Ortiz

My eyelids fluttered open slowly as I woke. I felt a bit better this morning, although my throat was still raw and scratchy and my joints ached painfully even though I wasn't moving them. Although, I could tell that my fever had gone down, as I didn't feel as cold as the night before. In fact, I felt warm. A little bit too warm.

My senses jumped to life as I registered the heavy arm that rested across my waist, a veiny hand hanging limply at the end of it. The weight of it pressed me into the mattress a bit and I scrunched up the back of my neck at the weird sensation of the warm breath that blew against it. 

I knew who was behind me, the sparks that flew throughout every cell of my body told me everything I needed to know, but for some reason I couldn't find it within me to pull away from his loose hold. 

I couldn't even remember how or when I'd fallen asleep last night, which shocked me considering I was used to waking up shaken over the terrors that came alive during my restless dreams. But this time my mind was peacefully blank as I slept, my only memories before waking up this morning being Corey's voice. 

'I think it is nice. It fits you.'

My heart pounded as the dusty, new feeling that was resurrected in my mind yesterday popped back up, and I found myself smiling at the faint, unfamiliar sensation of happiness.

It had been so long. I couldn't believe that someone actually liked my name. 

"Jax..." I tried it out on my tongue, whispering it underneath my breath, still unable to shake its weird sense of unfamiliarity. However, at the same time I was filled with pride at the sound of it. I felt in my soul that it was the name that was meant for me, opposed to the last name that had been forced on me from a young age, the use of it meant to anesthetize me against forming true connections with others.

My eyes flickered down as the veiny hand twitched, coming to life at the sound of my quiet whisper. I would never get used to how easily Corey was woken up. That warrior training must really be intense to fuck with their brain that much. 

"You're awake." 

Corey's morning voice was even deeper than his normal one, if that was even possible. I jumped at the sound, pushing his arm off of me abruptly and sitting up, ignoring the slight spin of the room at my sudden movement. 

"No shit, Sherlock." I grumbled out, reverting back to my typical, sarcastic self as I slid off of the bed. 

I was in desperate need of a shower, I knew I probably smelled terrible due to all of the sweating I'd been doing over the past few days. I started towards my en-suite, but winced as I felt a painful tug in my chest. This tether, or whatever the fuck it was called, was really getting on my damn nerves. 

I took a few steps backwards to ease the strain before turning around. By the ghost of a painful expression on Corey's face as he sat up in bed, I could tell he felt the tug as well. Although I was still apprehensive, I didn't want to push it as I had already caused the man more pain than he deserved. So, for once in my life, I swallowed my pride.

"I stink. I need to shower. Can you just... sit on the toilet or something while I'm in there? I'll make it quick." I asked politely, although I stared at my feet as I couldn't find it in me to meet his eyes. 

I wasn't used to asking someone for something so nicely, without a hint of sarcasm or bite in my tone, but for some reason I felt like I couldn't be mean to him anymore. Not after he said he liked my name. My eyes flickered up at the sound of my bed creaking with his weight as he slid out of it, immediately widening at the sight before me. 

He must have taken off his shirt during the night, as his sinewy muscles were on full display as he stood tall. His impossibly broad shoulders, abs and pecs were sculpted to perfection as if he was some kind of Herculean God. 

My mouth involuntarily began to water as I recalled the times when my tongue had traveled along all of the dips and contours between each of his abs as I made my way down his body...

I snapped out of my train of thought as Corey turned around and bent over to grab his shirt from the floor. I took the opportunity to smack myself in the face harshly, jumping up and down and shaking my head violently to rid myself of the homosexual thoughts that seemed to be getting worse by the day. 

It was like I was having reverse That's So Raven moments, but unlike hers that were actually useful, my flashbacks always just ended up with me fantasizing about this man's dick.

Corey grabbed his book from the bedside table before silently nudging his head towards the bathroom in a manner that read 'go ahead.' I followed his directions, walking to the bathroom with the large man following close behind me. Once we reached the medium-sized room, Corey quickly and silently settled on top of the closed toilet, crossing his ankles and opening up his book from where his bookmark left off. 

I felt slightly self-conscious as I slipped my clothes off, so I snuck a glance over at Corey, only to find him engrossed in his book, his eyes respectfully trained on the page. Feeling a bit better about my nudity, I discarded the clothes in a heap at my feet, stepping out of them and into the warm spray of water that spewed out of the rain shower head. 

It felt unbelievably good to wash off the days of sweat that had accumulated on my body over the past few days that a moan of satisfaction bubbled up from my throat, but I quickly bit it back, not allowing the embarrassing sound to slip past my lips. 

As I washed my body, I couldn't help but look over at Corey through the glass panels of the shower. His eyes were politely trained on the pages he was reading, not once glancing up to sneak a peek at my naked form, which would have been easy considering the fact that the shower stall was completely made of glass. I couldn't help but smile at that, feeling another strange fluttering feeling at the fact that he was so respectful of my boundaries, not ever pushing too hard.

It only took about seven-ish minutes to do my shower routine, and soon I was stepping outside of the stall and wrapping a towel around my waist, only for my own body to betray me. As soon as I shut the water off, my stomach growled loudly and I curled in on myself with a groan. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd eaten, which couldn't have been good considering the amount of strain my body was going through trying to fix my stupid mistake.

"You're hungry." Corey and I locked eyes as he looked up from his book. I quickly nodded at his observation, shaking water droplets out of my hair as an excuse to tear my gaze from his intense one.

"Yeah." I scratched the back of my head awkwardly, feeling overly exposed as I stood in front of the man in only a towel. "Can we erm... Go eat?" 

Corey nodded, standing to his full height and stretching out a hand in a gesture for me to go ahead of him. I rolled my eyes at the action. He was always being so damn gallant.

"I'm not a fuckin' girl..." I grumbled angrily under my breath, although I still complied as I stormed towards the door. However, in my haste I'd apparently miscalculated the amount of water I'd flung onto the ground upon my exit from the shower, as a moment later I yelped as I felt my feet fly out from underneath me. 

I desperately reached out for anything that I would slow my rapid descent as I felt myself free-falling forward. The world moved in slow motion for a moment, and I could practically feel my teeth breaking on the ground already even though I hadn't made contact with it yet. Consequently, I was shocked to feel myself slam into something solid, sending us both tumbling to the tiled floor with a muffled grunt.

I found it hard to breathe for a moment as I tried to catch my bearings. A sudden onslaught of sparks came to life inside of me, making me shiver as I laid on top of whatever had stopped my fall, only my arms propping me up slightly. 

After a second of deep breaths, I opened my eyes, only to be met with the emotionless gaze of Corey himself. Our eyes were level as we stared at each other in this strange position on the floor of my bathroom, and I soon found myself sucked into the black holes that were his intense, brown orbs. 

It was in that moment that I realized how... beautiful the man that laid beneath me really was. His lashes long, framing his almond-shaped, hooded eyes beautifully, and the high cheekbones that gave his features a sharp, somewhat dangerous look. He was really beautiful, in a handsomely rugged way. 

It was like we were the north and south pole of a strong magnet as we breathed heavily, entranced by the feeling of the other's touch as we pressed against one another. The tension between the both of us was so monumental that you could cut it with a knife, and I shivered from the tickle of our noses as they brushed against one another, barely touching. 

It was so hard to remember the rules that had been carved into my brain at that moment. To be honest, it felt like my brain was complete mush, and if you asked me right then I probably wouldn't even be able to spell 'logic.' It was like I wasn't in control of my body as I slid a hand up to his neck, feeling the strong pulse there and tingling with excitement when I felt him sigh out at my touch. I don't know who began to lean in first, but we were both definitely on the same page as we moved closer, breath mingling and lips trembling with anticipation.

Part 2 in Next Episode