“About you driving and talking on your phone?Yes.I don’t think you shoul—”
“No, about me defending your honor.”
“Wait, you what?”
“Defended your honor,” Ian enunciated carefully.
Sam pulled the phone away and stared at it for a second, then put it back to his ear.“I’m not sure whether to be annoyed about that or happy.”
“Why would you be annoyed?You read all those romance novels; doesn’t that shit happen all the time?”
“Yeah, it happens.Togirls.Wait, are you saying you got into afight?”
“Yep.”
“With Tierney?”Not the whole rugby team, please.Of course, then he’d be calling from the hospital, right?
“Yep.”Sheesh, he was cheerful about it.Sam had always thought fights looked painful.“I even got a black eye, I think.And maybe a swollen lip.”
Sam gulped.“A fight about what?”
Ian sighed.“Hello?Defending your honor?”
“Oh, um, did Tierney besmirch my honor?”
“He certainly did!”
“Oh my God,” Sam muttered, dropping his forehead into his free hand.“Maybe I didn’t need you to defend my honor,” he pointed out.
Ian made a noise that sounded like he was motorboating his lips.Sam had the hardest time imagining that, but he couldn’t figure out what else it would be.“You can defend your own honor next time,” Ian said.Wow, fighting really put him in a good mood.Not that Sam thought he should do it more or anything, it was just an observation.But, wow.“Besides, you defended your own honor with Marley.It was my turn.”
“What?”A warm little glow kindled in Sam’s chest, but still.Fighting is bad.Hot, but bad.“No I didn’t.You’re the one who scared him off.I was just walking away.”
“Sometimes that’s the right answer.”Ian’s voice had gone from cheerful to serious.“Taking on that asshole or provoking him would have made it worse.”
“But ...but you said I let him push me around!”
“I’m sorry.I was being a jerk.He just—all that shit he said about you just made me crazy, kiddo,” Ian said, almost indiscernible over the background hum of his pickup.
“Oh.”They were both silent a couple seconds.“Thank you,” Sam said.
“I want to see you tonight.”
“I have an early class ...but I want to see you, too.”
“Do you want me to pick you up later?”
“Well ...actually I never left.”
He swore he heard Ian smile.“Good.I’ll be home in five minutes.Be waiting for me.”
“Oh.”Sam’s heart jumped and his stomach tightened up into a ball.“Okay.”
Ian clicked the phone off.
Fighting, Sam discovered, not only put Ian in a good mood, but also made him crazy horny.Not just horny, but passionate.Sam thought he might be devoured alive on Ian’s living room floor, but he was okay with that.Ian nearly ripped Sam’s boxers off and swallowed him whole, jerking himself while he sucked Sam like it was an Olympic event.Sam came like he’d won the gold, then Ian lunged up and shot all over his stomach.He licked it up until Sam was almost ready to go again.
Afterward, naked on one of Ian’s rugs, with a tiny afghan wrapped around as much of them as possible, Ian told him about Tierney.First the fight, which—in spite of all Sam’s best intentions to disapprove—was hot enough to keep him from falling asleep like usual, and then how Ian and Tierney had become friends during college in the first place.
