Unbreakable Stories: Snow (Unbreakable Bonds 2.5)

Jude opened his mouth, groaning again as Snow’s tongue slid between his lips. His boyfriend kissed with a brain-scrambling demand Jude couldn’t resist. He took Jude places he’d only imagined, made him feel a soul-deep yearning to crawl inside the man and know everything about him. He’d never realized it was possible to feel like this. He wouldn’t trade it for anything on Earth.

“Want skin, Torres,” Snow muttered against his mouth as he stepped back as far as he could in the tiny shower and reached for the hem of his T-shirt.

Jude was reaching too when he remembered why he’d come in there. “Hold on.” He held up his hands, panting and laughing at his own inability to resist Snow. “Shit, General, my mana is here.”

Snow frowned, his hands pausing under the bottom of Jude’s T-shirt, warm palms pressed to his abdomen. “What?”

“My mother is on the other side of that thin door and probably getting impatient.”

Groaning, Snow tried to step back farther but hit the wall. “It’s Sunday, isn’t it?” He shook his head. “All the extra hours this week threw me off.” He looked down at his hard dick with a frown of regret. “Too bad.”

Laughing, Jude wrapped his arms around Snow and hugged him. “You’re the one who promised to take her house hunting with us today, and she has a stack of printouts over an inch thick.”

“If I didn’t want us out of this apartment so badly, I wouldn’t have.”

“Don’t lie, General. You like my mana. Admit it.”

Before Snow could answer the water abruptly went ice cold. Light blue eyes flared wide. “Shit!”

Jude shut off the water, laughing so hard he had to reach for the towels twice. He stepped out because there wasn’t room for them both to dry off in the same spot in this bathroom, hitting his elbow hard on the wall in the process. He lost his balance and hit Snow, knocking him into the wall.

Snow righted Jude immediately. “The new place is going to have a big-ass shower.” He snagged two towels from the shelf over the toilet and handed one to Jude.

“Agreed. You’ll either have to cover up with the towel or wait for me to bring you something to wear.” He wiped the cloth down his face and lifted an eyebrow. “My mother would definitely prefer the towel.”

Dark eyebrows met as Snow scowled. “Just grab me a pair of jeans and a shirt.”

“Done. By the way”—Jude leaned against the door—“I’ve been thinking about that ski trip Lucas wants us to take next month. Let’s do it. Even I’m worried about Rowe and I barely know the man.”

He regretted bringing up Snow’s friend when stark grief bled into Snow’s eyes.

“I’m so sorry, General,” he whispered, touching his arm. “I’m tired too. Not thinking.”

“You’re right. Rowe isn’t doing well.” He was quiet as he finished drying, then wrapped the towel around his waist. “I can only get a three-day weekend after all the time I missed recently, but that should be enough. Maybe a change of scenery will give Rowe a mental break.”

Jude doubted anything would help Snow’s friend. And he worried about the surgeon, too. He sometimes lapsed into long silences when his grief grew overwhelming. Before Jude, he’d gone looking for physical release that bordered on violence when he let the world get to him. And he’d gotten himself into some bad situations. He’d shared some of it with Jude, but there was little doubt that more stewed deeper within the man.

Now, Snow did the quiet thing and Jude had learned to give him needed space. Except on the days his temper won out over the silence. He should probably be ashamed that he liked those days so much, but they usually ended up with Snow up against a wall. His general’s sneer got him so damn hot, it worked for them both.

He left the bathroom and was hit with his mother’s immediate cackle when she saw him dripping on the floor.

“You didn’t even have time to warn him I was here, did you?” She snickered, pouring herself a cup of coffee before it was done filling the carafe. “Walls kind of close in that bathroom?” She hid her grin in her raised cup.

It was his mother, after all, so he felt heat creep up his neck. “We’ve barely crossed paths this week with alternating shifts.”

“So today is the first day off for both of you?” she asked softly, giving him an understanding look.

He nodded, then shivered. They’d gotten the heater working again, but the lingering chill in the air he usually managed to ignore wasn’t helped by the wet clothes clinging to his skin. “But we do need to find a place.”

Hurrying to the stacks of Snow’s clothes piled neatly on the table by the door, he dug through, grabbing the first jeans and sweater he found.