Page 20 of For the Love of the Lawyer

"They drilled holes into her skull to relieve some of the pressure, but she’s in a coma. We found her documents, and Matt gave consent for them to operate, but the doctor didn’t seem very hopeful about her making a full recovery. I spoke with her lawyer, who wants nothing more to do with the case. Apparently, he knows her parents, which is why he did the paperwork in the first place, but he doesn’t want to compromise the friendship. I'm going to file the papers to take over as attorney of record. The hospital has the number at the ranch so let's get you home. Matt and Tim are home with the boys,and they'll all be asleep by now. Come on, cowboy.” Jon took Mickey's hand to pull him up.

Once on his feet, Mickey stretched to crack his back and adjusted his clothes. "Awful nice of ya to come get me."

Jon laughed. "Ronni went back to Philly, so the boys are going to share Ryan's room. I'm going to stick around for a day or so, and I was hoping maybe you'd let me ride Matt's big stallion again.” Jon winked, a pleasant smirk blossoming on his face.

Mickey was damn certain the warm feeling that rushed south to his groin was inappropriate at the time, but he was too damn tired to give a shit. "I can hook you up with a stallion to ride, if you want."

Jon laughed. "I bet you can, cowboy."

Once they arrived at the ranch, Mickey retrieved his keys to open the basement door, neither of them wanting to wake the house as they went inside, especially Corky. The dog would go apeshit if he heard them, but he was probably in Ryan’s room upstairs, sound asleep.

In the spirit of caution, Mickey held a finger to his lips for Jon to be quiet as they listened to nothing but silence, which was a very good sign. Mickey led Jon inside, closed and locked the door, and turned to the man to grasp him in his arms. He sucked Jon’s plump, bottom lip between his eager ones as he invaded the lawyer’s mouth with his tongue.

The kiss was mind-bending. He tasted a hint of coffee and something sweet. The taste left him dumbfounded for a moment. It had, after all, been a while since he'd kissed a guy as passionately as he was kissing Jon Wells. The kiss with Ethan Sachs was gentle, barely a kiss at all, really. The kiss he gave Jon Wells was far different.

Mickey was determined to be mildly aggressive because he wanted the lawyer to understand he was serious, but he wasn't going full on oral assault. Jon was older than him and hada career Mickey couldn't begin to understand, but that didn't mean he couldn't show the sexy man a good time.

As their tongues swirled together, he felt Jon pull him closer to deepen the kiss, and he did everything he could to hold the man tighter. Kissing those soft lips added a whole new level to any kiss Mickey had ever experienced. He finally decided Jon's kisses tasted of butterscotch. Mickey had seen him sucking on candy earlier at the hospital, the same way he was sucking Mickey's tongue into his mouth.

The cowboy was about to shoot off in his jeans, so he pulled back, looking into the gorgeous, light-green eyes of the man he'd been fascinated with since he'd shown up at the ranch. He could tell Jon was about to lodge some form of protest, but he put his finger over the man's soft lips to stop him.

"I know what you're thinkin'. We have absolutely not one fuckin' thing in common except for the fact we both feel the need to have the comfort of another person right now. We don't gotta have sex, Jon, and I won't ever breathe a word of this to Matt or Tim because I respect their home, but I'd really like to have a warm body next to me tonight to remind me life isn't always so horrible. A little boy's momma is barely alive, and I'd like to be reminded there are good things in this world. The feelin' of your warm body next to me is one of those good things.” Mickey kept his tone soft as he looked into the lawyer's soulful eyes.

Jon didn't offer any commentary, nor did he rebuff Mickey's advances. He led the tall cowboy into the room where he'd slept the night before, and he pushed him onto the bed where he worked to remove Mickey’s boots, socks, jeans, and shirt. He settled Mickey under the covers and then undressed himself while Mickey watched.

He so wanted to fuck the man, but Mickey craved a gentle touch and warm heat for comfort, and he wasn't about to break Tim and Matt's rules. Death, or near-death, made him want tofeel a muscular frame in his arms to remind him there were things to be grateful for every day. Jon Wells was one of those things and just what Mickey needed that night.

After the two of them settled into the bed, Mickey pulled the handsome man into his arms and held him, having always been in the caretaker position in every relationship he'd ever had. It felt natural to him to be the one handling business, because it seemed he'd been drawn to people who needed someone to watch out for them all his life. It was the only way he knew how to behave in a relationship.

One day, he hoped to have someone who actually cared about him and wanted to be there for him in a similar fashion. It really was a dream of his, and until it came true, he was content to fake it.

"Thanks, Jonny, for lettin' me hold you. I really needed it.” Mickey felt a kiss to the side of his neck and then a trail of kisses down to his chest, which he appreciated.

"It's okay, Michael. I’m more than happy to be in your arms." Jon wrapped Mickey in his arms and turned to his back, positioning Mickey’s head to rest on Jon's chest. It was unexpected, but Mickey wouldn't turn away the man's gentle coziness.

Mickey finally closed his eyes, absorbing the soft breaths against the top of his head until the cowboy could finally clear his mind to sleep. The rising and falling of Jon's lightly fuzzed chest was exactly what Mickey needed, finally relaxing enough to fall into a peaceful sleep.

For the moment, the future was in the distance and the past was too far back to see. Mickey would savor thenowbecause it would become a memory far too quickly.

Chapter Eight

Jon woke with a start, feeling strong arms around him and a warm, muscular body behind him, which wasn't in the same position as when he’d fallen asleep, nor was it familiar. He was usually the one holding someone in his arms, and he'd already broken the vow of not allowing overnights, but then he remembered he wasn't at his place in Richmond, so he gavehimself a pass. TheNo Overnightrule would begin when he was back in his familiar hunting grounds.

He gently extricated himself and grabbed clean boxers to go shower since he'd skipped it the previous day. After all the drama, he was pretty sure he needed a good washing up.

Once Jon started the water to warm, he stood in front of the mirror, looking into his scruffy reflection."Do not get fucking attached, stupid ass!"he hissed quietly at himself, hoping to clear the fog. His attraction to Mickey Warren was fucking ridiculous, and he needed to acknowledge his own stupidity and move the fuck on.

He was at least eight years older than the kid, and he didn't do twinks anymore—though, he couldn't exactly call Mickey a twink in the traditional sense of the word. There was nothing outrageous about the man, not that there was anything wrong with twinks because Jon had maintained a steady diet of them in his younger years. So, no, Mickey definitely wasn’t a twink, but he fell into Jon’stoo-youngcategory perfectly.

Jon stepped into the shower and adjusted the water from scalding to just warm enough to keep his nuts in the sack. He looked down at his dick and saw it was beginning to gain some steam, and it was the last thing he wanted. Entertaining thoughts of fucking Mickey Warren would lead to complicated—likely good—things he didn't want to consider because he had no reason to want to spend any time with a cowboy from southern Virginia.

He washed his hair and body, not thinking about the hot man in his bed… Well, not his bed, but the bed he'd been using. The guy punched every one of Jon's buttons, except one—he wasn't educated.

The guy was simple, but even to Jon's own ears, it was harsh to say he didn't think Mickey was smart enough for him, but with the horrible grammar and lack of education, he didn't see a lotof substance to the man. Absolutely nothing would keep Jon’s interest in the guy beyond a good, hard fuck.

He finished his shower thinking about how hard the fuck might be, but it wasn't him fucking Mickey Warren. It was him being fucked by Mickey that flashed behind his eyelids, which was completely out of the ordinary. He'd felt the man's hard cock against his ass before he got out of bed, and for the first time, it enticed him to entertain thoughts he'd rarely been willing to consider with other partners. Yes, he'd bottomed before, but as he got older, he found he enjoyed being the dominant top, so that was the role he'd comfortably settled into, never looking back. The fact Mickey Warren was making him reexamine his feelings on the matter was unsettling.

Jon thought about his friends, Aaron Wasserstein and his new husband, Richard Jefferson. Aaron was a lawyer at the firm. After Jon and Aaron got to know each other and Jon met Aaron’s boyfriend, Rick, the three of them became good friends. They played basketball on Sunday mornings in a league at a local gym, and they went out for brunch together to gossip about the other players.

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