Bankor

With their fingers locked above their heads, Garth started to lay kisses along Cole's throat and neck. What had started as a gesture of compassion to a fellow soldier had turned into so much more.

Garth hadn't realised how much he needed this contact, this intimacy, this closeness. But it had been a long campaign filled with so much loss and death, some positive emotion was definitely needed and was healing Garth's soul.

The kisses were starting to grow more frantic until Garth had to listen to his own advice and make a conscious effort to slow himself down as he reached the top of Cole's chest.

Cole's head fell back, exposing his long throat, which hummed with a low moan. Too much conflict wasn't good for anyone, and Cole had spent enough time elbow deep in the wounded to feel the same craving. With his hands pinned over his head, there was little he could do apart from fight to keep his breathing steady and his moans soft.

Garth was grateful that his hands were busy, that prevented them from being busy elsewhere. In a deep, dark corner of his mind he reassured himself there was no emotional connection here, no attachment that he'd been warned of. They both knew what this was, they needed to blow off steam, to decompress and in each other they'd found that outlet.

Garth moved back up Cole's body and attacked the doctor's lips with his own for a few minutes before rolling the pair over, leaving Cole on top. Garth did consider himself an almost equal opportunity lover after all.

Cole released one of Garth's hands, reaching back and pulling his shirt over his head before leaning his weight on that elbow. He twined his long fingers about both of Garth's hands, keeping them in place above the soldier's head. Cole started at the centre of the man's chest, working his way up to the hollow between his collarbones, nipping and biting at his neck, kissing along his jaw.

"Pupils dilated, heart rate and breathing accelerated" he breathed against Garth's ear, "the patient appears to be sweating, despite the controlled climate."