Page 190 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

He shook his head.

Cassidy’s mouth tightened.

“Not, physically,” Xander corrected, because lying to Cassidy wasn’t necessary. “Mentally, I think I’ll be in trauma therapy until I’m ninety.”

A sound that was meant to be a laugh thinned and cracked into a low whimper. Cassidy’s hand stilled against his cheek, before he pulled him back into his chest.

He wrapped both arms around Cassidy’s waist and held on as his knees started to weaken. Cassidy helped him into the suite and sat him on the couch, kneeling in front of him. Inside the suite was an explosion of movement.

Genesis reached Curtis first. Curtis made a muffled sound as the huge man folded him almost in half. Ruxs and Green were right there too, touching him everywhere, checking his lip, his shoulders, his wrists, his ribs, cursing under their breath.

“I’m good,” Curtis kept saying. “I’m good. I swear. I’m great, actually.”

“‘Great’?” Green snapped.

Across the room, Tech went to Steele. It wasn’t dramatic. Tech didn’t rush, and Steele didn’t make a sound. But the second Tech was close enough, Steele unfolded from the wall as Tech gripped the front of his jacked and pulled him into him.

Steele glared into Tech’s eyes behind the glasses that’d helped save their lives. Steele tipped Tech’s face up and kissed him once, controlled and brutal in its tenderness, pressed his mouth to Tech’s temple and kept him there.

Curtis grinned through the split in his lip. “I got kidnapped with Xander Vale and held for a ten-million-dollar ransom. Then Ex and Meridian saved us. Do you understand how insane that is? No one at work is gonna believe this.”

Genesis pulled back just enough to look at him. “You can’t tell anyone, babe.”

Curtis groaned. “Uggh, come on.”

Ruxs dragged a hand down his face. “No, never.”

Curtis touched his busted lip and frowned. “Fine.”

Genesis pulled Curtis back against him. “This is what comes from being raised by two insane men.”

Curtis beamed up at him. “Do you still want me?”

“Absolutely.”

Curtis smiled, pushing up for a kiss. Genesis kissed the side of his mouth that wasn’t swollen.

“I don’t wanna wait another week to do it. I wanna marry you right-fucking-now.”

The room stilled in a strange, stunned ripple.

Curtis blinked.

Then blinked again.

“Seriously?”

Genesis’s expression didn’t change. “Seriously.”

“Like now, now?”

“Right now. Everyone we love is right here.”

Curtis gestured at his clothes. “But I don’t wanna get married in a Los Angeles courthouse wearing jeans and a Van Halen T-shirt.”

“You know we host weddings on the ranch all the time,” a man said from Free’s computer screen.

Everyone turned.