“Settle down and focus,” Zaiden
barked, one eye cracked open, watching Darrell squirm.
“Go fuck yourself,” Darrell
muttered, continuing to move around until heavy hands landed with an iron grip
on his shoulders, the pressure making the sore one throb with pain. His eyes
shot open to see Zaiden's inches from his own, swirling and hypnotic.
“Take a deep breath in and hold
it,” Zaiden instructed.
Darrell was so shocked by the
sudden close proximity that he did as he was instructed without complaint.
“Now let it out slowly, with me,
five, four, three, two, one.”
While Zaiden counted, Darrell
exhaled, eyes never leaving the other man's gaze.
“Breathe in,” Zaiden instructed.
Once again, Darrell did as he was
told. Holding it until Zaiden counted down for him to slowly let it go.
Zaiden's hands on his shoulders grew lighter, no longer pinning him in place,
they were taking time to rub, his thumbs lightly running up the sides of
Darrell's neck on every inhale, stroking downward with every exhale, in a way
that left Darrell shivering a little at the light, almost ticklish caress.
“Close your eyes and continue
taking slow, steady breaths,” Zaiden told him, his voice having taken on a low,
almost hypnotic tone. “I want you to focus on relaxing your muscles and
allowing all of the tension to drain out of them. There is no need for anger
between us, nor heated, hate-filled words.”
Darrell stiffened a little,
instinctively rebelling against Zaiden's words, the little voice in the back of
his mind screaming that he didn't want to stay calm with the snakeman so close.
Fuck or fight or both was what he wanted, then Zaiden's fingers stroked lightly
over the nape of his neck and gave it a squeeze and Darrell almost melted into
the carpet.
“That's it, just relax and breathe
for me, they'll be time enough to figure out which one would suit us both.”
Huh!
What! Darrell's brain screamed at him to ask
what the hell the snakeman was talking about even as Zaiden gave the back of
his neck another gentle squeeze before moving his fingers up to card them
through Darrell's long hair. The feel of those nails lightly scraping against
his scalp was even more soothing that the rhythmic breathing pattern he'd
continued to adhere to. Vaguely, he was aware of the snakeman moving around
behind him, but he found it very difficult to care as the warmth of the other
man's body pressed against his back, allowing him something solid to relax
against.
Fuck this felt good, and right,
and safe, and...shit, shit, shit, not safe, that was too damned familiar too
fast. This crazy bastard had broken into his house, threatened him, tossed out
his booze and his pills and freaked him the fuck out, safe was definitely not
what he was in the snakeman’s presence, but damn did those steadily rubbing
fingers and that soothing, melodic voice make it easy to forget that.
Shouldn't
forget that he can read minds too, Darrell tried
to remind himself, as his body began to feel heavy, the tension in it just
melting away. Even Zaiden's voice had become an echo, though there was the
brush of something warm, pleasant feelings and a chuckle rolling like hazy
smoke through his mind whenever he thought the name Zaiden, rather than
snakeman.
Somewhere in the distance a timer
dinged and Darrell was jarred back to the present by the way Zaiden stilled and
scooted back. The loss of all that warmth left Darrell feeling annoyed and a
little unsettled. He didn't feel like moving, dammit, why the fuck couldn't
they just keep this meditative shit up for the rest of the day?
“Because you have a task to
accomplish,” Zaiden replied, reminding Darrell of just how easy it was for the
snakeman to slip into his thoughts, the bastard. What the hell had he been
thinking, relaxing and letting his guard down, let alone the mental walls that
were supposed to keep prying assholes out of his thoughts or at least, make it
more difficult for them to read shit.
Still, Darrel had to admit that
the forced meditation had left his senses more alert and the ache in his
shoulder far less pronounced. He could make out whispers, echoes really, far
beyond his usual range. If finding this Zxex for Zaiden would get the snakeman
out of his hair faster, then it was time to start searching. He wasn’t sure how
many mornings like this one he'd be able to stand. Still, it was impossible not
to recall how pleasant those fingers in his hair had actually been, and long
for them again.
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