Page 38 of Missing in Action

Holden let out a cry and threw his head back, his cock swelling harder in Tyler’s hand. “That’s it,” Tyler said, with his lips against the pounding pulse in Holden’s throat. His orgasm was building steadily to a crescendo of ecstasy, but he needed to watch Holden first. “Come on.” He increased the movement of his hand and the thrusts that he was sure were striking Holden’s prostate every time.

Every muscle clenched in Holden’s body, veins standing out on his neck as his hands tightened on Tyler and he came with loud gasps, spurting over his stomach. Sheer poetry. Tyler kissed him on the neck, Holden’s stubble rasping against his lips, and let the climax take him away.

They’d shifted and Tyler was lying on his back. Holden had his head on his chest. They were both still and silent. Holden might have been asleep. Tyler had pulled his underwear back up but managed to maneuver his shorts over his prosthesis and discard them. He was aware he needed to take it off before he fell asleep but he didn’t want to. He wasn’t sure what Holden’s reaction would be to waking up with a one-legged man in his bed and he was saddened that he was even thinking about it. Holden had wanted to sleep with him. Surely he wasn’t repulsed? Maybe he wasn’t as long as Tyler kept the stump under wraps. He sighed, feathering his fingers through Holden’s hair and looking at the silver strands in amongst the dark. What would people say about his relationship with a fifty-year-old man? Not that it was a relationship and not that he had anyone to tell anymore. He guessed he could tell Finn, but he was sure Finn probably already thought they’d been to bed and would be totally cool with it.

He started to drift, with the weed wearing off and the familiar pricking to the sole of his once-foot starting up once more.

Chapter Seventeen

Tyler

Tyler awoke to an empty, unfamiliar bed with sun streaming through the thin curtains and a pain engulfing most of his left almost-leg. He gasped, sitting up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. Yeah, he’d slept in his prosthesis after wearing it all day and now he was paying the price. “Fuck.” He gritted his teeth, hunched over against the pain.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Holden came walking into the room wearing a towel around his hips with his hair wet, his lovely lean body doing all kinds of things to Tyler.

“Yeah.”

“You don’t look okay. You’re white.”

“I have to go.”

“You’re not going anywhere, Mister. Do you need to take it off?”

Tyler clenched his jaw and rocked as though that would help.

“You shouldn’t have slept in it, should you? Please don’t tell me you kept it on because…” Holden trailed off. His face was pinched and unhappy. He bent down, hands on Tyler’s knees. “Take it off. I’ll run you a bath. Let me help you.”

Tyler’s breathing was coming more quickly. He felt humiliation and mortification. Where was the strong man who had carried Holden to bed last night and made him come his brains out? “I don’t need fucking mothering.” He pushed Holden back and stood, swaying on his feet.

“You are one stubborn bastard.” Holden blocked his way. “I hate to see you like this.”

“Hey.” Tyler grabbed him by the shoulder. “You want me to take it off so I can see the look in your eyes when you realized what you slept with last night?”

Holden’s dark eyes were hurt and liquid. “I know who I slept with and I’m sorry if you’ve ever thought that I…”

“What? That looking at my stump makes you sick?”

Holden shook his head. “Don’t. Please, sit down. Let me help you take it off.”

“I can’t,” Tyler said, but he slumped down anyway because he felt that he couldn’t hold his weight anymore.

Holden’s hands moved over the cup of the prosthesis. “Show me what to do.” He fiddled with the lock. “Like this?” And to Tyler’s surprise, he clicked it open easily and was sliding it off before Tyler could even stop him. Holden’s gaze took in the stump sock, the liner with the pin protruding. Then his hands were gently rolling the sock down and Tyler watched with his breath caught with something that felt a whole lot like shame.

Holden left the sock on the bed. Then he eased down the silicone liner, taking his time, never less than gentle. By which time Tyler was nearly crying. Holden slipped the liner free. He stood, cupping the stump with both hands. “Lie down.”

Tyler obeyed, twisting his body and settling his head on the pillow. Holden grabbed a cushion from the floor. He slid it under the stump, then he bent over Tyler, a hand stroking his disheveled hair back from his forehead. “I’m going to run a bath, then I’m going to help you get into it. If you need anything else, if you need me to call a doctor, please tell me. I’ll drive into town right now and come back with a doctor if you want me to. Or I’ll call an ambulance.”

Tyler said nothing. The pain had eased from unbearable to just below agony. He practiced his breathing technique while Holden was gone, with his eyes closed, willing his broken body away.

“Come on.” He hadn’t heard Holden approach. He wrapped an arm around Tyler’s shoulders. “Sit up.” He’d pulled on a robe. Once he’d got Tyler onto the edge of the bed, he stood on his left side, an arm around his back. “Put your arm around me and lean.”

Tyler hopped onto his right foot. He got his balance and held onto Holden, trying not to place all his weight upon him. Slowly, they navigated their way into the bathroom. Tyler let Holden strip him of his underwear. Then he sat on the edge of the bath and swung his good foot into it, dragging himself into the water with Holden supporting his stump.

The water was warm, but not too hot, immediately comforting. Tyler sank back. “I put some bath oil in,” Holden said, “for muscle aches and pains. I hope it’ll help.”

“Thanks.” The scents of rosemary and eucalyptus rose from the bath. Tyler closed his eyes.

“Can I bring you a drink?”

---