Page 56 of Phoenix

The chief frowned. “I should have known you’d be a problem that day you told me off and said you wanted to work on the other side.”

Jule shrugged. “What can I say? The apple doesn’t fall from the tree, and despite what my family thinks, Tor and I grew up in the same orchard.”

Chapter 16 – Age 30

Jule woke up inside a fantasy. He was in his bed, lying partly on his belly and partly on his side, and Tor was curled around him, his face against Jule’s nape, his front pressed to Jule’s back, one of his arms under Jule’s neck and the other draped over Jule’s shoulders and stretched on top of Jule’s arm, their fingers woven together.

“Morning,” he croaked, voice rough from sleep.

Soft lips brushed over his neck and Tor’s hold tightened. “Morning.”

“Feels good to have you here without worrying that you’ll be leaving,” Jule confessed.

“That’s all over now.”

They stayed silent for a while, breathing together with Tor occasionally brushing his lips over Jule’s skin and caressing Jule’s hand with his own.

“Were you scared?” He knew Tor enough to realize that he’d never share details about what he’d gone through during all those years, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about it.

“I stayed close enough to John Jones to be sure he didn’t know anything about you, and to make him believe I’d chosen him over my brothers. You were always safe.”

“I wasn’t talking about myself, Tori.”

Tor pressed his lips to Jule’s neck again, firmer that time, longer. “No, I wasn’t.”

Fearlessness, steadfastness, and determination at a level that should have come across as arrogance but instead read as confidence and grit. That had been Tor at six, laughing when Jule punched him and then leading him out of the house to play a game he made from discarded pipes and wood.

It had been Tor at seven, walking into a classroom on the second day of school and whispering that the principal had agreed to transfer him into Jule’s class.

It had been Tor at eight, sneaking into his mother’s room while she slept and coming out with a tiny plastic bag and an explanation that he had to hide it for a while, because if she took too much at once, she’d never wake up again.

It had been Tor at nine, stepping in front of Jule at recess, taking a punch to his face that had been meant for a classmate’s chest without flinching, and saving Jule from a certain suspension.

It had been Tor at ten, jumping into the dumpster behind Safeway on Tuesday nights because that was when they threw out things that said they were expired but Tor explained were still good enough to eat.

It had been Tor at eleven, looking a police officer dead in the eye and insisting that Tyson had been reading him a bedtime story at the time the liquor store on Hatcher had been robbed, which was the day before the electric bill got paid and their power got turned back on.

It had been Tor at twelve, convincing the guy who owned the Food Mart that he’d save money by hiring him because he could pay him in cash and not report it, something Jule hadn’t understood but had been an effective way to get money into the house.

It had been Tor at thirteen, gazing at a confused, bruised, angry Jule and recognizing that what Jule wanted was a kiss.

It had been Tor at fourteen, dragging a nearly unconscious Trey home from a party and sitting next to him all night to make sure he didn’t choke on his own vomit.

It had been Tor at fifteen, telling a petrified Travis that he’d be a good father despite none of them having seen an example of one, and making him believe it was true.

It had been Tor at sixteen, explaining to Titan that they could buy a dilapidated trailer and make it habitable and then spending nearly a year learning how to do precisely that.

And it had been Tor at seventeen, hearing shouting and gunfire, understanding exactly what it meant, and running straight to it. There was no doubt in Jule’s mind that anxiety would prevent him from ever sleeping again if he knew what Tor had actually experienced when they’d been apart, and he was equally certain that Tor had handled it all without wavering or hesitating.

“I’m here, Jule.” Tor slid his hand to Jule’s chest, lightly grazed his fingertips back and forth across his skin, and again said, “It’s all over now.”

He nodded his understanding and gently rocked his hips, skimming his ass over Tor’s burgeoning erection. “Fuck me.”

Tor leaned back, and Jule looked over his shoulder and watched him reach for the bottle of lube. They’d had sex in so many random places when they’d been young that lube hadn’t been an option or a consideration and Jule was accustomed to sex without it, but Tor seemed to prefer it over spit, so he didn’t argue. Besides, he enjoyed the view of Tor slicking his thick, veined cock.

“Get in me,” Jule rasped when the scene had his dick throbbing and his hole clenching.

“So impatient.” Tor pressed his face to Jule’s hair and inhaled deeply. “What am I going to do with you?”