Thirteen
Cam ditched his coat and tie in his office, rolled up his shirtsleeves, and was leaning against the far corner of the room when Nic returned from seeing Garrett out.Cam had a million questions, all battling to get out, but seeing his normally stoic, perfectly put-together boyfriend shut the door and fall back against it like it had been the longest day of his life and it was only noon, the third such day in a row, Cam bit his tongue.He crossed the room and took Nic in his arms.Just as Nic grounded him, Cam wanted to do the same for him, which he did, judging by the way Nic’s body sagged against his, arms tightening around him like Cam was the only thing holding him up.
“I’ve got you,” Cam murmured, and dropped a kiss on his temple.
“Just when I thought things were turning our way...”
Nic dropped his head on Cam’s shoulder, and Cam was sure Nic could feel his heart about to beat out of his chest, equal parts worry at the dejection in Nic’s voice, so foreign for him, and adoration, because he let Cam see that, not hiding anything from him, for better or worse.
“One setback.”Cam carded his fingers through Nic’s hair, more of the sexy gray showing every day.
“Three, if we’re counting.”
“Stop counting,” he playfully chided with a swat to Nic’s ass.“Unless it’s your breaths, in which case, take a few extra to settle.”
Nic took the recommended inhales, plus a few more, then rested their foreheads together.“Thank you.”
Cam waited for his eyes to open.“I love you.”
“I love you too.”Finally, a smile, if an exhausted one, right before Nic brushed his lips over Cam’s.It was a slow, gentle kiss, probably the only thing that would be in this already rough-and-tumble day, and Cam let Nic take all that he needed.Cam needed it too—this reminder of their connection, the threads of the rope being reinforced.Cam would hold Nic to his word.Nic hadn’t let the rope go for him when Cam had needed him to hold tight, and Cam wouldn’t let go now either, nor would he let Nic, or anyone else for that matter, cut through it with a KA-BAR.
Giving him a quick peck, Cam stepped back and nudged Nic toward the table.“Sit and catch me the rest of the way up.”Nic grabbed a chair and Cam claimed the adjacent one Nic pushed out for him.“He’s Garrett Scott, yes?The GS on your back.Your almost stepmom’s son?”
Nic’s eyes narrowed.“You looked into it?”
Cam jutted a thumb at himself.“Professional investigator.”
“Nosy, more like it.”
“About you, yes.”He took Nic’s blush as a good sign.“I admit I’ve been looking for GS since April.”Nic’s brows snapped together, and Cam waved him quiet before he could object.“You can be mad at me about that later, but I didn’t get anywhere.Until the pictures of Victoria.Once I had a name, Victoria Scott, I figured GS had to be connected.There were some trace records of her son, Garrett Scott—team pictures, high school ROTC—but then they both disappeared twenty-seven years ago.Right about the time of your graduation.”
Nic nodded.“They moved across country, changed their names, hid from my father.”
“Until Garrett approached him.”
“Blackmailed him.Let’s call it like it is.”
Well, in that case, if they were calling things like they saw them...“You two were in love.”
Nic stared at him head-on, a deer in the headlights, some emotion Cam couldn’t pinpoint giving Nic’s blues a panicked edge.“Cam, I?—”
“Let’s call it like it is,” Cam returned softly.Because that explained the intimacy he’d witnessed between the two men when he’d walked in earlier.“His initials are on your back.If nothing else, judging by your other ink, he was important to you.”
Nic pushed back from the table and stood, hand rubbing over his left hip.
Cam worried for a second but there was no limp or other sign of injury as Nic began to pace the length of the room.“Before you, he was the only other man I’d loved.”Nic hung his head.“Fuck, I’ve never told anyone that, outside of Garrett and Victoria, and my father and Mary.”
“You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”
“It’s not shame.More like fear.I was halfway around the world in the Navy, and I was still afraid a mention of them would somehow get back to my father and set him off.That he’d go looking for them if I dared to utter their names.And now with Vaughn...”
Cam rose, splaying a hand on Nic’s lower back.They’d talk about how to deal with Vaughn, with that fear, in a minute.For right now, though, he wanted to know more about the past, and he sensed Nic needed that out too.“Tell me about him.”
“He was everything I wasn’t as a kid.I was quiet and reserved.The beanpole dork in the corner who didn’t say anything.”He flapped one arm and stretched out a long leg.“I hadn’t grown into these, and I didn’t want to draw attention to my severe lack of coordination.”
“For fear of drawing your father’s?”
“Every now and then he’d asked why I hadn’t made this or that sports team.I never told him I didn’t bother trying out.I’d shove my report card under his nose and that usually did the trick.”
