Page 36 of The Battery

Holy hell, Leo, check yourself , I thought.

This Marley dickwad had been over to the house three times since I had been gone and, had I known the PT guy looked like him , I would have installed cameras.

I rinsed the dishes in the sink and loaded them into the dishwasher while planning where to bury the body.

More laughter up from the basement. I slammed the faucet shut and went down to check on them. Cody was lying on his back on a yoga mat with his knees bent. He held a lightweight exercise ball over his core. Marley kneeled between his legs while also holding on to the ball. Oh what the fuck.

Marley looked over first. “Hey, Spartan,” he said in an affable tone. “You should join us. The dual exercise will help.”

I imagined throwing the exercise ball against his head.

The hell is wrong with you. Get a grip.

Cody’s eyes slid sideways. He had been genuinely concentrating on holding the ball over his core. He shot me a confused look, as if to say, “ What the hell are you doing? ”

“Just making sure you guys are all set,” I said. Marley smiled, then turned his attention back to Cody.

“Okay, now I’m going to press down and apply light pressure. Tell me when it feels uncomfortable.” He knee-walked a few inches forward for a better angle. He was wedged right up to Cody. I hadn’t even been in that position yet. I felt steam erupt from my ears.

Remove yourself, killer, or you’ll actually become one.

I went back upstairs to cool off.

I put on a swimsuit and leaped into the deep end to sit at the bottom of the pool for forty-five seconds.

I surfaced, pushed my hair back, and waded to clear my head.

Looking back, I couldn’t recall feeling true jealousy except for overly dramatic emotions from my youth.

As I got older, the more I understood my relationships as transactional.

If someone didn’t like me, they could leave.

If they became interested in someone else, well, I could always find another and easily.

No one ever stayed for more than two weeks.

Guy, girl, it never mattered. As long as they were warm and willing, I would have my fill and fun.

This feeling would have to get checked. I already felt like pushing the limits by insisting Cody move in. What kind of person would I be, demanding he change out his physical therapist simply because the man was gorgeous? That wasn’t fair to Cody. It wasn’t fair to me.

I dropped below the water again and sank to the bottom.

My ears popped as my rump hit the floor.

Pure silence, the water colder down here.

I mastered the stupid, jealous rage. It served only vices and that was not something that could be used to my advantage for the game.

And really, maybe it was a good thing? It confirmed my feelings for Cody, not that I needed to explore it.

I was jealous of another guy touching my man.

Mine.

There. I smiled. A big one. One that no one ever got to see, safe here at the bottom of my pool.

Oh, yeah. That jealousy came from a place of not just desire, but true, deep, beautiful affection. Positioned for much, much more.

I rocketed back up to the surface to see Cody standing at the side of the pool.

He was slowly and arduously making his way to sitting on the edge to dip his legs in.

I swam over to help him but he managed on his own.

I floated to the edge so that his knees went to either side of my head.

As if by vestigial reaction, he hooked his feet around my back to tug me closer.

“You, sir,” Cody said and pointed at me with his index finger, “need to check yourself.” I dipped half my face below the water. I didn’t want to respond. He then added, “I mean, he is good look—”

I splashed him. Fully. Without remorse. Shock bloomed on his face, followed by a controlled laugh that made him clutch his side. I had completely soaked his t-shirt and shorts.

After he recovered, he shot me with a sly grin. “So you are the jealou—”

Another tsunami crashed into him. This time he let out a gasp of air. He started to say my name but I hit him with another splash. He was now thoroughly soaked and stripped off his t-shirt.

Ah, shit , I realized as he looked at the monitor seated over his heart. I swam to the edge and popped out deftly and dropped beside him. “Dammit. Didn’t realize you had that on.”

He gave a careful inspection, probing the edges of the silicone stickum. “I think it’s okay. It’s water resistant , not waterproof.” He turned on me and hit me with what appeared to be an attempt at contempt.

A pang of guilt hit me. In my need to be silly—which was just ridiculous, in hindsight—I may have caused damage to a critical piece of equipment meant to monitor his heart rate for a month. The word was on the tip of my tongue and instinct told me to clamp down and not release it.

But that was the way of the past.

“Sorry,” I said. “I hope it didn’t cause too much damage.”

He looked up from the patch. Hit me with a look. “It’s fine. No worries.” That smile of his dimmed into soft concern. “Listen, Leo. You really don’t have to be jealous. To be honest, I haven’t looked at another person in that way since I laid eyes on you.”

I reached up and rubbed the stubble on my chin. “So you’re saying you hit me on purpose, like what kids do when they like each other? Finally. An admission.”

He tried to elbow me but the hit put too much pressure on his chest. He shifted into a scoff instead. “You don’t have to worry about me wandering and looking around, all right?”

I braced my palms against the edge of the pool and kicked my legs to agitate the water. “You’re saying this is an exclusive thing, then.”

Cody had been staring at me as if he could read something. “You’ve never been in a relationship before, have you?” He exhaled sharply. “That is, I mean, not to say, y’know, we’re not in a relationship right now, I just…”

I put a hand on his knee. My eyes stayed on the water. I let my legs relax. Felt the heat of the sun on my shoulders burning off the water. “No. I haven’t been. I was always more of the hot, heavy, and short-term kinda guy. Like when we first started off.”

“And now?”

“I practically forced you under my roof. Told you we’d ‘date’ and I’d try to keep my hands off of you while you’re recovering. I thought I could divide those things.” I shook my head. “Way harder than I thought.”

Cody slipped his hand under mine and laced our fingers together. “What do you mean?”

I could tell he was loving this. The Spartan, opening up about his feelings . “I want to simultaneously fuck your brains out and explore the furthest corners of that mind to know your soul. And I have no idea how to reconcile those two things.”

Cody suddenly attempted to adjust himself. The soaked shorts weren’t helping. I politely ignored it.

“Well. If we’re confessing. I haven’t really done this before either,” Cody admitted.

That earned him a surprised look on my face.

“It’s only ever been friends with benefits.

Ever since high school. I never really found someone I was genuinely interested in spending intimate, non-sexual time with.

” He smiled. “Until I hit you in the shoulder and then the ass.”

“We’re both rookies, then. Any idea on how we should do this?”

“I like the dates. This morning was great.”

I nodded. “The chef comes tonight. I’ll make sure he makes something good.”

“No candles.”

“No candles,” I agreed. The first attempt at a candlelight dinner ended in one of my biggest regrets. The second time we brought it up, my uncle passed. The third resulted in Cody’s shot to the chest.

He leaned in to me the best he could. “I’m a bit, um, handicapped in the physical department, though. I hope you can be patient there.”

I moved so he wasn’t leaning in to me. Gave him a real good look. “You think you’re handicapped because you can’t move your chest much?”

He blushed and looked away. “Leo, it’s not like I’m very, y’know, mobile .”

I pushed off from the edge of the pool and popped to my feet.

I knew where his head was at. His “handicap” was in direct relation to how he could use his body for me .

Previously, I only had one chance to show him I wasn’t as selfish as I once was.

That night in the hotel was one of my favorite memories.

His shock and surprise. I needed to show him I wasn’t selfish when it came to building something that could last. Would last.

Gently, I helped him to his feet. He had questions pouring out of his mouth but I ignored all of them.

I guided him to a nearby lounge chair, the back of which I set to the forty-five-degree angle he needed for comfort.

I sat down first, yanked off his sodden shorts, and guided him to sit with me.

I spread my legs out and he sank to his rump with a hesitant laugh.

“You think I’m gonna bite?” I asked. My hands guided him by the shoulder to lean back against my chest. He adjusted his torso to minimize the pain.

“You’re not exactly gen—”

I slipped my right hand down the front of his boxers and grabbed a handful of him.

His breath hitched. I lowered my face to the crook of his neck and inhaled.

Parted my lips. Tasted his skin. He grew stiff in my hand and I stroked him slowly as he let out little whimpers.

He had his arms in an awkward spot, pushed close together to stave off the pain.

I slipped my left hand down and sank my fingers to his inner thigh.

I freed his cock from his boxers to openly stroke. Long. Slow. Methodic.

I pressed my teeth down on his neck, but not too hard. I sucked lightly. Nothing egregious, but just enough for other people to see. To let them know.

He’s mine.

Cody’s hips bucked up into my grip. With my left hand, I pushed his waist down to control his movements.

“Why the rush?” I whispered in his ear. He shivered.

“Not gonna last long,” he admitted.

I licked at the lobe of his ear, then bit it lightly. “Just enjoy it,” I said. Again, his whole body quivered.

With a carefulness, he held onto my right forearm with his right hand, then slipped his left hand behind his ass.

He grabbed a handful of me and I moaned into his ear.

His hand dipped into my swimsuit, and I was about to tell him he didn’t have to, when he stroked me once to get what he wanted.

He came away with a long bead of my pre-come on his fingers.

I whispered a curse into his ear as my eyes tracked his hand.

He licked at his fingers, licked at me, moaned from the taste.

Then he yanked my left hand away from his thigh and popped two of my fingers into his mouth.

The fucking suction of his mouth. He was moaning the whole time, his bucking hips now wild and uncontrolled.

He rubbed his ass into my crotch to the best of his ability.

My stroking increased as I felt his body tense.

An eruption. He decorated both of us with his come.

His screamed alongside my fingers in his mouth, which I quickly extracted and clamped over his mouth.

We were sheltered from sight, yes, but not sound.

I let him burst out as much as he wanted into my hand, muffling everything as I continued to jerk off his cock while the come flowed.

Eventually it abated and he sagged back into me. I milked what was left of him slowly as his breathing resumed to something more normal. I could tell by the hitch in his breath he triggered some pain through the ecstasy of the moment.

We sat there afterward. I ignored how much I wanted to get off and instead wrapped both arms around him gently. Kissed his neck.

“Doin’ okay?” I asked eventually.

He groaned, and not in a pleasurable way. “I think I overdid it.”

I made an overdramatic gesture of looking down at his chest soaked in ribbons of come. “You don’t say.”

He laughed, barked in pain, then cursed my name. I kissed him again.

“Just relax with me. Take it easy.”

He nodded and I felt his muscles relax.

Not a bad morning after our breakfast date.