Will & Patrick Wake Up Married (10 page)

“Agreed. Procrastination is for the weak.” Patrick dials the phone.

Will shuts the door against Patrick’s seemingly endless breakfast order. He doesn’t understand how the man can apparently eat like he does and still be so fit. He turns on the shower, testing the water. He’s not going to think about Patrick’s body or the sex they’ve had.

He climbs into the shower and takes a few minutes to just be. The water beats against his back and he rubs the soap over his body, gently touching a tender hickey under his collarbone. He presses the bruise and shudders. When was the last time he had a hickey? He remembers it’d only happened once. There are a lot of things—sexually and otherwise—that Ryan only gave him once.

Ryan
.

A stab of fear in his gut makes his knees go weak. How can Ryan turn his back on their relationship? After six years? And for what? Hartley’s calm, black eyes?

Will soaps his hair and forces himself back to the present.
First things first! Get out of this marriage mess and then get your boyfriend back
.

There’s a knock on the door followed by the click of it opening. Will covers his crotch with his hands even though he’s blocked by the shower curtain.

“Gotta use the facilities,” Patrick says, pushing the door open a little further.

“Uh, sure. Go ahead.” Will can
feel
Patrick on the other side of the curtain. Hear him lifting the toilet lid and see Patrick’s hand with its long, neat fingers press against the wall. Patrick’s sigh of release is followed by the splashing rush of piss.

Will’s been in locker rooms, shared showers with other guys, and he’s used urinals his whole life. Yet standing on the other side of the shower curtain while Patrick obeys nature’s call feels different. Those fingers pressed against the wall were on him and
in
him.
Patrick
was on him and in him. Growing half hard from the memories, Will’s heart pounds. What if he’s ruined now? Sex with Patrick so surpassed his prior experience that…that…

That what? You’ll never want Ryan to touch you again?

He shakes the thought away. Because of course he’ll let Ryan touch him. If he’s ever lucky enough to get Ryan back. He loves Ryan, and it’s like Ryan always says: sex isn’t about pleasure. Sex isn’t even necessary. Not when you really love someone; not if the other person doesn’t like it.

The toilet flushes. “Nothing like a good piss in the morning.”

Will grunts in agreement and listens to Patrick wash his hands.

“Hurry up, Starshine. Room service should be here any second.” He throws back the curtain, and Will jolts away, hands going back to cover his half-hard dick. Patrick tosses a towel and Will reaches to catch it.

“Out.” Patrick shucks his underwear.

Will’s towel is more than half wet, but he wraps it around his waist and leaves the shower running as Patrick brushes by him. The places where their bodies touch tingle even after Patrick jerks the shower curtain closed again. Will rushes through his morning testing ritual.

There’s a knock on the hotel suite door, and Will holds the wet towel around his waist as he rushes to answer it. “Coming!”

Of course it’s Perry, an acquaintance from Will’s high school days, standing outside with a laden room service cart. Will’s smile aches as he greets him. Perry’s aged nicely enough over the years, filling out admirably, but he’s always had a ratty look to his face, and that hasn’t changed at all.

Perry gives Will a cool once over but then silently and professionally delivers the honeymoon breakfast, along with Will’s order, and about four other items that Patrick has apparently requested.

“Thanks, Perry. Everything looks great.”

Perry takes the five Will presses into his hand. “Heard the news this morning. Married in Vegas. Can’t say I’m entirely surprised. You always did have a wild hair in you.” He winks.

Oh God.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You and Jack Linton. Always sneaking flasks into class, going out into the woods behind the gym to get drunk. Remember that?”

Will does remember it, but they weren’t drinking in the woods. Will was sucking Jack off. Hungrily, eagerly, hoping he could get himself off too before Jack blew his load and shoved Will away again. As far as Will knows, Jack never came out. Less than a week after graduation and a final blow job in the back of Will’s car, Jack’d left to go play ball for Indiana State and never came back.

Will also remembers how Jack and Perry used to taunt him, calling him Willy the Whale and slipping Jenny Craig ads into his locker. Once Will left Healing and arrived in Vermillion for college, he started working out daily, replacing alcohol with exercise for his stress outlet. He’s trimmed down and pumped up. If Jack was still around, he wouldn’t have anything to taunt Will about, except for being gay. And Jack’s dick had spent too much time in Will’s mouth for Jack to ever tease him about that.

Perry chuckles. “Those were good times, man.”

“Yeah.”

The shower turns off. Will tries to steer Perry to the door, but it’s too late. Patrick steps out in just a towel, still wet and glistening from the shower. His muscles are thin but strong. Will’s heart swells with misplaced pride at how handsome his husband is.

Perry grins like he’s got a fish on the line and he can’t wait to reel it in.

Patrick wraps his arm around Will’s shoulders. A frisson rushes where their wet skin touches. “It’s about time our breakfast arrived. I was thinking I might have to eat
you
again.”

Will’s face flames, and Perry’s eyes go wide.

“Oh, uh. Yeah.” Perry coughs, calling over his shoulder as he opens the door, “Have a good day, and if you need anything at all, just call.” The door shuts a little too hard.

“
Patrick
.” Will clutches his towel harder. “What the hell?”

He pulls away, shrugging. “I’m just trying to keep up appearances.”

“No, you’re trying to humiliate me.”

Patrick frowns. “Actually, I’m not. Believe what you want about me, but I don’t get off on that. Breath play, spanking, sure, but not humiliation.”

Will’s cheeks heat and his breath catches. Trying to hide the way those words line up with his own shameful kinks, he grabs his last clean pair of pants and a decent-looking shirt from his suitcase and puts them on. Glancing toward Patrick’s suitcase, Will realizes it’s full of clothes intended for a week in the desert, not for winter in South Dakota. He needs to take Patrick shopping for a winter coat and some warm gloves at the very least. Hell, probably an entirely new wardrobe if he’s going to be here long at all.

“Look,” Patrick says, taking the shiny, metal cover from the first room service dish and pulling up a chair. “You wanted me to act like I’m in love with you. That’s what I’m doing.” The scent of bacon and eggs fills the room.

“This is how you behave with men you’re in love with?” Will flashes to their night in Vegas. Patrick had been so solicitous then, and protective of Will’s modesty when he’d been embarrassed for the room service guy to see him naked.

“I don’t know.” Patrick pops a sugary, glistening doughnut hole into his mouth. “I’ve managed to avoid that particular affliction so far.”

Will calculates his carbs, does the math, and injects his insulin.

“So I was right? You’ve never been in love?” Will sits at the small table to eat his much less appealing breakfast. He wishes he’d calculated for a few doughnut holes in his dose, but he really doesn’t feel like sticking himself again.

Patrick makes a happy sound of agreement. “Never. Love is a pointless emotion. It leads people to make terrible choices and limit their options.” He stands, takes the plate of doughnuts with him, and flops down on the bed. His towel slips a little and shows the length of his inner thigh.

“Oh, like you’re such a free spirit that you need limitless options in your life? Come on, we both know you live to work.” Will rolls his eyes, trying to ignore the flex of Patrick’s muscles in his abdomen and arms every time he reaches for another doughnut hole to stuff in his mouth.

“Exactly. Loving someone would just get in the way. Besides, there’s something to be said for having options even if you don’t use them.”

“Well, I guess you’d know. But did you have to be so rude?”

“Why do you care? He’s a room service guy.”

“I know everyone in this town. I’ve lived here my whole life and I plan to live here for a long time to come. Could you be a little more circumspect? A little less of an asshole?”

“Could you be a little less ungrateful?” Patrick snaps.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I could end this charade in a heartbeat. I’m going along with it so far out of kindness. Something about the idea of being responsible for removing funding for kids with cancer chills the depths of even my black soul, but I’m not a fount of endless patience.” Patrick bites into another doughnut hole, punctuating the next sentence. “So, darling husband, maybe you could show a little gratitude for the fact that I have any patience with you or our predicament in the meantime. Understood?”

Will swallows. He’s been kind to Patrick, hasn’t he? Let him know how much he appreciates what Patrick’s doing for him? He tries to remember, but he’s not sure. Maybe not. He can’t remember if he’s ever said… “Thank you.”

“Whatever. Just get our divorce so I can get back to my life.”

Will holds back a retort that they’ve already established that Patrick doesn’t have a life to get back. Instead he asks, “Are you going with me or not?”

“To see Granny? Hell, no. You deal with it. It’s your mess.”

Will narrows his eyes. It’s
their
mess. It’s not like he married Patrick all by his lonesome. “What about the Molinaros? Won’t it look strange if I’m going around town without you? Shouldn’t I be, I don’t know, introducing you proudly? Especially to my family?”

“First? This is not
The Godfather
. Well, maybe part three, but definitely not part one or two. Second? You
want
me to pretend to be in love with you in front of your grandmother? You didn’t seem pleased with my performance a minute ago.”

The idea of Patrick saying something like he’d said to Perry around Eleanora makes Will’s stomach churn. Turning to his meal and pushing the eggs around, he says, “Fine, you stay here.”

“If a Molinaro jumps out of a bush and asks where I am, tell them you wore me out with all the hot sex we’ve been having.”

Will almost flips him the bird. “Okay. Just remember, be discreet. We can’t have suspicious behavior getting back to the Molinaros.”

“Got it, Starshine. No problem.” Patrick gets up, leaving his towel behind, and wanders naked back to the table, investigating the chocolate sauce and strawberries. His cock dangles thick and enticing right in front of Will’s face.

Will leaps up and grabs his coat. “I’ll be back before long, okay? Don’t go anywhere without me.”

Patrick waves him away, thrusting a strawberry into the chocolate and then licking it off in a way that makes Will groan.

Will’s shaking all over as he firmly shuts the door on Patrick’s tempting body.
 

Healing isn’t a big town. It’s twenty blocks built around an old church and an even older saloon from pioneer days. These are Healing’s only historical monuments, and Will passes them as he walks to the Good Works office to get his car from the lot. His nose tingles in the crisp November morning air, and he tries to imagine how Healing will look from Patrick’s perspective.

Everything else in the town proper is mostly modern. A few of the very oldest neighborhoods, all within a hop, skip, and a jump of Old Healing—small square of local shops and restaurants—sport houses from the turn of the century. But for the most part everything built prior to the nineteen forties has been demolished and replaced.

It’s a shame, really.

The size of the town has been an issue with the expansion of the hospital. There isn’t a lot of entertainment for the families of doctors, nurses, or patients. It’s a problem Good Works is tackling soon: how to revitalize Healing without overstepping. Here on the edge of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, the ‘rez’, there are only so many ways to expand the town itself, so building things like golf courses or malls is out of the question. But there are ways to improve the life of Healing’s citizens and visitors without expanding the borders, and creating job opportunities for people living on the rez would be an extra bonus if his plans work out.