18% Gray (13 page)

Must be a “yes.”

Matt drifted along on James’s shoulder, watching his arms flop and bounce around James’s flexing ass. There was a slow trickle of blood dripping down his left arm, onto his hand, and occasionally dropping off his thumb. Mostly it was hitting the ground, but occasionally the back of James’s camos would get hit.

“Think we’re leavin’ trail.”

“What?” James was huffing a little. Outta-shape bastard. Matt was barely 70 kilos.

“You’re outta shape, boy. Breathin’ hard.”

“I’m hauling your loopy ass around, that’s why. What did you mean about leaving a trail?”

“’M bleedin’.”

“Bad?” James sounded alarmed.

“Nope. Jus’ a little. Drippin’ on the groun’, sometimes.”

“Shit!” James stopped, and Matt could feel him shift his hold a little in order to put him down. His big hand was on Matt’s ass now, which was just as pleasant as having it on his neck, but in a totally different way.

“No!” Matt said when James started to bend. He stopped. “Can fix it.”

“How the hell are you going to fix it, Matt?”

“Somebody’s pissy today,” he sang out.

“Matt.” James sounded like he was talking through his teeth. “I’m putting you down so we can stop the bleeding.”

“No! No, ’s okay. Can do it.” Then Matt shoved his left hand into the back of James’s waistband. He could drip on James instead of the ground. “See?”

James was perfectly still for a few seconds. “Lovely,” he said, still sounding like his teeth were clenched. He started walking again.

Some people just didn’t know how to have any fun.

“James?” Matt asked after a few minutes.

James sighed. Loudly. “Yeah?”

“D’you know we’re goin’ upstream?”

“That’s the way to the caves.”

“Isn’ tha’ the way the bird came from?”

“Calculated risk, Matt. Gotta do it.”

Matt thought a second. Or thirty. “Wha’s the calc’lation?”

Another, louder sigh. “I bet they sent a SAIA bird down each drainage radiating out from where we left the vehicle. We should have time to make it to the caves before we run into anything coming to check on the bird, after it doesn’t report in. And I don’t know what the hell’s downstream or cross country.”

“Oh. Huh.” Whatever he said.

“Why don’t you take a little rest, Matt?” Suddenly, James’s voice just sounded so much nicer. Like he really cared about Matt’s comfort. Matt blinked his eyes against sudden tears.

“Think I will,” he mumbled.

J
AMES
finished administering the drugs Matt’s Gramma Anais had ordered him to while she finished her instructions. Her calculation on the stimulant had been a little off, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.

“You need to run Matt’s vid program 326B.d. Make your way to the person and location indicated. They’ll give you help, and their communication lines are more secure than yours. Don’t check in again until you’re there or three days from now at 1930, whichever comes first. Now move out. And if you let anything further happen to Matt, I will make myself a purse from your scrotum.” Matt was beginning to stir, again, and James held the hookup so they could see.

“Yes, Colonel Viteaux. Understood, ma’am.” James snapped out a salute to the woman. She may be retired, but he was taking no chance of offending her. She scared the holy living shit out of him.

James only got one more look at Lieutenant Colonel Lance Kell-Viteaux, his mouth twisted in worry, before Colonel Viteaux cut the transmission.

He got the feeling Matt’s family didn’t like him very much.

They certainly weren’t happy with the current situation, and neither of them had entirely believed his account of how he’d destroyed the SAIA bird attacking them. He didn’t really blame them. He couldn’t quite figure it out himself.

The shotgun did fuck-all to the bird, of course. He knew Matt was about to get drilled in the head, and he leapt in desperation, shouting “No!” and pushing the command out mentally without thinking. He took Matt down, waiting to feel the hit on his own body, but there was nothing.

Well, nothing except the bird exploded, crashed and burned. It definitely exploded first. James turned his head after the shock wave passed and watched the burning SAIA hit the ground.

It wasn’t a big explosion, which was fortunate considering their proximity. It was more like he’d triggered internal small explosions with his mental command. An incomplete self-destruct.

Who knew he could do that?

Shit
. He buried his face in his palms, gripping his hair tightly in his fingers. What the
fuck
was going on with his head? He forcibly put the issue aside and took stock of the situation, instead. He needed to plunder Matt’s leg again—
shudder
—and get them ready to move out at nightfall. Matt must have some NV tech. Even ancient stuff was better than none. Best-case scenario, he had NV contact lenses.

He looked down at Matt’s calf, left open after removing the vid hookup. Matt had sleepily told him to leave it that way. James fought off chills again. He hated seeing Matt’s leg like that.

“Matty.” James shook him gently, gripping his right knee above the “tech pantry.” Matt flailed a little.

“Huh?” He lifted his head and blinked blearily at James. It
was
possible James had overdosed him before, but at least Matt wasn’t in tons of pain. “Gonna call Grampa?”

“Already did. You said hi to him and your, um, Gramma, remember?”

Matt groaned and dropped his head back on his pack. “No.” He barely kept his eyes open. “What’d they say?”

“They pinged because satellite recon showed Mountain Home was scrambling SAIA,” James said dryly.

Matt made a face. “Figured that one out already.”

“Yeah. Well, Colonel Viteaux has a bolt-hole for us. We’re headed there once I listen to vid 326B.d.”

Matt snickered. “Colonel Viteaux. You sound like all the other soldiers she intimidates. She’s retired, for fuck’s sake.”

“The woman threatened my testicles. I’m happy to call her Colonel Viteaux.”

Matt got quiet again. He looked at James thoughtfully, if a little cross-eyed. “Maybe you should go ahead without me. You can come back for me.”

“Th’fuck, Matt? You
want
me to lose my nuts? We’re within two thousand meters of where a SAIA bird self-destructed, and as soon as they read the black box, they’ll know we were here and you’re wounded. No fucking way I’m leaving you here.”

“’K. I get ya. It’d be stupid. Keep your nuts. Pain’s coming back, need more numb stuff, or ’m gonna use up all m’energy fighting the pain. Won’t be able to walk.”

“Can’t numb it. Your choice is have some pain and walk under your own power—mostly—or be sedated.”

“And what, your macho ass carries me?” Matt was getting livelier. The new drugs were working, quicker than James had anticipated.

“Well, my ass thanks you for the compliments, but I thought I’d pack you out over my shoulder.” James grinned.

He didn’t get quite the response he expected.

M
ATT
gaped at James. “Now you decided to be Mr. Playful?
Now
?”

James slowly lost his grin and ducked his head. He cleared his throat. “Stress makes me weird sometimes, I guess.” Matt could see his cheeks reddening.

Now he topped it off with being fucking cute? Matt shook his head. “You’re not packing me outta here,” he snapped. Even
if
Matt would enjoy James carrying him. Just maybe not when he was unconscious.

“I’m not numbing you up, either,” James snapped back.

Matt knew it was a bad idea, and if he was playing medic and not patient, he’d say the same thing. “I
know
,” he shot back. This guy just brought out the ten-year-old in him. “Nasty bastard,” he muttered. Judging by James’s patronizing, disgusted snort, he’d not been that quiet.

“Did you give me nano-menders?” He couldn’t stop the surly, apparently. But he was playing patient. Surly was a requirement for the role.

James gave another small snort—
“I’m being very patient with you, and I want you to know it.”
“Yes, just like Colonel Viteaux said to.” He added something else in a mumble Matt didn’t pick up.

“What?” he demanded.

“I
said
, ‘I gave you a mild stimulant too, like she told me.’”

“Ah.” Matt nodded at him smugly. “In other words, you overdosed me earlier.” Dosages were determined by weight, so James must have overestimated his. Wait a minute…. “Are you saying I’m fat?”

James gave another snort—
“I’ve all but lost my patience with you”
—and rolled his eyes. He looked at Matt and opened his mouth to retort, but then his expression changed. He looked a little assessing, and a lot concerned.

“Matt, I think maybe it’s time to give you more painkillers.” James sounded almost soothing.

“Why?” Matt was suspicious. And he wasn’t about to forget the fat issue.

“I think maybe I gave you too much of the stimulant Colonel Viteaux told me to give you. Your pupils are huge.” A slow smile broke across James’s face, momentarily dazzling Matt. “Maybe she thought you were fat, too.” He got up and started rummaging in Matt’s pack.

“
What?
” Matt tried to twist around and look at James, but his injured shoulder was making it impossible. Suddenly, a big hand grabbed his forehead and forced his head back onto James’s hard thigh. Then James shoved the hypo-mister up his nose and dosed his sinuses.

“Gah!” Matt kicked and flailed ineffectively. “Bastard!”

Within a minute Matt began to relax, tension seeping out of his body.

C
AUTIOUSLY
, James lifted his hands off Matt’s face. Matt relaxed further into James’s leg.

“Jesus,” Matt sighed after a few minutes. “That was fugly. Sorry.” He kept his eyes closed.

James put his diplomatic training to use and refrained from agreeing. He wasn’t up to disagreeing, though. Matt’s pupils had begun to shrink, James saw when Matt finally opened his eyes. James relaxed a little too. Matt’s eyelids began to look heavy again. God, James just couldn’t get these doses right.

“I should probably tell you I’m very sensitive to drugs.”

James rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, I was figuring that out.” Guess he shouldn’t have increased the dose Colonel Viteaux had indicated for the stimulant.

Matt didn’t move off James’s thigh, and James was content to let him rest there. Matt stretched out along the dirt and rock littering the cave floor, long and lean. He turned his head a little and nuzzled his ear into James’s thigh, making little contented noises in his throat. James was pretty sure he didn’t realize it.

Matt turned his body to the side, curling up a little and nuzzling James with his cheek, now. Tentatively, James moved one hand back to Matt’s head and stroked his hair gently. Matt nuzzled into James’s hand now too.

“Mmmmmm, feels good,” Matt slurred sleepily.

From one extreme to the other. James ran his fingers through Matt’s hair over and over, just watching his squared-off, tanned hands run through Matt’s light hair. It was just long enough to fall silkily between James’s fingers. Which was just enough stimulation for him to begin feeling his heartbeat in his cock.

A soft snore from Matt startled James out of his reverie.

Damn, he’d overdosed him again.

Instead of getting up, like he should, James kept looking at Matt. He looked peaceful. James shouldn’t disturb him. Moving might wake him again. Just a couple more minutes, then Matt’d be out enough….

Matt wasn’t any shorter than James, but James thought of him as sort of a small guy, because he was so wiry and sleek. Matt’s personality was much bigger than that, though. Where James thought of himself as boring and stoic, Matt was animated and mischievous. He was dependable, sure, but he was vital.

And sensual.

James didn’t know, but he liked to imagine Matt was a complete hedonist in bed. James always had a hard time going with the flow, and he found men who could completely wallow in pleasure a huge turn-on. He’d bet Matt was a guy like that. A guy who didn’t need to be in control.

Without really thinking about it, James unsealed Matt’s shirt. Earlier, with blood everywhere and frantically applying pressure patches, he hadn’t had time to look, or even think about looking. But he wanted to.

Matt’s chest was smooth and the skin there was much paler than on his face and arms. The only hair was a dark-blond happy trail, below his navel.

Matt had to have the sexiest nipples James had ever seen on a guy. They were large and pink, just hanging on to the bottom of Matt’s pecs. Like they were about to drip off. James skated one fingertip lightly over one. God. Hard. He only just managed to make himself move his finger off.

He distracted himself by looking lower. Some distraction. Matt had beautiful abs. Even resting, they stacked in well-defined furrows. James’s fingers shook the tiniest bit as he forced himself to reseal Matt’s shirt before he got too handsy.

Christ, he was perving on a wounded guy. A guy he’d drugged into unconsciousness, even. He was an object lesson for whom not to date.

James’s dick throbbed anyway, uncaring about sexual ethics. For just a second, he almost let himself unseal Matt’s shirt again and jerk off until he came all over Matt’s chest. He’d lick it off when he was done. You know, clean the guy up a little.

James shook his head, hard. He’d let this get way out of control. He closed his eyes resolutely and pictured Colonel Anais Viteaux. His cock withered.

He needed to put a new shirt on Matt, but he was afraid of getting carried away again. Gently James picked Matt’s head up, shoved his pack underneath, and let him rest.

I
T
WAS
two hours before nightfall—an hour and forty-eight minutes since Matt was wounded—when James sensed someone nearby, searching for them. A male someone, felt like. Coming up from the creek bed. Someone and… some
thing
.

Could it be a dog? It was an animal, he was sure. Fuck. Neutralizing an enemy wasn’t a problem for him, but killing a dog? That bit. Especially now, when he could sort of feel their joy in doing a job, and their blind loyalty to their owners (well, usually). He’d already had to kill a couple of dogs today, and it’d filled his quota for the year.