Dreamspinner Press Year Eight Greatest Hits

by Brandon Witt

  “All right, shut it, asshole.” Tommy flopped down into the chair by Bobby’s hospital bed. He leaned in and kissed Bobby, despite the fact that Bobby was still laughing at him.

  After Bobby caught his breath, he asked, “Did you try just telling her no?”

  “Have you met the woman?”

  Bobby considered the question and looked like he agreed, but he said, “She’s not totally unreasonable, Tom.”

  “What, are you kidding me? She’s you. Only it’s impossible to argue with someone that’s that nice and little and old and a woman. Especially one that’s so goddamned obsessively determined. It’s like someone threw Pollyanna, Mary Sunshine, and Mussolini into a blender and it spit your mother out.”

  “You forgot Mother Teresa.”

  “Yeah, her too. Thank God we don’t have leprosy.”

  Bobby laughed again at that, but he reached a hand out for Tommy. “She just needs to take care of everyone. You should let her, she’s good at it.”

  Tommy leaned in then, smiling begrudgingly as he said, “At least now I know where ya get it.”

  Before Tommy had a chance to kiss him again, there was a small knock on the door. He pulled back as a nurse came in with a few papers. “Looks like you’re getting out of here today, Officer McAlister.”

  “Please tell me those are my release forms,” Bobby asked hopefully as he sat up farther in the bed.

  The nurse gave him a smile and then a fake pout. “You didn’t like visiting with us?”

  Bobby tried to return the smile, but Tommy could tell it was forced. “You’ve all been great, thanks, but between the catheter yesterday and the peep-show nightgown, I’m ready to go home.”

  She was already working on his IV, pulling it out carefully and putting a small bandage over the back of his hand. “I guess I can’t blame you,” she said with another smile.

  It sounded like a rehearsed conversation, and Tommy figured she probably had similar banter several times a day with different people.

  She cut the hospital bracelet off his wrist and taped it to the forms. “I’m going to leave this here with your paperwork. If you need to come back for any reason at all, try to bring this with you.”

  Bobby nodded, but Tommy guessed if they needed to bring him back in for anything, Bobby might lose his temper and start his own shooting spree.

  “Here’s your information about wound care at home and what to look for, signs of infection and such. You need to follow up with your regular doctor in three days.” She pointed at the page. Bobby glanced at it and nodded his head again. “And”—she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small brown paper bag and set it on the table by his bed—“these are your pain meds. You have one refill, but you probably won’t need anything stronger than ibuprofen after the first week.”

  “Got it,” Bobby said, trying to get up. She had him sign and initial more papers and then turned to leave. “Is that it? I can go now?”

  “You can get dressed now. I’ll be back in a few minutes to wheel you down to the parking lot,” she told him cheerfully.

  “I got shot in the arm. I’m pretty sure I can make it down to the garage.”

  The nurse tossed her blonde hair off her shoulder and laughed. “Hospital policy. Think of it this way: if you tripped and hit your head on your way to the car, we’d have to keep you another day.”

  “Wheelchair it is.” Bobby started to push the blanket back, but he waited for her to leave the room first.

  Tommy leaned back and waited as well. He couldn’t get out of the hospital soon enough. He hadn’t been a fan of them before, but after last night he thought he could go his whole life without stepping foot in another one. “I think she’s just disappointed she can’t give you a sponge bath.”

  Bobby laughed and glanced over his shoulder as he got out of bed. “Enrique, an alarmingly attractive male nurse, beat her to the punch this morning.”

  Tommy covered his face with his hand, feeling a rush of desire at the image. “I can’t decide if I should be jealous or ask for video footage.”

  “Neither, trust me.” Bobby said as he pulled on his jeans that had been sent from home. “It was one of the least sexy things to ever happen to me. Even if I was single, I don’t think I could get it up at the idea.”

  Tommy watched him get dressed. He was so relieved to be sitting there, having this conversation—any conversation—with Bobby, he couldn’t think straight. When Tommy didn’t comment, Bobby looked over his shoulder again.

  “You still with me?”

  Tommy got out of the chair and walked toward Bobby. “Nowhere I’d rather be right now,” he said, the barefaced honesty not even making him flinch.

  Bobby had only managed to get his jeans on. His shirt was bunched up in a fist and he looked so shocked at Tommy’s words it was almost comical. Tommy wrapped his arms around Bobby and pulled him close. He didn’t like the smell—it was all wrong. It was the smell of sterile soap and other people and a hint of blood from a wound that had barely begun to heal. He took a deep breath anyway. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  Between the lack of sleep and the terror of the night before, Tommy felt like he was ready to fall apart.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Tom,” Bobby whispered to him. The shock seemed to have worn off, and Bobby wrapped his arm around him. “Most cops in our district don’t even see as much action as I did last night. There’s no way it’ll happen twice to me, okay?”

  Tommy had his face buried against Bobby’s neck. He didn’t say anything, but he nodded his head. He hated caring so much about another person. He hated having Bobby’s life in the hands of strangers every day. He hated that he couldn’t change the way he felt. “Okay,” he whispered on a rough breath.

  Bobby was about to say something else, but the door opened, and the nurse came in with a wheelchair.

  “Knock, knock, your chariot is ready.” She stopped when she found them wrapped around each other. “Need another minute?”

  Her face was so impassive Tommy figured she was a little offended by what she’d walked in on. Fuck her if she didn’t like it.

  “No, we’re good,” he told her as Bobby struggled to pull his shirt over his head with one good arm.

  The nurse pushed the chair farther into the room and turned it around to face the door. “Got all of your personal belongings?”

  Tommy was picking up the things he knew were Bobby’s and putting them in the big plastic bag the hospital had provided. “Got it all right here.” He looked around again and asked Bobby, “Where’s your uniform?”

  “They had to cut the shirt off, and the trousers are…. I’ll get a new one. My sergeant gave Mom my badge to take home.”

  “All right.” Tommy could tell Bobby still wasn’t himself, but he figured that was to be expected. Not many people lived through what he had, and those who did had a right to being a little rattled as far as Tommy was concerned. “Looks like you’re good to go, then.”

  Bobby took a seat in the wheelchair. He looked more tired than Tommy had ever seen him. He figured Bobby had a right to that too.

  It took a few minutes to get the car to where Bobby was waiting with the nurse. He pulled up carefully to the curb and got out to open the door for him.

  “Mom must like you,” Bobby said as he stood up. “She doesn’t even let me drive her car.”

  Tommy closed the passenger door for Bobby before getting in behind the wheel. “She can keep it. I feel like I’m trying to pilot a spaceship in this thing.”

  Bobby had closed his eyes and tipped his head back against the leather seat, but he was grinning. He carefully reached his hand out and rested it on Tommy’s thigh as Tommy drove.

  TOMMY HAD only been to Bobby’s apartment once in the time they’d been together, and that was in the middle of the night after a long shift at the pub, but he remembered the way. “This place looks smaller at night,” he said as he pulled in to the driveway.

  “It’s because of all the
trees.” Bobby studied the house he’d grown up in as if he were seeing it for the first time before he opened the passenger door. “They hide half the house in the dark.”

  Tommy grabbed Bobby’s things from the backseat and locked the car before he followed Bobby around Judy’s house to his little garage apartment on the side. “I can see why she was having a hard time keeping the place up without you. It’s huge.”

  Bobby tried to shrug, but seemed to think better of it as he patted down the empty pockets of his jeans. Tommy realized what he was doing and handed him Judy’s key ring, assuming she had a key to his place.

  “Thanks,” Bobby murmured as he unlocked the door. “And the house isn’t really that big. Only four rooms.”

  Only four rooms with a big back yard and a deck that wrapped around the house. A fire pit in a circle of trees and a swing set in the back that Tommy could barely see the top of from the driveway.

  Tommy followed him inside and kicked off his shoes when Bobby did. The curtains were drawn, so Tommy found the light switch by the door. Bobby’s apartment was nice, considering it had once been a garage. In the main living area stood a small couch with a dark blue velvet cover over it across from the brick wall where Bobby had mounted his flat-screen television. In the corner was a bar with a sink and a toaster oven, a microwave, and a minifridge. The other side of the room had been divided off with screens that, Tommy remembered from last time, hid Bobby’s queen-size bed and dresser. The bathroom only housed a small shower and toilet. It wasn’t grand—really just a bachelor’s studio apartment—but it was quiet and clean, and it felt like a little oasis to Tommy, one he often wished he could spend more time in.

  Bobby disappeared behind the screens that made up his bedroom. “You need to take off back home now?”

  His voice was muffled and Tommy assumed he was changing his clothes.

  In truth, part of him wanted to head straight home. He didn’t like leaving Max and Zoe with anyone under any circumstances. At the same time, though, the rest of the kids weren’t due home for a few hours and the twins, even if they woke up, would at least be well fed with Judy. If Cal and Cheryl showed up, it might be…. Well, Tommy really didn’t want to think about how that might go, but he figured the odds were slim. They’d already made their appearance a few days earlier, and Cal had told him they were heading south to see Cheryl’s sister. Tommy pitied her sister, but not enough to try to talk them out of skipping town for a while. “Your mom said I should make sure you were settled.”

  Bobby poked his head around the screen, a smile on his face. “Oh yeah?”

  Tommy only nodded before walking closer. “She even told me to take my time,” he whispered when he got close enough to touch Bobby. Bobby stood in front of him with his shirt off and jeans unbuttoned. “I’ve got at least three hours before Colleen gets home with the kids, so….”

  “So…,” Bobby echoed and leaned in for a kiss. “You wanna help me put something over this bandage so I can take a quick shower?”

  “You wanna tell me more about that sponge bath you got this morning?”

  “That depends,” Bobby told him, taking him by the hand and leading him to the small kitchen. He found some plastic wrap under the sink and passed it to Tommy. “You gonna join me for my shower?”

  THE SHOWER stall was barely big enough for the two of them to fit in together, but Tommy didn’t mind. The water was warm as it sprayed over them, and Bobby was so close Tommy had no choice but to touch him. He reached for the bottle of shampoo from the hanging rack in the corner and poured some into his palm as Bobby wet his hair. “Here,” he murmured, turning Bobby gently until his back was to Tommy.

  Tommy worked up a rich lather in Bobby’s hair, his strong fingers massaging down to the scalp as the small space filled with the scent Tommy had been missing. The steam smelled like lemons and something earthy Tommy couldn’t name, but it was familiar and made him smile as he washed Bobby’s hair.

  Bobby let out a deep sigh and relaxed against Tommy. He dropped his head forward under the running water when Tommy slid his hands lower. Tommy rubbed Bobby’s shoulders and neck and found little knots under the skin, easing them with his thumbs. Tommy was careful of the wound on Bobby’s arm and avoided it altogether, but he figured every other inch of him was fair game.

  “Was your sponge bath this good?” Tommy asked teasingly.

  Bobby laughed softly. “Not even close.”

  He pressed himself against Tommy as the soap sluiced down his back. Tommy was already hard, and it didn’t take much encouragement to get him to rock his hips against the slick warmth of Bobby’s skin. He cursed the fact they hadn’t thought to bring a condom with them. It would’ve been so easy to hold Bobby there and slide right into him.

  A slight whimper escaped Bobby’s throat, and Tommy wrapped both arms around him. He held him close and pressed his face against Bobby’s shoulder. The showerhead was tilted just right, and Tommy was thankful for that, though he figured if he had to drown, this was the only way it would be worth it.

  He ground himself against Bobby’s ass, his rigid cock gliding through soapy water before slipping between the muscles. Tommy let out a harsh groan, and he could feel his erection grazing against Bobby’s opening, but he angled his hips and rocked against him instead.

  Bobby panted and whimpered and squirmed in Tommy’s arms before reaching for one of Tommy’s hands and pulling it down from his chest. He guided Tommy to his erection when Tommy started to thrust against him. “Make me come, Tom.”

  The words alone could’ve been a soft command, but it sounded more like a plea as Tommy wrapped his fingers around Bobby’s cock and started to stroke him.

  “No,” he answered, not giving Bobby much more than a warm grip to push into. He kissed the back of Bobby’s neck and then nipped with his teeth.

  “Why?”

  Tommy nearly laughed. Bobby’s tone was pure annoyance and need.

  “Because,” he whispered, catching Bobby’s ear in his teeth as he moved harder against him. “I want you to fuck me.” He let the words sit there for a minute as Bobby panted for breath, and Tommy fought another groan before he went on. “In your bed.”

  Bobby hissed through his teeth and then muttered a sharp curse. “We’re clean enough,” he said as he abruptly shut off the water.

  Tommy was still painfully hard because Bobby had moved away seconds too soon, but he figured that was fair, all things considered.

  They barely bothered with toweling themselves off, their skin still damp as Bobby pulled him by the hand to the makeshift bedroom.

  Standing at the foot of the bed, Bobby ran a hand up Tommy’s shoulder and wrapped his fingers into his hair. “You sure?”

  Tommy stepped closer and pressed himself against Bobby, letting Bobby feel his erection between them. “What do you think?”

  He could understand Bobby’s hesitation. In the time they’d been together, he’d only bottomed for Bobby once. Bobby had assumed Tommy was a top because that’s how things usually worked out between them, and Tommy hadn’t bothered to correct him. It took a lot to get him to relax enough, even with Bobby, to enjoy the vulnerability of bottoming. He leaned in and brushed his lips against Bobby’s before he whispered, “I like the way it feels to have ya inside me, Bobby. Even if I don’t like to admit it.”

  Bobby didn’t say anything to that. He kissed Tommy again and slid his hands down Tommy’s sides until he reached his hips. He pulled them tightly together and moved just enough to let their cocks rub together between them.

  Tommy felt like he was going to fall over or come or both if they didn’t stop soon. He pulled Bobby down onto the bed and broke the kiss long enough to shift higher on the mattress. Bobby followed him over, supporting himself with his right arm while he carefully slid his other hand down Tommy’s body.

  They pressed close together for long minutes, simply touching and kissing each other, until Bobby leaned back. “I can’t reach the nightstand, but….”
>
  Tommy understood and turned away. He pulled open the nightstand drawer and found a strip of condoms and a bottle of lube right on top. Tommy nearly laughed, thinking of what a mess his own world was compared to Bobby’s. Everything about Bobby was neat and tidy. There was a place for everything in Bobby’s life, and everything was in its place. He started to wonder where exactly Tommy’s place was in all of that, but he decided he was better off not going down that road.

  “Come here,” Bobby whispered and Tommy came back to him.

  Tommy trailed his fingers down Bobby’s chest as he slid his bare feet against Bobby’s. “We’re gonna run outta time if we’re not careful.”

  The words were more for himself than Bobby as he fought to keep his other responsibilities on his radar. It was hard to do when Bobby was lying next to him, smiling at him, and moving in slowly for another kiss.

  He could feel Bobby’s grin against his lips as Bobby whispered, “Quit stalling, then.”

  He nearly pulled Bobby on top of him, but he remembered it would be a pain for Bobby to support himself in that position. Instead he asked, “Who’s stalling?” and turned onto his side. He could feel Bobby exhale against his shoulder, feel Bobby’s fingers sliding over his skin, but he still nearly jumped when Bobby ran one slick fingertip against his entrance.

  “Okay?” Bobby asked, leaving a trail of kisses over Tommy’s shoulder and up his neck.

  “Tickled,” he said, almost embarrassed when Bobby breathed a laugh against his ear.

  “Maybe I should tie you up sometime,” Bobby told him as he slipped his finger deeper inside. “Not let you come for hours.”

  Tommy lost track of what else Bobby was doing behind him and got caught in Bobby’s words. He’d never felt comfortable enough with anyone to let them tie him up before, and Christ knew he’d never had that kind of privacy, even if he’d been willing. But, the idea of him and Bobby alone for an entire day together, of letting Bobby do anything he wanted, sent a shock of electric heat through Tommy that was so wickedly distracting, he barely noticed Bobby pushing into him until the head of Bobby’s cock broke past the tight ring of muscle.