Richard would never ever hit him, much less try to drown him in the ocean. It had been scary and painful to fight the emptiness in his lungs, with no guarantee that the three months Loki had wouldn’t be cut very short. Then again, Loki didn’t want to be with Richard. He wanted to be with Jack, even if the bastard really ended up killing him in the end. Possibly, it would be less painful than agony in a hospital bed, slowly losing himself to the growing tumor in his skull.
Loki gently pulled his fingers over the side of Jack’s face. Lucy had no idea what she was missing out on.
Chapter 9
Red Jack woke up to a pressure in his temples, with his tongue dry as a woodchip and a sour aftertaste in his mouth. He blinked and opened his eyes to look at the dim ceiling. The curtains were drawn over the windows, sparing him the pain of direct sunlight. He groaned, massaging his eyeballs with his thumbs before looking at the bedside table. No amount of booze could make him as happy as the glass of water he saw there. Next to it were two white pills, and he swallowed them at once, gulping down the whole thing.
“How are you feeling?” asked a voice from behind him, and he froze, squeezing his hand around the glass.
Loki lay under a blanket on the other side of the bed, cuddled up, with his straight, glistening hair pillowed under his scarred cheek. Red Jack’s memory was still fuzzy when it came to last night. He squinted at Loki, and then assessed himself. He was wearing just a pair of black sweatpants.
Red Jack swallowed. “We didn’t— I mean… We didn’t, right?” Loki wouldn’t have fucked him when he was unconscious. Or would he?
Loki shook his head.
Red Jack vaguely remembered coming home, having some kind of fight with Loki on the beach… But Loki looked pristine with his hair washed, and his handsome face fresh. Red Jack wasn’t sure what to say, so he just had more water.
“Did you really try to drown me?” whispered Loki, staring at Red Jack with a weirdly neutral face.
Red Jack’s frown deepened, and he ran his fingers through his hair, watching the tangles of snake-like beasts tattooed on Loki’s arm. “No, I don’t think I did. I think I took some happy pills that didn’t turn out to be so happy.” Fucking Paxton. It was all her fault. He wouldn’t have had to swallow them if she hadn’t been sniffing around him, ready to arrest him for the slightest hint of illegal activity.
“Well, I almost died, you dick,” grumbled Loki. He gently kicked Red Jack’s shin, as if to prove a point. “Don’t do it again.”
“I had a rough night. The booze must have made a mix from hell with those pills.” Red Jack squeezed his eyes and opened them again. “Did I invite you here?”
“You tried to fuck me and then fell asleep in the water. You’d be dead if I hadn’t saved you.”
Red Jack bit his cheek on the inside. Fuck. So he’d tried to get his hands on Loki? Again? Fucking fuck. He scratched his beard, too embarrassed to continue the topic. His hair was tangled and weirdly coarse. “I suppose I could organize the guest room for you or something,” he mumbled and walked out of the bedroom. What the fuck was he supposed to do?
The sound of bare feet stomping on the wooden floor followed him immediately. “I could make you some breakfast.”
“You could?” Red Jack raised an eyebrow and sat on a bar stool by the kitchen island. What was this guy’s deal anyway? Never in Red Jack’s life had anyone pursued him this intensely. It was… weird. ‘Invasion of privacy’ didn’t cut it. He needed to find out more about Loki if he was to find a way to get rid of him. And then, he was also kind of sorry about the psycho outburst yesterday night. Loki was right, Red Jack could have killed him.
Loki nodded, walking past him in just a pair of colorful boxer briefs and a loose tank top. “You’ll need some protein and fat to get rid of that hangover. I can see it in your face.”
Red Jack pouted. “What’s your deal? You really like my dick that much, or do you wanna milk me for money? You need a place to stay? What is it?”
Loki exhaled and turned around to face him over the counter. He shook his head when his long hair didn’t immediately fall into place over the scarred cheek. “I do like your dick, but it’s so much more than that.” He folded his hands on the countertop and rested his chin on top of them. “You’re really handsome, and you have this presence about you. Can’t help but be drawn to it. We could make such a good team, Jack,” he added with a smile that could only be called charming. The two tiny balls of his septum piercing emerged as his nostrils flared, and Red Jack couldn’t help but stare.