt like his virginity had grown back. Though he’d had some sex more recently, he hadn’t been fucked in over a year. Hadn’t met a man he’d trusted enough. Hadn’t been anywhere he felt safe enough. Here he was safe, and he had Mitch, and yes, he trusted Mitch. Trusted a cop who’d spent their first few days together ready to shoot him dead on a moment’s notice. Life was fucking weird.

Mitch reached around to stroke him, and Cal stopped thinking about anything except the here and now, Mitch, filling him, slow thrusts suggesting he could keep this up for ages. Mitch’s hand enclosing his cock, cool against the red-hot skin. He pressed back against Mitch, wanting it in deeper, all the way.

All the way. He lost track of time, everything a blur, not having to think about what was around the corner or crawling through the long grass. He’d never slept as well in two years as he had since he came here. And he’d never been able to let go and devote every thought and sense to the experience of sex. Safe. Safe and able to just feel it and nothing else.

Mitch groaned and started to thrust faster, breaking Cal out of his thoughts. He became aware of everything—the scratchy blanket under his hands and knees, the strange hollow echoes of the sounds they uttered and the slap of skin on skin. The scent of their bodies, the sound of water dripping somewhere. And Mitch pulling on his cock, Mitch thrusting into him. Cal’s head dropped forward, and he groaned deeply. Mitch was about to come. Cal heard him panting, felt the final hard thrusts, desperate, fast. Then the cry, sharp, as Mitch froze, both hands gripping Cal’s hips. Cal tightened himself around Mitch’s cock as if he never wanted to let it go. His body was a flame. He had to come; he needed to come… He groaned as Mitch pulled out.

“Mitch, please, I didn’t…”

“I know.” Mitch flipped him onto his back in a swift and sure movement that owed more to their hand-to-hand sparring than to the bedroom. He grabbed Cal’s cock, and the big, strong hand once again enclosing his hot shaft made Cal yell with pleasure and yanked his orgasm from him instantly. He collapsed back, trembling, as he shot, his cum catching Mitch in the chest, pale against his tanned skin. Mitch didn’t let go, let Cal’s cock lie in his hand, slowly softening, stroking it gently with his thumb.

“That’s not a hamster, you know,” Cal said after a while, looking down at Mitch cupping him. But it felt nice. Mitch smiled.

“It’s just nice to have my hands on someone else’s cock at last.”

Cal laughed. “Yeah. I hear that.” He stretched the kinks out of his back. “That was really great. I think we should definitely do it again.”

“Was that ever in question?”

“I guess not. Once you start, you never stop, right?”

“That’s been my experience.” Mitch sat up, letting go of Cal. “We’d better clean up and tidy up. You want the shower first?”

Cal took that offer and wished Mitch would join him in it. If the two of them used it together, did they have to stick to five minutes, or were they allowed ten while sharing? Maybe he’d ask…nobody. Ever.

When he came back out, a towel around his waist, Mitch had already put both mattresses back on the cots and was remaking his. He worked too fast. Cal glared at his unmade cot and hated it for being so fucking small and unable to take the weight of two men.

But that was silly. Did he actually want to
sleep
with Mitch? Hold him all night? They’d have no choice on one of the narrow cots. This wasn’t that type of arrangement. Mitch went into the bathroom. Cal cast aside his towel, hung it on a rail on the wall, and pulled on a pair of clean shorts. By the time Mitch came back, Cal had made up his cot and was under the covers, head on the pillow.

“You know, it’s not that late,” Mitch said. “You don’t have to go to sleep yet. Weren’t you reading?”

“You’ve worn me out,” Cal said.

Mitch smiled. “I think I’ll be sore tomorrow. Haven’t used some of those muscles in a while.” He turned his back to dry off and pulled on pajama pants before sitting on his cot. “You don’t mind if I keep the light on for a while? I’m not ready to go to sleep yet.”

“Fine.” Cal burrowed down and pulled the covers up over his face. Well, great. He had a fuck buddy. Whoop-de-fucking-do. So they were going to fuck and then just act like nothing had happened. He was going to get regular sex with a good-looking guy and didn’t even have to keep half an ear open for zombies sneaking up on them while they were on the job. He’d been thoroughly fucked tonight and twice brought to a most satisfying climax.

So why did he feel like screaming in frustration?

Chapter Ten

Cal thought he’d only just fallen asleep when the shrieking of the rig’s Klaxon woke him. He hadn’t heard it before, but there was no mistaking it. He scrambled from his cot as the light came on.

“What is it?” He shielded his eyes. Mitch was already dressing. “Is it a fire?”

“Don’t know. Get dressed.”

Cal obeyed the snapped-out order and was putting on his boots when Mitch was running to open the door, pants and boots on, pulling a shirt over his head. When the door opened, the noise of shouts and a child’s shriek came in.

“Report,” Mitch ordered, grabbing a young woman called Blanca.

“We’re under attack. Bren’s already on deck. The non-coms are heading into the shelter.”

“Attack?” Cal asked. “What? Who’s attacking?”

Blanca was gone. Ella and Kathy came by, harrying women and children to move quickly.

“Get to the armory,” Mitch ordered Cal. “Go, now.”

Cal didn’t stay to argue. He ran for it, cleared the crowd, and raced for the armory along with the other soldiers. Like him they were hastily dressed, or still hastily dressing. They lined up at the armory, where two women were passing out rifles, pistols, and walkie-talkies. One thrust a Ruger and spare clips into Cal’s hands as he reached the doorway.

“Can’t I get my—”

“Move it!” The next soldier in line shoved him on and took a GLOCK and a walkie-talkie. Shit. No time to argue. He’d had some practice with the Ruger. Guess it was time to find out if he could hit anything with it. He ran, heading for the deck, wondering where Mitch was. Was someone bringing a gun for Mitch? Who the hell was attacking anyway?

“What the fuck is going on?” he asked Tanya as she appeared beside him, running.

“Don’t ask me.” She pulled a sweater on over her head and popped out, hair wild. “I was asleep five minutes ago.” She split off from him, heading to the ladder that led to the helipad, the highest bit of deck on the rig. She carried a longer-barreled gun. A sniper rifle. Cal emerged into the deck, expecting to find it dark, but he found floodlights, pouring light down from the deck, trained on the sea below them.

Bren grabbed him as he emerged. “There.” She pointed at a position on deck, up against the rail. He leaned over when he reached it and looked down at the water. Boats! A bunch of small ones, smaller than his
Cora
. And men, some of them firing up at the rig, others attempting to climb the legs of the rig. How were they…? He flinched as something whirred by his head. It fell back, clanged against the rail, and stuck. A grappling hook.

He risked another look. A rope ladder dangled from the hook, and below him, men were starting to climb onto it. The hook scraped against the bar as the weight on it increased.

Cal ducked back as more gunfire came his way, but he realized the attackers were firing blind, dazzled by the brilliant lights that not only illuminated the sea below, but kept them from seeing the defenders above.