Short Stay by Heidi Cullinan

Author:Heidi Cullinan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9780996120340
Publisher: Heidi Cullinan
Published: 2016-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

BAZ UNDRESSED LAZILY as the water ran, too interested in watching Elijah to hurry. It hit him, sometimes, how he’d only ever have sex again with the man in front of him, and he was always surprised to find how this pleased him rather than made him long for other partners. He did, though, worry about how Elijah felt about lifetime monogamy. Especially as he caught a glance at his Frankenstein-scarred body in the mirror behind the hot tub. He wanted to hide it in the water, but said water was only three-inches deep so far.

Coming to stand beside him, Elijah regarded the barely filled basin with disgust. “Jesus, it’s going to take forever to fill. What are we going to do while we wait for the water, play canasta?”

This was Baz’s cue to suggest sex, but he’d triggered his self-doubts, so he bypassed it and grabbed the robes hanging on hooks beside the tiled tub area. “Let’s sit on the couch and drink the champagne in the fridge.”

Keeping the mini-fridge door as closed as possible, Elijah extricated the bottle, lest the light blast a glasses-free Baz. It would only have tickled at this distance, but Elijah was to Baz’s light-sensitivity as Walter was to his husband’s many allergies: they were both militant to the point of ridiculousness. Normally this protectiveness made Baz feel warm and safe, but with the accidental glimpse of his surgery-scarred body, he felt vulnerable. He wrapped the robe tight around his body as he tucked himself into a corner of the love seat.

Elijah, who had gone to the kitchenette nude, paused at the edge of the coffee table, holding the open bottle in one hand and two glasses in the other. He frowned at Baz’s robe, then softened as he figured out what was going on. “You don’t have to hide from me. I love your body.”

Baz huffed and reached for the champagne. “Right.”

Elijah sat on the table in front of Baz, but he didn’t drink, only ran his finger down the open vee on Baz’s chest, mapping the scars as he went. “I know most of them are from when you were younger, but I always see the one from the bullet and remember you did it for me. You saw my dad with a gun and didn’t get out of the way. You put yourself into the way.” He pushed the panel of the robe aside and traced the round, concave scar on Baz’s shoulder, his gaze inscrutable behind his glasses. “It’s the one thing I can’t argue my way out of, when I want to believe shit about myself. You didn’t know me then. But you did it anyway. I can’t hate myself the way the dark parts of my brain want me to, because you did that. I can’t argue my way out of it, can’t say I’ve probably disappointed you. Because you did it when you knew nothing about me, only that I was a skinny trick who used to be on the streets.

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