He managed to drag himself out of bed and make it to the bathroom without too much trouble. Wiping his stomach clean with a damp rag and brushing his teeth was all the effort he put into his appearance, though.
He was wiping some other guy’s spunk off his stomach. Jesus. It wasn’t just some other guy, either. It was Nick. It was his best friend. It was his best friend he’d always thought was straight until a year ago. What did that even f**king mean for him? Could Kelly still call himself straight? Was he g*y now? God, he hoped Nick had some answers for him because Nick was the only person he could think of to even ask these things.
He turned to examine himself in the mirror. “Really?” he whispered to his reflection. He nodded and began to grin without meaning to. “Okay then. You stupid ass**le.”
He pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a ragged T-shirt, but he had to sit on the end of the bed and rest after he was dressed. He was hard-pressed not to laugh at himself. Too weak to dress himself without a breather, but not too f**king weak to beg his best friend to f**k him.
He caught sight of the pajama bottoms he’d been wearing last night, crumpled at the foot of the bed where he’d kicked them. His stomach fluttered, and again he was surprised by the reaction. Nick had been good. Very good. Jizz-in-your-pants good. Everything about it had been good, and Kelly was shockingly okay with that. What made him kind of want to throw up was wondering how Nick was taking it.
He winced as he stood, fighting past the pull as he shuffled toward the stairs. The painkillers hadn’t kicked in yet, and mornings were always the worst. He stood at the top of the steps, looking down. It seemed like a long way without someone there to catch him if he fell.
Nick appeared at the bottom of the staircase, peering up at him. “You need help?”
“I thought I didn’t,” Kelly said with a grin. “I might have been wrong.”
Nick took the stairs two at a time, coming to the step below him and letting him lean on his shoulders. Nick’s arm slipped around his waist, and Kelly’s entire body shivered. Nick’s scent, the way he gripped Kelly’s shirt, the warmth of his body, all brought back memories of last night with a confusing rush of sensations.
“You too stubborn to call for help now?” Nick muttered.
“I guess.”
Nick glanced up at him, frowning. Kelly was silent as they fumbled their way down the stairs. He couldn’t quite catch his breath, and he wasn’t used to the way his chest kept filling with butterflies.
When he’d asked Nick to kiss him last night, he’d never anticipated this lingering result.
He didn’t get a chance to study Nick’s face again until he was easing into his recliner. He looked up as Nick bent over him. Nick didn’t seem flustered. He didn’t seem nervous or scared or confused or any of the other myriad of emotions Kelly had felt in the last two minutes. But then, when had Nick ever looked nervous?
“Doc?” Nick said pointedly.
“Huh?”
“I asked you if you wanted food,” Nick said with a smile. “Are you okay?”
Kelly nodded, closing his eyes and grimacing as he tried to get comfortable. He jumped when Nick patted his cheek.
“You hurting?” Nick asked.
“Is it that obvious?”
Nick nodded, his frown deepening. “Did I hurt you?” he asked, voice going softer.
Kelly grinned slowly. That intimate tone of voice, talking about what they’d done last night, was something he found surprisingly sexy.
“Kels?”
Kelly ran a gentle finger over his bullet wound and shrugged. “It bled a little. Maybe a stitch pulled loose or something.”
Nick’s gaze dropped to Kelly’s wound, and his face paled. “Shit.”
Kelly reached out and ran a hand over Nick’s palm, making sure Nick was looking into his eyes again before he spoke. “I wasn’t feeling anything last night but good.”
Nick looked both relieved and amused.
“What are you fixing?” Kelly asked to get Nick’s mind off how delicate Kelly still was. Nick was an exceptional cook. They’d discovered that when they’d been stationed at Lejeune and had all gone in to rent a house together. Nick’s job had always been to cook.
“What do you want?”
Kelly shrugged, shaking his head. He wasn’t really in the mood for food.
Nick sighed and sat on the edge of the coffee table, his hands clasped between his knees. “This is last night catching up to you, isn’t it?” he asked, voice grim.
Kelly’s breath caught. He made the mistake of meeting Nick’s eyes, and he was caught by them, transfixed by their color, by the earnest concern in them.
Nick inhaled deeply. “There’s nothing I can say right now that won’t be awkward.”
Kelly began to laugh. “I know it. We don’t have to talk about it.”
“I kind of think we do,” Nick said. “Eventually we’ll have to. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the feeling of having something hanging between us.”
“Neither do I,” Kelly whispered.
“And right now there’s a wicked big thing hanging there.”
Kelly snorted.
“I’m sorry.”
“What for?” Kelly blurted.
Nick shrugged, looking around the room with a little smile. “I feel like I took advantage of you being drugged.”
“But you didn’t.”
“But I feel like I did,” Nick insisted.
“Yeah but, if you hadn’t, you’d be feeling guilty for telling me no,” Kelly argued.
“No I wouldn’t,” Nick said. A smile pulled at his lips. “I’d be regretting telling you no and probably very frustrated, but . . .”
The admission warmed Kelly all the way to his toes. “So that’s how you do it,” he muttered.
“What?”
“I just learned the secret to the O’Flaherty charm,” Kelly said, beginning to grin. “You just . . . stun the other person with honesty.”
Nick chuckled, his cheeks beginning to flush. But he didn’t look away. They stared at each other, getting lost in the familiarity for long seconds before Nick leaned closer. “Are you okay, Kels? And I don’t mean the hole in your chest.”
Kelly nodded. Then he frowned. “No, actually.”
Nick’s face clouded over, his brow furrowing and his eyes apprehensive.
“See, every time I think about you now, I get these butterflies,” Kelly explained, fluttering his fingers at his chest. “And it’s weird because it’s you, and you’re you. But I like it too. And . . . I like that it’s you. So I’m not sure what to do with that.”