Leo’s dark brows drew together. “Thanks.” He folded the ladder.
He pointed to the nasty-looking scratches, some oozing blood. “Those must hurt. You’d better take care of them, or they can get infected.”
Leo glanced at them. “Yeah, they sting like a bitch. She’s little but deadly. I’ll go to the store and get something.”
Maybe he was being stupid, but remembering Chris and Sean’s advice, he decided to take the plunge. Life was made to be lived, not regretted.
“I have some antibacterial ointment. Come with me to my place, and I can take care of them.”
Leo stared at him, and for a moment, Morgan thought he’d say no and tell him to fuck off. “Sure. Thanks. Just let me put the ladder away first.”
Side by side, they walked into the building, and Morgan went upstairs to his apartment. He got the ointment, a bowl of clean water, and some cotton and Band-Aids. At the knock on his door, his heart beat madly, but he managed to steady himself as he opened the door.
“Come on in. I have everything ready. Take a seat on the couch.”
A silent Leo entered and followed his directions. Morgan sat next to him and cleaned the scratches first with the clean water. After blotting them dry with the cotton, he squeezed the ointment on his finger and smoothed it over the scratches up and down Leo’s forearm and bicep.
“You must have experience with this, as a kindergarten teacher.”
Morgan’s gaze flew up to meet Leo’s. “More than I care to recount. Elbows and knees are my specialty.” He peeled off a Band-Aid and stuck it over a particularly nasty-looking scratch. “There. I think that’s all of them.”
“Thanks,” Leo said softly. “I appreciate it.”
“Not a problem.”
They sat like that for a moment until Morgan realized his hand still rested on Leo’s arm. He drew away, but Leo stopped him. “Don’t. It…it feels better when you touch me.”
“It does?” Morgan allowed himself a smile. “How about that?”
“How about this?” Leo settled his mouth over Morgan’s and kissed him.
“Wh-what was that for?” Morgan asked breathlessly when they parted.
Leo’s blue eyes glittered. “I thought you needed a better thank-you. You know what they say—actions speak louder than words.”
“Yeah, okay, that was definitely better than you lecturing me.”
What was meant as a joke to break the simmering tension between them didn’t work, as Leo’s face hardened.
“About that. Last week…what were your friends talking about?”
Knowing full well what Leo meant, Morgan chose to prevaricate. “Oh, exercising? Yeah, I think I’d like to take you up on that offer to teach me, if you meant it. I’ve done nothing all summer, and boxing seems like a great way to get in shape and get my cardio in.”
“I’ll teach you the basics. You’ll need a pair of gloves, but I’ll tell you which ones to order.”
Relieved he’d foisted Leo off, Morgan flexed his hands and threw some air punches. “Sounds great. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Yeah. And I’ll start right after you tell me what the hell happened. Chris said your ex couldn’t hurt you anymore. So?”
Spots floated in front of his eyes, and Morgan had to get away from Leo’s penetrating gaze that left him stripped raw and naked and completely vulnerable. Those black days returned with a vengeance, pulling him under like a rip current, leaving him to drown.
His breath came in short, hard pants, and he strode away to the other side of the small apartment to stare out the window at the street five stories below. “He hit me, all right? Is that what you want to know? If he had a bad day, he’d take it out on me. At first it was a few shoves or a slap, and he’d apologize and blame it on the stress of his job and trying to make partner, and I loved him, so I brushed it off. After about a year and a half it started to escalate: black eyes, a broken wrist…” Morgan tried to laugh it off but couldn’t. He could barely breathe. “Every time it happened, he’d swear he’d never do it again. He made me feel like I should be lucky he loved me. I was a small-town nobody, a stupid kindergarten teacher. He was the one with the high-powered job, the one who made the money. He told me I was nothing and he was my everything.”
Morgan hadn’t heard Leo’s footsteps, but somehow he found himself in Leo’s arms, leaning against his hard, muscled chest, his cheek pressed to Leo’s. The shaking subsided but not the pain of revealing what he’d tried so hard to hide. To forget.
“The last time, he punched me in the head so hard, I had to go to the hospital because it made me so dizzy, I thought I had a concussion. And the doctor suspected something was wrong. He gave me a look filled with such pity, I knew I had to make a choice because if I didn’t leave him, eventually I’d end up dead.”
A shudder rippled through Leo. “What did you do?”
