Loving Bailey by Lee Brazil

baby, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have
startled you!" Ashton rounded the counter into the kitchen and
grabbed his hand to inspect the cut.
    Finding his voice was immediately impossible
because Ashton's nearness overpowered his senses. He turned his
head and caught the concern in Ashton's face. His heart tripped on
a beat and he found his voice again. "It's okay, Ash. It's just a
little cut. I've gotten much worse on the jobsite."
    Ash scowled at him. "Yeah, big tough
construction worker. It looks deep and that's a lot of blood."
    Repressing the urge to roll his eyes, Bailey
leaned forward, crowding Ash into the counter with his hip. He
turned on the tap and ran cold water over his hand. "Just hand me a
bandage and all will be well."
    Ashton flushed and stepped back quickly.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to be overbearing." Opening a drawer, he
retrieved a box of bandages. Bailey didn't know quite what to say
so he kept quiet as they cleaned up his injury.
    Ashton covered the wound with a Band-Aid and
stepped away. He stared at the piles of chopped fruits and smiled,
but the expression looked far from natural. "So, I can finish this
since you're hurt. What is it?"
    He'd hurt Ashton's feelings? That wasn't
acceptable. Stepping in close, Bailey wrapped his arms around his
lover's waist and tugged him back so he rested against him.
    "It's a salad to go on top of the fish after
it's baked. I can get it though. Don't you need to grade your
essays?"
    Ash turned to face him, bringing their
groins into contact. Bailey felt his blood heat at the suggestive
contact and hoped Ash wouldn't notice the stirring in his cock.
    "I needed a break. I got a good chunk of
them done but they run together after a while. I came in here to
see if you needed help."
    Bailey looked up into Ash's intense eyes. "I
have the cooking under control, I think."
    "What are you making?"
    "Baked halibut, the salad, and saffron rice.
Simple and easy. All I need to do right now is throw those into a
bowl with some lime juice and put it in the fridge. The fish needs
to marinate for another hour and a half before it goes under the
broiler."
    A lusty twinkle sparked in Ashton's gaze,
and he flashed a sexy grin. "Then you've got a little time to
fill?"
    A hand sliding down to grope at his ass
emphasized the intent behind the words. "I think so. Did you need
me for something?" He tried for innocent but was afraid he'd only
succeeded in achieving desperate corniness.
    "Always," Ashton whispered. "Want to take a
nap?"
     

Chapter Nine
     
    Straightening his spine until his vertebrae
cracked satisfyingly, Ashton shoved his wooden straight back chair
away from the dilapidated desk. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and
squinted in the dim light to shut down his computer. The screen
went dark and the machine powered off with the irritating whine it
had developed over the last few months.
    A broad grin stretched his lips and he
reached for his phone. He was one step closer to kissing this place
good-bye for good. Next semester he'd be operating out of a
well-lit, spacious office with a window facing the quad on a campus
fifteen miles north of the hell this place had turned into.
    The text message to Bailey only took a
second to send, and then he began straightening his exam books back
into piles for each section. He topped each stack of blue books
with a small paper clipped bundle of Scantron tests that he'd been
fortunate enough to get scored already.
    The only thing he had left to do was
administer the last exam at mid-day tomorrow and then compile all
his scores into the computer for final grades. The end of six years
of Composition 101 hell loomed within his grasp. He'd kind of miss
the office though. The room was small, true, about the size of a
broom closet if he were honest, but it was also well away from the
main traffic avenues of the campus and students who didn't have
appointments seldom interrupted his research. Of course, half the
students with appointments turned up late because they