Twin Ties 2: Twin Affairs (5 page)

No. The bar.

I got jumped at the bar.

It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do it.

…Did I?

The white hot, blistering sensory noise of excruciating pain zapped away all thought as Evan tried to move. It flared outward from his ribs and gut, up his spine to the top of his skull, out through every single bone, every nerve in his body.

He cried out sharply in a hoarse, worn voice. Tears sprang from his swollen eyes, coursing down his bruised face. Whining back in his throat, he battled through it, wanting to be asleep again.

“Hey, take it easy, baby. You had surgery and you’ve got more than a couple fractures, so don’t try to move right now. Do you know where you are?”

“A-Alek?”

His vision swimming, blurred with wetness, Evan blinked at the dark-haired, hazel-eyed, towering man standing at the foot of his bed, the one with the deeply concerned, piercing stare, drawn expression and bloodshot eyes.

“Right here.”

The beckoning words came from Evan’s left, his bad side and he tried to at least turn his head that way. It was very hard to see anything clearly and Evan didn’t know why. There was warmth radiating on his right side where Brennan was pressed against him in places. Reassured by Brennan’s closeness, Evan tightened his grasp within Brennan’s encircling hand. Blinking his eyes clear, Evan finally saw Alek, understanding at last it was Luka at the foot of his bed.

“Why is it so hard to see? Did I forget my glasses?”

“You don’t wear glasses anymore. Remember?” Brennan spoke the words softly by Evan’s ear. Evan didn’t entirely realize the words weren’t spoken from inside his own head.

“I don’t? Oh.”

“The tissue all around your eyes is pretty inflamed right now,” Alek told him, stooping down and sitting on a chair, which he moved more into Evan’s line of sight. “There are also bandages over your nose. That’s probably why it’s hard to see. You have a concussion, too. Do you remember what happened?”

He glanced around the room, pausing when he saw Jimmy again, by the door. Jimmy glanced between Evan and Brennan, at their joined hands and physical closeness, but it didn’t mean anything to Evan.

“They were gonna…. They were gonna hurt him. He was just looking for a hook-up, like I was, but they… they all went after him. Because he was gay. I couldn’t… I couldn’t let them do that. But I went outside, then…. Oh.”

He was quiet for a minute, as it all sank in. They gave him time.

“You said I had surgery? Did it go okay?”

“Yeah.” Alek smiled encouragingly, looking like he was trying his damnedest not to cry, which made Evan want to cry. “You did great. No complications. I guess you can feel your cracked ribs, huh?”

Evan nodded, carefully glancing down at himself, afraid to move his head too much, lest it make his headache worse. Brennan’s fingers brushed lightly up and down his right arm. It felt good. It distracted from the pain that sliced through Evan every time he breathed.

“Guess they did a number on my face, huh? Do I sound weird to you, too?”

“You have a few stitches on the inside of your lower lip,” Brennan told him. “It’s still healing and kind of puffy. They reset the bridge of your nose, and that’s probably swollen up.”

“Fantastic. So when can I get out of here?”

“Soon,” Alek promised. “But for now, just rest. We’ll take care of everything and anything we need to. The doctors are going to make sure you get better fast. Okay?”

“Yeah,” Evan sighed.

As Alek kissed the back of his hand, Evan’s eyes slipped shut. He was asleep again in seconds.

That night, Alek was permitted to stay with Evan. Looking somewhat pacified, he camped out in a chair by Evan’s bedside when the others left to try to get some rest, lulling Evan to sleep by gently brushing his fingertips over Evan’s arm. It was only because of how peaceful they looked together that Brennan was able to part with his brother.

Brennan was at Evan’s side when he had talked with their father briefly over the phone. Not much was affected by the conversation. It was same old, same old—promises to come home soon, unsurprising concern for Evan’s safety and health, all spoken over a crackling connection across long, long miles.

Brennan empathized with Evan’s subsequent frustration. Brennan already had plenty of experience with Charlie’s attempts to overcome distance and his noted absence from his children’s lives with insubstantial words. It was clear, as much as Evan, with his young body in tatters, craved his father’s reassuring presence, he was just as glad Charlie wasn’t there, adding to the tension and stress. That realization just made the ache of regret stronger, knowing how Evan never got to experience the comforting, loving presence of their mother.

Angry, sad, scared, all Brennan wanted to do was safeguard his beloved twin, and do whatever needed to be done to make him healthy and whole again.

Exhausted, finally leaving the hospital after days without real sleep, Brennan drove back home with Luka. The plan was to get to his house, shed all clothes, crawl into bed dragging Luka in with him, and curl up with his pillow for many hours.

He didn’t get that far, and fell asleep in the passenger seat of Luka’s truck before they’d even left the hospital’s parking garage. Brennan slept the whole way, and even stayed knocked out when Luka carried him into the house, to bed.

The world was bright and sunlit when Brennan did wake. Thankfully, no tears came that morning. Dry-eyed, Brennan stared at the shifting clouds through the window’s sheer curtain; thinking of his mother, of Evan, and of the future.

He was aware of Luka lying behind him. Gentle, skittering movements of fingers over Brennan’s body entranced him. They went along the side of his arm, just inside the cradle of his hips and down his thigh before dragging back up to do it all over again.

“You have to work today.”

“I do,” Luka agreed.

“I have to get back to the hospital. Maybe they’ll release Evan soon. I can always drive him back home myself, when they do release him, but do you think Alek can be there to help me?”

“Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem,” Luka assured him.

“Good,” Brennan exhaled, rolling onto his back. His chest rose and fell with quickened breath, and his eyes were half-closed with something other than sleepiness. Spreading his legs when Luka shifted to lie on top of him, Brennan almost smiled. “Can I ask a favor before you go?”

He raked his fingers back through Luka’s long, dark hair, brushing it back from his face, tucking it over Luka’s ears.

“You want me to drop you off?”

“Well, yeah, but….”

“But what?”

“But, I want you.” He swallowed a soft moan when Luka rocked in a slow drag against him. Brennan’s hips stuttered, rutting up into Luka, whose pelvis was pinning Brennan to the bed. Luka reached down and caressed Brennan’s hipbone, peeking out from under his low-slung briefs. “You were amazing, you know. Staying there at the hospital with me that whole time, making those calls for us, handling everything I couldn’t, and holding it all together when Alek and I were freaking out. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’re welcome,” Luka grinned softly, pressing a kiss to Brennan’s lips. “So, is this my reward? I get to ravage you for being the dutiful boyfriend?”

“Fuck no,” Brennan scoffed, his head thrown back as Luka slipped lower to suck a mark on Brennan’s pulse point. Simultaneously pushing Brennan’s underwear down in front and tugging him free, Luka squeezed slowly, firmly, repeatedly up his shaft. “I just really need you in me right now. Like,
right now
.”

I want to feel something else, besides fear.

I’m sick of it. I want to feel good, feel something tangible, vital, and alive before I have to go back there and face my nightmare—the wreckage of someone else I love so much.

Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you won’t lose them. I almost lost him, just like I lost Mom.

But this was worse, there was no warning. No build up. No slow burn, just a call in the night that Evan was dying.

Evan was
dying.

Please, Luka. Give me that. Make it last. Make me feel before the numbness sinks bone-deep and nothing can touch me, ever again.

Some of this flickered in his scared, child-like, trusting gaze as he hid behind crude words. “You didn’t bring a cock ring, did you? Cause that’d be awesome if you did.”

“Filthy slut,” Luka breathed, playing along, choosing passion over heartache.

For a brief heartbeat, Brennan slipped. His lips turned down at the edges and quivered. His eyebrows tilted and forehead creased as he beseeched with a glance. Holding his breath, holding Luka, Brennan squeezed his eyes shut against hot tears as Luka coaxed, “Hey, stay with me. Look at me. Don’t think about it. You’re fine. It’s fine. He’s safe.”

“I hate it.”

“I know. I know you do. I hate it, too.”

Brennan exhaled heavily and pressed his face against Luka’s neck, anchoring to him. Luka cupped a hand behind Brennan’s head, kissed his temple. After a few more deep breaths, Brennan felt steadier.

“You don’t have to prove anything. How about I help you relax and we can get out of here.”

“I’m not proving anything,” Brennan argued. He pulled back slightly to look into Luka’s eyes. “I just need you. Please.”

“Okay,” Luka sighed. He brushed the backs of his knuckles through the hollow of Brennan’s cheek, along his jaw. There was a strangely anguished expression on his face and Brennan couldn’t quite place it. Then he saw the glassiness of Luka’s eyes. He was about to cry.

“What? What is it?”

Luka tried to smile, glanced away, bit at his lip. It took him a moment to find his voice.

Without looking directly at Brennan, he confessed quietly, “You look like him when you’re sad.”

Tears slipped down the sides of Brennan’s face as his expression crumpled, but Luka kissed his breath away before heartache could win out. Tangling his fingers in Luka’s hair, Brennan moaned softly as Luka caressed greedily over his body. He was turned over, onto his stomach. Luka grabbed the lube and hurriedly got Brennan ready for him, stretching him out with slick fingers, breathing hot and heavy into Brennan’s blond hair.

Luka settled atop him, pressing Brennan to the bed with a pillow fitted under his hips. When he started to try and enter him, Brennan wondered if Luka was thinking of him, or of Evan.

Crying out as he was breached, muffling the sound against the sheets, Brennan heard Luka moan his name, nudging farther. Held down by Luka’s hands, pinned by his hips, Brennan relaxed into the stretch and stopped trying to be quiet. Luka sucked at a spot under Brennan’s jaw and thrust even harder when Brennan’s groans and gasps grew in strength and volume.

“Brennan… love you,” he heard, breathless and wanting, by the shell of his ear.

He didn’t have air enough in his lungs to respond. Luka drove into him and just kept moving, fucking and taking. Overheated, stuffed full, gasping and uncomfortably erect, Brennan’s every sense was dulled by the ferocity of Luka’s lovemaking.

He drew Brennan back and up onto his knees without pulling out, guided Brennan’s hands to the rungs of the headboard, wrapping his fingers there. Then he caressed back along his arms, down his sides to his hips, holding them firmly as he tugged out almost all the way just to push back in with a smooth, long push that took Brennan apart.

Luka began to tug Brennan’s dick in short, steady pulses and Brennan’s head fell between his extended arms, his cries piercing the air. With long, slow movements in and out of his ass, and rapid pumping of his shaft, Luka sent Brennan’s climax racing up on him fast. Teeth scraped the nape of his neck. Lips brushed the skin, and long hair tickled his jaw.

“Gonna make you come so hard, Evan’ll feel it.”

Brennan’s eyes rolled deliriously as he imagined it—Luka reaching out to Evan through him. He fought against the need to push into Luka’s restless hand. He shifted his knees wider as the easy, ceaseless slide of Luka’s thick member made him yell. The thrusts got sharper, louder, quicker, and shallower.

Held by the hip and the cock, Brennan’s orgasm hit him with force. He came over the sheet beneath him and Luka’s fingers swiped and rubbed over the head, smearing the hot fluid, triggering Brennan again. Cursing, sweating, Brennan’s every muscle slowly started to unclench as Luka squeezed two fingers into him alongside his cock. He heard Luka hiss and grunt, still pushing, chasing completion.

“
Luka
,” Brennan pleaded.

“Wanna see if you could take me and Aleksy at the same time. You want that, Cupcake?”

“Fuck.” Brennan clenched intentionally around the fingers and cock inside him. Luka moaned and snapped his hips, coming with a shiver, gasping against Brennan’s neck.

The fingers pulled out. Brennan moaned, “Jesus.” Luka slung an arm under him and moved him, changing their position again, bringing Brennan upright and settled on Luka’s lap. Brennan was still full of him and dizzily drinking down gasps of air, his head lolling back to rest against Luka’s shoulder.

“Good distraction,” he grinned.