Chapter 42: Objection Overruled… by His Cock -6

Julian woke to the sound of rain still hitting the cabin roof and a deep, grinding ache behind his eyes. The fever had settled in overnight. By mid-morning his skin burned and his limbs felt too heavy to lift. He tried to stand from the couch and the room tilted hard. Gabriel caught him before he hit the floor.

"Easy." Gabriel’s voice was lower than usual. "You are burning up."

Julian tried to push him off. "I am fine. Just need water and a few hours."

Gabriel ignored the protest and guided him back down. "You are not fine. Your pulse is too fast and you can barely stand. Stress and too many days of fighting it out finally caught up with you."

Julian’s laugh came out weak. "Do not start sounding concerned. It does not suit you."

Gabriel’s jaw tightened. "I am not leaving you like this in the middle of nowhere. Bathroom. Now. We need to bring the temperature down."

He half-carried Julian down the short hall. The cabin bathroom was simple and clean, a large tub under a window that looked out into the wet trees. Gabriel started the water lukewarm, then helped Julian out of his damp shirt and trousers with careful hands. Julian’s skin was flushed and hot under his palms. The scent of fever and residual Omega pheromones rose stronger without the usual barriers of clothing and distance.

Gabriel eased him into the tub. The water lapped at Julian’s chest. He hissed at the contrast, then sank lower with a shaky breath. Gabriel knelt beside the tub, sleeves rolled up, and began scooping water over his shoulders and the back of his neck.

"Breathe," Gabriel said quietly. "Let it help."

Julian’s eyes stayed half-closed. "You do not have to stay. I can manage."

"I know you can. I am staying anyway."

Gabriel’s hands moved with unexpected care, wetting a cloth and dragging it slowly over Julian’s chest, down his arms, across the fever-hot skin of his stomach. Every pass seemed to pull more heat from him. Julian’s breathing gradually steadied. The water cooled the worst of the fire under his skin, but another kind of heat started to build lower down. Gabriel’s scent filled the small bathroom, no longer sharp with aggression. Something heavier and protective sat underneath it now.

Julian’s cock began to fill against his thigh. He turned his face away. "Ignore that. Fever does strange things."

Gabriel’s hand stilled on his shoulder. "I am not ignoring anything."

He set the cloth aside and let his palm rest flat over Julian’s heart for a moment, feeling the still-too-fast beat. Then he leaned in and pressed a slow kiss to the side of Julian’s throat, right over the scent gland. Julian’s breath caught. Gabriel’s mouth stayed there, open and careful, tasting the fever-sweet skin.

"You scared me when you went down," Gabriel murmured against him. "I do not like admitting that."

Julian’s hand rose from the water and settled in Gabriel’s hair. "Then stop talking and touch me properly."

Gabriel’s answer was a quiet sound of agreement. He reached into the water and wrapped his fingers around Julian’s cock, stroking once from base to tip with deliberate gentleness. Julian’s hips lifted into the touch. A soft, broken noise left him. Gabriel stroked again, slower, thumb circling the head and spreading the precome that had started to bead there.

"Like this?" Gabriel asked.

Julian nodded, eyes still closed. "Yes. Just like that."

Gabriel kept the rhythm unhurried and deep. His free hand slid under the water and between Julian’s thighs, two fingers finding the slick that had begun to gather and pressing inside with the same careful pace. Julian’s back arched against the porcelain. The dual sensation of the slow strokes and the gentle stretch pulled a longer sound from his throat.

Gabriel kissed the line of his jaw, then his mouth, the kiss open and unhurried. "You feel so hot inside. Let me take care of it."

Julian’s fingers tightened in his hair. "Then get in here with me."

Gabriel stood, stripped without ceremony, and stepped into the tub behind him. Water sloshed over the edge. He settled Julian back against his chest, one arm around his waist, the other returning to his cock. His own erection pressed thick and hard against the small of Julian’s back. Julian reached behind and guided him lower, until the head of Gabriel’s cock nudged against his entrance.

Gabriel pushed in slowly, letting the water and the slick ease the way. He filled Julian in one long, careful thrust and stayed there, buried deep, while both of them adjusted to the heat and the closeness. Julian’s head dropped back onto Gabriel’s shoulder. A shaky breath left him.

"Move," Julian whispered. "Please."

Gabriel did. The strokes stayed deep and measured, more rock than thrust, the water moving gently around them. One hand continued to stroke Julian’s cock in the same rhythm. The other splayed over his stomach, holding him close. Every time Gabriel bottomed out the swollen base of his knot pressed against Julian’s rim, a constant reminder of what waited.

Julian turned his head and found Gabriel’s mouth again. The kiss stayed soft and open while their bodies moved together. The fever still burned under Julian’s skin, but the worst edge of it had dulled. In its place was a different kind of heat, slower and heavier, building with every careful thrust.

"I am close," Julian breathed against his lips.

Gabriel’s hand tightened just enough on his cock. "Come for me. I have you."

Julian did. The orgasm rolled through him in long, shuddering waves, his body clenching around Gabriel’s cock while he spilled over Gabriel’s fist and into the water. Gabriel followed a few strokes later, burying himself deep and pulsing hot inside him with a low, protective sound against the side of Julian’s neck. He did not knot this time. He simply held Julian through every aftershock, stroking his side and pressing soft kisses to his temple and shoulder until the trembling stopped.

They stayed in the cooling water for a long time after. Gabriel’s arms remained around him. Julian’s breathing had finally evened out. The fever still lingered, but the sharp danger of it had passed.

Gabriel’s voice was quiet when he finally spoke. "You are not going back to the city like this. We stay until the temperature is normal."

Julian did not argue. He simply turned his face into the curve of Gabriel’s throat and closed his eyes.

---

By the next afternoon the fever had broken. Julian sat on the edge of the bed in a clean shirt, hair still damp from another slow bath, color finally back in his face. Gabriel stood near the window watching the rain ease off the trees. The cabin felt quieter than it had in days.

Julian looked at him for a long moment. "Why me?"

Gabriel turned. "What?"

"In court. For years. You go harder at me than anyone else on the defense side. You always have. I want the real reason."

Gabriel was silent for a few seconds. Then he crossed the room and stopped in front of him. "Because every time you walk into a courtroom I can smell the effort it takes you to stay locked down. The neutralizers never fully hide it from me. My instincts recognized you as something I wanted to claim long before I was willing to admit it. So I pushed. I tested. I tried to force a reaction. It was the only way I knew how to get close without admitting what it actually was."

Julian’s voice stayed steady. "Territorial instincts. That is what you are calling it."

"Yes." Gabriel’s eyes did not leave his. "You triggered them from the first case we tried against each other. I have been fighting the pull ever since. The fights in court were the only place I could let any of it show."

Julian stood. The height difference put them nearly chest to chest. "And now that we are stuck out here with no gallery and no jury, what do you want?"

Gabriel’s answer was quiet. "You. Without the performance. Without the fight for the sake of fighting."

Julian reached up and curled his fingers in the front of Gabriel’s shirt. "Then stop talking and take what you have been chasing."