Page 29 of Constantly Cotton
Cotton reached out, rolling away long enough to check his phone to make Jason miss that amazing body next to his.
“It’s only six,” he murmured. “You’ve got another two hours before I check your vitals, and I’ve got another three before I absolutely have to get out of bed.”
Jason chuckled, more than happy when Cotton returned to his arms without protest.
“Why? What makes you have to get out of bed?”
“Biology,” Cotton murmured. “And calorie diary.”
“You have to eat and… uhm….”
“Potty,” Cotton filled in dryly. “Yeah. It’s one of the things the shrink had us keep track of so our bodies were in our control.”
“Mmm.” His hair was so silky at his nape. Soft and sleep-scented; whatever bath products these guys used, they were amazing. Jason hadn’t been so aware of smells since he’d first had to light candles in his college dorms when his sister visited to hide how much sex he’d been having in the times between.
Cotton’s hand came up to where Jason’s rested at his waist, and he tangled their fingers together.
“You don’t mind me here?” he asked, his voice still sleepy. “There were two beds, and only so many blankets. Burton said you’d be fine.”
“I don’t know,” Jason teased groggily. “I’ve been feverish. I might get deluded and wake up and fondle you. Be sure to slap my hand if that happens. Highly inappropriate.”
Cotton’s laugh was surprisingly bitter. “This body’s been for sale before. Not sure anything really counts as inappropriate anymore.”
And Jason was still falling asleep, dammit, but that needed to be addressed. “Any touch you don’t want is inappropriate,” he said, trying to sound stern. “Even mine.”
The sigh let some of the bitterness out. “But I want your touch,” he murmured, and the end of his words trailed off as he fell back asleep, leaving Jason to hold him as tight as he could, and wonder what they were going to do now.
APPARENTLY SLEEPsome more. When he woke up, he was alone, but he had a vague memory of his vitals being taken and being made to swallow his medication. On the empty side of the bed, he saw a pair of jeans, clean boxers, and a T-shirt laid out, as well as a new gray fleece hoodie and a pair of new flip-flops.
Damn, for a group of kids who seemed to live in basketball shorts and bare feet, these guys apparently understood how to shop for someone else.
He was impressed.
He dressed hurriedly, the chill of morning still sharp, used the facilities in the luxuriously appointed adjoining bathroom, and followed his nose into the kitchen where Cotton stood, in an outfit much like his own but much more lived-in, and scrambled eggs on a well-outfitted stove.
The entire cabin, Jason had noted, was well outfitted. The bathroom had been done in white-and-cream tile, with a surprisingly large shower and big fluffy towels apparently standard. The bedroom he and Cotton had been in was lushly decorated, with a sturdy, warm wool rug and local art prints in frames on darkly stained wood-paneled walls. The sheets had been fine and soft, and the navy comforter had been the same. Cotton’s fleece blankets—in the morning light coming from the window, he’d recognized a unicorn in rainbow colors and a giant anime cat, of all things—had contrasted starkly with the elegance and clean lines of the rest of the room.
But they’d made Jason smile, so he figured it was totally worth it.
And the kitchen had beige marble tile on the floor and walls, with black appliances—tasteful, elegant, a little plain, but definitely not “rustic.”
“Wherearewe?” he asked, settling down at a solid oak kitchen table and a chair that didn’t so much as register his weight.
“Ellery Cramer’s mother’s cabin,” Burton said, watching his expression.
His eyebrows hit his hairline, so hopefully he didn’t disappoint. “She just turned over the keys?”
“Mm-hmm. Ellery talked to her when you were still on the road from LA,” Burton told him, his voice ringing with an unspoken “If you can believe that shit.”
Jason really couldn’t. “She what?”
“So it seems Rivers asked Ellery to rent a cabin, Ellery asked his mother for suggestions because the boy isn’t stupid, and she bought the cabin and gave it to Ellery as a birthday present for Jackson that Ellery isn’t supposed to tell Jackson about. He’s supposed to produce the keys whenever they need a place out of town and say, ‘My mother says this place is nice.’”
Jason breathed in deeply and there, under the smell of dusty pine trees, he caught a whiff of new building materials. “She had it renovated in a week?” he asked, feeling off-balance.
“Knowing that woman, she had it renovated two days after Ellery asked her if she knew of one he could rent.” Burton shook his head. “You know how Rivers and Cramer keep showing up to fix the fucking world?”
Jason nodded.
