“No. I really like it when you say it, though. Boyfriend.” Avery’s chest swelled in a rush unrelated to the swelling in his face. “It was all my fault. I shouldn’t have—” He cried out as Linc’s thumbs pinched the bridge of his nose and pushed toward the center sharply. “What was that?”
“It’s set. Better if you don’t see it coming.”
He was feeling woozy again. “Is it straight?’
“Hard to say. Let me get some ice.” Linc pushed off the couch. His ass was still spectacular in his jeans, but Avery hated the sight. That ass was solely responsible for the nauseating pain spreading over his eyes and up his forehead.
“Hard to say?”
“Well, it’s swelling pretty fast.” He grabbed one of the plastic shopping bags off the counter and pulled out ice cube trays from the freezer. “I did my best to find the center, but we won’t really know until the swelling goes down. Here.” He gave Avery the icy bag.
Avery laughed. “You have no shirt on.”
“I broke your nose.”
The ice jostled against his face, making him hiss. “The least you could do was give me the shirt off your back.” He sighed. “I’m going to be all crooked now.”
“Maybe.” Linc wrapped one long arm around him, pulling him close but moving him gently. “If we’re lucky, you’ll hardly notice. First though, you’ll be all swollen. Maybe a black eye or two. Shit, I’m really sorry.”
“Black eye!” Avery wailed. If you asked him about broken noses on a day when his wasn’t the nose in question, he’d tell you black eyes were common. But he hadn’t thought about it while trying not to pass out or choke on his own blood. He pulled the ice away from his face long enough to glare at Linc while he still could. “How long am I going to be like this?”
Linc shrugged. “Dunno.”
“You’re the first responder. Give me your best guess.”
“A few weeks?”
“A few weeks!” Oh, this was bad.
He couldn’t go to work with a messed-up face. His uncle would just shake his head at this latest blunder. And what if Wanda’s company wanted a second job interview? Or the—“Oh my God.” Miserably, he leaned against the wall.
“Keep your head forward.”
“What about the bachelor auction?”
“The what?” Linc’s fingers in his hair felt nice at least.
“The bachelor auction. It’s a fundraiser. Things are too bad at work to make a donation this year, so I said they could auction me off instead and now—” he raised his head long enough to wave the bag around his swollen face, “—this. No one’s going to bid on a bachelor with a black eye.”
The hand in his hair slipped to his back, turning in soothing circles. Avery struggled to breathe, hunched over like this, but the back rub was nice.
“I would,” Linc said softly.
Avery gasped, then moaned as his blocked airways protested. The circles on his back continued. It probably looked hilarious: him slumped over, face buried in a plastic bag, clothes covered in his own blood, while his hot-as-sin shirtless boyfriend gave him a back rub. But all Avery could focus on was the shy honesty in Linc’s words.
“You would?”
The circling stopped. “Sure.”
“But you’re not—” He swallowed and then sat up, letting the bag drop. It dripped in his lap, but he needed to see Linc for this. “You don’t have to do that for me. I wouldn’t force you.” Avery expected them to start with small things. Drinks with Vasquez and Wanda. Maybe going to a movie. Linc bidding on him in front of the whole town was a totally different level.
Linc nodded slowly, eyes moving quickly around the apartment. “I want to. For you. For me. For whatever this is between us.”
“But what about—about guys like Derek? He might be there. His dad is a bigshot with a lot of money. He’ll probably bring a bunch of people.”
Linc snorted, and Avery envied him. “Guys like Derek don’t keep me in the closet. I do. Fear does. What my family might say does. But I think I’ll be okay here. Vasquez is out, and people don’t care.”
“Yeah, because she’d eat them if they did.”
