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Instead of all the things he knew he should do, what heneededto do, he carefully slid his arms under Lake’s back and his legs and lifted him into his arms. Lake wasn’t a lightweight—he wasn’t as big as Grady, but he wasn’t a small guy, and he was solid muscle—and Grady had to shift to get him into a comfortable position that wasn’t going to fuck his back or risk dropping him.
Lake murmured something under his breath but still didn’t wake as Grady carried him into his bedroom. He was glad that making the bed first thing in the morning wasn’t one of the things that he did, and that Lake hadn’t done it himself when he’d left, so it was easy to slip Lake under the sheets since half of them were kicked to one side.
He managed to strip Lake down to his briefs. Lake woke for a fraction of a section, smiled sleepily at Grady, and then went straight back to sleep, and Grady wasnotgoing to think about what that did to his heart. This was bad enough as it was.
Grady took his time cleaning up the mess in the living room and drinking a glass of water at his kitchen counter. He wanted a stiff drink, but alcohol wouldn’t do anything but make this so much worse.
What was the fuck was he doing?
Threetimesnowhehad woken to Lake in his bed. Four if he counted that night in Lake’s bed. Grady wondered if counting was healthy or not. This time Lake had a firm hold on him, and there was no way he was getting out of bed without waking him. Part of him didn’t want to move anyway—the deep part of himself that was a flame he was constantly trying to snuff out. Lake had curled down and had his cheek resting on Grady’s stomach, turned away from Grady. One hand was resting below his chin, and the other was settled on Grady’s thigh. Both hands were way too close to his morning wood.
He willed it to go down—a futile effort at the best of times—and tried to slowly inch his way out from under the snuggle monster. Lake shifted, and the hand on Grady’s thigh tightened, and Grady had to swallow back the noise that was attempting to make its way up his throat.
He was saved from having to work out how the fuck to get out of this with his dignity intact when his alarm went off, and Lake jerked up into a sitting position with half-lidded eyes and messy hair. “Hu-what?”
Grady licked his lips at the sight that Lake presented him with. Bed hair, slick lips from where he’d been drooling—which shouldn’t have been attractive, but Grady was beginning to resign himself to the fact that basically anything Lake did was attractive to him—and lines on his cheek from Grady’s shirt. The thin chain necklace he wore most days was resting just below his collarbone. Sometimes Lake would start fiddling with it when they were watching TV, before he put it in his mouth to suck on. Grady’d had to excuse himself a few times to calm down in the kitchen and distract himself by putting some kind of food together before he could rejoin him.
“My alarm,” Grady explained.
Lake deflated and then scratched his chest absently. “Damn. What time is it?”
“Five.”
Lake raised a fist to his mouth as he yawned. “You’re crazy, you know that?” At least that’s what Grady thought he’d said since half of it had been a garbled mess.
“I’ve been told something like that,” Grady said with a grin.
Lake flopped onto his back with a groan. “It’s too early.”
“If you have a problem with what time I get up, you could try sleeping in your own bed.”
Lake snorted and turned on his side, smiling broadly at Grady as he braced his cheek on the back of one hand. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“How did you even get inside last night?” Grady asked.
Lake blinked a few times before saying, “Oh. Key was taped to your front door with a note from your ex. I wanted to ram it down his throat because what a dick move, seriously, but I figured using it to open the door was probably more appropriate.”
“I appreciate your restraint,” Grady murmured, trying to breathe through the strange lump in his throat. Lake had a particular bee in his bonnet about Mal, which Grady tried not to think too hard about. Just remembering the way that Lake had stood up to Mal made his already hard dick twitch. He subtly sat up, curling in a little to try and hide it as he turned his back on Lake and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “You can keep the key,” he found himself saying.
“Yeah?” Lake asked brightly.
Grady didn’t bother responding to that. If he hadn’t meant it, he wouldn’t have said it, even though he shouldn’t have said it in the first place. At some point, he was sure this entire thing was going to blow up in his face. But he figured, how much worse could it get, really?
“Don’t break anything while I shower,” he muttered, grabbing some underwear from a drawer before leaving the room.
“No promises!” Lake called out. “Are you going to feed me if I behave?”
Grady wasn’t answering that either. As if Grady hadn’t been feeding him almost every time they hung out. He must work out a lot during the day to work off the kind of food he devoured. And that was something that Grady wasn’t going to spendanytime thinking about. He closed the door on it in his mind at the same time he closed the bathroom door.
Lakescratchedhislightstubble as he flipped through the paperwork on the clipboard. It all looked pretty good, and despite the niggling in the back of his mind that said something was still wrong with it, he didn’t have any reason to say no. If he was called in front of his CO and asked why he’d said no, he wouldn’t be able to give a concrete answer. He hated when that happened, especially because he knew his instincts were on point and had gotten him far in his military career.
He looked up at where his aircrewman was waiting expectantly. He sighed and handed the clipboard over. “Looks in order; you can put it back in rotation.” He held up a hand before his soldier could duck away. “Uh, let’s keep it for short flights for now, okay? Anything three hours or under. For two weeks, and then we’ll check her over again.”
“You got it. Thank you, sir.”
He’d only taken two steps into the hangar when Zach appeared out of nowhere, blocking his path.
“Hello,” Lake said, trying to go around him. Zach moved with him, not allowing him to pass.
