He was buttoning Mac’s shirt for him while Mac sat in his wheelchair. When Mac weakly caught his hand, Sully looked into his lover’s eyes and saw the concern there.
“Tell me.”
Sully sat on the bed. “Everything?”
Mac nodded.
Sully told him about the attack. He stopped at Mac being admitted.
“More.”
“Brant, you don’t need to know that.”
“Did he hurt her?”
“She wasn’t there. She’d left the marina.”
“After.”
Sully had never lied to Mac in the course of their relationship.
Ever. It was a point he prided himself on.
He owed the man honesty. Hell, he owed him his life.
“He can’t ever hurt her again.” Bryan’s body had been found late the next day by motel housekeeping. As Sully had expected, while there were questions, the fact that Jason caught the case because he was in charge of the investigation of Mac’s attack, combined with Bryan Jackson’s history, allowed many questions to simply remain unanswered. The car, it turned out, had been stolen. If Clarisse’s prints were found in the car, Jason must have taken care of it because it was never brought up, neither of them were ever questioned about Bryan’s murder.
As far as Jason was concerned, he ate dinner with Sully and Clarisse that night, before he returned to the ICU to sit with Mac while the other two took a nap and got some rest.
Surprisingly, when Jason searched Bryan’s room at the crime scene, he found an ounce of cocaine hidden inside his suitcase.
Sully didn’t ask Jason where he’d found that little party favor, but it only stacked the deck against Bryan. The current popular theory was a robbery or drug deal gone wrong because of the surrounding neighborhood being rife with frequent narcotics busts.
He told Mac the rest of the story. Mac listened, his gaze on his hands, which he clenched and unclenched in his lap while Sully softly related what happened.
When he finished, Mac looked up with tears in his eyes. “She okay?”
Sully gently laid a hand on Mac’s shoulder. “She’s really okay.
Her nightmares have stopped.”
Mac sniffled, took a deep breath, and let it out. “Okay.” He met Sully’s gaze. “Love you.”
Sully smiled and leaned in for a kiss. “I love you too, Brant.”
Mac scowled.
“What’s that for?” Sully asked.
Mac arched an eyebrow at him. After a long moment, Sully laughed and hugged him. “Quit pouting, slave. Your face will freeze like that.”
Mac snickered. “Yes, Master.”
“I can do it,” Mac insisted.
Clarisse hovered behind him, around him, in front of him, worried. “I know, sweetie, but let me help—”
“Let him do it, pet,” Sully sternly ordered.
Clarisse shot Sully a dark look, but stepped away from Mac.
With his right hand, Mac gripped the hand rail and slowly lifted his left leg, planting his foot firmly on the riser. It took him ten minutes and three more orders from Sully for Clarisse to leave him be, but Mac climbed the stairs to their house by himself. Once at the top, Sully stepped in and slipped his arm around Mac’s waist for support.
“All right, tough guy. That’s enough independence for your first day home.” He guided Mac over to the couch and helped him sit. In the months since the attack, Mac had dropped nearly thirty pounds, most of that in lost muscle. He’d started using light hand weights, but Sully knew it would take a while to regain his former body tone.
Bart ran into the room, dragging something. It wasn’t until he climbed the ramp next to the couch and jumped into Mac’s lap that Clarisse realized what he had.
The butt plug.
Mac and Sully started laughing. Sully snickered and grabbed the dog. “What a way to welcome him home, pup. Let’s go empty your pan.” He carried the dog out of the room.
Clarisse recognized Mac’s playful expression. “What?”
He patted his lap.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Won’t break. Come here.”
He had her straddle his lap, facing him. He slowly worked to unbutton her shirt, pushing her hands away when she tried helping him.
“Behave, pet,” he scolded.
She grinned. “Sorry, Sir.” It had been several months since she’d even remotely felt in the mood. But as Mac’s planned homecoming loomed and her libido returned, just weeks before Thanksgiving, Sully had denied her release to amp up her anticipation.
Now she understood why.
It’d only been in the past couple of weeks that Mac felt like being intimate. Because of his weakened condition, they kept things simple, usually Clarisse going down on him while Sully held him.
He parted her shirt and pushed it down her shoulders, exposing her bra. He struggled for a moment with the front clasp, then dragged in a long, deep breath when the fabric parted.
“Love you, pet.”
“I love you too, Sir.”
He pulled her to him and traced circles around her nipples with his tongue. After several minutes, he’d driven her close to the edge.
Sully walked in carrying a laundry basket. “Ah, I see we’re really getting back to normal.”
Mac arched an eyebrow at him.
Laughing, Sully shook his head. “Carry on. Don’t let me interrupt.
I’ve got laundry to do or we’ll all have to run around here naked.”
Mac’s hands settled on Clarisse’s waist. “Shirt off,” he softly said.
“Please.”
She shrugged her shirt and bra off and draped her arms over his shoulders. “Like this?”
He smiled, shifting his hips against her. “Yeah. Like that.”
She took a cue from him and started a slow, seductive grind against his pelvis. She felt his stiff cock rubbing against her through his shorts. “Want me to lose my shorts?”
He grinned. “Duh.”
She stood, slipped them and her panties off, then retook her perch on his lap. “Does Sir want a lap dance?”
“More than that.” He pulled her to him and kissed her, slowly, savoring every second. He never asked her about the shooting. The men didn’t want her to think about it. Now with Mac home, despite still having therapy once a week that would continue for at least several months, he wanted life to go back to normal.
As normal as it could be for them under the circumstances.
The sound of footsteps racing up the stairs heralded Sully sticking his head through the front door. “Pet, get dressed. Now. Jason and Katie just pulled in.”
“Shit!” She jumped off Mac and scrambled for her clothes as Mac let out a long, sad sigh. She leaned in and kissed him. “I’m sorry, Sir.
We’ll pick up where we left off when they go, I promise.”
He grabbed her wrist. As more footsteps sounded on the stairs, he pulled her in for one last long, deep kiss. “No underwear.”
Clarisse grinned. “Okay. Let me go get dressed!” She bolted across the living room and closed their bedroom door behind her as the front door opened and Sully walked through, followed by Jason and Katie.
Mac grabbed a throw pillow and pulled it into his lap to hide the pup tent his shorts had become. Katie swooped in to give him a hug and kiss. Jason shook his hand. Sully stood behind them, smiling, and winked at Mac.
Mac smiled and winked back.
Clarisse returned a moment later. After three hours, Jason and Katie finally left.
Unfortunately, so had Mac’s stamina. When Sully returned from walking them out, he helped Mac stand. “You worn out?”
“Yeah.”
Sully kept an arm around his waist and walked him to the bedroom while Clarisse fixed them all something to eat. Sully helped him onto the bed.