A Strong Hand

the bed, leaning back against the headboard. He raised Nick to lean him against his shoulder and gave him one tablet and the water.
    Nick swallowed and let his head drop onto the comforting shoulder, nuzzling into Damian's neck.
    "Do you need two?" Damian questioned him.
    "No," Nick managed.
    "Okay. I'm just going to lock up and I'll be right back,"
    Damian said. He arranged Nick to recline comfortably and went to secure the car and house.
    He grinned ruefully. He was about to violate one of his own rules—having someone sleep beside him in the same bed. He had taken Nick to his guest room; he hadn't felt good about strong-arming him up the stairs to his own room, but he wanted to be sure that if the boy awoke in the night in pain, he was on hand to help.
    Nick was asleep when Damian returned, only a faint line between his brows betraying the pain that still lingered.
    Damian wondered why he'd refused the second pill.
    He undressed, slipping nude under the covers. Shifting in his sleep, Nick tried to get closer to the source of warmth.
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    Carefully Damian pulled him closer, allowing the boy to nestle close and wrapping his arms around him.
    Nick's breathing slowed and Damian prepared for a very disturbing night.
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    158

    A Strong Hand
    by Catt Ford

Chapter Nine
    Nick swam to the surface with the typical hazy feeling he experienced after taking a painkiller. He also had to piss.
    Slowly, he pushed himself up to sit and squinted blearily. He didn't recognize his surroundings, but dim light emanating from a partially open door reflected off a tile wall allowed him to deduce that was where the bathroom was. Nick slid out of bed cautiously and in stages, stretching his back with both hands clutching his hip, as if trying to hold himself together.
    He was a little stiff, but the pill had done its job.
    He managed the short distance to the bathroom without trouble, and peed. While washing his hands, he looked at himself in the mirror; as was typical after a spasm attack he was pale, with purple shadows under his eyes. He lowered his head to drink directly from the faucet, and dried his hands and face on a towel when he was finished, still without recognizing his surroundings.
    Walking a bit more easily now, he returned to the bed and slid under the covers, shivering a little from the cold air on his bare skin. The bed was nice and warm, and he snuggled closer to the center. He gasped with surprise when his hand brushed naked skin, and he sat up, his heart pounding in his chest.
    In the gray light of dawn sneaking through the windows, he recognized that he was in bed with Damian. What had happened last night? Why was he in bed with the photographer? Self-consciously he tightened his arse, but 159

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    nothing hurt so he concluded that they hadn't fucked and Damian hadn't spanked him either.
    He sank down under the covers. It was chilly in the room and he had to assume, although he had no very clear remembrance of the night before, that Damian had gotten them both into the same bed and so presumably it would not surprise the older man to find him there.
    As he cuddled closer, he realized that Damian was naked.
    He had never seen the other man naked before and Nick couldn't resist. He lifted the covers to look and his cock hardened immediately at the sight of the older man's body.
    "Fuck," he breathed. His sculptor's eye was delighted with the outline of Damian's form: completely masculine, hard muscle, not an excess ounce of fat. Every angle elegantly chiseled, every flat plane distinctly male, the carved abdominal ridges, hard pectorals, long firm thighs, all were more than he'd could have dreamt. For a man older than he (all of thirty-two, had he but known it) Damian was in phenomenal shape.
    Cautiously Nick touched the light covering of hair on Damian's chest; it felt so different from his own hairless skin and he liked it. He ran a finger around one nipple, enthralled when he felt it harden in response. Drawing the finger down the dip in the center of Damian's body, he skirted the crisp curls to detour to the pronounced line between the torso and top of Damian's thigh, stroking along it to feel the tendons tense under his caress.
    He looked up to find Damian's eyes were open, watching him as he explored. "You're so beautiful," Nick breathed, 160

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    unable to stop the utterance but unsure as to whether his