Warren sighed, tugged the band from his locs, letting them spill loose over his shoulders. The shift made him look different. Unguarded. Softer. And Jude felt it in his gut.
“I was on an op.” Warren held him close, as if he needed Jude there to tell the story. “One of those setups where you’ve got to prove yourself. Normally, you talk your way around it. That’s what the training’s for. Keep the mask on, never cross the hard lines. But this time… there wasn’t a way around it.”
He stared past Jude for a moment. “The boss I was working under—he liked his men. Had a stream in and out of his place, most of them paid. One night he put it on me. Said I could join him. That it’d prove where my loyalty sat.” Warren gave a bitterlaugh. “And I knew if I gave in, I’d get his trust and I’d close the case inside a week. So I did.”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “I got through it half-cut. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it, either. My body responded. As it would. And when it was done, I told myself it was just the job. Boxed it up. But the truth?” He looked back at Jude, eyes wide, stripped bare. “Some of the things I saw… the things those men did… stuck in my head. Sometimes it was all I thought about. Did I want group sex again? No. Did I think I’d ever fall for a man? Absolutely not. That wasn’t supposed to be me.”
He trailed off, shaking his head, as if the words were too much. Then he looked back at Jude. “Then you happened. And I realised it wasn’t just my body responding. It was me. All of me. Wanting you.”
The words sank into Jude, rippling inside him until there was nowhere left in him untouched. He stared, breath caught. Men had wanted him before. His body, what it could give, what they could take. But none had saidthis.None had spoken as if it washimthey wanted. Not the act. Not the release.Him.
His chest ached. Sharp, hot, unrelenting. He’d known, the second he let Warren across the threshold of his house, that he’d end up here. Letting him inside more than his bed. Inside his heart. He’d done it before, though, hadn’t he? With Bailey. The PE teacher. And he’d been right: Baileyhadbeen too good to be true. But Warren? What he’d said was right, too.
Warren Beckford was better.
“What about you?” Warren whispered into his temple. “You said it’s been a while. How long’s a while?”
Jude chewed on his bottom lip. “How long ago did Callum go down?”
Warren stilled behind him. “Eight years.”
“Then… about that.”
The air thickened. “Reid was the last man in your bed?”
Jude swallowed. Hated how it sounded laid bare. “Yeah.” He shut his eyes, shook his head, loathing the way reality dulled the glow of the moment. “It took years to recover from him. Years before I even thought about trying again. When I moved here, I wanted something… good. Someone decent. But finding that? It’s hard. And believe me, the good ones aren’t on Grindr.”
Warren’s arms cinched tighter around him.
“Nor in bars. Or clubs. Took me a long time to trust myself to even look. Then I met Freddie. The copper from the training day? He seemed solid. Reliable. Who doesn’t trust a copper, right?” He glanced up, catching Warren’s eyes, watching for the irony to land. Warren gave a crooked, shameful smile. Jude turned back, holding Warren’s arm around him. “So I bit the bullet. Asked him out. Couple of dates, nothing more. And yeah, he wanted to go straight to bed, but that wasn’t me anymore. I couldn’t shed that layer as fast as he expected. And by the time I was ready, his childhood sweetheart came back and honestly? I was relieved.” Jude twisted, propping his chin on Warren’s chest, the heavy muscle solid beneath him. “Now you.”
Warren’s gaze held his, then he slid his hands up, cupped the back of Jude’s neck, and pulled him up into a kiss stealing the rest of his breath. He rolled Jude easily on top of him, chest to chest, skin to skin.
“Then I feel more privileged than I did before.” His voice rumbled deep. “And I don’t take your trust lightly.”
Jude melted into another kiss. Nothing desperate this time. Just warmth, mouths fitting together as if designed to. Warren slid his hands down Jude’s back, big palms smoothing over skin as if he were learning him by touch alone.
When they finally pulled apart, Jude stayed draped over him, pressed his cheek to the solid plane of Warren’s chest and the steady drum of his heartbeat grounded him, lulled him, asWarren traced idle circles across his spine. Every pass of his hand was a quiet promise.
Safe. Safe. Safe.
“Thank you.” Warren brushed his lips over Jude’s curls. “I know what it means… you letting me in tonight.”
“No.” Jude closed his eyes, letting the truth of it sink deep. “Thankyou. I don’t think I’ve ever felt… this.”
Warren kissed the crown of his head, then simply held him. No pressure. No demands. Just his solid chest, and his arms wrapped around him, fingers stroking lines down his spine to the curve of his arse and anchoring him in a world that, for once, didn’t feel cruel.
They stayed like that until silence blurred into drowsiness. Jude drifted, half-awake, half-dreaming, wrapped in the scent of Warren’s skin, lulled by the rasp of his breath against his ear. And for the first time in years, he fell asleep not alone. Not afraid. But content. Curling over the chiselled body of a man who was tough, yes, unshakably strong…
But impossibly tender.
* * * *
A sharp knock shattered Warren out of sleep, ripping him from the warmth of Jude lounging over him, and the best rest he’d had in years.
Instinct slammed into him before his brain even caught up, and he slid Jude off him to his side, clambered out of bed and yanked his boxers on. Jude blinked, patting the nightstand for his glasses.
“Stay here.” Warren cracked the bedroom door.
