Page 150 of Men in Shorts

The bed was warm, though. Liam snuggled close under the mass of blankets, slinging an arm over Robert’s waist—without interfering with the computer, of course, because heaven forfend.

“I could do this in the living room,” Robert offered.

Liam growled. “Gonnae no move from this bed.”

“Won’t the screen light keep you awake?”

“Nothing will keep me awake. Lie down more.”

Still typing, Robert slid down, his knees rising to support the laptop.

Liam closed his eyes. “Talking of massage, shall I put you in my diary for shoulder rehab next Wednesday?”

“Why? Are you planning to injure me at Tuesday night’s football practice?”

“Tuesday is when the newAssassin’s Creedcomes out. You’ll have your usual twenty-four-hour gaming binge and need a thorough rubdown to release all the angry trigger points.”

“Mm, okay.” Robert stopped typing. “Wait—there’s a newAssassin’s Creed? How did I miss that?”

“Dunno.” Without opening his eyes, Liam reached out and closed the laptop. “Maybe you’ve had your head up your arse for weeks?”

“Aye, cos of work.” Robert tried to lift the screen. “Whatever. I’ve nae time to play games just now anyway.”

“Okay, this is serious.” Liam sat up. “It’s one thing to ignoremebecause of your workaholism, but to miss a new video-game release?” He snatched the laptop and tucked it under his arm. “Who are you and what have you done with Robert McKenzie?”

* * *

Robert stared at his partner,a sudden twist of horror in his gut. “I’ve been ignoring you?”

“Kinda.” Liam rubbed the back of his head, where his short red hair was still a bit sex-mussed. “As much as I’ll let you.”

“God, I’m so sorry.” What an eejit he’d been. “How can I make it up to you?”

Liam looked surprised. Perhaps he’d been expecting an argument. “For starters, right now I need cuddled.”

Robert smiled. His partner was a snuggling fanatic, a fact no one would have guessed from his six-foot-two height and three-foot-thick wall of cynicism. “I can manage that.” He reached for his laptop. “Let me just?—”

“No, that’s you done work for the night.”

“I need to plug it in so the battery doesn’t go flat.”

With a suspicious glare, Liam handed over the computer.

Robert turned away to connect the adapter. “Also, I need to write down?—”

“Och, I knew it!” Liam slapped him with a pillow.

“—one more thing.” Robert added two short lines of code, plus a quick comment so he’d remember his place in the morning. Nearly every word was misspelled, due to the pillow pummeling his back. “Okay, okay.” He set the laptop in his computer bag, which he zipped shut to keep out drafts.

Finally he switched off the lamp, then scooted under the covers. “Sorry about all that.” He found Liam’s face in the dark and kissed his nose. “I got horribly behind schedule during the holidays and now I’m trying to catch up.”

“But you were like this before the holidays.”

“Like what?”

“Like…off kilter. You’ve always been a hard worker, but back at university you had this amazing ability to balance your courses and football and me.” Liam ran his finger over the zip on Robert’s hoodie, sending a soothing warmth over his breastbone. “But now, there’s nae ceiling to how much you work. If it wasn’t for me, I don’t think you’d sleep or eat. When was the last time—apart from Christmas—you had a whole day off?”

“Dunno.” The mere thought of such a long break gave Robert’s stomach an anxious twinge. He actuallyhadworked a wee bit on Christmas, pretending to relax with a football magazine, which had concealed a recent research paper on rewards and motivation in video gaming. “It’s only because we’ve just launched the app’s alpha version and there’s a million improvements to get it ready for beta testing. Things’ll be better after this deadline.”

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