Snafu

Morning After - Part 2

"Well," Gideon looked down at the glass of water, and Cole thought, here we go, this conversation is going to be like pulling teeth, but then Gideon squared his shoulders. "Because my brother's men are coming to escort us to the courthouse. And it's not fair for you to die because my brother is pissed at me."

"No, I just have to marry you instead." The memory of the gun going off echoed in Cole's ear and he shivered. He rolled onto his side so he could focus on Gideon's face. The initial hesitation to confront Cole about this had disappeared from his features. He shuttered back up to the blank, slightly intimidating, neutral expression that he apparently wore on the regular. "What the hell did you do to him to piss him off so bad?"

"No idea." Gideon shrugged. "He just likes to fuck with people."

The Barta family drama was as terrifying as Cole had imagined it might be. It was a difficult pill to swallow that his entire life was being turned upside down over nothing. However, if it was about something specific, and Gideon did not want him to know, then Cole was fine with not getting any more involved than he already was. He did not push for any more details about the situation between the brothers.

"Did we...uh..." Cole grimaced and smoothed a hand over the disarray of sheets and blankets. "Did we do anything last night?"

Gideon looked at him like he had grown another head. "Besides getting married?"

"Well, like the other stuff that goes along with marriage."

Cole felt heat creeping up the back of his neck. He was pretty certain Gideon would not have done anything while he was blackout drunk, but he was not one hundred percent sure. And while his mouth tasted pretty awful because he had not brushed his teeth, the rest of him was squeaky clean. He had a shower between last night and this morning and was now in clothes that were not his own, which meant at some point, someone had helped him clean off, and at some point, he had been naked. He hugged his stomach.

"Cole, are you trying to ask if we had sex?" Gideon's voice was incredulous. "Just come out and ask it. Why are you even shy about this? You are literally a sex worker."

"Okay!" Cole said a little loudly over Gideon. All that meant was that sex remained in a very structured, carefully cordoned-off section of his brain, clinical, simple, and just a part of the job. But sex with Gideon made him feel flustered. The mere fact that he enjoyed it. Not knowing why he enjoyed it. Being unwilling to allow himself to enjoy it. Lying in bed on the nights after they had been together and feeling like he should not touch himself while pretend it was Gideon's hands. Then feeling spend cooling on his chest as he raced to catch his breath, mocking him as the guilt settled in. "Yes. I'm asking if we had sex, asshole."

"No," Gideon spit, properly offended, lips turned down and brows furrowed. "Jesus, Cole. I would not do that."

Cole sat up and palmed his forehead, begging any higher power that was listening to make the pain meds kick in faster. "No?"

"No, what the fuck."

Gideon leaped off the bed and paced around, so agitated that the energy needed an outlet. He ran a hand over his head, his soft hair springing back after his palm passed over it, his bicep bunching and releasing as he dropped the hand to his mouth. His distress ran hot it seemed, outbursts and pacing, as opposed to Logan's cold fury - a snake curled up so tight in the grass that if he didn't tiptoe, he might step on it and have a pair of fangs sticking in him before he even realized there was danger. Cole blinked at Gideon's bare feet as they paced over the hardwood and thought it was weird that he knew what Gideon Barta's toes looked like. What his anger looked like.