“Are you…trying to make me move faster?” Aiden asked against his ear, amused.
Thomas felt himself blushing. “Maybe?”
“I don’t think you have any idea how hard this is… I have waited for this forever. I would like to last longer than thirty seconds.”
“I’m not sure I can handle you lasting longer than thirty seconds,” Thomas admitted.
Aiden laughed softly. A real genuine laugh that shot through Thomas like lightning. When was the last time he’d heard Aiden laugh? Fucking years. So many fucking years.
“I do love you.”
Aiden froze above him, and for a terrifying moment, Thomas thought he’d ruined everything. But then Aiden’s mouth was on his in a kiss that melted Thomas’s fears. It melted everything.
He just clung to him as he started to move, slowly at first and then in a tempo that scrambled Thomas’s higher brain function and left him rolling his hips upward to meet every thrust until he couldn’t stop himself from chasing the pleasure building in his spine, blocking out everything but the feel of Aiden on top of him, inside him in every fucking way.
There was no way Thomas could ever describe the feeling except to say it was the closest to God he ever felt. There was nothing but the scent of Aiden, the feel of him, the taste of him. He was consumed by him, absorbed by him. When Aiden shifted, lifting enough to take Thomas in hand, jerking him with purpose, he was so far gone it only took two or three strokes before he cried out, spilling his release on his stomach.
Aiden made a sound like a growl when Thomas came, fucking him hard enough to drive him up the mattress a few more times before he came with a hoarse shout, falling onto Thomas and burying his face against his neck.
They didn’t speak. When Aiden made no move to get up, to pull out, Thomas let his eyes fall shut, and within seconds, he was sinking into blackness.
* * *
Thomas woke to find Aiden sitting in bed beside him, naked, the sheet wrapped around his hips and legs as he worked on something on his laptop. He thought about pretending to still sleep, but that seemed childish given the circumstances. He rolled over and propped himself up on his arm.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I talked to Calliope earlier. She asked if I’d take a look at the video frame by frame to see if maybe I could spot something she didn’t.”
“And?”
Thomas’s heart sank as Aiden made a frustrated sound. “She’s right. There’s nothing. Literally nothing.”
“What about your friend, Lola? Has she found anything?” Thomas asked, scrubbing a hand over his face, trying to rub some of the bleariness from his eyes.
Aiden shook his head, distracted. “She’s still working on gathering the names.” He looked at Thomas, meeting his gaze. “You know we need to go home to solve this. Right?”
“You were the one who said I was safer away from the family.”
Aiden shrugged. “I was just being selfish. I wanted to be alone with you. Wanted to find a way to get you to open up to me.”
“And now that you have, we should go home?” Thomas asked, feeling cranky somehow, like he’d fallen into Aiden’s trap.
Aiden gave him a look like he could read Thomas’s mind. “No. I talked to Atticus and he reminded me that you’re safer surrounded by family.”
“But they’re not,” Thomas reminded.
Aiden arched his brow. “You think they can’t take care of themselves? They’re all trained killers, Tommy. The real reason you don’t want to go home is because you’re avoiding the inevitable. Telling them the truth. All of it.”
“I’m not ready,” he admitted. “They’re going to be so…” Disgusted. Disappointed. Angry.
“Sad,” Aiden supplied. “What happened to you is sad. That’s it. The feelings faction is going to cry buckets when they hear your story.”
His insides shriveled as he thought of Noah, Felix, Zane, and Lucas. They were the ones he truly worried about. Mac and Jericho were killers in their own right. They had a strict moral code, but they were realists. They’d pity him, but they wouldn’t condemn him. But the boys…Noah, especially. He was going to be so disappointed in Thomas. He didn’t want to lose the way they looked at him. Like he was the father they chose.
“You just don’t understand,” Thomas said, shaking his head.
Aiden closed his laptop and turned his attention to Thomas. “No,youdon’t understand. The problem isn’t me or the kids. The problem is you think you fell in love with the wrong guy and he murdered your family because of it.”
