by DJ Jamison
“You’re talking like we should get married as a form of conflict resolution. It doesn’t work that way.”
Trent picked up Xavier’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “I know that, Xav. I just want to be tied to you. I want to know that we’re in this together. For good.”
“We are, but maybe we should try out living together before we get married, huh?”
Trent chuckled. “Okay, fine. Can’t blame a man for trying to seal the deal.”
“No, I can’t.” He leaned in to kiss Trent’s lips.
Trent’s eagerness to get on with their lives together had soothed the last of his fears away. Trent had earned his trust back a step at a time, and now he had his full faith that their love story had never ended; it had only been put on hold. And maybe that was for the best.
Trent went through intense schooling and training, with little time for relationships. Xavier had to help his family through a rough patch and find a dream that was attainable. They might well have lost each other in the shuffle if they’d tried to hold on so many years ago. Instead of a sharp, clean cut, it might have been an agonizing, infected wound that kept them from reuniting when the time was right.
Whatever the case may be, it was all in the past. Xavier was ready to look to the future.
A future with the only man he’d ever loved, a career he could be proud of and a family who supported him in all ways.
“I love you too,” he murmured, almost as an afterthought. He’d loved Trent so long, but the saying it part was still new.
Trent smiled, his eyes soft, and wrapped an arm around him. “About time, baby. You made me work hard enough.”
“Good thing you’re a hard worker.”
“The hardest,” Trent said, before grinding up against Xavier’s thigh.
Yeah, this being in love stuff was going to be hard work. Hard, pleasurable work. But somebody had to do it.
Epilogue
One year later …
Trent stepped into Club Eros and scanned the dark interior, searching the mass of twisting bodies on the dance floor for one particular body grinding to his heart’s content. Even with all those men, some sweaty and half-naked, some in jeans and skintight tanks and some in tiny shorts and mesh shirts that revealed more than they hid, Xavier was easy to spot.
He wore a mini skirt and a tube top— which Trent couldn’t even guess how he kept on while shaking his ass to the music — but fuck if he cared, because Xavier’s muscled shoulders and arms were drool-worthy. His dreads had grown out since they first reconnected almost two years ago, reaching his shoulder blades and swinging around his face. From a distance, without taking in the details, you might think he was a woman.
But as Trent wound his way through the crowd, inching up to his boyfriend— who he now saw was dancing in a small group with Zane, Bella and her cute boyfriend who’d braved the wilds of a gay nightclub to hang out — all the masculine traits that marked him a man became more clear. The light layer of stubble on his jaw. The hard abs revealed beneath the hem of the tube top. The decidedly male hardness tenting his skirt.
Fuck me, I wonder if he’d let me drag him straight home.
“Hey, babe!” Xavier exclaimed when he saw him.
He immediately threw his arms around Trent and drew him in, grinding up on Trent’s thigh to the fast beat of the music. Fuck yeah, that was the kind of greeting he’d take any day.
Xavier had worked up a sweat on the dance floor, but he didn’t seem bothered that Trent was late for their big night of celebration before they left for another rural outreach trip the following week. This time, they’d teamed up with a few other doctors and gotten the grants on their own, without hospital involvement, to do a series of health screenings across the state. Even though Trent was back in the OR, he liked staying connected to the kind of medicine he’d practiced at the clinic.
“Sorry I’m late,” he shouted over the music.
He’d been in the OR and complications arose that took longer than expected. Despite his fears that Xavier would think he was too obsessed with his job— or maybe he was just projecting his own fears— his boyfriend never seemed to mind taking a back seat to an important surgery.
“You’re here now,” Xavier said.
Trent dropped his mouth close to Xavier’s ear. “You look hot.”
Xavier slid his hands down over Trent’s ass. “So do you. So butch.”
Trent threw his head back and laughed. Of the two of them, Xavier could definitely beat him in the butch department. Trent stayed in shape, but he was nowhere near as built as his boyfriend. He dressed in jeans and T-shirt, nothing special, but he liked that Xavier’s gaze still drank him in like he was good enough to eat.
“Where’s Paul?” he asked Zane, finally turning his attention to their friends.
Zane was sort of dancing by himself next to them, brushing off the guys who approached him.
“He’s not much of a dancer,” Zane responded, pointing across the room to where Paul sat at a table alone. He flashed a grin, complete with cute dimples. “He likes to watch me, though.”
Trent nudged Xavier sideways, guiding him into a slot between him and Zane.
“Hot man sandwich!” Bella yelled, which made Xavier crack up and her boyfriend blush bright red.
Zane placed his hands on Xavier’s hips, dancing with them but also not grinding up on his ass. Trent appreciated the restraint, but he wouldn’t have minded. He’d long ago gotten past any worry the two friends might hook up. Zane adored his doctor, and Xavier loved his.
“Where’s Helen?” he asked, noting that she was not sitting with Paul or dancing with this little group of friends.
“I danced with her for a while, but she gave me the slip,” Xavier said.
Despite the two being incredibly nervous about meeting, they’d become fast friends after Helen and the kids relocated. Xavier was a natural with kids after all his years helping to raise his niece and nephew—and Helen’s kids had been quick to make nice with Twyla’s children— so the families had meshed better than any of them imagined.
Now, he just had to get Helen to break out of her self-imposed isolation and start living. That was part of the reason he invited her along tonight.
He craned his head, looking for her. Xavier glanced around, too, then busted out with a huge laugh and punched Trent’s arm. Rather painfully. Ouch.
“Holy shit,” he said. “She got herself a man at a gay club.”
“What?” Trent followed the direction of Xavier’s stare and saw Helen engaging in some majorly dirty dancing action on the other side of the dance floor. A tall guy with sandy brown hair was gripping her ass and devouring her neck.
“Think we should intervene?” Xavier asked. “What if she drank too much?”
“Nah,” Trent said. “Helen doesn’t drink much. Besides, she needs to get out and live. We’ll make sure she gets home safe. Let her have her fun.”
Xavier grinned and started grinding up on him. “And what about my fun, huh?” he asked. “When are you going to ravage me? I want some of what Helen’s getting.”
Trent humored Xavier by nibbling his neck, which resulted in a delicious, breathy moan. He moved his mouth to Xavier’s ear. “I was hoping you’d ravage me, sexy. I want you to fuck me while you’re still wearing this skirt.”
Xavier’s voice seemed to drop two registers when he spoke. “Fuck, yeah. Let’s go.”
Trent laughed again. “Not yet. Let Helen have her fun.”
Xavier pouted, his full lips perfect for it. He glared over his shoulder at Helen, still grinding away with her dance partner. “She’s lucky I love her.”
“I’m lucky you love me,” Trent said.
“Just wait until we get home,” Xavier warned, his eyes hot and focused like they got when he went all dom on Trent.
“Oh, I will,” Trent murmured as a shiver worked down his spine. Xavier could still turn him on like nobody else.
“And you better have booked us
one room, with a giant comfy bed for this rural health clinic trip,” Xavier said, “because I am not sleeping alone or on anymore torture devices.”
Trent smiled, insanely happy even while Xavier was glaring at him and bossing him around. He could still remember all too clearly how desperate he’d been to convince Xavier to give him a shot on that last trip. It was during that week of travel and arguing and jerking off that he’d fallen in love all over again, this time with the Xavier James of today, instead of his high school sweetheart.
“Baby, I got us the honeymoon suite. No need to worry.”
“With a whirlpool?”
“Only the best for the man I’m going to marry.”
Xavier leaned up on his tiptoes and kissed him, before holding up his hand to admire the ring Trent had placed there only two weeks before.
“Married life is going to look good on me,” he said in a haughty tone he reserved only for when he got his freak on at the club.
Trent had been slowly drawing him out, encouraging him to wear a bit of lip gloss or sexy underwear anytime he wanted, and not just on their rare night out. It was slow going, but Xavier was slowly relaxing the stranglehold he had on his reservations and letting Trent shoulder some of his responsibilities, so that he smiled more, laughed more and relaxed a hell of a lot more.
And when that didn’t work, Trent fucked the stress out of him.
“Anything looks good on you, sexy.”
Xavier grinned and kissed him. “Especially you, Dr. Dishy. You make me look great.”
They danced. They kissed. They grinded.
When Trent could take the frustration no longer, they gathered up a happy Helen and said their goodnights. Then they made the drive home … and Xavier passed out still in his makeup before anyone could be ravaged.
“And so married life begins,” Trent murmured, but there was a smile on his face. He’d get Xavier to make it up to him the next morning, and all the mornings to come. There was plenty of time for them— a whole life filled with marriage and family and experiences. It might not have been enough to save Byron, but Byron’s last desperate act had saved Trent from himself.
For that, he’d always be grateful.
— fin —
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading Urgent Care. I hope you enjoyed the third book in the Hearts and Health series. I’d be so thankful if you could leave a review; even just a few words helps!
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About the author
DJ Jamison is the author of the m/m romance series Ashe Sentinel Connections and the new spin-off series Hearts and Health. DJ grew up in the Midwest and worked in newsrooms for more than 10 years, which came in handy when she began writing stories centered on a series of love connections between small-town Kansas newspaper staffers, their sources and their readers. It was the perfect entrance into the world of fiction, and she has since branched out into ERs and health clinics to tell love stories of characters who are flawed but loveable. DJ is married with two sons and two glow-in-the-dark fish.
Books by DJ Jamison
Ashe Sentinel Connections
Changing Focus
Source of Protection
Rewriting His Love Life
Winter Blom
Hard Press
Chance for Christmas
Hearts and Health
Heart Trouble
Bedside Manner
Urgent Care
The Espinoza Boys
Earning Edie (m/f)
Catching Jaime (m/m)
My Anti-Series
My Anti-Valentine
My Anti-Boyfriend
Real Estate Relations
Full Disclosure
Standalone novella
Love by Number