Page 10 of Something Unavoidable

Izzy was doing his best to tune out the low, soothing murmur of Keegan’s voice as he spoke to the rescue mare, whom Izzy had named Violet. She was moving better already, her abscess starting to clear up and her spirits higher now that she was getting what she needed.

He had to wonder what the rescues had been through before Keegan found them. Klaus, the big gelding, was calm and unbothered most of the time, and Izzy had secretly draped a saddle across his back and gotten no reaction. It was safe to say he had been at least semi-trained once upon a time.

Violet was a bitch, but in the way a lot of mares were. She pinned her ears and tossed her head, but once Izzy got ahold of her, she calmed down and followed directions for the most part.

Then, there was Sunny, aka Demon Pony.

Keegan set up the low bucket of Epsom salt-water while Izzy retrieved her from the stall. They had tried a soaking bag—the kind that Velcroed around her lower leg—the second day, but Sunny lost her shit and Keegan almost lost his head getting it off her again. Now they were back to buckets and sedatives.

Keegan had given her a little less today to see how it went.

Izzy had to dodge teeth when he snapped on the lead rope, so he wasn’t holding out hope.

“Would you rather get kicked today or bitten?” he asked Keegan as he led Sunny from the stall—well, he tried to lead her. She still didn’t care for the lead rope, so it was more like herding her in the direction he wanted and trying not to get stepped on by her sharp little feet.

He scowled when Keegan rolled his eyes. So, maybe his tone had been sarcastic, but it was an honest question. Someone needed to hold up her opposite leg while her abscessed one soaked, which would put them perilously close to danger. On the other hand, the person holding her head was at risk of snapping teeth.

Keegan elected to take her head. Five minutes into holding Sunny’s leg off the ground, Izzy regretted the offer. His thigh was killing him.

The old injury didn’t bother him all the time, but there were certain positions that, if he held them long enough, set off the nerve damage. Izzy’s femur was fixed together by a rod, screws, and scar tissue. Breaking your thighbone was a zero out of ten. It was worse in the winter when he swore all the metal soaked up the cold. He wasn’t going to let it stop him from doing his job, though. Keegan already thought he was a fuckup—no need to add evidence to that.

“That’s twenty,” Keegan said, startling Izzy out of the daze he’d fallen into. His voice startled Sunny too, and she flicked her tail, the long strands stinging Izzy’s cheek. He flinched back, then had to bite down on a hiss as the pain intensified. Goddammit.

When he managed to get himself to his feet, Keegan was giving him a distinctly unimpressed look.

Izzy tensed. “What?” he asked, trying not to limp as he collected the bandages and poultice.

“If it bothers your leg, you should have said something.”

Izzy’s skin heated. “I’m fine. It’s no big—” He cut himself off at Keegan’s raised eyebrow. Ugh. Whatever. He slumped back against the wall and tried to ignore the way the throb was sharpening. Keegan wasn’t wrong. Izzy was a fucking idiot. He couldn’t remember the last time it had cramped up like this. No, wait. He did. Shower sex was a hard limit now.

He dug his palm into the spasming muscle, but he couldn’t get enough leverage to do any good. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to breathe through it.

“Isaac.”

He jumped at his given name, coming from much too close and with a sharpness that told him Keegan had said it more than once. “What?” he snapped back, forcing his eyes open.

The pony was gone, and Keegan was down on one knee in front of him, his expression unreadable. “Are you going to let me help?” he asked, like it was a foregone conclusion.

Help? How was he planning to— Oh. Keegan was trying to push Izzy’s hand out of the way so he could get to the muscle. Izzy let him, and a moment later, strong fingers dug into his thigh, right where it was rebelling. Izzy gasped as agony shot down his leg and up into his hip, then groaned as the steady pressure made his head swim and his eyes water. “Fuuuck.” His head fell back against the stall behind him, too heavy to hold up.

He caught the quiet snort Keegan let out and lifted a hand to flip him off. “Shut up,” he said, the words coming out breathless. He didn’t care what he sounded like, as long as Keegan kept doing what he was doing. It fucking hurt, but it was fading into the kind of pain that could be mistaken for other things. Things that made his dick hard. “Don’t get any ideas down there,” he grumbled as an afterthought, not sure if he was talking to Keegan or to his cock.

Keegan chuckled, and Izzy shut his eyes again, pretending not to hear him.

When the muscle released, the relief made him light-headed, and he would have slid right to the concrete floor without the stall to hold him up. Keegan’s hands continued to knead until Izzy was biting back sounds that he hoped he wasn’t going to be mocked for later.

“Better?” Keegan murmured, his hands still wrapped loosely around Izzy’s thigh, warmth soaking through the thick fabric of his jeans.

Of course his cock would choose that moment to get in on the action and give an enthusiastic twitch. Izzy’s eyes shot open and locked on Keegan, who was peering up at him in question. Izzy’s heart started to race. Had Keegan noticed? If he had, Izzy would never live it down.

He reined in his first instinct, which was to tell Keegan to get the hell away from him. It wasn’t Keegan’s fault Izzy’s libido was all kinds of fucked up—even if Izzy sometimes blamed him for it. He forced out a gruff, “Yeah.” Then a belated, “Thanks.”

Keegan’s hands were lingering, and Izzy’s throat was getting tight. His hands curled into fists without his permission as he fought the urge to shove Keegan away, to put space between himself and the too-attractive vet. Goddamn fight-or-flight instincts. He wasn’t in danger—not of anything more than embarrassment—but his busted nervous system wasn’t cooperating.

Keegan must have read something in his expression, because his brow furrowed. He pushed himself to his feet and moved back, eyeing Izzy like he was a wild thing.

The space helped calm Izzy’s racing heart, but it didn’t do anything for his hard-on, which hadn’t received the memo that Keegan was the last person on earth Izzy wanted to fuck.

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