Cam grinned.“No objection, Counselor.”
The next second Nic was up, taking Cam with him, and swiping the bottles off the table.They hit the floor just as Cam’s ass hit the table.“There you go,” he tsked.“Destroying the place again.”
The glint in Nic’s eyes was pure fire.Hotter than hell.“One other thing I intended to destroy tonight.”He ran a rough hand over the bulge behind Cam’s zipper, and Cam was nearly destroyed right then.Back arched, hips lifting off the table, he thrust into Nic’s grip.Nic stroked once, twice, down his hardening length, before setting about a more methodical destruction.
Ripping Cam’s shirt off over his head, kissing a path down his neck and along his collarbone, before torturing his nipples with tongue and teeth until he was boneless in Nic’s hands, a writhing mess spread out on their dining table.
Tearing his pants and boxers down, then nipping, licking, and sucking everywhere, except where Cam needed him most.His ankle, the underside of each knee, the crease where thigh met pelvis, his taint and balls.Until Cam begged, loud and strangled enough, needing the hot heat of Nic’s mouth around him, that Nic finally, finally, swallowed him down.Hands spread over his hips, Nic held him trapped as he sucked and teased him right to the edge.
But as ready to jump over it as Cam was, he wanted Nic there to jump with him, celebrating this battle won, partaking in the good kind of destruction versus the other sort they’d so narrowly avoided.Levering up, he clawed at Nic’s shoulders, pushing him off his dick and yanking him up.Cam wove his fingers through his hair, bringing Nic’s ear to his lips, whispering, “I need to feel all of you.”
Groaning, Nic didn’t hesitate, reaching for the hem of his shirt and tugging it up and off.Cam took a few precious moments to admire the tattoos on Nic’s front, never one to pass up the opportunity, then, hands sliding down the toned and inked torso, he went to work ridding Nic of his pants, thethunkof his belt buckle hitting the floor another small victory.
As was the lube sachet Nic held aloft.So that’s what he’d been digging out of his pants pocket before Cam had forced them down.Cam laughed, then groaned as, hand to the center of his chest, Nic forced him back down to the table.Spreading him out, Nic kissed his lips, the hollow of his throat, each shoulder, then his chest, right over his heart.Cam felt the curve of Nic’s lips on his skin, no doubt smiling at the thudding heart underneath.
The heart that wanted every part of this for every day of the rest of Cam’s life.The words tumbled out.
“Love you, baby.”
An even wider smile and a “Love you too,” before Nic lifted off him.The rip of foil and a hand on his inner thigh were the only warnings Cam got before cool liquid dripped down his taint and over his hole.Cam’s hips shot off the table, another “love you” choked off in a keening growl.
“Easy, Boston,” Nic coaxed, slick fingers spreading the lube around his entrance, then inside, as he began to stretch and spread him.
Destroying him further.“Now, baby,” Cam moaned.
Giving him what he wanted, giving him everything he needed, Nic hauled his ass to the edge of the table and a second later, he was pressing his cock against his rim, gentle but persistent pressure that forced his muscles to give, a pinch of pain before they greedily clamped down around Nic’s cock, pushing in to fill him full.
Stretching out over him, Nic braced a hand by his head and stared down, blue eyes burning bright, full of everything Cam also felt.“I’m yours, forever.”
Cam pulled him down for another kiss, hips rocking to meet Nic’s thrusts, hands clutching at his back.At the branches he no longer feared.
They didn’t spell disaster for their future.They didn’t even represent a past or future mess, as Nic had once thought.The cypress and the initials carved into its trunk were a celebration too, of a heroic act by the hero right here in Cam’s arms.A sacrifice—body and heart—Nic had made for those he loved.To save the family he’d chosen, the family he didn’t even know he had, the family he’d reclaimed and saved again today.
Nic’s family once more.Cam’s now too.
“And I’m yours,” Cam gasped as Nic pushed him the rest of the way over the edge, the two of them coming together.
Thoroughly destroyed and thoroughly in love.
Twenty-Four
Nic was surprised at how many people were in attendance at the scattering of Curtis’s ashes, though he suspected the crowd was there more to support him and Lette than to grieve Curtis’s passing.Standing at the edge of the pond on the Hillsborough property, he and Lette tossed Curtis’s ashes into the lightly rippling water while Garrett and Victoria, together with Cam, Mary, and Eddie, and Aidan, Jamie, Mel, Danny, Lauren, and Elton, stood below the cypress trees, a silent vigil on their behalf.
Everyone who had helped them survive.Who’d become their family.
Four months later, they closed the house for the final time, turning the keys over to the realtor who’d sold the property.He and Lette, whom he talked to or texted almost daily now, would deliver a check to RAINN.His sister hadn’t wanted another cent of Curtis’s money either.
Past behind them, the next day was all about the future.With Cam’s brothers and Nic’s retired JAG admiral in tow, they fought the St.Patrick’s Day traffic in San Francisco to make it to the Federal Courthouse for Nic’s swearing-in—as US Attorney for the Northern District of California.The appointment had been confirmed on the recommendations of Deputy AG Hayward, AD Moore, SAC Talley, the SFPD Chief of Police, and all of the other AUSAs in San Francisco.Even the AUSAs from San Diego, where he’d subbed in last summer, had sent in letters to the Senate committee overseeing his confirmation.
Thankfully, there’d been very little interruption to the USAO’s work, which hadn’t miraculously stopped with Vaughn’s indictment.Nic had inherited a deskful from the now discredited and incarcerated Bowers, but with attorneys reenergized and willing to workwith him—notfor him, he’d emphasized—and with their FBI cooperation better than ever, they’d already made a dent in the backlog.And they’d officially closed Vaughn’s case, striking a deal that would keep him in jail for life and divest him of all his holdings, legal and otherwise.
A year ago, Nic was unsure if he had a future at the USAO, debating whether to retire and work full time at Gravity.Now he held the reins, driving an agenda he was proud of and working with attorneys he respected, protecting victims and justice.And with a team of prosecutors he trusted, who wanted to work with him, balancing his day job with his other gig at Gravity became easier than ever.He had the best of both worlds officially now.
Nic could have been sworn in in DC after his confirmation hearing last week, but he wanted to do that here in his home courthouse, with his family, friends, and colleagues who’d helped get him here.He also wanted to be wearing his dress blues at his swearing-in, as a testament to that part of his life and career, many of his JAG colleagues and SEAL teammates also in attendance.
And because at the celebration afterward, Cam’s heated stare from across Gravity’s packed event space was molten, the twinkling overhead lights reflecting like flames in his swirling dark eyes.The uniform always did it for him.Except those dark eyes hadn’t strayed once to the other uniformed servicepeople in the room.It was the same reason Nic’s gaze kept roving back to Cam whenever he was between conversations.
Someone clapped him on the shoulder, and Nic turned to find Aidan, grinning like a tipsy leprechaun.About what Nic expected from the Irishman on St.Patrick’s Day and on his and Jamie’s anniversary.
