“What do you want?” he asked.
Harper’s cock twitched and thickened against his thigh, and Colson shivered. Harper skimmed those long fingers over his face, mapping his jaw, his cheekbones and lips.
“I can’t promise much. Or anything. I keep odd hours, and my time isn’t my own.”
A horrible thought crossed his mind. “Are you married or living with someone else?”
“Hell, no.” Harper’s absolute denial settled that question. “It’s just that I don’t want the same thing as you.”
“How do you know what I want?” Colson nuzzled into Harper’s neck, drowning in his scent. Jesus, he wanted to rub up all over him naked and have it soak into his pores. “Maybe I do.”
“Yeah?” Harper nipped at his ear, his deep voice rumbling through Colson. “Tell me, Boy Scout. What do you want?”
“You.”
A deliciously wicked smile curved Harper’s lips. “Looks like we’re on the same page.” He lay flat and checked his watch. “I have to go.”
Why? Stay with me. Where do you have to be at ten p.m. on a Saturday night?
“Sure,” he said, keeping it light and easy. “You want to shower first? I know I have to.” Visions of a wet, soapy Harper played like a fantasy in his mind.
“I’d better not. I’d just have to put my same smelly clothes on again.”
Disappointed, he nodded. “Oh yeah, that makes sense.”
From his place on the bed, he watched Harper get dressed. He stuck his feet into his sneakers and stood over him.
“I’ll see you.”
“Yeah, sure. See you.” Colson slipped on his shorts.
“Don’t forget to lock up and set your alarm.”
He followed behind Harper and opened the front door. “I won’t, Detective. Night.”
Harper hesitated a moment, then kissed him on the lips. “Bye.”
Colson watched him walk away and disappear into the night.
What the hell are you hiding, Harper Rose?
***
Like his first two bestsellers, this book flowed as if it wrote itself. Too keyed up to sleep, he stayed up well past two in the morning and wrote two chapters. Halfway through, he still hadn’t decided if his detective would have a romantic relationship and sent an email to Luis to ask if he’d had a chance to beta read the chapters.
With that done, exhaustion hit like a brick wall, and he fell into bed. He awoke to the sun and his phone buzzing with a call from Hogan.
“Yeah, what?” He stretched.
“I didn’t catch you in the middle of something—or someone—did I?”
Colson didn’t know if Hogan was being annoying or hopeful.
“Ha-ha. Only a yawn. I’m still in bed.” He squinted into the phone. “Ugh, it’s almost eleven already?”
“Yeah. Time for you to get that lazy ass out of bed and come over for brunch. We’ve got a margarita pitcher with your name on it.”
Keeping Hogan on the line, he checked his texts. Despite their conversation to keep it light between them, stupid him had hoped to have gotten a text from Harper, but his messages remained empty. And since he had nothing scheduled for the day, it was either stay in his house or hang out with Hogan.
