“Yes.”
“Have you taken any yet?”
“Not for a few hours.”
“Long enough to be able to take some more?”
Jared nodded. He’d taken pills after his hospital appointment, which was easily more than four hours ago.
Kyrone squeezed his knee. “I’ll grab you some water so you can take some. Although if you’re anything like my sister, what you really need is to lie down in a dark room.
“Sounds about right,” Jared muttered. “I really am sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologise.” Kyrone cupped Jared’s face again, and Jared leant into the comforting touch. “Migraines are shit.”
“They really are.”
As Kyrone went to fetch a glass of water, Jared fumbled to get his pills out of his coat. His hands were shaking from the pain, which wasn’t the best start, but he managed to get a couple of the small oblong tablets out of the bottle, which he slipped back into his pocket before Kyrone returned. He swallowed the medication down with the water, one at a time. Despite the fact that he took a ton of huge vitamin supplements every morning, he was still crap at swallowing pills.
“I’ve got work tomorrow,” he mumbled. He needed to go home and sleep, not least because he didn’t want to be an imposition on Kyrone. It was hardly endearing, coming over for sex and then passing out because of a headache.
“What time?”
“Ten.”
“I’ll wake you in time to get home and get a change of clothes, okay?”
“And in time for round two if I’m feeling better?”
Kyrone kissed him softly on the lips. It was completely at odds with his earlier, possessive kisses but just as nice. “You bet. Let’s get you to bed.”
He took the cup of water and put it on the coffee table before helping Jared to stand. On the way to the bedroom, he showed Jared which door led to the bathroom. The pain in his head was all encompassing by the time he was lying on the bed. It really was comfortable, and the room was very dark. He was dimly aware of a quilt being pulled over him and Kyrone kissing him on the forehead. Then he was washed away on the tide of pain and swallowed up by the darkness of sleep.
7Kyrone
It was almost ten by the time Kyrone made the decision to call Faye on Jared’s behalf. The pretty young man was still asleep and looked far too peaceful to wake. Despite that, Kyrone had made a half-hearted attempt to do exactly that because he’d promised he’d get Jared up and to work on time, but the soft kisses he’d placed to his forehead hadn’t even caused him to stir. He crept out of the bedroom, although he was pretty sure he could set off a bomb and Jared wouldn’t wake, and searched through the address book on his phone until he found the number for Ink Envy.
Even though the tattoo parlour didn’t officially open for another few minutes, Faye answered promptly.
“Hello, Ink Envy, how can I help?”
Kyrone chuckled at how the formality of her words was at odds with her tone, which was anything but. “Hey, Faye, it’s Kyrone.”
“Hi, honey. Planning your next tattoo?”
“No.” He glanced through the bedroom door. Jared hadn’t moved. “I’m letting you know that I’m holding your apprentice hostage and he won’t be coming in today.”
“Oh?”
He couldn’t tell if she sounded surprised, worried, or pissed off.
“He passed out with a migraine last night. I think he needs to sleep it off.”
There was a pause before Faye spoke again. “Okay. Will you let him know not to worry when he wakes up? Tell Jared I’ll see him tomorrow.”
“Will do.”
“Kyrone…”
