24
Liam
After breakfast, we split up to review the numerous documents Mick had pulled from the IPB mainframe. I set up a chair and made a desk in the room Ty and I had made ours, christened even.
While the other guys tended to their responsibilities, I’d been tasked with boning up on the old cases Spencer, Jamie, and I had worked. Other agents had been there at the same time, but we were the only remaining survivors from F5.
The files were loaded with images, possible suspects and hits from our past, but they couldn’t shake one image from my mind’s eye: the black-and-white image of Spencer that Mick had displayed during his presentation the night before. The gruesome images hadn’t bothered me as much, since it didn’t even look like the man I’d known, but that photo of the young Spencer, much like the man I’d first met…that was hard to look at.
So many years we worked together, leaning on each other for support, and to find out he made such a gory exit from this world over vengeance against either us or the IPB was a serious blow. I knew we’d all signed up for this. It was a natural consequence of being an IPB agent, yet after all these years, for the most secure agency in the US to have its first leak, confirmed what I already knew about never truly being able to be free.
I heard the sound of footsteps outside my door, and I recognized them even before the door creaked open. Relief rushed through me as Ty slipped in, carrying a plate with a sandwich on it.
“Made you a snack,” he said with a smile.
Damn if his mere presence didn’t remind me of everything worth fighting for. However, as I looked back at the image on my screen, at the details of a job from my past, it forced me to face the many reasons why I couldn’t have a normal life with a guy like Ty.
“How’s my big-shot IPB agent doing this afternoon?” He set the plate on the desk. “Oh, should I not come around?” He turned his head away from my screen.
“Don’t worry. I think you can look at the top secretX-Filesnow.”
He turned back and slid the plate closer to me. He glanced around, clearly noticing there wasn’t exactly anywhere he could sit, but I could tell he just wanted to be near me.
And I wanted the same thing.
I patted my thigh. “Come here. Sit down, Pretty Thing.”
His smile expanded as he took a seat on my leg, and I wrapped my arm around him effortlessly, resting my hand on his leg and tucking my face against his shoulder.
He turned to face me. Did he see how much I needed him right now, how much I desired him?
“You need to call Eric and Tricia again today,” I said.
“Can’t call them too much. Then they’ll know something is up.”
I laughed, and he put his hand against my face, the way I might have to his. He didn’t say anything, just studied me.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him.
“It’s nice having answers, but I was enjoying our time together. Too bad we couldn’t have had longer.” He shook his head as though chasing that thought away before turning and grabbing the plate. “Now come on. You’re not starving on my watch.”
It was cute of him to care about me eating. “If you want me to eat so bad, maybe you should feed it to me.”
His eyes widened, the sunlight coming through the window making them sparkle as though the universe had conspired to create the picture-perfect moment. He took the sandwich and raised it to my lips. I took a bite out of the corner.
“Mmm. Ham and mustard. How could you have known?” I teased, knowing we’d had plenty of time to learn each other’s eating habits over the past few days. He laughed, his body trembling against my leg. As I swallowed, he offered me another bite before pulling it away and setting it back on the plate.
While I chewed, he reached out and ran his thumb across my lips. I noticed he’d captured some stray mustard on his thumb, which he pulled back and took into his mouth, licking up his thumb slowly, his deliberate gaze set on me.
“Mmmm…” The sound dragged from his mouth so pleasantly before he pulled his thumb back. “Now that I’ve been a good boy and fed you, maybe that’ll remind you that you still have to feed me.”
His ass cheeks clenched against my leg, and my dick, already growing just by him being on me became constricted in the crotch of my jeans.
“Well, you’re not starving on my watch either,” I assured him.
“I’ll consider that a promise.”
“Good, ’cause that’s what it is.”
