Dreamspinner Press Years One & Two Greatest Hits

by J. M. Colail

  Laughing, Julian finally relaxed against the back of the seat. “I guess we know what kind of bear I am in the morning.”

  “What kind?”

  Julian grinned at him. “Horny.”

  He might’ve imagined it, but he thought Jack increased pressure on the gas pedal, just a little.

  “THAT TICKLES,” Julian mumbled into the pillow, not yet awake enough to try to get away. Instead, he made a valiant effort to go back to sleep, keeping his eyes shut and snuggling his face down into the fluffy pillow.

  Unfortunately, it seemed that Jack wasn’t ready to leave him alone. He brushed his stubble over the back of Julian’s neck again, nuzzling his face in the crook of his shoulder. “Mmm” came the sleepy, noncommittal response. Jack’s arm tightened around his waist.

  Julian groaned. The renewed embrace brought his backside into direct contact with Jack’s morning erection. There’d be no going back to sleep now that his own prick had noticed the fun and decided to join in.

  “This is nice,” Jack purred in his ear, sliding a hand slowly down Julian’s naked chest. Julian’s nipples hardened against a not-quite-accidental touch. Jack ground his hips against Julian’s ass again.

  “You would say that,” Julian griped, the grumpy tone he’d meant to use somewhat lost in the fog of lust that seemed to be permeating the morning. Oh well. He couldn’t really complain, since he didn’t remember the last time he’d woken up to someone groping him. “You’re a morning person.”

  “I am now,” Jack confirmed, grasping Julian’s cock loosely, running his thumb through the moisture gathering at the tip.

  Sighing happily, Julian arched his back into the touch, resting his head on Jack’s shoulder and feeling Jack’s definitely awake cock nestling between his cheeks. “Um. Not to ruin the moment, but where’s Robot?”

  The excitable dog had taken an instant liking to Julian, and the feeling was mutual, but he didn’t like her that much.

  “I let her out to run in the backyard. I can’t believe it didn’t wake you up.”

  Shamelessly, Julian rubbed his whole body into Jack’s touch. “I didn’t hear a thing.”

  Jack bit down lightly on his shoulder and Julian shuddered, gasping. “You were sleeping on my leg,” Jack accused, voice fond but raspy from lack of use. He dragged his teeth up Julian’s neck and Julian was sure his spine had just melted. “Like that?”

  “Uhn,” Julian agreed frantically. He thrust his hips forward lazily, following Jack’s hand. “Yeah.”

  Jack’s knee came up between Julian’s legs, holding him open. The movement stretched muscles that were still a bit sore from last night’s activities, but it was a good kind of sore. “Relax, Jitterbug,” Jack grumbled against the back of his neck, setting the hairs there standing straight on end. Something blazed a cool trail down his back, from just between his shoulder blades all the way to the crack of his ass.

  Jack’s other hand, fingers clearly already slicked with lube. God, he’d been planning to wake Julian up this way. Not that Julian was complaining.

  Jack’s finger grazed over the little pucker of muscle, and Julian felt his body opening to the invasion. Except for his cock, still leaking steadily under Jack’s ministrations, every muscle in his body felt loose and languid. “I could not possibly be more relaxed,” he mumbled happily as Jack’s finger slid inside of him, stroking his prostate with unerring precision.

  “Hmm, we’ll see about that,” Jack laughed, adding a second finger. “I bet I can think of something that’d… relax you a little more.”

  “It’s too early in the day to fuck me into unconsciousness,” Julian groused, not really meaning it. His hips were starting to pump forward into Jack’s fist and backward onto his fingers without his input.

  Snorting, Jack closed his teeth around a piece of skin at the juncture of Julian’s neck and shoulder, sending sparks all along his central nervous system. “It’s never too early.” He added another finger and tightened his grip around the base of Julian’s cock.

  “Umm, that’s good. You may have a point.”

  Jack curled his fingers mercilessly and the languid ease that had taken Julian’s body disappeared in a flash of urgency. “Again.”

  “What’s the magic word?” The fingers twisted.

  Julian’s whole body hovered on the edge of abyss. “God, please. Jack….”

  “Yes?”

  “Fuck me.”

  Jack’s tongue licked a hot line from Julian’s shoulder to his cheekbone. “Thought you’d never ask.” His fingers retracted for a moment, but before Julian could even complain about it, there was a crinkle of foil and a snap of latex and he was being filled, surrounded, overcome.

  “Yes,” he whispered, and the languid, half-there feeling returned, and he was floating outside his body, feeling nothing but Jack’s hands on him, Jack’s prick in his ass, Jack’s stubble, Jack’s lips, Jack’s teeth on his neck.

  Julian couldn’t have said how long it was before the pleasure became too much; it could have been thirty seconds or thirty minutes. He took one last, deep breath before the inevitable all-over tremble took him, and then Jack bit down on his neck hard while flicking his thumb over the head of Julian’s shaft and that was it. He came with his eyes open, staring at the wall and seeing nothing, a wordless moan slipping from his lips as his body clamped down hard around Jack’s.

  A second later, Julian felt Jack stiffen and pulse inside of him, one arm wrapped around Julian’s waist. “Fuck.”

  “Again?” Julian said incredulously. “Already?” To his own ears, his voice sounded far away.

  “Smartass,” Jack grumbled. He fisted one hand in Julian’s hair—ow, that pulled a bit—and turned his head for a distinctly unfresh kiss. Julian couldn’t have cared less. “Now that’s what I call a good morning.”

  “Hmm,” Julian hummed in agreement. He glanced at the clock. Ugh. Eight-thirty. It did nothing to dampen his good mood. “You know, I could get used to this.”

  A bark from the back door interrupted the almost-cuddle. Jack made an apologetic noise and sat up, looking for his jeans. “Sorry. Guess it’s breakfast time for Robot.”

  Ah, well. Of course it had been too good to last. Julian wriggled out from under the sheet—he must have kicked off the rest of the blankets during the night, as Jack gave off an unbelievable amount of body heat—and winced. Off Jack’s amused glance, he untucked the corners of the bottom sheet from the bed and bundled it up along with the top one. “Laundry room?”

  “Downstairs, left of the kitchen,” Jack said with a smile. “Hungry yet?”

  “Always,” he answered with a wink, leaving no room for interpretation as to what he really meant. He set the sheets down just long enough to pull on jeans and a T-shirt. “Got any breakfast sausage?” Julian asked hopefully as he followed Jack down the stairs.

  Laughing, Jack reached the bottom and crossed over to the sliding rear door, opening it for Robot. “Sorry. Eggs and bacon?”

  Robot came charging in, skittering a bit when she’d got past the mat at the rear door, and mauled Jack’s hand with her tongue before half-bounding, half-sliding over to Julian. “It’s a good thing you’re a dog, Robot,” Julian said seriously, tossing the dirty bed linens into a laundry basket on the floor, then shutting the door behind him. “You have no idea where his hands have been.”

  He noticed with a grin that Jack made a point to wash them before they got any closer to breakfast.

  An hour passed and breakfast turned into a long, hot shower. Jack didn’t have a dishwasher, so once they were clean and, more importantly, satisfied (again; Julian noted to never let it be said that Jack lacked stamina), they spent a few minutes doing the dishes. It was such an everyday activity that it felt normal—so normal it was weird, in fact. Julian kept the thought to himself as he dried another dish.

  He was just putting away the spatula when he heard his cell phone ring.

  Jack caught his eye for a second and looked away. Julian g
roaned inwardly. They had been doing so well, just being together, the two of them ignoring the outside world. But now it was Sunday morning—soon to be Sunday afternoon—and sooner or later he was going to have to go back out into the real world again, back to sleeping alone in his own bed. And waking alone, too.

  “You should probably get that,” Jack said quietly, sticking his hand into the dishwater to unplug the sink. “It could be important.”

  Julian sighed, knowing Jack was right, and trudged up the stairs to retrieve the phone. “Hello?”

  “Dr. Piet?”

  He held the phone away from his ear for a second and frowned at it. No, he hadn’t misread the number. It was coming from his house, but he didn’t recognize the voice. “Yeah?”

  “It’s Marianne,” the woman on the other end of the line told him. “From the complex. Listen, we just got home from Copperfield. Roz is feeling pretty under the weather. We were all pretty wild last night; maybe she just had too much to drink, or maybe it was something she ate. Anyway, I wanted to let you know… you’ll probably want to check on her in an hour or two, just to make sure she’s feeling better?”

  Julian resisted the implication that he didn’t know what to do with a sick woman and focused on his sister’s symptoms. “What’s wrong with her? Has she got a fever? Is she vomiting?”

  “Uh….” Marianne’s voice trailed off for a moment, and he thought he could hear Roz’s voice, hoarse like it had been when she’d had strep throat as a kid, in the background. “No fever, but she’s got no color. I think she threw up before we left the house this morning.”

  “Could be food poisoning,” Julian reasoned, searching through the mess of the bedroom to find his socks. He finally located them under the dislodged comforter. “She ate a whole box of strawberries herself yesterday. Maybe she didn’t wash them well enough.”

  “Julian?”

  He blinked. That was Roz, now, certainly. Marianne must’ve given her the phone. “Yeah, it’s me. Hold on tight, okay? I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “Julian, I feel like shit,” she continued. She sounded it, too. He hated to think what she was going to look like when he got home.

  Julian sat on the top step to pull on his shoes, holding the phone with his shoulder. “Eat some crackers if you think you can keep them down, and take a painkiller. I’ll be home soon.”

  There was a deep, shuddering breath. “Oh, no,” she said, and her tone was firm even if the delivery was weak. “You stay where you are. I will be fine in a few hours.”

  Fat chance of that happening. He tied the laces quickly, looking up at Jack, who’d appeared at the bottom of the stairs. His hands were shoved defensively in his pockets, and his gaze was anywhere but meeting Julian’s. “You’re a terrible liar. See you in five.” Shutting his phone, he stood and gave Jack an apologetic look. “Sorry,” he said, managing not to shut down completely as he walked down the stairs. They’d never get anywhere if they both kept closing off like this every time the outside world intruded on theirs. He even managed a quick kiss before delivering the bad news. “Could you give me a lift home? I have to go play nursemaid. Roz has the flu. Or food poisoning. Or something. It’s a little easier to diagnose in person.”

  Jack relaxed a little under his touch. “Yeah,” he said, meeting Julian’s eyes again. “Sorry, I—” He took a deep breath, and Julian watched, rapt, as Jack made a seemingly concerted effort to unknot himself. “I’ll get my coat.”

  Chapter Eleven

  THE RIDE back home was tense, with Julian basically sitting on his hands so that he didn’t fidget too much. After thirty seconds he couldn’t take it anymore and flicked on the radio, trying to relax to the strains of an old Canadian folky tune playing on CBC Radio 1.

  That took the edge off, but not by much. Julian didn’t have a lot of family, and what he did have, he couldn’t afford to lose.

  Jack pulled into his driveway four minutes later and put the truck in park. “Do you want me to stay?” he asked awkwardly.

  Surprised, Julian looked up from unbuckling his seat belt and planted a kiss square on Jack’s mouth. He supposed he was probably lucky that Marianne had gone. “You’d better not. She might be contagious, and I don’t know what I’ll do for a week if you both have the flu.” He managed half a smile. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll tell Roz you said hi.”

  Shutting the truck door behind him, Julian made a beeline for the back porch. Just inside the door, he picked up his travel bag and took the stairs two at a time up to Roz’s bedroom.

  He paused at the door, knocking gently. “Roz?”

  She was huddled under her blankets, face ashen, hair plastered to her scalp. “Hey, little brother. I’m not having a good day. Sorry to interrupt your fun.”

  Julian dropped the bag at the door, pulled out his digital thermometer, and went in to sit on the edge of the bed. “Don’t worry about it. This is more important.” He put the dial in her ear and clicked the button to get a reading. Normal. Okay, so it probably wasn’t the flu.

  “I feel like shit.”

  “You look it.” He reached down and touched her cheek. “Open your mouth.”

  Roz turned a dull gaze up at him. “You don’t want me to do that.”

  “I guarantee you I’ve smelled worse. Come on, open up.”

  Sighing, Roz tilted her head back and opened her mouth. Julian felt her glands with one hand and flicked a penlight on in the other. No swelling. Well, there goes that theory. He shone the light into her eyes and checked her pupil dilation. Normal. He took her pulse. A little rushed, but not anything to worry about.

  “What’s the verdict?”

  Julian gave her a wry look. “I’ve been looking at you for thirty seconds!” he protested. “I don’t exactly have a lot of diagnostic tools at my disposal, here. Any other symptoms you haven’t mentioned yet?”

  “My stomach hurts. And I never want to see another strawberry again.”

  “Been seeing them from the wrong side of digestion, huh?” He pulled back the covers and poked the right side of her abdomen. No reaction. Good. At least it wasn’t appendicitis.

  “Both wrong sides,” Roz said miserably.

  Julian winced. “Okay. I’m going to get you something to settle your stomach. Other than that, there’s not much I can do for you until tomorrow. I think it’s a fair bet you’re going to have to cancel aquafitness. I can call for you, if you like.”

  “You’re going to make me go to the clinic, aren’t you?”

  “Oh, yeah. If you’re not feeling better we’re doing a full blood workup.” He smiled. “It was probably the strawberries, or something else you ate. I’ll get your medication. In the meantime, get some sleep. I’ll be in to check on you in a few hours.”

  Roz groaned, half-pulled the pillow over her head, and peeked up at him. “Thanks, Julian. I appreciate you looking after me.”

  Julian planted a kiss on her forehead. “Anytime. Goodnight, Roz.”

  JULIAN WAS already waiting in exam room one when Roz came in, weaving slightly as if she was dizzy. He watched her sit down, then wheeled over to his computer. “Morning, sunshine.”

  Roz rolled her eyes at him and sat in the chair opposite. “Let’s make it quick. I want to go back to bed.”

  “All in good time.” He reached into a drawer and pulled out a small plastic cup with a screw top. “First, I need a sample.”

  “You’re kidding me,” Roz said flatly. “Julian, I’m your sister. Please, don’t make me pee in that. Take the blood instead.”

  “Oh, we’re doing that too. But we need a urine sample. All the ladies, every appointment. It’s policy. Usually we have the nurses take care of it, but since you’re my first appointment of the day, I got the honors. You can leave it on the back of the toilet when you’re done.”

  Snatching the cup from his fingers, Roz stormed off to the bathroom, the door swinging shut behind her. Julian took the time to call up her medical file, reviewing the hard copy as he went
.

  “You’re due for a pap smear,” he told her when she came back in. “Nice try evading them by listing me as your gyno, though.”

  “Damn, I meant to change that before you were back in-province.” Roz flopped into the chair again with a sigh. “All right; hit me with it.”

  Julian clicked in the proper field on the computer screen and dated the entry. “Okay. Let’s start at the beginning. Have you noticed any changes in your appetite?”

  “Yeah. I’m not hungry,” Roz said flatly.

  “Except for your strawberry thing,” he pointed out. “Maybe you’ve got some kind of vitamin deficiency. We’ll look for that on your blood tests. Any tenderness, soreness, unexplained bruising, yada yada?”

  Roz leaned back in the chair, twirling a bit. “My boobs and stomach hurt, but I’m probably due for my period and I spent yesterday throwing up.”

  Probably due, he noted. Julian assumed that Roz’s menstrual cycle was still as irregular as it had ever been. He’d tried to convince her that she should start taking the birth control pill, but she wasn’t interested. “Are you taking any medication I need to know about?”

  “Just my vitamins. And the anti-inflammatories I sometimes take when my knee acts up, but I haven’t needed one for almost two months.”

  “When was your last period?”

  “About three and a half weeks ago, I guess.”

  “Okay.” Julian saved his work, grabbed his test kit and clipboard and a pair of gloves, and stood. “I’m gonna go test your pee. Make yourself comfortable on the table. I’ll take your blood pressure and all of that good stuff when I get back.”

  He left her in the exam room and pulled a paper strip from a container in his pocket, gloved up, and dropped the test strip in the cup. He started the timer on his watch and waited, the seconds ticking away, then did his analysis.

  The color was normal, and the urine was clear, indicating that her diet was fine and there were no bacteria present. No nitrites, so she didn’t have a UTI. Julian ran down his mental checklist as he walked back to the exam room.