Benji waved him away. “It’s just a concussion. Wouldn’t have even come in if Max didn’t make me.”
Max threw a chip packet at him. “You passed out in the lobby! He passed out in the lobby,” he repeated to Noah, as if he hadn’t been there for the first part of the sentence. “It was super dramatic. He had to get carried out on a stretcher!”
“That was totally unnecessary,” Benji said. “I was awake by then! I could’ve walked!”
Noah’s grip tightened around Benji’s hand. He felt sick. He feltfurious. Max and Benji were the only reasons he wasn’t storming out of here right now to find his big brother and shove him up against the nearest wall. What the hell was Michaelthinking? Howdarehe come after Benji like this?
“I told you to let me give you a security team,” he said.
Benji groaned, head tipping back against the pillow. “It’s fine!I’mfine! It was barely a fight. Max, I got him on the ground easy, right?”
Max climbed up onto the hospital bed next to Benji. He was clutching an empty chip wrapper, the kind they dubbed as “weird and fancy” after they figured out how to make the touchscreen vending machines work.
“Is this gonna be a thing now?” Max asked. He said it with a laugh, like he was trying to convince them he wasn’t freaked out. But the fear in his face was obvious, as was the protective way he bent over Benji’s legs.
Noah forced another smile and rubbed Benji’s knuckles.
“No,” he said. “It won’t.”
He took Benji and Max home. Theirnewhome. He’d organize for movers to grab their suitcases from the hotel. Surprisingly, Benji didn’t complain about strangers touching his stuff—even though he was awake and almost fully alert when Noah brought it up. He just hummed, dragging the duvet up to reach his chin.
“Quit hogging it,” Max muttered.
Benji kicked him under the blankets. “It’s a massive bed, you haveroom. Sorry about him,” he added to Noah. “Seriously, you don’t have to sleep in the other room.”
“It’ll be easier this way.” Noah stroked his hair back, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I’ll set an alarm. Wake you up every few hours. If I sleep in another room, the alarm won’t wake him.”
“Hope it does,” Benji grumbled. But there was nothing in his expression except concern when he twisted to look at Max, curled up in the middle of the bed like a pill bug.
Benji sighed, lowering his voice. “I’ll take the stupid security team, alright?”
“Good. I just want to keep you safe.”
“Sure, by having a bunch of big, creepy dudes follow me around.”
“Exactly.” Noah gave him another kiss and leaned back. He was covered in dry sweat from working out, and he needed to shower. He had emails to answer and a coup to organize. He had a hundred things to do, and all of them faded into the background as Benji grabbed his shirt.
“Noah,” he said. “Thank you. For coming to get me.”
Noah touched his wrist. “Always.”
Benji looked up at him, eyes shining. For a moment, Noah thought he might say something else. Then his breath flooded out of him in an exhausted rush, and he turned to curl up next to Max.
Noah watched them through the night. He caught a little sleep, but even without the alarm reminding him to wake Benji up every few hours, his head was too full. If he didn’t have Benji and Max in the other room, he would go over to Michael’s right now and demand to know what thefuckhe was thinking. There was wanting the best for your little brother, and then there wasthis. This wasn’t about Noah. Maybe it had never been. This was about Michael and his bullshit issues with Yvonne and everyone like her. Michael thought that if he just threatened Benji enough, he’d back off.
He had another thing coming. Noah would fight for him with everything he had. Even if Benji decided he wanted out—of being a sugar baby, of the relationship, of Noah’s life—Noah would make sure he was safe. Of that, he was certain.
The last alarm sounded at 8:30 a.m., and Noah reached over the stove to silence it; he thought he’d turned it off when he got up for the day an hour ago.
He grabbed the tray he’d just finished preparing and headed to the bedroom. “Baby.”
Benji let out a sleepy mumble. One eye cracked open and creased in confusion when he saw Noah in a suit and tie, holding a tray out.
“I made us breakfast.” Noah nodded over at Max. “Want to wake him up?”
“‘M awake,” Max rasped. He sat up, his hair poofier than Noah had ever seen it. “Breakfast?”
Noah held up the tray. Max’s eyes widened as he took in the spicy aroma floating up from two warm bowls heaped with soup and grains.
