Page 32 of Stepbrother Mine

Chapter Fifteen

SEBASTIAN

PRESENT DAY

I wake a couple of hours later with a coughing fit. My ribs ache as I cover my mouth, my throat feels like it’s being stabbed with a million little knives, and my head is throbbing. I look over to see Rome at his desk, facing me, and I wonder if he’s gotten any sleep at all. Worry clouds his features as he stands and makes his way over to me. I groan as another wave of coughing hits me and he rests his hand on my forehead.

“Fuck, you’re burning up,” he tells me. “We have to get your fever down.” He leaves and returns with the thermometer, water, and some ibuprofen.

“Did you sleep?” I ask as he takes my temperature. He shakes his head.

“103,” he says, frowning. He opens the bottle and tips it over, catching the pills in his hand before handing them to me. “Take those.”

I do, right before another coughing fit. “I should move, so you can sleep.”

“I wasn’t sleeping anyway, and I feel better watching over you. Stay. Drink more water.” I do as he says and collapse back on my pillow.

Thankfully I don’t wake again until morning. When Rome checks my temperature I still have a fever, and I’ve completely lost my appetite. I’m coughing like crazy, and going through tissues like there’s no tomorrow.

It’s been long enough so Rome gives me some NyQuil so I can sleep, and I pass out again, expecting him to be at work when I wake up in the early afternoon.

Only he’s not. He’s still at his desk, working on something on his computer.

I groan and he turns to face me. He’s recently showered and has a cup of coffee next to him. “How are you feeling?” he asks, coming to sit next to me again. God, he looks so distressed.

“Like shit,” I rasp, my throat feeling like sandpaper. “It’s just a cold, though, I’ll be okay. I just need to rest.”

He hands me my water and I sit and drink it, even though every swallow is torture. I know I need to and I don’t want him to worry. “Shouldn’t you be at work?” I ask, and he frowns again, shaking his head.

“I called out. I’m not leaving you.”

Butterflies erupt in my stomach at his words and I can’t help grinning.

I cough again and can’t seem to stop for a while. When I’m done I’m almost in tears over how much my stomach and ribs are hurting and the stabbing feeling in my throat. Rome leaves to get me more water and then takes my temperature again. “Still have a fever,” he says, then hands me some NyQuil, which I swallow.

“You hungry?” he asks, and I shake my head. He kisses my sweaty hair. I cringe at the thought of how badly I must smell, but he doesn’t seem to mind. “Sleep,” he says.

I lie back down, and not long after my eyelids feel insanely heavy. It’s not long before sleep pulls me under.

“Fuck, this is so not sexy,” I groan as I blow my nose yet again. It’s the following day and I’m lying on the couch, my feet stretched out in front of me, a light weight blanket covering my small frame. I wanted the comforter but Rome said it would make me too hot. My fever is there but it’s lower than it was this morning, so I’m not on meds right now. But my throat is raw and my head still feels like it’s being squeezed in a vice. I can’t stop coughing and it hurts like hell when I do, and my nose is running constantly. But the best part is that I’ve lost my voice and sound like a fucking teenager going through puberty. Bonus, Rome thinks it’s hilarious and can’t stop mocking me and grinning.

I toss the tissue in the trash can Rome left for me, and groan again. He chuckles from his spot in the kitchen where he’s making me soup. He says I need to try and eat something and it was the only thing that sounded halfway decent.

“You act like I’ve never seen you sick before.”

“As my brother, yes, but not as my boyfriend,” I pout. The congestion in my voice mixed with the squeakiness is rather comical.

“Well, I love you as both,” he says, and then I see his cheeks flush crimson and his mouth drop open. I want to respond, but another sneezing fit hits me and then a coughing one right after that. I blow my nose and sniffle, my words muffled through my congestion.

“Did you mean that?” I ask. He shifts from foot to foot as he faces away from me, though I’m pretty sure the soup doesn’t need any more attention at this point. “Rome?”

He turns the stove off and shuffles over to me, kneeling in front of me. Brave of him, considering the circumstances, but my heart is leaping out of my chest and even if I sneeze on his face I’m not giving this moment up.

He strokes my cheek, my hair a mess and my nose red and chapped from all the blowing. Yet he’s looking at me like I’m the most beautiful thing in the world.

“Yeah,” he says with a soft smile. “Yeah, little brother, I mean it. Wasn’t exactly intending for it to come out that way, but what the hell? I know we only started this whole ‘figuring out what this is between us’ a few months ago. I know it hasn’t been long, but I think I’ve loved you from the very first day we met. It just took me a long time to realize it. It’s always been you, Sebastian.” He takes my hand and squeezes it, and I grin like crazy, my heart fluttering.

“I—” he starts and as I predicted I’m caught by another coughing fit, cutting off his words, then I sneeze again at the end.

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