from the ERWA Blog circle

an Excerpt from Ally Blue

Title: Forgotten Song Genre:
Contemporary, Non-traditional sexualities
Author: Ally Blue
Author URL: http://www.allyblue.com/
Release date: "soon"
Publisher: Loose Id Publisher URL: http://www.loose-id.com/

The sun was in my eyes when I woke the next morning. I pulled the pillow over my head and tried to remember why the hell I was on the floor. Then I heard the toilet flush, and everything came back. I sat up just as the bathroom door opened.
“Hi,” I said as Eric shuffled back to the bed and plopped down. “How are you feeling?”

He shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Little bit of a headache, but it’s not too bad. I look like I got hit by a train though.”

I grinned. He did look banged up. A big, ugly black and purple bruise spread from under the bandage on the left side of his forehead to cover part of his cheek, and his eye was swollen. The blood on the bandage had dried to a deep reddish brown.

“That is a nasty bruise, isn’t it? But at least the cut’s stopped bleeding.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Hey, Ben, would it be okay if I use your shower?”

“Oh, sure, there’s clean towels in there on the shelf.”

“Thanks.” He stood and stretched and my brain promptly stopped working. Jesus, his body was perfect. Okay, nearly perfect. I got a better look at the scars this time, and my mouth went dry. A long, thin pink line, obviously from some kind of surgery, started just under his ribs and ran down the middle of his abdomen until it disappeared under the edge of his underwear. Several small round scars dotted his belly, and one larger than the rest puckered the skin on one side of his ribcage. But the one that caught the eye cut a long, wide, jagged path halfway across his stomach. I couldn’t even imagine what could’ve made a scar like that, or the amount of pain that must’ve gone with it.

“Did you get a good enough look?” Eric’s voice dripped with anger, and I realized I was staring.

“Shit, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well. Not too pretty, are they?” I looked up at his face and caught a glimpse of a hurt so deep that it made me ache to see it. Then the tough-guy mask was back in place and the pain was gone like it had never been there. I knew what I’d seen, though, and I swore to myself right then to help him heal whatever wounds he still had.