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Ben gave him another once-over. He tried not to make assumptions these days, but this guy looked like he’d never been in a fight in his life. His skin was fair and smooth, and he was looking at Ben’s bleeding nose like it was the goriest thing he’d ever seen. He even dry-gagged.

“Sorry,” Pouty Lips gasped. “I should be thanking you. The cops are on their way, if you want to stay to tell them about”—he waved at the corner where the guy had run away—“all that. I’d appreciate it if you did.”

He said the last part stiffly, as if he wasn’t used to admitting he needed something. Ben could relate. He had been raised the way he thought all men back then were raised—never asking for help, then blaming himself when everything felt impossible. The therapy he’d been to after leaving the army had shown him there was another way to live, but old habits died hard. If he had to talk about his feelings and ask for help to live a happy life, Ben was tempted to stay unhappy. Thankfully, he had people around him to tell him to get the fuck over himself. Like his old army buddy, Dominic, one of the only ex-military men he knew who could actually talk about emotions without breaking into hives.

“I’m Levi Wayne,” Pouty Lips continued. “Or Lev, if you know anything about models.”

Ben gave him an unimpressed look that hopefully communicated just how little he knew about models. To his surprise, Levi laughed.

“Yeah, I figured,” Levi said. He sat down next to Ben on the sidewalk, which made Ben prickle, like the kid was making fun of him. He could fucking stand. It would just take him a second.

Levi took out his phone and shot off a text. “Just texting my brother,” he said, although Ben hadn’t asked. “How bad is the—?” Levi cut off, averting his gaze with another dry gag. “God, I can’t look at you with all that blood on your face. How’s your leg?”

“Fine,” Ben replied stiffly. He straightened his leg on the dirty sidewalk, bracing himself as another bolt of pain raced through his knee. He sucked in a long breath, counted to ten, then decided fuck it, he was stuck here for a while. Might as well make conversation. His therapist would be proud of him if he hadn’t stopped going after she pissed him off one too many times. Dominic would be proud of him, anyway.

Levi touched his throat. He wore a thin choker similar to the leather collars Ben gave to a sub or two, back in the day. The bruises under Levi’s choker might have stirred something in Ben, if he hadn’t just watched Levi struggle against the attacker who put them there.

“How’s your neck?” Ben asked.

“I’ll need makeup when I go out tomorrow,” Levi said with a strained laugh that made him wince. “Ow. If I’m not being slammed against a headboard, choking really isn’t worth it.”

Ben would bet his life that this kid didn’t know the first thing about safe choking practices. All these young people were getting into BDSM without doing some fucking reading first. Then again, that was probably because they didn’t spend much time in the community. Ben had to seek that community out if he wanted someone to tell him how to do this shit without fucking it up. Kids these days just Googled it. Or worse, they didn’t even bother to Google it and just did what looked good in porn.

Levi caught him glaring and laughed again, this one even more strained than last time, and Ben doubted it was because of the bruises. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those old farts who get annoyed when people bring up anything but missionary.”

“I’m forty-five,” Ben said. “I’m hardly over the hill, you little shit. I don’t give a shit what you like in bed. Unless you’re the kind of idiot who goes straight for the windpipe. You can really fuck someone up like that. Or get fucked up.”

Levi’s elegant brows shot up his forehead. His mouth dropped open, then transformed into a grin that vanished the moment he looked over and spotted the blood on Ben’s face all over again. He looked away, shuddering. “Ugh, so gross. The blood, not your commentary on safe BDSM practices.”

Ben grunted. They lapsed into silence, and Ben was glad he’d put on his coat after leaving the gym. It was getting pretty icy.

Levi shivered. His arms were bare and covered in gooseflesh. Ben thought about giving him his coat, then decided against it. He didn’t want to freeze for the sake of this kid. Instead, he shuffled over and pressed his arm against Levi’s.

“Don’t read into it,” he said when Levi made a noise of surprise. “You look like you’re about to turn into an icicle.”

“So, give me your coat.”

“What, and freeze my ass off? I just fought off that asshole for you. What do you want next, my kidney?” Ben said it more harshly than he intended and immediately regretted it. But for some reason, this made Levi laugh even harder.

“Excuse me for thinking my savior would give me his coat,” Levi said. “It would happen in the movies.”

“Well, this isn’t a movie.” Ben pulled his coat tighter around him and scanned the streets for the cops. He wanted to go home, not stick around to give a statement to some bored jackasses who would ultimately do nothing about it, but no matter how uncaring he pretended to be, he was a protective guy at heart. He wouldn’t abandon someone if they needed him. That was one of the reasons why Dominic kept telling him to get into the security business. But Ben wasn’t interested in changing careers. At least that was what he told Dominic. Truth be told, he was getting pretty tired of running the gym he’d just left. And his manager, a peppy thirty-something named Amber, had offered to buy it from him twice. He was starting to get tempted. He was even thinking about the cabin in Alaska that he owned, and how nice it would be to spend a winter there. It had been a long time since he’d gone on vacation, and he could use the solitude. But he couldn’t go away when he had a business to run.

Several more minutes passed in silence. Levi pushed harder against his coat-clad arm. Ben kept looking down the street, but he couldn’t help but notice how good the pressure felt. His therapist had a term for people who craved touch after not having it for a long time, but Ben felt stupid when he used those words. Like he was making things complicated for no reason. Sure, some of these new-fangled terms were helpful. But they were also ridiculous. Why couldn’t he just live his life and ignore everything he didn’t want to deal with, like most people did?

“I’m twenty-six,” Levi said suddenly.

Ben blinked. Was he getting hit on? He was old enough to be this kid’s dad. A young dad, but still.

“Good for you,” Ben said, and changed the subject. “What was that lunatic yelling about?”

Levi sighed. “Like I said, I’m a model. Apparently, this guy blames me for what my company is doing to the environment, or something. They might also be war profiteering; I don’t know. Anyway, it has nothing to do with me. It’s like screaming at a McDonald’s employee because Ronald McDonald is running a sweatshop in Bangladesh. What the fuck am I meant to do about it?”

There were several dumb things about that speech, but Ben didn’t much feel like pointing them out. Also, he wasn’t entirely sure he could articulate them even if he wanted to. Ben had gut reactions to a lot of things, but he didn’t always know how to translate that into words.

Several more minutes passed before Levi said, “Sorry to ruin your late-night gym. Or early morning, technically.”

“It’s fine,” Ben said automatically. He picked at a crust of blood that was drying in his stubble, making Levi shudder again. Then, because the cops still weren’t here, he said, “I’m just glad I was there for a workout. I own the place, so most of the time when I go in for a workout, I end up doing some bullshit paperwork while I’m there.”