Unable to answer, I shook my head and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face in his chest and sucking in huge gulps of his scent. I was panting as though I’d been running for miles, but I just couldn’t seem to get enough air. I also couldn’t get close enough to him. I twisted in his arms to tear my t-shirt off, immediately yanking his camouflage button-up free of his waistband and burrowing under it, pressing our skin together and moaning when the areas we touched began to cool almost immediately.
“Ari?” Roger’s voice thickened and he gripped my shoulders with firm but gentle hands. “Can you talk?”
My body was tense, painful, and even though I could hear his words, I didn’t really understand them and certainly couldn’t form a response. When Roger carefully eased me away from him, I whined and stared up at him in shock. Surely he wasn’t going to deny me comfort?
“Oh, fuck it,” he finally grumbled under his breath. “I’m headed to Hell in the end anyway.”
I wasn’t sure what the threat of eternal damnation had to do with my desperate situation but to my relief, Roger gripped me around the waist and tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of grain. He strode toward the bedroom, one strong hand gripping my bottom as we went.
ChapterThirteen
Roger
Something was very, very wrong when I shoved the door open and stepped into my living room.
It was harder than I’d expected to be away from Ari, so making it home a day early had been a relief until I walked through the unlocked door and found the townhouse stuffy and oddly silent. Then, when I found Ari swaying on his feet and clutching the back of a chair with hollow dark circles swallowing fever-bright eyes, the relief turned to near panic.
I made a few futile attempts to find out what was wrong, but Ari just grabbed onto me like a drowning man to a life ring and either couldn’t or wouldn’t talk to me. He seemed desperate for touch and struggled to get our bodies as close together as physically possible, much like he had after our lunch date a few weeks earlier.
Flummoxed, I tried to set him back so I could call ODI for advice, but the devastated look on his face was my undoing and I gave in, instead resorting to the same, ahem,treatment planI’d used then. Except, this time, instead of using my mouth, it was a hot injection of Alpha love directly where it would do the most good. Actually, four of them, since that was how many times it took before Ari stopped rubbing and grinding on me and instead lay collapsed in a fucked-out, sated heap on the bed with a smile on his face.
Instead of rushing off for a washcloth when I was sure we were done for a while, I pulled Ari close and covered us with a light blanket when he started to shiver, feeling his skin slowly cooling to normal body temperature as we cuddled.
“Ari?”
His hot flashes seemed to have passed and he was beginning to shift his weight, suggesting he was coming back to full consciousness.
“Hm?” It was more of a sigh than a response, but it seemed intentional and relaxed, unlike the bleating noises he’d been making when I first found him in the kitchen.
“How are you feeling?”
Ari yawned and stretched, making a happy sound when his skin rubbed over mine. “Better. Hungry.”
“Yeah? What sounds good?”
“Egg rolls and fried rice,” Ari answered without hesitation. “Mmm, and that chicken with the yellow sauce.”
“Chinese delivery, it is,” I agreed with a chuckle, pressing a kiss to his tousled hair and reaching for my phone to place the order. “After that though, I think we need to talk about these episodes you’re having.”
I was prepared for Ari to argue with me as he had before, but he surprised me by nodding his agreement before snuggling against my chest like the two inches of space between us was further than he could stand to be away from me.
“I think you’re right about me needing to see the doctor,” he mumbled into my skin. “It was pretty scary when the room started spinning earlier.”
“When the room what?” I raised up onto one elbow and stared down at him. “When was that?”
“Right before you came in,” he said tiredly. “I was trying to get to Jeremy’s phone number to call for help when you found me.”
“But you feel okay now?” I questioned. “Not dizzy or confused or sick to your stomach?”
“Feel great now except for being tired,” Ari assured me with another yawn, “but I don’t want to feel like that again if the doctor can help.”
“Okay.” I settled back down, figuring we had a few minutes to doze before our dinner came. “Tonight, we’ll sleep, and first thing tomorrow, I’ll see if the doctor can get you in.”
Ari’s only response was a faint snore.
~*~
Neglect.
