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ask. He hadn’t forgotten, not for a moment, what Mike’s body had looked like covered in bruises. The boot mark on his thigh.
    They stood there for a long time while Mike stared out at the city and Alexei silently wished he could do something, anything , to make it better for Mike. The room was lit only by the lights outside and the TV flickering behind them and slowly, the intimacy broke through Alexei’s rage, shifting all the adrenaline in another direction.
    He carefully eased his hips away from Mike’s ass, and in the process, broke the spell that had let him get away with holding Mike for a while.
    Mike turned and smiled sadly. “Thanks. And sorry. You probably should have gone out with the guys. I guess I’m a drag.”
    Alexei just shook his head and moved to the bed. “Come. It’s late,” Alexei said, careful to keep his voice low as he shut off the TV. “We have an early flight.”
    He wondered if Mike would object to Alexei telling him it was time to go to bed, but he just nodded and crawled under the covers.
    Alexei could feel Mike’s heat from across the bed and ached to reach toward it. He didn’t, of course, and hoped like hell he wouldn’t do anything stupid in his sleep.
    It had been a while since he’d been with anyone, and he hadn’t missed it much or felt lonely.
    Until right now.
     
    Mike woke in the middle of the night, startled awake by his increasingly terrifying dream. For a long moment, all he could do was listen to his heart pounding and incredibly grateful he hadn’t had a full-blown nightmare.
    The tickle of hot breath against the back of his neck snapped him fully alert. Alexei was pressed the length of his spine, his hips snugged up against Mike’s ass, a knee jammed between Mike’s thighs. A wall of heat at his back.
    Mike took a deep breath and Alexei’s fingers twitched against his belly where his shirt had rucked up.
    The rational part of Mike’s brain knew this was awkward. And not just because of his growing erection. Alexei clearly had no idea who he was using as a human body pillow. Like none. And any movement would wake him. Mike could imagine Alexei flinging himself to the other side of the bed with horror.
    Which was the opposite of what the very irrational part of Mike’s brain wanted.
    So Mike didn’t move. Not a muscle. Not to rearrange his aching dick or scratch the niggling itch along his hairline from the gusts of warm, damp breath against his skin. He just smiled and, for as long as it took for him to slip into a much better dream, enjoyed the hell out of it.
    When their alarm went off at some god-awful hour in the morning, Mike smashed his face into his pillow and groaned an objection. For one glorious moment, the arm around him tightened, the weight at his back rolling on top of him as he twisted his chest against the bed.
    And then it was gone.
    Alexei didn’t actually leap from the bed, but he didn’t linger either. “I’ll take the first shower,” he muttered as he moved briskly to the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind him.
    As a courtesy, Mike didn’t point out that Alexei had just showered right before bed.
    Mike popped open one eye and looked at the dawn light through the windows. It was Christmas Eve and he didn’t have to go home.
    Or, really, he was going home. To Moncton. With Alexei.
    And that felt really good. Though not as good as waking up in Alexei’s arms.
    He gave himself permission to wallow in it for the few minutes Alexei was out of the room, turning his head and inhaling Alexei’s scent from the pillow and the pocket of air beneath the rapidly cooling sheets.
    The moment the shower shut off, Mike jumped from the bed and gathered his clothes for the day, crisp air and sheer will forcing his erection to subside. Alexei came out and grumbled a belated good morning, and Mike popped into the bathroom, determined to get back to business as usual.
    He wasn’t going to kid himself and think he could forget. What he had to