A Little Christmas: Noah by Jamie Kassel

Author:Jamie Kassel [Kassel, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Host of the Hills
Published: 2022-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

9

By the time he gets home, it’s time to make dinner. The apartment is too quiet. He knocks on Noah’s door but there’s no answer. And he’s so concerned over the possibility that Noah has just left and gone back to his ‘master’ that he opens the door and peaks inside.

Thankfully Noah is asleep, facing away from him, and he closes the door quietly and starts getting dinner ready in the kitchen. He puts in headphones and listens to a podcast while he cooks, attention constantly shifting back to the closed door. He’s more worried than he has any right to be considering how long he’s known Noah.

They live together but could barely qualify as friends. How long does it take to make a friend? Can it be done in a matter of hours? Hell, he’s known all kinds of people for years and he wouldn’t consider them friends. But back when he was in the military, one firefight and the newbie next to you is suddenly closer than blood.

Tragedy, fear, necessity, life at stake, all those things accelerate bonds. Maybe that’s why he already feels so enmeshed in Noah’s life. It’s like being bonded together by tragedy. Noah’s circumstances and Will’s demand that he help have swept them into each other’s lives, and now, Noah is special. His in a way that’s too much, too deep, and too fast.

When dinner is ready he knocks again, Noah’s voice is worryingly quiet as he tells Jensen to enter the room.

He’s still in bed. Eyes red-rimmed. It breaks Jensen’s heart to see him like this. That man didn’t deserve Noah. He walks around the bed and sits down beside him, starts brushing his thick, dark hair back from his forehead. It doesn’t even occur to him not to touch. Not when Noah is so obviously struggling, gazing up at Jensen like he’s desperate to be comforted.

“He’s not worth this, sweetheart,” he says.

Noah sniffles and turns his damp cheek so that he’s pressing against Jensen‘s hand like a kitten wanting to be petted.

“I know.” His eyes stay closed. “I like your hand on me.”

How is he so god damned beautiful, Jensen thinks and brushes a thumb over his full bottom lip. It isn’t just his looks, it’s his demeanor, something soft and submissive that echoes through Jensen and feels like an invitation. And then Noah is watching him avidly, assessing.

As if Jensen is prey, which of course is the total opposite of what is actually going on here.

And yet, “What do you like about it?” He asks.

Noah licks his lips and smiles in a way that is surely more seductive than it has any right to be.

“I like that it’s warm and steady. That you--” His lower lip wobbles and he takes a breath to steady himself. “I like that you want to touch me and that it’s…gentle,” he says as if this is the worst thing he ever could have said.

“There’s nothing wrong with a little gentleness now and again,” he says.

“Once upon a time I would have argued against that,” Noah says.

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