Cut & Run (Cut & Run #1)(87)
Author: Abigail Roux

Ty sighed and rolled his head back and forth. “How ’bout this, then?”

he said in exasperation. “I would like for you to stay,” he told Zane slowly.

Zane sighed and turned to walk over to Ty, sliding his arms around his waist and leaning to press their foreheads together abruptly. Ty had asked; Zane would go for broke. “So,” he murmured. “Is this one addiction I can indulge?”

Ty’s eyes closed as soon as they made contact, and he turned his head to the side and sighed softly as he slid his arms around Zane. “At least it’s not one that’ll kill you,” he answered flatly.

Zane’s mouth tipped up at the corners. He wasn’t too sure he’d say that. “I’ll stay,” he murmured.

Ty just nodded in response, not moving from the tentative embrace.

He rested his chin on Zane’s shoulder and exhaled slowly. Zane squeezed his arms tentatively. “Never a dull moment,” he muttered. They’d been flash and bang from the first moment they’d met.

“Yeah, well, if you weren’t such a dick…,” Ty murmured with a small smile.

Zane snickered. “Works out well since you’re an ass**le.”

“We’re gonna have to talk about these puns.” Ty groaned as he pulled away and shuffled slowly for the bed. Neither man was thinking of sex any longer. It was obvious from the slump of Ty’s shoulders that he had exhausted what energy he had left on being pissed off.

“Mm hmm,” Zane answered, following along. Some sleep wouldn’t go unappreciated, depending on if he slept at all without several whiskey shots first.

“Next bad pun you make I’m kicking you in the shin. I don’t care where we are,” Ty threatened as he turned and raised his chin.

“Ah ah ah, you forget, pain is not an incentive for me to quit,” Zane prodded, crossing his arms.

Ty responded with a swift kick to Zane’s shin. Zane laughed and caught Ty around the waist, hefting him practically off his feet and swinging him around. Ty flailed gracelessly. A man of his size and demeanor was not accustomed to being tossed around like a rag doll, and it showed. Zane’s size advantage was finally paying off. He snickered and let Ty get his feet under him. “You love it,” he teased.

“Jesus,” Ty snapped as he held to Zane for a moment longer to make sure he really was on the ground again. Zane kept his arms wrapped around him, and he leaned forward to nuzzle the side of Ty’s neck. “Well, that’s …

sort of embarrassing,” Ty muttered almost to himself.

Zane grinned and pressed his face close so the other man couldn’t see it and get cranky again. Ty simply let himself be cuddled with a resigned sigh.

Unable to hold back a yawn, Zane mumbled against Ty’s skin, unwilling to move just yet.

“Bed, huh?” Ty murmured as he finally wrapped his arms around Zane and patted him on the head.

Zane nodded, feeling drowsy for the first time in a long while without the help of copious amounts of alcohol.

“Take off those nasty jeans before you get your ass in my clean sheets,” Ty warned. Zane disrobed obediently as Ty watched him, leaving only his briefs to sleep in, then Ty stepped back and nodded for him to get into bed. “Fucking later,” he promised with a tired smile.

Zane grunted at him and crawled over the foot of the bed and slid down to lay on his belly with a soft sigh, not even bothering to reach for a pillow. Ty stood watching him for a moment, then walked over to the door and flipped off the light before crawling in after him.

“You’ll be here?” Zane asked sleepily, shifting one hand to just barely touch Ty’s arm.

“If I’m not, look on the balcony,” Ty answered softly as he rolled onto his side and slid his hand over Zane’s back.

The other man hummed softly and dropped quickly off to sleep. With his eyes closed, the shadows and thinness of his face became more pronounced. Ty sighed softly as he looked over him.

There was an obvious familiarity to this situation. Except before, their roles had been reversed, and Ty hadn’t yet been forced to resort to substances to keep his sanity. He reached up and ran his fingertips down the side of Zane’s face with a frown. There wasn’t much to be done for him, either, nothing that Zane wouldn’t resent.

Zane managed to sleep a couple hours before the dreams and the shakes woke him with a startled gasp. He sat up quickly, reaching for the gun Z that wasn’t there, looking around in confusion. The man in bed beside him groaned in response to the bouncing of the mattress and flopped onto his side. Seeing that, Zane remembered where he was and why, and his heart started to calm. He looked down at Ty, though he couldn’t see much in the dark. He glanced to the clock and sighed. Two damn hours. He was wide awake now with little chance of more sleep.

He scooted up to lean against the headboard and stare off into the dark, trying to order his thoughts. A day ago, he would have hit a bottle. Now

… he pulled one knee up to his chest and sighed.

“It’s harder to go back to sleep when you’re sitting up, numbnuts,” Ty muttered sleepily without moving or opening his eyes.

A smile pulled at Zane’s lips. “I didn’t realize that, thanks,” he murmured, reaching out to smooth a hand through Ty’s hair. It was comforting to have him there, though Zane wouldn’t have admitted it aloud.

Although, he figured, he’d already said it in a way, hadn’t he?

Ty swatted at him grumpily and muttered again, tossing an arm over Zane’s lap as he sat there beside him. He rested his face against Zane’s hip and sighed sleepily. Settling his hand in Ty’s hair again, Zane petted him gently as he let his head loll back. No more drink; it would be hard to get to sleep at night, hard to gear down. He’d probably be a worse mess in the morning, and Ty sure wasn’t going to tolerate him popping pills to wake up and stay up. He winced. He should get that other tin out of his jacket before Ty had reason to find it.

“Go to sleep,” Ty muttered against his hip. “And stop thinking about drinking.”

Zane thumped his shoulder. “Bastard,” he cursed quietly before allowing himself to slump. He stilled and calmed, looking at the dark shadow of the man curled up against him. It didn’t seem like they’d spent enough time together all those months ago to have developed this sort of comfort, but it was there nonetheless.

“C’mon,” Ty muttered as he lifted his head and scooted back, patting the bed next to him.