Chapter Eighteen
This sucks.
Win backed the Jeep out of the driveway, but not before shooting one last glance up at the second-floor window, where he’d left Elliot sleeping. Yeah, he loved his job, but what he didn’t love was getting a call at five a.m. from their informant, telling him the suspects were taking possession of a huge shipment of cocaine that morning, and that he and Forrest needed to get their asses over to their post immediately.
Not when he had someone warm snuggled up next to him under the covers. He touched his neck and couldn’t keep from smiling.
“You’re in trouble now, Detective.” Elliot pushed him onto the bed and jumped him, stripping his T-shirt off and pressing those soft, full lips to his. “I was three hours late with edits for my article because someone couldn’t keep his hands to himself. Time to pay up.”
“Take it all,” Win said, laughing, as Elliot nipped at his throat. His dick sprang to attention, and a gleam sparked in Elliot’s eyes.
“You like that, huh?” He sucked hard on Win’s neck, then lightly scraped his teeth over the tender spot.
“Everything.” Win held him close. “I like it all.”
On the drive to the precinct to meet Forrest, Win should’ve been preoccupied with busting the drug ring they’d been after. They’d prepared so damn hard for this moment, and their work would result in making the streets a bit safer for the kids these bastards targeted. They could finally put them in jail, and hopefully the system would take care of the rest. That should’ve been his sole focus.
Instead, he couldn’t stop thinking about Elliot.
Since that evening several weeks earlier when they’d talked it all out, they’d spent every night together. Win had forgotten the feeling of waking up with someone in bed with him. The warmth of a sleeping body snuggled up to his chest. Him spooning Elliot, waking up with their arms and legs tangled. The gentle tickle of hair against his cheek, and the slight sound of a snore in the stillness of early morning.
Perfectly normal.
It should’ve scared him, but it didn’t. What scared him more was the absolute rightness of it all. How comfortable he and Elliot had become with each other, enough that he didn’t mind leaving Elliot in his home alone and had contemplated giving him a key. Elliot had dropped hints of wanting to do the same.
Win approached the precinct, and for the first time since Kevin passed away, he wished he didn’t have to go to work.
Being with Elliot on a day-to-day basis, practically living together, was an eye-opening experience. Life-altering for him. It had taken him so many years to get to the point where he could consider looking across the table at another man without breaking apart. The other times he’d tried, he’d felt…nothing. No spark. No hope. No one had broken through and made him feel whole. Alive.
Except for Elliot.
Grief was a silent enemy, waiting in the wings for the right moment to swoop in like a carrion bird from the sky, eager to pick at the sad flesh and bones left behind by the living. Win had worn that grief like a hair shirt, convinced he’d already had the love of his life and would never find that happiness again. But it was impossible to be with Elliot and not want to feel the sun on his face and walk among the living. Be happy again. It had been a long, hard road, but Win now saw it winding out in front of him, leading him to possibilities instead of a dead end.
He pulled into his parking spot, his pulse quickening. This part of the job was the other satisfaction in his life. It kept him going, and he relished what lay ahead.
Forrest was waiting for him inside the precinct, and Win accepted the cup of coffee handed to him. “I’ve already got the keys to the sedan. Randy is waiting for us at the coffee shop on Forty-eighth Street. Man, I was not happy to get up at five.”
They walked as they talked, and Win took a sip of his coffee; it slid down his throat, warming his insides. “Tell me about it. The last thing I wanted was to leave my bed.”
Forrest slid behind the wheel. “Oh, yeah? Need I ask?”
Damn, he’d forgotten how perceptive Forrest was. He shifted in his seat, taking a big gulp of coffee. “No. Just too damn early, like you said.”
“Mmhmm.” Forrest drove several blocks before speaking again. “Guess that mark on your neck is from a vampire, then, huh? ’Cause it looks like a good ole hickey to me.”
Well, fuck.
Win finished his coffee as he struggled to come up with the right words. “Okay, fine. It’s Elliot.” At Forrest’s huge grin, Win held up his hand. “We’re seeing each other.”
“I mean, I kind of figured that out when I met him. But, still friends with benefits? I dunno, I’m sorry now I made that suggestion. The guy’s crazy about you, in case you didn’t realize it. I’m sure the benefits are worth whatever burden you might think there is in being with Elliot, but I hope you’re not fooling yourself that it’s casual. Don’t lead him on, is all I’m saying. The little I saw of Elliot when we met, he seemed like a sweet guy.”
“We’ve moved past friends with benefits to just being with each other. Exclusively. Elliot’s been screwed over by guys, and he’s wary of relationships, and you know my story. We’re taking it slow.”
The deep, punishing thrusts of his cock inside Elliot’s body were anything but slow. Nothing turned him on more than seeing Elliot pinned under him, writhing on his dick…
Win turned away, hiding his burning face from Forrest.
“That’s a good thing, right? Learning about each other. God knows, you’re a complicated bastard.”
