Bruce would lay odds that Laddin liked just about everyone. He had one of those eternally bright personalities Bruce usually hated. “So back to me….”
Laddin sobered. “Yeah. Your brother had a real problem grounding back into his body. That’s the good news.”
“Josh’s problem is good news?”
“Yup, because I paid attention. I know how to help you, but you aren’t going to like it.” He grinned. “Unless you love it. Josh ended up loving it, so there’s no telling—”
“Get to the point!”
“I am!” Laddin huffed as his hand brushed across Bruce’s chest.
Fire spun through Bruce’s body, totally out of proportion to what that simple contact should have created, and he gasped as much in embarrassment as delight.
“Do you think I drape myself all over the first hot stranger I meet?”
Bruce was still in the grips of reaction, his cock suddenly throbbing beneath the sweatpants. “Maybe. I don’t know you,” he growled.
“Well, I don’t. But Josh was all about touch. In the beginning, it was the only way to get him back into his body. Then, later….” Laddin shrugged, his torso rubbing erotically against Bruce’s arm. “Well, he did it by enthusiastic choice afterward.”
Bruce closed his eyes, trying to get a grip on his whirling thoughts. “What are you talking about?”
Laddin tilted his head so that his temple was on Bruce’s shoulder and his mouth was perilously close to Bruce’s jaw. “You need to have an orgasm,” he said. “It’s the fastest way to get into your body. It’s also pretty damn fun, so all in all, it’s not such a bad thing.”
Horror shuddered through Bruce’s body. “You are not going to jerk me off, you perv.”
Laddin reared back. “As if! Mamma mia, I don’t want to touch you any more than you want me to.”
That would have been reassuring, except his dick was screaming, Yes, yes, yes! And if he didn’t miss his guess, Laddin’s sweatpants were tenting, though he’d adjusted his hips to try to hide it.
Meanwhile, Laddin continued to stroke Bruce’s shoulders, the touch growing firmer until it felt more like a massage. And damn it all, Bruce really wanted to close his eyes and feel.
“You need to have a personal moment,” Laddin said gently. “I get that it’s awkward and embarrassing. Believe me, I feel the same way. But you need it, and I can’t leave you alone until you do it.”
“This is bullshit,” Bruce said, though he couldn’t deny the temptation to touch his own dick. “I was fine a few minutes ago. This is just low blood sugar.”
“Uh-huh. Believe me, I was thinking the same thing at first. But it’s been fifteen minutes since you started drinking. Five since you finished the bottle. Feel any more connected to your body?”
No. If anything, he felt more lightheaded. He could imagine his entire body floating off into a hazy sleep except for the places where Laddin heated his skin. Those spots were warm, happy, and begging for more.
“Something happened to put you into your head. One minute you were all grouchy bear, and suddenly you’re dizzy and can barely lift your arms. Care to tell me what it was?”
He hadn’t a clue.
“Never mind. You need to get on with polishing your knob.”
“Are you twelve?”
“You don’t like that phrase? I’ve got others. ‘Choke the chicken.’ ‘Go fly fishing.’ ‘Liquidate the inventory.’”
“You are a child.”
“And you need to get busy.”
Hell no.
“How about ‘celebrating palm Sunday’? ‘Digital penile oscillation’? ‘Give yourself a low five’?”
“Holy hell, how many of those have you got?”
“You kidding? I went through the LA public school system. I’m just getting started. Like you need to,” he said, pinching Bruce’s taut nipple. And while Bruce bucked in reaction, Laddin kept talking. “You must have done it with your friends when you were a kid. Didn’t all eleven-year-old boys go into a back room and spit-shine their water pump? Yank on the crank and whack the weasel?”
Yeah, so there had been some of that when he’d been young and randy. “We called it ‘visiting Miss Michigan.’” He held up a hand with his fingers together. “Because the state is shaped like a hand.”
“And the UP has that very pointed shape.”
Bruce hadn’t thought about it that deeply, but he supposed it applied. “I had a friend who called it ‘teaching Cyclops the lambada.’”
Laddin tilted his head. “Not bad. Gives it a bit of an international flavor.”
Bruce chuckled. “I think it’s a global phenomenon.”
Laddin grinned as he straightened, moving away from Bruce’s shoulder. “How ya feeling now?”
It took a moment for Bruce to check himself. He remembered the protocol he used to go through as a paramedic, checking a patient’s vitals and doing a head-to-toe inventory. He used it now and was disappointed to realize he felt good. His heartbeat was steady, his breath was even, and his legs and even his toes had heated up.
He shook his head to clear it. There had to be a reason he was suddenly feeling better. The electrolytes in the sports drink he’d finished had probably kicked in. That was it. It couldn’t possibly be because Laddin had snuggled up tight to his side.
“Better,” he said quietly. “More solid.”
“You grounded into your body, and all it took was a little raunchy talk.” He gave Bruce’s shoulders a squeeze. “See? Now you don’t need to shuck your corn.” Then he waggled his eyebrows. “Good one, right? Didn’t think I’d know that one, did you? Since I’m city-born and -raised.”
“I grew up in Indianapolis. That’s not exactly Mayberry.”
Laddin drew back, taking his arm and his heat with him. “Where?”
“It’s from a TV show my mom used to love. We’d watch the reruns together.” He let his head drop back onto the straw bale. “It was filmed in black and white.”
“Ugh. You guys in the Midwest are living in the Dark Ages. You know that, right?”
“Not me. My mom. And yes, we know.” Although in his mother’s case, it was more like the Denial Ages. But rather than think about that, he shifted against
