A Bedside Manner bonus short featuring Paul and Zane
“Have you seen my coffee cup?”
Zane blinked at Paul. Then looked down at the open dishwasher rack, holding half a dozen unwashed mugs. His man really liked his coffee. “Which one?”
“My mug. You know.”
Zane shook his head, his lips twitching. “Nope.”
He totally knew. But Paul was going to have to use his words.
“World’s…” mumble mumble. “Doc.”
“What was that?” Zane was full-on grinning now.
Paul rolled his eyes, grumbling, “You know what I said.”
“Something about worlds?”
Paul narrowed his gaze on Zane. That was his put-upon expression. He thought he looked stern, but really he just looked hot as fuck. Zane had never respected authority all that much, but fucking authority? Yeah, it did it for him. Not that Paul really had much authority at home. But he was still a hot AF doc.
“It says, ‘World’s Hottest Doc’ because you insist on embarrassing me.”
“Oh, do I?” Zane grabbed a couple of plastic Tupperware containers and crammed them wherever they’d fit along one side of the dishwasher rack. “If it’s so embarrassing why are you looking so hard for it?”
“No reason.”
“We have a lot of other coffee cups.”
“Yes, but this one keeps my coffee the best temperature.”
“Huh. And here I thought they all did the same thing.”
“Nope.” It was funny hearing Paul pop the P on Nope. He’d picked that up from Zane, along with a dozen or more other slang terms that belonged to this decade. All Zane got in return was the annoying habit of saying, “Indeed.”
“Okay, well if it’s that important, I’m pretty sure it’s already on your desk. Holding your coffee. That I made you fifteen minutes ago.”
Paul blinked. “You did? I mean… you did!” He leaned forward, pecking a kiss to Zane’s lips. “Thank you.”
“Sure.”
Paul started to turn away, then stopped. “You’re loading the dishwasher wrong.”
“Uh, what?
““You’re putting the bowls too close together, and this spatula is never going to get clean. It’s not that hard to—”
“Paul.” Zane spoke firmly.
Paul glanced up. “Yes?”
“I don’t need a dishwasher lesson. I’ve done this before. It’ll be fine.”
“But it’d be better—”
Zane made a loud buzzer noise. “Stop while you’re ahead.”
“I’m ahead?”
“No.”
Paul sighed, lifting his hands away from the dishes he’d started to rearrange. His way did look better, damn it all.
“Sorry, I don’t know why I got so hung up … Oh, damn.”
“What?”
He grimaced. “I just realized that Meredith is the one who got me doing the dishes that way. She liked things done a certain way.”
Zane snorted. “She trained you well.”
“And then I tried to train you. I’m sorry.”
“It’s cool.” He closed the dishwasher and stepped up to the sink to wash his hands.
Paul stood behind him.“Forgive me?”
“If you forgive me.”
“Forgive you for what?”
Zane grabbed the sprayer nozzle and turned it on Paul, soaking his shirt. Paul gaped, hilariously shocked for a moment before he wrestled the sprayer from Zane’s hand and turned it on him. They both laughed, struggling and wet until the inevitable happened. Zane crashed to the floor.
“Oh, God, are you okay?”
Paul hurriedly turned off the water and crouched beside him. He was wearing his “doctor” expression of concern.
“I took one for the team. Wasn’t sure your bones could handle a fall at your age.”
“You little …” Paul trailed off, grabbing Zane’s face and kissing him hard. Zane could get behind that. He returned the kiss, upping the ante by sliding a hand around to grope Paul’s ass. Paul gasped against his lips, and a small thrill zipped through Zane. Five years after getting together, they’d settled into a warm, affectionate sort of passion. Sex was good, but it was no longer *thrilling* in the way a first time was. But something about making Paul gasp on the wet floor did it for him. Zane hardened in his jeans, kissing Paul aggressively until he groaned.
When they parted for breath, Paul was glassy-eyed and pink-cheeked. His glasses sat askew on the bridge of his nose. He was adorably ruffled.
“You are definitely the world’s hottest doc,” Zane murmured.
Paul pressed his hand against Zane’s cheek. “Marry me.”
Zane blinked. Did he just say… while they were wet on the kitchen floor after arguing over coffee cups and dishwasher loading?
“I love you,” Paul said, his voice gravelly with emotion. “I should have asked a long time ago.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You’re young still. I didn’t want to rush you. You might not have been ready for–“
“Yes.”
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