Page 76 of Close Quarters

“Oh…oh! Well shit, I meant join me in bed without sex.”

“Seriously?”

“Hey, I punched you in the face after a bad dream. The best way to make it up to you is a cuddle or two.”

It was said like a joke and a convincing one at that. But that was also a gift of his, presenting something he wanted to do, or something he wanted to do for someone else, as a joke for him to snicker over. I had grown used to seeing him do it before and wasn’t fooled.

Yet I didn’t need to call him out either. Maybe that was just an extension of my avoiding too many things, or maybe it was just…growth—a way for me to let him have his little lies and accept the truth underneath the mask.

“C’mon then,” I said with a huff as he continued to grin like a kid.

Thankfully, the shower stalls in the Tier Two cabins were bigger than the Tier Three cabins. I sometimes wondered if that was to add to the cramped quarters you got used to having in prison or if the upgrade was supposed to feel like an award. So much of what they did at the ranch was good, but much like Leon’s tactic for putting Elliot and me together, sometimes there was an undertone of manipulation, the old carrot and stick combination.

It would also mark the first time we got into the shower together without intending to get our rocks off. The stall was still small enough that we were pressed against one another, which wasn’t usually a problem when it was an excuse to grope each other. While trying to wash off, however, we kept bumping into one another.

“Woah!” he said after a good bump, almost knocking me out of the stall, grabbing my arm and steadying me. “Let’s not do anything that will make the clinic ask questions.”

“You’re the one bumbling around in here like a drunk ox,” I muttered.

“Shush,” he said softly, pulling me closer and kissing me. It was brief and sweet, his lips lingering on mine for a moment before pulling away. Despite my insistence that I was not interested in anything sexual, I could feel my dick stirring to life. I know he felt it rise and push against his leg, and I expected him to say something or reach down like he usually did and take me in hand.

I wondered if I would argue against it, even though, despite my body’s reaction, I wasn’t in the mood for anything. I couldn’t help what my dick did, and we had basically trained ourselves to get aroused when the other person was naked or we kissed.

Instead, he motioned with his finger. “Turn around. I’ll wash your back, and you can wash mine. Otherwise, we’ll be throwing elbows in one another’s faces.”

There was a logic to that I couldn’t argue against, and I did as he said, exposing my back to him. He lathered his hands up before soaping up my back. After a few seconds, I felt something begin poking my upper thigh. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one having an unconscious physical reaction to the shower, but I ignored it as he took his time to wash me and press his fingers into my muscles in a pseudo massage.

Once I was rinsed off, he wrapped his arms around my middle and pulled me close. His dick, harder than I thought, slid up my ass, and he pressed the side of his head against my neck. “Sorry.”

“I’m not doing any better,” I said, looking down as I held my hands over his and hugged them. “They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”

“True,” he said with a chuckle, nuzzling my back. “But this is…this is nice.”

“It is,” I said, the only words I could say in the face of his. I waited until he released me before turning around and doing the same to him. I never really got soft, kind of hard, when I was running my hands up and down his back, feeling the strength he’d built up over the past months. Knowing full well I’d seen a sight like this quite a few times with him by now, though generally, it was with him bent over.

By the time we got out of the shower, we had begun to flag, and I felt sleep creeping back into my mind. I had been so preoccupied with trying not to be sexual that I hadn’t paid much attention to my dreams.

“We’ll deal with your bed in the morning,” he said, taking me by the wrist and pulling me toward the bed.

“I should at least get new pants,” I told him softly.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, pulling back his sheets and lying down. For a moment, I looked down at him, looking so relaxed, his eyes half-lidded, his once hard but still thickened dick nestled against his thighs, whole body stretched out before me, and I felt a flash of heat. And then he yawned heavily, completely killing the flame. “I don’t think they’re going to be doing any random checks now we’ve basically got the stamp of approval.”

I was a little reluctant, not liking the idea of someone coming in while we were both naked and sleeping together. But he was doing a good job of making the bed look incredibly inviting, emphasizing his point by tugging on my hand a little to draw me down. It was probably not the smartest idea, but I felt my knees weaken and got onto the small bed beside him.

Neither of us was huge, but we weren’t small, so there wasn’t much room. And yet, just as surely as I took control whenever our clothes came off…in other circumstances, that is, he took control as soon as we were beneath the sheets. No sooner had I laid down than he managed to wrap himself around me from behind.

“You’re little spoon today,” he said, burrowing his face into my neck and kissing it gently. “Hope that’s not too sub-bottom for you.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes. “You do realize I bottom too, right?”

“I wouldn’t know,” he said, and I could feel him grinning, his face pushing against me.

“Do…you want to top?” I wondered, realizing we’d never talked about the possibility. Then again, talking wasn’t something we did all that well, but we were generally pretty good about making our wants known in other ways. I’d never got the indication that he wanted a turn of his own.

“Well, not right now,” he said in a thickening voice. “But I wouldn’t say no. Definitely wouldn’t say no.”

“Huh, alright,” I said. It wasn’t something I did all that often. Bottoming had always felt so…vulnerable. I had to warm up to it once I realized someone wanted that from me. Yet Elliot only had to say that he wanted to, and after a few seconds, I realized I would let him. Well, no, not just let him. I looked forward to it.

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