“Eat,” Connor ordered again. Then he sat back in the chair, thumbing the phone on to answer it. The cop listened for a second, then another, before a frown clouded his handsome face. “No, I’m at the hospital. Shit, across town. What happened?”
“If you’ve got to go—” Forest began, but Connor shushed him, waving him off. The hand not occupied by the phone settled on Forest’s thigh, inches from his already tightening cock. Suddenly developing a very healthy interest in the cooling burritos, Forest picked one up, shoved its end in his mouth, and listened to the rest of Connor’s conversation.
“Do you need me there?” Another pause, but Connor’s eyes flicked over Forest’s face. “No. It’s complicated. If you guys don’t need me… look, I’ve got to stay here, K. Talk to me. Is Mick okay? Did they get the guy?” Forest counted off five breaths before Connor spoke again. “Good for him. Tough fucking son of a bitch. The guy’ll be hurting. He’ll have to go someplace for treatment, it sounds like. Okay. You let me know if you need something, and don’t let Mum bully you into taking him to their place. Stand your ground, man, or she’ll be moving in before you can even blink. Talk to you later.”
Connor hung up his phone and sighed, rubbing at his face tiredly. Forest chewed and swallowed, the beans sticking in his throat on the way down. Connor picked a cup up off the floor and sipped, making a grimace before handing it over to Forest. “Here. I think this one’s yours. I didn’t put sugar in one. Guess I gave you the wrong cup. I can change the lid over if you want.”
“No, I don’t mind.” Forest shook his head and exchanged the coffees. He put his mouth on the lid, slightly disappointed he couldn’t actually taste Connor above the sour. “Everything okay? Do you have to go?”
“Everything’s good. My brother’s—boyfriend, I guess you’d call him—he was attacked, but he took the guy down. Beat the shit out of him with one of those sidewalk magazine racks.” Connor tapped at the bottom of the cup with his ring. “You don’t fuck with Miki. He’ll hand you your ass before you even realize your pants are down around your ankles and the wind’s bitten your balls off.”
“Sounds kinda hard core,” Forest said softly.
“Really?” Connor laughed under his breath and took a sip of his coffee. “Because I was just thinking the same thing about you, ghrá.”
THERE WERE rushes of people around them, intruding on their oasis. It was hard for Forest to hear the crying children wandering about the waiting area while their parents spoke in hushed tones about death and the living. He’d never sat vigil for someone before—didn’t know what he was supposed to do other than wait. And lust for the man sitting by his side.
As if Death weren’t enough to fight off, the world had to go and throw Desire into the fray as well.
Forest tried not to hear any of their whispers, but they slithered into his mind, wrapping his fears up in bloody red bows. His fingers refused to remain still, finding the different tones in the chair’s arm and then its support bars before moving on to the flat of a small table next to him.
“That’s a Celtic beat you’ve got going there,” Connor remarked, catching Forest in midroll. “I hear a lot of it with my family. Irish, you know. They like a rolling drum. Usually while yelling at one another. It’s like living in a battlefield sometimes. Did Marshall—your da have any other kids?”
“Just me and Frank.” Forest didn’t feel like dumping more hospital coffee into his belly, but the bean burrito had already started a rave in his guts, and the only thing that could possibly quiet it down was to drown it in the acidic brew. Most of the time his small talk centered on music, alcohol, and the probability of a quick fuck in a motel. He had no idea what to do with Connor Morgan, so he seized the one opening he saw available to him. “So you have a big family, then?”
Talking seemed preferable to sitting there in silence, mulling over how the other man’s palms would feel on the small of his back, and Forest already caught himself staring at Connor’s hands. A man’s ass—he understood staring at an ass—but hands apparently were his thing too.
“Huge. Legion.” Connor’s smile softened the hard angles of his face and curved his generous mouth up into a bow. “My parents took go forth and populate the Earth as their own personal motto. Didn’t mean to, but, well, apparently Da only needs to look at my mum and she gets pregnant. The one after Quinn was supposed to be the last, but that one turned out to be two, so that upped the numbers a bit.”
“So, what, four? Five?” Forest guessed.