Ball & Chain (Cut & Run 8)

“You know exactly what I want,” Ty answered breathlessly. He pushed Zane toward the bed. They could see it when lightning struck outside, the pale gray bedcover practically glowing blue as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. Ty pulled Zane closer to kiss him as he fell back onto the soft mattress.

It wasn’t until it was too late that he remembered the gauzy rings of decorative netting that hung from the four-poster bed. The clingy material wrapped around them as they fell into it, getting caught up between them and around their limbs and tightening as their weight pulled the netting.

“Hell.” Zane pushed off Ty and batted at the netting, trying to find his way out of it. “Shit, I can’t see. Quit moving!”

Ty shook his head and broke down all over again. He held his hands up obediently, trying not to move. But he was hopelessly encased in netting. He laughed harder, until he could barely catch his breath, and the sound went from loud and ringing off the rock walls of the suite to nearly silent as he tried and failed to pull in air. Zane’s cursing and struggling just made it funnier.

Finally Zane got loose and rolled away.

“Get some rest,” Zane said quietly as he moved around the dark room and out of Ty’s visual range. He sounded disgruntled. “You don’t want too much of a hangover tomorrow.”

“Wait, Zane, don’t go.” Ty tried to go after him but wound up tangled even more in the netting. “It’s not funny, I swear,” he tried, even as he snickered.

He heard Zane snort from the foot of the bed. “Be careful.”

“You’re seriously leaving me here?” Ty asked, his voice a higher pitch than it usually was.

Zane was quiet for a long minute. He finally sighed. “No.” He moved, and a light flipped on, blindingly bright.

Ty winced away from it and tried to cover his eyes, but that only served to tangle him further, which was for some reason wildly funny.

Zane threw up his hands. “I am not even dealing with this,” he said, his voice trembling with amusement. He turned the light back off. “You’re a mess.”

“No, Zane! Don’t leave me here!” Ty said in the most pitiful voice he could muster, which was ruined by the continuing peals of laughter he just couldn’t stop.

“Good night, Ty.” The bed dipped as Zane got in on the other side.

After long moments of trying desperately to calm down, Ty finally managed it and came to terms with the fact that Zane probably wasn’t going to f**k him tonight. He probably wasn’t even going to untangle him, and Ty was much too drunk and pleasantly sleepy to try to do it himself.

“Well,” he sighed, his movements accompanied by the creaking of the canopy above him. “This was not what I had in mind when I told you I wanted to be ashamed of myself in the morning.”

Chapter 4

Zane watched the sun rise out of the distant horizon and shimmer on the water from where he lay sprawled on the bed. He’d slept some as the storm raged through the night, although not as well as he would have while holding Ty, who was still encased in a protective roll of netting. And if he were honest, he’d been a little too edgy to sleep deeply after the discussion they’d had with the Stantons. Expecting trouble or not, Zane felt like it was around the corner.

He’d also spent much of the night thinking about Ty. He knew Ty had meant every word of it when he’d asked Zane to marry him. And Zane might be wrong, Ty may have thought about it every night while he was gone and played through every possibility in his mind before he asked the first time. But Zane knew Ty pretty damn well, and he wanted him to think about it again and again. And again. Then one last time, just to be sure.

He also knew he had made some pretty drastic changes to himself. He wanted Ty to see those, to know those changes were permanent and to make sure he was still what Ty really wanted. Ty hadn’t come back the same person. The more time they spent together, the clearer that was to Zane. He smiled less, he joked less, he was quicker to strike. Zane was almost afraid Ty’s proposal was just another quick strike. They just needed time.

The canopy above the bed creaked as Ty moved within the netting. He groaned and rolled, only to have his progress halted by the gauzy, tangled material. He stopped, one hand actually suspended above the mattress by the netting as he lay flat on his back. He mumbled something in a language that may or may not have been foreign and tried to move again.

Zane half wanted to laugh, but waking Ty up that way might kick him into a full-blown, flashback-induced panic attack.

The bed groaned, and Ty shot up with a gasp, still wrapped in netting.

Zane rolled off the bed, out of reach. “Ty,” he said carefully. Sometimes even when Ty’s eyes were open, it didn’t mean he was there with you.

Ty responded with a nearly panicked few words in Farsi, but he wasn’t flailing or fighting. Not yet. He spoke again, rapid fire as he gave his arm a good yank. “Where’s O’Flaherty?”

“Ty, you’re awake and you’re okay.” Zane moved into Ty’s line of sight. “Nick’s asleep next door. He’s okay too. Everyone’s okay, doll. Let me help you.”

Ty watched him, his breathing slowing as reality seemed to soak through to his brain. His hands still shook with adrenaline and probably an ounce or two of fear, but he was silent and still as he let Zane untangle him.

“Worst morning after ever,” Ty said, almost calm enough to fool Zane into thinking he was okay with waking up to a full-fledged flashback.

Almost. Zane continued to untangle the netting, trying to move Ty’s arms without holding or clasping them. He got one loose, but the other hand was really caught up. How had he even done this to himself? “I can cut it loose, doll.”

Ty shook his head. “It’s okay.”

He began using the hand Zane had freed to disentangle his other leg, taking long, slow breaths to try to calm himself. As soon as Zane managed to free his other hand, Ty clambered out of the bed like it was on fire. He used Zane to pull himself out, practically climbing up and over him to get away from the netting. Zane sighed and let him do it; to try to hang on to him or stop him would have been a mistake.

“Thanks, Zane,” Ty whispered, rubbing at his chest.

Zane’s heart swelled with a confusing mix of love and pity and anger for the things Ty had been put through. He knelt on the mattress and reached out, brushing Ty’s cheek with the tips of his fingers. He smiled wryly when Ty met his eyes. “At your service.”