Page 12 of Finding Jeremy
Chuckling, Gray grabbed his ass and squeezed, rocking their bodies together. “If that was the case, you’d have ditched those clothes before climbing in here.
“You’ve still got your clothes on,” Jeremy replied.
“Because I needed to rearrange a sprawling starfish who kept insisting on sleeping diagonally across the bed. Who the hell does that anyway?”
“Me.”
“No shit.”
“Pointless to sleep on one side when there’s so much space available.”
“I can see how that tracks from a bed hog’s perspective.”
“Then just dub me Sir Hoggie, fuck me, or let me go back to sleep.”
Grumpy and disgruntled was the only way to describe the tone in his voice. Demanding too. Gray loved the vibes he was giving off. Part challenge with a hint of whiny brat. It was downright intoxicating.
“Can’t fuck you with all these clothes on,” Gray told him.
“Not my fault you took forever coming to bed,” Jeremy grumbled in response.
“Not mine either; your old man wanted to talk to me about something after everyone else had taken off.”
“I’ll give him shit for that later,” Jeremy replied, yawning as he cuddled against Gray like he was the pillow Jeremy had abandoned when he’d rolled over.
“I just bet you will,” Gray said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “Now go to sleep, and next time remember to strip before you climb in here.”
“If I get up and go to the bathroom and strip before I climb back in, will you fuck me in the morning?”
If Gray had a hand free, he’d have smacked it to his forehead, because that was some serious Jeremy logic right there.
“Tell you what,” Gray said as he rolled enough to reach the lamp and shut it off. “If you wind up naked in the middle of the night, you have my permission to ride me until I wake up; how’s that?”
“Only until you wake up?”
“You’re pushing it, brat,” Gray grumbled.
The mix of sass and snark was going to drive him up the wall, and Gray knew he’d love every minute of it. That mouth of his was going to get put to good use whether Jeremy realized it yet or not.
Jeremy’s soft laughter, half muffled against Gray’s chest, was better than music. After the long day they’d both had, letting his eye close to the sound of it was one of the best endings imaginable. The silence in the house was a welcome change from the cacophony of noises he’d been bombarded with for the past eight years. Prison was never silent, not even in chapel, not that he’d attended often. There was no true peace inside those thick concrete walls, which meant the men were constantly on edge and itching for something to break up the monotony of the long days they’d been forced to serve.
As Jeremy’s breathing started to even out, Gray found himself relaxing into the soft feel of the bed beneath him and the warmth of the body in his arms. With the shop closed tomorrow and his bike in pristine condition, thanks to Chaos, who’d kept it and everything else Gray owned in a storage unit on his property while he was incarcerated, he found himself itching to take Jeremy for a ride up into the hills just to see where they wound up. A little wind therapy would go a long way and give them a chance for some alone time together.
It was a funny thing, how a man could feel alone even while surrounded by cells full of other men, but after Haven had been released, that was exactly the way he’d felt, even after being given a new cellmate. They’d gotten along well enough. The man had been a true convict and knew the rules and etiquette of jailhouse living inside and out. His stories had been welcome too. Those of the life he’d lived as a wandering handyman and jack-of-all-trades, and the tales he’d told of life on the inside of some of the most notorious prisons in the state.
Riots. Hostage situations, hunger strikes, and protests, he’d seen it all and been part of several incidents that had added time to his sentence. Like Gray, he’d reached a point where he just wanted to do his time and not be bothered with the petty shit that went on in the cellblock.
I’m old, kid, and not in the mood to put up with any more stupid shit.
Being called kid at almost thirty-four years old had rankled Gray for about a minute until it dawned on him that one of the riots the man had gotten caught up in had taken place over fifteen years before he was born. It was easy to let the word slide after that, until there came a point where it just felt natural.
Having lost his old man at a young age, that soft-spoken old timer filled a little of the void, especially when he dispensed wisdom and advice Gray had sometimes not been in the mood to hear. Somehow, that old con had always gotten him to hear it, though. It had kept him out of some shit there at the end.
Now it was up to Gray to keep himself from ever winding up back there. He knew it would disappoint the people who’d showed up to visit him over the years, and he knew better than to ever expect them to do it again if he fucked up. Which he had no intention of doing.
Banging startled him out of the haze he’d been drifting in, so close to the edge of slumber that for a moment, he forgot wherehe was. Then the banging came again, and he realized that it was coming from the front door, punctuated by Chaos’ bellow that he was coming, goddamn it, and to quit beatin’ on the wood.
Jeremy sat up with a start while Gray swung his legs over the edge of the bed and headed to go see what the fuck was going on, just in case Chaos needed backup.
