Jersey blinked and shifted his eyes to Travis; they were as wide as saucers. “Trav?” he said so quietly but Travis heard the tremor in it as his voice shook.
“Jersey, what’s wrong?” Travis sat up, slightly alarmed at the turn of Jersey’s demeanor. “Why are you so pale and… are you trembling? Jersey? Holy shit, should I go get your mom? Is it your arm or your head or your medicine? Is it your medicine? Maybe you should have taken it with some food. The bottle didn’t say anything about taking it with food. I’m pretty good at that kind of thing because of Olivia and all her—” Jersey’s eyes started to water. “Baby, talk to me,” Travis groaned. “You’re freaking me out like major. What’s wrong?” Travis got off the bed and came around to Jersey’s side just so he could feel more ready for action. He had no idea what Jersey was going through to cause such a reaction, but he needed to be at Jersey’s side to help him however he could.
“Trav?” Jersey whispered with watery eyes as he looked back at him kneeling next to the bed. He brought his hand up to his chest and pressed it against his heart.
“Okay. I’m getting your mom,” Travis declared, getting to his feet. “It’s something with your heart. We’re going to take you to the hospital right now. I thought we should have taken you in yesterday, but Brian said you’d be fine at an Urgent Care. Just hold on and I’ll be—”
“Travis!” Jersey shouted, halting his steps toward the bedroom door. “I’m fine. Kinda. Come over here.” Jersey shifted and sat on the edge of the bed. Travis moved over to him immediately, kneeling between his knees.
“Okay, you said you’re fine, but you’re still shaking and I saw your face. You literally froze and turned white.” He placed his hands on Jersey’s cheeks and forehead. Jersey felt normal, except for the shaking. “You feel fine, but, what’s wrong? Something is definitely wrong.”
Jersey placed his finger over Travis’s lips and just that small point of contact eased some of Travis’s panic. He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss against Travis’s lips.“Nothing is wrong, babe. Or at least if what I suspect is actually happening is happening, then nothing is wrong.” Jersey’s eyes watered again and he smiled, looking at Travis like he was everything. “Do you even know what you just said? Before all this?” Jersey waved his good hand around indicating their current positions.
Travis furrowed his brow. Jersey was acting so weird. “What does what I said have to do with what’s wrong with you? Baby, you gotta be straight with me. I don’t want riddles, I just want to know what’s wrong so I can fix it. You got all freaky still and pale and then you looked like you were gonna cry and now you’re smiling all crazy.” Jersey actually giggled, a happy little bubble of sound coming from within. “Jersey?”
Dumping the ice and towel off his lap, Jersey practically launched off the bed and wrapped his good arm around Travis’s neck. Travis steadied him automatically as Jersey clung to him, laughing a melodiously beautiful sound. He kissed Travis’s neck and when Travis squeezed him gently, cradling the back of his head, he felt tears land on his shoulder.
Travis pulled back and cupped Jersey’s cheeks, looking into his vibrant brown eyes.
“I’m your Complement,” Jersey whispered reverently as his eyes shined with happiness, even through his tears.
Travis stared at him. The words of Jersey’s unexpected declaration floating in the air between them, jumbled in their meaning, but doing their best to worm their way into his mind. Endless moments seem to pass as Travis processed Jersey’s statement, his heart thundering away in his chest. He knew his brow was furrowed as he stared at Jersey. How was it possible that Jersey was his… Complement? He had a Complement? He was a Catalyst? Could it be that some dream he’d never thought would happen for himself, was actually happening, had actually happened?
“Kinda freaky, huh?” Jersey asked, biting his lip. He looked worried all of a sudden. His happy, bubbly countenance from moments ago, gone and replaced with an uncertain, nervous energy that Travis instantly hated. He squirmed a little and tried to get off Travis’s lap, but Travis held on to him, not letting him go. Jersey squirmed again.
“My Complement?” Travis asked quietly and Jersey nodded, but his expression lacked his previously emotional spark. Travis thought about it: The weird feeling he’d gotten earlier when he’d left Jersey to get the ice, Jersey falling asleep even when he said he wasn’t tired, and then Jersey pressing his hand to his heart as if feeling for an elevated rhythm.
But how was it possible? They’d known each other for weeks and never had any kind of Connection. Travis had had that one moment, that one spark when he’d first seen Jersey, but they hadn’t had any reactions at all. They’d been together so many times since then that—
“It’s because I fell,” Jersey interrupted quietly still looking unsure. “Yesterday, when I fell and blacked out, that was the trigger. Everything I’ve heard over the last couple of months says the Complement has to get hurt and lose consciousness. That’s what triggers the Connection. We just didn’t know it had happened because you were already right there. You woke me up almost immediately, Trav.” Jersey’s eyes filled with tears again and he buried his face against Travis’s chest. Travis’s eyes grew equally wet, and he wrapped his arms around Jersey, realization finally dawning, as everything clicked into place, and his world was rocked to its absolute foundation.
“You’re my Complement?” he asked, his voice shaking with emotion as he continued to process. Jersey nodded against him and scrunched into him tighter. “Holy shit,” Travis whispered, and he recognized the tumult of emotions that had come over Jersey as he’d put the pieces together minutes ago. He squeezed Jersey tighter. “Holy shit, Jersey. Do you know what this means?” The boy in his lap and in his arms was his Complement. He’d literally just walked into Travis’s life and sparked something in him that had never been there before. Travis had actually felt the jolt of their meeting; their very first encounter. He just hadn’t understood what it was he’d felt.
Jersey had been healthy and unharmed so they hadn’t bonded—Connected. But they’d both felt something for the other and been curious enough about what it had been, that thankfully, they’d pursued each other.
With a start, Travis had another realization and sucked in a sharp breath. “Shit. You could have been in a coma,” Travis gasped. He shuddered and clutched Jersey tighter. “You would have been in a coma. Oh my God,” he breathed. “Oh my God, Jersey. You would have never woken up. Holy shit. What if I wasn’t there? What if I hadn’t been there? What if we’d never met?” Travis felt panic creeping in again, and he needed to be closer to Jersey.
He placed his hands under Jersey’s butt and lifted him up as he stood. Jersey wrapped his legs around Travis’s waist and he pulled back the already messy covers and gently laid Jersey down, following him without ever breaking contact. It was a little difficult with Jersey’s injured arm trapped between them, but he carefully set to work removing Jersey’s shirt.
When they were finally skin to skin, Jersey wasted no time, diving in for the kiss they both desperately needed. Their mouths connected and they opened for the other without hesitation. They each took turns leading their dance, giving and receiving, teasing with little nips and withdrawals. They kissed for long minutes and Travis ran his hands over every part of Jersey he could reach, needing to feel close and Connected to his Complement. If what they suspected was actually true, the man who had waltzed into his life and captured his heart was the one person in the world that was his—Travis’s person—and there was no way he could ever be close enough to him.
“Jersey, shit.” Travis groaned as Jersey moved his attention down to his jaw and neck. “God, I love that,” he rumbled, loving the feel of Jersey’s mouth on him. His man slowly and meticulously covered his neck and shoulder with kisses and nips, licking into the hollow at the base of Travis’s throat.
As much as Travis would have loved to have seen where Jersey was headed when he started in on a new assault of
Travis’s chest and nipples, he realized they should probably put on the breaks before things got too carried away and they hadn’t really talked about anything. “Jersey,” he croaked and gently placed his hands on either side of Jersey’s face. When he looked up at him, Travis saw so many emotions playing for dominance across his beautiful features. “Slow down, babe. Come up here,” he urged. “I want to talk to you. We should talk about this before we just lose ourselves to sex. As much as my body’s craving you and your touch right now, I think we should talk about our Connection.” Jersey stared at him for a beat and Travis, again, couldn’t read his expression, but he eventually complied and settled in next to him on the bed.
Once he was resting on his side, Travis took a quick minute to study the face of the man he’d come to love. “How did this happen?” he asked aloud, but really was just pondering the situation they found themselves in. He brought his hand up to tenderly brush Jersey’s hair behind his ear then stroked the backs of his knuckles down his cheek. Jersey looked back at him. “How did you, out of all the people in the world, manage to be my Complement? I never really let myself believe that I had one, that I could be a Catalyst. I always kind of played it off, like it was one of those things that could happen but probably wouldn’t.” He pressed a soft, sweet kiss to Jersey’s lips. “How did the first person to catch my eye, and my heart, turn out to be the one person in the world that would ever complete the other half of my soul. You, Michael Fitzpatrick, are the love of my life.”
Jersey’s eyes watered and he brought his hand up to press against Travis’s chest. Travis placed his against Jersey’s, mirroring his position. “I love you, Jersey. And even though this Connection is so new for both of us, you’ll always have me. You’ll always have my love, just like hopefully, I’ll always have yours.”
Jersey nodded. Travis could tell he was struggling to get some words out, so he waited patiently to see what he was going to say. Tears slipped out of Jersey’s eyes as he blinked a few times and Travis swiped them away with the pad of his thumb. Jersey cleared his throat. “When I first told you what I thought, that I was your Complement, and you didn’t say anything for a long time,” a few more tears escaped his eyes, “I thought you weren’t going to want me.”
“What?” Travis asked, shocked at Jersey’s statement. More tears leaked out of Jersey’s eyes and Travis dried them, cradling Jersey’s cheek. “How could you think I wouldn’t want you, love?”
Even through his tears, Jersey smiled a tiny smile that made Travis’s heart flutter. “You were so worked up over my realization and reaction, and when I finally told you what I thought it was, you didn’t say anything for a long time. I couldn’t tell what you were thinking and when you weren’t as excited as I was, I got worried that you were going to be disappointed or something and were just trying to figure out how to tell me.”
“Oh, God, sweetie. Never. I would never not want you. It just took me a while to make sense of what you’d told me. You kind of changed my entire world with three little words. Granted they weren’t those three little words, but maybe they were even more powerful than the three words I’ve been patiently waiting to hear.”
“You’ve been waiting to hear those words from me?” Jersey asked as his eyes widened and he stared back at him.
Travis nodded and smiled softly. “Of course. You look at me a certain way now and I know, or at least I thought I knew what the look was starting to mean. I’d been kind of hoping that you loved me too.”
“I do love you.” Jersey nodded and that same shy smile reappeared. “I think I’ve loved you for a while now, but I just didn’t think you were ready to hear it. I didn’t want to say it and ruin everything.”
“Aww. I’m sorry you were worried. I’ll admit, it might have freaked me out a tiny bit,” Jersey smirked and Travis was glad to see his man feeling more at ease, “because… I was afraid of allowing myself to return your feelings. I’d been trying to hold myself back, knowing that I couldn’t allow myself to love someone who wasn’t my Complement. But my heart didn’t give a shit about what my mind thought. My heart loved you, does love you, so much. And I’m sort of sad I didn’t get to tell you before this morning. I don’t want you to feel like I’m just saying it now because we’re all of a sudden Connected.”
“Well I’m not any better then,” Jersey replied, pecking Travis on the lips. “I’ve been wanting to tell you too but was too afraid of getting hurt again. I’ve never felt like this with anyone else and I think I would have died if you hadn’t loved me back.”
“Well I definitely love you back, so don’t you worry your concussed little head over it.” Jersey smirked. Travis stroked his hand over Jersey’s hair and rested it behind his neck, gently kneading the muscles there. “How are you feeling now that you have your meds in you? I mean aside from all the crazy we just discovered, of course.”
“A lot better.” Jersey smiled and leaned into his touch. “My body doesn’t ache nearly as bad but now my mind is spinning a million miles an hour. We have so much to talk to about, it’s kind of overwhelming. Like you said, both of our lives just got turned upside down and I don’t even know where to begin to start sorting things out.”
“Are you tired at all? Do you want to go back to sleep? I can make phone calls and start making arrangements if you want to take a nap. You need your rest, love. You went through the wringer yesterday and you need time to recover. I can handle things if you want to sleep.”
“I like it when you call me that,” Jersey said with a smile and Travis grinned back.
“You do, huh?” Jersey nodded. “Well, good. Because I happen to like saying it. I think we should seriously consider changing your name to Love.”
Jersey giggled but answered Travis’s question, “I think I’m okay for a while. We should chat about what all this means and where to go from here. Maybe after we’ve told everyone, we can have an early lunch and take an afternoon nap together.”
Travis smiled. “Sounds perfect to me.”
They spent the next hour snuggled together in bed, talking and making plans. Jersey threw out the idea that they could possibly move into his grandparents’ guest house above the garage, but they would definitely need to get everyone on board before any serious plans were made. They talked about Jersey needing to withdraw from school, to which Travis confessed he was not sorry to see happen because he’d silently hated the thought of Jersey leaving. And Travis made the call to work and explained to Steve that he’d need to quit and how sorry he was to leave without notice.
Jersey smiled at him like he was everything, and in between whispered words of not wanting to be apart and needing the other close, they kissed and touched, and when their final layers of clothing were removed, they each took turns worshiping the other’s body with soft words of love and devotion and the promise of the Connection they now shared.
~
“Okay, so how do you propose we do this?” Jersey asked, holding Travis’s hand as they climbed the stairs down to the front sitting room. They’d called Travis’s parents and asked them to come over to Jersey’s house. It made more sense to have his parents there when they made their announcement; one, because then they’d only have to do it once, and two, because Travis’s parents were likely to be thrilled and would be available to help them answer questions for Susan, Herald, and Barbie.
Jersey’s family had peppered them with questions when they’d finally made their way to the kitchen a bit ago. Mostly they’d wanted to check-in with Jersey, as they were all understandably worried about him. But after several reassurances and promises to take things slow and tell them if they needed anything, they’d just switched from asking about Jersey’s health to asking why Jersey and Travis needed to have a family meeting.
“I think we just tell them. My parents are going to freak but in a good way. I think your family will be cool, or at least I hope they will, and they’ll just have thousands of questions. It will definitely be good to have my parents here,�
� Travis said as he squeezed Jersey’s hand. Jersey smiled back at him, but Travis could tell he was nervous. It wasn’t every day that you approached your family to tell them that you had some fated Connection to another person and you basically couldn’t live without them. Travis felt a few nerves of his own as they reached the ground floor and walked through the foyer.
Herald and Barbie sat on a loveseat with Susan sitting in an armchair nearby. With greetings and several more questions thrown their way, which they carefully dodged, they sat together on the piano bench and Jersey pecked at the keys with his left hand.
After a few minutes, Travis’s phone vibrated and the message he read had him up and heading for the door. Jersey’s house was really big and as soon as he made it to the entryway, he felt the first swoop go through his stomach and chest. He paused and looked back at Jersey. Jersey watched him but finished the low chords to whatever he was playing, then stood up to come over to Travis.
“Sorry,” Travis said softly as they linked their hands together. Jersey just shrugged and pressed a kiss to his lips.
“Going to take some getting used to in this huge house. We’re definitely going to need to move into something smaller for our day-to-day lives.”
Travis grinned. “Feels weird to say that we’re moving in together,” he whispered into Jersey’s ear, pressing his nose to Jersey’s neck and taking in a quick lungful of Jersey’s familiar smell. That smell was quickly becoming one of his favorite things. It made him feel warm and happy, content, knowing that Jersey was right there next to him.
Jersey shivered slightly and squeezed his hand when he pulled back. The knock on the door startled them both out of their moment.
Catalyst (Connectivity Book 2) Page 24