Kris T. Bethke–Author of M/M Romance

**Have you read Hero Worship?  It’s on sale at Dreamspinner press…and until the 19th of February everything is on sale!  25% off!  Check out the Dr. Feelgood Anthology and all of the other amazing titles.  In the meantime, here’s a short featuring Alex and Matt…and their first Valentime’s Day together**

If asked, Alex would say we’d only been together for four months.  If he was in a particularly grumpy mood, he’d get technical and say three and a half.  And even though it had only been that long since we’d admitted our feeling for each other, the truth of it was that our relationship began the day I moved into his house.  Alex had thought it would only be a platonic arrangement.  I had known differently from the start.

I had absolutely no doubt that Alex loved me completely.  And I knew he knew I loved him back just as much.  It was taking some time to shift Alex’s perspective so that he could fully trust in what we were building together.  He’d spent so long thinking of me as a kid with a case of hero worship that it was hard for him to see me as a grown man with a solid job.  That despite my age, I was ready to settle down.  He was my forever and I was going to prove it to him.

Valentine’s Day was largely a commercial holiday and I was certain that Alex hadn’t given it much thought.  But I’d been planning for this since almost the beginning.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s—all those holidays didn’t mean as much.  Though we’d spent each one as a newly appointed couple, we’d also spent plenty of them together in the past.  This was our first Valentine’s Day together, though, and I wanted to make it special.

When Alex got home at seven-thirty in the morning, he was doing the zombie shuffle.  He’d worked back-to-back night shifts for the last two weeks.  Normally, he wouldn’t have been scheduled for so many in a row, but one of the other paramedics in the company had been injured and Alex had picked up most of the slack.  He was one of the few that didn’t have kids at home; only a partner tired of sleeping alone.  But as of today, he’d be free of nights for a while. And he actually had today, tomorrow, and Sunday off before he went back to days.

He didn’t even seem to notice me sitting at my desk in the corner of the living room as he shambled by.  But that could have been because he had his shirt half off and obscuring his face at the time.  I smiled softly.  He was beyond exhausted and I knew he needed sleep.  I quietly turned back to my work.  I’d arranged it so I was working from home for the day and I had to put in a few hours of concentrated work before I could log off.  As the website manager for a big medical complex, it was my responsibility to make sure everything was running smoothly.  Ever since they had added online appointment booking three weeks ago, though, it seemed like there were always bugs that needed working out of the program.

By three, I was finally finished and I quickly shut down my computer.  I walked down the hall on silent feet and poked my head into the bedroom.  Alex was still sleeping soundly, his big body stretched out on cotton sheets, the blanket twisted hopelessly around his middle.  If I wasn’t in bed with him, he slept restlessly.  Only when he had me to cling to was he ever still in sleep.  I couldn’t help the smile that stretched my lips.  He was a beautiful man and, sometimes, just looking at him made my heart ache.  I contemplated joining him for just a few seconds.  My smile turned rueful and I shook my head.  Quietly, I retreated the way I came.  I wanted him to keep sleeping.  I had plans for him later.

I had an hour, tops, before he rose from his slumber.  He’d be ravenous when he woke.  I wanted dinner on the table by the time he ambled into the kitchen looking for nourishment.  I learned the art of moving silently in our eight months—seven and a half—of living together.  It had been a necessity for Alex’s peace of mind.  Shift work was hard on a person, and I had wanted to do everything I could to make it easier for him.

Moving with exaggerated, careful movements, I set the table.  Dark red table cloth, silver candlesticks that had been my grandmother’s, the vase of roses I’d hidden in the back hall—everything placed just so until I was pleased.  I stood back to admire it for a long moment, smiling.  Then I glanced at the clock and swallowed down a hint of panic.  It had taken me longer than I’d anticipated to get everything on the table exactly how I wanted it and now I’d have to rush to cook dinner.  Fortunately, I was making Alex’s favorite dinner—linguine in clam sauce—and it was easy enough to prepare.  I minced the garlic and chopped the onions while water for the pasta boiled.  The pasta was just about done and the garlic, onions and clams were just about ready to go over the top of the linguine when I heard Alex’s cell phone ring from the bedroom.

Crap.  I wouldn’t have time to change.

“Fuck, Carrie,” I heard Alex say from down the hall.  “I got him a card.  Isn’t that enough?”

I snorted back a laugh.  Yeah, it was enough.  It was exactly the kind of thing the love of my life would do.

“Are you in my house cooking?” Alex said, presumably to Carrie—his best friend and my sister-in-law.  There was a beat of silence.  “I gotta go.  Don’t call back.”

I was just plating the meal when I felt, more than heard, Alex enter the kitchen. I didn’t turn around right away, fussing with the way everything looked one last time.

“Matt?” Alex asked tentatively from the doorway.  I took a deep breath, crossed to the sink to place the now empty pan inside, smiled widely, and turned.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, love,” I said softly.

He just squinted at me.  “What are you doing home so early?”

I couldn’t stop the chuckle and I didn’t even try.  Shaking my head, my grin grew.  “I worked from home today.  You didn’t even notice when you got in.”

Alex hung his head, “I’m sorry.”

I moved fast, crossing the floor quickly so I could get my hands on him. Cupping his face in my hands, I lifted his head until I could see directly into those brown eyes I loved so much.  “No, no need to be sorry.  You were exhausted and you needed your sleep.  It’s all good.  Hungry?  I made your favorite.”

“I can smell that,” he said, the beginnings of a smile working it’s way across his delectable mouth.  He leaned forward and dipped his head enough so he could press his lips to mine.  “Thank you for this.  It looks awesome.  The table, the food… Everything looks great.”

I pecked his lips again as an acknowledgement of his praise, then led him to the table, pulling out his chair for him.  He gave me a skeptical smile as he sat.  Normally, we sat facing each other across our small table, but today I’d placed us side-by-side.  I had purposefully seated him in the left most seat so that he could still use his dominant hand to eat and his right could wander into my lap.  If he was so inclined, that is.

We were quiet as we ate—Alex wasn’t big on conversation when he was shoveling food into his hungry stomach—but we exchanged soft touches and lingering smiles.  When Alex finished his last bite and sat back with a satisfied sigh, I stood quickly, clearing the plates from the table.

“I have dessert too,” I said.  Alex grinned.  I went to the back hall to retrieve the chocolate raspberry cheesecake I’d made the night before.  It wasn’t heated back there and it served well as cool storage.  I hadn’t wanted to put it in the refrigerator in case he’d gone looking for a snack before falling into bed for the day.  While I was in there, I pulled his present from where I had hidden it behind some canned goods and shoved it in my pocket.

A few minutes later, we were seated again, each with our own slice of cheesecake.  The way Alex was eating had made me lose interest in my own dessert.  He licked his fork after every bite, his pink tongue snaking out and wrapping around the tines to make sure he didn’t miss a single speck.  And the noises he was making?  They would not have been out of place in a porno.  Blood rushed to my cock and my gaze was determinedly fixed on his face as it contorted into pleasure.  I swallowed hard.  If I didn’t give him his present now, I’d be dragging him off to bed.  The instant the last bite disappeared, I shoved away from the table and dropped to my knees at his side, pulling the black velvet box from my pocket as I did so.

“The fuck?” he asked quietly.

“I love you,” I said in response.

His face turned a little wary but there was no hesitation when he said, “I love you too.”

“I want you to be mine forever.”

Alex’s expression softened and he reached out with one big hand to cup my cheek. “I already am.”

I had to swallow hard and my hands were shaking, but I opened the box showing him what was inside as I rushed out the words.  “Marry me?”

“Fuck,” he said with a groan, his lids slamming shut. I just laughed.  I hadn’t expected anything less from him.

“It doesn’t have to be some big ceremony.  It doesn’t even have to be a ceremony at all. Just wear my ring and we’ll file for domestic partnership papers.  I don’t care.  I just want to be tied to you in every way possible.

Alex was silent for a long moment before his eyes opened and he looked at me.  “You think Carrie would ever forgive me if I didn’t give her a chance to be best woman at my wedding?”  He shook his head and gave a little laugh.  Then he reached out with his other hand so he was holding my face.  Quietly, he said, “I was going to ask you, you know.  When I was sure you were ready.”

“I’m ready,” I assured him quickly.  I knew he was worried about my age and thought I wasn’t ready to settle down.  But I was.  I so was.  I thought he was, too, but he hadn’t yet answered me, not really, and the nerves I hadn’t felt at all up to this moment started creeping in.  The longer he remained silent, the worse they got.  Until I finally held the box up a little higher, bringing it back into his field of vision. “Alex?”

“Yeah, I’ll marry you.  Absolutely I’ll marry you.  I’m going to marry the hell out of you.”

My grin took over my entire face.  My hands were still shaking as I lifted the wide platinum band from the box and slipped it over his ring finger.  He waited patiently until I was done before he grabbed me and used his superior strength to haul me into his lap.  The box fell to the floor, but I didn’t care.  When he stood with me in his arms, we bumped against the table and I though I heard a plate clatter to the floor.  But he was kissing me, carrying me to the bedroom and it didn’t matter.  He was mine, and I was his.  And we were going to be that way forever.  Nothing could make me happier.

I’d known from the moment I’d first laid eyes on him four and half years ago that he was going to be mine.  And now he was.

Happy Valentine’s Day indeed.

**I know it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve had a flash fic.  Forgive me for the indiscretion.  This one features Adam and Jamie, who we first met back in November.  You can read it here.**

He should have been home an hour and a half ago.  And that was taking into account the havoc the current weather would have played with his normally ten minute commute.  I’d worked from home–my boss had had the foresight to tell us not to venture out–but Jamie didn’t have that capability. I told myself that I shouldn’t be anxious and worried, but where he was concerned, I couldn’t help it.  It had snowed all day, but in the past few hours the temperature had dropped below zero.  I was worried something had happened.

Seven o’clock came and went and I started pacing.  Calls and texts to his phone went unanswered.  Every other minute, I was at the front door peering down the street in hopes of catching a glimpse of his beat up ten-year-old sedan.  The Weather Channel was playing quietly in the background and the meteorologist was droning on about how this was the biggest storm to hit in more than a decade.

The sudden pounding on the front door scared the crap out of me.  As I was sprinting to pull it open, my mind was wildly conjuring a police officer on the other side, having arrived to tell me something horrible had happened to my boyfriend.  I yanked open the door in a panic only to come face to face with said boyfriend.

Relief swept through my veins only to be quickly replaced by anger.  He had some nerve, scaring the crap out of me like that.  His hat and coat were caked with snow, his cheeks raw and red from the wind.  He stumbled over the threshold and I slammed the door behind him, ready to give him a piece of my mind.  But what I hadn’t seen in the driveway filtered into my brain before I could say a word.

“Jamie, where’s your car?

He blinked at me for a long moment like the question didn’t make sense.  Then he shook his head and mumbled, “W-wouldn’t start.”

It took a second for me to realize the implication of that.  I started peeling him out of his wet and snow covered winter wear.  “Did you walk?”

He could barely nod.  Good Christ!  No wonder he was so late.  In this weather, he could have gotten hypothermia, for all that it was only five miles.  Worry pounded through me as I dropped all his outerwear in a heap by the front door and knelt down to unlace and remove his boots.  I realized Jamie was barely shivering and, for a split second, I was glad.  Then I realized just how cold he must be if his internal temperature had dropped so low that his body wasn’t trying to warm itself.

I touched his skin and he winced at the contact.  It was like holding an ice cube.  The lecture on how he’d worried me half to death would have to wait.  I had to get him warmed up, had to get his body temperature back to normal before there was permanent damage.

He was only a little bit shorter than I was, but a lot leaner, so I had no trouble scooping him up in my arms.  He didn’t protest and I knew things were bad.  He hated it when I carted him around.  He wrapped himself around me like he was trying to crawl inside.

I debated the merits of getting him into a warm shower but I knew that skin to skin contact would warm him faster.  I headed straight for our bedroom and started stripping of his clothes.  I got him under the covers before I removed my own, then slid between the sheets as well, covering his body with as much of mine as I could.  For long moments, there was only the sound of our breathing.  I wasn’t sure how long had passed.  And then, Jamie started to shiver, his whole body jerking almost violently.  I never thought I’d be so relieved so feel him shake like that.  He burrowed his body in tighter to mine and I rubbed my hands up and down any exposed skin I could reach.  After a few more minutes, the shivers subsided to a much more tolerable level.  He was still cool to the touch, but no longer cold.

“Why didn’t you call me to come get you when you couldn’t get your car started?” I asked softly, almost conversationally.  Jamie sighed and buried his face against my chest.

“Didn’t want you out in that,” he murmured, sounding more like himself.

“No, of course not, you’d rather freeze to death on the way home and scare me out of my mind in the process,” I retorted.  Now that he was warm again, or at least on his way, I could afford to let a bit of the anger leak through.

“Sorry, Adam,” he whispered.  “Thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

I pulled back abruptly so I could see his face.  His eyes were a clear blue that, normally, I loved staring into.  I squinted at him.  “No big deal?” I asked incredulously.

“I just mean,” He had to stop as a particularly hard shudder wracked his body.  When it passed, he took a deep breath, “I meant that I thought I could walk home in no time.  That moving would keep me warm enough.  And I thought it would be faster than if I waited for you to brush off your car, come get me, and for us to make it home.”

The logic made sense and I was at least grateful he’d thought it through before he decided to walk in this weather.  I sighed heavily, inordinately glad that he was all right.  He seemed to be recovering just fine.  “Okay,” I said finally.  “But I was going out of my mind with worry.  You could have at least let me know.”

“I’m sorry about that,” he said softly and I could tell he meant it.  We laid there entwined for a long silent minute before he lift his head and looked me in the eye.  “Adam?”

I quirked an eyebrow and he smiled.

“Remember when you told me that if I wanted your attention, I had to ask for it?”

I nodded slowly, not quite sure where this was going.  Then he pushed his body in tight to mine and the evidence of what he wanted was pressed against my hip and hardening fast.

“May I have your attention please?”

I gave a bit of a yelp when the soggy tennis ball landed in my lap.   The drool that had been soaking the felt started seeping into my pants.  I looked up, shocked, to see a huge white dog sitting in front me me, it’s mouth stretched in a wide grin, a pink tongue lolling out the side as it panted.  I cast my gaze around the immediate area, trying to see if I could discern to whom the dog belonged.  But it didn’t appear that anyone else had intruded on the quite corner of the park where I had chosen to have my lunch.

I stared at the dog.  It stared back.  I gingerly picked up the ball.  The dog bounced to all fours, it’s entire body practically vibrating with anticipation.  I couldn’t quite suppress the smile that threatened my mouth as I levered my arm back and threw the ball as hard and as far as I could.  The dog took off, a blur of white, chasing after it’s toy.  I shook my head, a little amused, and picked up my book again.  It hardly seemed like any time had passed before the ball once again landed with a soggy plop in my lap.  This time, I didn’t hesitate.  I threw the ball.

When the ball appeared a third time, I marked the page, shut my book with a quiet snap, and resigned myself to playing fetch with the animal until it’s owner showed up or the dog failed to return.

“Artemis!”

The panicked shout broke the quiet.  Birds in a nearby tree squawked and took off.  I’d been lost in the quiet rhythm of the act of fetch and it startled me too.  I looked up as a man jogged closer.

“Artemis!  Where are you, boy?”

The dog had been returning with the ball for about the twentieth time when it heard the shout.  It dropped the ball in my lap but instead of waiting for me to throw it again, it took off toward the man at a breakneck speed.  Even at a distance, I could see the relief in the man’s features as he dropped to one knee to receive the dog.  I chuckled, picked up the ball and my now empty lunch sack, and ambled over.

“I believe this belongs to you?” I said softly, holding out the ball.

The man started as if I’d surprised him.  He took the ball and looked down at the dog, “Artemis, you silly boy.  You’re not supposed to interrupt other people just to play fetch.”  The man clipped the leash that was dangling off his wrist onto the dog’s collar and stood up.

“I’m sorry about this,” he said, his face turning slightly pink.  “He usually doesn’t run away from me when we’re playing but every once in a while–”

I held up my hand, cutting him off.  “It’s no problem, really.  I enjoyed Artemis’s company.”

“Still,” the man said, with a shake of his head.  His smile was a little chagrinned.  He held out his hand.  “I’m Brandon, by the way.  This lump of fur is Artemis.”

“Mark,” I responded, shaking the proffered hand.  Brandon sucked in a breath when our skin met and I knew he felt that jolt of electricity too.  I let my hand linger in his bigger one, not wanting to pull away.  He was so warm.  His smile was brilliant.  I wanted to thank Artemis for his antics, because it allowed me to have this moment with a pretty man.

“Well, Mark,” Brandon said slowly, his gaze traveling up and down my body.  I imagined I could feel it like a touch.  “Can we make it up to you?  Maybe with coffee at kiosk over there?”

I barely suppressed the happy dance I wanted to do.  He wanted to prolong our time together.  I was so on board with that.  I had to take a second before I answered so that I was sure my voice would be steady.  “Thanks.  That’d be nice.”

We started to walk in that direction, silence falling between us.  I didn’t know what to say.  It wasn’t often that I gained the attention of a good looking guy.  Nerves made my tongue thick.  I cleared my throat and cast my mind for something, anything, to say.

Before I could, Artemis lunged in front of me, then dashed behind, effectively winding his leash around my knees and causing me to crash into Brandon.  Only some fancy footwork on his part kept us both from tumbling to the ground.  I turned beat red, embarrassed even though it wasn’t my fault.  Brandon let out a soft chuckle, untangled us, and made sure I was standing.

“You okay?” Brandon asked.  I nodded and willed the blush to leave my cheeks.

Brandon looked down at the dog that was now sitting patiently by his side.  “Are you trying to tell me something?”

The dog gave one bark and appeared to be smiling again.  Brandon shook his head.  When he turned to look at me, his gaze heated.  “Artemis likes you.  I happen to know he’s an excellent judge of character.  After we get coffee, you maybe want to meet me for dinner?  I promise to leave the meddling dog at home.”

He was asking me out?  That never happened to me.  It seemed too good to be true.   A hundred responses ran through my head but what came out of my mouth was, “Far be it for me to ignore the matchmaking abilities of a dog.”

That seemed to be the answer both Brandon and Artemis were looking for because they both smiled at me.  I ducked my head and smiled too.  I’d never imagined I’d end up with a date when I’d decided to enjoy my lunch in the sunshine.  And I’d never had a clue that dogs were such good matchmakers.