Love Means No Shame - Andrew Grey

the door part way to block out the noise. “I’m so sleepy.”
    “Then rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.” 104
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    Geoff stretched out his hand, and Eli held it as he fell back to sleep, thinking of how nice it was going to be at home, where he could hold Eli properly.

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    Andrew Grey
    GEOFF was restless, majorly restless. He’d been cooped up in the house for three warm, beautiful, summer days. He wanted to go riding and spend time with Eli, but mostly, he just wanted out of this house. He’d already brought the farm records up to date and finished computerizing all the accounts. But most of all, he was tired of sleeping alone. He hadn’t been able to hold Eli properly since that afternoon in the hospital when he’d napped with him.
    His last night in the hospital, he’d had to convince Eli to go back to the farm with Len instead of trying to sleep in the chair in his room for the third night. Besides, nowthat he’d awakened, he’d doubted the hospital would allowit anyway.

    He heard the back door open and close and footsteps in the house, and then Eli’s bright face poked into the office. “What are you doing up? You’re supposed to be in bed.”

    “I can’t stand it anymore, and I’m just working on the accounts, nothing strenuous.” He actually held his hands up in a sign of surrender. His quiet, Amish, non-confrontational boyfriend had turned into an instant drill sergeant the minute he’d gotten home, 106
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making sure he took his medicine, rested, and obeyed the doctor’s orders to the letter.
    Eli’s face became stern and then softened. “See that you do; I want you better.” Those blue eyes twinkled with mischief. “If you’re good and rest, I thought that tomorrow we could go for a ride.” Hallelujah , fresh air, a chance to ride Kirk, and maybe be alone with Eli. That was almost enough to convince him to spend the rest of the day in bed… almost. He was feeling pretty good, and his breathing was solid with no shortness of breath. “Okay, I’ll take it easy, I promise.”
    Eli bounded over to him. “As long as you promise to be good.” Then he leaned over and kissed Geoff, Eli’s tongue teasing his lips until they parted for him. Up till now, their kisses had been soft and gentle, with Geoff as the initiator, but this was different. Eli as the initiator was stunningly arousing, and man, could he kiss. Geoff felt Eli’s hand on the back of his head as the kiss deepened, and he couldn’t suppress a small whimper. Eli’s eyes looked like deep lakes as he pulled back from the kiss. “Remember your promise.” If that was the reward for being good, he could be freakin’ angelic.
    Shutting off the computer and putting away the records, Geoff moved to the living room, turned on the television, and spent a few hours napping through the late afternoon talk shows.
Geoff was awakened by the scent of dinner cooking in the kitchen and the weight of someone sitting on the sofa. He expected Eli but woke to Len’s brown eyes looking down at him. “Dinner will be ready soon.”

Geoff nodded and started getting up. “I’ve been thinking. We used to raise a steer to enter in the county fair.”
“Yeah, that was one of the things we gave up when your dad got sick. Why?”
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Geoff squirmed on the old sofa, trying to get comfortable. “I think I’d like to start doing that again.”
“Do you want to share with me what you’re thinking?” Geoff thought out loud as he told Len the outline of his idea.
“I think that’s a great idea, we’ll put it to him and see if he’s interested.” Len patted Geoff's shoulder and started walking away.
    “Oh, I found out that the Winters are looking to sell their pastures and fields.” The Winters’ fields were adjacent to many of theirs and would be a good fit for the farm.
    “Find out how much they want, and I’ll run some numbers to see how much we should pay. Then we’ll decide if it makes financial sense,” Geoff said. Len smiled proudly as Geoff got up from the sofa and went into the office so he could start putting numbers on paper.
    Dinner was quiet, but Geoff noticed that Eli kept looking at him and smiling, giving him an “I know something you don’t know” look that had him curious. After dinner, Geoff insisted on doing something, so he finished the dishes and then headed up to bed.

    He’d just turned out the light and gotten into bed when his door