“Don’t be an ass. Sure I care.” At Nathan’s raised brow, Avery added, “I don’t want to get my head shot off while you’re moping over your loss and thinking up ways to kill your uncle.”
“That’s really sweet of you, Avery.”
Avery grinned, and Nathan’s heart raced. “That’s me. Mr. Caring. No, seriously. I was thinking about it a lot today. You lost your mother. It’s a big deal, man. Take the time you need to get through this. We should go back to Bend. We’ll figure out another way to get Dixon to show himself.”
“What about the job? We’re supposed to get that blade back for our client.”
Avery shrugged. “It’s been missing for a year at least. What’s another few months? Hell. If he wants it so bad, Jack can put someone else on the case. Let Aidan take it. He’s been a real pain in the ass lately, wanting to get out and do some field work.”
Nathan chuckled. “You have to admit, working in the gym isn’t nearly as exciting as undercover ops.”
“Oh yeah. House-sitting in Bloomville is a huge thrill.”
Nathan’s held his fork over his plate as he studied his partner.
Avery frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You really mean it? You’d drop this mission and go back? For me?”
“So what?” Avery quickly amended, “Not just for you. It’s a safety issue is all. Better for both of us if we deal with Dixon when we’re more focused.”
Nathan slowly put his fork down. “I know I’m fucked up. But what’s your problem?” He had a feeling he knew. His cock filled out, and his nipples grew hard when he thought about Avery’s issues.
Avery glared at him. “You’re my problem.”
“I knew it.” He grinned, and Avery’s expression grew even darker.
“You don’t follow orders on a good day. But now you’re sad and hurting, and it’s not good that you’re here.”
“Oh?”
“Fuck it. We need to pack up and head home.”
Nathan rose from his seat and stood over Avery, still slouched in his chair. “I think you’re worried about me.”
“You’re my partner. Of course I’m worried about you.”
“It’s more than that, isn’t it?” Nathan ran a hand over Avery’s cheek, attuned to the bigger man’s expanding pupils, the breath he sucked in, and the body that looked tense, poised to spring.
“Cut it out.” That husky voice turned him on like clockwork.
“I want to fuck you.”
Avery shook his head and grabbed Nathan’s hand when Nathan wouldn’t move it away. “You want to fuck to forget. Just a few days ago, you were going to do that dickhead in the bar. You think you want me, but you really want comfort.” Avery swallowed hard. “I can’t give you that.”
“What can you give me?” Nathan knew Avery was wrong, but he couldn’t resist the hint of unease in his partner’s eyes. Avery always appeared so sure of himself, that to see him the slightest bit unsure was mesmerizing.
“A good, hard fuck. I’d ram it deep in that ass, Nate.”
“So what’s—”
“But the problem is, I don’t know you.”
Nathan frowned. “Sure you do.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t know who you’ve been with. I want to fuck you bare, but I won’t chance it. Hell, even going down on you is a risk.”
Nathan’s desire pulsed with anger. “I might like to play the field, but I don’t fuck with my safety.”
“Oh?”
Nathan recalled the other night when he was drunk off his ass and flushed. “Cut me some slack, dickhead. My mother just died. So I was out of it a few nights ago.”
Avery’s expression softened, and Nathan wondered if he was aware of it. “I know, man. You’ve been through a lot of shit in the last few weeks. But Nathan, that’s just one more reason we should wait.”
“I’m done waiting.” Nathan would be damned if he’d let anyone or anything get in his way. Time was just too short. “I could be dead tomorrow. I want you now. Tonight. You don’t know me? I don’t know you. What’s so hard about wearing condoms?”
Avery’s jaw clenched tight. Oh yeah, he had a hard-on going strong in those jeans.
“Come on. You know you want me. If it makes you feel better, I always wear a condom. Always. And I don’t blow just anyone.” He wanted to suck Avery again. “I’d be worried about you, except you’re the poster boy for safe sex. Hell, for safe everything.” He snorted. “Have you ever taken a chance in your well-ordered life?”
Avery exploded out of the chair and knocked Nathan back a step. Before Nathan could complain, Avery powered him over his shoulder and took the steps two at a time to his room.
“Holy shit. You’re strong as a bull,” he rasped as he bounced over Avery’s shoulder.
“You just won’t quit. Fine. We’re gonna fuck. All night long. And you’ll do what you’re told.”
“A closet dom. Figures.” Nathan couldn’t for the life of him think about anything but obeying Avery to the letter. He felt faint, feverish with desire. His deepest fantasies were about to come true. Submission to a stronger man. But not to just any man. To Avery Holton, the one person he’d never been able to get out of his mind.
And now, if he was lucky, out of his body.
Avery could barely see straight. He hadn’t meant to commit to this, but damn if Nathan would stop picking at his control. He had tried to do the right thing, tried to give the man time and space. But Nathan, being Nathan, had to have things his own way.
“You’re a brat,” Avery snapped and tossed him down on his bed. Avery’s room. Avery’s rules. “Always what you want when you want it.”
Nathan propped himself up on his elbows. His hair slid over his forehead, hiding one eye, and he’d never looked sexier. Avery could see the hard cock pressed against the back of Nathan’s fly. He knew how Nathan’s chest would flex, how his nipples would stand on end, taut and rosy with arousal.
“Take off your clothes.” He stood with his arms crossed, glaring down at the playboy. “Tonight you do what I tell you to, or you’ll get punished. No safe words, no stopping this. We do it my way. If you can’t take that, get the hell off my bed and out of this room. Now.”
Nathan’s answer was to shrug off his sweatshirt and start on the button of his jeans.
Avery shifted his stance, ready to blow with each revealed bit of skin.
“You look hard, buddy. Pretty needy.” Nathan chuckled as he slid out of his jeans and underwear. Then he removed his socks and lay back, completely naked. “What now, Master?”
“Smart-ass.” If only the bastard would mean it, Avery would insist he use the term. “Now you lay there and let me look at you.”
He took his time, lingering on the washboard abs, the crunch of muscle in those rock-hard biceps. “You have long legs. Muscular. I like those thick thighs. I wonder what they’ll feel like wrapped around me while I fuck that hole of yours.”
Nathan’s cock pearled at the tip, the creamy bead of dew a testament to his desire.
“Nice sex talk. You’re good at this.”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Avery took his sweater off, not feeling a bit of the cold. He couldn’t, when he was on fire to fuck Nathan. “You’re the one with all the fantasies of me being a prude. I like sex. A lot. And I haven’t been getting enough lately.”
“So that’s what this is? Desperation?” Nathan snorted.
“No. You make too many assumptions, dimples. I like to fuck, and I do a lot you’ve probably never dreamed of.” He liked the way Nathan’s eyes widened. “I always wear a rubber. And I’m clean.”
“Yeah, well, so am I.”
“Reason I’m telling you this is because I don’t want you to be concerned when I come in your mouth again. Or in that ass without a condom.”