Chapter Twelve
“What do you mean,drugged?”Cam screeched. “Why the heck are you home? Shouldn’t you be at the hospital? This isn’t the kind of thing you mess around with,Sebastian!”
Bas pulled the phone away from his ear slightly, for the sake of his eardrums, and propped his ass against his dresser, settling in for Cam’s tirade. He’d pretty much expected this exact response, knowing how protective Cam was of everyone in their odd little friend-family, but he was glad he’d waited until Drew was out of earshot beforecalling.
“He’s okay, Cam,” Bas soothed when it seemed Cam was winding down. “Ipromise.”
“But whatif—?”
“I told you, he said he didn’t want to go to the hospital,” Bas reminded his brother, rubbing at the tension that had lodged in the back of his neck. “We need to respect his decision.” Bas would, and would make sure everyone else did too, even though he was privately just as outraged asCam.
“Well, you tell Drew that’s ridiculous!” Cam sputtered. “This Mark person could be doing this to other guys! He needs to be stopped. Put Drew on theline!”
There was a brief scuffle in the background, and then a deep, raspy voice came on theline.
“Bas? It’s Damon. Cam and Cort are still at our place. Cam’s a little bit, uh,worried, but Cort’s got him. Sean already called with some news you’ll wanna hear, but not tonight, eh? We’ll take care of things, and you just take care ofMcMann.”
“Yeah,” Bas agreed, not even the slightest bit curious about any other news Damon might have for him. As far as Bas was concerned, taking care of Drew was the only priority right now. Everything else could wait. “Tell Cam it’s under control. We’ll check intomorrow.”
He disconnected, then checked the time on his phone. Drew had been in the shower for at least thirty minutes - time enough for Bas to cook up a batch of pancakes, make a call to get Drew’s phone wiped remotely, and contact Cam.Notenough time, however, for Bas to have calmed down, and the only thing that kept him from barging into the bathroom to check on Drew was the certainty that Drew would kick his ass if hetried.
Drew had been patient with Bas’s fussing to a point - letting Bas help him out of the car, even though he’d insisted he was feeling better after throwing up the contents of his stomach, and could walk by himself; letting Bas help him out of his coat and shoes; even letting Bas run the shower for him and agreeing, after a pointed eye-roll, to keep the door ajar in case he needed help. Bas was pretty sure Drew’s patience with the coddling wasdone.
Which meant Drew was just gonna have to suck it up, because Bas’s need to take care of Drew, to reassure himself Drew was okay, was nowhere nearsatisfied.
They had a fuck-ton of things to say to one another… or maybe it was more accurate to say there were a fuck-ton of things Bas was finally ready to admit to and discuss openly, thanks to his conversation with Cort earlier. And then, please God, he wanted to get his mouth back on his bestfriend.
The only thing that shocked Bas at this point was that he’d waited as long as hehad.
The water cut off sharply and Bas straightened, opening his mouth to let Drew know the food had arrived. But before any sound came out, Drew emerged from the bathroom with one towel wrapped low around his hips and another draped across hisneck.
Bas sat back downhard, and tried not to swallow histongue.
Jesus Christ. Just look athim.
Bas had seen Drew half-naked dozens of times over the years. Maybe hundreds, if he counted every beach trip, every swim class, every locker room. He knew the long, lean line of Drew’s torso by heart, knew the tan skin lightly dusted with brown hair over his pecs, and the three tiny moles arranged in an obtuse triangle a bit below and to the right of his belly button, just above the ridge of his pelvic muscle. None of that was a surprise. But years of cataloging Drew’s features in no way prepared Bas for the sight of Drew now. Not now, when every twitch of those muscles begged to be touched, and every stray droplet of water gliding down that flat stomach begged to befollowed.
He hadn’t lied when he’d told Cort that he’d enjoyed sex in the past, but the wanting had never been this consuming, this overwhelming. Maybe he’d always held something back. Maybe it was because none of them had been Drew. The man he was in lovewith.
It was like his conversation with Cort had kicked down a mental barrier he hadn’t realized existed, and suddenly his emotions were tripping over themselves, trying to getout.
He wantedDrew.
He lovedDrew.
He wasin lovewithDrew.
Drew stared at Bas uncertainly and lifted one end of the towel to dry his hair. “What?” he askedslowly.
Bas looked away and cleared his throat. “Nothing. Ah, how are youdoing?”
“I’m fine. I told you so when we got here and you insisted I needed a shower anyway.” Drew rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “If you thought I smelled like vomit, Seaver, you just had to sayso.”
Bas folded his arms over his chest and watched Drew steadily, until finally Drew rolled his eyes and put the towel over his head, rubbing his hairvigorously.
“Fine, fine.” His impatient voice was muffled by the towel. “I do feel better after the shower,” Drewadmitted.
“Uh huh. And now you need to eat.” Bas pushed himself off the dresser and walked to the nightstand where he’d left Drew’sdinner.
